Women’s Roadtrip (Part 3) Bhopal – Sanchi – Shivpuri – Delhi

In November 2021, my mom and I took a roadtrip  covering a few cities of Madhya Pradesh.

Part 1: Delhi – Gwalior – Jhansi – Orccha – Bhedaghat

Part 2: Bhedaghat – Bhopal

For our journey from Bhopal onwards, read the below post.

Stay in Bhopal

Our plan was to stop at Bhopal for 2 nights. Since it was the first time for my mom and me, we were excited to explore one of the cleanest cities of India.

We started our exploring journey with a typical Poha – jalebi breakfast near Jama masjid. The combination sounded really weird to me, but that first bite changed my thinking. It was yum.

Following that, we decided to walk around the lake to get a feel of the place. It surely seemed like one of the cleanest cities of India, especially given the population. To me it seemed cleaner than even Indore.

We didn’t really have any specific sight seeing spots in our list. The idea was to get a feel of the city. After some walking around, mom suggested taking the Bhopal darshan tour since we were quite exhausted with all the morning walk.

That is not my preferred mode of sight seeing, but I was frankly quite exhausted with the previous day’s drive and the morning’s walk and the idea of just sitting in a bus and being driven around the city seemed like a decent option.

The bus started from near Palash hotel and we were a group of only about 8 people. The sight seeing was for about 5 hours and included all the main attractions of Bhopal (temples, masjids, samaraks, Vidhan sabha, museums, lake) – for some it was only a drive through while for some spots it was a stopover.

We did the tour for about 3 hours and once we stopped for lunch at the boating club, we decided to hop off and spend more time near the lake and then head home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A short nap in the afternoon had us replenished with energy and we decided to check out Rani Kamlapati railway station which was close to our hotel. I couldn’t believe that a railway station would be a place to check out, but the place had been recommended by two of my mom’s friends. So she HAD to see it (FOMO).

Once we reached the station, we realised why it was on the ‘recommended’ list. The station was more like an airport – airconditioned – amazingly clean (like the entire city actually) – Well maintained – Well lit with 24/7 backup – Maintained high speed escalators.

It truly was of international standards – not something I have seen anywhere else in India. It is said that this station was designed on the lines of a German station.

After the visit, we decided to head back to our hotel to have an early dinner. We ate at Sagar Gaire restaurant which is a very famous fast food chain in Bhopal. This restaurant was right below our hotel. Good food and extremely reasonable.

Bhopal to Sanchi

The Route

We had 2 route options to reach Sanchi with both routes taking approximately same time. The options were between Bhopal-Vidisha highway or NH 146.

I chose the Bhopal – Vidisha highway since it was not a NH and as an added bonus, I had read that there was signboard on this highway mentioning that Tropic of Cancer passed through this highway.

Maps and signboards have always fascinated me – so we chose this highway.

The Journey

We wanted to leave at 6AM from Bhopal as the plan for the day was to first drive to Sanchi (1 hour from Bhopal) and then reach Shivpuri where we had planned to halt for the night.

On checking online, we realised that Sanchi Stupa only opened at 8:00 AM.

Since we were anyways up very early in the morning, we decided to drive around in Bhopal and have chai at Upper lake to kill some time.

The lake in the morning was beautiful. Peaceful with only a few morning walkers.

We had our chai and started towards Bhopal – Vidisha highway.

Our decision to take this highway seemed to be a good one. The road condition was good and quite scenic.

A narrow road with no divider and hardly any traffic.

It was a good thing that we had had our chai though since there was no dhaba on this route and I do tend to get a bit hangry without my morning chai.

We took only one brief stop for posing at Tropic of Cancer board and reached Sanchi at about 8:30 AM.

Sanchi Stupa Visit

On reaching Sanchi, we were surprised at the massive crowd. It was quite early in the morning so I really wasn’t expecting it to be that chaotic.

There were tons of people on foot – seemed like devotees and also quite a few policeman managing the crowd.

We were asked to park our car in a make-shift kind of a parking area at the market itself which  was about 1 km before the Stupa. Turns out that we had reached the Stupa on a very auspicious day.

Every last Sunday of November, a Mahotsav is organised at Sanchi where the relics of two of Buddha’s disciples (usually kept in the monastery) is brought out for pilgrims to pay homage to.

Since it was a special day, we had to walk up nearly 1 km to the stupa and most of the walk was uphill. On regular days, you can take your car right till the gate of the Stupa.

Sanchi Stupa is one of the oldest Buddhist monuments dating back to 3rd century BCE and was built by Asoka.

It is a UNESCO world heritage site and is also depicted on Indian 200 Rupee note.

Sanchi to Shivpuri

We left from Sanchi at about 1030 AM. We took the MP SH19 route as I wanted to avoid the NH as much as possible. However, the road was not in the best condition. We decided to cut across to NH46 via MP SH 23 which met NH46 at Guna.

After Guna, we got onto the amazing Guna-Shivpuri highway. The road on this stretch was extremely smooth.

