4300 km in 13 days in a Maruti Baleno: Consumed Rs 29,000 worth of fuel

On this road trip, we covered four states and one Union Territory and had a lot of fun.

BHPian Ikran recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I have been itching to drive to the land’s end (Dhanushkodi) and Kanyakumari for the longest of time. This came true this summer post my daughter’s 10th Std exams, which called for a much-deserved break for her from studies and doing absolutely nothing for a few days.

Fired up our Sanganak (Computer - laptop) and started looking for places to visit, the time required, driving distance and most important – total Expense

We are a small team: Wife – Kiddo and Yours's Truly; With a few inquiries done with tour operators and friends, we were able to figure out a travel plan as under;

Mumbai (MH) – Bangalore (KA) – Munnar (KL) – Thekkady – Alleypey – Kovalam – Varkala – Kanyakumari (TN) – Rameshwaram – Dhanushkodi – Bangalore – Mumbai

The route changed as we started and this was the actual route we did;

Mumbai (MH) – Bangalore (KA) – Vellore (TN) – Kanchipuram (TN) – Pondicherry (UT) – Rameshwaram (TN) – Kanyakumari (TN) – Varkala (KL) – Allerppey (KL) - Munnar (KL) – Bangalore (KA) – Mumbai (MH)

All in about 13 days.

• Total distance covered – 4365 km
• Toll Expense – 5169/-
• Fuel Cost – 29141/-
• Stay Cost – costed us around 4-5k per night.

Here it starts: This will be a long post

2nd May - Day 1 - Home to Dharwad - 550 kms. Time taken - 09:30hrs

We started our drive from our home at around noon and with an aim to cover the maximum distance possible and reach Davangere (765 kms) by 10 pm. We could only reach Dharwad (550 km).

While we are used to driving on this stretch of NH4 regularly till Hubli-Dharwad (our native), drive was quite uneventful. Roads upto Kolhapur were not in good condition and has a lot of repair work going on leading to diversions and slow-moving traffic.

There's a new flyover being constructed near Belgaum to avoid waterlogging in the rainy season, however, this will add to the vows of locals at least for this season as it is far from being complete.

Beyond Belgaum, roads are in pretty good condition, which helped clock kms faster. I personally wanted to touch Davengere and save some driving kms for day 2, however, family wanted to call the day off and visit my sasural to take some rest for the drive ahead on day 2.

3rd May - Day 2 - Dharwad to Vellore - 650 kms time taken - 9:30 hrs

After a fulfilling breakfast at home and a lazy start (12 noon), we started to drive towards Vellore. We stopped for lunch at Pakashala (Sira) about 100 kms from Bangalore at around 4:00pm.

Pakashala is known to offer South Indian meals at reasonable rates and we did enjoy every bit of it. We took the NICE road to beat the Bangalore traffic and kept moving towards Vellore. While we did get a taste of the evening rush which delayed us by an hour.

The famous Bengaluru Traffic

We choose a little longer route to reach Vellore: -

Dharwad - Davangere - Bangalore - Hosur - Krishnagiri - Ambur - Vellore - Distance 648 kms for 2 reasons;

• Wanted to visit Ahmedia Hotel - Vaniambadi on highway (famous for its non-veg fare and tea). This hotel has been covered by Kripal Ammana (Youtuber) and has given amazing reviews.
• Wanted to visit Golden Temple at Sripuram, Vellore. It's a Shree Lakshmi Narayani temple which also houses Ganesh temple & Lord Balaji (Venkappa) temple inside. The main gopura of Shree Lakshmi Narayani is surrounded by water (similar to talyat la ganpati in Saras baug, Pune)

We stopped took a quick snack break at Murugan Idli and tasted their infamous Pudi idli and filter coffee. Idli was dunked in ghee and coated with red gun powder (pudi) and served on a banana leaf with 4 different types of chuttneys. Amazing to taste!

Idili 2 aur chuttney 4...bahut nainsafi hai re..!!

While we could not taste Ahmedia Hotel as we were already late and had plans to explore Sai Sangeeta enroute to Vellore.

Shortly after we reached Sai Sangeet near Vellore and stopped for dinner. This place is recommended to explore food and decor articles they offer on sale (Nice place to explore in case you are on this route. Good food and enuf to look around for a non-local).

Bholenath ki jai ho

Clay dangling

We reached Vellore by late evening and checked into our hotel.

4th May - Day 3 - Vellore to Kanchipuram to Pondicherry – 187 kms time taken - 14:30 hrs

Shree Lakshmi Narayani temple was just 3 kms from our stay and Vellore being a slow-moving city we didn't have any issues navigating through to the temple.

The main gopura of Shree Lakshmi Narayani is in a star-shaped pathway, which basically covers 1 pradikshana of the temple for devotees. At the entrance, we had to pay Rs. 100 each as entrance fees (not sure why one has to pay to enter the temple) later we realised maybe for up keeping of the place.

This temple is big and has a lot of staff members at every corner to guide visitors/non-locals. With less crowd earlier in the day, we were done with our darshan and moved on to our next stop Kanchipuram.

In TN, we found roads to be as smooth as silk and very less traffic (at least in the early hours of the day) made it possible to cover the distance faster than ETA given by google baba. Reached Kanchipuram by 12:35pm (time being precise as there’s a sad story to it).

Sri Kanchi Kamakshi Temple gopura

Kanchipuram is famous for its Kamakshi temple and silk sarees. Temple is closed from 12:30 pm to 4:00pm and we reached just minutes after it closed. Even after requesting and mentioning that we were driving all the way from Mumbai, the gatekeeper didn’t pay heed and asked us to wait till the temple opens.

I didn’t realise, we were being stalked by a saree shop guy, who had noticed that we were in a MH passing car and are late to enter the temple. This guy came forward and offered us assistance with cark park near the temple and suggested we get done with saree shopping and lunch as we had ample time with us.

Here on followed the most painful activity for me (wink), after spending good 2.5 hrs at the shop and selecting a few sarees, we headed to Sarvana bhavan for lunch. As usual, an amazing traditional South Indian oota was served on a banana leaf and we were quick to clean the slate and cool off our tummies.

Saree stack

Just about in time, we reached the temple and ensured we get in early in line and finish our darshan. Wife suggested we also visit the Golden Lizard – Varadjaraja Temple as well, as it is a norm to do so after visiting Kamakshi temple.

Varadjaraja Temple is just about 16kms from Sri Kanchi Kamakshi temple. Since we had some time to spare and as we were already delayed to reach Kanyakumari (Original plan) we went on with the flow.

Varadjaraja temple is two lizard statues made out of gold and silver nailed on the ceiling and it is believed touching these will rid one from the dosha of killing a lizard (in case you happen to hunt one).

We had our dinner on the way and reach Pondicherry at around 10:00 pm.

This stay of ours was located in French Colony and beach just 500 mtrs walk.

5th May - Day 4 - 435 kms Time taken - 8:45hrs - Pondicherry to Rameshwaram

Got up early and headed out for a walk to the beach. Pondicherry offered an amazing sunrise view with filer coffee to savor.

Hot and Fresh filter coffee

Family quickly joined me on the morning walk on the beach. We clicked a few pics and as sun started to show us his powers, we went back to the hotel for a clean up and breakfast.

Breakfast at the hotel was disappointing and we just had a little to start our day and get going. Post breakfast we visited the French colony and clicked some pics before we head to our next destination.

French Colony

With a traditional lunch on the way we kept our pace and we targeted to reach Rameshwarm before sundown to ensure we get a nice glimpse of the famous PanBam bridge which leads to Rameshwaram town.

Even SHs are well maintained in TN. Our administration in MH should take note of this and work towards earning some brownie points from tourists visiting MH or crossing our SHs.

Could not get a clear customary Pamban bridge as it was dark already and we were blocking the traffic on the 2-lane bridge. Clicked the pic though and moved on.

We reach Rameshwaram at around 8:30pm and called it a day.

6th May - Day 5 - 308 kms – Rameshwaram to kanyakumar - Time taken - 8:45hrs

Hotel staff suggested to go to the temple first and then head to Dhanushkodi as it was a weekend and temple would get crowded as the day goes along.

We took the lead and went straight to the temple at 7:30am. While this was our 1st time in Rameshwaram, we didn’t know anything about the 22 kunds and their significance before entering the main temple.

Inside Rameshwaram Temple

I must say non-locals can be easily spotted in the crowd. We were approached by an agent (they have a union and fixed rates for special darshan – 22 kunds and the main temple). He took us around and ensured we don’t get stuck anywhere to get bathed in those 22 kunds.

The main temple darshan also was arranged very conveniently and got a good glimpse of Mahadev. This arrangement costed us Rs. 1000 per person, in turn, saved us a lot of time and effort. Honestly, we could not have finished the darshan timely without this agent’s help.

Now comes the best part – The Land’s end.

Post temple, we reached hotel and finished our breakfast, packed our bags and checked out. Drove straight to Dhanushkodi (22 kms from Rameshwaram).

Entering Dhanushkodi, we were awestruck at the sight of the confluence of the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean, and water on both sides of the road made all the effort of driving worthwhile. This was the highest point for me on this road trip.

Waves at the Dhanushkodi beach

The ULTIMATE Land's End

We spent around 2 hours there enjoying every minute of it. Rain god blessed us with its presence as it rained a bit and made the experience even more enriching.

With a contained heart and a BIG grin on our faces, we started our drive towards the next milestone – Kanyakumari.

