Vikas Gopalakrisnan

Bangalore to Horsley Hills

2009-08-30T00:00:00.000+05:30

Here is all the information you want to reach Horsley Hills from Bangalore by road. There is absolutely only one route that you have to take to reach Horsley Hills. The details are as given below:

Bangalore => Hoskote => Chintamani => Madanpalli => Horsley Hills.

Detailed route to Horsley hills is given below:

(1) From Bangalore, go towards KR puram from wherever you are. Ask for the cable bridge. You can infact see this bridge from anywhere close to KR puram. The only confusion you can have is to climb the bridge!. (believe me i was lost when i went to KR puram for the first time.). Once you get on the bridge (you are on NH4 / Chennai road), it is about 22 km to reach Hoskote.

(2) From Hoskote, you will have to deviate from the NH. Just after crossing Hoskote, you will have to take a left to go towards Chintamani. Thee was enough boards informing this when i went there last. Note that this is also the same deviation you will have to take to reach Cudappah (Andra). From Hoskote to Chintamani, the roads are pretty decent and you should cover this within an hour (roughly 58 kms).

(3) you can actually proceed till Madanpalli even without entering into Chintamani village. THe good thing is that the road you actually enter Chintamani by deviating from the SH and its easy to not enter Chintamani. From Chintamani Madanpalli is about 54 kms and no issues with the roads again. The roads are decent with a couple of restaurants (dhabas) near to chintamani too. This again should not take more than an hour of travel in any way.

(4) When you reach Madanpalli, ask for the road to reach Anantapur. This is actually NH205 (Chennai - Anantapur). Horsley hills should be about 18 kms from here.

About Horsley Hills:
...plz wait .information is on the way

Best Time to visit Horsley Hills:

The best time to visit horsley hills is during october - february.

Let me know anything else you want to know. Please put in your comments and i usually respond within a couple of days.

Weekend Trips From Bangalore

2009-08-23T21:49:00.001+05:30

Here is a good collection of weekend trips that you can take from Bangalore. Most of these places are less than 200 kms to keep travel time well less than 4 hours including city traffic. The general tip that I can give however is to leave as early as possible from Bangalore so that you avoid city traffic.

1. Nandi Hills ( < 100 km from Bangalore)

Start from Bangalore towards Bellary road and reach Devanahalli cross. The road is really good now and you can make it within 20 min from Hebbal any time of the day. Take the deviation on the left and travel 11 kilometers to reach Nandi cross. This road is not the best and make sure you dont miss it. On the Doddaballapur road, turn right to reach the road that leads to the top of the hill. You need to travel about 9 kms with 17 pin bends to reach the top.

Apart from tippu drop, there is ample space to sit and laze around. The best time to go here is during October - January which is peak winter. Otherwise any other day when you feel the weather is pleasant. Early morning should be the best time and you may not be allowed to stay beyond 5.00 pm there.

2. Mysore

Needs no introduction. There are enough places to see here in two full days. The ideal trip to Mysore should include 2 evenings; one of Brindavan gardens and other for the palace. Know that the palace is lit only on weekends and during Dushera.

3. Belur , Halagidu and Sharavandabelagola.

All the three places come within a 65 km radius and the best place to stay would be hassan. Hassan has a good number of hotels to stay and its also reasonably priced. Also Hassan should be a good place to return to at night if you are not able to complete all three places at one go.

It might happen that you will need more time, that too if you are like me who want to take snaps of all the scuptures in Belur and Halegidu. Shravanabelagola might not take more than 2 hours to see as it is a small place.

The best time to visit this place is again winter becuase there is not much share in belur / halebidu and the whole experience can go wrong if the day is too hot.

A list of not so good places.

This is the list which I personally wanted someone else to give me. Out of my experience, a lot of near to Bangalore places mentioned in so many websites are in reality not worth it. The reason may be because the place itself has lost its glory, or is seasonal. I have made it a good point to mention the best time to visit the place whereever I can.

Some people may differ with the examples I have given below. Please feel free to comment on this and I will add yours along with your name/bloglink if you want to add few more

1. Bannerghatta National Park : ( < 35 km )

I remember having visited this place so many times in my childhood. I have been here recently and dont feel there are enough animals (or at least I did not see many) to call it a National Park. My friends still argue that the Safari is worth, but I could spot only a single bigcat during my trip. There is no scope for night safari either that makes this less interesting.

2. Charles bandi : ( < 90 km)

This is an old fort cum garage (if i could call this). This was supposedly a collection of previous generation vehicles from mass people carts, hunting carts, some very old diesel vehicles, some old mass transportation system, etc, etc. This seems interesting, but unfortunately there are only a few of these vehicles.

For people who still want to try, this place is about 20 km from Channapatna on Mysore Road. Take a deviation on right about 5-6 km after crossing Channapatna towards Mysore and travel about 15 km and ask for mogenahalli.

For me first it was difficult to find this place and then I felt it was not worth it.

3. Big Banyan Tree OR dodda alada mara ( < 100 km from Bangalore)

The tree is really big and astonishing. But make sure you plan something else along the way like Mysore or Srirangapatna. You may not need more than a couple of hours to spend there.

This is it, please comment on this and let me know what you think are the additions.

Driving on a highway - Palio Special!!

2009-08-21T22:39:00.019+05:30

There is an earlier post which has some good driving tips for a highway.The blog is here.

Here are some tips for Palio owners. All of these are what i have personally experienced or heard from really dependable sources.

Preparation -

This is easy. Not at all something you should worry about. But still here are some important pointers.

1. You can fill in about 43 litres of fuel. Its good to know your mileage and route plan well in advance as the fuel indicator in Palio is not the best in it's class. I have had false alarms sometimes.
2. There are "Blind Spots". Know them well. Blind spots are areas of the road, that are not visible from inside your car using just the rear view mirrors. Of my experience, the rear view mirrors in Palio is insufficient for the size of the car.
3. Driving in the night is easy on a Palio when compared to other cars that i have driven. The double barrel lights on Stile seems more than enough, but there is a catch. I had had a tough time while driving uphill in pitch darkness around where I felt my high beam was of no use when i wanted to focus. My mechanic at the service station says he corrected this but have not tried e same since then.
4. Some may not agree but with ac on, i have had difficulty overtaking in Palio. So make sure you dont plan steep revs while overtaking.

These are some of the ones i thought was important. Please comment on this and I will make additions along with links to your blogs in case you need it.

Bangalore to Tirupati - Kalahasti

2009-08-14T00:44:00.012+05:30

Here is all the information you need to know about how you can reach Tirupati or Kalahasti by road from Bangalore. There are two routes you can take to Tirupati. The pros and Cons are given below:

Route 1:
Bangalore - Hoskote - Chintamani - Madanpalli - Pileru - Chandragiri - Tirupati - Kalahasti
Distance = 321 km

Pros:
(1) You probably can travel faster here. Most roads are 2 lane only but there is very little traffic. After Madanpalli especially traffic is so thin and you can maintain really good speeds.
(2) There are some really spectacular sights after Manadanpalli until Chandragiri. If you take your family along you might have some good places to take snaps.
(3) This is also a better route now considering the work going on in NH4. You probably can travel to Tirupati faster than on Route 2.

Cons:
(1) No good hotels / eateries. You do find restaurants around Mandanpalli but dont expect too much quality in food.
(2) After Madanpalli until Chandragiri there are not much signboards (fewer in English). This can be a problem. However anyone should be able to guide the route for Tirupati or even ask for Ranigunta in that case.

Route 2 :
Bangalore - Hoskote - Kolar - Mulbagal - Chittoor - Nendragunta - Tirupati - Kalahasti
Distance = 296 km

Pros:
(1) You get good number of restaurants / hotels. You have Kamat Yatri Nivas as well as CCD just after Kolar. There are a couple of good restaurants in Chittoor too.
(2) Roads in AP are spectacular. NH4 in KAR is bad now because of the widening happening all along until KAR border.

Cons:
(1) As of July, 2009 there is road broadening work going on on NH4 starting from near Hoskote until Karnataka border. Though this is the route even state buses ply along for Tirupati - Kalahasti, dont expect this route to be any good until this project gets over. Infact when i went along a couple of months back, we really regreted this route.
(2) Not safe compared to route 1 in case you want to drive in the night. This is also becuase of the ongoing work on NH4. There are way too many speed breakers which are unmarked adn absolutely no signboards all along till KAR border.

I have travelled on both the routes and are tested ones. At the moment i would prefer to travel by Route 1 and would even recommend the same to others who want to travel by car/van.

Please post your comments if you have something to say on this.

Prepare your car for a long drive !!

2009-08-10T10:40:00.011+05:30

Driving on a highway can be fun. But can be the most disastrous if not planned well. Here are some tips to prepare your car for the long drive you have been looking forward to.

Please feel free to comment on any point that you think should be added/removed. I am not going to add points such as check engine oil, check brake oil, etc, but will try to give high level points that you should not forget while starting a long drive.

1. Make sure you have read the troubleshooting tips section on the user manual of your car and also carry the same. This gives the primary information you would need in case of any troubleshooting during your travel. I include in this point itself that it really makes good sense that you carry all your documents too. This is the best driving tip you can ever follow.

2. It is never a good idea to take your vehicle for a long drive just after your service. Make sure you have travelled a good 30 to 50 km before you start on a long drive.

