Team-BHP - Getaways from Chennai?

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Originally Posted by CliffHanger (Post 1393074)

I am born and brought up in Chennai and have been to various other cities in India .I found Chennai to have the least(est) number of getaway spots and also the so called few such as Pondy,Mahabs cannot be really called getaway spots, apart from liquor you cannot get anything else in these places. Except for Pasha, Havana and BnB, I don’t find anything else interesting in Chennai. I and my friends often have to go to Karnataka for some adventure activities and this comes at a cost of 600km.Adding to this, the climate in Chennai is making life even more horrible, I just could not use govt transport at all. I sweat profusely whenever I take the bus or just walk by on the road, there is never a bit of chill air in Chennai.

Waiting for a permanent getaway from Chennai!!

What do you expect from a getaway ? Maybe that would help in suggesting a few for you. BTW, I am born and brought up here too and i totally understand your sweating problem, I have the same too but not just in chennai.

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Had to go to the falls at 1am or 2am at night to get a decent shower, even at that time I could find a lot of people peeping in

Actually thats the time locals like to visit it seems. I had an ex-colleague whose native is Tenkasi (lives in Tirunelveli), he usually visits around 330-4 am.

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Koutralam is basically a nice place spoiled by some maddening and boisterous crowd

Basically waterfalls that allow bathing get messed up eventually !!
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BTW has anyone visited Mypadu beach near Nellore ?

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Originally Posted by kaushikkrishnan (Post 2340319)

Pichavaram boat house is run by the TTDC and also has a rest house/rooms in the middle of the mangrove forest

You can reach it only by boat. Food and water is also ferried

I dont think the rest house is operational anymore. Atleast it was not when i went there in end of 2009. The building looked in bad shape and the ttdc guys in Pichavaram didnt seem to give any indication of any upcoming repair.

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Originally Posted by recker_us (Post 2342450)

Yes. You are right. It is not operational anymore. I heard from one of the guy who works for TTDC that Forest Department doesn't want this to be run and there's often clash between TTDC and the Forest Dept.

Hi,

I am planning for a trip from Nagercoil to Koutralam, although there is a route via Tirunelveli, I would like to try the route via Panagudi, can some one who has travelled on this road provide a feedback on this particular road condition.

Visted Pulicat late last Sunday from Chennai.
Drive from Chennai till the lake was bit tiring due to road widening work towards Chennai. However once you cross over to Andhra road conditions are good. There is a HP COCO bunk and Cafe Coffee day along with that next to AP RTO checkpost, this can be used as a food/ bio break since there are no much hotel options en-route.

We took the Sriharikota road and went till SHAR gates. Understandably, since it is just start of season only two species of birds were spotted.

Did not visit other locations like Dutch cemetery and lighthouse since was traveling with family and there were mixed reports of the place regarding cleanliness.

Total KM's from Vadapalani - Pulicat was around 110 by taking Chennai Byepass.

Will upload few pics later which may help future travelers.

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Originally Posted by DeathPig (Post 4974259)

Pulicat lake.

Haven't been personally. Here's a first hand account from someone who went last week Visited Pulicat lake over the weekend. No flamingoes in sight tho saw a lot of painted storks and some open billed storks. In case anybody is planning to visit for flamingoes I suggest wait until Republic Day or later.