Photo Travelogue :
Read first part - Here
1ST TRIP
In january, mornings are foggy in Bihar. Infact, till almost noon, I could barely see the road. From Siliguri I started driviing early morning while it was still dark. I drove the flyover, the police had instructed me the previous night how to reach Darbhanga. I reached another flyover that went right. An army guy stood there, who told me that the road went to Kakarbhita in Nepal. Seeing my car he asked me if I was on a 'bharat bhraman'. He showed me a narrower road which opened to Naxalbari which I had to take. So, I took that road. It was so narrow, that when I took a turn at its chowk, I scratched my car bad against a wall. I remembered reading somewhere that cars are frequently stopped by youth carrying sticks in the morning or evenings, to extort money in that area, so was alert throughout. I did spot some youth carrying sticks; however, they let me go. I halted at a place to freshen up. It was so foggy, I had to follow the tail lights of trucks ahead to keep on track. The road was dug in many place for widening and one had to cross three very old steel bridges which seemed like they'd collapse any moment. After I crossed Araria ( asking people for correct turn ), the fogs disappeared and the road became clear. I crossed Forbesganj, Darbhanga, Jhanjharpur, Koshi Bridge and by late evening I reached Muzafarpur ( one needs to take right towards Gopalganj from here ) and halted for the night in a quiet corner ( of a service road ) which was not going to be as quiet as I soon found out. Police car after police car kept disturbing, telling me that it was not a safe place. This time I was angry and told them they were the ones troubling me, not thieves or dacoits. In the end, they went off. From Bihar onwards, I decided to speed up my journey; because, I didn't enjoy driving in Bihar much. Although, the roads were good, east bihar is quite under-developed. The roads had 'chara', dried-hay stacks or 'maize' left to dry in middle of the highway itself, clothes hung on the railings and cow dung everywhere and stank of it.
foggy roads..could barely see a thing...
eating at dhaba near darbhanga...
2ND TRIP
I started from Araria ( near the school where I parked ) and drove till I reached Gopalganj at night. While crossing through Forbesganj some youth were waving hands and stopping the cars. Thankfully, they didn't ask me anything and let me go.
3RD TRIP
Third day of my 3rd trip I was already crossing Lucknow by early noon. I had halted the night just outside Lucknow. Before entering Lucknow, I re-arranged my stuff. At the junction where I had to turn to Kanpur, I got confused and went straight past the Lucknow Assembly. I immediately learnt my mistake and came back again via a u-turn to another folly of taking the smaller road that went parallel to the main highway I was supposed to take. It was challenging to turn back ( it was a one way ) without cops noticing me; and getting on the main highway. Also, a new flyover was being constructed in the old lucknow area, so, there was lots of slow traffic. Eventualy, it got clearer. I halted a bit near a field at the Sikandara check point and continued driving after it got little dark. I reached Shivpuri by late evening. This time I was not scared to drive in the dark ( I knew the area quite well after so many trips ), and kept on driving till I reached the exit toll plaza. Late-night driving helped me speed my journey by many hours.
Linking to Skywatch & MyWorldThruMyCameraLens
Address : Araria, Forbesganj, Darbhanga, Jhanjharpur, Muzzafarpur, Gopalganj...
Read next part - Here! Stay tuned for all my road, rail, flight, cruise & walk trips.
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Seams like a fogy trip
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