Last week for no particular reason, I took a 200 kilometer journey around Bangalore using only BMTC buses. It was quite a lot of fun. I had not planned the trip in any way, I just knew that I just wanted to go around the periphery. I went from from Jayanagar to Attibele, from there to Hoskote, Hoskote to Yelahanka where I stopped for some rest and lunch. From Yelli, I decided to go to the town of Nelamangala which I had not planned to because it was much farther out. From there, I went a long way around to Kengeri, passing the big old banyan tree of Dodda Alada Mara, which is apparently more than 400 years old (and certainly looks like it). Since I was riding terminal to terminal, I always got my favorite right-side corner last seat.
I had taken the AC bus pass so this cost me a total of Rs. 160, along with some tolls that I had to pay, but I didn’t use AC buses a lot. The entire trip took around 10 hours. There was no particular reason for doing this, I think it’s part of my propaganda to use buses for leisure more than just for necessity. I am excited about doing this more and seeing more of the city, I think the peripheries are really beautiful (the west is a lot more beautiful than the east).
I might just do a competition with a few other bus nerds to see what is the largest distance we can hit in a day. The current record is 200 kilometers.