While navigating through SHs we did not find any good eatery for lunch, we stopped at this hotel in the middle of nowhere.

While we were a little late for lunch (around 4pm), they did serve us with daal and steamed rice (freshly made). It did not fill us, however, took care of us to carry on for a few more hours (till tea break).

We reached Kanyakumari at around 8:00pm and checked in to our hotel and called the day off.

7th May - Day 6 - 133 kms time taken - 5:00hrs Kanyakumari to Varkala

On checking with hotel staff, we were told to go to Sunrise point by 5:45am as it gets crowded very soon. Sunrise on Sunday was expected to be at 6:20am as per locals.

We woke up early and reached the sunrise point, which is right behind the Kanyakumari temple. Sight there was overwhelming, the rising sun giving us hope for a bright new day and opportunities to come to better our lives and enlighten our little ones (thoda senti ho gaya).

Kanyakumari Sunrise

Thiruvalluvar Statue

We couldn’t witness the sunrise as it was cloudy, however, liked the spirit around as many visitors had gathered and were eagerly waiting for the sun to rise. Spent some time around there and as we started to feel the morning heat, we went back to our hotel freshened up.

Post b'fast, we went to the temple to offer our prayers and booked ourselves on the ferry ride to the Swami Vivekanand Rock memorial. There are 2 types of tickets, normal costs Rs. 70 and special costs Rs. 300/- per person.

The ferries run continuously moving people from shore to shore. While the ferry ride lasts only 15-20 mins, once you are at the rock memorial, there’s no hurry at all to come back.

It was very breeze and gave some breather in our ongoing drive to stop and relax a bit. We stayed back for a couple of hours and then back in line to ferry back to the shore to start our drive to Varkala.

Google baba/mata took us through some bylanes not sure if that’s the correct route but we couldn’t pick up pace at all. We saw a few state transport buses taking the same route giving us confidence we are on the correct route.

Somehow, we managed to reach Varkala at around 7:00 pm and checked in to the hotel. Varkala is famous for its beaches and one of the main attractions is Jatayu – the Center of earth, it is told that bird Jatayu fell here when its one wing was cut off by Ravana while on his way back to lord Shri Ram delivering a status update on Sita mata (this language sounds so much like a corporate email.

8th May - Day 7 - 141 kms time taken - 5 hrs Varkala to Jatayv Center of earth to Alleppey

Varkala gave us a familiar vibe of Goa. The stay we booked was right on a cliff and had an amazing beach view with waves rushing through to the shore. We did some flea market shopping next to the hotel and then went in for dinner.

This hotel had an Ayurvedic spa attached to it, however, was closed at the hours we were there. We went to sleep at little early and wanted to start lazy the next day since we did not have a long drive ahead.

Next morning, post breakfast we made our way to Jatauy Earth Center. This setup is similar to Statue of Unity (SOU). Cost Rs.490/- per person, which includes cable car round trip to the center and access fee of Rs. 150. Tickets are to be purchased separately though.

This place a worth a visit to experience our mythology stories and to revisit and learn of what happened in that yug. This place has a nice big gallery with all possible information from Ramayana and Jatayu's attempt to save Sita mata from being abducted by Ravana.

The massive bird structure

From another angle

Surprise company

While on our way to Alleppey, we were suggested to reach the houseboat by noon and spend a night onboard. Since the houseboat we were hooked up with was not available on 9th May, we had to check into a hotel for a night.

We reached Alleppey later in the evening and checked into a hotel.

10th May & 11th May - Day 9 & Day 10- 115 kms time taken - 3 hrs – Alleppey to Alleppey houseboat to Munnar

Next morning, in no hurry at all, we woke leisurely as we had to reach the houseboat by noon. Post breakfast, we spent some more time at the hotel and checked out at 12 noon and started our drive to the houseboat. Being a non-peak season, our houseboat was fully sold out and was housing 6 families for the next 24 hours.

Cloud formation at Alleppey

Houseboat stay included – Welcome drink on arrival, lunch, Hi tea and snacks, dinner and breakfast the next day. Also a backwater tour of 5 hours, 3 hours around lunch time on day 1 and 2 hours at breakfast time next morning.

Houseboat

The backwaters

Rooms were cozy and clean, so to say. However, we were docked post our lunch ride. It rained a bit in the evening making it even more difficult to step out and explore anything else. Staying at a houseboat is only a one-time experience, nothing much to write home about. I will think 10 times before I do this again.

We checked out the next day post breakfast and started our drive to Munnar. This is when we felt for the 1st time, all good things come to an end vacation getting over.

We took the Kochi route, just as guided by locals. On the way to Munnar, we passed through Cheeyapara waterfall. A pleasant sight to behold. Stopped there for a while, clicked a few pics and moved on to Munnar. Stopped at Farmyard Hotel, Adimali for lunch. This is a nice restaurant, food served freshly cooked. The ambience of the hotel is also nice.

