Women’s Roadtrip: Mumbai to Delhi via MP (Part 2)

In March 2022, my mom and I did a roadtrip from Mumbai to Delhi via Madhya Pradesh. In Part 1 we travelled from Mumbai till Indore. Read that post here.

This is Part 2 of our trip where we travelled from Indore to Delhi.

Also, check out some amazingly useful roadtrip products on amazon:

Pepper Spray, Pee Safe, Peechute; car freshener, Car charger, Car charging cable, Car air pump

Accommodation in Indore

After a fun drive, we finally reached Indore at around 1 PM. As with all our accommodations on this trip, we had not booked any in Indore too. We thought of probably checking the MP tourism hotel in Indore as we had a good experience with the one at Maheshwar.

We called MP tourism phone number only to know that they did not have any hotel in Indore. The guy on the phone however was very sweet and suggested that we go to Sarovar Portico which is somewhat centrally located. He also asked us to give his reference so that we can get a discount.

Sure enough, although the rooms were priced at 3500 INR per night, we got them for 2800 INR for the night.

And this time we didn’t even have to play the women card!

The room was extremely nice and they also had decent parking area. By the time we checked in, it was already 2PM so we did not have too much time to check the cleanest city of India.

Being a Tourist in Indore

We quickly freshened up and headed towards the reception to ask for suggestions. The reception guy was quite clear about what we should be doing in Indore : “Visit chappan street food market, then buy some famous Indore mixture then head towards the night sarafa street food market”

So I guess our Indore trip was going to be all about street food!

We took his advice and headed towards chappan market which is 56 street food stalls lined in a very organised manner. This place was definitely very clean, hygienic and had a very nice and young vibe.

We spent quite some time trying a few items – hot dogs, seven flavoured paani puri, khopra patis, kachori, paan. The result of all the food was drowsiness. We picked up the Indori mixture and headed back to our room for a nap.

The nap proved to be a blessing. At times, only when you hit the bed you realise how tired you actually are.

We headed out at about 6 PM towards the Sarafa bazar area. Unfortunately we made the mistake of taking our car. Parking in that area was a nightmare especially since we had no idea about the parking spots. We asked a police guy who guided is to what seemed like a multi storey parking but it was extremely tight and through some crazy narrow lanes.

I have to admit, my parking and reversing skills are not the strongest. While we were contemplating on what to do with the car, a security guard approached us and said that we could park our car in his spot and pay him INR 50.

Mom was a little skeptical but I was relieved with the offer and accepted it.

We explored the market for about 1 hour and then waited for Sarafa bazar to start which was supposed to be at  9PM. None of us were hungry but we were quite intrigued to see how a narrow lane would transform into the famous night market.

The transition was exceptionally smooth. The taal-mel between the shop owners (closing their shops) and the hawkers setting up their stalls in front of the shops was impressive.

As we were not very hungry, we tried about 2 items and left for our hotel.

Indore to Ujjain

Early to sleep and Early to rise – our mantra on most of our roadtrip days continued and we set out at 6:00 AM.

We had no idea about the route that we would take but the first stop was decided by mom – she wanted to visit the Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain. As that was not too much of a diversion towards our trip to Delhi, I agreed.

Ujjain was about an hour drive from Indore. The drive into Ujjain was smooth and the visit into the temple was also quite smooth and quick which meant that we were on our way towards Delhi by 9:00 AM.

Ujjain to Shivpuri

We stopped for breakfast on the outskirts of Ujjain and I started checking for possible route options.

For our journey from Ujjain, we had three route options:

• Via the Asian highway 47 and 43 crossing the cities of Guna-Shivpuri and Gwalior. Although it was the recommended route, it was my least preferred one as I had driven on that route about 5 months ago while on my MP road trip with mom.
• Via NH48 crossing the cities of Chittorgarh – Kishangarh – Jaipur. I am not a fan of NH48 as I find the truck traffic to be quite high on this route – so this was also not preferable
• Via NH52 and NH48 crossing the cities of Agar – Kota and Jaipur. I had never been on this route and also had never been to Kota.  Although this route was merging with NH48 at Jaipur, there was still some stretch that I had never been on.

