The Kodai trip...
I have been on a planning mode for quite some time. Planning to travel and visit different places. May be my beautiful brain decided that all I wanted to do was plan and that made me happy. When he had given up all hope, it happened- a New Year, 2010! Well, well, with a new year, I had to do something new. That is when the 'Calicut Camry bhai' from my office talked about a trip to the mountains. Interesting, because I actually did not go into the planning mode and instead said YES, letz go...
The Cast
The Scoripian queen aka Punjabi soni kudi is the dangerous one as well as the cute one. Be careful what you say to her or she can sting with a lot of poison. Be good and you find her with lot of passion.
Old Monk has recently become a damager in office, I meant manager. He is constanly trying to convert namma Bengaluru to his dear bay area in sunny California. Long way buddy :).
Camry Bhai is very interesting. He comes out with business ideas every day and measures the penny spent by everybody on everything in this world.
The Acoustic gal is a talent. With her guitar, the world sounds much better.
The Rockon singh gal was happy hanging on to her boyfriend (The Acoustic) all the time. Oh, did I say boyfriend ;).
The Acoustic's sister was a totally different act. I guess she did not need a guitar to make the Goan king dance around her :).
The Goan king is a good man. Thank him for he encouraged me to take to photography even more with some beautiful shots. Even made me jealous.
From the initial 10 gypsies who wanted to get on the wheels, we were down to 8 the day before the journey began. Was that a good sign??? We had decided to start at 4:00 AM IST from office, after work. All of us showed commitment to IST (Indian stretchable time) and finally we were off the block around 7 AM. 4 of us in Camry and 4 in Innova. We were a happy Toyota family. The 'Old Monk' convinced his fatherji to send along their driver to man the Innova. From Dairy Circle in Bannerghatta road, we hit the Hosur road without much delay. Thru NH-7, we were flying..past Hosur and while in Krishnagiri we decided to break our fast. Adyar Ananda Bhavan or A2B is a vegetarian restaurant attached to a BP petrol bunk, probably the best you can get in that area. It is self-service and on a holiday, the wait for food can drain your energy. The quality of food here is good and tasty. The 8 of us took less time to eat than what we had to wait for the food to be ready.
With our stomach not empty anymore, most of us did what we were really good at-sleep. While going past Salem, I called my sis to announce my arrival in her city. My mom was still not convinced that the 2 brave souls driving, can stay awake after a hard day's/night work. Her aversion to computers is a bliss I guess because I would definitely not want her to read that the Calicut bhai was flying his Camry at 160KM/hr when we were in Dindigul. Alas, that was our first mistake (or was it ;) ). He was definitely having fun with his dream run, but he probably forgot where we needed to go. We had missed the right turn to Kodaikanal and realized it when the 'Old Monk's driver called us to check on the route. We continued towards Madurai and checked with few good samaritans on the way and found the next best turn towards Kodai. Alas, alas, obviously our second mistake... Once we turned, we looked at everything around except the diversion board on the road side. After exploring the country side for 30 minutes, the Old Monk flexed his Tamil knowledge again. The best part of country side is, if we talk their language, they grace us with so much of warmth and make us feel as if we have known each other for years. Finally, we turned around and found the right way to the hill station.
The drive up the hill was beautiful. After entering the Kodai town center, we easily figured out the way to our resort, appropriately named 'The Hill Country Resort'. Finally, touch down...Frankly the deluxe cottage and regular cottage was not upto my expectations. Definitely not worth the money they have mentioned. BUT, outside the rooms, the resort was a real beauty and the landscape around it was even better. It did look like some Firang country. All of us quickly freshened up and were out for our first exploration of Kodai. I was so happy to flash my 'Canon Powershot S5 IS' and started clicking away. Since it was getting dark, we decided to take it easy that evening and drove to the town center. After a nice little walk around Kodai lake, tasting some samosa, thoroughly enjoying the weather, we decided for an early dinner. Hilltop restaurant gets only a rank C in my list of restaurants to visit. I wouldn't order the chicken biriyani again, though I swept my plate clean that day with my brain cells listening to the calls from my stomach more than my taste buds. Chicken and mutton curries were ok I guess. Kerala paranthas were big in size and we packed what was left of it.
