First long haul

A new car brings all its joys and with it the service plans. I am not sure how many of us have managed to make the 1000 K.M mark in the first month. It is difficult challenge for me. But I have decided not to give up. There are various ways of reaching the 1000 mark. Drive all day, all week. Drive back and forth your home town that’s over 300 KM away. But either of these options may not be feasible until you finish the 1000 mark. Here is what I did--Drive to Bengaluru International Airport (BIAL).

We had our own interests apart from the target KM. We wanted to know the road to BIAL, the distance, the traffic situation and of course see our new international airport. So, we (my brother, my sis-in-law, and me) set out on this city adventure, Oh, yes it was after an awesome lunch that my SIL had prepared for us (I will write about her culinary skills another time, but sssh! don tell her.)

The new airport is a little over 40 KM (I think its 43) from my house so a return trip is 80 to 86 KM. When started from our house at 2:30 PM, took the old madras road and then the KR Puram flyover. At the Hebbal flyover, we took a right turn. DO NOT TAKE THE FLYOVER. That road is OK, it has tons of speed breakers which was nasty. The speed breakers were no match for my Indigo. Not once did the creatively constructed speed breakers touch the base of my car. Awesome clearance. That was good news already. I have heard many complain about road being not approachable, but I don't think I would agree. The road is pretty accessible and with the 3 lane on either side, it does make the driving easier compared to the city driving that we are always frustrated.

There was one common sight on the road to BIAL. The Mahindra LOGAN. There are 100's of them plying in Bangalore as airport cabs. I have heard a lot about Logan and during my research to buy a car I had looked at this one also. Logan has good mileage, and the assumption is that the car gives about 18 km in city conditions. Most of the taxis were from Meru (080-44224422, if you need them) or Easy Cabs (I don't remember this number). They were either green (MERU) or white (Easycab). Some of them, I guess had GPS systems. I did not get a closer look, so I won't confirm. All of them were cruising at a good speed on the way to the airport. But I was stuck at 60 kmph, because "my first service of the car is not over yet". Also cruising along the side of our car were the BMTC's new VOLVO buses. There are special services of the Volvo buses from different part of the city the airport and they were just zooming away.

I kept my speed less than 60 so that my vehicle is available for future also. After an hour of drive we reached the much awaited Bangaluru International Airport. The first impression of the airport was really good. It is a huge and I have read it’s about 2000 Acres. As compared to the old HAL airport this airport has enough space and lots of parking area. There is a separating parking space for buses, city taxis and private vehicles. We drove on the outside the airport. We did not take a closer look at the airport as we did not want to spend time there. We then returned back from the airport and headed towards home. We reached back home by 5:30 PM. The ride to the airport was really too good.

That's all from me now. More later, until then...Take Care!!!