Cheerapaya Waterfall

We reached Munnar around 5:00 pm and checked into our hotel. We were excited to explore the cool weather and tea estates in Munnar.

As we had some time at hand, we went to witness the Kathakali dance and Kalaripayattu performances. Best thing was this place was exactly 200 mtrs from our stay, which made it even more easy.

Kalaripayattu artists

Kathakali dance performers

We checked with local cab drivers for their services, being a non-peak season they were quoting a lot for hardly covering 50 kms in all day, but taking us to few places.

Out hotel had a family from Pune visiting KL through Veena World. I spoke to the tour guide, he suggested we drive on our own as most places are nearby and he also gave us a few suggestions.

11th May - Day 10 Sightseeing in Munnar – 35 km

We had all day at our disposal, we started our day relaxed around 10am after breakfast. Went to the shooting point (where few movies have been shot) apparently it’s just the tea estate. Clicked a few pics and moved on to a tea factory nearby (Ripples Tea factory). Tasted some nice strong tea bought some for ourselves to savor back home and head to Eravakulam National Park.

Tea Estate

Eravikulam National Park

At the peak

This national park is said to have the highest point in South India. Not sure about that, but the views were stunning.

Visitors have to take a bus ride (and for a strong reason) roads are very narrow and in worse than pathetic condition.

Parked our car, booked the bus safari tickets (Rs. 200 per person) and waited for us bus to come. The good part about this bus safari is that there are more than 12 buses running continuously ferrying visitors to and fro, hence the wait was short-lived.

This national park also houses the famous Nilgiri Thar, however, we couldn’t sight them clearly. Got a glimpse of them from really far.

Reached the hotel, as we had skipped lunch, ordered tea and snacks. After some rest, we moved on to the Government Botanical Garden close to our hotel. There was a nice flower show and a musical fountain. There was a lot of tourist crowd there. Entry charge per person was Rs. 30.

Musical Fountain was a spoilsport as the first song they choose was the Pathan movie title song (this may to woo the crowd) followed by backstreet boys of nowhere. This song selection had us in splits and we started moving back to our hotel for dinner and some much-needed rest.

12th May - Day 11 – 477 kms time taken – 11 hrs – Munnar to Bangalore

This was the day we were not waiting for, the last day of our vacation. Now is the time to head home. We checked out of our hotel around 10am as it was going to be a long drive to Bangalore. We were told the first 150 kms or so roads were not good as we will be crossing the forest region, the balance 300+ kms were a good 6-lane highway.

We started to may steady progress and bid goodbye to Munnar until next time. Winding narrow roads pulled us back by an hour or so, which I think we covered on hitting the levelled tarmac.

Since we were all exhausted and sad about vacation coming to an end and heading home, we decided on no more pics pact.

Tension in the air started brewing as we heard CBSE Xth STD results were out and ICSE Xth STD results were expected soon. My daughter did her Xth in the ICSE board. Everyone was calm and quiet in the car and nervous to an extent kept moving ahead towards Bangalore.

We reached Bangalore around 8:30pm, and checked into a hotel to stay for the night.

13th May - Day 12 - 430 kms time taken 7 hrs – Bangalore to Dharwad

This marked the beginning of the end of our vacation and road trip. Started at around noon and took the NICE road to exit Bangalore and started moving towards Dharwad again to spend some time with my in-laws.
Drive back on NH4 was quite uneventful and with our no more pics pact in place, there were also no pit stops.

We reached Hubli around 6pm and stopped at Gurudut Bhavana for some tea and snacks. This eatery was on our list for a long time, ensuring this one is ticked too.

Reached home and relaxed and went off to sleep early.

14th May - Day 13 - 549 kms time taken 12 hrs - Dharwad to Home

Being at sasural, you can’t escape early, not if you have the ghar ki beti with you. As expected, started late around 11am and drove to Belgaum to visit my B.I.L. at his house. Spent some time there and then the final leg of our drive started heading towards Aamchi Mumbai.

On the way, we got the news that ICSE Xth STD results will be declared around 3:00pm. We reached Nipani, parked the car aside, and checked the result (daughter passed with flying colors). We started calling our family to share the good news and continued our drive back home.

We got stuck in a heavy traffic snarl near Karad, which pulled us back by at least 3 hours. We were expecting to reach Vashi by 10pm for dinner, after quite a struggle we made it to Pune around 10:30pm for dinner.

Met my twin brother for dinner at Sarja (a restaurant owned by the late Lata Mangeshkar), started our drive back home around 11:45pm and reached home at 2:30am on 15th May.

Started planning our next road trip… next up should be Udaipur and around.

Stay safe and Happy driving!

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