It’s always a joy to drive home and if the road leading is filled with scenic beauty your up for a double treat. Such is this route Bangalore to Coimbatore passing through Kanakapura , Malavalli , Kollegal , Chamarajanagar , Hasanur & Sathyamangalam.
I prefer this route over the Highway as its more refined and leisure (expect for Dhimbham ghat section). Few picture for you
Enough of red !!
If your still not amused, with in few kms you can reach Shivanasamudra falls.
Now its time for Elephants, Karnataka – Tamil Nadu boarder Hasanur
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If its your lucky day you would be chased by an elephant with your annoying camera shutter bust
Dhimbham ghat section which is known for huge traffic jam due to truck break downs.
Kodanadu view point is a must visit viewpoint in Niligris, located 18 kms away from Kotagiri . The road leading to the view point is nestled around picture perfect green tea gardens. At the view point you could see the spectacular panorama view of Sathiyamangalam Reserve forest, Bhavanisagar reservoir , Moyar river running along and the distant paddy village Thengumarada. Its best to visit the place between 10 AM to 2 PM as fog /mist might cover up the place later in the afternoon.
My workstation HP DV6 is almost 4 years old, all these years it has collected dust almost each bit of it. With the noisy fan, over heated side panel and occasionally shut down it definitely needs cleanup especially the cooling fan. So started the lazy Sunday Mission “ Clean the Workstation“
This is not a Guide !! Removing will avoid warranty and might even brick your laptop. i would recommend you to visit near by service center for cleaning and maintenance.
Before i started i did some search and found out few useful tips to clean. Removed the Battery and Back Cover Removed the Keypads and unscrewed all the screws inside
Removed all the screws in back panel Removed DVD writer & HardDisk
Removed RAM, chips and connections
Removed the Speakers Removed motherboard
Finally i was able to reach the dusty Cooling Fan
Cooling fan vent was blocked completely with dust, cleaned them carefully.Started cleaned all other parts and started back with the assembly, half the way i realized something went wrong as DVD player was not fitting anymore. Had to dismantle all and start from square one. With all the brainwork i was exhausted and wanted to relax, so grabbed Cadbury’s Silk which my sis Surya gave on her visit. Now with refreshed tech head was able to get it right.
Now moment of truth. Even after repeated push on power button it was resisting to start. Now i had a gut feeling that i may have bricked the laptop. Instead of making things worse i took a small nap.
Came back opened up the keyboard and fastened all the flat connection inside the mother board. Hurrah the laptop was back in operation !!
Drive Way : Day 1 Coimbatore – Dharapuram – Dindigul – Tirumangalam – Virudhunagar – Tirunelveli – Kanyakumari Day 2 Kanyakumari – Nagercoil – Tirunelveli – Virudhunagar – Tirumangalam – Dindigul – Dharapuram – Coimbatore Distance : 1015 KM April 2012
Was back for the Easter break, recently had grown interest towards photography thus got a Nikon 5100. With the new DSL we had to calls for a trip. With Anna giving us the key for new VW Vento we headed south.
Post lunch we started the relax drive towards Kanyakumari. Once on the Highway it was had to let go of the accelerator however did manage not to top 160. Reached Kanyakumari around 7 Pm took a Beach View room and hit the sack.
Day 2 Raised early so to catch up the Sun Rise, did manage to get a glimpse. After a walk and couple of relax hours we had breakfast in a small restaurant gosh it was terrible.
With displeased breakfast reached Vattakottai Fort it was sunny & hot unbearable !!
It was just around 10 AM and we already had plans for the lunch. To check out if briyani at Venu Biriyani Hotel, Dindigul tasted the same as Venu Biriyani Hotel, Coimbatore. The drive was calm until a Swift zoomed passed us. Call of Duty !! the speedometer started rising rapidly, even after overtaking the swift we kept the momentum going. Just outside Dindigul we did some math and came to know that we did 224 Kms in just 110 min(must say the quickest till date). After a crawl in Dindigul town reached Venu Biriyani. Ordered Chicken Biryani and Chilly Chicken and treated our taste buds.
VW Vento was added to the fleet in late 2012, VW is known for its built quality. Vento highline was the choice as we already have Hyundai Fluidic Verna. First things first replaced the stock tyres with Yokohama 205/50R16 W and upgrade the seats with Leather bucket seats.
