Re: The 2K Ride to southern tip of India

Travelogue Approved

Re: The 2K Ride to southern tip of India



nice start

Re: The 2K Ride to southern tip of India

Nice start bhai.

Wonderful teaser pic too. Bring the rest on.

Re: The 2K Ride to southern tip of India

Thanks monk for approval!




Thank you


Thank you. here comes the rest

Re: The 2K Ride to southern tip of India

I could only meet my best friend/pillion rider Ikram a day before the ride, as we were speaking our college stories the thought came up why not visit our college en route? our college is in trichy. Rohith the second biker in our group mentioned that he always wanted to visit thanjavur big temple(Brihadeshwara temple). Just like that we added trichy & thanjavur to the destination list.

DAY 1:

We started from Bangalore around 3:00 am in the morning. There was steady traffic until Salem. Around 6 in Salem we took a short coffee break. We had earlier discussed route and since nammakal - trichy stretch is in bad condition we proceeded in the same Salem highway until attur. From attur we took a small diversion towards perambalur. We stopped near perambalur bus stand for breakfast. We hogged dosa pongal vada and coffee all for just 170rs. Then continued in the beautiful four laned perambalur - trichy highway.



At the hotel in permabalur.

We reached trichy around 10:00 am. we went straight to surprise one of my friend who owns a private company there. Caught up with him & some other old friends, had some sleep and food. While travelling to a nearby restaurant i noticed a "kadak kadak" sound from my thunderbird's chain. Took it to RE service center there and they were kind enough to take a look at it.(no attitude like Bangalore service centers). They mechanic told us just to keep it lubed enough and we will not have any problem. I was surprised !! but once he lubed the chain the sound magically disappeared. we had TVS chain spray packed with us already, so i was confident about handling this issue if it re- occurs. Visited my college, as its Saturday evening it was empty and i had some quiet time thinking about all past mischievous memories.



Our college entrance

Around 4:30 in the evening we started to tanjavur in the hopes of catching the sunset view of the big temple. But there was huge local traffic and by the time we reached it was just few mins to 6. we took all the gadgets in a small bag and gave rest of the bag, helmet to the parking keeper and requested him to keep a look on it. He was kind enough to do so.



Just before tanjavur highway, it was so hot we got thirsty and had to stop for water break.

We entered the temple at just the sunset time. The view was majestic, but just before i can take my camera out a cloud came out of nowhere to cover the sun. I will let the pictures talk for a while,











As we were walking around the temple it become dark. But they had lit up the temple in a way that the night photo came up so well. Here you go,









Around 7:30 we came out of the temple, had some snacks. pea nut masala & khatta mango with chilly powder, salt - a combo you would find everywhere at Tamil Nadu. We started the ride again. The plan was to reach my friend's house near thondi which is enroute and just 80Kms before rameshwaram. It was dark and in all my previous ride i made sure i wont ride after 6 in the evening, well no strings attached this time! But keeping mind the safety we maintained average speeds only. The route passed through many villages so there was lot of rash driving, helmet less bikes cris crossing us. we made couple of stops until we reached ECR road. After that the traffic was less but night driving had its negatives - high beam lights plus no dividers between opposite lanes.Finally, We reached thondi by 9:30 and from there my friend's place was 18Kms. We used whats app location share service to locate his house. We had nice dinner, enjoyed their hospitality and slept off.

Statics & Route:

Route Taken:

Bangalore - Salem - Attur - Perambalur - Trichy - Tanajavur - Pattukottai - Thondi - Thiruvadanai.

Attur - Perambalur (61 KMs) passes through many villages but the road is in very good condition. Tanjavur - Pattukottai - Nadiam(the joining road to ECR) this stretch has some unmarked speedbreakers. Overall road condition is good to excellent.

Distance covered in Day 1: 618 KMs.

Re: The 2K Ride to southern tip of India

Good ride, bro. The teaser pic of kanyakumari is awesome. Big temple is also good.

Re: The 2K Ride to southern tip of India

Nice captures. Keep riding!

Re: The 2K Ride to southern tip of India

Thanks [MENTION=57323]krishna77[/MENTION]

Thank you bro [MENTION=71844]amods[/MENTION]. The teaser pic was post processed. All others are raw. In the end of this thread i will post high resolution post processed images.

Re: The 2K Ride to southern tip of India

DAY 2: Thondi - rameshwarsam-danushkodi-kanyakumari

We all had a nice sleep last night and woke up around 8:00. Had heavy breakfast with tea. After bath, cleaned the bike & lubed the chain and then started around 10:00 towards Rameshwaram.




My friend Pandi with his brother at thondi (excuse the finger in the photo).

We were all excited to see pamban bridge. We rode through ECR and it was very nice road with minimal traffic occasionally passing through some villages. At around 30 KMs from rameshwaram we reached a four cross and decided to take a small break there as we could find some shops around. The heat as took toll on us and so we all had juice & water. From here we have to take left to rameshwaram.



Some posing at a shop near a major four crossing towards rameshwaram.

