[ravibhat]

I am back with one of the best trip we experienced and damm satisfied with my ride, roads, facilities. Here is detail about it.

I usually keep at least 4 trips planned in the pipeline and this is planned 4 months itself and bookings are done last month. We did study a lot online resources and maps etc.. The place we decided: KodaiKanal, Munnar.

Duration: 5 days.

*Day1: Drive from Bangalore to Kodaikanal.
*Day2: Site seeing in Kodaikanal and shopping/rest.
*Day3: Drive from Kodaikanal to Munnar.
*Day4: Site seeing in Munnar and reach UdumalaiPet.
*Day5: Drive from UdumalaiPet to Bangalore.

I know I can save 1 day but wanted to travel max. 400km in a day and relax and travel mood. Also I avoid night travelling which is not exciting as I am not driving.

Travel Distance: nearly 1280km, 50% AC used in Alto. FE: 19.7kmpl, Normal Fuel used. cost 44.80/- per ltr.

*Day1: Bangalore-Hosur-Thoppur-Mettur-bhavani-Perundurai-Kangayam-Dharapuram-Palani-Kodai = 430km
*Day2: Site seeing in Kodaikanal = 50km
*Day3: Drive from Kodai to Munnar = 220km (had to take diversion as road after bodinayakanur was closed in daytime for repair)
*Day4: Site seeing in Munnar and proceed to udumalaipet = 200km.
*Day5: Drive from UdumaliPet to Bangalore = 380km

220km Ghat section roads. 50km patchy ghat section roads. 10km patchy normal roads, no bad road. 1000km excellant road.

Members: I am with my wife and LKG studying daughter.

TOP speed: 90kmph since its enjoying trip rather than over speeding.

I am loading just samples of photos, Let me shortlist more better photos
and load and i will be back with things we covered there.














Ravi.

[deky]

Will be definatelway waiting for more..keep them coming

[arin_12]

Hi Ravi,
Actually I am also planning a trip to KODAI. How is the weather there ?

[ravibhat]

All values aproximate figures.

First about Fuel expenses: travelled around 1300km and filled 66ltrs of normal Petrol. Around 3000/- is fuel expense.

4 lane highway fees: forward/return NICE road from mysore road to hosur road: 80/-

Hosur to thoppur 4 lane national highway: 146/- both the ways.

Kodaikanal entry fee: 20/-

Entry/camera fees in Kodaikanal + Munnar in various places: 100/- + 100/- (2 adult and 1 child, 2 cameras)

Buffet breakfast in renaissance hotel, hosur: around 150/- and lunch 300/-. buffet breakfast in Munnar is around 100/-

Kodaikanal stay in J C Residency: Cost varies from 1400 to 3000 based on season and type of accomodation per day including complimentary breakfast.

Stay in Munnar: Auyur County chancellor resort: per day cost varies from 1500 to 6000/-

I suggest home stays (less cost but very clean) in Munnar as hotels inside town are not in nice location and not so great and costly.

AC room in udumalipet: 600/- per night. but has lot of mosquitos.

I found for food in Dharapuram has very good pure veg Karpagam hotel in bypass road. Here food is available for 50% of cost of what few resorts in kodai/munnar charge and taste is much better. Highly recomanded place. One can reach there by 1:30PM If you start from Bangalore at 6AM and drive decent speed.

In Bhavani I found 2 hotels side by side saravan bhavan and another one.

I heard in Perundurai there is one good hotel but don't know the name.

In Udumalaipet nalarams is quiet ok hotel. In marayoor Chandana residency is good I heard.

I don't know about hotel info. of other towns passing by.

Onething I forgot to mention in UdumalaiPet we were struck by traffic JAM while railway crossing for 30 minutes.

Ravi.

More details coming soon.

[arindamray]

Ravi, excellent start, and loads of information in the second post itself. Will definitely help others.

The snap of groups of elephants crossing the road is awesome. Where is that?

You didn't try the Sathy or Ooty road finally?

And please please give details of Kodai - Munnar route.

[ravibhat]

As planned Alto is washed and vaccum cleaning done as well a day before start of the journey.

