the road tracklog 
from Bhopal, Sanchi to Bundi 
from 09/04 to 15/04/2007 

Departure 09/04 around 09:30 to Bhopal, where I had decided to publish the pages of my website. The road was in good condition with a by-pass in Sehore then a road with twice two lanes up to entry Bhopal. While arriving in Taj-Mahal road after the passage under two arches, I decided to stop to inform me, it was 11:30. At this time the engine of the truck stopped functioning, it did not have there more electricity in the cabin. I controlled the fuses; one of them relating to the indicators was out of use. In spite of that there was not always electricity in the cabin. I decided to call Man-Force-Trucks in Pune. Mr. Arnab Mukherjee sent Mr. Sanjoy Chandra to me who was in Indore and was to join me in the evening.
Three young motorcyclists, seeing my stopped truck and having watched it on TV, asked me what occurred. One of them was a car technician. With the assistance of his two friends he worked during nearly three hours to find the breakdown without success. I learned of whereas the team of Man-Force-Trucks would arrive only the following day in the morning. Meanwhile I had called Olivier Lecourt, the commercial in charge of my truck, who was informed at Man Belgium.

The following day around 11:00 the team of Man-Force-Trucks had still not arrived. I called Mr. Sanjoy Chandra who ensured being on the way and would arrive around 15:00. Actually it arrived about 17:30. Waiting was long. O. Lecourt gave me a procedure of checking in three points. I communicated it to the Man-Force-Trucks technicians. Around 20:00 the engine of the truck functioned again. It had appeared that the electrical battery isolator was out of use for an unknown reason and that several fuses which I had not detected were out of use too. The cause of all that came certainly from a short-circuit of the turn indicator which I had had to use at the time of my stop. It was too late to look for the origin of it. Mr. Sanjoy Chandra decided not to replace the fuse, the use of the turn indicators not being usual in India. The investigation into the cause will be made by the Man-Force-Trucks workshop in Gurgaon where I had appointment the last week of May. I was to order the spare parts at Man-Germany.
The two days spent in the street of Bhopal were nightmarish, omnipresent Indian crowd, crazy vehicle traffic, maximum pollution, disproportionate use of the sound horn and temperature higher than 45°C during the day.

Taj Mahal road 
Bhopal 
le 09/04/2007 

Finally the 11/04 I left the parking in Taj Mahal road to go down town into a cybercafé in Hamidia road. Then about midday I left to visit in Sanchi the hill with Stupas. Emperor Asoka made there build Stupa 1 in the 3rd century BC to collect relics of the Buddha. Many others Stupas and monasteries were built there during the following centuries. The Stupa 1 is especially remarkable by its four Torana carved with scenes of the life of the Buddha.
At the end of the day I found a bivouac at the entry of the city while coming from Bhopal about fifty meters of the road between a park and a lake at the foot of the Stupa 2.

Stupa 1, Northern Torana 
Sanchi 
the 11/04/2007 

The 12/04 was a driving day with a prolonged stop in Bhopal at the cybercafé of the day before to consult my mailbox and to send an order of spare parts to MAN Munich. Before setting out again I lunched in a restaurant and made food purchases. The road from Sanchi to Bhopal was excellent. The road from Bhopal to Dewas was in good condition up to Ashta then degraded. I bivouacked close to a service station in end of a field.

Friday 13/04 should be a favourable day. I was about midday in Ujjain to consult my mailbox and to have lunch. Road NH12 with toll was in good condition. But while entering the state of Rajasthan, it was always with toll but it became much degraded. Moreover the repair of power lines created a traffic jam which lasted nearly one hour. Consequently I did not reach Kota, my day target. At the falling night I should stop at a petrol pump in Jhalawar. This Friday 13 was not a good day.

The 14/04 I left to drive until around 12:00 with the intention to find a site in the shade to have rest and await 16:30 to go to bivouac at the restaurant A1 Plazza of Reliance located little before Kota. I found at approximately 30 km from Kota a place under a tree at the edge of a brook vis-à-vis an old caravanserai. Alas the service station of Reliance at the entry of Kota does not have a restaurant A1 Plazza! I was thus to continue to find a bivouac. The entry Kota is prohibited for truck before 18:30. I stopped towards 19:00 before the night on a poor carpark of a petrol pump at 24 km from Bundi.

The 15/04 I left my bivouac early to enter Bundi before 9:00 for fear there is the same limitation in Kota. Que Nenni, the city is prohibited for any four-wheel vehicle, the streets are too narrow. The arrival to the Palace is done by taking the road to Jaipur and by a way which ends in the lake Nawal Sagar where I bivouacked. I did not recognize the access to the Palace which is now in downtown. On the other hand the Palace did not change; it would have been degraded a little more. Some rooms which were formerly open are now closed. I with pleasure revive the miniatures of the School of Bundi. I strolled then in the city to make food purchases.

Decaying Palace 
Bundi 
the 04/04/2007 

Shaded off miniature 
Bundi 
the 15/04/2007 

Pacific Cohabitation 
Bundi 
le 15/04/2007