Completed a Nepal roadtrip in january, sorry for being late in penning the travelogue for the paucity of time. But it was an hell of an experience and would keep posting the travelogue as I complete it.

The route we took was Bhubaneswar-Jamshedpur-Ranchi-Patna-Motihari-Raxaul-Birganj-Hetauda-Mugling-Pokhara-Kathmandu-Birganj-Muzaffarpur-Patna-Gaya-Kolkata-Bhubanesawr.

2991 Kms, had it been 9 more we would have had a milestone figure of 3000, but The Nepal Roadtrip was a milestone in itself for us, an unforgettable roadtrip through the potholed roads, lovely hosts, lost tracks, statewide strikes, flat tyres, corrupt officials, foggy roads, unwell travellers, cash strapped pockets.…what not. Definitely a trip to remember and a tough standard set for upcoming roadtrips in the pipeline.
It all started with an unplanned plan to get out somewhere, out of Bhubaneswar daily routine & preferably on d roads. And thus came up Nepal as a challenging and interesting endeavour for its awesome views and adventure sport activities. The bags were packed and thus began the longest roadtrip of my life. The “three” me (Manu), Sandy & Hota were all set to leave on 5th Jan, when in the morning we decided to delay it by a day so that Sandy recovers from his fever. We hope something that happened that day helped him recover quick 😉

Next day targeting a early start we managed to leave XIMB only by 11:00 AM. Our plans had started to fell apart from the start itself & thus we began the trip with flexible planning (if only we could call it a plan ). Straight we hit to the BP-Chandrashekharpur fuel bunk get the tank topped up & gather eatables (read Lays, Coke & Redbull). 12:00 PM we leave Bhubaneswar & hit NH-5. All pumped up and music blasting thru speakers we cross Cuttack, Bhadrak, Chandikhol. At about 3:30 PM we feel hungry and observe an A1 Plaza (at closed reliance outlet) some 25 Kms prior to Balasore. After an awesome lunch (though it took some time to get served but food was good) we head towards Balasore from where we take a left turn onwards to Baripada and Jamshedpur. It was a dual carriageway road without divider, most portion of which was driveable up until Baharagora. NH-33 from Baharagora to Jamshedpur was a nightmare. It was already 6:00 PM, headlights were on & then the pathetic roads made us crawl all over till Jamshedpur. Our plans of reaching Patna on Day 1 were in shambles. We refuelled our tanks on sighting a petrol bunk and upon enquiry were informed that the roads ahead were worse than we travelled on, it was then that we modified our flexible plan to stay put at Jamshedpur after consultation with friend in Jamshedpur regarding road conditions ahead. We reach XLRI at 9:30 PM, met some old friends and then the party started. What a night it was much more needed for relaxing after such treacherous roads. XL guys played a good host and thus we break for sleep at 4:00 AM.

rest in the next Write up..

Cheers- Manvendra