We continued our ride, the traffic started to increase. Tourists buses and cars started pouring in. It all made us slow down. After a while we saw ocean on both sides of the road and the scenery looked beautiful. Before we know it we were at Pamban Bridge. Ever since i heard about this place i wanted to visit here and also i saw the documentary in NGC about how they maintain half century old railway bridge at this place which made me want to go see the action live. We parked at a small corner, even before we got down we saw a train passing through the railway bridge. I ransacked my backpack for the camera and started clicking the photos. I know i'm lucky to catch the train as lot Xbhpian's have mentioned in their blog they missed it. Photo time,







The turquoise blue ocean looked very pleasant even in hot sun





Me with my bird & a sense of achievement



After some 45 mins we started our journey, but just when we reached the center of the bridge there was another train! We couldn't resist but to stop and have a look.

Here is the video of the train crossing pamban bridge we took,



We continued our journey and within few mins we reached Dr. APJ. Abdul Kalam's final resting place. It was quite crowded. There was huge statue of him in the front. we spent some quite time thinking about his achievements. After conveying our respect for him we started back. We also noticed lots of people taking selfie with the cemetery which did not looked respectful.

We continued our journey towards danushkodi. Since the breakfast was heavy we didn't stop for lunch. We reached danushkodi only to find over crowded again. vehicles were not allowed after a stage. we parked our bikes nearby and tried convincing the cops there, since the crowd was heavy and lot of local bikers were also there he refused to let us proceed further. Our bikes were too heavy and will get stuck in sand for sure, so we didnt want to risk the backward route and decided to use the 4X4 VAN. Before starting we had a lemon juice and asked the old lady at the store if we can leave our bags & helmet there. She agreed and asked us to come before 3:00 PM as she will be closing by that time for lunch. We agreed and started. The van took us through the surviving structures belonging to railway station & church, then to beach. Some Pics of the same,





Some selfie time



The church



Other side beach had some waves

The whole van trip took around 1 hour and we were back at the shop where we left our luggage around 2:30. we had juice and thanked the lady for watching our bags, she was very kind. Then we started our trip back to rameshwaram ramanathaswamy temple. They didn't allow cameras inside so me & ikram took a short look inside while rohith went in for a longer stroll. Meanwhile we felt little tired and saw there was plenty of small lodges around. I negotiated a room for 1 hour with attached bath for 100rs. we all three took a short nap, had a refreshing bath and a coffee. When we started back it was already 5:00 PM. But we felt refreshed and so continued our journey towards kanyakumari. We reached the same shop at four corner that we had stopped earlier and hogged some parotas,dosa & some snacks.From there we continued our journey in ECR until we reached tuticorn bypass. Just before we took a diversion towards kanyakumari bunch of teenagers came in FZ braked just infront of us, made some sounds and asked if we were from Karnataka, i told yes but since i knew the local language i shouted back at them. Just seconds before i could loose my temper and since i shouted back in Tamil they disappeared. It made me sad how much brain washing have gone into these young people about the recent political issues.

After this the diversion led us to a highway which again led us to a roundabout which showed right for kanyakumari. We took it and stopped at a small tea shop for some break.we enquired the route to kanyakumari and they confirmed its correct & only 100kms from here. But google maps showed us otherwise. after a little online research found that the route locals guided us passed through many villages and road condition is bad, while google showed the route which will join in bangalore-kanyakumari highway at tirunelveli . We chose google route.

Just after crossing tirunelveli my bike chain sound started again, we stopped to lube my chain again and the sound vanished. The road was four laned and very good. Just before kanyakumari there were lot of wind mills and heavy wind flow too. The wind was so strong that it would push me off balance. Since the bike was heavy we were still able to maintain good speeds. Some 10kms before kanyakumari we noticed a board sating "Road ends here.. take diversion". We used google maps from there towards kanyakumari bus stand in the hopes of finding a room. This time google maps led us into a nowhere road which was very small in pathetic condition with huge potholes and humps. Adding to this there was water on both sides of the road. No light too. We held our heart and continued, somehow we reached the main road towards bus stand.

Around 12:00 midnight we reached kanyakumari main town. We started hunting for the rooms only to realize its long holidays and there was huge influx of tourist from neighboring state of kerala. Everywhere we see only to find KL registered vehicles. After half an hour search we couldnt secure a room. One guys approached us asking 6K for AC rooms. Our whole trip costs less than that! we politely told we are looking for very cheap rooms. He told us its all full in kanyankuamri and asked us to go to nagercoil, a small town 18kms from here. initially we didnt trust him but after an hour of searching we concluded he was telling the truth!! We traveled further towards nagercoil and secured a room for 450rs. It was 1:00 am, we just dropped our bags and fell into bed asleep.

DAY 2 stats & route:

Distance traveled : 500KMs

Route taken: Thondi - rameshwaram - danushkodi - tuticorn bypass - tirunelveli - kanyakumari - nagercoil.

The road condition was very good in this whole section.