Back in the resort, the bonfire excited us, but the resort manager who was playing host was a big turn off and we decided to leave it alone .We spend the next couple of hours in the children's play area using the most effective human weapon-mouth/tongue. My tongue as usual was lazy to bring out words while my brain was busy with all thoughts. Damn! did that sound dirty.. NOooo. They were good thoughts of me trekking in Alps mountains, sky diving and skiing... Looking back, I feel I should have talked more atleast to maintain a steady blood flow in my body keeping myself warm. It was getting colder every minute. After an hour, I went to my room to get a sweater on. The truth is it was fun listening to the folks trash out their random thoughts, anything other than office talk was good for me. Finally, when people wanted to call it a day, a suggestion to play UNO came up. Good suggestion, as it turned out to be. 8 of us had a blast playing one game of UNO for more than 1 hour or was it 2! I almost won it twice, but lost out once because of my over-enthusiasm or should I say stupidity and the second time because my best friend showed me the middle finger :( ... After that game, half the team went to bed and the rest played on for few more games.
The Old Monk was up early and was trying to wake up the Camry bhai without success. I got out of the bed around 9. Bread, milk and cornflakes for breakfast. We took it easy that morning and gave enough time for people to be ready and got out of the resort around 12PM only. All of us hammered ourself in the Innova for the day's trip. Why did we not take the other car! Our first destination was Coaker's walk. Before entering the walk, few of us decided to have tea and bread omlet. Forgettable and Regrettable. Entry to the walk is Rs.3 per person. The place was named after Lt.Coaker who prepared the Kodai map. It was a nice little walk along the edge of steep slope with a scenic view of the valley. We could see clouds below us covering other mountains like snow. BEAUTIFUL! There is a telescope available for the public halfway through the walk. I believe it is another 5 bucks that you need to pay for using it. Why are we restless! Oh, Lunch time....we decided to try the unlimited meals in Astoria veg restaurant. Not bad.
May be we were all thankful for satisfying our hunger and wanted to thank Mr.God personally. Next stop was the oldest church in Kodai called Le Salette Church. It was built in the second half of 19th century and is at a height of 7000 feet above sea level. Closer to God, I guess! You have to go up a flight of steps to enter the church. Few of us went inside the church for a more intimate conversation with the almighty. I gave it a skip and instead decided to zoom my lenses on one of his earlier creations, our ancestors, playing around the area and hanging on the trees. A tourist family group was enjoying a sumptous meal right outside the church and feeding the monkeys. A little dangerous I would say. Once the believers among us came out of the church, we proceeded to Green Valley View, more famous as Suicide Point. It was a busy day with lot of traffic enroute and we took more time than usual to reach our destination. The actual view they advertise is not worth the visit. They have built a huge iron grill wall to prevent people from going adventurous and trying some luck with death. The pathway that leads to this view from the vehicle parking area is a mini market and crowded as well. As we came back to the parking area, Old Monk checked with one of the cab drivers, who was waiting for his visitor to return, about other places that we can visit. He gave 2 good advices that day - Leave the vehicle and walk down to the next view point - Pillar Rocks and check out the Green Valley View from the Railway quarters located nearby.
With the traffic choking the roads, we started walking. Opposite to the Green Valley View is the Golf Course owned by Kodai Golf Club. It was a nice little walk of almost 1 KM to Pillar Rocks with a view of golf course. Pillar Rocks has couple of huge boulders standing shoulder to shoulder. Damn, my camera is low on battery. I shut it down and viewed the amazing rocks dazzle with the sun setting down on us. The clouds were hitting the rocks and curling up creating a beautiful picture in the sky. The area between the rocks is called Devil's kitchen. I heard that Kamal Hassan's movie Guna was shot there and it literally renamed the place to Guna Caves! Well, my battery was playing devil. On our way back, tea and coffee break again. Old Monk and the Scorpian queen bought some flowers and seeds from a shop there. The walk back was chilling as the temperature was falling quickly. As we reached Green Valley View, we took the small left road beside the main entrance and found the Railway quarters. With nobody to stop us from entering, we went to the other side of the compound. It was unbelievable! A breath taking view of the mountains and clouds, much much better than what they advertise as the Suicide Point. The adrenalin kicked up even more and myself, Old Monk and Camry Bhai decided to explore the area further. Coming out of the quarters, we took a right to a steep climb through mud road. Good God, if anybody is planning to visit Kodai you CANNOT afford to miss this view. The best in the whole of Kodai. Trust me...I kicked myself for loosing out on the camera opportunity. You will get some chilly wind up there, so take precaution. And try not to get too excited and venture into the edges of the slope. There are no protective walls here.