I decided to take the third route.

The only issue was that for some reason google maps was not recommending that particular route. The map showed the entire Agar-Ujjain road stretch as orange.

I have noticed that a lot of times the map is not very accurate when it comes to highways. I decided to go under that assumption as the other 2 route options were not getting me excited at all.

After breakfast at a very small dhaba, we chugged along the very smooth highway NH.

After cruising at a good speed for about 10 minutes, we hit some highway construction – seemed like some highway widening project.

The road was a mess – actually it was not even a road – just some gravels and mud. A very bumpy drive and to top it all my car was loaded with a lot of luggage as I was moving from Mumbai to Delhi.

We drove for about 5 km on that stretch at a speed of ~10kmph but the stretch seemed never ending.

As per the map, it was supposed to be ‘orange’ for a very long time – nearly till Agar.

This was not my idea of a roadtrip. My earlier issues of ‘not taking a recently been on route’ or ‘truck traffic route’ now seemed like first world problems.

I stopped to check for a way out of this messy highway and found a spur road which would connect me to AH47. We had no idea about that road as it seemed like a village road, but at least it was blue on the map.

We took that exit and were rewarded with a smooth road. It felt good to be able to drive on 5th gear again.

And surprisingly, the drive was also scenic. Beautiful fields on both side of the road and some windmills to add to the beautiful scene.

After driving on this road for about 1 hour, we hit the AH47.

As my mom and I had already been through this route a few months back, we knew what to expect. Super smooth roads with minimal traffic

The only drawback of this was my drowsiness. Smooth highways do make me feel sleepy and that’s when my mom comes to the rescue.

Since we had now lost a lot of time by taking the Agar-Ujjain road, we kept our night halt target as Shivpuri. After 2-3 additional stops on the Asian highway, we finally reached Shivpuri at about 19:00.

The last time we were in Shivpuri, we had stayed in the city and explored it too. Check that blog here: Women’s road trip: Madhya Pradesh. So, this time this was only to be a halt city for us.

We started looking out for hotels on the highway itself and found a decent one on the outskirts of the town. The rooms seemed decent, place seemed safe, value for money (INR 1000 for an AC room) and convenient.

Shivpuri to Gwalior

After a good sleep, we left our hotel at 5:30 AM while it was still dark. Our plan was to have the famous poha breakfast in Gwalior.

With that target in mind, we started our journey.

The last time I was on this section of the road (Nov 2021), there was some highway widening work happening on NH46 – just after leaving Shivpuri.

This time, as per the maps, that area was orange, so I assumed the stretch was still under construction. As expected, as soon as we crossed Shivpuri, we entered into a jam. This time since it was early morning and the jam mostly had trucks.

Basically there were only two open lanes as the remaining lanes were blocked due to the construction project. None of the trucks were moving at all, so we switched off our car and waited for our lane to open.

After about 15 minutes, our lane started moving. So we switched on our car only to realise that it was not turning on. I tried a few times, but it seemed there was an issue with the ‘push start’ button in my car or probably the battery.

We were panic stricken.

The car refused to start and soon the vehicles behind us (mostly trucks) started honking as we were now blocking the one and only lane. Because our car was not moving, the vehicles behind us now started overtaking us by taking the other lane which blocked the oncoming traffic.

It was total chaos and seemed that we were the cause for it.

It was pitch dark – We were surrounded by trucks – Two women in a stalled car : One of my nightmares for sure.

It was soon obvious to people around us that there was some issue with the car. Some guys came to enquire and on knowing that the car was not starting, they helped us by pushing the car to one side so that we would at least not block anyone.

Some pressure was at least off us now. And thankfully we could also see the break of dawn in the horizon which somehow did make me feel a bit better.

I tried to call the Hyundai roadside assistance number but since it was early morning and it was on a highway, it seemed as if it would be a long wait.

