[sirius1845]

Yes, marayur-munnar section is very scenic and worth driving, especially during the rains!

[kala]

Originally Posted by sirius1845

Yes, marayur-munnar section is very scenic and worth driving, especially during the rains!

Scenic all right, but as per recent reports in this thread (from HVK and enygma) the Udumalpet-Munnar route via Marayur is not in great shape these days and the route via Dindigul-Theni seems to be the preferred one as of now.

[luvurride]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

btw, does Dharapuram have any decent eateries?

Please see my previous post. I don't quite remember the names, but are quite easy to find as they are bang opposite to the New bus stand. Usually have evening tiffin on my way to Kodai every year.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

@Ampere - I like that option - packing and eating under a tree on the highway btw, does Dharapuram have any decent eateries?

As far as I remember, there was not anything very good. The regular hotels on the bypass.
Also by the time I hit the place, it was late after noon. So I played safe and just ordered curd
rice to be packed. The Dharapuram-Udumalpet road has nice avenues. We parked under one
of the trees and had a late lunch!

[ramanan.skr]

With the current road conditions in place,
a. how much time it would take to reach Munnar(Top Station) from Bodi.
b. what is the latest time beyond which there will be fog/mist problems when we travel on any given day during this season?

[luvurride]

Originally Posted by ramanan.skr

With the current road conditions in place,
a. how much time it would take to reach Munnar(Top Station) from Bodi.
b. what is the latest time beyond which there will be fog/mist problems when we travel on any given day during this season?

Reaching Munnar from Bodi would take around 2.30 hours, add another hour for Top station.

Munnar is known for fog. But most often you would encounter it in your drive from Chinnakanal to Munnar stretch.

[shinthray]

Got back yesterday after a wonderful 6 day holiday in Munnar. Did the trip in my Civic. Both to and fro took an average of 10 and half hours, which included nearly 2 hours of break for food, gas and shopping. While going to Munnar halted overnight in Dindigul at Hotel Rockfort Palace (Would not recommend anyone to stay here). While returning to Bangalore, did the trip in one shot.

On the way to Munnar paid a 10 Re entry fee (not legal) to the check post cop, just at the begining of the Ghat section section, post Bodi. Details of the trip with road conditions and tolls. Format is From - To - Distance - Time taken - Tolls - Remarks

Bangalore - Hosur - 47 Kms - 1:15 - 55Rs - Toll (35 and 20)
Hosur - Krishnagiri - 53 - 0:45 - 50Rs - Excellent
Krishnagiri - Salem - 114 - 1:25 - 131Rs - Excellent - Toll - (58 and 73)
Salem - Karur - 88 - 1:30 - 35Rs - Excellent - Half hour halt for coffee break
Karur - Dindigul - 76 - 1:25 - 66Rs - Excellent - Half hour halt for shopping
Dindigul - Theni - 77 - 1:45 - No Toll - Good - 40 minute halt for breakfast and shopping.Dindigul to Periyakulam has 30 road diversion / patches due to road widening work. Might lose overall 15 minutes as you need to slowdown at these points. Roads are very good
Theni - Bodi - 14 - 0:25 - No Toll - Very Good
Bodi - CMH - 54 - 2:20 - 10Rs Entry Fee - Very Good - Ghat section starts 7 Kms after Bodi. Had to get down for Car entry at checkpost with a 10Rs fee. Also Took a wrong turn near Pooparai and lost 20 minutes

Summary:
Bangalore to Salem would take about 3 hours from Silkboard junction.
Salem to Dindigul would take about 2 hours, not including break time
Dindigul to CMH would take 3 1/2 hours, not including break time
Total 8 1/2 hours without break time

[luvurride]

Originally Posted by shinthray

While going to Munnar halted overnight in Dindigul at Hotel Rockfort Palace (Would not recommend anyone to stay here).

Aha you could've chosen to stay in Karur instead. Can you be specific about what went wrong with the stay? Also any specific reason for choosing Dindigul? I find getting in and out a pain and would prefer Karur instead as quoted in my earlier post in this thread.

And btw how is the crowd in Munnar?

[androdev]

Just got back from a trip to Munanr. Used Marayur road to go and Theni route to return.

Marayur route:
- Few forest check posts that require you to get down from the car and sign in the register
- It is a narrow road that makes it hard to overtake so you will mostly be trailing another car.
- But the traffic is smooth and reasonably safe road without too many blind curves
- Most of the route is through forest and not through "tea estates" - so when you people say it is scenic - it is forest-scenic and not tea-estate-scenic.

Theni route:
- wider roads (proper two lanes) but LOT of blind curves
- very tea-estate-scenic
- very likely to experience dense fog during some sections of the road
- over all I felt it is unsafe (fog, fast roads, plenty blind curves) in comparison
- convenient for people staying in Mahindra resorts
- Lot of work-in-progress deviations betwee Theni and Dindugal


I would pick Marayur route simply because it is stress free except for the check post stops.

