volvo travel experience mumbai to bangalore:sharma transports

it was april and i was desperately looking to go back to mumbai for a well deserved break. Finally i got what i was looking for, a leave for around 8 days with 3 days working from home. hmm..3 days shouldn't be big deal. now for the difficult part of actually booking a ticket. I opened the ksrtc site no seats available in the evening on that day. So tried redbus.in.

Redbus.in is a pretty decent site with decent quality. I have used them on two different occasions and haven't been disappointed. Anyways, back to the topic. All the usual transports were there VRL, Sharma, National, Konduskar etc. I zeroed in on Sharma as i had tried KSRTC and VRL and liked them both. I wanted to try a different travel just to know the difference. Now, sharma operates Volvos and Multi-axls mercedes buses to mumbai. This time though i became a bit too adventerous and booked a non-AC semi sleeper bus to mumbai. I assumed it would be a stripped down version of the volvo. to know the rest read on and be enlightened.

The bus was supposed to leave at 8pm from the sharma transports office in kalasipalyam. I reached there pretty much in time. My first impression was this should be a well planned transport as the office looked much better off than the rest of the travels' offices. there were a number of rows of seats for waiting passengers. I was pleasantly surprised.

The bus arrived almost on time. The usually scurrying happened to enter the bus. The bus looked promising on the outside. Inspired somewhat by the volvo though. but, who cares. The make of the particular model read 'Sutlej 8000'. Whatever the 8000 meant i hoped it flew as good as the volvo if not better. My assumption was the less money meant that just the AC was absent with everything else being the same(As you would know later , dont assume too many things).

It started sometime later but was of no use as the entire kalasipalyam road was in a mess of traffic. It took some time to get out of there to land up in traffic somewhere else. Things had got off to a bad start. The optimist in me quipped, with the law of averages the rest of the journey should be smooth.

It took 10:30 pm to reach around Yeshwantpur station. My stomach was giving me a unger alert. It wondered where dinner might be cos normally its well outside the city that the buses stop at roadside dhabas. I consoled my pensive stomach to hold for few more minutes reminding it of the sumptous meal at the next tarry point.


soon it was 11pm and most of the people were looking at their watches with questioning glances. The driver wasnt oblivious to this fact either but his standard response was the stopover isn't far. Finally, we reached the dhaba at around 12:30. Unbelievable i thought. The part of my brain which deals with bad decisions was trying to convince me saying its a one off situation. In any case, whether i had taken some other bus i would still have been here. Didn't work at all.

Hunger pangs had completely taken over me. I took some meal and settled down again expecting atleast two things. one, early deliverance and two, satisfactory sleep. It helped that the seats were wider than those in the volvo. Plus, the seating arrangement was 2+1 which actally allowed one to fold the feet 'indian style' and sit.

One thing bugged me right from the time the bus hit the free road. Somehow, it didn't have the same bite as the volvo. A bit too much to expect i thought but then the realization hit me about the total journey time. it would now take much longer compared to the volvo. An unsettling feeling to say the least.

to add to that unsettling feeling was the kind of movies that were being played. Emraan hashmi is certainly not my cuppa tea. And getting to watch 3 emraan movies back to back is something of an achievement. In any other setting i could have walked out of the situation unable to bear the drama(torture was my first option), but i was traveling here so that option was unavailable.

At around 8 we reached kolhapur. Whew! finally in marathi land. But the journey was taking 'Homeric' proportions. I bet 'jason' (ref. Greek mythology Jason and the Golden Fleece) would have abandoned his quest if he was traveling with me. The bus was unable to cruise at all. The accelerator seemed to be touching the bottom and still the grunting of the engine was the only thing that increased. No cruising speed at all.

My dunce feeling was at an all time high. With no respite from the emraan mania i thought of ignoring it completely and enjoying the countryside. Believe me, April is not the month you would want to enjoy the countryside. Especially maharashtra. Its summer time and you would be greeted with a torrid sun greeting you the whole day.

After a quick lunch and couple of hours later it was still Pune. The watch said 3pm and i was doing my math of what time to tell i would be reaching home. After the last days and nights experience i thought 7 should be a conservative estimate.

I called up my folks and told them i would be in time for some pre-dinner snacks. I had already got a dressing down in the morning when i told i hadn't taken a volvo so this time there wasnt much they could add to the abuse.

My restlessness continued till we reached lonavala and the moment i saw the expressway i told myself, this gonna get over soon. I profusely thanked the government which built the expressway and settled down thinking of the next few days along with 'aai', 'papa' and not to forget 'bob' (not my dog).

It probably was one of the better moments of my life when i actually liked leaving something behind. It was the bus this time. It read 6:30pm in my watch and i didnt even want to see where it went after vashi. I headed towards the bus terminal at a speed which seemed much faster than the bus i had left behind...

Disclaimer:
(This is my personal experience with the mentioned travel). Opinions might differ from person to person.

mumbai to bangalore travel in a volvo.

I cant believe its more than 6 months that i updated my blog. Billionth voice that is. Lots of things have happened in the sabbatical. Not all great or worth mentioning.

So where was i during the year end?
Well i was back in aachi mumbai enjoying with namma parents. Its always a special feeling to be somewhere you feel like you are the king.
It was the first time i was traveling from bangalore to mumbai in a volvo. No more sponsored flights for me. (All good things come to an end. so they say.)
I had booked VRL volvo around 8pm. I tried to book a thursday evening bus but there was no availability. Finally i got a vrl booking for friday evening. I reached kalasipalya after a taking a bus from tippasandra to corporation and from thereon by an auto.

The autowalla was at his arrogant best. He didnt start the meter when i got in and when i insisted he asked for 10 rs more. I immediately asked him to stop and got out of the auto. Then i had to listen to a flurry of excuses on how its very reasonable. When i had nothing of it and started to leave he held my hand and told me to get back in the auto agreeing to go by the meter.
I got back since i didnt know the way and could have needed directions from him later. As it turned out i later paid him 10 extra as i again was too lazy to haggle and more anxious to reach on time.

I reached the VRL office on time. The bus came almost on time too. (Till now i have travelled by VRL,sharma,KSRTC and found that VRL,KSRTC are on par and quite decent.)
The bus started and in no time we were stuck in the famous bengaluru traffic.
It took 10:30pm to really get a move on. Akshay's "singh is king" was blaring away on the tv which i tried to avoid.

It felt great watching the lights zoom by sitting by the window seat on the last seat. Last row is never a nice place to sit especially on a long journey, but it didnt bother me much as i was going to mumbai. I was already thinking abt when i would reach and what i would be doing. the comfort of traveling in a volvo is unparalleled on road. Not only it glides on the road, you dont feel the travel fatigue like in the other modes of transport.

One thing i noticed was the roads in karnataka were pretty much under construction. many times the bus had to use a diversion which caused a lot of time wastage especially because the volvo normally travels at around 120 kmph on the highways. So we reached the border at around 6 am and then it was a smooth sailing through maharashtra. the roads looked impeccably maintained. the administration or msrdc deserves a mention in this regard.

Then it was kolhapur, karad, satara behind us in no time and pune was beaconing with time to go for 10 am. Pune was kind of a maze since the bus kept going round and round and we became more anxious as to when we were finally going to hit the well known Mumbai-Pune expressway. At long last we saw the last of Pune and the express way greeted us with the multilane roads and zooming cars.

One thing i have to agree that the expressway has made travel a lot more safer. I still remember as a kid how terrified i was to see the depths of the khandala, lonavala ghats. I used to hope i can get to the other side. But what it also has done is that you miss the scenery you get to see otherwise, going thru the dense forest of lonavala. Pleasant, serene sights beacon you onwards along the treacherous and twisting roads. A solitary drivers moment of serenity i should say. Especially in the monsoon, its a total joy traveling by the old road. you can see people who have stopped by the wayside to enjoy the bountiful nature sipping away at a super hot cup of tea while its raining like it can only in the western ghats.

the bus sped on the express way like in a race, easily overtaking other vehicles. felt kinda nice. In no time were we on the outskirts of a well populated suburb of Navi Mumbai known as panvel. the density of population was just a reminder that i was entering a city. Even here the highrises easily outnumbered the apartments i see in bangalore.

It was around 1 pm and the bus entered the main town of vashi and it was supposed to be my alighting point. I managed to get down from the bus, still trying to come to terms with the sudden loss of momentum while in the bus.
I trudged along the dusty main road and reached till the imposing structure that the Vashi station was. It also happens to be the bus stand for traveling to the yonder suburbs of navi mumbai. I reached home by 2:30 where mom had expected me to arrive by plane the same morning! (I attributed my travel in a bus to recession :P)

Though i have traveled by plane almost 15-16 times, the novelty factor remains. Not to mention the time saved is truly invaluable. add to that the comfortable journey.
Still volvo experience comes close to it if not same. If only volvos could fly! :)