Kerala Trip - A travelogue - Part 2

We finalized our journey plan a day ( Part 1 of Travelogue ) before our actual travel. On the day of travel we started around 7:30 AM from Chennai, for travelling about 80 kms to reach Kanchipuram took close to 2 hours due to traffic, once we crossed Kanchipuram the drive was much easy on the toll road. 

Reached Coimbatore around 3:30 PM, a distance of about 530 kms. Took a bye pass at Coimbatore and traveled towards Palghat. The road from about 30 kms to Coimbatore and another 50 kms towards Palghat was not good and there was heavy truck traffic as well. Just about 8 kms before Palghat there is a diversion to Mallapuzha, once we got into that road and after a km drive, the road was good and we could see lush green sense the fresh air around, reached Mallapuzha around 5:30 PM. 

Evening time view from top of the dam was nice. 

As it was getting dark called out to Tripenta and checked availability. This is one of two possible accommodations at Mallapuzha, checked in the hotel around 7.00 PM. I must say, the hotel was in middle of lush green with mountain around.

Next day morning, we started our drive from Malapuzha around 8:30 AM, the plan was to reach Athirappilly Water Falls (127 Kms from Malapuzha). I was aware till Thirusur, it would be normal road (though called as National highway), however to our surprise the roads were really bad with poth holes, hence 70 Kms journey took more than 2 hours. However the road from Thrissur to Athirappilli falls of about 70 Kms was good, and reached Athirapalli falls around 1.00 PM. 

 More than words, photos could speak much better about Athirampalli and Vachhal falls. After spending few hours started our drive towards Ernakulam and reached pjprincess a resort, which was quite away from busy city centre. Had a pleasant overnight stay at this resort. 

The following morning picked up my daughter from their school vacation tour ( which was their last day, before their return to Chennai) and drove towards, Munnar. The road and drive towards Munnar was much better, in fact the Ghat road was pretty less in Cochin - Munnar direction. Reached Munnar in the afternoon, checked out few resorts, based on my already shortlisted research on tripadvisor and finally chose Elysium resort Elysium resort is not far away from Munnar town, yet you would not miss the view of greenery and the mountains.

Following day went around Munnar and witnessed some of the mesmerizing beauty of nature, the next day left Munnar and drove towards Madurai. This was a ghat road and even captured some picture while driving on the ghat road. Reached Madurai in noon and spent about a day there and proceeded to Chennai the following day.  

In all, would have driven around 1700 KM in about 5 days. 

Finally ending with my own quote

    " It was a treat to watch the vastness and bounty of nature which was so soothing to mind, for one who is, confined to city life most part of the year, where almost every inch is man-made and short lived with arrogance of 'me' associated with it."
 

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Kerala Trip - A travelogue - Part 1

For a week vacation in September this year, had initially planned to visit Munnar, Kerala.

 In fact, decided to drive to Munnar from Chennai, the initial plan was to pick up my daughter from Munnar as they had planned a school trip to Ernakulam and Munnar at same time. However, just before two days of planned trip, got information from School that they would be skipping Munnar and return to Chennai directly from Ernakulam. This created dilemma in our mind, whether to skip my vacation plan, the other option was to drive down to Ernakulam and pick my daughter for the planned trip to Munnar.

Drive to Ernakulam?... its around 700 KM from Chennai, how are the roads?. How long it take to drive?, do we need to take a break, these were the question in my mind and had just 2 days to plan, if opting to drive to Ernakulam. Not much information, I could get from friends and hence turned to Internet. At first I wanted to check the NHAI roads as these are toll express ways and driving on them is much easier. I hit upon the map on NHAI web site. Chennai to Ernakulam did not have complete cover through expressway (NHAI), if its not NHAI road, it could be taxing and hence planned to take a break.

The interesting point is NHAI map provides details about Expressways (toll roads) across India.

Had two options,

Option 1: Drive to Madurai (Express way - NHAI) and then to Ernakulam. Driving from Madurai to Cochin, one has to use the Ghat road to reach Munnar and then drive down to Ernakulam and back Munnar. Driving 4 times on Ghat road could be quite taxing for an amateur driver like me.  

Option 2: Drive to Coimbatore, Palghat, Trishur, Ernakulam all through plain and then up the mountains to Munnar, then Madurai and back to Chennai. Slightly longish route. Most of the roads are express ways when compared to option 1. Hence choose this option.

With a day to go, the next one was to check for places where we could take a break along with accommodation. Based on the NHAI maps, understood that express ways (toll road) ends few kilometers from Coimbatore and further Coimbatore is about 500Kms from Chennai. Hence decided to stay overnight at place near Coimbatore. However, preferred a place away from city and hence the option was Palghat. Further narrowed down to Mallapuzha (Palghat). The other location for our accommodation just fell in place, which were Cochin, Munnar and Madurai.