About 2 km on to this highway, we stopped for lunch at MP tourism hotel – Highway treat. Decent place.

Having stuffed myself with a lot of Paneer Makhani here, I started feeling really drowsy. The smooth highway did not help.

The good part about mom and my combination is that she loves driving on smooth highways while I feel really drowsy. I slipped into the front passenger, and within a few minutes was enjoying my nap.

I woke up in about 20 minutes to some beautiful mustard fields – a la Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge style.

The highway right till Shivpuri was in an amazing condition. We reached at about 5 PM and after a quick check-in and freshening up we decided to head out to Bhadaiya Kund which is a natural spring and one of the famous picnic spots in Shivpuri. It is situated next to Sakhya Sagar lake which is flanked by Madhav National Park.

Unfortunately for us, since we were visiting in November, the water level at the fall was very low. Having seen some beautiful pictures, we were a little disappointed looking at the actual site.

 

By the time we explored this kund, it became quite dark. We decided to drive by Chhatri and see if it was open. Unfortunately, we could not find Chhatri as it seems the location mentioned on google maps was not accurate. We were too exhausted to ask around and decided to head back to our hotel for some early sleep.

Shivpuri to Delhi

By now, I believe our body clock had adjusted to waking up at 4 AM. We had fixed our alarm for 5AM, but since we both woke up early, we decided to start at 5 AM itself.

We headed towards NH46 and were hoping to have breakfast at Gwalior (2.5 hours away). However, I could not sustain till then!

About 1.5 hour into our journey, we decided to break for breakfast on NH46 itself. The last of my fresh paratha breakfasts on this trip.

There was some construction happening near Shivpuri end of the highway, but overall, it was in a good condition.

We initially planned to take the Yamuna expressway at Agra as we had come into Madhya Pradesh via KMP expressway and I usually prefer to take a different road on my way back. However, since we wanted to go to Gurgaon and we were going to reach in the evening, entering Delhi at that time would not be a good idea. So we stuck to KMP flyover.

We were cruising at a good 100 kmph on the Agra bypass when a passing car tried to signal something to us. We stopped our car a little ahead and got out of the car only to realise that the front tyre of our car had gone flat. We were now in the centre of the bypass which is an elevated road with no shops. It seemed that what was needed was to replace the tyre with our stepney.

The issue: Changing tyre was still an unchecked item in my ‘To do’ list.

I tried to check for Hyundai roadside assistance while my mom tried to find help on the road. A few men on a tractor were parked about 10 metres from us. My mom approached them and after millions of whys, hows, wheres later they said that they would love to help but they did not know how to change tyres as supposedly it was different for a tractor.

An oldish man on a bike was the next person who stopped. He heard our issue and although he did not know how to change a tyre, he offered to go to the mechanic (about 1 km away) and get him on his bike.

We were extremely thankful for the offer. He sped away promising to be back in under 15 minutes.

While we were waiting in our car, two young boys on a bike stopped and enquired about the issue. I was in no mood to answer questions like ‘where we were headed’ ‘Why were we two women driving alone’ etc.

I couldn’t ignore the questions though, so just directly asked them if they knew how to change a tyre. A quick ‘of course’ led to a discussion with my mom and we decided to take their help.

One of they guys knew how to change they tyre and he was amazingly quick. Almost like a pro.

He took a maximum of 10 minutes to change the tyre. I was amazed and impressed. They did not even accept any money and said they were only trying to help. Further impressed.

Just when we started our car, the oldish man along with the mechanic arrived. My mom explained the situation to them and gave some money to the mechanic for his time.

Ever grateful for the support from passers by.

We drove away and although the entire incident only set us back by 20 minutes, I shudder to think what would have happened if something similar happened on our Bhedaghat to Bhopal night driving stretch. That is why, its important to follow the Safety Rules

The journey till Gurgaon was unadventurous after that. Thankfully.

The Final Route

Tips for Madhya Pradesh Roadtrip

Food and Washroom

Unlike most other highways that I have been to, decent restaurant/dhaba options on MP highways seem limited. If you find any ‘Midway Treat’ hotel, that would be your best bet in terms of clean washrooms and decent food. Food though had been good even in the smaller restaurants but the washrooms were not.

Start looking out for both these facilities at least half an hour before you actually need it.

Road condition

Most of the highways in MP were in excellent condition. Expect to pay heavy tolls though. The only highway that was not not in a good condition was the NH45 (Bhedaghat to Bhopal) as it seemed to be under construction while we were there.

Petrol

The difference in petrol price of UP and MP is about 10 INR/litre. Do fill up your tank near Agra bypass and if you do happen to enter Jhansi, refuel there as well.

Dress

Women on highways is certainly not a common sight here. Dress a bit conservatively. I wore knee length dresses but made sure it was all loose fitting.

Highway night halt

There were hardly any options for a decent safe hotel for a night halt along the highway. There were a few options at the outskirts of bigger cities but nothing in the middle of the highway.

Final Words

Have you been on this route? Did you have any interesting experiences? Do you have tips or recommendations? Do let me know in the comments below.