11000 kms, 55 days, 9 states and glimpse of a foreign country - A mega road trip(15): Ayodhya

We embarked on a mega road trip starting on 19th March from our Mumbai residence in Chembur and reached back Mumbai on 12th May after clocking more than 11000 km on the road. But before I start telling the tales from this trip I would like to reply some queries we have often faced. So here are some pointers about our trips in the format of question and answers:

Do we make advance booking for accommodations: Not always. When we know the place as well as the date we are going stay there and if it's a touristy place where finding an accommodation might be difficult, we book in advance. Or if we want to stay at a particular accommodation then we book in advance. But many a times we don't surely know the place where we are going to stay on a particular date as we like to keep our trip flexible. Besides, sometimes we make a night halt as per convenience and then we just check into a roadside hotel which seems good. At times we were pleasantly surprised to find very good hotels at places we expected least and at times we had to stay in hotels we would have rather not. We have learnt to adapt as a road trip cannot be planned ahead in details without losing the spontaneity which is the fun part. As a precaution we keep a set of bed linen with us in case we find the ones provided too offensive.

Our Vehicle: It's a Honda BRV - a seven seater automatic transmission vehicle - 2016 model. 1497 cc, 119 bhp with a ground clearance of 210 mm. It's a petrol car with a mileage of around 14 km/l on highways. It is not 4 wheel drive but that has not caused us much problem even though it faced off-roading quite a bit, maybe due to it's ground clearance. We keep a jump start cable, air compressor and a puncture repair kit in the vehicle. Learning to keep ourselves equipped drawing lesson from each trip.

How long do we travel in a day: Depends on the distance between the two consecutive places we want to visit. Generally we try not to travel for more than eight hours in a day and take breaks to straighten our limbs and break the monotony. But at times we have travelled up to ten hours or even more, especially if we did not find a suitable accommodation. And Sanjay alone drives, I don't drive.

What about food: We always try to taste the local cuisine and famous street food. Many people ask whether that does not create health issues. We try to maintain a balance by taking very simple food for at least one meal, having fruits and fresh juices. Besides, when having street food, we always choose the popular joints ensuring we get freshly prepared food. So far we have not faced major problem.

How do we manage laundry: As we travel in our own vehicle, we can be quite generous with packing reducing the need for frequent laundry job. Whenever we stay at a place for more than a day, we take care of our laundry. And we do try to take a break for two nights after a gap of few days.

The expenditure part: We are not very good at tracking expenditure. But in this trip I religiously recorded the rental expenditure along with the facilities provided to make it more informative. We try to not spend big rent for just an overnight halt and love to indulge on longer stays. I try to write reviews for all accommodations and eateries in Google with pictures which can be referred to if interested. I also tried to include major sightseeing expenditure if there is any.

We left Assam in October 2022 after taking early retirement from ONGC. It was almost one and half years and we wanted to celebrate Bohag Bihu / Assamese new year in Guwahati. There was a marriage in Jorhat during that time which we wanted to attend too. So we planned for this road trip to Assam covering few places in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. After reaching Assam we visited Umananda - the smallest inhabited riverine island, Aizawl - the capital city of Mizoram, a part of Meghalaya and Samdrup Jhankhar - a township in Bhutan. On our return trip we visited Kalimpong and Darjeeling in West Bengal, Varanasi and took a break in our Noida residence. From Noida we made a trip to Rishikesh and Haridwar. Then we came back to Mumbai with a night halt in Nalkheda and Maheswar.

For previous episodes from this trip may please visit the earlier posts here or my blog:

https://straightfrommyheartblog.wordpress.com/

After watching a glorious sunrise at Tigerhill, we left Darjeeling in the morning of 25.04.2024 at around 8:15 am. Our next destination was Ayodhya with a nigh halt at somewhere in Bihar. After almost an hour we reached Peshok. Stopping at a roadside tea stall we had maggi and a cup of tea. Then after passing through Sevoke, Siliguri we crossed over to Bihar. When it was lunch time we could not find a proper place for lunch. So we again went to Mamaji Sweets and snacks in Bahdurganj and had Samosa chaat and Malai chamcham. We had breakfast there on an earlier trip. Somehow we faced difficulties in having roadside amenities in Bihar. Bihar tourism is almost invisible and we have never come across any restaurant /accommodation run by Bihar tourism.

We kept on driving after a short break in Narpatganj for sugarcane juice. There was no township where we could stay on the way and we were proceeding towards Darbhanga. It was around 6pm when we saw a hotel which seemed to be good by the highway. It was 'The Great Mithila' in a place called Jhanjharpur a little before Darbhanga, around 50 km. It is a very luxurious and modern hotel with smart lighting and facilities. Room and bathroom is quite small in size. With a small room with judicious space optimization and ultramodern facilities, it felt like we checked into a hotel in Mumbai. We were very happy and quite impressed to find a hotel like that in a small township! The rent was 2220 INR. Went to their inhouse restaurant for dinner - not too impressed with the food though.

Next morning we checked out at 8:10 am without waiting for breakfast. At 9:30 stopped at Sai Dhaba in Maithi. The Dhaba had lots of interesting graffities about importance of food. We had a breakfast Kachori / Puri sabji and dahi.

The portion size was too big for us. We did not find a place we liked around lunch time hence we skipped lunch and kept on driving. Crossing over to Uttar Pradesh reached Kushinagar at 2:30 pm. Kushinagar is an important and popular Buddhist pilgrimage site, where Buddhists believe Gautama Buddha attained parinirvana. We had visited it earlier. This time we just had a short break there and had mosambi juice.

We had no accommodation booked in Ayodhya. As we approached Ayodhya we saw a resort which looked good. But we wanted to be near the temple and drove towards the temple crossing river Sarayu.

