[tharian]

Awesome trip and super snaps to go with it.

I totally agree with you om Varkala. Although I am a Malayalee , the first time I visited this place was in 2014 and I fell in love with it instantly. The food, the view, the beach and the shacks on the cliff, was perfect.
I was there just for a evening but sure as hell will head there again and spend a day.

What was the route you took back from Varkala to Bangalore ? I am surprised that you went shopping in Bangalore after that drive! I am guessing it wasn't via Cochin?

Aspire is tugging on my heart strings after reading so many good reviews on it

[Vik0728]

Originally Posted by mobike008

[b]

This is a brief story about my road-trip to Kerala during the Christmas & New Year holidays of 2015....Hope you'll enjoy it !!!

Brief story mobike008? I think you have captured every detail that you had to and then some

Brilliant write up and stunning pics to support the narration.

I know you have mentioned this in your ownership but IMO you have to swap/upgrade the rims on that 'Aspire'.

A 15" rims with may be a blue lip & black spokes will be a killer bro. That colour from Ford is so sporty that these OEM rims just doesn't do justice.

[PearlJam]

Very nics pics and writeup! Can you let me know the hotel in Munnar and Kumarakom? Thanks!

[ampere]

Wow! You had Kerala on a platter! And you gobbled it up without even asking for a glass of water! What more can I say?

[NPV]

Wow...a 10 day road trip, envy you
Superb choice of places (the ampere touch also evident ?), lovely narration and some excellent pictures, thanks for sharing

Originally Posted by mobike008

After this visit, we headed to Mattupetty Dam which was enroute TOPSLIP

I think you meant Top Station, not Top Slip which is where the safari on the TN side is en route Parambikulam.

We had a similar experience at Parambikulam in terms of wildlife sightings.

And on the Munnar restaurant experience - Saravana Bhavan serves excellent vegetarian meals. The other decent place is Silver Spoon also nearby.

[hellstar]

Nice travelogue !! and images ...mobike008 - its good you have the TDCI version , I had the bad luck of having to take the petrol version up the 36 hairpins at kalahatty enroute to ooty and by god, i would not want even my worst enemy to go through that experience again . I had to use the first gear almost 85% of the time , through the 36 hair pins . Pretty sure the TDCI will be better off..

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by tharian

I totally agree with you om Varkala. Although I am a Malayalee , the first time I visited this place was in 2014 and I fell in love with it instantly. The food, the view, the beach and the shacks on the cliff, was perfect. I was there just for a evening but sure as hell will head there again and spend a day.

Absolutely. Our favorite place in Kerala was Munnar as its stunningly beautiful and followed by Varkala which was totally an unexpected destination which turned out to be SUPERB

In munnar, there are hardly any options for good food locally. Forget about sea-food, even normal food is actually quite pathetic out there, so that we felt was the only drawback of Munnar

Originally Posted by tharian

What was the route you took back from Varkala to Bangalore ? I am surprised that you went shopping in Bangalore after that drive! I am guessing it wasn't via Cochin?

We started around 8:00am and were in Bangalore by 6:00pm (Brigade road--hotel check-in) with a lunch stop in between for 30 minutes or so and covered 700kms. Route was as follows :

Varkala-Dindigul-Nammakal-Salem-Krishnagiri-Hosur-Bangalore.

We were absolutely fresh and not just shopping we also partied till about midnight.....Aspire was extremely comfortable (not to mention, very fast) to drive

Originally Posted by tharian

Aspire is tugging on my heart strings after reading so many good reviews on it

Go for it! I am super happy with it and its a revelation on the highway. Trust me!

Originally Posted by Vik0728

Brief story mobike008? I know you have mentioned this in your ownership but IMO you have to swap/upgrade the rims on that 'Aspire'. A 15" rims with may be a blue lip & black spokes will be a killer bro. That colour from Ford is so sporty that these OEM rims just doesn't do justice.

Thanks Vik! I completely agree to what you say but, things like---large sporty rims, spoiler, super awesome music system etc. where my priorities in the past. I have done and dusted it in previous cars owned ( actually splurged a lot of money on them). But, as I got wiser, I realize its a waste of money

I don't mind spending money for performance. My next substantial money on Aspire will go either on a remap or RD box (2017). Till then will get a simple black matt paint finish with a blue lip on existing alloy to jazz the car up ( in a few months) like my Cruze ( hope you saw my ownership thread of it?) which costed me peanuts

Originally Posted by PearlJam

Very nics pics and writeup! Can you let me know the hotel in Munnar and Kumarakom? Thanks!

Thanks. Will PM you the details early next week....

Originally Posted by ampere

Wow! You had Kerala on a platter! And you gobbled it up without even asking for a glass of water! What more can I say?

Thanks Dude. Because of you, my trip was planned and executed impeccably in such a short time. Much Appreciated !!!

Originally Posted by NPV

Wow...a 10 day road trip, envy you.Superb choice of places (the ampere touch also evident ?), lovely narration and some excellent pictures, thanks for sharing. I think you meant Top Station, not Top Slip which is where the safari on the TN side is en route Parambikulam.We had a similar experience at Parambikulam in terms of wildlife sightings.And on the Munnar restaurant experience - Saravana Bhavan serves excellent vegetarian meals. The other decent place is Silver Spoon also nearby.