After this adventure, we took to our Innova and back to the resort. They had the dance floor open with music, but again the manager chacha was there and we ran away. Our legs got the rest it wanted, but our stomachs were back on duty. Om Innova Om...We parked the car near the lake and started our walk around it. Crazy people. (The next day, we came to know that it is a 7KM stretch!!!!!) There was no street light and not many people around and the team was not having much fun stretching our legs so much. We walked back to the car and started our search for a restaurant. The punjabi dhaba near Astoria veg restaurant was not looking good, so we decided not to experiment there. Next stop was Astoria non-veg restaurant. We had to wait for 15 minutes for our seats. Nan,chicken and mutton- better than the dinner we had the day before in Hilltop restaurant. The finishing touch for dinner was given with a cup of lemon tea-Good. Back in the resort, most of us decided to stake claim to much needed rest. The rest went for few rounds of UNO again.
Gud Morning! We had decided to get out of the resort early to cover more places. Trouble - Looks like there was some confusion with our booking dates and the resort books showed us leaving that morning. We tried to negotiate with the resort and they said, its fully booked. We decided to checkout that morning, go around for rest of the day and head back to Bengaluru in the evening. I was the official CFO of project Kodai (poor me, as I found out later). After settling the bills, we were ready to head out. Hold on, Camry bhai and Old Monk had left early to the Forest Department office for permission to visit some forest area. After reaching there, they figured out that it will take a lot of time for them to actually get the permission. General advice if any of you are planning to visit. Get the required papers for permission a day before your planned visit or go through a travel agent/guide (expensive option). We opted for the latter. So the whole bunch of us got into the Innova and the driver dropped us near Kodai Lake. The guide arrived in his Qualis (we were really a happy Toyota family) and off we went.
We did not stop at the Pine Forest or the Observatory. Pine Forest was crowded. This place is famous for the many shootings that took place, Oh no, not with guns, cine/movie shooting. You can walk around the area with tall Pine trees. Zipping past the line of vehicle trying to find a parking spot, we quickly reached Silent Valley view. A short walk down an uneven pathway leads to breathtaking view of the valley. Breathtaking- that is one word which you will have to repeat in many places in Kodai. My Canon was fully charged and I was fully exploiting it. In many of these view points, you have the option of getting on top of some stands if you are brave enough to trust its rusted ladders. I guess these were meant for the Forest dept for observation. Now the men can observe beautiful valley and women from the top. In this narrow road to Berijam lake, there are different views like Shanthi Valley view, Upper Lake View etc. Few of them gives you a sneak peak at my beautiful Keralam, especially one side of Munnar. Finally, we hit the Berijam Lake and walked around the area enjoying the waterbed reflecting the sun. With more photos in my kitty, I was ready to get the hell out of there. The place is a little more than 20km from the town center. All of us were now eager to get back to the Kodai lake for the much awaited boat ride. On the way back, most of us let the brain take some rest with a quick nap. Another piece of advice, if you want to take this trip, carry enough food and water as you do not have any shops on the way. If you want to take your own vehicle, be prepared to find some scratches on both sides with so many tree branches protruding on to the road.
