Friday 30 September 2011

Bangalore trip.......

30/04/2011

It was my summer vacation. And I decided to do small internship program in one of the core companies in Bangalore. My program was for 2 months starting from May 2nd to June last. I decided to take my car to Bangalore as well. So that i don't get bored on weekends. Our travel route to Bangalore was contained in THE GOLDEN QUADRILATERAL's major highways - NH47 and NH7. EKM-TRICHUR-SALEM stretch of NH47 and then SALEM-DHARMAPURI-KRISHNAGIRI-BANGALORE stretch of NH7.

The plan was that I leave Ernakulam at 5:30am and meet my bro at Mannuthy ( Trichur Byepass) at 6:30 am. But unfortunately I was a bit late. I became late by 1/2 hr. Departed ekm by 6 am. I was a bit desperate. Bro started critisizing for being late. I knew that NH 47 Edappally-Trichur stretch is deadly fast. So decided to drive a bit fast. I peaked almost 100 kmph. Because I reached Mannuthy in 45 mins. It was the first time for me when I drove this fast. 75 km in 45 mins....Just imagine....AMAZING right???

From Mannuthy onwards its Trichur-Palaghat stretch which is a bit narrow and risky stretch...So my bro decided to take that stretch. The most dangerous stretch as road is a bit bumpy and highly congested with heavy traffic.. Chances of accidents are very high. In this stretch we have the Kuthiran Kettam which is considered to be the most dangerous and accident prone area in this route. Lorries are most dangerous of all vehicles present in this route. This route being a 2-lane road lorry overtaking happens in the Kuthiran. Their driving is also deadly. We had instances of accident. But by GOD's grace we escaped the mishap.

These are some of the photos of the TCR-Palaghat stretch....













These photos were taken from my bro's mobile camera ( LG Optimus p500)...

We had our Breakfast at Wadakkencheri Hotel Aryas with some Hot idlies.
Palaghat stretch ends at Walayar check post which is the border of Kerala - Tamil Nadu..
Walayar check post is famous for lorries... Stories say that it is through this check post at night lorries transport 'spirit' illegally between states. After this stretch which in the main hills of Western Ghats it is dry land of Tamil Nadu.. We will feel the difference by means of temperature, humidity, etc..



Walayar stretch begins.....



Beyond this route board its Tamil Nadu.. Kerala state ends here.... When I saw this board stating "Thank You for visiting Kerala State" I was a bit emotional...




Beyond this route board lies a road of amazing quality.... It is a 4-lane highway after this border. But a road which lacks in natural scenic beauty which, is present in the kerala roadways.


We had our lunch in Hotel Aaryas in the Highway close to Coimbatore in Avinashi Road. The lunch was excellent with likes of Coimbatore Rasam - spicy and delicious.




But main disadvantage of this route is that when we travel from coimbatore to Bangalore in through NH47 -NH7 highways we incur a toll amount of nearly 350 rupees.. which is pretty costly. There are about 5-6 tollgates. Tollgate rates are like - avinashi road-salem is about Rs55 , salem -dharmapuri is about rs65, dharmapuri - krishnagiri - Rs 70, Krishnagiri-Hosur - Rs60, hosur-electronic city - rs 65, Electronic City flyover a 9-10km stretch itself costs around Rs 65.















 When we neared Krishnagiri tollgate it started raining.......

Krishnagiri stretch was amazing with a lot of rocks on the side of the highway.











After this stretch we took an evening tea - break at Adyar Anandabhavan which lies on the way to Krishnagiri.
















Had a good evening snack...





Adventures CONTINUES in BANGALORE......