Road trips are great experiences. Nothing can replace that pleasure but, taking so much time out from work schedule is very tough. Thanks for correction, I keep making a slip between Topslip and Top Station.

Parambikulam should not even call itself a tiger reserve as it seemed to be more like normal dense area ( I was shocked to see people actually live inside where we were taking the safari). It would be simply impossible to spot a wild cat in that place. However, the clean air and forest is a nice place to spend sometime. That's about it

Originally Posted by hellstar

Nice travelogue !! and images ...mobike008 - its good you have the TDCI version , I had the bad luck of having to take the petrol version up the 36 hairpins at kalahatty enroute to ooty and by god, i would not want even my worst enemy to go through that experience again . I had to use the first gear almost 85% of the time , through the 36 hair pins . Pretty sure the TDCI will be better off..

Thanks Hellstar. Your back on forum after a real long time. Hope doing well

I know you used to drive the Verna....and Aspire is much quicker than the popular Verna (1st gen) by a large margin and driving such a powerful gem of a engine on the ghats was a pleasure.

Like I described in my ownership report, During this 3000kms drive, 90% of highway overtaking was done in 5th gear. So you can imagine the power on tap?

[Vik0728]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Thanks Vik!

I don't mind spending money for performance. My next substantial money on Aspire will go either on a remap or RD box (2017). Till then will get a simple black matt paint finish with a blue lip on existing alloy to jazz the car up ( in a few months) like my Cruze ( hope you saw my ownership thread of it?) which costed me peanuts

Ofcourse I did bro and would constantly hope for something exciting every time there was some sort of update on your thread

I am not the one who likes to go all out with respect to mods, but you know it just as well as I do, a car like Aspire TDCi is rare, especially when it comes in that shade which you have.

Those pathetic rims from Ford are spoiling the fun and if not anything, please do away with that asap.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by Vik0728

I am not the one who likes to go all out with respect to mods, but you know it just as well as I do, a car like Aspire TDCi is rare, especially when it comes in that shade which you have.

Point noted. Will dwell on it a bit and will do something about it soon

Here are a few short videos short during the course of this road trip.

I am just posting them randomly with a short title description to know which part of the trip they are from !!!

Clouds Passing through when driving towards Munnar

https://youtu.be/wZstTZG8Sp4

Green Surroundings while on the ghat towards Munnar

https://youtu.be/yIPz86pS9Lc

This was during our 2nd day at Munnar; Encountered a lot of Fog while driving towards Top Station

https://youtu.be/FGddPah2W0w

Fog and Top Station- Yet again

https://youtu.be/8YgKJm-s9Rk

Foggy Drive on Munnar Ghats--This was absolutely an amazing experience (You can listen to one of my recent favorite songs playing in background from the movie--Kill Dill !!!)

https://youtu.be/jMTv3-5SQvE

Foggy Drive on Munnar Ghats-Ver 2.0

https://youtu.be/Gq_IyCjUgeo

Tree Plantations and Clouds-We saw it become foggy in seconds and then clear in seconds. Happened every 15 mins or so. Wonderful experience

https://youtu.be/V41NFhf6qMk

[deepv]

Nice travelogue .. Avi! Great pictures as usual.

I also did a trip down South through Northern Kerala (Wayanad), Ooty/Coonoor, Madurai, KK and Rameshwaram around new year weekend.
Looks like we might have crossed the path somewhere

[anand_lukose]

Wonderful travelogue i must say. Very well written and documented ! Truly a good reference for folks planning a trip to Kerala, even if its not by road !

[venkatt1800]

From Hyderabad all the way down to Varkala-Man you do have a passion for driving ! Wonderful travelogue, Mobile008...You have covered almost all the must-visit areas of Kerala...Visited Varkala during Diwali 2015(travelogue pending) and just like you, it was Love at First sight. Varkala is a glorious beach to unwind.

[pamiboy]

Awesome write up. It was more of a mouthwatering cuisine trip than a sightseeing tour .

[omprakashp]

Originally Posted by mobike008

This is a brief story about my road-trip to Kerala during the Christmas & New Year holidays of 2015....Hope you'll enjoy it !!!

Thank you for the great travelogue. It seems amazing that in our beautiful country we can enjoy the ghats, the back waters and the beach all in the same vacation.

We have booked a Aspire AT and are really inspired to see your travelogue. This will help us in planning our trip from Bangalore to Kerela which we want to do in February 3rd week. We were planning to use the trains but this travelogue has me thinking otherwise. Hope the 1.5l petrol does not cause issues in the ghats.

I would be very obliged if you could please let me know the names of the hotels / resorts in Pallachi, Munnar, Kumarakom and Varkala.

Thanks again for the awesome writeup

[Utopian]

Wonderful travelogue. I never knew there was this much to visit in Munnar. My next pitstop would surely be there. Aspire served you quite well during the trip, what was the average FE observed during the trip?

Thanks for sharing.