[jacs]

Today is a hartal in Idukki & Wayanad district. Good that they did it today itself, else our trip would have become a question.

Just 1 day to go! Looking forward to meet you all.
Who is going to sponsor a TBHP stickers for my Fusion in the interest of time?

[naveen.raju]

Originally Posted by jacs

Today is a hartal in Idukki & Wayanad district. Good that they did it today itself, else our trip would have become a question.

Just 1 day to go! Looking forward to meet you all.
Who is going to sponsor a TBHP stickers for my Fusion in the interest of time?

Yes, heard about the hartal. I shall bring the sticker set tomo. So meet you guys tomo. Really excited.

[dhanushmenon]

Originally Posted by jacs

Today is a hartal in Idukki & Wayanad district. Good that they did it today itself, else our trip would have become a question.

Just 1 day to go! Looking forward to meet you all.
Who is going to sponsor a TBHP stickers for my Fusion in the interest of time?

Originally Posted by naveen.raju

Yes, heard about the hartal. I shall bring the sticker set tomo. So meet you guys tomo. Really excited.

Jacs,
The current plan is like such:

Day 1
Self and Rajoy123 will meet up near Thoppumpady BOT bridge at 0820.
Meet naveen.raju near Kundannoor petrol pump at 0830.
Three of us meet figo_mba near Choice towers at Thrippunithura at 0845.

Expect to start the drive by 0900 from Thrippunithura.
The convoy will be joined by you at Muvattupuzha (I hope I am right).

Pitstop Adimali for light refreshments.
Reach resort for lunch (around 1400 hrs).

Sight seeing near the resort and Attukad waterfalls near Pallivasal in the evening.
Camp fire in the evening (Hope the resort will arrange for one)

Day 2
Bfast at 0800- 0830
0845- Depart for topstation and Mattuppetti
0915- Meet Bhpians driving to Munnar on Sunday (revintup, Speed.Demon & deetjohn) at Pallivasal
1330- return back to resort for lunch
1600- Departure from resort to Kochi

Very much excited. Just can't wait

On the other hand;
Is willeys78 joining us? No news from him yet

[jacs]

Originally Posted by naveen.raju

I shall bring the sticker set tomo.

Thanks a lot buddy.

Originally Posted by dhanushmenon

Jacs,
Expect to start the drive by 0900 from Thrippunithura.
The convoy will be joined by you at Muvattupuzha (I hope I am right).

Dhanush bhai - I shall join the convoy from Oonukal which is about 10KMs after Kothamangalam while you drive. Its 70KMs for me and expected drive time is 2 hours normally (versus the 53KMs/1.5hours from Choice towers to Oonukal you guys driving). I should start around 8:30AM or as soon as you meet Rajoy and start.

[dhanushmenon]

Originally Posted by jacs

Dhanush bhai - I shall join the convoy from Oonukal which is about 10KMs after Kothamangalam while you drive. Its 70KMs for me and expected drive time is 2 hours normally (versus the 53KMs/1.5hours from Choice towers to Oonukal you guys driving). I should start around 8:30AM or as soon as you meet Rajoy and start.

Shall give you a call when I meet Rajoy and start.
But you are coming from Kottayam right?
Then why OOnukal and not Muvattupuzha?

By the way, happy journey guys.
Seeya soon.
really excited

[dhanushmenon]

Had a fantabulous meet and drive to Munnar from Kochi.
started as planned on 19th morning and returned back on 20th evening.
Detailed report follows.

Bhpians who attended the two day meet drive:

dhanushmenon+ wife + 2 kids
naveen.raju + wife
rajoy + wife
figo_mba+wife+ 1 kid
jacs+wife+2 kids
vaisakhr

Bhpians who joined us at the resort on Sunday for a one day meet:
revintup
Speed.Demon
deetjohn

Whilst the rest of us returned on Sunday itself to join office for the next day, naveen.raju and rajoy123 with their spouses strayed back to enjoy Munnar for another day.

Detailed report follows.
vaisakhr will be covering the meet with a photologue.

A few teasers:

[jacs]

Thanks Dhanush bhai () for the start.

Yes, it was no doubt another lovely meet. 5 star to the uniqueness of the resort. As good as a private waterfall & rapids.

[mallumowgli]

Vow. Seems you guys had a good time. Looking forward to more and also for photos from jacs and vaisakh

@jacs : Fusion? I thought you had an Accent and a Palio

[jacs]

Originally Posted by mallumowgli

Vow. Seems you guys had a good time. Looking forward to more and also for photos from jacs and vaisakh

@jacs : Fusion? I thought you had an Accent and a Palio

Vaisakh is the official photographer of the Kochi team. He was aggressive in shoot with two DSLRs all along and has some amazing shots to share. Lets give him couple of days to convert the RAW to JPEG, shirnk to shareable size etc. I think still a GB or two of downloads for everyone!

I would share some for sure but not many, the limitations of a family man .

And cars. Yes, I did upgrade from Palio to Xylo early 2010 for the long drives with full family onboard. Surely I miss the Red Ferrari which was my first love.

Accent has completed almost 10 years with lot of possible problems indicated by Hyundai; recently sold and acquired a pre-worshipped Fusion which is below 4 years old at an affordable margin. I missed the Korean powerhorse but a more reliable American joined the stable.

[naveen.raju]

PS - This is just a narration with no pics. All pics will be shared by our ace photographer, Mr Vaisakh.

Drive Update:

19th Oct 2013
8.15AM - vaisakh reports at my house to catch a ride in my car.
8.20AM - rajoy and dhanushmenon with their familes report near BOT bridge
8.30AM - Me, my wife and vaisakh leave to meet others at the starting point.
8.45AM - Figo_mba and his wife and kid joins the group.
9AM - All of us set off for the drive.

