[KiloAlpha]

This is my first travelogue. And my last drive with my Figo, which is the first car I bought new.
Today is the last day that we, as a family, would be able to go out together in Chameli - also known as Ford Figo 1.2 Titanium Chill Metallic. So we decided to do a Sunday morning breakfast drive, instead of going out to a restaurant nearby (which is what we do every Sunday morning).

Place: Malgudi Vattika veg restaurant (https://www.zomato.com/bangalore/mal...ka-mysore-road), near Bidadi, about a kilometer away from the Wonder-La entrance on NH275 (Bangalore-Mysore highway). We chose this place because we are not too picky about food - regular idli/dosa of acceptable quality is fine with us. We just wanted the restaurant to be a bit "different".

Drive: I just wanted a 100km or so drive on “nice” roads. But where? The Bangalore-Mysore highway is not a nice drive by any stretch of imagination. Then I remembered the roads not so far from Bannerghatta National Park. I was introduced to them on the Thattekere meet (see http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/team-b...an-2011-a.html). A quick peek at Google Maps showed a connecting road from Bidadi to Harohalli, from where we could get on to the road going past Thattekere.

This is the scenic route we took today:
https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/Ma...12.7318462!3e0

We started off around 6:30am from home (Banashankari 2nd Stage). I dared to go through Deve Gowda junction because I knew on a Sunday morning it would be devoid of traffic.


Joined the Bangalore-Mysore highway via an empty NICE road. Which is why the couple decided the hard shoulder of a 120kmph expressway was a good place for a morning walk?



We reached Malgudi Vattika restaurant by 7:30am. As you proceed towards Bidadi, after crossing Wonder-La entrance, keep a look out on the left. This restaurant is hard to miss.


As you turn in from the gate, the sight of a bullock-cart (minus the bulls) greets you.


Everything about the restaurant is “retro south” themed - as suggested by the name Malgudi. Tissue holder is an old style jar, and menu look like this:


We sat outside, as the weather was pleasant. We ordered food - regular South Indian tiffin items. Quality of the food is no great shakes, but it is certainly not bad. Average, and acceptable.


There is a nice garden/open area to play in. My son loved it!


Strategically placed props, like this bicycle, add to the atmosphere.


Which is true of all the furniture, décor, and serving utensils too!



With a name like “Malgudi”, not having a reference to R.K.Narayan would be sacrilege. The restaurant has not made this mistake.


Chameli in the restaurant’s parking lot. The stance is a bit “stood up” after I fitted tyres of a higher aspect ratio. It used to look a lot more squat and hunkered down with the old set of low profile tyres.


We got going from the restaurant around 9:00am, I think. Not really sure of the time, as we had a very relaxed breakfast and let our son play as much as he wanted. Couple of kilometers down the Bangalore-Mysore highway, we turned left into the Bidadi Industrial Area - home of Toyota’s Indian factory.


Once past the Toyota plant, the road continued to be 4-lane divided for a fair distance, which surprised us:



It was only about 5km before Harohalli that we encountered the more familiar 2-lane country lane that one would normally expect of a road marked MDR:


I stopped just shy of Harohalli, in a newly formed residential layout, to take pictures of Chameli. Ain’t she pretty? I will miss her.


Once past the super-congested Harohalli, the road becomes mostly devoid of traffic. Very scenic, twisty, 2-lane blacktop with good surface.



Then, after crossing Thattekere, one gets to a fork. Left leads to Jigani, and right leads to Anekal. We took the right fork. Within a couple of kilometers, the road surface deteriorated.


But to compensate, you get some nice views.


After enduring a pothole filled drive for 4-5km, the tarmac disappeared altogether. I was relieved, as the surface was actually a lot smoother than the broken roads I was driving on past 5km


Out of the blue, we got some super smooth newly laid tarmac again, which lasted all of 2km.


Until we joined Bannerghatta road (SH-87) at Indulvadi Cross, there were alternating stretches of no-tarmac and smooth-tarmac.

Once we joined Bannerghatta Road, it was a straight-forward commute-like blat back into the city. We reached home around 11am. No, none of us was tired, despite the rising heat. It was such a nice refreshing early morning drive!

[sumathindra]

Originally Posted by KiloAlpha

This is my first travelogue. And my last drive with my Figo, which is the first car I bought new.

I have spotted your ride a couple of times (liked the sticker) and having a 1.2 titanium myself I know exactly how you are feeling. What's the new ride you have planned or have one already?

[KiloAlpha]

Originally Posted by sumathindra

I have spotted your ride a couple of times (liked the sticker) and having a 1.2 titanium myself I know exactly how you are feeling. What's the new ride you have planned or have one already?

Ride, handling, steering feel, were all unparalleled in the Figo. Despite the underpowered engine, the car managed to feel special!
My new ride is an S-Cross, top end. Being delivered in a few days.

[tharian]

Originally Posted by KiloAlpha

Ride, handling, steering feel, were all unparalleled in the Figo. Despite the underpowered engine, the car managed to feel special!
My new ride is an S-Cross, top end. Being delivered in a few days.

That is a good upgrade to the Figo. Hope it is a 1.6
From one special and rare car(petrol) to another.

Totally agree to the feel special part. Although it is no great shakes, few of the qualities it has makes the drive different from the others.

[mpksuhas]

The best way to spend a weekend and bid farewell to car.

Been reading reviews of Malgudi resturant on food forums since past couple of weeks, was thinking of driving down on a weekend morning just to give it a try. However, as per your post food is just average.

Anyways, the road to Jigini is a find. Would plan a drive on similar route sometime.

[pduttaghy]

Nice breakfast drive. You are absolutely right people should do things differently every once in a while, and on an emotional day like this all the more so.

[guyfrmblr]

Nice report. The road between Harohalli and Jigani crosses through elephant corridor. This is the route which elephants take to reach TN from Bannerghatta National Park area. This road was in superb condition around 10 years back after which the condition has deteriorated.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by guyfrmblr

Nice report. The road between Harohalli and Jigani crosses through elephant corridor. This is the route which elephants take to reach TN from Bannerghatta National Park area. This road was in superb condition around 10 years back after which the condition has deteriorated.

The location was brilliant during rains. Dont know what has happened to the green cover these days.

This is how locations were during rains some 4-5 years back. (Cross posted from a different thread.)






The location was also a haven for birding.

[guyfrmblr]

Originally Posted by ampere

The location was brilliant during rains. Dont know what has happened to the green cover these days.

Green cover was present more towards Harohalli after crossing the reserve forest area from Jigani side when I had visited that area 2 years back. I also remember lots of small branch roads near Harohalli which passes through very dense forest areas. The area between Jigani and Thattakere houses various granite cutting industries which would have contributed to the reduction of green cover.