Trips after Lockdown during CORONA

Trip to north east of India via UP and Bihar after the Lockdown

The tour can be divided in 4 parts based on the scenery change-

1. Traffic Jam, bad roads and Villages of UP and Bihar .

2. Beautiful Darjeeling.

3. Lush Green Assam and Meghalaya and

4. Bodh city - Kushinagar.

1. Traffic Jam, bad roads and Villages of UP and Bihar .

When lockdown had been removed from the most part of the country, I decided to go for a tour with my car as I was so bored staying at home for so long.

I stayed in Noida for two days, thinking where to go and than decided to go towards Northeast as I had never been there before.

I started towards Lucknow via Delhi and Agra. This new highway from Agar to Lucknow was really great and I covered 300 km in 3 hours (and I guess I was the slowest one on the road following the 120 kmph speed limit).

After reaching Lucknow, I didn't want to stay there at night as it's a big city and putting the car inside a city mess is horrible. So I moved forward in my journey towards Gorakhpur. At night, because it was raining, I decided to celebrate this at a motel on the highway (Basti District). I faced two small incidents and it seemed that people are ready to fight here all the time (I just politely avoided further escalation).

Next day I stayed in the same hotel and visited the local market .

This is the village on Highway near Basti city in UP. It's totally different world than Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi NCR. I guess this road is built just once after the Independence.

I bought utensils for eating food (that's one of the essential things I figured out) in this village and initially I was wearing corona mask (government rules had instilled the habit). People were looking at me like I am "the corona". I realized it and removed the mask and than everything became so normal as I had became a part of them.

Next day I continued my journey and entered Bihar (strict checking for alcohol at the Post) and after that I guess I entered in a flood area. Next 2-3 days I was driving in this region and even stuck in a jam for 12 hours.

It's the border of Bihar and Bengal and I found the life quite different here. Buffalos don't mind giving a ride to humans in the rain.

So after bearing long jams, I didn't want to stay in Bihar much. Only one night that was near Bhagalpur, I visited the nearby village to understand the life of Bihar. I had talked to my friend. He told that North Bihar is very poor and I felt so.

I entered to Bengal and enjoyed a bit more in Bengal because you can ask anything to anybody in Bengal and they don't mind. Bengalis are a bit more joyful people than the rest of the India.

I reached Siliguri. I thought I should give a try to Darjeeling because I had never been to Darjeeling and had heard a lot. I thought - "Maybe this is the time (to visit Darjeeling)".

I started on wrong route which goes to some other place. Actually the road was NH 10 and I thought it must be going to Darjeeling.

Some repair work was going on and at one bad patch of the road, I just followed the local driver and I got very scared. So when another rough patch came, I refused to go into that patch. I parked my car on the side and came out of the car and start evaluating that dangerous patch or road. People came near me and inquired a bit. I explain them that I can't make it going along this road.

People encouraged me - "No problem. You can drive". That's the beauty of countries like India. We are so connected to fellow humans. And this is the thing I missed in so called developed societies, like in Europe.

I was listening to them but was sure that I won't try. But suddenly water flowing on the road shattered and I realized that the volume is not so much and suddenly I saw a glimpse of tar road below the flowing water in that patch work. I got courage to drive and after crossing it I consoled myself that it will be get repaired before I travel back and wouldn't be so difficult.

Later, I find out that this road goes to Sikkim and not to darjeeling. As I couldn't go back to that bad patch, I decided to try Sikkim. At the Sikkim border, they refused to give me entry due to Corona rules. I was so angry but I didn't have any option. I didn't want to go to that bad patch, so I took the U-Turn and stopped on the same midway town just before that bad road patch. I enquire with the locals and came to know that there is another way to the Darjeeling, A state highway.

The state highway was very steep for driving and I had limited experience. I got my adrenaline high while driving this highway, Its only 1st gear climb for initially 10 km. At one place, I found a car standing on corner, driving to my opposite direction and people trying to put off the fire on the car wheels caused due to excessive breaking . I picked up the golden rule that one has to control the car with Gears. Breaks are for emergency.

2. Beautiful Darjeeling

I found an Hotel which seems a Hopmestay type, it was old and has wooden work which reminded me of my hostil in Kashmir, I stayed night and then next day the guy ask me to leave because he has a big group booking, Anyway see the Beautiful Darjeeling :