Chola - Chidambaram - Phase 1 - Chennai to Chidambaram

Started during noon after doing an early lunch . Estimated time to Chidambaram from Chennai- (velachery) is 5 hrs 15 mins . To cover around 225 Kms approx . Route planned to take is ECR , Pondichery , Cuddalore Chidambaram .

Decided not to stop anywhere till Pondicherry so that it will ensure major distance is covered . was able to stick to the plan . Tea buds started asking for the evening beverage ...Before getting into cuddaore there is 100 meters were road becomes one way and saw a hotel Ananta Bhavan . This is not A2B chain . But hotel was good .. new one .. neat and clean . They had some lodging as well on the top floors with a different name . Overall place was good . With some tea and vazhakkai Bhajji loaded started the next leg to Chidambaram

Idea was to hit temple before 7 pm as that is the time evening pooja is done . Traffic was not bad and was able to hit Chidambaram by 6.15 . Not bad for a start at 1.45 Pm .

Freshened up and planned to go to Nataraja temple . Booking was done near to a lodge near south car street . Walkable from there to the temple . Nataraja lodge is a basic lodge with all essential items required for. Day stay . 1500 Rs Maximum . You cann call and book or online also available.
 Entered temple by 6.45 and crowd was not much . Temple is indeed big . Have to really appreciate Chola kings for their marvel .  Temple has four entrance and identical in nature . So that will be main tip to the travellers. Ensure which direction you are entering and that will help to you to plan entire journey arouund temple . All restarants and shops are around these four streets surrounding temple . West street known as Mele Veethi has maximum shops .
Now main point - Chidambaram Temple


Chidambaram temple is famous for having all three roopas of siva widely known as Roopam(shape), aroopam$shapeless),rooparoopam(mixed).
Pooja happens 6 times a day . Chidambara Rahasyam is the opportunity to see rooparoopam when it opens for a minute during this six time. I visited morning 7 am and night 8 pm . Morning darshan was awesome. Night darshan will be good to stand at a point where you could see both Govindaraju swamy and Nataraja together .with all devotional chants and big bells of temple sounds it is mesmerising. Mahavishnu is in sleeping form ..ananthashayanam. A good one ....

 Summary
Places to stay
Nataraja Lodge
Akshaya

To eat
Lakshmi Vilas
Chennai Saravana Bhavan
Udupi vilas
Palagaram MI
Pallavi

Local Snacks
Casino Bakery group for cakes
Muthaliyar shop west street for halwa
Shanmugha Vilas


Please read the earlier series of this journey at Phase 0

Parambikulam overall Itinerary

December vacation for this year (2019) finalised to be with nature and fresh air . Zeroed into Parambikulam and  valparai . Initially planned 3-4 days and then adding couple more near by points made it into 6 days trip . Based on time availability each of the days (day 1 and day 6 below can be cut down)

Day 1 - Overnight train from Chennai to Coimbatore . ( can be changed to Udumalpet or Pollachi ) 

Initially was planning to drive but towards the end had to change as I had more members for the trip and mainly also due to a staff who will board in to our personal car at Parambikulam as a Guide .  

Enough train options from Chennai . Cheran seemed to be better as it reaches by 6.15 and you have whole day with  you 

Day 2 - Trip to Palani temple . 

Cab was arranged for round trip . Driver was dot at railway station to pick up . He has booked a small hotel for us to freshen up before heading to temple . Did freshen up at Pollachi) , Breakfast at Pollachi (Amutha Surabi, A2B, Gowri Krishna are main joints) .

Stay at Palani,Pollachi,or Valparai . I did at Valparai . But I wont recommend . If getting late you have to do a hill drive in the night

Day 3 - Valparai . 

Stay at Valparai . Morning walk in the plantation . Nirar Dam . Nallamudi View point

Day 4 - Valparai . Stay at Valparai

 Balaji Temple , SHolayar Dam , Local shopping

Day 5 - Travel to Parambikulam . Over night stay inside the forest

Monkey falls , Hornbill view point , Aliyar Dam .  Plan  4-4.5 hours from Valparai to Parambikulam if covering all these 

Day 6 - Coimbatore .  Stay at Coimbatore

 Marutha Malai temple , Isha Center ( travel time from city is one hour minimum . So overall plan 5 hours minimum for a relaxed visit) .

Return Train to Chennai -  Shatabdi in the evening felt a good option . There are various option based on your need 

Separate posts are being planned for some of the highlights .  

