The Fortuner was an absolute joy to drive. Be it 4 or 6 lane highways, or broken roads, or flooded roads.
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A Road Trip to Arunachal and Meghalaya
I went on a road trip with my family to Arunachal and Meghalaya in May. This was an 8300-kilometer trip that took me 25 days to complete. As I do not have the time to write a complete travelogue, I am giving a high-level update on the trip, and a small photologue covering the trip in this thread.
There were three parts in the drive.
Part 1: My younger daughter joined me in the drive from Coimbatore. We took the Coimbatore – Vijayawada – Vishakapatnam – Konark – Kalyani – Siliguri – Guwahati route. On the way, we visited the navy museums in Vishakapatnam and the Sun Temple in Konark. I also got the car serviced in Siliguri.
Part 2: We picked up my wife and elder daughter, who took a flight to Guwahati. We drove in Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya for 11 days.
Part 3: My wife and both my daughters took a flight back from Guwahati to home, and I drove solo from Guwahati to Coimbatore. On the way, I spent a couple of days in Kolkata, where I took in some local sightseeing. I also met TBHPians Samba and ABHI in Kolkata, and moderator Sheel near Purnia.
The picture below shows the route map. Ignore the distance and time information. The actual distance was 8300 kilometers.
The following are the places visited in this trip:
Onward drive from Coimbatore to Guwahati:
- Navy and Submarine Museums in Vishakapatnam
- Konark Sun Temple
Arunachal Pradesh:
- Guippi orchidium
- Nuranang waterfalls
- Tawang War Memorial
- Teesri udasi
- T-Gompa
- Madhuri Lake
Meghalaya:
- Mawphlang Sacred Forest
- Mawrynkhang pull
- Arwah caves
- Nohwhet living root bridge
Kolkata
- Indian National Library
- Victoria memorial
- St. Paul’s Cathedral
- Birla Planetarium
- Kali Temple
- Birla Science Museum
Picture below shows the drive summary.
Below is the trip statistics.
- Total distance covered – 8300 kilometers
- Total drive time – 161 hours 45 minutes
- Overall average speed – 51.3 kmph
- Total fuel consumption – 765 liters
- Total fuel cost – INR 70,066
- Total toll cost – INR 11,450
The Fortuner was an absolute joy to drive. Be it 4 or 6 lane highways, or broken roads, or flooded roads, the car tackled all the terrain without breaking a sweat. Below are several pictures of the Fortuner from various locations on the trip.
With Chilika lake in the background.
On the beautiful Puri-Konark road.
On the Konark beach.
Green fields before Siliguri.
Somewhere on the highway.
Beautiful forest roads in Arunachal.
In the mountains in Arunachal.
In Sela pass.
Sela Pass.
PT TSO LAKE, LAW.
In Mawphanlur, Meghalaya.
Somewhere on the forest roads in Meghalaya.
On a single lane road covered flanked by trees, on the way to Mawrynkhang, Meghalaya.
Somewhere near Cherrapunji, Meghalaya.
In Vishakapatnam, we visited the three Naval museums – The Sea Harrier museum, TU-142 museum, and the Submarine museum.
The Sea Harrier museum has a decommissioned Sea Harrier aircraft on display. The aircraft is hung from the ceiling. The museum showcases scale models of several aircraft used in the Indian Navy/Airforce, and all the components used in these fighter jets, like the engine, radars, missiles, pilot seat with ejection, etc. For Aircraft enthusiasts, this is a very interesting place to visit. At least half a day is required to thoroughly check out all the models. We had to rush through the museums because we had only a couple of hours.
The next museum on RK Beach is the TU 142 Aircraft Museum. This museum features a decommissioned Tupolev Tu-142M aircraft, which served the Indian Navy for 29 years, accumulating over 30,000 hours of accident-free flying. After its retirement in 2017, the aircraft was preserved and transformed into a museum to showcase its legacy and educate visitors about naval aviation. Visitors can get into the aircraft and see various sections of it, like the cockpit, communications areas, places that store warheads, etc.
The third attraction, the INS Kursura submarine museum, is a decommissioned submarine converted into a museum. This submarine served in the Indian Navy from 1969 to 2001 for 32 years. Visitors can explore various internal sections of the submarine, such as the control room, sonar room, torpedo bay, and crew quarters. The whole submarine felt very claustrophobic. I could not take any pictures inside the submarine because I did not have the ticket for the camera.
A few pictures from these museums.
In Konark, we visited the famous Sun Temple. The Konark Sun Temple is a 13th-century temple built by King Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty. It is designed like a chariot and dedicated to Surya, the Sun God. The temple resembles a chariot with 24 wheels representing 24 hours in a day and seven horses representing the 7 days of the week.
The temple is huge, and its size reminded me of Brigadheeshwara temple in Tanjore. The guide explained that the structure had a massive main sanctum that was estimated to be 220 feet high, which had collapsed between the 16th and 19th centuries.
Detailed carvings cover the exterior walls, including deities, animals, dancers, and scenes from daily life. Below are a few pictures from Sun Temple.
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