Re: The 2K Ride to southern tip of India

A nice read - once again!

Re: The 2K Ride to southern tip of India

Thanks Krishna for your kind words.

Re: The 2K Ride to southern tip of India

Day 3: Nagercoil - Kanyakumari - madurai

Alarm was set at 5:15 AM as the google showed sunrise time as 6:07 AM at kanyakumari. unusual to my habit i woke up before the alarm went off but was very tired. I asked ikram if we should go for sunrise or we will go by 10:00 AM. He was also tired and just replied that anything is fine with him. But i couldn't sleep for i knew i shouldn't miss this. I woke him up fourth time, got ready. But rohith didn't wake up. We tried our best to revive him from sleep but he was in very deep sleep so we continued without him. From the room we stayed its 20 KM to sunrise point.As soon as we left the room there was a huge traffic, again! tourist buses, cabs driving so rash. We had no choice but to put up and drive rashly. On top of this there was two guys in Fazer without helmets trying to overtake us and simply racing us. Even i tried leaving way for him, but he will slow down and race me again. I just ignored him and carried on.

We reached sunrise point around @ 6:03 AM. Parked our bike and walked to the point. There was a huge crowd waiting to see sunrise. We joined and found a spot for ourselves. I must admit the sunrise view is alone enough reason for the whole trip. It was so beautiful. Photo time,

















All the pictures were taken by ikram.

I told Ikram when we google photos of kanyakumari sunrise i never found even one picture , where the sun was in between both thiruvalluvar statue and vivekananda memorial. He told lets take one and we were walking to a spot from where we can see the sun in between. The photos came up so well too.







After spending sometime there, we had our breakfast and went back to our room to catch up remaining sleep. All three woke up around 10:30 and freshend up and left to kanyakumari. went to geographical south point to take a screenshot of the GPS location. Tried to go boating but again there was huge que standing for some three blocks. We went to sit on the beach for a while only to get tempted to take a swim. The water was so good and there were rocks which prevented waves from entering in. So at that point alone the water was so plain and transparent. We jumped straight in and enjoyed Indian Ocean.



Geographical south of India



Selfie time





Couldn't resist the temptation to take a swim

We roamed for a while and then started to room. It was 12 when we reached back room and since the swimming session we were feeling sleepy. So we slept for some time again, woke up had nice lunch nearby checked out the hotel and started to Madurai around 4:00 PM. It was some 250 Kms to Madurai. The initial plan was to have a look at madurai meenakshi amman temple then leave to dindukal for stay. Since the distance was less we rode very relaxed. We stopped en route at one shop near tirunelvi for a short break. Had coffee, roll cakes & bought the famous dindukal irutukadai halwa.



Short break around tirunelveli

It was around 6:30 when we noticed lot of fire cracker shops set up as Diwali was nearby. Then we figured out that we were nearby sivakasi, a major firework manufacturing city of India. The child in us came out and we all three agreed to buy and burst some crackers. For some 45 rs we got two packs of lakshmi vedi (Medium sized cracker) with a three color match box. Very Cheap!!





We enjoyed the moment thoroughly and celebrated an early Diwali. We had a small talk about the destination before starting and decided to stay at madurai itself. We booked a room on the way near menakshi amman temple and went straight there. It was 7:30 when we reached there, so we refreshed and went out to see around. Madurai Matuthavani bus stand is considered as the biggest one in TN, so we went over there to have a look. Then we tried the famous dindukal thalapakattu briyani too. After this we headed to a local small restaurant to enjoy the parota which very common in madurai with a salna. It was very tasty and cheap. 10rs for one parota, We had 11 of them with half boiled egg.

We headed over to the room and slept off.

Stats & Road condition:

Distance travelled: 350Kms

Kanyakumari - Madurai The road was very good four laned high way.

Re: The 2K Ride to southern tip of India(Kanyakumari)

Heard much about the Biryani at Dindigul and waiting to try it out on a ride next month to Kodaikanal. Nice pictures and thanks for sharing points and places of interest. Would appreciate if you could post an update of road conditions from Kanyakumari to Madurai

Re: The 2K Ride to southern tip of India(Kanyakumari)

Hi akshay,

Thanks for your comments.

Kanyakumari to Madurai is a beautiful four laned highway. You can easily maintain an average of 90KMPH speed. If you want to take break though the shops are limited, i suggest you to take a break when you see one. Cuz we skipped a few only to find barren land both sides of the road until tirunelveli.

If you want to try out real flavour of dindukal briyani and if you have enough time i insist you to take the pain of going inside of dindukal city from the by-pass road you would be travelling enroute kodaikanal. There is a small shop named Thalapakatti naidu which is there for a long time and will definitely be worth the it. Be warned it will be a small roadside shop though! Link below.

Wish you a good ride!

https://www.tripadvisor.in/Restaurant_Review-g1023973-d5912723-Reviews-Thalappakatti_Naidu_Biriyani_Hotel-Dindigul_Tamil_Nadu.html#review_314348019