[animeshc]

Life without road trips with your BFFs (yes, that’s me adapting genZ lingo to sound and feel younger, things you do when you start to approach the wrong side of 30s ) is like watching a Bhai movie without any swagger. You would still get through it but might question the need for going through it every other second!

Almost 5 years after our last trip (Once upon a time in Italy in a Mercedes!), the gang got together again. Lot had happened since then, our friends had welcomed a little bundle of joy and we had welcomed our own not so little bundle of joy (if that was too subtle, I was talking about Lucifer, our S5). Now it was high time that all of them came together.

The destination was Mahabalipuram. Not that we were chasing history but moments (which would later become golden history in our own life books) while sipping filter coffees along the beach side with the beautiful temples in the backdrop and bitching only a ‘teeny weeny bit’ about our bosses. One more thing had happened since the last time that we had got busier in our lives and it meant only a short trip was on the cards (ironically enough, maybe we had become the seniors that someone else would be bitching about on their trips. Who cares though, at least they got something nice to talk about!)


Day 1

Our first stop would be in Bangalore to pick up the rest of our crew. With a promise to my better (and hard working) half that I would make her reach in time for a half day office in Bangalore, we started off early around 5:30. Roads to Bangalore have become like the state of news reporting nowadays, you can feel the degradation everytime you go through it but there isn’t any other option. With rumblers appearing faster than the S5 gained speed and traffic that made me feel nostalgic by reminding of the old city in Jaipur, the highway that was a dream to drive on a few years back didn't feel the same anymore. On the brighter side, a lot of cafes have come up and the morning coffee and Dosa at the Hangout cafe in Kurnool set the tone for the rest of the trip.

Some pics on the way to Bangalore:
"Do what makes you happy" which loosely translates to pick up the car and head out to drive for me.




Journey log till Bangalore.


In Bangalore, the idea of taking two cars was soon shown the door and Lucifer was entrusted with the responsibility of carrying the family’s weight on its shoulders in the most literal sense.

Day 2

Normally used to hearing the exhaust note of the car, we instead were hearing the heart sinking scraping noises of its bottom kissing every other speed breaker while exiting Bangalore. With a full house and a full trunk, probably for the first time we struggled a bit with the ground clearance of the car. Things improved after hitting the highway though.

With the little one onboard, we decided to go light on the right foot. It was the time for a few ‘first ever moments’ for Lucifer. It experienced the feeling of being driven below the speed of 100 on highways, it experienced how it was to give a mileage of above 10 and it also experienced being overtaken by a Maruti 800 (a couple of kids even teased and waved us from the windows of it). Instead of an adrenaline pumping drive, it was a heartwarming one and one that even our junior-most member seemed to enjoy.
Only the last hour was a bit strenuous for both the new members, one was understandably tired after almost 6 hours in the car and the other was being taken by Google maps to narrower and busier lanes.

A packed house!




One of the many filter coffees on the trip





“There are dreamers and there are realists in this world. You'd think the dreamers would find the dreamers, and the realists would find the realists, but more often than not, the opposite is true.
See, the dreamers need the realists to keep them from soaring too close to the sun.
And the realists?
Well, without the dreamers, they might not ever get off the ground.”― Modern Family
The dreamers of the group




Finally around 4, we reached Radisson Mahabalipuram. A refreshing welcome drink and a filter coffee later, all the travel tiredness had gone. Picture this: an infinity pool that stretched towards the horizon, palm trees swaying like graceful ballerinas, and the sound of the Bay of Bengal hitting the shores. The 3 night trip already had started to feel quite short!



Day 3 & Day 4.

Sometimes we forget how beautiful it is to be without a plan.

Instead of a morning jog, take a morning walk along the shore as long as you want. Instead of rushing to the office in the morning, have lazy breakfasts where you continue your conversations without the calendar notification of an upcoming meeting. Instead of hustling from one meeting room to another, spend walking around a beautiful old town without an agenda. Instead of queuing up in a packed office cafeteria, have meals at scenic cafes. And if by chance you get tired of doing all this, plunge yourself in the pool and not move a muscle and experience Newton's first law (an object in rest continues to do so till acted upon by an external force). Oh, and you have great company to do all of this.

A life that seems like someone’s wish from a Genie is what we indulged in for the next two days. Add to this, some amount of history/architecture like the shore temple, Arjuna’s penance and Butter Ball and what you get is a more than perfect weekend.

Just another morning






The perfect place for a lazy lunch




At the same place, 16 years apart!






We had Dosas and filter coffees from Telangana, AP, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on the trip, difficult to say which one was the best.


Lets push this a bit







Day 5

With memories that would live long after the tan lines had vanished, heavy hearts and promises for another longer trip, we started back. Dropped our friends at Chennai station who then took a train back to Bangalore and we headed back to Hyderabad via the Ongole route. The laughter of a kid was replaced by the roars of a V6 as we devoured miles on the beautiful Andhra roads.
It took us about 11 hours to reach back. As we started unpacking stuff and preparing for the meetings the next day, the coffee in the evening didn’t taste the same anymore!

Some pics on the return journey:








Return trip journey log

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[androdev]

Another great trip log from you with cool pictures! As you know, S5 and M340i comparison comes up a lot on this forum. Would love to hear from you, especially given you have done many long distance trips and particularly this one with 4+child-seat fully loaded within the speed breaker city!

As you can tell from my avatar, I've got to give a thumbs up to the pic with Snoopy t-shirt :-)

[animeshc]

Originally Posted by androdev

Another great trip log from you with cool pictures! As you know, S5 and M340i comparison comes up a lot on this forum. Would love to hear from you

Thank you for the kind words . In terms of S5 vs M340i, here are my thoughts based on the few test drives I did of the M340i and the ownership of S5:

- M340i definitely has a stronger punch even in the comfort mode. S5 is lazy to downshift and the turbo lag is more palpable in the comfort/eco modes. The difference doesn't feel much once you go to the dynamic mode at-least for city/highway driving.

- S5 feels a lot more plush/premium on the inside.

- The seat comfort in S5 feels considerably better, somehow the 340i seats felt hard and both me and my wife felt discomfort after driving around for 20+ mins (on more than one instance). I have read similar comments from other members of this forum that 340i isn't forgiving for their rear side.

- For city driving, the 340i steering felt a bit too chunky and heavy where as S5 is quite easily manoeuvrable.

- In terms of ground clearance, can't comment on 340i but S5 hasn't really given any trouble apart from this trip when it was fully loaded and that too mostly with the monstrous speed breakers in the random side lanes of Bangalore. With two people and taking it oblique on speed breakers, we have been able to manage fairly gigantic ones otherwise.

- In terms of features, 340i is definitely better including some gimmicky ones like gesture control and some valuable ones like keyless entry and the heads up display that the S5 lacks.

- The exhaust sound of S5 is quite delightful and there is no fake sound being piped unlike 340i.

- The boot of S5 is quite huge and the space saver tyre doesn't eat into the boot space (don't remember whether there is separate space for the spare tyre in 340i but the boot size overall is smaller than S5).

- In terms of looks, its a personal opinion but S5 feels more of a head-turner specially with a greater variety of colors and customization options.

- The big downside for S5 is the pricing difference but if you can manage to get some good discounts from Audi and get a BH registration to reduce the upfront cost, it becomes a good deal then.

- I am guessing FE would be similar in both.

Overall, if you just want a performance car, probably 340i is the way to go but if you want an all rounder that could serve as a grand tourer, I feel S5 is the way to go. Hope this helps! Apologies but there could be some inherent bias towards the S5.