Any comments , please do post

Safari at Parambikulam

Safari at Parambikulam is seeing lots of takers with various option available now . First info to anyone planning to Parambikulam is that you dont have entry from Kerala and have to cross topslip which is part of Tamilnadu .
At the tamilnadu check post and kerala.chec post you will have to pay entry fees and vehicle charges.  There are safari vehicles arranged by forest department amd covers various parts of the forest in thwir vehicle .
If you have planned for an overnite stay then then that plan comes along with a safari and many other options. Thos safari for accomodation parties are done post 3.30 and will close by 615 or so. In one type of booking safari will be done by forest vehicle and in some other it will be your private vehicle .

Also when you have booked for accommodation forbeach group one staff from forest dept will be coming along with you  . So do plan for extra seat for the staff in your vehicle . I had to change my initial driving plan in my car due to this :-(

The staff assigned with you play a great role for your safari . Luckily we had a great guy , a real hero and real wild life enthusuastic - Natarajan .

He is having 20 years experience in this forest and had a good field exposure . However he is still not able to get permenant post and waiting eagerly this service year he could get that offer. He had good knowledge on various birds , different type of animals and trees. As much you are interested he is ready to engage . Some simple facts he told about elephants like it needs 200 L of water a day and 300 Kg of food . As per him elephant is an intelligent animal who could detect fresh water presence , understand the stability of soil before it puts a step . The number of muscles the trunk of elephant having and how much task it could do with trunk .
Hats off Natarajan . All the best.

Chola Visit - Chidambaram - Phase 0 - Plan

The idea was to start something which has temple , scenic , history and within 300 KM . All these spots required to satisfy all the members in the group .  Yes house members .. Wife , kids , in laws and myself (driver) With that in mind decided to cover chidambaram for this season .  The whole plan was made into 3 days plan .

Temples -
Chidambaram Nataraja
Sreekazhi - Sathanathar
Karaikkal  - Shaneeswar
Vaitheeswaran Koil - Mars . Vaitheeswaran
Scenic
Pitchavaram  -  Never miss

Historic
Gangai Konda Cholapuram - Cant be missed if you have any element of interest to history .

All these can be covered keeping Chidambaram or Vaitheeswaran koil as base . I did one day at Chidambaram and two days at Vaitheeswaran .

Overall Route Plan

1(Chennai) - 5 (Karaikkal)

I will cover each in subsequent phases on how I went about these . 

Gingee Fort - A weekend visit from Chennai . Part 1

A quick plan to cover some nearby location from Chennai to drive . This thought was there for  some time and finally zeroed into a plan which suits 2 days and one night plan .  This includes a plan to keep Turuvannamalai as the base and to see around . As part of this first spot was Gingee fort . I will cover this in part 1 and as early possible will publish Tiruvannamalai and Sathanur Dam in subsequent publish

Decided to start the journey early in the morning . But however when you are driving there is no hard time like a flight and train and bound to get some delay . So from planned 6 am departure the journey started only by 6.45

Trip meter all set to start 

Tripometer made to 0 and ready for start . To Gingee it is around 140 km and overall Tiruvannamalai around 175km . You can plan overall trip around 3hrs 30 mins plus . Unexpected traffic snarl at tambaram . So many buses piled up and took some decent time away . This was not expected on a Sunday morning . After that again slowed down near the first toll . They started opening up further counter to avoid rush . In that process some of the cars in front of me and behind me were let off free . Thanks for the policeman 😏

It was crossing 8am and kids started hinting on breakfast halt . I told them we should hit at least Chengalpet or Madurantakam to have bfast . That worked and they were silent till crossed Madurantakam . But luckily saw ad of Murugan idly a newly opened restaurant in that belt post madurantakam . My initial list of choices were Manoj Bhavan , Balajee Bhavan and Arya Bhavan . These were usual breakfast stops in that road and for a change tried to taste at the new Murugan idly one . This is 70 km from Guindy . Took one hour 30 mins because of Tambaram delay

This place has been done nicely . Parking is available and rest room are net and clean (might be because it is still new) . It is built away from the main building which gives lot of freshness feel .
Had to wait as there was crowd . Looks lot of people are experimenting the new outlet .

Murugan Idly Hotel at Madurantakam

Then charging with breakfast car took off to Tindivanam from where a right turn(while driving from Chennao) to be taken towards Tiruvannamalai . From that point another 32 kms to Gingee fort and 66 kms to Tiruvannamalai . You will see a sudden increase in people and traffic when reaching around Gingee . It is speacial graded town and you can see some extra shops . After that you can see two signs one is Raja Mahal and Rani Mahal . These are the entrance point for the Gingee fort . Raja on the left side and Rani on the right . if you just want to do a quick trek of 1 hr then get into Rani . I took the left as the there are many places see and 3 hours trek . However finally I had to avoid trek as in the bassement itself it took 2 hours .

Parking took 40 Rs and entry tickets of 25Rs . No tickets for kids . Amazed to see a fort near Chennai and too in a different style apart from Chola and Pallava which we see usually . There are different description about it but really liked the place and the maintenance . Main spots which you should not miss inside are Marraige Hall , Elephant Talk , bamboo trees , Granaries .

Marraige Hall view are below

tower building

Marraige hall stage view from top of the tower

view of granariies from top

Elephant Tank

Banyan Trees .

Good to see a lot of banyan trees which is a rare sight in Chennai . Also we all used its hanging roots and did some swings

Granaries
Huge granaries with different compartments and different holes to see from outside to see levels . There is also provision to go and see

Really enjoyed this place for 2 hours . There were lot of people who were coming back after visiting the top . Kids were not in a mood to do 3 hrs trek (up and down inclusive) . But everyone was giving a good remark on the top view .












With that we returned to the car and I could see lot of barricade work being done to prevent the crowd for Kaanum Pongal . They exppect a huge turn out at this fort during those days . So better to avoid . I would definitely recommend this with kids and family trip .

Pulicat -A one day trip from Chennai

Started from Chennai at 8 . Initial plan was to start by 7.15 am .Driver delayed as his previous day trip got delayed and completed only by 2 am . However the delay start helped to see republic day flag hoisting in the apartment . Yes , this trip was done on Jan 26th .

Pulicat -  Dec to Jan end . Preferable time ... Morning hit the place by 9.30 to 10.30 max .
Low tide and high tide . morning will have more land base along with backwater making more birds to come .

In the group there were varying discussions on where is pulicat and how to approach it .
finalised to take Sriharikota (yes , rocket launching station) route from Sullur peta . It is almost 15 kms from main road . But roads are there not bad . Either side before reaching Sriharikota ( a stretch of 7 kms) you can see lake beds on both sides of the road and if lucky (yes really have to be lucky) then you can spot flamingos,storks, sparrows , some black pelican etc .  We got one research center and got down thinking this is the destination we were waiting for . Picture .

From there another 4 kms you reach Sri harikota . You need permission from an employee to go inside . But being a holiday they told it is not useful as nothing will be open . however a picture has been clicked from outside .

This time the rain being less the birds are not much and we could see mainly dried up lake bed at many places . we got down and walked at some places to go near to the bird . Picture . There are some view points constructed but there were no birds visible from the designated spots . Any one local person told us that in previous years there used to be birds and this year is worse .....

ALSO main thing , there are no boats available from any stretch of this road . We were under the impression boats will be available . Then at research center we got a caretaker and did map analysis . SO we understood from the broken telugu which we spoke to care taker that nothing much is possible in the current location and have to go to TADA for boats . Boat will take you to some island from there . We reached TADA and took a turn and stopped at a shop to confirm . From the information got from there , we understood near peruvayal (ponneri route) there is better boating place -  Pulicat point or better known as Pazhaverkada. In the google maps era , locallites finally help to It is 19 Kms from the main road . And could take 40 mins . But roads were good  . You can take left at Thatchur or Peruvayal

Reached Pazhaverkadav and roads suddenly becomes narrow at the end of the journey . As you reach there will be lot of boatsman will start coming behind you asking to take you for boat journey . I wouold suggest you take the car straight till the new bridge which comes up and there is a designated parking space. You can get lot of boats are there ..

Good one hour boat ride ... Could cost around 1000 rs . For 10-12 people in a boat . Again only one caution from my side is to ensure you don't have more than 12-15 jn a boat. Most of these boats are fishing boats and beyond that we carry risk.

Boat takes you near to a bird flocking place , to the beach and then to a desert . People come and do camping at these island .

One main thing to remind you there are no good shops in the entire stretch near Pulicat so do carry whatever you need like water , food items .

We took Vadapalani , koyambedu , Puzhal , NH 16 road . We reached back around 8 .
A good end for the day with lot of birds and good boat ride into sea...

Main points -  Start early . Try to reach before sun has become intense

Carry Binoculars , Caps , Water and snacks .

Tirupati to Tirumala on foot

Divine time !!  It is Tirupati trip .
Have been to Tirupati many times but I would say this is second trip which was planned on foot . Climbing up on foot I always recommend to do as group as it helps in many ways to reach the top with ease . Since it was second trip many were confident of doing it but still some had worried face considering the long climbing


The starting point of travel was Chennai with six people . We decided to take one of the guys ertiga as vehicle this time . Last time we had tempo traveler since we had bigger crowd . Considering "Lessons Learnt" from last trip we decided to start early . 6.15 am was set as the starting point from Porur Signal .


by 7.05, we were at Tiravallor . Our usual bfast spot , Perambur Srinivasa Restaurant , was ready with new kolam in the entrance. First time seeing less crowded and all were happy . The bfast items are usually good here and all enjoyed dosas, vadas , idlies and some were not able to control the temptation of various snacks and sweets they had to offer . So I would recommend this as good spot as break point in both direction . We took the Turvallur - Tiruthanni route and TADA route . Surprising we had a good misty ride . It is like a fortune to see for Chennaites mist in 100 Kms distance . Some pics from the car where our friend who is at wheels trying hard to move the car .

Mist around

100 mts visibility only

By 9.30 we hit Tirupati and took one of the earlier exits from freeway and had to travel through the city instead of directly exiting near the tirumala route .


We took the car up after all screening of luggages at the starting point . There is a check on each vehicle if you reach before 28 minutes on top . This is to restrict overspeeding of vehicles . Roads are very good and it is one way . So you can easily drive up and not to be concerned who are driving up hill for first time drivers .


the next phase after reaching on top is the most confusing part .. I call it as Tirumala stay and darshan "Administrative Operations" . Since we are going through some recommendation we had VIP darshan . So there are some formalities to be done on the prior day for the same . samething for the stay . Please carry Xerox copy of id proof if you are going through that route . We struggled for Xerox copies in the top . There are different offices based on the rates where you have to get the accommodation done . We went to padmavathy complex which does 1500 Rs and above rooms . Luckily it was not a very rush and not much queue . We got two big rooms with 3 beds for 3000 Rs each . Did the required formalities for darshan . Tickets will be issued only after 6.30 pm on the prior day . It has to be collected from a bulding no as messaged in your sms . We checked in to the allocated rooms and parked car .


Next main discussion was on the lunch plan . The regular place in our earlier visit was Bhimas . But with lot of new input we have changed the restaurant to Mayura International . This is near to Fortune . So we decided to get a jeep from top and come down . Jeep charges 600 Rs for down journey . Since we were 6 people we took full jeep and came down . If you are alone you can also pay 100 Rs per person and cme down .


Mayura International is a must dine in place if you like South Indian meals . Since the main restaurant area was full , we were given a separate private room with . This had TV , separate rest room and all tables arranged . All ordered South Indian meals and it had everything what you ask for a typical telugu meals . Curd was one of the best which we all tasted recently . There was some thing special called Kollu rasam which as per the Chef had 8 hours of preparation time .

Milestone 2

Since one of the main milestone was getting over of having a good lunch the thought started tickling in for climbing up the hill . With so heavy lunch many were not feeling whether they could do it . There were different discussion and one of the suggestions of not doing the regular path which we have done earlier and go for a new steps to climb up . Discussion with local people and hotel staff we understood there are two main ways for people to climb up . One point is what people usually use which is near to the vehicle checking point . This route is called ALIPIRI route . It has almost 11 kilometer and will take less than 4 hour time . Has more than 4000 steps and there are mainly 7 hills .. First and last one more testing ones .

The other route is not that frequented by visitors and that is supposed to be original one as per some locals but opened up now only and it is back side of the hill . It is called as SRIVARI METTU  It is 30 mins drive away from the city and 20 Km away . Either you have to take bus or jeep to reach there . The route is towards Srinivasa Mangalapuram . The interesting part of this side is that it takes less than 90 mins to reach and only has 2200 steps . The other major difference is that there are no shops in the route and be ready to even get water only at the top unless you are carrying yourself . This is not the case with Alipiri route . It is like picnic and you can see many shops with lot of varieties to chose from throughout your journey . There is some time limit at this route compared to Alipiri which is open througout . We have done a late night climbing as well .

The entry at Srivari mettu is very pleasing and it has some calmness to attract .

beautiful garden with Siva idol 

Not allowed to walk with footwear

So we took One hour exactly to reach with no major stops in between . The way is very clean as there is no much commercial shops along the way . However all of us struggled half way through for quenching the thirst as we didnt carry water . Towards the end we saw one guy selling tata gluco . This helped . Halfway through similar to other route you will be getting a tag done with a picture taken . This tag serves as entry ticket for special darshan who have come on foot . This queue is far better than a dharmadarshan and usually will finish in less than 2 hours . On the way when you get time or taking rest there are some good spots on the back side which will give some good refreshing mind to continue climbing

If there is any feedback or any clarification required please do mail me