Bangalore - Tirupathi (8th and 9th Nov 2008)
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On Oct 25th 2008,decided that me and my wife will visit Tirupathi on 8th & 9th Nov.
On the same day I went to TTD counter @ Vyalikaval Bangalore and booked my Darshanam tickets.
I wasn't lucky enough to get a room @ Tirumala through TTD so decided to take a chance and find a room @ Tirupathi instead.
I started collecting information about B'lore- Tirupathi road trips, what better site than our T-BHP itself.
After searching T-BHP for valuable information on Accomodations, routes, guides etc, I was confident that nothing could go wrong on this trip.
I booked my accomodation @ Fortune Kences, a very BIG thanks to AKROY and others on the forum. It was a very good Hotel.
We started preparation for the trip on 7th November 2008.
I went to Mysore road Shell Petro Pump and got my red Santro XL filled up, checked Air pressure and got an extra can of fuel as I don't use any other brands other than Shell
My plan for the next day was to leave B'lore @ 5AM so that we could reach T'pathy by 11:30-12:00PM. My ETA was delayed by an hour.
We left B'lore @ 6:00AM instead of the planned 05:00AM. Since fuel and air was already taken care off previous day, i straight away proceeded towards Old madras road.
It wasn't too crowdy in the morning and quickly I gained speed. It was my first real long drive after shifting to Tubeless + Alloys. I quickly reached speeds of 80-90 and hung in there.
At times I even pushed to 120 just to see if my car could do such speeds and if so how was the handling, however I was happy to be within 80-100 Km/H range.
At about 07:45-08:00AM we stopped @ Woodys for Breakfast. Idli and Coffee was on the MENU today.
I started from Woody's at about 08:20-08:30 and from there non stop till Thirupathi. I reached Thirupathi by 11:45AM and checked into Fortune Kences.
The route followed was B'lore-Old madras road- Hoskote-Kolar-Mulbagal-Chittor (Bypass)-Palmaneru-Tirupathi.
By 12:30pm finished lunch and proceeded towards Sri Kala Hasti. Since it was a Saturday and lot of worshippers of Shaneshwara I expected lot of rush @ Sri Kala Hasti.
However it was not over crowded and we quickly finished darshan @ Sri Kalahasti and also finished an archana.
As per my plan i was to go to Alipiri and visit Sri Varaha Swamy temple before the darshana of Lord Venkateshwara next day.
So i proceeded towards Alipiri (Tirumala), it was close to dusk when I reached the footsteps of the Hill Climb. It was the fist time I was to drive in the Ghat section and I have to admit that I was a little scared.
The security clearance was a little delayed due to the presence of a Petrol Can in my car. My request to next Tirupati Visitors (Please don't carry any excess Petrol or flammable materials).
I had to drain the extra petrol somewhere before my car could be cleared for the climb. Luckily since I had used about 10 litres of petrol on the way from B'lore to TPT, i used the fuel in the CAN to fill my car Tank Fully.
Now with an empty petrol can, i got the go ahead to climb the Hill.
It was dark now and i had to climb the Hill. Now i was really scared
.
However I did manage to gather all my courage and followed an APSRTC bus.
At one point the bus driver suddenly pulled to right. I too followed him and did the same and was wondering why he did that.
To my astonishment i saw that there was a big snake crawling right in the middle of the road and felt lucky that I didn't run over it. I happily followed the APSRTC bus till I reached the Top of the Hill.
I parked my car and went to Sri Varaha Swamy temple, finished darshan, had a light snack @ India Coffee house. I was damn hungry, had a plate of plain dosa+ IDLI and off course Coffee.
By the time i reached Tirupathi it was 10:00Pm and time to say Good night.
Next day (9th Nov 2008)
Got up early @ 06:30 and had complentary b'fast @ Fotune Kences. Left for Tirumala by 08:30 and 09:30 I was at the top of the hill.
I joined the Queue @ 09:45 AM and by 14:00 hrs finished darshana and left for Tirupathi. We came back to the Hotel, had lunch and left for Alamelu Mangapura now called Tiruchunoor ( or something like that).
We finished darshana @ Padmavathi Devasthanam and left for Bangalore by05:30PM. I don't prefer night driving however couldn't avoid it.
We were stranded for about 45 mins due to a traffic jam just before Chittoor bypass. I believe this is due to a narrow bridge.
We reached bangalore back by 11:30PM.
I am thankful to all those who posted their prior experiences, it has really helped. In particular, AKROY, Sathya_Nars etc..
Thanks everybody.
Cheers!