It was my first road trip experience from Karachi to Lahore with family (wife and two kids). Our initial plan is to left home early morning and try to reach Bahawalpur till night and stay in any hotel. Then next day early morning, we will move forward to Lahore. We had two day meals as per our plan. We do not want to use any meal from outside during our trip. As per plan, we left home on 22nd December 2018 Saturday early morning at 5.00 a.m. I used Honda city 2018. During trip, we took short breaks due to kids wash room visits. Driving seat was shared for every two hours between my wife and myself. Roads are very good and we enjoyed driving. First refueling was done at Rohri at 1 p.m. noon. We did first stop at 3 p.m. at Sadiqabad for lunch break and we had biryani. We left at 4 p.m. and planned to reach Bahawalpur till 9 p.m.However after that presence of sugarcane trolleys on highway disturb our plan to reach Bahawalpur till 9 p.m. We could reach Ahmed Pur East (Sharqia) at 10 p.m. I was driving since 4 p.m, so we decided to take rest and then move forward. We stayed at Daewoo terminal. It was extremely neat and clean terminal having tea shop, bbq restaurant, burger shop, mosque, as well as fine dining restaurant. We took our dinner (Achar gost with sheermal). Weather was very very cold, we will never forget Kashmiri tea after meal. We were tired so we decided to stay in car rather move forward to Bhawalpur. We stayed till 4 a.m took another cups of tasty Kashmiri tea again to get energy and started our journey. Another refuel was done after bhawalpur. After Sahiwal, we face intense fog but visibility was quite clear. However at Sahiwal suddenly, we face very high intense fog patch on highway and visibility was hardly 50 yards. All cars’ speed were very very slow. We do not have option to stop our car on left except driving on slow speed. Fortunately patch was present for only two minutes and we safely passed that area. Road condition in Punjab is extremely good, we enjoyed a lot our driving trip and shuffle driving seat between my wife and myself. At 8am we reached Harappa and we decided to take meal break for our breakfast and at Harappa interchange, we found a hotel Dera Sultan restaurant. We had frozen shami kabab and eggs. Therefore we ask hotel guys, if they provide boil eggs and defrost shami kabab. Hotel staff was very supportive, they helped us and served hot shami kabab and boiled eggs with. We bought only tea from them. We noted crockery was very neat and clean. Due to their sincere hospitality and favor, our breakfast was awesome and unforgettable in such cold weather. After breakfast, we moved forward and enjoy our road trip and reach Lahore at 1pm safely. Total fuel cost was Rs. 7,500.
January 04, 2018 on Friday, we left home at 9am from Lahore. We shuffle driving seat for every 3 hours. On that day fog was very intense in Bhawalpur and Ahmed Pur Sharqia. We were focused to pass that region in day time and we successfully passed till 6pm. We were planned to reach Sadiqabad till 9pm and we reached and stay at Midway hotel. Hotel room was very neat and clean. They charged 9,000 for one day having complementary buffet breakfast for our family. They provide murgh chana, aloo ki bhujia, anda gotala, bread, paratha, jam, butter and tea. We loaded our stomach for another long journey and move from hotel at 9am. We did not take any break for lunch during travel and use, chips, biscuits and fruits. At 7pm, we took meal break at McDonald at Hyderabad and then left Hyderabad at 8pm, we reach home safly at 10 pm.
Road trip reviews on Pak wheels provide great help to finalize my plan and had important role. If anyone is planning for road trip during December and January in winter season, please do not ignore fog factor specially in Punjab region. Must have visibility for news channels, weather forecasts and using of NHA help line prior to execute your trip.
