Summer Vacation May 2019 - PAGE NO.1

PAGE NO.1

Dear Friends,

I am starting a new blog about our Summer Vacation 2019 Road Trip to Coimbatore and Palakkad and places in Kerala.

15.05.2019 (Wednesday) Night 10 PM
Chennai to Coimbatore

We started from home Chennai by 9.30 pm and stopped at Ananda Bhavan hotel opposite of Saravana Stores Poonamalle for night dinner and started after 10 PM. 

There was heavy traffic jam for almost up to 12 midnight up to Tambaram and Vandalur. The climate was very hot & sweating. Bumper to Bumper traffic was draining my energy.

The Car was Serviced & Repaired at WORLD OF SERVICE MULTI BRAND CAR CARE CENTER LOCATED AT KOLAPAKKAM CHENNAI.

Engine Oil Service & General Check Up
Clutch Plate Replaced
Driveshaft Refurbished & Repaired

https://www.facebook.com/worldofservicechennai/

She is 17 years old 2002 Model FIAT PALIO 1.6 1600 CC, 100 bhp. In Automobile language considering her age she is way past her prime but she can put many a modern day Cars to shame. She really packs an awesome power and the handling is superb. In 2014 December she was to be scrapped by her 1st owner who had not used her for over 2 years and did not find any buyers. 

I rescued her and restored her in December 2016 and went to North East of India covering Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram & Nagaland my 5th Road Trip called Chennai 2 Cheerapunjee.

http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.com/2016/12/chennai-2-cheerapunji-preview-page-1.html 

16.05.2019 (Thursday) Early Morning 6 AM
Highway to Coimbatore

We stopped after Salem to capture the early rising sun

We reached Vadavalli Coimbatore by 10 AM Morning safely.

We have a lot of beautiful peacocks in plenty in all sizes around these hills and they visit all the houses and people do not disturb them. It is a very nice sight to see them.

16.05.2019 (Thursday) Late Evening 7 PM
Visit to Marudhamalai Murugan Temple 

(Temple dedicated to Lord Karthikeyan 2nd Son of Lord Shiva & Goddess Parvathy, younger Brother of Lord Ganesha)

We visited Marudhamalai Murugan Temple by evening 7 PM and had a very good darshan of Lord Muruga also called Deva Senapathi (Commander-in-chief of Gods Army), Karthikeyan 

One  Sri Pambatti siddhar was attained the eight supernatural powers called 'Ashtamasiddhi' after performing penance for a very long time in a cave on Marudamala. He has written many poems around 600 lines of text are available today. It is believed that he lived close to 125 years.

We were back home by 10 PM and we had a very good darshan. End of 16.05.2019 (Thursday)

END OF PAGE NO.1

I am staring PAGE NO.2 next. 17.05.2019 & 18.05.2019

Visit to Pallassana Village in Palakkad.

Click on this link below to read the blog.

Kolkata 2 Chennai - Day 14 & 15 - Page 12

C2C Kolkata 2 Chennai Day - 14 & 15 (Page - 12)

We stayed in Hotel Mulberry at Kolkata near KALIGHAT KALI MATA Temple.

We have now come from Cheerapunjee Meghalaya all the way to Kolkata. 

It was now time for us to start our last leg of our journey back home to Chennai. We had to travel bacl almost 1800 KMs.

On 4th January 2017 we started from Kolkata at 8.30 AM.

On 04.01.2017 we started from Kolkata at 8.30 AM. The odometer reading was 65148 KMs.

Throughout this journey my wife & kids showed a lot of interest in this battery operated cycle rickshaw and were so keen & eager for a ride.

I finally found one on the highway. I flagged him and stopped him and requested him to give them a ride of their life time.

Oh so much pleasure, so many laughs and smiles. Small things give big happiness.

I could see from their smile and happy faces how much they enjoyed the ride. After a long ride I asked them are you all satisfied and would you like to get back into the car?

Well I had to convince them that it would be impossible to drive all the way back to Chennai in that auto rickshaw. 

We stopped at this road side Hotel for breakfast. It had a wonderful garden in front and so colorful flowers. Well maintained.

We left Hotel Hot & Hot at Dwarikapur Debra NH-6 at Pashchim Mednipur  at 11.45 AM.

We had to cross Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and reach Chennai Tamil Nadu State.

We came across this village house and cows and a tree and I told my kids & wife that foreigners are so amazed to see how Indian cows can manage to shit on the tree in this fashion and want to know how we train them?

We found the entire road was blocked by a Political party which is currently ruling. The reason being that one of their senior political leader was arrested on corruption charges which is contested by the supporters and to show solidarity and support they just came on to the highway and blocked the entire traffic for over 3 - 4 hours.

When I saw this traffic jam, I came on to the opposite side of the road hoping to cross and ultimately found that many other vehicles had also tried the same approach earlier and were just standing & waiting.

I decided to go further ahead and suddenly a group of people came menacingly toward my Palio. I just stopped the Car & got off and walked towards them. They were surprised.

I wished them and told them I have a very long way to go to Chennai and cannot afford to lose time by waiting as I wasn't local. They saw me and saw my Tamil Nadu registered Car and they saw my wife & 2 kids inside.

They said happily Anna (Brother in Tamil) we will let you go. Well they just yelled and shouted at the guys in front to just allow us to go. I just thanked them sincerely and drove on. Few other local WB & Odisha cars too tried to tag behind me and some were stopped and checked verified and allowed to go .

So luckily we managed to come through without wasting much time. 

We are now crossing from West Bengal into Odisha State.

