13th March 2010, 11:46
| #16 |
| BHPian  | Pillar Rock We then move on to Pillar Rock, which is another 15 min away from Pine forests. Its a huge valley below, which is usually covered with clouds, mist. Got to see the pillar rock though.       After pillar rock, we move past the Golf View, which is nothing but a golf course with one of the holes next to the road. After visting all these places, we drive down to the Kodai town and have lunch at TAVA. Pulkas, curries, papad, Lassi were delicious. |
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13th March 2010, 11:50
| #17 | ||
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Actually, NH 7 is the North-South Corridor, being developed in to 4 lanes by NHAI, that connects Varanasi [North] and Kanyakumari [South] via Nagpur, Hyderabad and Bangalore. It is already the lifeline of India! Does Hotel Bala have car parking facility? Do you recommend it? Quote:
Last edited by J.Ravi : 13th March 2010 at 11:57. | ||
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13th March 2010, 11:57
| #18 | |
| BHPian | Quote:
Attaching a pic of the hotel room.   | |
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13th March 2010, 12:00
| #19 |
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13th March 2010, 12:17
| #20 |
| BHPian | Great Travelogue. After reading it I am tempted to go there now. I really wanna drive on the NH7, Once I went till Hoganekal, Will do it shortly. Thanks for the pictures man. So did you go to Meenakshi temple in Madurai? Waiting for your Kanya Kumari story  |
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13th March 2010, 12:48
| #21 | |
| BHPian | Quote:
We did go to Meenakshi Temple and to KK. I will post all remaining parts from time to time today and complete it by EOD. | |
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13th March 2010, 15:37
| #22 |
| BHPian | Day 2 Evening was spent near the Kodai lake. We went on a Row boat for 110 Rs for a duration of 30 min. Surprisingly, it started raining when we were in the middle of the lake. We had to row to the nearest boat house and wait until the rain subsided.          We finish the boat ride and then had some really good mirchi bhajjis on the lake road. And since it had rained for an hour or so, i was sure that the Silver cascade falls which is about 15 min from Kodai town would be in better state now. So we decided to take a quick drive to the Silver cascade falls at 6 PM.  Ended the day with Dinner at Hilltop Woodlands. |
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13th March 2010, 15:45
| #23 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: City of seven islands.
Posts: 2,877
Thanked: 231 Times
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13th March 2010, 16:33
| #24 |
| BHPian | Day3 kodai Day 3 : Kodai We started to explore the possibility of any other place that we could visit on the 3rd day in Kodai. We wanted to visit the Silent Valley view, Berijam lake area. But we found that the entry into the forest area on the Kerala border is closed for now. There has been some incident which has taken place in that area which has forced the Forest gates to be closed for now. Ideally with the permission from the forest office in Kodai town, one should be able to visit those places. We now decided to visit Mahalaksmi temple, Poorambai village and Mannavanoor lake on the Kodai-Munnar road. I see the milestones saying that it is 100 Kms from kodai to Munnar. Not sure if that road is good all the way to Munnar. Localites say that 4*4 is necessary to reach Munnar on this road. One needs to take the Observatory road from kodai town and go till Pine forests. 2 Kms after Pine forests, you will see a right U turn and a right turn. THis U turn road leads us to Poorambai village and the lake. 18 Kms from Kodai town is the Village. 10 Kms from there is the Mannavanoor lake. 2 Kms before the village is the Mahalakshmi temple sitting on top of one of the highest peaks in that region. This temple is at a very scenic spot and we spent an hour easily in this temple looking at the vast valleys below. We can see that the mountains beyond this area are towards the Kerala state (possibly the Munnar range). I definitely would want to visit this location in rainy season or just after that to experience the real beauty of this place. Snaps below from Day3:                     We end our stay at Kodai with this. Good Veg Restaurants: 1. Astoria Veg 2. Hilltop Woodlands 3. Tava We next travel to Madurai and Kanyakumari. |
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13th March 2010, 17:01
| #25 |
| Team-BHP Support   | |
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13th March 2010, 19:18
| #26 |
