I've been itching to do a long drive in the Figo ever since we got it in June. My sister's kid's head-shaving ("mottai") at Alagar Kovil near Madurai provided the perfect opportunity. We turned that into a
Madurai + Alagar Kovil + Munnar + Thanjavur trip (6 days).
Around 1300 kilometers of awesome driving in the Figo. The car did great, overall mileage was 18.6 before we hit the hills (just before Theni) and 17.6 after coming back from the hills (calculated at Thanjavur). Top speed I touched was 145, and the car had much more juice left but I didn't have the guts to accelerate further.
As you can see, I'm not much of a writer. So I will try to keep this brief and upload the photos.
SATURDAY:
We started from Chennai in the night (Friday night). Except my wife and myself, the others in the family all preferred to travel in a sleeper bus starting at 9:30pm. The original plan for my wife & self was to start next morning, but we couldn't sleep, so we locked the house and started at 11:30 pm. It was thick truck and bus traffic till Uthiramerur, after which the drive was fast and without incident. The wife slept off and I just kept driving, without a single stop. Speed varied between 80 to 100, and I didn't want to do more than that in the night time. I encountered several trucks which were aimlessly drifting between lanes with their sleepy drivers (!). But I was wide awake with not a trace of sleep, and kept myself extra cautious about these sleepy drivers. I promised myself that I would pull over and take rest at the slightest hint of sleep, but I didn't feel sleepy at all. Well, I had taken a couple of hours sleep before starting, maybe that's why.
At around 5:30 AM we were in Madurai. I called mom asking if their bus had reached, and whether they had checked-in. It turned out they were just reaching the outskirts of Madurai! We were 2 hours behind, but we had overtaken them somewhere. But I was confused with the routes inside Madurai, and fiddling with my iPhone for a long time trying to get a GPS signal. It finally didn't, and then I tried using my Android phone (LG Optimus One) and voila! It gave me clean, simple turn-by-turn voice directions straight to the hotel.
Side note: I kinda used this trip as a "practical test" of iPhone vs Android - using an iPhone 3GS and an Optimus One running Froyo. On both I installed Vodafone sim cards with the exact same plan (Rs.98 GPRS plan), configured push mail and Facebook push notifications. As it turned out, the Android out-performed the iPhone in almost all aspects. It would get mail, but the iPhone would say "connection to server failed". It would get FB notifications several minutes before the iPhone would. And GPS... as I mentioned above, in Madurai and Munnar when I really needed it, the Optimus one's built-in offline GPS app "NDrive" is the only thing that worked. I did have "Mobile Maps India" installed on iPhone as well, but it didn't pick up GPS signal in most places. Except graphics and games, the Android out-performed the iPhone in all other aspects. Well, enough of this side note I guess.
So as it turned out, we all entered the hotel at the same time - both the bus party and us. Talk about coincidence huh. It was early morning, and I wasn't feeling sleepy (!) after driving some 450 kms non-stop. So we all had a bath and went out looking for the famous "Murugan Idli Kadai" for breakfast. We had great idlis and vadas, and I have to say the place is worth every bit of the hype. This one in Madurai is the original, and the ones in Chennai are its branches.
After breakfast we returned to the hotel and we were talking for some time, and I dozed off without realizing. Someone woke me up and said lunch. I said, ok. Surprisingly I did feel hungry already. We went to a nearby hotel and had a normal thali lunch. After lunch, we went to the temple area and the ladies wanted to do some shopping. I just tagged along as I'm not much of a shopper, so I just helped carry stuff and clicked photos.
Then for dinner I wanted to treat my wife to the famous non-veg place in Madurai: "Amma Mess". (you see, I had done my research on what to look for where in Madurai.. he he). The rest of the family (including me) is vegetarian, so no one joined us. We had a great dinner in Amma Mess, returned to the hotel and went to bed early. Parking is a problem in Madurai, so once I had plonked my car in front of (behind, actually) the hotel, we did all running around in autorickshaws. Much easier, and also it gives a "feel" of the place like driving oneself doesn't.
SUNDAY:
Today was the d-day for the "mottai" (head-shaving) for my sister's kid. The event was scheduled not in Madurai itself, but another place called "Alagar Kovil" which is some 20 kms away. Alagar Kovil is supposed to be as old as the Madurai Meenakshi temple itself, and is a famous temple in its own right. The temple is situated in what looked like the ruins of an old fort. My mom later told me that it used to be the old Madurai fort. Driving there was a breeze, but once we reached there we had a small incident. I was trying to park the car and on the left front side there was a small vessel (metal pot). It was so small that I didn't see it, and ran straight into it. A local woman appeared from nowhere and made a scene. I calmly parked the car, got out and apologized. Of course, she wanted money. I thought, ok its my fault - and gave her the money she asked for (1000 bucks!). It definitely wasnt worth that, but I've seen enough instances of locals damaging cars in such incidents, so I just gave her the money she asked. Then my brother in law and his brother got into a long argument with her and took the money back from her and gave it to me. She wouldn't accept a lesser amount. I was worried they were going to damage my car after we went into the temple, but luckily that didn't happen.
We did the mottai ceremony and bathed the child. Went into the temple and spent some time there. Old temple, I mean really old. The temple has a nice atmosphere. The famous "Alagar Kovil Dosai" was available luckily. After that, we drove to a nearby hillock called "Pazhamudir Solai" nearby and visited the temple there. Evening was spent around the Meenakshi Amman temple, shopping, shopping, more shopping. Overall we had a great time at Madurai!
One thing we noticed about Madurai is that the locals are very polite. They don't use abusive language at the drop of a hat, which is a surprise for a Chennaite like me. We loved the way the locals talk and the way they live. Food also seems very clean and tasty. Seems to be a grand, self-sufficient, proud city.
On the way to Alagar Kovil:
Alagar Kovil tower:
Some renovation work going on at Alagar Kovil tank: