The route plan: The most important part of pre-trip contemplation is the route. You obviously talk to people about it. Expect a free advice from the enlightened and the ignorant. How many days to stay in each place, what to see, what to do, what to buy…I’d already learnt through the years of extensive road travel, that it’s my own gut that tells the best. Add to that a sprinkling of in house wisdom... that one needs to be a bit flexi in attitude on longevity, place, unwinding etc is better than getting fixated and taut about the whole thing. This route plan went through about 9 versions before settling down to version 10 before start. Of course, as life is unpredictable, things did change as we went along.
Self help books on the destinations: Researching for the right travel books to carry is a great job! Trying to find "our kind" of books. We settled for the Lonely Planet (India), Autocar Driving Destinations and a copy of city maps of Agra, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Pune.
Running em in: Without a properly serviced and run in vehicle, you could end up in trouble just when you think you made scot free! So servicing the vehicle at least 10 days before the trip was a must especially this was going to take at least 10 days on route if not more... A test drive of 50 - 60 kms odd a couple of days before you actually start helps a great deal in aligning yourself to the ways of the highway...
A recce of at least the starting 60 odd kms also does help. This helps you get out of city limits and into the right direction at start (in case you're new to the route start point.) Mind you it’s a great feeling when you don’t have to start the bloody morning wondering which way to head out.
Yea this helped a me one heck of a lot. Tyres got changed, Spare fuse sets got purchased, an MP3 player got added, CD’s got burnt by the loads, Brakes adjusted, Interiors completely cleaned up. We had a fresh and fancy free car to alight and rip off.
The Baggage: The clothes for the trip. Yep this is tricky. Winter wear, summer wear, (Winters are chilly up north in India but this changes as on proceeds to the tropics so we had to load up all kinds.) Plus the usual Short eats, Fruits, Drinking Water, Cameras, Films, Batteries, Flares, Carrybags… A huge job list was up action.
The last day before leaving: December 20th was going to our last night at Gurgaon. We were packing our bags and leaving for Bangalore (our home of sorts) for good.
All our stuff packed from home over two days in hectic fashion and taken out by the transport agency. A shack for the night arranged. We left our home in DLF at 8 PM and headed towards our friends place to do the farewell bash.
A concoction of emotions in my mental cauldron that night. Exhaustion from the last few days of hectic activity, a tad sad that we’re leaving this place for good, ecstatic to be headed towards a new life, thrilled to be out on the adventure ahead, romantic getaway from the tedium that life had become…
Hey I was already getting ideas on why not to work!