Will continue soon on this travelogue....particularly with pictures on mesmerizing beauty of nature and the drive through Mulapuzha (Palghat), Athirapalli & Vazhachal falls(cochin) and Munnar.

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Stagflation

Had seen news papers reporting stagflation of Indian economy by Moody's Analytics. First time, I was hearing the word Stagflation (off course, I am not a economist!!?!). The means, the economic growth or GDP is less or getting down, while inflation is still going strong.

 Hmm..., though not surprised, more than an year back had written a post about Indian economy 's GDP Vs Inflation compared to US and Chinese economy. In that post had mentioned that all may not be well even with higher GDP. 

 With GDP also decreasing now, reduction of interest rate could fuel inflation further. It could well be a double whammy for Indian economy.

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The Mind Game

One needs to have positive frame of mind and feel good factor to work towards achieving one's goal in life. Unfortunately it is not always easy to stay positive, its just not the mind by the environment particularly the people around you and even the place matter in achieving the desired state of mind.

 Most of the times the environment can be static and monotonous. Your office, home with most of the time you interact with same set of people at least 60 to 80% of the time. Definitely the people around you influence your state of mind.

 Though, it may be difficult, to change people around you but you can always make an attempts to influence them.

 There is a famous saying in Tamil. "Ul Ondru vaithu puram ondru pesuvar uravu kalavaami Vendum"

  Meaning of it - Help me to get rid of any association with those whose speeches are contradictory to their thoughts. This is very opt in today's environment. Positive talk or inspirational talks might not help you, if the people around you have different opinion in back of the mind and hence association with right people make the difference.

 Apart from people around you, the materialistic world also take their toll in bringing the negative thoughts. Think of a day when the gadget supports refuses to work for a you, be in it mobile phone, computer, microoven, Vehicle, Washing machine, TV there is a frustration and your mind is more occupied with the thought of bring it back to work.

 Our body need to intake food, absorbs vital vitamins & nutrient and excrete unwanted waste as far as possible. However, we cannot say the same with our mind. Our mind get all inputs both positive and  negative thoughts at all times. A persons outlook depends on what his mind is occupied at most point of time.

 At times places you visit bring you feel good factor and positive frame of mind. This could last till the time you are at the place, however it can bring you a positive feel whenever your recollect or think back about the place. Such positive energy generating place could vary from person to person and depends on a person passion as well.

  Some of the nature's positive vibe pictures to me from my own collection. 

               
 Disappointment or failures can be common in life. When one faces disappointment, take a step back from the original issue and ask yourself. 

  "Is there a alternative approach to solution ?" and "What is that I need?" 

 Disappointments aren't meant to hurt you or keep you down. They're meant to help you to realize you more and grow you more as time progresses.

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Sedan Cars – Indian Market

About six month back, we decided to change Hyundai Santro. More than me the demand to change the car was from my wife and daughter. The six plus years old Santro was absolutely fantastic, the mileage I had done pretty less and I did not face much problem with it.

 In the last few years, there are many more choices for consumer for any segment, be it hatch back or sedan or SUV. As a matter of fact, we kept changing our choices, before we finally decided on one.
 When looking at sedan car, we had decided on certain points to look for, 


• Budget – restricted to range of INR 8 Lacs. 
• Elegance and looks.
• Performance in Indian market in last few years and service points post sales. 
• Driving condition and features.
• Mileage. 
• Petrol - I like petrol car pick up, my car usage is pretty less and hence, did not call for diesel car due to higher upfront investment.

 Based on these points had restricted my search to Hyundai Verna, Suzuki SX4, Ford Fiesta and Toyota Etios. There might have been few other Sedan, which could satisfy or even better the above criteria, however due to paucity of time, I did not opt for them.:


Hyundai Verna:
Stunning look and new age design simply ‘sport ......ish’. Nice interiors and many added features, particularly on high end variant. Having used Santro, I was almost hooked to Verna from the time it was released last year.


My budget had to be stretched, as even base model of 1.4 variant was in range of INR 8+ Lacs. Further, to my surprise I did not find many Verna in 1.4 variant on road, it had always being 1.6 variant. The 1.6 variant was costing INR 9 + lacs and definitely not in my expected range. 


The other one, I felt while test driving is that, Verna does not seem to have good ground clearance. The front hood (bonnet) looks longer. With bumper to bumper driving condition in India, I felt there may be issue with ground clearance, particularly the front hood (bonnet) not visible from driver seat.


Suzuki SX4: 
Looks sturdy, can be named .....’man...ish’ or ‘muscle...ish’. Nice interior, seat adjustment horizontal and vertical. Base version, was only in my expected range.


Further, since SX4 is around or more than 6 years, the model change was also in back of my mind. 