First of all thanks a lot for many many TBHPians who posted useful information here, I had collected everything and taken printout.

March 30th 2009: Alarm ring at 5:05am and we are ready by 6:15am to start our journey after loading tons of luggage. Start from nagarbhavi(vijayanagar area) and take mysore road to reach NICE and we found connecting roads are tarred around bannergatta road so no more offroading to reach hosur road. We reached Renaissance hotel after hosur by 7:40am and had buffet very good breakfast. Car's tank was almost empty so did tank full in HP bunk and proceeded.

Excellant 4 lane road:



We reached Thoppur by 10:15am and took right turn towards Mettur. 2 lane roads are also very nice. We reached Bhavani by 11:50am and had too early lunch and proceeded.

Smooth Tamil Nadu state highways:





From Bhavani to Perundurai 4 lane is 99% done. Took left turn near Perundurai from national highway towards palani and reached there by 3pm. The momemt we reached Palani we could spot lot of mountain.

Palani Temple:



Drive to Kodaikanal started after 20 min break. Its difficult to park the vehicle in ghat section we parked the vehicle where there is enough space for other vehicle pass the road.









Once ghat section started we stopped every 20 minutes for photo opportunities. We reached J C Residency, Kodaikanal by 6:20PM. Excellant road all the way.

Water Falls:



Neat room:



Hotel has few birds and small children park, neatly maintained.











Distance travelled: 430km

Weather in Kodaikanal: Very pleasant and cool. Need one sweator in the evening to morning.

Ravi.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

hi ravi,
nice pics.
this is going to be informative travelogue for kodai and munnar.
why driver this time?

[akroy]

Nice start Ravi, Nice pics too. Who's pre-Birthday was this?
How many kms did you drive yourself in this trip? I hope you have increased the distance

Originally Posted by ravibhat

AC room in udumalipet: 600/- per night. but has lot of mosquitos.

You paid for mosquitos I guess (kidding mate)

Originally Posted by ravibhat

In Bhavani I found 2 hotels side by side saravan bhavan and another one.

I once had breakfast at Sarvana Bhavana. Amazing dosas served on banana leaf. Very tasty.

Originally Posted by ravibhat

From Bhavani to Perundurai 4 lane is 99% done. Took left turn near Perundurai from national highway towards palani and reached there by 3pm. The momemt we reached Palani we could spot lot of mountain.

When I last saw NH47 used to curve in the right and Palani road was straight. Is the new 4 lane alignment different from the previous 2 laner?

Abhi

[ravibhat]

Thank you TEAM.

Group of Elephants crossing is 20km before Udumalipet. We spotted 2 groups in 3 km distance. I decided to skip coimbatore, sathyamangalam, ooty area because in couple of days I am travelling to native place so lack of time.

I will give details about Kodai to Munnar route soon.

Ashish: I drove only 200km so far out of 76,000km I travelled in last 6 years in my 6 cars I owned. I liked only Omni and Innova driving position and used to love driving them. This time I drove only 10 mtrs in Petrol bunk to park the car side by after filling the fuel as I sent my driver to eat breakfast We love travelling rather than driving.

Abhi: Next week is my birthday, Regarding mosquitos yes we felt the same. We switched on Fan as well after setting AC to 28degree to avoid mosquitos. What I mean is turn right from bhavani to take Nh47 and then within 20km near Perundurai take left from NH47 to find palani road via perundurai - kangayam - dharapuram - palani.

Ravi.

[ravibhat]

Day2:

We woke up around 6AM to find there is water problem in the Resort. We waited for hour by walking in children's play area watched few birds there.

Had breakfast at 8AM and started for site seeing in Kodaikanal. Talked to few locals and found good guide who boarded our car. We started clicking photos one after other. Kodaikanal has more valleys hence sucide points. After seeing conoor its more or less same kind of views. We didn't take boating in lake as its too common now a days in every trip we undertake.

Our guide took us for at least 12+ spots and we had great time there. Our daughter enjoyed as well although she felt bit tired after lot of walking. Few of the places we visited listed below:

Coaker's walk: Its half km walk through the valley, one can see nearby places like Piriyakulam, Munnar road etc..









