Vivek's wedding

Our friend Vivek is marrying. We were actually thinking of a trip and were surfing for places to go. His marriage zeroed in our choice to Thenmala, as his wedding was happening in Kollam and Kollam is easily reachable from Thenmala. And so we started researching for the shortest route from Ernakulam, as we had planned a very tight itinerary.

This was the schedule.... wake up early morning to board the 5.30 train to Alleppey; reach there by 7am and push off to Thenmala by car; reach Thenmala before10-11.. do all the sight seeing.. explorations.. etc.. n reach kollam by night(Vivek had arranged accommodation for us). Alright.. plans all set... went to sleep unusually early..... :-) ... Started sleeping with the thrill of the next-day trip... I think I just started sleeping..... suddenly somebody started knocking my door.... ufff... this is irritating.... I threw my bed sheet, opened the door to see an almost sleeping Sen saying "I think we are a bit late.....". Later I realized that uncomfortable truth... it was close to 8!!!!!

We reached Alleppey by 11, had food; filled enough fuel to reach Thenmala.... reached Thenmala by 2....:-( . Ha now the real fun starts.... We hadn't filled any fuel nor had we took enough money thinking we'll do all these in Thenmala..... Fantastic should I say... we did find neither an atm nor a fuel pump there.... so drove a little more down in the hope of finding one... We pulled over by a house there... when we enquired, we realized the real thrill ahead... the nearest pump is in Tamil Nadu!!!!!

I had a faint feeling that we have just that fuel to reach there. We switched off the ac, started driving calmly with engine offs at descents!!!! (Thank God, the route was more of descents than ascents). Yippee... we saw an IndainOil pump from a distance.. happily drove in, just to find that the pump supplies onlly diesel!!! Nothing to worry though; they said there is another pump in 2kms... We found the pump, filled some fuel with the money we had(but not enough to get past Thenmala though).

So our next expedition is to find an atm. We drove further into Tamilnadu to chenkottai... The locals said the town has 2 atms... state bank and canara bank... Earlier when Sujith tried getting money from canara bank in kerala, the transaction had got rejected. So we set out for state bank atm, from where we often encash. And it was close by.... but the pinch is, it was out of service!!! We are stuck.... Next what?? the canara bank atm.. our last hope... Sujith went in, to get the money. Heck... it worked... In that joy Sen clicked a couple of shots of that atm, for it was our saviour...

Just out atm, we saw a milestone saying 4km to Kuttaalam.. We thought its wise to make a quick visit to Kuttaalam as we have come this close and also, we have heard a lot about Kuttaalam. So, changed the course and headed frantically towards Kuttaalam after filling fuel, as we di'nt want to miss those sites in Thenmala we had noticed on the way.

Five falls was the place we first visted reaching Kuttalam. The spot wasn't as clean as we expected. It was littered enough to feel comfortable; and the merchandise too has spoiled the spot. Next we visited the main falls of the place. Filthy is what I say. The visitors have littered the area with all those eat left overs, soap wraps, clothing etc.. This is the best example of making, an otherwise beautiful place, very uninviting. Irresponsible tourists.. :-(

We started for Thenmala at about 4. We had spotted a railway bridge of that erstwhile metre gauge rail from Kollam to chenkotai and so, that was our prime destination now. We really rallied to the spot though a little time was eaten up by police checking. They were looking for spirit in our dickey and stepney... Lotta spirit trafficking in Kerala.. En route we stopped a couple of times to click some shots... And when we finally reached the bridge it was already past 5... Sen and I snapped some pictures. I really felt the urge to climb up the bridge; but then, all were tired as we avoided having food from chenkottai/kuttaalam. Huh.. somehow I managed to persuade them to climb up the bridge.. Climbing was taxing.. there were no proper ways to get there(or atleast we dint know). Wow... It was totally worth doing all those hardships.. fantastic view with a cave at one end. We all felt content. Drained our camera battery snapping there.... It would have been a hefty miss, had we not climbed up. And again, iIt was total fun climbing down. Sujith was behind me, he would role down stones on me. So I begged him to stay there till I do the downhill.

I felt very unlucky to not have travelled by this rail before the service was scrapped.

I am sure this rail route has a lot to offer, as just a glimpse of a part of this rail here, did this to us.

We all felt if this rail was retained as it is, atleast as a heritage piece.

And on... we did explore many such not-so-proclaimed places en route and was worth cent percent. And in the end you really feel happy for it.

When we reached Thenmala it was almost 6, by when we had liitle time to spend. So we learned the quickest route to Kollam from a driver there and fled the place... :-)

After a lot of jigsaw puzzle(very confusing route), we reached vivek's place in the night.

We had a good eat there... :-) idiyappam and chicken curry... His friend Mahesh guided us to our room at Varkala.

Reaching roomm, I had a couple of glasses of beer which Mahesh had arranged. Tired and exhausted, the next good thing I wanted was a shower and a solid sleep.

Woke up a little late, attended the wedding function, did a bit of Varkala beach and headed home.

Cream :- when you are ill-prepared you have a lot of twist n thrills in the store.. :-)