Kicks: 2011

Though scattered, we again united for another trip. This time it was Kodaikkanal. We found that lost charm in this trip as everything was thoroughly unplanned...!! Utter carelessness added spice to this trip.
The cast - Arun, Sujith, Sen and me.

Arun and Sujith had to come from Bangalore. We planned to start the trip by Friday evening after the office, as the Bangalore guys would reach Cochin only by noon.
Almost by 4 in the morning Sen received a call from Sujith asking to open the door as he reached unusually early.
And again by 6, Arun kicked open my door and shattered my sleep. He too came early.
Now these guys want to start the trip in the morning!!! Rascals.... :-)
Huh... Sen and I managed a day's leave ( We both were on notice period.). After all the chores, we boarded the train to Alleppey by 10.(The vehicle was at my home then).
Reaching home we ate some appam and left for Munnar before noon.
So now this was the plan... Reach Kodaikkanal via Munnar and stay there.. Spend a day in Kodaikkanal and leave for Palani and stay overnight there... Next morning reach Chinnar via Udumalpetai.. and then to Marayoor.. and return to Cochin via Munnar.

It was raining when we started.

With all these in mind, we reached Nattakom( a place in the outskirts of Kottayam) and had food and some toddy. Enlightened with the toddy in, we realized that we hadn't collected any of the papers of the car nor licence.
With no option, we turned back to Alleppey and when we reached again back Nattakom after collecting all those scraps, it was evening.
We then drove in a stretch till a place close to Muvattupuzha where we stocked some fresh bananas. The next place we stopped was Munnar. We reached Munnar before 10.
We had some omelets there and thought of pushing off to Kodaikkanal immediately. The google map showed some 90Kms to Kodaikkanal via Theni. But for our shock we saw a board saying some 175Kms to Kodaikkanal. Huff.. we confirmed this with some of the jeep drivers there... We thought we will drive quickly and reach Kodaikkanal very early in the morning.. sleep there for some time and cover all the places there by evening to say bye bye...
Here comes the next hurdle... all of the petrol bunks are closed.. and we had to fill fuel.. The jeep drivers said there is an all-night petrol bunk on the way somewhere 15kms away.. we had enough fuel to go some 60-70Kms..
With no further thoughts we proceeded fast by NH49 to Theni..

This route in the night is very lonely.. You find nobody, just the woods... I like such routes.. :-) You feel very thrilled...

But we dint find any petrol bunks even after some 20Kms.. After some time, we reached a check post and we were told that we could find a petrol bunk at Bodi which is some 40kms away.. So now, we drove very economically, switching off the ac... neutrals on descent.. this type of drive is very thrilling... as we are expecting a complete stall if we don't find a fuel bunk.. :-)

Bodi is at the foot of a hill. The descent is with a lot of hairpin turns. But the road condition is very nice. It became arid and lonely, approaching Bodi... Alas we successfully filled fuel by the highway side after awakening the guy at the bunk there. In less than an hour we went past Theni and proceeded to Kodaokkanal. I was driving all the way and so, started feeling dozy. We stopped by the side in the hope of sleeping. But with the sound of vehicles passing by and flashing headlights, we weren't able to sleep nice.. Infact we were rejuvenated!!! So started driving again. We started climbing the Kodai hills... We were welcomed by nice roads... and on for another 10Km, I reached a stage that I have to pull over and sleep.. cant drive any more.. :-) Sen drives.. but he is already asleep.. :-( We found a good space by the road side and parked and slept inside with the windows rolled down a little. I think all slept nice till 5.30, by when we woke :-)

And when we resumed our journey, we found a very irking thing. All of the road sign boards are pasted with a smiling politician's poster with something written in tamil on it. How callous... those are life savers on tight hairpins.. :-(

Kodaikkanal. Kodai means mist.

On reaching Kodai, we all wanted to lay down for a while to get all the drained energy back.
Now, this is an important lesson we learned... When you go Kodai, try keeping your stay somewhere outside.. some near by places like Theni or so... The room rents(for a medium stay) are exorbitantly high and the rooms are unclean. We badly wanted to sleep. We took a room for half day (6.30 to 12noon) for Rs1200. Slept till 11 and pushed off for sight seeing.
When reached the first place, we thought we would start from the farthest place and cover everything coming back. Reaching the farthest place we learned that this route is a circle and is one way!!! When you reach the farthest point you really arrive where you started!!! Hmm... had to do again a round trip.. :-(

The pillar rocks.

It was very crowded where ever we went in Kodai. The places we visited include, the Pine forest, Guna caves, Pillar rocks, Suicide hill, Bryant park and the lake. Ignoring the discomfort off the huge crowd, all the places we visited in Kodai were nice. When we reached the lake for boat riide, it was already late and so had to settle down seeing others boating.. :-) We were stuck in the traffic there.. So we visited the flower exhibition at the near by Bryant park.. Sen was in a wonderland then... Hopped around and clicked photos till the lights were down... We were done with Kodai now... Bought some homemade chocolates and pushed off to Palani where we planned to stay.

The kodai lake; a bird's eye view.. :-)

The route to Palani is very lonely in the night with no visible human settlements. Very sparse traffic adds to this feeling of isolation. We thoroughly enjoyed this route. Midway, we found a small village where we pacified our long standing thirst with tender coconut water. Driving for another hour or more, we reached Palani. Entering Palani, we were stopped by a check post and were asked to pay for entry pass. Strange...!! Entering a town in India needs an entry pass?? We took a U-turn.. :) Later we learned this road leads straight to the Palani temple for which vehicle entrance is through pass. We entered the town by a different route. First and foremost, we filled fuel, for we weren't sure if the pumps would be open early morning by when we plan to leave the town. A vegetarian hotel near by the pump served us good masala dosas and idlis. The hotelier also tried to manage rooms for us; but couldn't find one.. :(
Set out..., we got a larger picture.. It was an auspicious occasion for wedding and all of the rooms in the town are filled up. Not a single lodge was available!! Meanwhile someone gave the idea of finding a lodge in Udumalpetai which is an hour's journey from there. As this place was already in our route, without thinking further, we drove to Udumalpetai. Reaching there, we realized the cup of tea in store for us.. :) All of those who couldn't manage a lodge in Palani had already booked up all the rooms here. The route ahead is complete forest... :0 We have to sleep somewhere... :) We looked out for places to sleep... A man cleaning a bus by a petrol pump offered us to sleep inside. We badly needed a solid sleep. We parked the car near the bus. Arun and I stayed back in the car and slept inside 'lavishly', while Sujith and Sen opted the bus. After a while these guys came back complaining of mosquitoes inside the bus. Next they tried was, sleeping in front of a shop!!!! But this too didn't last long... They again came back disturbing us... They too wanted to sleep inside now... Though congested, we managed to sleep inside; but with the flashing headlight we got very unsettled.
Come what may; we wanted to sleep well somewhere.... We parked the car at a lonely place in the dark and slept inside peacefully. Got up by 7 and resumed our shabby journey.. :)

Its a long road to go..:-) Through the chinnar.

We brushed our teeth with the mineral water bought from a small village and headed into the woods... We were stopped at the tamilnadu forest department checkpost where we logged in our details. The road ahead is narow but decent..:-) This forest reserve is very arid compared to the forests that we had visited earlier. And so you stand a real chance to see animals. We began stopping our car at any slight noise that we hear, but only to find some birds chirping. Though nothing of a big deal, we saw some wild hen, cranes there. A little ahead we saw a long honed deer swiftly crossing the road. We stopped the vehicle and trailed it. Though we saw it clean, we weren't able to manage a picture. Dissapointed of not seeing anything solid, we drove further a couple of kilometers ahead. Hush.. hush.. there is something.. :-) ... a herd of wild Buffaloes.. :-) We stopped the vehicle. We clicked some shots. But we weren't able to stay too long as their posture was very intimidating. May be with calves around, they are very cautious.

Happy; we drove a little more ahead to find the kerala forest department checkpost. Though very minimal, they had a facility where we could freshen up. This was more than enough for us, given its a jungle. We ate some home made idlis and had chaya there. Finishing all the chores, we saw the next hurdle. The rubber is puncture!!! Sen and Sujith fixed it quickly with the help of a man there.

The journey ahead gave us some curiosity though we didn't really find anything. After an hour we reached Marayoor... touched the gaurded sandle wood..

Unexplored waterfalls in chinnar.

Suddenly, it struck to Arun... that he had read somewhere that there are Muniyaras(burials of sage) in Marayoor. We scratched our head... :-) A twist to archeology now..!!

As he strongly persuaded, we had to heed. But that was fruitful enough. On the way, we got to see how jaggery is made in a sugar cane farm.The old lady there explained us the complete process how it is made. The sugar cane is crushed, processed and it is boiled in a huge couldron. We got to taste some too.. :-)

Huge couldron where jaggery is boiled to stiff.

A lonely road from there led us to the muniyaras. Huge stones piled up in a peculiar fashion is believed to be where sages are buried some hundreds of years back. That was indeed a new experience for us. Arun was really excited here, for he reads a lot on such stuffs. As a whole, it was a new insight for us.

Muniyara

Later we headed to Munnar. Its been a lot of times in Munnar now. But still you really dont get a feeling that its too much of Munnar. Thats Munnar!!!

After spending the evening there, we peacefully pushed off to Cochin. Our sweet Cochin. :-)

PS : This trip happened a year ago. Lethargy ensured that it remained in the shelf for one full year.. :-)