[ampere]

Originally Posted by gopikb

lancersfx / csenthil, very good point about the craters masked in the shade of the trees. When I was driving yesterday morning, the sun was shining very bright and i had banged into a couple of deep craters. Two of them were very bad. Luckily the Punto managed to hold ok and went through.

But today on the way back, my front tire got punctured and luckily it is right in front of a puncture shop and so managed to patch the tire and replace the same again. There was a crack on the side wall and there was no nails. I am sure it is caused by the craters on the road. The pathetic part is that there is some section of the road which are better and we tend to drive at about 60 and the deep crater strikes from nowhere. Hence cant really help leaving the vehicle into craters. I got to go and change my tyre now

One can try the following route:

Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu to Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu - Google Maps


Summary: Continue on NH46 and go via Jolarpet/Trupathur and then drive to Uthangarai.

May be it is better than the NH66 till Uthangarai. I have seen that the road after Chengam is much better.
So if TN SH are better, then one has to tolerate NH66 only from Uthangarai to Chengam.

[NFS2024]

Folks - thanks for all the inputs provided. I went there on saturday.

The 100km stretch is really in a bad shape barring a few stretches. You can never take your eyes off the road at any point. Managed to hit a couple of not so bad craters, but nothing happened. Manged to make it in 4 hours. Luckily there was no rain whole day till about 8 in the night, else the drive can get worse on this stretch.

I was really disappointed to see tiruvannamalai. There are no tarred roads leading to the city. It is dusty, filthy near the temple, no proper parking place, begging inside the temple complex. Not sure why the government has not taken any action to cleanse a heritage city like this. Just spent an hour here.

From here, drove down to vellore golden temple (its 80km from here). Fabulous road / nice drive going to vellore, can do it in an hour and 15 min. Once we started back from here, noticed a strange sound coming from one of the tires and it turned out to be a huge screw that had got stuck into the front right tyre. The moment I removed it the tire went flat.

The drive back from vellore is a breeze all the way to Bangalore on the NH.

[lancersfx]

Hello NFS2024,

It turns out I'll be doing the same stretch (only BLR-TVM-BLR) this weekend. I'll post further updates on that journey and hopefully with some pics.

[anainar]

Originally Posted by NFS2024

I was really disappointed to see tiruvannamalai. There are no tarred roads leading to the city. It is dusty, filthy near the temple, no proper parking place, begging inside the temple complex. Not sure why the government has not taken any action to cleanse a heritage city like this. Just spent an hour here.

Yes, the parking place is not tarred/concrete and just mud.I can imagine how bad it can get during monsoon. I believe the muck is because of the underground drainage they are doing. Hope it gets done soon. It is six months since I went there, still the situation the same?

Despite the begging/place crawling with people I had an unforgettable experience. I drove from Pondichery,went inside the temple at 12:00 and they were about to close. They will reopen at 4:00 I was told. I was in two minds whether to wait,finish the pooja and go or just carry on. I decided to wait, finished my lunch at a nearby place and came back to wait inside the temple. At 4:00 they reopened,I finished darshan, pooja and returned to my car. To my horror I noticed that I have left the left window completely open as I remember I was asking some directions to the parking lot. I had a digital camera, GPS and quiet a few worthy stuff including a laptop stuffed inside the car. But the car was not touched despite so many people walking around and many of them beggars. I cant imagine what will happen if we do such stupid thing in a metro, but I thought some body was standing guard while I was sitting inside the temple for four hours. I cant forget this incidence every time I hear the name Thiruvannamalai.

Nainar

[ampere]

Man that was just plain luck!

Now I guess that the next level of innovation would be that the locking systems sends an SMS to remind you if windows are closed, once car is locked!

[rjstyles69]

Originally Posted by anainar

Yes, the parking place is not tarred/concrete and just mud.I can imagine how bad it can get during monsoon. I believe the muck is because of the underground drainage they are doing. Hope it gets done soon. It is six months since I went there, still the situation the same?
Nainar

I am frequent traveler on this route and the roads leading in/out of thiruvannamalai have been the same for the last 2 yrs or so. Especially the one leading to Pondy has been in shambles for the last 2 years undoubtedly.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

I am frequent traveler on this route and the roads leading in/out of thiruvannamalai have been the same for the last 2 yrs or so. Especially the one leading to Pondy has been in shambles for the last 2 years undoubtedly.