In between rajoy hands over the 2 pairs of walkie talkies used for the entire trip. I should point out this came in handy and extremely useful.



By around 10.30 - 11AM, we meet Jacs and his family. It was surprise for Mr's Jacs as she didnt know anything about this trip. The expression on her face was priceless. A quick chat and then we all set off. By around 12pm, we reach our first stop, Farmyard at Adimali. Decided to have lunch from here as we decided to go to the top station directly without touching the resort. After a 1 hour break, we continued our journey. The roads were all good upto Pallivasal and was literally an off road track till Munnar town. Road to top station was good with small sections of broken roads. After spending sometime at the top station we drove back. Time was around 6pm and it started raining which resulted in thick fogs all the way to Munnar. It was almost zero visibility and the walkie talkie really helped all of us here.

By around 8pm, we reach Munnar town and did some shopping to keep the ladies happy. The resort was around 40 kms from Munnar and finding the resort was a big task. After numerous calls to the resort manager, we finally managed to reach by around 11pm. Parked our rides, and after freshening up we push off to have out dinner. After having dinner, we bring the surprise planned for the evening, a cake for Mr&Mrs Jacob and Mr&Mrs Rajoy to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Another priceless moment captured here.We then set off to our cottages for a well deserved rest.

The next day starts with a gorgeous sight - One huge waterfall right in front of the resort premises. We could hear the noise at night but never expected it to be so close. Breakfast was served at around 9am. Soon after breakfast, other BHPians joined us
1) Speed.demon
2) deetjohn
3) revintup

Then we all decided to go near the waterfalls. A quick dip here and our group photo was clicked here (again thanks to vaisakh and his multiple cameras, lens and what all!). By around 12pm, we reach back to the resort and few guys went again near the resort waterfalls for a dip. At around 2pm, we decided to check out from the resort and push towards Cochin. In the meantime, me and rajoy decided to move to Munnar and spend a day there. After meeting everyone and a quick goodbyes later, we part our ways.

End of report.

Thanks everyone for joining us especially the ladies and kids. It was a great meet and am sure by now the plan for the next meet is on the cards.

Waiting for tons of photos from vaisakh.

Regards
Naveen

[dhanushmenon]

Originally Posted by naveen.raju

PS - This is just a narration with no pics. All pics will be shared by our ace photographer, Mr Vaisakh.

Drive Update:
.....
End of report.

Thanks everyone for joining us especially the ladies and kids. It was a great meet and am sure by now the plan for the next meet is on the cards.

Waiting for tons of photos from vaisakh.

Regards
Naveen

Crisp, precise and spot on report naveen.
You made the job easy for all of us.
We just need to upload the snaps now

Bring it on vaisakh.
We are all waiting for you. After your dosage will come mine and jacs'

[Speed.Demon]

Thanks for the various reports guys.

I had a wonderful day throughout..

Deetjohn and I met up at Revintup's house near Perumbavoor.

After wolfing down a delicious breakfast courtesy of revintup's mom, we set off at approximately 7:30AM.

Deetjohn, Revintup and I then proceeded straight to the resort and I can tell you, it was non stop laughter all the way!

These guys are awesome companions to have on a drive and I'm very happy that we decided to go in one car itself. The journey wouldn't have been anywhere near as awesome if it weren't for you guys! :-D

Revintup took the role of the navigator for the journey and he took us along a different route which was in much better condition than the regular munnar route.

Once we reached the resort we had a gala time with the rest of the guys.

I got to use the walkie talkies on the return journey.. What a brilliant idea it was to get these! They are simply too cool and really useful!

Now all we're waiting for are Vaisakh's clicks.

Come on buddy, we're waiting!

[jkdas]

Good to see organized trips with families! Miss long drives with Tvm gang ( not even a short drive!). Busy techies :P

Awaiting pix from the official photographer.

[vaisakhr]

We had a wonderful trip to Munnar on 19th. A neat report of the drive is few post above by fellow bhpian naveen.raju. As usual I am jumping directly to the pics part.

I was in naveen.raju's white ES for the first stage of the drive. It was great to be in the back seat with nice legroom and excellent seats.

Up front dhanush's figo followed by Rajoy's i20


First stop for buying some anti sickness medicines for the kids just in case


Rajoy123's shiny i20


View from ES's cockpit


After Oonukal bhpian jacs joined. It was a surprise trip for Mrs.Jacs. And some of us didn't know that he had a fusion which was a surprise for us too
Bhpians helping him out with the sticker job.








We saw many small water falls like this and...


Then, there was much awaited Cheeyapara water falls.


But, the place was really crowded with people and the roads with lots of vehicles.


Ford brothers

Cutie pie, junior Figo_mba


Jacs's fusion was a great deal, kudos to his choice


Discussions going on reg the plan for the day


A group shot before we head to the next point


We were really hungry (most of the time ) and this was our lunch stop.


Men and machines!! From L to R, naveen.raju, figo_mba, dhanushmenon, Rajoy123 and jacs




A small pond with lots of 'fishes'


And we left the place and head to top station


As start climbing the sight became really scenic.








dhanush capturing the beauty


This was from our tea stop and shop had a little balcony to a brilliant view.






Tea time. Look who is grabbing everyone's attention, its our junior figo_mba

[vaisakhr]

Continuation...






























Me and Rajoy were guessing what could be 'rev abs', revving and abs? or abs in reverse


























Landslide was a common sight in this route.