Church: Its old decently maintained church.



500 years old TREE: Its huge very old tree has animal type structure.





Upper Lake view: Nice view of kodai lake and surrounding places.



TV Tower:



Golf Course: Very nice place we found few people playing golf.



Pillar rock's: Breath taking view of valley, very deep like 8000+ft one can see big big hills and forest.






Pine forest: Photo taking place and movie/serial shooting place.





Moier point: another sucide point with lot of dangerous spot. I made my wife and dauaghter stay back and I visited with guide every risky spots. It was nice experience.









Devil's Kitchen: This is some huge cave not much can be viewed but guide said few have lost their lives there.









by that time it was 2PM and its already late for lunch, we headed to woodlands for nice lunch and back to J C Residency to rest where we stayed. We skipped few places as we wanted to cover next time when we visit again in coming years.

That completes day2.

Travel time: 5 hours, distance: 60km.

Ravi.

[snaronikar]

Missed this when the thread was started. But caught up today. Excellent pics, Ravi. I think you need to take the steering wheel more to enjoy the driving for a trip like this and when are you doing it? Keep the pics and narration flowing.

[jango]

Hi Ravi, excellent write up and great pictures about the whole trip.

Though i did my trip one week prior to yours i am still to write my travelogues ( Too lazy for that )

BTW when you visited Moier Point had they finished the construction of a concrete wall. I believe in the future they are not going to allows folks down as its too risky to go down as you mentioned.

Also just before you enter the pillar rocks pathways there is a small road ( running parallel to a kerala Mess ) which goes to the Madurai railway division guest house. If you take that road it gives you a breathtaking view of the pillar rocks. There is no baricades and the view is fully open. Not many people know about it, and not many locals would want to tell you about it. For future kodai tourist, i say its a must see.

[Surprise]

Nice pics. Surprised that your prefer driver over self drive.

Waiting for details from Kodai to Munnar as I never knew about the road conditions and this is on my travel plans

[ravibhat]

Day started around 6AM with good hot water available and we are ready in no time and left Kodaikanal at 8AM.

Plan was to take Kodaikanal – pannaikadu – devadanpatti – periyakulam – thenkarai – theni – bodinayakanur – chinnakanal – munnar which is around 150km/4 hour drive. Very good road except few patches between pannaikadu – devadanpatti in ghat sections and after bodinayakanur there is landslide.




On the way we took lot of photos and enjoyed the nature at its best.
We would like to visit this beautifull place in rainy season again to see water falls and more greenary.





We crossed Tamil Nadu border at 11:20AM after bodinayakanur and realized road is closed, whatever attempt made to get permission to take direct road to Munnar didn't work as they used to stop every 4 wheeler. After waiting for an hour we decided to go back and have lunch at body and proceed with alternate route.

Special thanks to hvkumar, tirthankar, mjothi for guiding the route.


WE reached Kambam and took right turn towards KambaMettu which is 14km with 18 hairpin curve ghat section, small road but in decent condition except 2km bad stretch.



We crossed Tamil Nadu border there and awasome Kerala roads started. So this indicates only Karnataka is lagging behind in infrastructure.

Welcome Munnar area!!



From here we took lot of break and clicked tons of pictures.



















We reached Ayur County Chancellor Resort by 5PM and rested for a while before small evening walk.



Restaurant is good but its not worth for that cost. Onlything we liked is Milk there. Quantity is more than expected.

Distance travelled: 220km
Kodai 8AM-Theni 10:45AM. Wasted time 2 hours in bodynayakanur because direct road was closed for traffic and repair was in full swing.

Alternate route bodynayakanur - Munnar via kambam - kambamettu 130km = 3 hours

Ravi.

[ravi@64bhp]

Nice trip log Ravi. Thanks for sharing the pictures. Never get bored to see the pics from Munnar.

BTW, I see you and your kid enjoying in those tea fields. Any leech bites?? My wife got a leech bite when she entered those fields last year. Even one of our friends got a bite last month there.