[gabrielthomas]

Vah-re-Vah is what i can say after reading this travelogue. I'm planning for a trip with my wife this month end and this T'logue has given me a very good idea. Thanks to you.
The last part of tis T'logue (the food part) was equally exciting as your trip details :-)

Excellent!!

[srikrishna717]

Excellent Travelogue , What a decision to just rent and tour south India without detailed planning.
Your experience in driving through the Fog to Munnar was Scary ! Congratulations on successfully completing it

[Shanksta]

Brilliant travelogue! Clean and crisp loved reading it. Good decision too hiring a,self-driven car, so any plans on upgrading the swift to the vento?

Also next time you go to Puduchery go to Cafe Extasi for really amazing fresh Pizza's. Also if you want to eat like a king nothing better than the buffet at The Hidesign boutique hotel.

[Gokrish]

A very good and neatly presented Travelogue! Thoroughly enjoyed reading every bit of it as it had taken me back to our family trips to each of those places during the last year but at different times. And it has actually rekindled my interest to do another trip.

By the way, an average of 300 km of road trip a day, almost 5 hours of driving per day, would have tested your nerves but for the beauty of all those visited by you. Good experience.

[dass]

Originally Posted by Rover-IB

Thank you dass. On our week long trip, we spotted two Zoom cars somewhere in kerala. In fact coincidentally one of them was the Scorpio mentioned above.

.

Call it coincidence.. I too saw the scorpio couple of times in Munnar and was wondering about the cost. Your travelogue nicely explains the overall expenses.

[majumon]

Excellent photos and a gripping write up, special mention to your foggy drive, had been through one similar drive from Ooty to Coonoor through a different route via Kotagiri and at night with none to ask for directions and that sure was a chilly experience. Your experience brought back those memories.

Can you tell us the rates at Gruenberg Munnar, could not open their website.

Amazing for you to drive all over South, wishing you many more beautiful drives and write ups.

[Burn_out]

Great pictures and a well written travelogue. Like a pro.

I am planning a drive through Rajasthan this year and was planning to hire a self-drive car from Delhi. Your experience with the self-drive variety has given me a lot of confidence. Also thanks for the expenses breakup.

[Rover-IB]

Originally Posted by gabrielthomas

Vah-re-Vah is what i can say after reading this travelogue. I'm planning for a trip with my wife this month end and this T'logue has given me a very good idea. Thanks to you.
The last part of tis T'logue (the food part) was equally exciting as your trip details :-)

Excellent!!

We love to try out new places to eat out always. For us the food part is as equally exciting as travelling to a new place. So just had to write about the food. Hope you have an amazing trip!

Originally Posted by srikrishna717

Excellent Travelogue , What a decision to just rent and tour south India without detailed planning.
Your experience in driving through the Fog to Munnar was Scary ! Congratulations on successfully completing it

Thank You srikrishna717

Originally Posted by Shanksta

Brilliant travelogue! Clean and crisp loved reading it. Good decision too hiring a,self-driven car, so any plans on upgrading the swift to the vento?

Also next time you go to Puduchery go to Cafe Extasi for really amazing fresh Pizza's. Also if you want to eat like a king nothing better than the buffet at The Hidesign boutique hotel.

Thank you Shanksta. haha. Still very much in love with the swift so no plans for an upgrade yet. But the Vento was a pleasure to drive all those kilometers. Pondicherry was amazing and surely is a food heaven. I definitely plan to go back and soon enough. Thank you for the suggestions. Duly noted.

Originally Posted by Gokrish

A very good and neatly presented Travelogue! Thoroughly enjoyed reading every bit of it as it had taken me back to our family trips to each of those places during the last year but at different times. And it has actually rekindled my interest to do another trip.

By the way, an average of 300 km of road trip a day, almost 5 hours of driving per day, would have tested your nerves but for the beauty of all those visited by you. Good experience.

Glad you liked it Gokrish. I was the sole driver on the trip but the only day which felt taxing was the one from Ooty to Munnar. We started at 7 in the morning exploring Ooty and finally reached Munnar at 9:30 in the night. For the rest of the days the drive was fun and comfortable throughout!

Originally Posted by majumon

Excellent photos and a gripping write up, special mention to your foggy drive, had been through one similar drive from Ooty to Coonoor through a different route via Kotagiri and at night with none to ask for directions and that sure was a chilly experience. Your experience brought back those memories.

Can you tell us the rates at Gruenberg Munnar, could not open their website.

