Kanyakumari - Kashmir Round trip - Planning phase

Ohhhh yaaaa!!!

Ethayume plaaaan panni pannanumm (a Tamil movie dialogue stressing the importance of planning)

I decided that I'm going to do this K2K - Kovai to Kovai trip aka Kanyakumari to Kashmir round trip and now famously known as Kicha's Kumari Kashmir trip - (koluthi poduvom) 

Objective 

Irrespective of the itinerary, it was decided that it has to be a CNG - Green fuel drive. Post itinerary - it turned out to be 50% of India (14 states and 4 Union Territories) with CNG wherever available

Co-traveller 

First task is to get few fellow travellers - I called Mahadevan and he immediately said YES - we're game. OMG - so simple??? Nope, not that easy. The original plan was to find atleast 3 travellers of any kind - tried numerous options, channels and nothing worked out. One of my friend was so curious and excited only to find another reason to drop out at the last minute. However, men may come and men may go - the journey is forever. We just stopped hunting and moved on with our schedule

Route-map

I tried so many options only to understand that India is so huge and you can''t just fit that in a 37 days task list. As the saying goes - every other girl would look so beautiful after your marriage, however, live with what you chose initially :) 

I decided to stick with one of it. Most importantly, I didnt share the itinerary (or) K2K plan in advance with anyone; because our friends / family are so good in asking questions and confuse - sample questions that you might encounter

Why not this place? 

If you're visiting X, it's so important to visit Y

If you're going to A - our relative or distant relative (amma oda onnu vita chithapa peran (or) appa oda perippa oda naathanar ponnu)

It is very dangerous to visit this place in the month of June - why now?

To escape from these questions - keep it simple; follow your interests, attitude and instincts in deciding the itinerary. 

I had already shared mine in Introduction page :) 

Sponsorship

The plan got ready,  and it's time to find ways to execute. We did the budgeting only to understand that it's way beyond our pocket size and would need some assistance in this regard

I thought we could seek corporate assistance and tried reaching out to Maruti Suzuki & Indian Oil. The first meeting was a meet / greet session with Indian Oil in the month of Jan 2023. After umpteen emails & phone calls, I realized that Maruti Suzuki hardly communicates with people :) I gave up my chase with Maruti after 6-7 follow-ups. 

However, I continued with Indian Oil because they were responding and reacting positively. I decided the start date as May 25th - and the discussion with IOCL caught up speed after May first week. It was decided that it's 100% exclusive Indian Oil fuelled trip. We had 6-7 round of discussions, Google Earth project etc..,

They gave the vendor contacts for stickering & promos on May 21st. Did a quick oil service, wheel check (rotation - assembling - balancing etc..,) and the car was ready by May 24th night - 11.30 PM

What went into the car? 

Planning, sponsorship etc.., is done. I made a checklist of the below and ensured it's ready by 19th May. I ensured that Mahadevan just need to come with clothes bag and everything else is taken care of :)

* Toileteries (body spray, soap (I opted for bodywash charcoal gel instead of bar soap), brush, paste, moisturizer, sunscreen, tooth picks, ear buds, hair gel,  wet tissue papers, dry tissue papers, hand soap, lip balm, washing liquid, washing conditioner, cloth clips, clothelines etc..,)

* Car essentials (tyre inflator, tubeless puncture kit, washing kit, bucket, mug, microfiber cloth, sanitizer, water bottles, disposable mats, charger, fast tag recharge, air purifier etc..,)

* Permits - Indian citizens are free to travel to Ladakh without any kind of permits, however I took one selecting all the places in the website - fortunately, couple of them asked for it during our travel and we thanked ourselves for having one :)

* Food items - Being vegetarians, we took a bunch of instant and fresh items (home-made puliygare paste, dhal powder, gingelley oil, onion thokku, electric rice cooker, electric kettle, instant tea, instant coffee, instant upma, instant poha, MTR recipes etc..,)

* Clothing and accessories (you can do it per convenience - we took a winter jacket, 8 set of quick dry tshirts / trackpants, pair of gloves & a shoe) one bag per person :)

And that's it....vrooommmmmmmm.....let's start the journey :)