Our Travel Plan

Mumbai-Daman-Surat-Vadodara-Ahmedabad-Dasada-Mt Abu-Jodhpur-Jaipur-New Delhi-Agra-Gwalior-Kota-Indore-Nandurbar-Nasik-Mumbai. "Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity. And so we ask ourselves: will our blogs echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear our names long after the drive is over, and wonder who we were, how bravely we explored, how frequently we tweeted, how tirelessly we drove, how fiercely we competed?" (Borrowed from Troy!) IMMORTAL INDIA is the theme for our travel plan and we promise lots of FUN for everyone while we attempt to place our names in the eternal halls of FAME hoping to land the pot of FORTUNE at the end of the ride. Aug 6, SURAT: Our journey will take us along the western coastline stopping for our first break at Daman for a quick shoot at the churches, cemetries and the black sandy beaches. For lunch we'll gobble some crab and lobster and burn some calories by walking around the forts which date back to 1559! Post noon we'll set off north to Surat to a place which is even older - 1546! We catch the sunset at the castle alongside the Tapti bridge. We also capture the sights at the temples, and gardens and get a whiff of the 2nd cleanest city in India. A short trip to the Dandi beach to relive the memories of the Mahatma before dusk would be in order. The night will be spent in the resort at Suvali, 38kms from Surat. DAY #1 340kms. | Aug 7, AHMEDABAD: We start to the peaceful university town of Baroda in the early morning at sunrise and catch dawn on the highway with some chai in core gujjuland. Stop over for brunch at the 2000 yr old city of Baroda, and go off-course towards NorthEast to Champaner/Pavagadh; the 800m high volcanic hill is an odd site in the dry western plains and is an Unesco World Heritage site! Then we head back for a blast on the Vadodara-Ahd Expressway. The Cedia will be put through its paces on the fastest expressway in the country. Before sundown, we head to Auto World Vintage Car Museum, a place where the world's 1st Maybach is parked along with world's largest vintage car collection. Ahmedabad is a city of two natures - old charm and modern chaos - and with all if its great food, colorful heritage and even better roads, we settle down to hang out for a bit! We plan to shop around, have an early dinner and then pay a visit to IIM-A to have a late-night maggi at the stall! DAY #2: 342kms. | Aug 8, MOUNT ABU & SALT FLATS: "The path less taken". Day 3 will be spent only on the road. We head north-west towards Dasada and Zainabad to touch the Little Rann of Kutch. This path will ensure encounters with the Khur or Asiatic Wild Ass (these guys can reach speeds upto 50kmph!) and the flamingos. Lunch will be at either Camp Zainabad or Rann Riders. After this, we head off to the ultimate ride of our lives - the salt flats of Kutch! The vast horizon of white flats build mirages as never seen before; the endless horizon and the stark white ground set against the blue August skies will lead to some breathtaking photography. Our GPS and SatNav won't be of much use on what is essentially nothing but plain spotless land for kilometres across, we'll have to rely on the locals and the truckers to get us across the flats. An adventure of a lifetime, then, for the Cedia and us! We enter the kaleidoscopic state of Rajasthan and drive up the hills to Mount Abu. As the air thins and the climate cools down, we head up the winding drive to the summit passing the tremendous wooded valleys. Though the drive would be lovely, we would force ourselves to stop for some dusk and moonlight shots set against the backdrop of the Alpine hills. Who knows, we might run into bears, wild boars or friendly langoors that populate the hills or maybe catch the laugh of a hyena! We stop for the night at Abu and sit down by the balcony of our palace hotel to watch the moon and soak in the environment. DAY#3: 303kms. | Aug 9, JODHPUR: Knowing us, we'd be a bit lazy by now - 1000kms done! So we'd laze around sometime in the resort at Abu, catch the sunrise and head straight to the Blue City of Jodhpur while stopping on the way to capture the color and life of Rajasthan's heartlands. Our first stop at Jodhpur would be at the Glorious Meherangarh fort, and then onto photoshoots of the locals with the Cedia and shots against the dominating blue of the city! Jodhpur is chocabloc full with sights to see, including the Clock Tower, Jaswant Thada, the many Mahals, and the Umaid gardens! Night time will be spent at Ratan Vilas, the 1920 palace built by the Maharaj Ratan Singji! We'd enjoy the home-cooked food and take in the many beauties of this cultural heaven. A special detailed blog and video to wrap up our experience of 4 days so far would be prepared. DAY #4: 301kms. | Aug 10, JAIPUR/AJMER: We wake up early and catch breakfast at the Omelette Shop; and pick up some antiques and spices as well! The plan then is to leave the earthen limits of Jodhpur behind and head northwards to the Rajasthan's capital via Ajmer. We'd take it easy on the road to Ajmer, stopping over for interviews with the locals and give them an experience of sitting in the luxurious Cedia. Once we reach Ajmer, our first stop would be at the awe-inspiring Muslim shrine of Khwaja Muin-ud-din Chishti, a place which is overshadowed by Pushkar. We'd drive down to the 134 yr old Mayo College, so that the boys can drool over the ultimate affordable sports sedan in India - the Cedia! After lunch we take the Cedia back to its element by blasting off the highway to Jaipur - a scorcher of a highway by any standards! At halfway through our journey, we land up at the City of Victory or the Pink City - Jaipur! With A.R Rehman on the stereo, we would hop over to the typical tourist sites of Hawa Mahal and City Palace and Jaipur's own Jantar Mantar. We stop for the night at the off-beat Jas Vilas - a romantic courtyard based hotel. DAY #5 332kms. | Aug 11, NEW DELHI: At the halfway point of our trip, we head to the capital city for some shots of the India Gate, Red Fort, Kashmiri Gate, Mutiny Memorial, Jama Masjid and with lunch at Kareem's in Chandni Chowk. A day in Delhi hardly needs to be described or planned out but we would spend most our time around the Old City, the charm of Dilli 6 would be brought to our audience in a whole new way with the Cedia Sports for company! The faithful car would also get some pampering at a quick checkup at Asian Motors in Moti Nagar. We stop for the night at the uber-luxurious Maurya Sheraton - an ITC speciality! DAY #6 311kms. | Aug 12, GWALIOR/AGRA: At the onset of dawn, we shoot off to the Taj Mahal (a first time for me!) and ensure we catch Fatehpur Sikhri as well. The pristine and timeless beauty of this marble wonder would serve as the perfect background to our all conquering Cedia - 2000kms through and still going strong! Towards evening, we get started on a leisurely drive down to Gwalior. Dinner and night stay would be at one of Gwalior's famous heritage hotels. DAY #7: 348kms. | Aug 13, KOTA: We sneak back to Rajasthan from MP for a stopover at Kota for the night. On the way, we pass Madhav National Park's arid beauty. Kota is one of the educational meccas of India for its coaching instutes, we plan to profile a few of these places. This would be a refreshing difference from the palaces and forts of the rest of Rajasthan - though Kota does have its own share! We would stay at Palkiya Haveli for the night, a 200 year old heritage hotel! DAY#8: 350kms. | Aug 14, INDORE: A return to our roots and to the place where it all began for the both of us, our campus. The road from Kota to Indore lets us stop at Ujjain and Dewas while finally halting at IIM Indore. A photoshoot on the scenic 200acre hilltop campus plus a short recap of the 9 days of the trip would be shared with everyone on campus in the unique open-air theatre. A special video blog to share the campus's beauty and the Cedia's reliability would be shared with everyone. 9 days, nearly 3000kms, 6 states, we would have more than enough stories to keep the 500+ crowd involved! DAY #9: 350kms. | Aug 15, TORANMAL: As dawn breaks on Independence day, we would wake up early, dress up in our favorite white and stand at attention at the flag-hoisting ceremony on campus. It'd be difficult to bid goodbye again to campus but we'd be off to even better places now! The road away from Indore towards Maharashtra has tons of hidden treasures, one of which is Nandurbar's hill resort of Toranmal. This crosses the Yawal Wildlife sanctuary on winding roads and jaw-dropping panoramas. Toranmal would be our stop for the night and we'd catch up with some of the many government school of MP along the way to wish the students a Happy Independence day and give them a few gifts - books and stationary, what else! DAY#10: 302kms. | Aug 16, MUMBAI: On our return to Maharashtra takes us to the vineyards of Nasik along the scenic 2-laned highways. Nasik is the kind of place where you can't move more than 100 metres without running into a historic exotic temple or colourful bathing ghat. The Varanasi of the West, Nasik is both enchanting and old-worldy. We would stop at the Sula Vineyards and the Ramkund bathing tank and head down to the market just down the river. From Nasik we head onto Mumbai via the other mini hillstation of Igatpuri. The final ride back to Mumbai will be both nostalgic and relieving - nostalgic for all the great memories across India and relieving for Namrata and Me to have survived 11 continuous days with each other! :D DAY #11: 350kms. | Aug 17, MUMBAI AND CLOSING CEREMONY: We head down to South Mumbai for a shoot at the Gateway of India and the victorian sculptures along Fort. The Cedia will get a taste of peak city traffic before calling it a day at the closing ceremony. 3,441kms covering educations of different levels, diverse religions, every kind of road (deserts, beaches, hills, ghats, expressways, urban jungles, back roads, salt flat), different cultures, forts, temples, churches, mosques, campuses, resorts, jungles and a lot of details which just cannot be explained in this small place. A few promises before we close. DAILY DOSE PROMISED: A notebook and pen to EVERY child we meet on the way; our route takes across some of the educational beacons of India and we'd do our bit to impart this wonderful gift to every child. A set of photographs everyday of a local sitting in a Cedia; culture and the Cedia captured! 3 detailed travel blogs, 3 humorous incidents, 1 history fact explored, 100 breathtaking photos, lots of shopping to show you the local flavor, 2 videos to start and wrap up each day, and a tweet/FB update every 30 mins. HOW WE MAKE IT HAPPEN: Live geo-tagged photos and tweets using Twidroid on a 3G Google G1. Photos from a DSLR system spanning all angles. Videos from a HD-equipped Panasonic. Twitter, Facebook, Orkut, Blogger, Gtalk status msgs, Twitgoo all buzzing every single moment! And creativity pushed to the limit. We promise immortal memories. Of the journey. Of the places. Of the people. Of the experiences. Of the sites, sounds and adventure. Of the Cedia Sports. Of India. Posted, published and readable on the internet for ages.