| BHPian | Kodai to Madurai on Day4 Day 4 : ------- We start the day with a Breakfast at Hilltop Woodlands in the Kodai town and finally checkout and start out 117 Kms journey to the "Temple city - Madurai". We take the following route to Madurai: Kodaikanal on SH156. Drive down the ghats to the SH156-NH45 Junction. This is a distance of 55 Kms and should take around an hour and 5 min. Taking right here would lead us to Theni and then we can take NH49 towards Madurai (This NH49 goes to Rameshwaram eventually). But following the milestones, we took another route. I saw a Red Maruti Swift with the tail light Darkened infront of our car when we started driving down the Kodai ghat. Until then i was cruising slowly looking around the scenic route. Then suddenly i see the www.teambhp.com sticker on the number plate. Well, it has become a trend to meet up or see fellow bhpians on every tour now! We drove for the next 35 Kms behind each other at some pretty good speed and it was good fun! Finally, we stop over the road side at the end of the ghat. I meet up with George. George, it was good to meet up with you. And congrats again on your wedding! Btw, he was on his HM trip     HVK -- This route was indeed very good and was quick too. I am sure you would have tried this route. After that 55 Kms down from kodai, at the SH156-NH45 junction, take a right towards Dindugal/Madurai. At Bathalagundu (Vathalagundu), taking left will proceed to Dindugal on NH45. Instead, exit NH45, and go straight on SH155. You will pass through Nilakottai town at 74 Kms mark from Kodai. After 4 kms from Nilakottai, take right and join SH73 and follow SH73 further. You will come across a junction with Madurai to the left and Thirumangalam to the right. Keep left here. Finally, you join NH7 with 30 Kms to Madurai. You need to cross a Railway line to join NH7. Again, on NH7, you need to exit to enter Madurai, as NH7 4 lane road will bypass Madurai to take you straight towards Virudhanagar and beyond to KK. You have sign boards to indicate the exit to Madurai. You may have to drive around 15 Kms from exit to the temple. We reach Madurai by 12:05 PM and checkin into Hotel Chentoor on the West Perumal Maistry Road. To reach this Hotel, after the railway bridge in Madurai, take left at Signal, and then take the right at Mosque road and the first left to reach West Perumal Maistry street.           Next would the Madurai Meenakshi Temple and the Thirmala Nayagar Mahal snaps. Last edited by pramod : 13th March 2010 at 19:24. |
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13th March 2010, 19:38
| #27 | |
| BHPian | Quote:
It rained once too, in the evening. In Madurai, it was quite hot. But we went to the Temple at 4:30 in the evening, So we dint get exposed to the day time heat. Madurai to Kanyakumari was very hot and got sticky as we got closer to the coast. Good thing is, we had AC rooms in these 2 locations. I dint wanna wait till June to make this trip. But would be ideal in Sept/Oct. | |
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13th March 2010, 21:53
| #28 |
| Team-BHP Support | |
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14th March 2010, 22:17
| #29 |
| BHPian | Day-4 Madurai We checked-in into Hotel Chentoor. We got a double AC for 1400, which i felt was a bit steep for what we got in the room. It has a roof-top restaurant which is a +. Viewing the 4 "Gopuras" of the Madurai Meenakshi temple from the roof of the hotel is worthwhile. This is what you see from the top of the hotel.  The Temple has 4 Gates, 1 each on the North, South, East and West directions. One can enter the temple in any of the Gates and get the darshan of Meenakshi and Sundareshan. A tiled path has been built (around 50 feet wide) around the perimeter of the temple walls. It is 1.5 Kms long! No vehicles apart from the TamilNadu tourism Electric cars are allowed in this vicinity. The temple is open from 5.30 AM to 11:30 AM and 4 PM to 8.30 PM. We visited the temple at 5 PM in the evening and since it was a Monday, the crowd was not over whelming. It was managable. We got a good darshan of both the gods and relaxed on the Steps around the tank in the middle of the temple (Also called Kalyani) Madurai is known for cotton handloom sarees and my mom was eagerly waiting for some decent shopping. She picked up 4 from one of the many many stores around the temple complex. I spoke to a few localites to suggest a good Veg restaurant for our dinner and they all pointed us to "Modern hotel". It wasnt that clean, nor the food was great. But it was decent and we were done with our dinners for the night. Since the whole Madurai town is like "Cotton pet" or "binnypet" of Bangalore, we had chosen to park the car in the Chentoor hotel. Rs.20 would be the Auto fare to the Temple. Same is true to come back. We end the day4, waiting eagerly to drive to Kanyakumari, the next morning. Snaps of the Meenakshi Temple and its interiors. I am sure, i have NOT been able to make justice to the beauty of this temple, through my camera. I am sure, it looks much more beautiful through naked eye. Here they are:                     |
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14th March 2010, 22:19
| #30 | |
| BHPian | Quote:
lend me one  | |
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