Ford Fiesta: 
There are two variant, ford fiesta ‘classic’ and all new ford fiesta introduced last year. The new Ford fiesta have a ‘sport...ish’ design like Verna Fluidic. Like Verna, might have a ground clearance issue, though have not test driven this car. I did not opt for this car on road price was in range of INR 9 lacs.


 The ford fiesta ‘classic’ was in the range of INR 8 Lacs and pretty neat car. Like SX4, Ford Fiesta ‘classic’ model is in market for 5 to 6 years now, hence the model change was in back of my mind. 


Toyota Etios: 
I would say this car was introduced with Indian road condition in mind. The exterior looks good though the same cannot be said about the interior.  However dual colour seat are available from ‘V’ variant, this makes the interior presentable.

 Found this car built with all safety features for the price in range of INR 8 lacs. The 'V' variant is available with alloys wheals, air bags, ABS, which I don’t think any other sedan car manufacturers offers considering the basic points and price, which I had mentioned at the start of the article.

 Importantly, felt it had good ground clearance comparable to SX4 and Ford fiesta ‘classic’. Further, Etios is expected to provide better mileage in Sedan category. Its total weight is comparatively less than most of the sedan, hence naturally one can expect better mileage .

 Finally, decided and purchased Toyota Etios ‘V’ variant and now need to see how it’s going to perform.

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Oh!..Not again... Petrol price increase May 2012.

My previous post was about depreciation of INR against USD and pointed out that petroleum product prices are bound to increase if depreciation continues,
While posting, my previous post, one of the factor, which I thought would be in our favour was that, crude oil price per barrel was still hovering around 100 USD and not at its worst. At one point of time in 2008, the crude oil per barrel was around 147 USD. Hence, I thought it may take some more time before any kind of increase.

  Hmm… however was shocked and surprised that only petrol price was increased by 7.50 INR per litre. Interestingly, petrol is environmental friendly when compared to diesel.

Made an attempt to compare & compute estimated prices, by considering the international prices of barrel of crude oil in year 2008 and 2012, the actual exchange rate and inflation.

Going by my calculation, it seems like we are being over charged by about 14 Rs.

It was said the government has decentralized and do not control oil company and its prices. Hence, are we being overcharged, with profit motive?.

There could be another debate, that Indian government is looking for ways to decrease or remove the subsidy over period of time and subsidy is being reduced further now. But, then how are our neighbors like Pakistan and Srilanka are in position to provide petroleum product price at better rate compared to India and still survive !!?!!. The point to note here, is that both Pakistan and Srilankan currency (Rupee) is weeker when converted to Indian Rupee.

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Depreciating INR… Gainers & Losers

With Indian rupee depreciating, it grim picture painted out on our economy. The instability is attributed to many factors including Euro crisis. Since 2006 economies around world is in turmoil, if one country attempts to come out, it impacts directly or indirectly the other country. It started of with US mortgage crisis in 2006/07, which was followed by Lehman brothers and other financial institution collapse in 2008, then came crash of stock markets, Euro crisis which was followed by appreciation of gold. The news coming out these days is quite conflicting, on one month one would see economic recovery being projected and the following month, one would see depressing news about economy.  
 What does rupee depreciation mean to Indian economy and who could be the probable Gainers or Losers?.

The Gainers: 

Exporters, particularly who are using the resource and raw materials by paying them in INR and getting return in USD. Companies earning in USD and reporting and exchanging to INR would stand to gain 

Indian Origin people sending foreign currency to India and converting into INR and making permanent investment in India. The reason being they would be getting more INR for lesser amount of USD. A 100 USD with exchange rate of 56.5 will fetch more INR compared to 100 USD with exchange rate of 40 INR.

 The Losers: 

Importers, more particularly India Government importing large volume of oil are bound to suffer. Normally such increase in Oil cost is passed on to the customer and naturally people of India would have to burn the money more. This would eventually continue spiraling of inflation, which is already high. 

Foreign equity investors who are looking for gains might lose, if attempt to pull out money. They now have to think or hold it for some time. The reason being, assume a foreign investor had invested in company ‘X’ in India when exchange rate was INR 45.00 (1 USD) and if he had invested USD 100, would exchanged to INR 4500 and invested the same. If there is a lock in period of 3 years and due to company profits the amount becomes INR 5700 in 3 years time, which is around 10% in ROI per year. However if the Foreign equity investor attempts to repatriate the investment back, due to prevailing exchange rate of 57 INR per dollar, the FI would get only 100 USD, in spite of money being invested for 3 years. 

In short term for India, it’s good that money does not flow out of India remain within India, however, in long run if INR is volatile and continue to depreciate the foreign investor would lose interest in Indian market.

Hence naturally, there is more to lose as for as India is concerned and lets hope INR bounces back in exchange rate.

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