We were coming to Jaleswar. We remembered a promise we had made to an attender in Indian Oil Petrol Pump Gayatri Fuel Station near Jaleswar. 

We went to the fuel station and we met the owner and couple of his friends and we also met the attender and he was so happy to see us back.

In fact the owner was so touched with our visit.

We also decided to pay a visit to the Ex-Army villager who had hosted us when we were driving from Chennai to Kolkata when we had stopped at this fuel pump and we had visited his home and met his wife and even visited his village temple etc.

We paid a visit to them and met them and thanked them for all the hospitality.

We had brought them a souvenir from Assam Kaziranga National Park. We gave them the wooden statue of the One Horned Rhino as a memento and to remember us always.  

We moved on from Jaleswar Odisha at 2.45 PM.

We came across this sign board which said PANCHALINGESWAR LORD SHIVA TEMPLE - 18 KMs. My wife said lets go.

Well we just left the highway again and went off into the village road into Odisha again to the temple visit.

About the Temple: PANCHALINGESWAR

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Panchalingeshwar

Panchalingeshwar Temple is in Balasore district of Odisha. It named after the five Shivalinga that are enshrined inside. 

The temple is on top of a hillock near the Nilagiri hill (not to be confused with that of Western Ghats).

The Shivalingas are said to have been enshrined by Sita, the wife of Lord Rama during their exile.

Another story holds that King Banasura worshiped the Swayambhu Lingas at this place given its beauty. 

A perennial stream, which is the main attraction of the area, regularly washes the Shivalingas as it flows over them. To reach to the temple one has to lie flat on the rock parallel to the stream to touch and worship the lingas inside the water stream.

We spent quite a lot of time here at this temple.

We offered our prayers and we performed a small pooja too and prayed for every one.

at 8 PM we left from this temple. It was pitch dark when we had to climb down from the hill steps.

We are now moving towards Vishakhapatnam - 390 KMs and Chennai was 1242 KMs away. The time was 2.40 AM early morning of 5th January 2017.

We are crossing Odisha into Andha Pradesh.

Vijaywada was 281 KMs & Chennai was 729 KMs away. Time was 2.10 PM afternoon.

We stopped at Vijaywada and had our dinner. Time 8 PM night. After dinner we drove on.

We are now coming closer to Chennai. On 6th January 2017 we were 165 KMs away from Chennai. The time was 4.10 AM. It was pretty cold & chill outside.

We are crossing Andhra Pradesh into Tamil Nadu State.

Chennai just 17 KMs away. Time 7 AM.

Generation Next. Soon I am sure my daughter & son will grow up and learn from all these road trips and take on the wheel and take to the highway like a fish takes to water and swim.

We reached Chennai and our home at 8.30 AM.

The closing Odometer reading is 66776 KMs on 6th January 2017 at 8.30 AM

The starting odometer reading on 4th January 2017 at 8.30 AM at Kolkata was 65148 KM.

Total distance covered from Kolkata to Chennai was 1628 KMs.

Immediately on arrival both my children rushed home and between 8.30 AM to 9.30 AM they had their bath and got ready and wore their uniform and they went to school. That is commitment. Their school principal was so happy to see them back.

We have successfully completed our 5th Road Trip C2C CHENNAI 2 CHEERAPUNJEE and starting from 21.12.1016 at 6 AM from Chennai we travelled to so many places and finally on 06.01.2017 at 8.30 AM Morning we reached Chennai back sfaely.

Starting Odometer Reading at Chennai on 21.12.2016 was 59605 KM

Closing Odometer Reading back at Chennai on 06.01.2017 was 66776 KM

In 15 Days we did 7171 KMs.

We hope you have enjoyed the travelogue blog.

To visit to HOME PAGE - 1 click on the link below;

http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.in/2016/12/chennai-2-cheerapunji-preview-page-1.html

To visit to the FIAT Palio Restoration & Refurbishment Page - 2 click on this link below;

http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.in/2016/12/restoration-rebirth-of-fiat-palio-16-sp.html

To visit to the CHENNAI TO KOLKATA Page - 3 click on this link below;

http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.in/2017/01/c2c-chennai-to-kolkata-day-1-stared-on.html

To visit to the KOLKATA TO BONGAIGAON Page - 4click on this link below;

http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.com/2017/01/kolkata-to-bongaigaon-day-4-page-4.html

To visit to the BONGAIGAON TO TEZPUR Page - 5 click on this link below;

http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.in/2017/01/bongaigaon-to-tezpur-day-5-page-5.html

To visit to the TEZPUR TO DIRANG Page - 6 click on this link below;

http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.in/2017/01/tezpur-to-dirang-day-6-page-6.html

To visit to the DIRANG - SELA PASS TAWANG & TEZPUR Page - 7 click on this link below;

http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.in/2017/01/dirang-to-sela-pass-tawang-back-to.html

To visit to the TEZPUR TO KOHIMA  Page - 8 click on this link below;

http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.in/2017/01/tezpur-to-kohima-day-8-page-8.html

To visit to the KOHIMA TO KAZIRANGA  Page - 9 click on this link below;

http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.in/2017/01/kohima-to-kaziranga-day-9-page-9.html

To visit to the KAZIRANGA TO SHILLONG  Page - 10 click on this link below;


http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.in/2017/01/kaziranga-to-guwahati-to-shillong-day.html

To visit to the SHILLONG CHEERAPUNJEE TO KOLKATA Page - 11 click on this link below;

http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.in/2017/01/shillong-cheerapunjee-2-kolkata-day-11.html