Travel: Chennai to Madurai by road - Bus

Chennai to Madurai by road - The omni-bus ride! (My experience and some tips) 

 We did the Chennai Madurai by road using a speacial bus from Chennai CMBT (Koyambedu) - Man! what a nightmare of a jam. The bus was full and he left at 11:20 and reached Madurai at 7:30 - about 8 hrs. You will hear a lot of tales of 6 hrs of travel, but I think safe reasonable time for 560 hrs is 8 hrs While it was a good "Volvo" bus, and had only one stop over at Tiruchi, could have been a lot better had he started someplace else. (Perungalathur being too far)

 Please make sure that you get down at the Periyar bus stand (there is also a mattu thavani stand but I think its a little outside town)

 BTW some tips for going on the long distance bus from Chennai :
1. Parking at CMBT for a drop: Follow the general melee of buses and theres a way for cars too to drop you behind the KPN /Parveen stall
2. They do give you water and blanket in "Volvo" bus (Parveen) 
3. Carry night blinders and a pillow if possible
4. Book on kpn web site or parveen website. Just check the cancellation fees . I think its 10% for upto 12 hrs before travel. Book seats in front but not the first row if you can avoid it (The first row is next to the driver and lights from oncoming vehicles are a pain till the curtains are drawn -usually after perungalathur)

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Photography Tip: How to correct if the object is dark and the background too bright using Photoshop

Very often when we take a photograph (typically a closeup) ,the object is underexposed and the background is too bright. A common solution suggested by many is to use a fill flash

I find that the fill flash restricts aperture or shutter speed (if inbuilt) and the pictures turn out over exposed.

I have kind of optimized on taking the shot without the flash and then using the Histogram tool.

Click on Adjustments > Curves > Increase the lower levels (See Picture)

The impact of this transformation on this picture is show below
Before

After using Adobe Photoshop

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Trip from Chennai to Bangalore by Road - A distance of about 350 kms - Tips, Places to eat and road guide

I am publishing this post mainly for people who want to travel Chennai to Bangalore by road  and are driving this route for the first time

Distance : Around 350 kms
Best route: Chennai (RA Puram - Poonamallee - Vellore - Vaniyambadi - Krishnagiri - Hosur - Bangalore) NH4 - NH46 and NH7
Key route markers and turns: Ensure you turn right after Krishnagiri (under a flyover onto NH7) - remember the left takes you to Dharmapuri and Salem.
Start time: 7 AM (From Chennai)
Reached at: 12:30 PM at Koramangala and 1:30 PM at Richmond Circle Woodlands Hotel

Best places to eat  breakfast or lunch depending on when you leave -
If you leave at 7 AM from the city (like RA Puram or T Nagar) you will reach
1.  Jains Hotel in Poonamallee (opposite Tirupati cutting) on the left side of the road. This is a great place for breakfast at around 8 AM . (There are 2 hotels that look alike  - take the one that is marked as Jains)
2. Alternatively you could drive till Kanchipuram around 8:30 AM and eat at Arasuvai Arasu there.
3. Around 10:30 you will be at Vellore - Just before the second flyover on the highway you will see a board that says "Katpadi". Take the feeder road leading to Katpadi and under the flyover turn right - in the large circle. (You will see several boards that say Way to VIT (Vellore Institute of Technology) - you will know you are on the right track if you see them). There is a place called Aryas right there in the circle itself - you cant miss it. where you can eat here. Good decent food. There is also a AC wing in this restraunt. We prefer this to Saravan Bhavan since it is right on the highway unlike Saravana Bhavan which is inside the city. This place, Aryaas also has good parking - ask the security guy.

Things to watch out:

• The Ambur Vaniyambadi towns are on the highway and there is significant bus traffic. So slow down in the city
• Arcot bridge people come in the opposite direction
• Expect traffic snarls in Hosur and Koramangala onwards.
• After Atibele take the elevated expressway to reach Madivala. Thats the fastest way to gain entry into Bangalore - takes less than 40 mins from there. Dont overspeed on the elevated expresssway (80 kmph is speed limit) as there are cops and speed guns all over.