First 30K KMs
Vento was at its best in this period, smooth ride. You do have buttons in steering for call answer and disconnect however the infotainment system does not support Phone connectivity. Headlights was a let down Low beam was terrible, as i hate driving with High beam always i was forced to stay the poor low beam visibility. Fog lamps is decent enough.
After some miles with poor lights added Hella Rallye 500 FF which made the car drivable at night.
We had a good testing ground and wanted to check out the cars maximum stable drivable point. Vento reached 120 Km/Hr quite quick and from there it took some time to climb up. 160 c started to feel bump and the steering was so light you start to focus in more. 180 Km/Hr was nasty the car did not want to stay on the ground this is where you should stop giving in the gas. We did want to push it further as the road was open and managed to touched 200 Km/Hr mark. Must say Veran (2011) takes lesser time to reach 180 Km/Hr mark than Vento however Vento felt safe and solid.
Around 60K Kms
Ride quality had dipped due to the thin rubber so replaced all four tyres with Yokohama 205/50R16 W. Vento is not quite any more with the rumbling engine.
Major Issue: Front AC vent console
Relaxing in Ooty
Beyond 115K Kms
With 3 years and clocking 115K , Vento for the first time was grounded and reluctance to start. Made few calls to VW road assistant and they did diagnose the fault with few pointers, it was the Battery. With in few hours VW mechanic came down to replaced the battery. There has been consider amount of increase in the exhaust smoke especially when there is thrust.
Samsung Galaxy S3 was with me almost 3 years, it was a great phone in the beginning as it aged the fun element strated diminishing. S3 was still running on Jelly Bean thanks to its not even 1GB RAM. As it became slowest of slow and with lost battery life come in the necessity of new phone.
iOS or Android to be precise iPhone 6 or Galaxy S6
I have been using Galaxy /Android for almost 6 years now, “Should i move on to Apple? “ was my first thought. I was not yet there to become the Apple Fan. Apple product line has something special which makes the consumer be trapped within them. Once you set to get an iPhone before you realise you would own an iPad , Mac , iPad min and TV (yeha yeah its not yet here once it come you will grab it too)
With that clear it was this years Samsung’s flagship S6, as i was not that intimidated by the curve display S6 Edge.
On a friday evening i set on to get the phone, as the store didn’t have a S6 white in stock i had to wait few minutes. With S6 i drove home happy, however i did not use it that night as it required a nano sim.
First thing on Saturday i reached Airtel showroom, i must say getting a sim replacement was breez. It took less than 2 mins for the Airtel representative to do the necessary action required no documents or cash and 10 mins later nano sim was up and running.
Fun started S6 white was fast and was just falling in for it when the unfortunate struck. When i tried to add fingerprint it started giving an error “An error has occured with the fingerprint sensor. If this message appears repeatedly, restart your device” this remained the same after a restart and factory reset. Next this i did was to check the status of the sensor using the code *#0*# and i got a error message for Fingerprint sensor alone and other passed. Went to the Store the Samsung representative was very kind and was helping me out to get it solved. After experts failing to find the issue the directed to service center.
Samsung Service Center 1
Saturday afternoon i am there with the Samsung representative from store, the Customer relations person was not that helpful and had just one answer to all “ Systems are down so can check”. I am not quite sure why does the Service Center systems have so frequent down times. They asked me to come back tomorrow. Must say this was one of the worst customer relations /satisfaction i have been across.
Samsung Service Center 2
I was not ready to drive back home so drove all the way across to another Samsung Service Center. The place was packed with people had to wait 1.5 hours to speak with the relations person. They asked me to wait 10 mins so to update the software and check the status. Software update didn’t help in rectifying fingerprint reader and they confirmed it as hardware failure and retained the phone with them for replacement process. As office is closed on sunday the process was carried on to monday and i am without a phone here 🙁
Even after few phone calls on status they did not get it done. I had to visit them in the evening and make things move fast with few angry words. Delivery representative was responsible person who did get me the order copy and sealed defective S6.
Reached store to get my replacement, White Pearl was not lucky enough so went for the Black Sapphire this time.
Drive Way : Coimbatore-Karamadai-Geddai-Manjur Distance: 180 Kms
How we planned Coimbatore-Karamadai-Geddai-Manjur : Start – 9:00 am Reached – 11:30 pm Manjur-Coonoor-Aravenu-Karamadai-Coimbatore : Start – 03:00 pm Reached – 6:30 pm
How it looked Coimbatore-Karamadai-Geddai-Manjur : Start – 10:00 am Reached – 5:15 pm Manjur-Geddai-Karamadai-Coimbatore : Start – 07:10 pm Reached – 9:20 pm
After months of discussion 14 of us were all set to do the trip. We planned a 9 AM start from coimbatore and take the karamadi , gettai road and return via Kotagiri as Coonoor to Metupalayam road was one way up due to Flower Show.
May 15th 9 AM struck and as usual no one was on time. Three cars were far apart from each other, hour and half later we managed to assemble together in Peryanakanpalaym. Within minutes few went to have break fast and the rest were in search of Gift.
Moving Towards Manjur
The route to Manjur via karamadi and gettai is a single road going through some dense forest with Wildlife in the beginning and then Ghat road starts. As you climb up the ghat section splendid view opens up. This road is restricted on day time and no access past 6 PM as there is a lot of wildlife movement especially elephants.
As we moved into the lonely road we stoped for few snaps. We crossed both check post after filling in the Forest Log book with details of visit. As we drove past first hairpin bend trouble struck. Sam’s car started to boil, we stopped just to see the coolant spilled out. BTW my car had a different issue it need some 5 to 10 mins to start if it was all ready running, really strange issue which Tata service had no fix.
1st Break Down
This breakdown was a welcome relax time for some, by having a seat in the revetment wall. After some photos and discussion we managed to fill up water in bottles. We were literally running a nilgiri mountain rail with every alternative hairpin bend we gushed out water to the car.
Sam’s steam engine video
Water !! More Water Please !!
We were lucky enough to get water from the small streams & barrel which was left behind by the road construction people. Overall with this continuous pumping of water we reached the Manjur around 5:15 PM. We were expected to arrive by 11:30, with all the trouble we were relieved to be there. We tried to fix the issue but couldn’t as there were no spares.
It was my cars turn to break down !! Being powerless for few mins.
Reached Vinika’s place
She was thrilled to see us after the long wait. Family welcomed all of us in gave us hot tea. These is no festival or function there without the Badaga Dance, people joined in and it was so much fun. Like always Vinika danced off superb. We had a early dinner and said good bye to Vinika and Manjur.
Vinika’s marriage dance Video
Thrilling Down Hill
We had set a return time as 6 PM Coimbatore. It was already 7:10 at manjur, we cannot take the kotagiri route as its going to delay us more. All day long we were talking about how unsafe is to travel downhill after 6PM via gettai, elephants and of course Ghosts who will miss a chance for the Ghost stories. With less options we had a quick drivers meet and agreed to take the risk and to do it in style. We buckled up and just like in Italian Job we zoomed through the hills. It was a thrill ride for sure with pitch dark view, expecting a large tusker on each blind curve and unknowing when one of the cars will Break down. After an hour of intense driving we reached the foot hill, took a break before we took diversion.
I am sure it was a drive worth remembering. Our expert driver Sam even before i started regular driving he was superb this trip was about hill driving and catching up like always he was exceptional. Vignesh even with the less efficient braking system and ordinary steering he was excellent.
Its summer vacation and you must be already aware of this with kids running around, crowded ice-cream parlours and buzzing tourist destination. As they enjoy let’s start putting in our financial plan so we are committed to Noble Cause.
Our 6th year in giving back to the society, like our previous Noble Cause we are committed towards Education. Noble Cause 2014 was to help two kids doing their 10th and 11th standard; we raised Rs.37500 for their Books & Tuition fee.
Our Girl
Girl lost her parents few years ago and is survived by her aunt. Her aunt is a construction worker who is struggling to support her family and the girl’s education. In 2013 girl stopped school for work as she was not able to pay the tuition fee. Knowing her situation the Principal of the school reached us for help. From then we have been helping her study. She is one among the top scorer in her class. She loves painting.
Our Boy
When he lost his father life changed, his mother started working to support the family. With little income he wanted to quit studies and start working. Principal was not ready to let go of him and reached us if we could go more. We said we could do that. He plays cricket and his favourite team is CSK
This year they would be doing their 11th and 12th standard. We are planning to raise approx. Rs.40,000 for Books & Tuition fee.
We will update the information once we have the fee structure confirmed by the school.
Deadline : 20th June, 2015
If you like to join us please fill in the below form.
We teach our “tough boys” not to cry, but instead we should teach them not to make women in their lives cry. ‘Start With The Boys’, a short film directed by Vinil Mathew and produced by Alex Kuruvilla, Managing Director, Conde Nast India, makes a powerful point about domestic violence. #VogueEmpower #StartWithTheBoys #MadhuriDixit Start with the boys.