I went in some time at the start of the year. Felt that after you get out of the town, the road becomes much more decent. One can easily maintain 60-80 subjected to traffic conditions.

But yes within the town, its pathetic. I got stuck at the railway crossing, for which some last legs of gauge conversion work was on-going and the whole road was horrible, with loads of traffic.

KRRaj had been through the Tirukoilur exit (on his way to Kumbakonam). How is that part ? Or its same exit with a different branch?

[rjstyles69]

Originally Posted by ampere

I went in some time at the start of the year. Felt that after you get out of the town, the road becomes much more decent. One can easily maintain 60-80 subjected to traffic conditions.

But yes within the town, its pathetic. I got stuck at the railway crossing, for which some last legs of gauge conversion work was on-going and the whole road was horrible, with loads of traffic.

Beyond the temple town after the level crossing the road gets better. There is another route which leads to Villupuram which I remember was in good shape. Have done this route once just for the heck of it.

Originally Posted by ampere

KRRaj had been through the Tirukoilur exit (on his way to Kumbakonam). How is that part ? Or its same exit with a different branch?

Its the same exit and branches out near the signal where you take a round about to head towards Gingee/Pondy.

[anainar]

Originally Posted by ampere

KRRaj had been through the Tirukoilur exit (on his way to Kumbakonam). How is that part ? Or its same exit with a different branch?

I went through Thirukovilur as I was going to Thirunallar. The roads after Thiruvannamalai were pretty good, though two laned. But it got bad after Chidambaram with lot of traffic and many places the roads were pretty much single laned.

Nainar

[ampere]

Originally Posted by anainar

I went through Thirukovilur as I was going to Thirunallar. The roads after Thiruvannamalai were pretty good, though two laned. But it got bad after Chidambaram with lot of traffic and many places the roads were pretty much single laned.

Nainar

Traffic beyond Chidambaram is well known. Till you hit the NH45 via Tirukoillur, the route is very good.

[Spinnerr]

Hello Guys, TVMalayi residents

Quick question, will the diwali days be really crowded? The temple complex, ashram and the accomodation??

Had a plan to visit on the comming weekend, 5th, 6th and 7th Nov, 2010. Is it advisable or not?
Do suggest.

[ravib]

Originally Posted by Spinnerr

Hello Guys, TVMalayi residents

Quick question, will the diwali days be really crowded? The temple complex, ashram and the accomodation??

Had a plan to visit on the comming weekend, 5th, 6th and 7th Nov, 2010. Is it advisable or not?
Do suggest.

Definitely yes, it will be heavily crowded. I too planned for this diwali weekend or next weekend, but my friend who stays in Tiruvannamalai, strongly suggested not to visit in this time frame.
Infact, any weekend is heavily crowded for Tiruvannamalai. Thats how these days are.... If you really wanna have good darshan and peaceful trip, best option is to go on a weekday

-Ravi

[slakhs]

I travelled towards Thiruvannamalai (thru to Chidambaram) last weekend and route updates here.

Krishnagiri - TVMalai is still very bad for the entire stretch. Based on some earlier suggestion took the Singarapettai - Tiruppathur (30 Kms) - Bargur (25 Kms) - Krishnagiri (16 Kms) route on my return. It is much better except for about 10 of average to very bad roads. Some 4 Kms in and around Tiruppathur town is bad but otherwise was a better drive than NH66. Timewise, maynot be much of a saving as this adds about 15-20 KMs to the travel but drive is more comfortable.

Road thru TVMalai town is still very bad, it is preferable to take the sort of bypass, i.e. Girivalam road to go into / thru town.

Regards
Slakhs

[Spinnerr]

I had been to TV Malai last weekend (5,6 Nov, 2010).

