1st February 2008, 00:17
| #1 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 4,106
Thanked: 537 Times
| Bangalore to Puttaparthi over the weekend Last weekend, 26th & 27th, made my first drive to Andra Pradesh - to Puttaparthi. Since this is my first drive to that part of town, I was not sure on the road. Unfortunately, my post here at T-BHP didn't turn up much response (might be due to asking at the last moment!). So off to Yahoo maps and Google and also, the ever faithful, ask-the-neighbor (literally). Go to know that it is a drive on the Hyderabad route itself. Since I am staying near Deva Gowda pertol pump and with my bad knowledge on Bangalore roads, I was not happy about taking a road thru the city to reach NH-7. so decided that driving extra distance was worth it if I can avoid the city traffic and confusions. So here goes: Started off on 26th morning at 10.30 from my house. Drove to Bangalore University, got out to the outer ring road and towards Peenya and straight to Hebbal flyover and got into NH-7. It was 30Km from my house to this spot. The newly laid road is a marvel. 3 laned on either side and good road. Its a treat. This is one road that is good for speed runs (at less / zero traffic hours!). From there it was straight down. No deviation just straight down. The good roads are till Devanahalli (the new airport). After that it is just the two way traffic road and added to this, due to the road works, they have reduced the road to one lane. Most of the distance you will find traveling besides a wall of soil! But, due to lack of traffic (which was moderate, i would say; guess the usual Bng-Hosur-Salem route traffic has become my yard stick) the drive was good. people, do note - there are absolutely no worthy place that can you put up or have a good meal in the route. if so required, do carry the necessities with you. As mentioned by Dicore4X4 in my travel query post (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...te-advice.html) the turn to Puttaparathi is right after you cross the AP border. You will cross the Indian Oil pump on your right (the access to this is closed due to the road construction - infact the pump was close also!). After 500meters or so, you will have an IBP pump on your left. The turn to take is 6kms from here. You will then come across the AP check post (the drop-down barrier and all - hard to miss). Once you cross this, the turn is 4kms from here. You will come across a S bend and the turn will be on your right. I reckon this is the first right turn after getting into AP. I missed this turn but was going very slow that we were able to read the sign post which was placed further ahead on the road. The turn to Puttaparathi:  the sign board further ahead:  Once you make the turn, the road is again a straight one. You will come across a small round-about, keep going straight. You will finally land up on a signal, where you have to take the right for Puttaparathi - there is a sign board; but its difficult to miss; this is the first signal light that you come across on that road and not necessarily working! From here it is straight down till your reach the dead end and there take a right. I have no idea where the left turn takes you to - but certainly not to Puttaparathi! We reached Puttaparathi and checked into Hotel Chaitnaya Intl, which is just besides the main arch and ~200 meters from the ashram entrance. Freshed up a bit (had the lunch that we had packed from home) and then went for darshan of Sai Baba. He has not come for the morning darshan, so we were sure that he would come for the evening one. Expected a big crowd, but surprisingly, the place was only 3/4 full. Got seated at 3.30pm and waited. Sai Baba came at around ~4.30 and was there for 40-50 minutes and left. The purpose of our visit was done with that. We then proceeded back to the room since the little one was tired. Went back rested for some time and then came out to do some window shopping. Went for dinner at Sai Residency, which is further down the road. The restaurant there was good with really excellent food. Especially the curd and pickle - fantastic! Dinner over and we walked back to the hotel. got back into the ashram to buy a thermo flask - needed one to buy milk for the little one for the night. The whole place has a deserted look at 9pm. The next day after breakfast at Sai Intl. we headed down to see Kalpa Vruksha Tree (the tamarind tree from which Baba is believed to have materialized variety of fruits). Me and my daughter at Kalpa Vruksha:  Went further up the mountain and it was a beautiful site. Was able to see the whole of Puttaparathi from there. We enjoying the scenery:  The other side of town:  The other main attractions:  The giant Hanuman statue:  Chaitanya Jyothi:  We started back to Bangalore at 2PM. Had a quiet drive - happy that we got the darshan; and all were sleeping (except me, that is) due to the walk and climbs earlier in the day. Reached Bangalore at 5.30PM. Analysis: Roads: Very good till Devanahalli. After that use caution due to the on-going road works. After the turn to Puttaparathi, the road a good once again, but two way traffic. The best part is that everyone are patient and didn't face any of the 'i wont give right of way' type of driving, not even from the heavy vehicles. Good road all the way:  Stay: Hotel Chaitanya Intl. is an average hotel. I had taken a 3 bed a/c room and costed me 1300. Its 24hrs check out. I would only recommend this if you are just looking for a place to sleep. The bathroom was Ok. The a/c was just able to give some cold air (my alto's a/c does a better job!!!). I would certainly recommend Sai Intl or hotel that are further down the road. At Sai Intl, it comes at around 1400rs for a double bed a/c room. The best part is that it has the restaurant. Good for family which has a small one who needs milk at night time. I had to buy a flask and stock the milk! Places of interest: Kalpa Vruksha Tree, Chaitanya Jyothi, Hanuman statue, Intl Sports center and many more. Get yourself one of the local maps - costs you 25rs. There are many places to see, but you just need to plan properly. And most of them are walkable distance from the ashram. The end.  Mods: I guess the images are too large. sorry to those with slowed connection! used tinypic instead of imageshack; will change it tomorrow. |
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1st February 2008, 02:16
| #2 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 276
Thanked: 16 Times
| Great Report there. Good job! Great Report HappyWheels. What Digital Camera you are using ? Picture quality is great. @Mods : I have uploaded the above images in Imageshack and posted below as thumbnails. Please add these to the first post as its taking a bit of time to load the entire image and page.         |
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1st February 2008, 09:01
| #3 |
| Senior - BHPian  | |
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1st February 2008, 09:28
| #4 | ||
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 4,106
Thanked: 537 Times
| Quote:
Many more thanks for taking time to upload in the right size and posting the links! cheers: Quote:
Yup, I should have done that. Tinypic is my usual forum picture loader. Realized my mistake when I submitted the post. Since it was way past mid-night, I couldnt spend time to rectify it. It also slipped my mind that I am allowed to edit my post only for 20minutes or so, after the time of post.  Hopefully one of the mods will remove the link that I have posted and use the ones that TrueDreamer has provided. MODS: SOS | ||
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1st February 2008, 11:03
| #5 |
| Senior - BHPian | |
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7th March 2008, 15:21
| #6 |
| Senior - BHPian  | Nice pictures... And all the tiny details you mentioned for the routes. I can understand that you dont want others to face same pain as you faced |
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