mumbai bangalore volvo: travel bus timings, bus operators, bus service review

i was traveling again from bangalore to mumbai. This time though it was monsoon and by now i was quite experienced enough to book tickets and know which volvo bus operators to avoid. But my experiences were limited to ksrtc, vrl, sharma transports, neeta travels only. Then i decided to go with amchi marathi sounding travels called 'Konduskar Travels'. Earlier i used to think its must be a really good service. Did i think the same way later? read on...

The price for konduskar was marginally lower than vrl travels but higher than ksrtc as is the case most of the times. The pickup point was kalasipalyam in the heart of bangalore. The bus was due at 7pm. I had lots of luggage with me hence going back and forth through the lanes of kalasipalyam wasnt a very easy effort. In a non-descript little room near the entrance of kalasipalyam bus stand the signboard read as the one i was looking for. Heaving a sigh of relief, i seated myself in the chair.

The bus arrived, surprisingly, on time. After the sharma experience i was pleasantly surprised. Well, at least the beginning was on a good note. I entered the bus and took my window seat. The bus started in a few minutes. It was empty, most of it. But it was good to see that the seats looked decent enough to be called clean by other volvo standards. The aisle was also clean. In no time the bus was making a getaway out of bangalore via KR circle, then rajaji nagar and later yeshwantpur station.

The bus looked in good condition. You could feel the power of the B7R engine putting that awesome torque on the wheels. The sudden thrust backwards on the application of slight acceleration felt good. But then i forgot we still were in bangalore and bangalore's traffic doesn't care who is going where; it just manifests itself in almost every traffic corner or signal. Finally after getting a moveon the bus went into cruise mode. It was movie time and guess what, it was a lucky day. Not for me, but for the actors, directors and producers of the film 'jashn'. To fully comprehend why i am saying this just go and read any review. Mind you i am not asking you to watch the film cos you would sue me for the mental agony caused.

I referred to the luck part because here we were, all the passengers i mean, traveling in a bus and helpless enough to watch any movie that would be shown. And among all the movies this is the movies that is selected. Ok..it may not be the worst film ever made but you know a bad movie when you see it.

So after the movie it was dreaming time. Since the seat beside me was empty i was more than happy to sleep occupying both the seats. The ocassional bump reminded me we were still in karnataka. Nothing against the karnataka government but the guys haven't developed the northern part of karnataka as good if not better than south karnataka. The bus, or any other vehicle for that matter, comes to a grinding halt every hundred metres as the condition of the road is so bad. There are frequent detours that cause delays. hats off to the travels guys who take it in their stride.

Morning came early as we touched kolhapur at around 5:30 am itself. It was just a filling station somewhere outside of kolhapur. Elated i stepped down from the bus and took the chilly air in and felt the somewhat familiar scent of the black soil i had played in my village. Hearing the familiar village dialect instantly made me feel i am home. Even at that odd hour and half awake i thought of how language has a binding effect.

Since this was a konduskar bus it detoured and entered the city of kolhapur. It was the first time i saw, even though from the confines and comfort of the bus, the historical city of shahu maharaj. The all to familiar sight of farmers dressed in the traditional 'bandi', 'dhotar', 'pheta' leading their cattle to graze instantly made me feel warm at heart. This is what makes India what it is. Away from the blinking screens of computers in AC offices and MNC office culture was this India. The only thing that matters to this india is the rain if i can take a few liberties. Barring the government decision on the prices of foodgrains nothing interests this india more. Although i may have generalised to the point of criminal ignorance; but the fact remains it another India in contrast to the popular perception of people outside india and for some in India too.

I got time to think all this since the bus reached kolhapur bus stand at 7:00 am it didnt move till 7:45 am. No reasons given whatsoever. So the journey continued towards next destinations on the way karad and subsequently satara. They were left behind in a few hours and pune beaconed at 170 odd kms. We did reach pune at 10:30 am.
Till now everything was going to plan. I was already looking ahead at making it for lunch to mumbai when a few surprises were made known to us. The bus was not going to go all the way to mumbai. There was a change of bus in Pune and the actual bus was expected at 11am in pune. Pune at that time was in full grip of swine flu and you could see people wearing masks. I braced myself, and hoping everything would be fine sat at the bus operators office waiting for the bus.
The bus arranged was a Neeta Volvo and by the looks of it, had taken part in the vietnam war. The front mirrors were broken, the color had worn off, the window sealings were hanging about. On entering it was a similar sight too. torn seat covers, broken seat arm rests, filthy seats and cracked windows. Me along with three others from the earlier bus cursed our luck and hoped this piece of junk makes it to mumbai.

Although the bus was almost full, the bus operators are dedicated to making use of the last available inch in the bus and to do it they have a simple formula. just wait for the customer till he arrives. Meandering through the streets of Pune was all the bus did for the next hour and a half. Finally i saw a semblance of NH4 and heaved a sigh of relief. We were back on track finally!

The journey here onwards was made somewhat bearable by the scenic locations that whizzed past. Monsoon is a great time to see get some nice pics. Especially in the ghats. I have tried taking a few here, hope you like them.

The picture on the left is the place near kolhapur where we stopped for breakfast. It was here that i had 'pohe'.



 

One of the better shots i took on my mobile camera on NH4. I agree a better camera is needed to do justice to the shot.

The green scenes are only during monsoons. Its a torrid sun the rest of the time.

The mud splattered on the window of the volvo.

The express way : lonavala

This bill board shouldnt have been there.

Great valley view.

really nice pic. Small tea stall right on the edge of the cliff.

few people enjoying the view or cuppa tea?

The winding way up the ghat.













The bus reached panvel at around 1:30 pm and vashi at sometime later.

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.