While we were waiting in the car trying to find some mechanics around us, some guy walked over to uour car and offered help. He opened the bonnet and tried to check a few things and his conclusion was that there was something wrong with the battery.

This was frustrating because we had got our car serviced before leaving Mumbai and had even told them specifically that we were going to drive 1500 km right after the servicing.

The guy said that we could try starting the car by giving it a push. Since we did not have many options, we decided to give it a shot. He gathered a few people and they pushed the car while I tried to start it.

It worked.

We were advised to continue our journey and show it to a mechanic whenever we got a chance which would probably be at Gwalior. The only thing we had to be careful about was to not switch off the ignition.

We agreed to the suggestion and thanked him profusely. We got moving towards Gwalior.

While driving, we were cruising at a good ~100 kmph speed and it did not feel as if there was anything wrong with our car but we were careful to not lower the speed or turn the ignition off.

I felt as if I was starring in one of those thriller movies like ‘Speed’ or ‘The burning train’. I consistently maintained a speed of 80-100 kmph.

Since we could not halt anywhere, we reached Gwalior at ~8:30 AM.

Stop at Gwalior

We decided to take the car to the Hyundai Service center and thankfully found one in Gwalior.

Having reached early, the service center had not opened but the guard helped us park the car and we finally switched it off.

Just to make sure, I tried to start it but it refused to start.

We had about an hour to kill so decided to have breakfast. After a yummy plate of poha, we returned to the service center and waited for their service advisors to arrive.

On checking our car, the advisor said that the issue seemed to be with the battery of the car and being a Sunday, the battery service section was shut. He advised us to continue and reach Delhi the same way we had reached Gwalior. They would help us with the push and after that we would have to drive non stop till Delhi.

That was ~350 km and 7 hours.

I don’t think I have driven non stop for 7 hours ever in my life. I am the kind who takes a break every 2 hours.

This time, seems like we did not have a choice.

The service centre guys gave a push and we were on our way to home.

Gwalior to Delhi

This amazingly smooth stretch of road had now become the toughest stretch for me to drive on. Within 2 hours of our journey I was itching to take a break – at least for a coffee and the basic stretching of legs.

We were too scared to even stop the car to change drivers.

As with the Shivpuri to Gwalior stretch, we maintained a steady speed of 80-100 kmph.

Around Agra, we finally spotted a McDonalds and decided to use the drive-thru option and pick up some food and drinks.

That did satisfy my hunger for a bit but the craving to stop and stretch my legs was becoming unbearable.

Considering we had easily started the car twice with the push, we thought maybe we can do the same thing again. At the next available dhaba – ‘Gulshan dhaba’ we asked the guard if he would help us push the car if we stopped there.

He agreed and finally my legs got a break. It felt good to feel the ground!

We stopped there for nearly an hour since we knew there would be no other stop. Home was now about 2.5 hours away which seemed doable as a non stop stretch.

Content with the break, we set of to complete the last stretch after getting a push from a couple of guys.

We finally reached Gurgaon (our destination) at about 19:00 without any further adventure.

Tolls

The total tolls paid on this second stretch of journey from Indore to Gurgaon was INR 1010.

The toll amount is high but in exchange you do get amazing roads (except the Agar – Ujjain stretch, of course).

Final Words

With this trip, I had completed the Mumbai Delhi stretch twice – once with the Gujarat route (NH48) in 2017 and once with the MP route.

Both routes have their pros and cons:

Road condition

If you only want to stick to the National highways, both routes are in good condition, though I feel MP roads are emptier and hence driving on these is more enjoyable.

Petrol

The advantage of driving through the Gujarat route is that petrol on that route is cheaper by ~10INR/litre as compared to Maharashtra. On the other hand, with the MP route, you only cross MP and Maharashtra for the most stretch and both these states have high petrol rate. On this route, it is advisable to fill your tank in Agra (10 INR cheaper).

I have also created a vlog on this part of my journey: