Road trip to Taj Mahal, Agra
Heard of the phrase “all of a sudden” well this matched perfect with this Love Ride to Agra. I have been a bike fanatic and a hard core BIKER BY HEART since the time i first rode a bike and its all been a love affair since then.
For me there was no actual plan to go for a bike ride until the 4th of May 2012, when a very close friend and also a Biker By Heart “Gurpreet” invited me for a bike ride to Agra with his biker group – “THE GUNS”
It was my first time that i was riding with a biker group, everything was planned until the very last moment, when a friend ditched back, he was the one from whom i was borrowing the bike for the ride, the ride was one morning away and here i was at 6 PM in the evening of friday without a bike and following to which i had the ride next morning at 5 and i dont have a bike for the ride but i feel when you want something by heart nobody can stop you and at the last moment another close friend came to rescue “Bunny Punia” Editor Gaadi.com, who lend me his Honda CBR 250R, yes this was the same CBR which XBHP used it in the Grand Indian Road Trip.
Anyways Saturday comes in and sharp at 5:00 AM i left my house to meet other fellow riders of the THE GUNS at the meeting point – Ashram Petrol Pump, their were about 6-7 riders who were already their, we waited for another 15 minutes for the late comers and finally it was all set and flag off fir us at around 6:00 AM we were about 10 biker set to blaze the NH2 inroute to Agra.
For those of you not familiar with the route – here it is
Total Distance from New Delhi to Agra is 197 km.
And Drive from New Delhi to Agra takes about 5 hours by car at an average speed of say 40 – 50 but it tooks us around 6 hours and the reasons behind were
1. The huge traffic jam before Hodal
2. Breakfast halt at Mathura
3. Average speed of 40 – 50 KMPH (P.S. Speed thrills but kills)
For those of you planning to ride in the summers of Delhi, India, a few things that are must
1. Wear a sleeve or a jacket, don’t leave your body parts exposed to direct sun light trust me you will have the sun burn of your life
2. Always have a water bottle packed with you, never run out of it.
3. Try and wear loose pants / t shirts / jackets, so that after a ride of 100 – 150 kmph you dont feel uncomfortable
4. Dont ride empty stomach
So the journey had started and we were on our way to AGRA covering areas like Faridabad, Palwal, Hodal (this is where we got our first huge messed up traffic jam which took around half an hour to clear up (P.S. this place is mostly crowded so try and cover it up early morning at around 6 – 7 further crossing Kosi and then finally reaching Mathura where we took our firt pit stop or call it our breakfast stop, there is a Mcdonalds drive thru outlet on the main highway and is a decent option for those who are not intersted to go to a Dhaba (P.S. better go to a dhaba then eating this unhealthy junk) after the meal it was time to roar again with bikes the Royal Enfield’s Bullet at the start standing first in the line up roaring with its mighty barbaric sound.
50 KMS left to AGRA and exactly at around 12:30 we entered The Love City – Agra, the gang – The Guns without wasting any time embarked their presence at the southern gate of Taj Mahal, there are a number of stories that go by with the Taj Mahal one of them being the Tajo Mahalaya (Taj Mahal being a Shiv Mandir) story but i really dont want to get into that, this is not a history or religion based post – it is, it was and it will always be ALL ABOUT BIKEs and coming back to it after a good 1 – 1.5 hours in Taj Mahal we decided to head back to Delhi on our beasts, coming to the beasts their were around 10 bikes in the group around 6 Royal Enfield’s, 1 Bajaj Avenger, 1 TVS Apache RTR, 1 Bajaj Pulsar and me on the Honda CBR250R.
At around 3 in the afternoon we started our journey back to Delhi and to add a little sweet to the ride we stopped by, at the nearest Panchee Peetha Shop (those of you who dont know – “Peetha” is a very famous Indian sweet and Agra is famous for making the best “Peetha’s”)
Next in line was the lunch meal and this time to our luck it was a regular punjabi dhaba (nothing official about it), just to make sure we avoid any further food brakes, we stuffed ouselves with Dal, Panner, Gobi and other famous punjabi delicacies before hitting the road again.
And the final ride begins to back home Delhi and to our luck, we did not got any traffic jam this time and finally reached Faridabad at around 9 PM and Okhla – Delhi at about 9:45 PM
It was truely a remarkable ride and a journey to cherish – with some really high spirited bikers from The Guns biking group, i feel greatfull to them for letting me the part of the ride and further adding me to the group.
Readers keep following us and The Guns for more thrilling bike rides across India and who knows even overseas.
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