Amazing for you to drive all over South, wishing you many more beautiful drives and write ups.

majumon. Thank you for the kind words. Gruenberg charged us INR 4600 per night for the room on the second floor. The rooms on the first and second floor give you a better view. So I would recommend those.

Originally Posted by Burn_out

Great pictures and a well written travelogue. Like a pro.

I am planning a drive through Rajasthan this year and was planning to hire a self-drive car from Delhi. Your experience with the self-drive variety has given me a lot of confidence. Also thanks for the expenses breakup.

Burn_out Thank you brother! Hope you have a great trip. Do share the experience of your trip

[Srikanthan]

Nice Travelogue. Very well written. I live in Chennai, but have not seen much of Pondicherry, though cross the town often to reach my native village!

Probably. I will make one short trip soon there!

[noopster]

Lovely travelogue and the pics are really excellent! You seem to have planned the trip down to a T which always is a surefire way to gain my admiration. Very heartened to know that crossing state borders is not a big issue in these self-rental cars. However these are Southern states, which are usually ahead of the curve and I will await some first-hand experiences further North before being totally at ease with this new concept!

Rated 5*

[Rover-IB]

Originally Posted by noopster

Lovely travelogue and the pics are really excellent! You seem to have planned the trip down to a T which always is a surefire way to gain my admiration. Very heartened to know that crossing state borders is not a big issue in these self-rental cars. However these are Southern states, which are usually ahead of the curve and I will await some first-hand experiences further North before being totally at ease with this new concept!

Rated 5*

A 5* coming from you just made my day . Thank You so much. It was actually a breeze at the state borders for us. I had checked multiple times with Zoom regarding the process for crossing State Borders before booking the car to be absolutely sure that we should not have any major problems. Before the trip I had actually pictured myself standing in a long queue in between taxi and truck drivers sweating it out for the entry permit Thankfully, none of that happened. I am planning a trip sometime in June with friends to Himachal and thinking of hiring a car from carzonrent. Will share my experience if that materializes.


I would also like to point out a few things to whoever plans to hire a self drive vehicle. The state charges for a entry permit may vary from one state to another and also varies for the type of car (lower taxes for 4+1 seater cars and higher for 6+1 seaters). Down South, Andhra Pradesh only issues an annual entry permit whereas Kerala and Tamil Nadu issue weekly entry permits and so do Goa, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (info as per Zoom Car website http://www.zoomcar.in/outstation). Thus the Andhra Pradesh permit is much more expensive than what it is for Kerala or Tamil Nadu. The Zoom site mentioned the state entry permit charges for all the states we were travelling to which helped us plan up a proper budget for the trip w.r.t the car. Also, Zoom reimburses you for the Andhra Pradesh permit. It maybe that the permits up North are more expensive than what we paid down South as the validity for entry permits may vary.


So whenever one plans to hire a self drive rental car to travel outside the state and wants to draw up a budget w.r.t the car my strong advice would be to check with the car rental company on what are the permit charges for the state you would be entering and if there is a remote chance of the car rental company reimbursing it.

[siddarthbh]

Fantastic travelogue Rover-IB. Your pics capture the essence of the road trip very well. Was feeling nostalgic reading your travelogue. Used to do it often, but its been quite a while since my last road trip. I am now inspired to make one soon!

[ndinesh]

Originally Posted by Rover-IB

Destination: Munnar
Route Followed: Ooty-Conoor-Mettupalayam-Palladam-Pollachi-Udumalipet-Marayoor-Munnar

This is a detour. From Palladam you have a nice road direct to Udumalpet. You could have avoided going to pollachi and it easily saves you 30 kms.

Maybe the extra time you spent driving around Pollachi helped you with the amazing fog experience. Just kidding..
A good and interesting travelogue.

[Rover-IB]

Originally Posted by ndinesh

This is a detour. From Palladam you have a nice road direct to Udumalpet. You could have avoided going to pollachi and it easily saves you 30 kms.

Maybe the extra time you spent driving around Pollachi helped you with the amazing fog experience. Just kidding..
A good and interesting travelogue.

Hey ndinesh

I beleive the road you mention is the bypass road and unfortunately for us it was closed for some rework and they had blocked off the entry to the road. We had to go back and take the longer route but yeah we would have missed the thrills and chills of the foggy drive otherwise

[Rakkum13]

Worthy of five stars and more. Great narrative and snaps. I'm sure you would be looking forward to your next self drive experience! BTW, where in pondi are the statues located (photos posted with the caption "Around Pondicherry") and what is their background/history/significance? Thanks a ton.