We had struck this place out (per Tbhipian's suggestion, to avoid diwali rush) and zeroed in on Yelagiri, but at the last min things took a diff turn and we ended up in TV Malai.

The route that we had taken was Blr -> Hosur -> Krishnagiri -> Chengam -> TV Malai. And as told by numerous other all thro this thread, the roads are real bad, your avg speed dips. Esp so if you are travelling in a car. On our way back we had seen how a skoda’s bumper disintegrates, the chap had thought the water on the road was a small puddle, but it turned out to be crater. I think he damaged all the bumper mounting points in that crash.The pot holes are huge, so you have to slow down and step in and out gracefully.

The entire stretch from Krishnagiri to TV Malai is lined with trees. The place around is real green.

TV Malai has foreigners and beggers in abundance. I was surprised to see the same Rs 8 coffee being sold to a foreigner for Rs 15. And everyone seems to accept this differential pricing in the same store.

Traveller Tip: Diwali is a MAJOR MAJOR festival in Tamil Nadu. Almost every single hotel closes down on this day. We had a tough time finding a place to fill our tummy. May be that’s why, our late lunch + early dinner at ‘Arunai Anantha’ was superb.

Speaking about Arunai Anantha, the resort is good, very clean, nice and green, courteous staff, open parking, they even have a swimming pool. That’s the good part, the other side is, its kitchen is one of the badly ‘managed’ one. From the time they take an order to when they deliver the food, Man! The clock just ticks on and on and on. Not a recommended place if you are in a hurry. Surprisingly the food is tasty, may be only one cook is managing the whole kitchen. We did not stay here, had dropped in only for our meal.

WARNING: Visit this place, only if you have all the time in the world, and you are not ‘that’ hungry, you can place the order, sit around, chat, and by then when your tummy starts grumbling, they are there to serve a tasty treat. (Ps: We had tried only dosas, idlys, vadas & chilly gobi. And I can vouch for that )

One suggested stopover on your way back to Bangalore is the Sathanur Dam. Pretty huge place for a dam, nice picnic spot. We were there when the cyclone Jal was paving into TN, so there was a nice drizzle, maybe that is why, it looked nice and green, and not overflowing with people like in the temple.

The hill behind the Ramana maharshi ashram is worth every minute spent climbing it, the cave, the water fall, and the monkeys; it is all worth the trouble. We were lucky, it was cloudy on our way up and we enjoyed it. There is quite a bit to climb, it might not be easy on the knees for the elderly. The path is laid with stones, not as easy as walking on a paved path.

Thiruvannamalai - recommended place for a 2 day trip. Choose a cloudy day. Not the rainy ones, as the roads aren’t great, rains and bad roads, just don’t add up nice.

[lancersfx]

Hello Team,

Just back from TVmalai. Left yesterday early morning by 5 AM from Silkboard . Lovely morning mist quickly turned into a hassle on the highway. As I crossed the 10km elevated highway the visibility kept reducing at 15% every 10 kms. Pretty soon I had to trail a TVmalai bus which was maintaing a good speed. Visibility finally improved after crossing the bangalore tollbooth. Reached Tiruvannamalai by 9:30AM. Speed maintained between krishnagiri - TVMalai was 60Kmph. The road conditions are horrible. saw many trucks and cars whose tyre was either punctured or burst ! Can't go beyond 80kmph. (But I've seen Safaris and Scorpios rip at 100's on these stretches. Proper utilization of the SUV??). The weather was pleasant throughout. The horrible stretch reminded me of the NH-7 before it was made a 4 lane expressway. Here are some of the pics attached of the road conditions. ::













NOTE ::
1. Travelling at night is very risky. (SUV should fare better)
2. The moment you think the road condition has improved and pick up speed, you are only inviting more trouble.
3. Don't underestimate any crater as looks can be deceiving. (even holds good for SUV's) As mentioned by Spinnerr in the post above, "he pot holes are huge, so you have to slow down and step in and out gracefully." I stuck to that but even then at one point did manage to scrape the radiator mount on the edge of the pothole just behind the front bumper. Luckily no damage. Phew!\
4. Last but not least have fun and drive safe.