3. Air pressure: Keep the air pressure low in case you believe most of your travel is going to be on cold weather or on hilly region or in the night. Lower the air pressure, better will be the grip on the roads (of course with a little loss in mileage).

4. Make sure your spare wheel is in good condition and you have a working wrench and jack. Nowadays you even get a battery operated ones which should save good time/effort for replacing your tyres.

I personally have a tyre guage and a air filler and would recommend people to have the same (it should together not cost more than Rs 1500 in Bangalore,India). It does make sense to reduce air pressure if you travel in a hot sun averaging 65kmph continuously for about 3 to 4 hours. The air gets heated and hence your tyre tends to bulge at the side. If your air pressure is high, chances are that it might burst.

Tyre burst when you are travelling even at low speeds of 40kmph can be dangerous. So it is best to avoid this situation by reducing the air pressure.

5. Make sure you carry about 5 to 8 litres of water just in case. You will need water most when your engine is really hot, or you are driving on a really dusty road and you want to wipe your windscreen/windows clean, etc.

6. If you are planning to drive at the night, it makes good sense to carry a torch. Consider a situation where you have to replace your tyre somewhere around midnight. you can never even imagine it without a good torch.

OK...there are some of them out of a lot more i care to share of the driving tips. Let me know if anyone needs any specific information also about driving on a highway.

Driving on a highway !!

2009-08-09T22:16:00.012+05:30

I should have completed about 10,000 kms on a 4 wheeler thats just about an year old now..and in no way consider myself an expert in driving. About 70% of my driving has been on highways and I am one in the group that thinks that anything less than 500 km ought to be covered on a car instead of bus/train(leave alone flight).

Here are some tips for making your long drive a pleasant one. Many of the tips I have mentioned below should hold good for those whose driving skills are upto average.

First and foremost plan who all are going to drive. In my experience it is always good fun to drive for long periods of time but still it is a good idea to take a break every 4 hours or 200 kms whichever is earlier. Also having one experienced person amongst a group of 4/5 should really be of help.
For those who plan to drive, make sure you have had enough rest and that you don't feel tired in any way while you start.
Check my other post "Prepare your car for a long drive" (coming soon)
Take care to drive slower while you enter a village/town or a city. You tend to maintain the same speed as you traveled on the highway even after you enter a village/town/city.
Don't ever switch off you car driving down hill (I always do that on my bike!). You power steering does not work and your braking is also not powered when the ignition is off.
Maintain lane discipline whether or not others do. This is the only proven way to a safe drive on a highway.
Sounding horn is no match for the quick high beam to ask for way on a highway. I usually want to do this inside city limits also but never usually works. But believe me, driving on a highway is usually more organized and except for a few rash drivers, most of the vehicles do follow rules.
Have a perfect grip on the steering at all times. Make sure you bring back the steering wheel after a turn and not wait/rely on it to automatically come to position. This holds good especially when you are driving faster than 60 kmph.

Driving in the night

Check my other post "Prepare your car for a long drive" (coming soon) for some startup tips you need to drive the night.
Let there be a reason for driving in the night. This reasoning is personal but try and avoid travel in the night if you are not really confident.However there are some really good reasons for traveling in the night.
Of most places i have been (generally south india), there are not many signboards to tell you about the deviations you might have to take. So plan your route in advance as you dont want to search for someone who can guide you in the night!
National highways are better, but beware of district roads and bypass roads. These may not be secure and dont stop at anything that is suspicious.
Make sure you know if a route is getting closed in the night. This is common and the timings/rules change frequently. Make sure you call the district admin or forest department for this information. You dont want to be stranded in the night in a forest and wait till it is 6.00 am.

Ok, now these were only those which i could recollect. I wll add new items as i get them. Meanwhile feel free to give you comments to this post.

And here comes Palio Stile!

2008-07-20T09:04:00.009+05:30

It was after a 21 day wait that i got my hands on Palio Stile once i paid for it. This is my first car and i had been holding on a lot of my work just to drive home this 'gaadi'.

Now after about 25 days from the day i have got this vehicle, i have done around 1300 kms. Been to Kaalahasti/Tirupathi and to Tiptur (near to Hassan district). I reached top speed of 100 on two occasions but kept myself to less than 85 most of the time. Stile has been absolutely superb to handle for me, sometimes making me wonder if i would have been happier with any other vehicle.

Saying this because a lot of people around me were not especially happy with me going for Palio Stile.There has been more than one instance where i 'decided(!)' not to go for Palio Stile. I was somehow lucky that my decision!! was so 'indecisive.'

Here is another snap:

Here is another:)

Welcome to my Blogpage(!)

2008-06-13T21:40:00.002+05:30

This is my first blogspace .....I have just created one with no idea what to post here. But i have always felt i have to put my thoughts on paper (read e-paper).