Hated Theni route because of zillions of blind curves - in this part of the country buses/taxis/autos are driven very rashly so driving through this road requires way too much caution.

Btw, no cell phone signals through out most of these stretches.

[shinthray]

Originally Posted by luvurride

Aha you could've chosen to stay in Karur instead. Can you be specific about what went wrong with the stay? Also any specific reason for choosing Dindigul? I find getting in and out a pain and would prefer Karur instead as quoted in my earlier post in this thread.

And btw how is the crowd in Munnar?

In hindsight, should have stayed in Karur. The only two reasons to stay in Dindigul were, firstly to cover as much distance as possible on the previous day and secondly Dindigul was a logical stop as the deviaion was at that point.

Getting in and out of Dindigul is an issue if you enter the town at the first point, post entering the service road. I think it is much easier to just go along the service road, till the point where you take a deviation to Theni and at that point take a left into town. I made the mistake of entering at the first point and finally after a lot of turns and twists, took the help of a cop, who literally stopped all traffic on a very narrow and busy road, to allow me to reverse and go in the right direction.

As far as HRFP is concerned, the mattress, pillow were filthy as hell, no toileteries like soap etc, was stinking and noisy. This after having chosen the Deluxe AC room. No food service and you have to go get your own food into the room as most hotels surrounding are not apt for sitting there and dining. We were more or less awake the entire night. To add to our woes, there was no parking available at the hotel (as it is on a main road) and had to park in an alley, which is just wide enough for the car to go and the car has to be reversed into the alley, to be able to park .

Crowd in munnar was fine, but surprisingly the crowd in CM was pathetic and the service in the restaurant was appalling.

[kala]

Originally Posted by shinthray

As far as HRFP is concerned, the mattress, pillow were filthy as hell, no toileteries like soap etc, was stinking and noisy.
....
Crowd in munnar was fine, but surprisingly the crowd in CM was pathetic and the service in the restaurant was appalling.

Shinth, it would be good if you could avoid abbreviations that aren't very common. May be people who have been reading all your previous messages on this thread may understand what HRFP or CM means, but I'm afraid a lot of other readers who might really want to utilize the feedback from you (regarding whatever these establishments are) would miss out on doing so because of these acronyms.

P.S. I did manage to crack CM - It is Club Mahindra, right ? Your last message which had references to CMH had me thinking of Chinmaya Mission Hospital - lol !!

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by androdev

Just got back from a trip to Munanr. Used Marayur road to go and Theni route to return.

Marayur route:
- Few forest check posts that require you to get down from the car and sign in the register
- It is a narrow road that makes it hard to overtake so you will mostly be trailing another car.
- But the traffic is smooth and reasonably safe road without too many blind curves
- Most of the route is through forest and not through "tea estates" - so when you people say it is scenic - it is forest-scenic and not tea-estate-scenic.

I would pick Marayur route simply because it is stress free except for the check post stops.

Can you please post the time and distance for this route? And what is the best place to halt overnight in case we plan to drive to Munnar from Hyderabad? Bangalore comes too soon, so is there any decent place between Bangalore and Munnar to rest overnight?

[ampere]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Can you please post the time and distance for this route? And what is the best place to halt overnight in case we plan to drive to Munnar from Hyderabad? Bangalore comes too soon, so is there any decent place between Bangalore and Munnar to rest overnight?

You can stay at Perundurai. Thats the place you branch off the 4 lane. That would also give you more time to cover less distance the second day. Udumalpet to Munnar is 90 km which is the ghat section. That should take about 3 hours.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by ampere

You can stay at Perundurai. Thats the place you branch off the 4 lane. That would also give you more time to cover less distance the second day. Udumalpet to Munnar is 90 km which is the ghat section. That should take about 3 hours.

Thanks. I also saw your response on the other thread. In case I decide to skip Ooty, then this route looks good. I think visiting 2 hill stations is an overkill, but I've already seen Munnar, though my family hasn't.

So the choice is between Hyd-->Ooty-->Cochin and Hyd-->Munnar-->Cochin. As it will be during monsoons, I'd prefer a better road surface. So will this route be better?

Edit: On second thoughts, as either route would need around a week's time, perhaps I can go to Cochin via Ooty and return to Hyd via Munnar. What say?

[ampere]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

So the choice is between Hyd-->Ooty-->Cochin and Hyd-->Munnar-->Cochin. As it will be during monsoons, I'd prefer a better road surface. So will this route be better?

In monsoons its a totally different terrain in Kerala. So cant say how the situation will be then. Even access to Ooty some times gets difficult. At least the road to Munnar would be clear.