We reached Dharma Chowk where we left the Lucknow-Gorakhpur highway and entered the temple township. Ayodhya has undergone massive revamping with a string of new infrastructure including a modern airport terminal and a redeveloped railway station. Sanjay had visited Ayodhya once earlier in 2019 during Diwali and he said the place was totally transformed. Inside we took the Dharma path - one of the four dedicated routes created for visitors. It has grey pillars carved with 'Sri Ram' and embellished with Surya Stambh (sun-shaped) lights. The pillars showcase the history and cultural heritage of Ayodhya. Sun was setting and everything looked surreal in golden hue!

After a glimpse of the temple entrance we came out and checked into Hotel Surya Palace by the highway reading some good reviews. The hotel is good infrastructure wise, but poorly maintained. Room is spacious with storage space though bathroom is small. But the attitude of the reception staff and service is pathetic. The room doesn't seem to be cleaned regularly. Neither the linens seem to be changed. Even drinking water is not provided. No one was willing to help us to take our luggage to our first floor room. Can not say about the food as we had just some tea and snacks which were okay. They seem to be operating more like marriage hall. The night we stayed there was a wedding party in the lawn and it was going on till around 1 pm flooding our room with light and noise till then. Reviews were mostly from the time of inauguration of the temple when the hotel started operating.

We went out to see the temple premises. The e-rickshaw we hired dropped us near Lata chowk at the end of Dharma path. The Chowk has been named after the legendary Indian playback singer Lata Mangeshkar. A huge Veena sculpture of bronze made by renowned sculptor Ram Sutar, stands as a symbol of Lata Mangeshkar's musical legacy at the chowk​​. We went to Ram ki Paidi - a riverfront created for convenience of pilgrims. It was glittering with light reflected from the water. There was a festive atmosphere with a huge crowd of pilgrims and other tourists. Then we saw the Hanuman Garhi and Raj Dwar temple. The premise was dotted with so many temples! WE did not visit any temple, but explored the premises soaking in the ambiance. Roaming around in the temple premises we purchased prasad and had dinner. Then we went back to hotel sharing an e-rickshaw ride with a couple from Sultanpur living in Mumbai since more than 40 years.

On the morning of 27.04.2024 we got up at 5 am and got ready. As we came out of the hotel, the Sun greeted us from across the road. Took an e-rickshaw to go to temple premises. First visited Hanuman Garhi mandir. It is believed that when Lord Rama returned to Ayodhya after defeating Ravana, Hanumanji started living here. There are 76 stairs to reach the main temple housing the garbha griha. Inside a 6-inch deity of Hanuman, depicted in his child form sits in the lap of his mother Anjani. In the early morning hours it did not take us long to have darshan.

We then joined the crowd to visit Ram Janambhumi mandir. Initially it felt as if it would take very long to reach the temple. But the crowd kept moving and soon we were near the entrance. Lots of facilities have been created and many more are under construction. We deposited our personal belongings at the locker and stood in the queue joining the enthusiastic crowd chanting praises to Lord Rama. The temple is very beautiful. But like most popular temples one hardly gets time for darshan and enjoy. We could not take any picture of the temple as it became visible only after we deposited our phones. After darshan of the lord we came out of the temple and collected back our belongings.

We had lassi and fruits for breakfast and went to see Naya ghat to see the Sarayu river. It was already bustling with activities. Purchased a model of Ramjanambhumi mandir as souvenir on the way back to the hotel.

We had plans to meet our son Aditya at Raebareli the next day. He is undergoing training to become a commercial pilot in IGRUA - Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademy there. Since our temple visit was done in much shorter time than we anticipated we decided to to go to Lucknow which is on the way to Raebareli. Checking out from the hotel we started for Lucknow at 10:30 am. While travelling to Lucknow we booked a room in Hotel Millenia Regency in Gomti Nagar area. Reached the hotel at 1 pm. It was a very pleasant experience. I liked the hospitality very much. There was some mistake in the date while doing online booking and we had to book again and it took some time. So we went to have lunch before while they were processing our booking to the inhouse restaurant, Greasy Spoon. The ambiance is nice, food is delicious with big portion sizes and reasonable prices. We had Mutton Dum Biriyani for lunch which was only 580 INR. When we came to the reception after lunch we had to again wait for some time. The lady at the reception upgraded our room by two grades and gave us an executive category room saying she did it as we had to wait for long for checking in. Other staff members were also very polite. The executive room is huge with lots of storage space. Looks a bit old fashioned which I like but seems like in requirement of little renovation with doors a bit creaky. Our door latch was not working which was later repaired. Considering the location and the facilities, we got quite a bargain through Agoda as we paid a rental of 1700 INR. We checked into the room at around 3:05 pm. Then after freshening up went off to sleep as last night could hardly sleep due to the wedding party in the hotel at Ayodhya. It was very hot outside and we spent the evening in the hotel room resting and having a leisurely dinner.

Next morning we checked out after a hearty breakfast. Then after getting our car washed went to Lulu Mall. Had a lunch of Galouti kebab, ulte tawa ki paratha and lassi from Tunday Kababi outlet in food court. After a little bit of shopping started for Raebareli at 5 pm. Reached IGRUA campus at 7 pm where our son kept a room booked in their guest house. We had dinner together and had a chat session before he went to his hostel room.

Next morning after getting up early we got ready. Then took a few snaps of the campus. Aditya came at around 6:30 am as he had to report at 7:30 am. After he left for class we also left at around 7:30 am.

Travelling via Lucknow Agra Expressway and then Noida - Greater Noida expressway reached our Noida home at 3:50 pm for a break before we go back to Mumbai.