Back in the town center, we let go the guide and was thinking of a place for our lunch. Next to the hilltop restaurant was a Pizza Corner. Without further discussion, we headed there and quickly placed the orders. We had to make it quick to be on time for the boat ride. Pizzas, Garlic bread, coffee. 3 of us quickly finished the food and headed towards the booking center to get the tickets for boat ride. Boat rides are offered by different people like Kodaikanal Boat and Rowing Club, Tamilnadu Tourism Development Corporation. I forgot the name of the third group who offered boat rides. We went for the Shikara boats with a guide to row. These guys are good. I think they can operate any camera in the world. We had fun sailing around with the Sun coming down on one side. It was again getting colder every minute. With some lovely photos to act as dessert, we did almost 1 hour of ride.
Out of the water, we walked back to the Innova or we thought we were walking. Most of us spent time browsing through the market there with some chai/kaappe and mirchi bonda. It was getting darker now and we finally got into the vehicle to our resort. We had checked out in the morning and used the facility only to freshen-up. There was a lot of discussion on dinner. Most of us were not hungry. Finally, majority ruled that we will start our trip down the hill and catch up in Dindigul. Alas*3, mistake again! The way down in Camry was not so pleasant. Even though, Camry bhai was having fun showcasing his driving skills and I was enjoying the night ride, the other 2 Ninjas in the car were finding it hard. After few throw-ups, we continued our climb down. Target Dindigul. What your elders tell you are right. Time never waits for anybody. By the time, we reached Dindigul, most of the town had packed home and no decent restaurant was open. We tried different options, but our adventure was only beginning. Our adventure stretched to the inner roads of Dindigul town and later, back to NH209. Somewhere between Dindigul and Salem, we found our saviour. It was again driver bhabha who came to the rescue. The road side place was aptly named Ayushman Dhaba! Was that a coincidence...
Ayushaman Dhaba treated us well. They cut fresh chicken to make us chicken curry and hot rotis. For entertainment we had Superstar Rajini playing on the TV. The entertainment party included many black flies as well. Frankly, the food was good! All of us thanked god and cursed each other in our minds for this tiny adventure- we had been hunting for food since 9PM and some chicken entered our stomach after 1AM or was it 2. With that, we entered the last leg of our eventful journey. Both the Toyotas cruised along the road on the way to Bangalore. With the clock past 5AM we were in Hosur road and finally in my office in Dairy Circle. Oh yeah, we had actually come a full circle.
2010 has greeted me with a much awaited travel. Long way to go for 2011. What next...
Please leave your comments in the comments section...
The Cast
The Scoripian queen aka Punjabi soni kudi is the dangerous one as well as the cute one. Be careful what you say to her or she can sting with a lot of poison. Be good and you find her with lot of passion.
Old Monk has recently become a damager in office, I meant manager. He is constanly trying to convert namma Bengaluru to his dear bay area in sunny California. Long way buddy :).
Camry Bhai is very interesting. He comes out with business ideas every day and measures the penny spent by everybody on everything in this world.
The Acoustic gal is a talent. With her guitar, the world sounds much better.
The Rockon singh gal was happy hanging on to her boyfriend (The Acoustic) all the time. Oh, did I say boyfriend ;).
The Acoustic's sister was a totally different act. I guess she did not need a guitar to make the Goan king dance around her :).
The Goan king is a good man. Thank him for he encouraged me to take to photography even more with some beautiful shots. Even made me jealous.
From the initial 10 gypsies who wanted to get on the wheels, we were down to 8 the day before the journey began. Was that a good sign??? We had decided to start at 4:00 AM IST from office, after work. All of us showed commitment to IST (Indian stretchable time) and finally we were off the block around 7 AM. 4 of us in Camry and 4 in Innova. We were a happy Toyota family. The 'Old Monk' convinced his fatherji to send along their driver to man the Innova. From Dairy Circle in Bannerghatta road, we hit the Hosur road without much delay. Thru NH-7, we were flying..past Hosur and while in Krishnagiri we decided to break our fast. Adyar Ananda Bhavan or A2B is a vegetarian restaurant attached to a BP petrol bunk, probably the best you can get in that area. It is self-service and on a holiday, the wait for food can drain your energy. The quality of food here is good and tasty. The 8 of us took less time to eat than what we had to wait for the food to be ready.
With our stomach not empty anymore, most of us did what we were really good at-sleep. While going past Salem, I called my sis to announce my arrival in her city. My mom was still not convinced that the 2 brave souls driving, can stay awake after a hard day's/night work. Her aversion to computers is a bliss I guess because I would definitely not want her to read that the Calicut bhai was flying his Camry at 160KM/hr when we were in Dindigul. Alas, that was our first mistake (or was it ;) ). He was definitely having fun with his dream run, but he probably forgot where we needed to go. We had missed the right turn to Kodaikanal and realized it when the 'Old Monk's driver called us to check on the route. We continued towards Madurai and checked with few good samaritans on the way and found the next best turn towards Kodai. Alas, alas, obviously our second mistake... Once we turned, we looked at everything around except the diversion board on the road side. After exploring the country side for 30 minutes, the Old Monk flexed his Tamil knowledge again. The best part of country side is, if we talk their language, they grace us with so much of warmth and make us feel as if we have known each other for years. Finally, we turned around and found the right way to the hill station.
The drive up the hill was beautiful. After entering the Kodai town center, we easily figured out the way to our resort, appropriately named 'The Hill Country Resort'. Finally, touch down...Frankly the deluxe cottage and regular cottage was not upto my expectations. Definitely not worth the money they have mentioned. BUT, outside the rooms, the resort was a real beauty and the landscape around it was even better. It did look like some Firang country. All of us quickly freshened up and were out for our first exploration of Kodai. I was so happy to flash my 'Canon Powershot S5 IS' and started clicking away. Since it was getting dark, we decided to take it easy that evening and drove to the town center. After a nice little walk around Kodai lake, tasting some samosa, thoroughly enjoying the weather, we decided for an early dinner. Hilltop restaurant gets only a rank C in my list of restaurants to visit. I wouldn't order the chicken biriyani again, though I swept my plate clean that day with my brain cells listening to the calls from my stomach more than my taste buds. Chicken and mutton curries were ok I guess. Kerala paranthas were big in size and we packed what was left of it.
Back in the resort, the bonfire excited us, but the resort manager who was playing host was a big turn off and we decided to leave it alone .We spend the next couple of hours in the children's play area using the most effective human weapon-mouth/tongue. My tongue as usual was lazy to bring out words while my brain was busy with all thoughts. Damn! did that sound dirty.. NOooo. They were good thoughts of me trekking in Alps mountains, sky diving and skiing... Looking back, I feel I should have talked more atleast to maintain a steady blood flow in my body keeping myself warm. It was getting colder every minute. After an hour, I went to my room to get a sweater on. The truth is it was fun listening to the folks trash out their random thoughts, anything other than office talk was good for me. Finally, when people wanted to call it a day, a suggestion to play UNO came up. Good suggestion, as it turned out to be. 8 of us had a blast playing one game of UNO for more than 1 hour or was it 2! I almost won it twice, but lost out once because of my over-enthusiasm or should I say stupidity and the second time because my best friend showed me the middle finger :( ... After that game, half the team went to bed and the rest played on for few more games.
The Old Monk was up early and was trying to wake up the Camry bhai without success. I got out of the bed around 9. Bread, milk and cornflakes for breakfast. We took it easy that morning and gave enough time for people to be ready and got out of the resort around 12PM only. All of us hammered ourself in the Innova for the day's trip. Why did we not take the other car! Our first destination was Coaker's walk. Before entering the walk, few of us decided to have tea and bread omlet. Forgettable and Regrettable. Entry to the walk is Rs.3 per person. The place was named after Lt.Coaker who prepared the Kodai map. It was a nice little walk along the edge of steep slope with a scenic view of the valley. We could see clouds below us covering other mountains like snow. BEAUTIFUL! There is a telescope available for the public halfway through the walk. I believe it is another 5 bucks that you need to pay for using it. Why are we restless! Oh, Lunch time....we decided to try the unlimited meals in Astoria veg restaurant. Not bad.
May be we were all thankful for satisfying our hunger and wanted to thank Mr.God personally. Next stop was the oldest church in Kodai called Le Salette Church. It was built in the second half of 19th century and is at a height of 7000 feet above sea level. Closer to God, I guess! You have to go up a flight of steps to enter the church. Few of us went inside the church for a more intimate conversation with the almighty. I gave it a skip and instead decided to zoom my lenses on one of his earlier creations, our ancestors, playing around the area and hanging on the trees. A tourist family group was enjoying a sumptous meal right outside the church and feeding the monkeys. A little dangerous I would say. Once the believers among us came out of the church, we proceeded to Green Valley View, more famous as Suicide Point. It was a busy day with lot of traffic enroute and we took more time than usual to reach our destination. The actual view they advertise is not worth the visit. They have built a huge iron grill wall to prevent people from going adventurous and trying some luck with death. The pathway that leads to this view from the vehicle parking area is a mini market and crowded as well. As we came back to the parking area, Old Monk checked with one of the cab drivers, who was waiting for his visitor to return, about other places that we can visit. He gave 2 good advices that day - Leave the vehicle and walk down to the next view point - Pillar Rocks and check out the Green Valley View from the Railway quarters located nearby.
With the traffic choking the roads, we started walking. Opposite to the Green Valley View is the Golf Course owned by Kodai Golf Club. It was a nice little walk of almost 1 KM to Pillar Rocks with a view of golf course. Pillar Rocks has couple of huge boulders standing shoulder to shoulder. Damn, my camera is low on battery. I shut it down and viewed the amazing rocks dazzle with the sun setting down on us. The clouds were hitting the rocks and curling up creating a beautiful picture in the sky. The area between the rocks is called Devil's kitchen. I heard that Kamal Hassan's movie Guna was shot there and it literally renamed the place to Guna Caves! Well, my battery was playing devil. On our way back, tea and coffee break again. Old Monk and the Scorpian queen bought some flowers and seeds from a shop there. The walk back was chilling as the temperature was falling quickly. As we reached Green Valley View, we took the small left road beside the main entrance and found the Railway quarters. With nobody to stop us from entering, we went to the other side of the compound. It was unbelievable! A breath taking view of the mountains and clouds, much much better than what they advertise as the Suicide Point. The adrenalin kicked up even more and myself, Old Monk and Camry Bhai decided to explore the area further. Coming out of the quarters, we took a right to a steep climb through mud road. Good God, if anybody is planning to visit Kodai you CANNOT afford to miss this view. The best in the whole of Kodai. Trust me...I kicked myself for loosing out on the camera opportunity. You will get some chilly wind up there, so take precaution. And try not to get too excited and venture into the edges of the slope. There are no protective walls here.
After this adventure, we took to our Innova and back to the resort. They had the dance floor open with music, but again the manager chacha was there and we ran away. Our legs got the rest it wanted, but our stomachs were back on duty. Om Innova Om...We parked the car near the lake and started our walk around it. Crazy people. (The next day, we came to know that it is a 7KM stretch!!!!!) There was no street light and not many people around and the team was not having much fun stretching our legs so much. We walked back to the car and started our search for a restaurant. The punjabi dhaba near Astoria veg restaurant was not looking good, so we decided not to experiment there. Next stop was Astoria non-veg restaurant. We had to wait for 15 minutes for our seats. Nan,chicken and mutton- better than the dinner we had the day before in Hilltop restaurant. The finishing touch for dinner was given with a cup of lemon tea-Good. Back in the resort, most of us decided to stake claim to much needed rest. The rest went for few rounds of UNO again.
Gud Morning! We had decided to get out of the resort early to cover more places. Trouble - Looks like there was some confusion with our booking dates and the resort books showed us leaving that morning. We tried to negotiate with the resort and they said, its fully booked. We decided to checkout that morning, go around for rest of the day and head back to Bengaluru in the evening. I was the official CFO of project Kodai (poor me, as I found out later). After settling the bills, we were ready to head out. Hold on, Camry bhai and Old Monk had left early to the Forest Department office for permission to visit some forest area. After reaching there, they figured out that it will take a lot of time for them to actually get the permission. General advice if any of you are planning to visit. Get the required papers for permission a day before your planned visit or go through a travel agent/guide (expensive option). We opted for the latter. So the whole bunch of us got into the Innova and the driver dropped us near Kodai Lake. The guide arrived in his Qualis (we were really a happy Toyota family) and off we went.
We did not stop at the Pine Forest or the Observatory. Pine Forest was crowded. This place is famous for the many shootings that took place, Oh no, not with guns, cine/movie shooting. You can walk around the area with tall Pine trees. Zipping past the line of vehicle trying to find a parking spot, we quickly reached Silent Valley view. A short walk down an uneven pathway leads to breathtaking view of the valley. Breathtaking- that is one word which you will have to repeat in many places in Kodai. My Canon was fully charged and I was fully exploiting it. In many of these view points, you have the option of getting on top of some stands if you are brave enough to trust its rusted ladders. I guess these were meant for the Forest dept for observation. Now the men can observe beautiful valley and women from the top. In this narrow road to Berijam lake, there are different views like Shanthi Valley view, Upper Lake View etc. Few of them gives you a sneak peak at my beautiful Keralam, especially one side of Munnar. Finally, we hit the Berijam Lake and walked around the area enjoying the waterbed reflecting the sun. With more photos in my kitty, I was ready to get the hell out of there. The place is a little more than 20km from the town center. All of us were now eager to get back to the Kodai lake for the much awaited boat ride. On the way back, most of us let the brain take some rest with a quick nap. Another piece of advice, if you want to take this trip, carry enough food and water as you do not have any shops on the way. If you want to take your own vehicle, be prepared to find some scratches on both sides with so many tree branches protruding on to the road.
Back in the town center, we let go the guide and was thinking of a place for our lunch. Next to the hilltop restaurant was a Pizza Corner. Without further discussion, we headed there and quickly placed the orders. We had to make it quick to be on time for the boat ride. Pizzas, Garlic bread, coffee. 3 of us quickly finished the food and headed towards the booking center to get the tickets for boat ride. Boat rides are offered by different people like Kodaikanal Boat and Rowing Club, Tamilnadu Tourism Development Corporation. I forgot the name of the third group who offered boat rides. We went for the Shikara boats with a guide to row. These guys are good. I think they can operate any camera in the world. We had fun sailing around with the Sun coming down on one side. It was again getting colder every minute. With some lovely photos to act as dessert, we did almost 1 hour of ride.
Out of the water, we walked back to the Innova or we thought we were walking. Most of us spent time browsing through the market there with some chai/kaappe and mirchi bonda. It was getting darker now and we finally got into the vehicle to our resort. We had checked out in the morning and used the facility only to freshen-up. There was a lot of discussion on dinner. Most of us were not hungry. Finally, majority ruled that we will start our trip down the hill and catch up in Dindigul. Alas*3, mistake again! The way down in Camry was not so pleasant. Even though, Camry bhai was having fun showcasing his driving skills and I was enjoying the night ride, the other 2 Ninjas in the car were finding it hard. After few throw-ups, we continued our climb down. Target Dindigul. What your elders tell you are right. Time never waits for anybody. By the time, we reached Dindigul, most of the town had packed home and no decent restaurant was open. We tried different options, but our adventure was only beginning. Our adventure stretched to the inner roads of Dindigul town and later, back to NH209. Somewhere between Dindigul and Salem, we found our saviour. It was again driver bhabha who came to the rescue. The road side place was aptly named Ayushman Dhaba! Was that a coincidence...
Ayushaman Dhaba treated us well. They cut fresh chicken to make us chicken curry and hot rotis. For entertainment we had Superstar Rajini playing on the TV. The entertainment party included many black flies as well. Frankly, the food was good! All of us thanked god and cursed each other in our minds for this tiny adventure- we had been hunting for food since 9PM and some chicken entered our stomach after 1AM or was it 2. With that, we entered the last leg of our eventful journey. Both the Toyotas cruised along the road on the way to Bangalore. With the clock past 5AM we were in Hosur road and finally in my office in Dairy Circle. Oh yeah, we had actually come a full circle.
2010 has greeted me with a much awaited travel. Long way to go for 2011. What next...
Please leave your comments in the comments section...
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