After my trip to Mumbai for the NM admissions, I was back in Namma Bengalooru to celebrate Ugadi. The Hindu New Year. I was also back on the same day for one more reason. Road Trip to Wayanad. Since Ugadi was on a Friday, we had an extended weekend and that meant more time for the trip. But most of us (including me) wanted to celebrate Ugadi at home. So we agreed to leave after the 'habbada oota' on Friday afternoon.
But the planning was not easy sailing by any stretch of imagination. Just getting people to agree on matters (mostly trivial) was a humongous task. It was like 8 people pulling a cart in 8 different directions. Sometimes the mailchains(mode of communication) used to go so out of topic that people would start to get confused why it all started!
But finally we had 8 of them on board. Sathish, Madhu KV, Aditya, Ravi, Vikram, Sujith, Prashanth and myself making it a all BMS gang. Couple of them did opt out due to personal commitments (Ani, Ketchup and Vijet)
Everyone was asked to assemble at my place at 2:30PM. And to my shock, everyone was there! Adi had picked KV, KP and Ravi from his house and Sat, Vikram and Sujith came directly to my house. Adi had taken his Swift and I had taken my Swift. So we left Bangalore at 3 PM hoping for a 'Swift' journey.
The Mysore road was pretty empty and we kept a very nice pace through out. We took a small coffee break near Maddur. Apart from that there were no stops in the entire journey. We had booked a room in Kalapetta which is one of the bigger towns in Wayanad. People had told me that it would take 6 hours to reach Kalapetta. Considering the night journey in the latter part I had told the Chandragiri Inn (hotel where we stayed) that I would reach by 10 PM and would do dinner on the way.
After Mysore road, we took the Ring Road to join Ooty road (NH 212). The stretch of road from Mysore to Nanjangud is not that good. Though there are no potholes, the tarmac is not smooth either. But after Nanjangud, the road becomes a heaven to drive. At Gundulpet, we took a right deviation towards Bandipur-->Manthunga-->Sultan Bathery-->Kalpetta. The road is excellent throughout and the weather was cool. A pleasant surprise for us. We reached Kalpetta at 7:30 PM. Just 5 hrs 30 mins drive including a short break. I realized that we had ripped a little, but we were happy to have reached early.
We settled down in the room. The room was good. Fully carpeted, excellent bathroom with all modern fittings, cable TV, double bed and a small balcony. We had booked 3 such rooms which cost us Rs 550/- per day. Indeed Chandragiri Inn is a nice budget hotel at the center of the town. After that we went to Haritagiri for dinner. This is the part of Kerla I hate. The food, where ever you go in Kerla is pathetic for tourists (the locals do enjoy it :-)) It feels that every food is immersed in coconut oil. Everything smells like the oiled head of a Mallu. After dinner we went back to the room, played some Uhno cards and slept. We had planned lot of things for the next morning.
As usual we were late in getting ready and behind the schedule. We had planned to cover Soochipura falls, Meenmutty falls, Pookode Lake, Likkidi view points and if time permitted an Ayurvedic massage. We had breakfast at Woodlands hotel. This is the worst hotel I have seen regarding service. It has just 1 chef who takes all the orders. But even sadder part is he prepares everything order by order. So if two people have ordered dosas he wont put it together, but he will put one dosa first and then again put another dosa after severing the first one. Dumbos! Drive to Soochipura falls was mesmerizing. The winding roads through tea plantations was pleasure to the eyes. After 30 mins of traveling we reached the falls. We had to walk couple of kilometers on steps to reach the falls. But once we reached the falls, we were shocked to see the crowd. Its was extremely crowded. There was not even a inch of space under the falls. Most of them did not want to get into the water there and continue to Meenmutty falls. But after waiting for sometime, we decided to get down. Even the crowd had reduced by this time. And what a wonderful decision it turned out to be. The Soochipura falls is heaven on earth. Although the rocks are damn slippery near the falls, its all worth the effort. All the 8 of us got under the falls. Although couple of them did manage to fall (including me), there were no serious incidents. The climb back was tiring. The sun was out in full force and that meant all our energy was sapped by now. So was most of our enthu. We had lunch is a very bad restaurant who took a total 1 hour to serve pathetic food. By this time half of them wanted to skip Meenmutty falls(not me). So a coin was tossed to make a decision. They won, so Meenmutty was skipped :-(
We headed back to our room, and it started raining. I guess in Wayanad it never rains, it only pours! Each drop was like a small rock. It was a short thunder storm. After it subdued, we headed towards Pookode Lake. Its an amazing lake. Very serene. Nice picnic spot with boating and stuff. But for a bunch of hooligans like us, its a boring place. The boating was suspended and later closed due to the rain. We took a walk around the lake, ate some stuff and since there was lot of time left, we came back to the room hoping for an Ayurvedic massage. But the crowd beat us there again. To our disappointment all the places were fully booked for the night. So we just had dinner, and slept blissfully.
Our agenda for the next morning was to finish Edkkal caves and drive back home. So we had breakfast in Kalapetta and checked out of our rooms. After a short drive to Edkkal caves, we started our hike. The climb to the caves is steep and strenuous. There is nothing much to see in the caves. Some prehistoric carvings that none of us bothered about. I felt the actual cave part was very small for it to become such a big tourist attraction. But later I realized that it was not just the caves that interested people, but the trek after the caves to the peak of the hill. The climb does get pretty tough at certain points, but nothing unmanageable. The climb to the top was tiring and people from our group started to drop off in the middle. First casualty was Sujith. No big surprise there. Next to drop off were KV and KP. Again no big surprise. The rest reached the top of the peak. The local maxima. The view was wonderful. The climb down was easier that I thought it would be.
The drive back to Bangalore was as pleasurable as the drive to Wayanad had been. Relaxing. That was the theme of our trip. Apart from the climb to Edakkal caves rest of the trip was so relaxing that at times I felt we were outright lazy. In all it was a fun filled trip, with loads of wonderful memories. Although the place did have its charm, it was the company of these amazing friends that made this trip a pleasure. Looking forward for the next trip :-)
But the planning was not easy sailing by any stretch of imagination. Just getting people to agree on matters (mostly trivial) was a humongous task. It was like 8 people pulling a cart in 8 different directions. Sometimes the mailchains(mode of communication) used to go so out of topic that people would start to get confused why it all started!
But finally we had 8 of them on board. Sathish, Madhu KV, Aditya, Ravi, Vikram, Sujith, Prashanth and myself making it a all BMS gang. Couple of them did opt out due to personal commitments (Ani, Ketchup and Vijet)
Everyone was asked to assemble at my place at 2:30PM. And to my shock, everyone was there! Adi had picked KV, KP and Ravi from his house and Sat, Vikram and Sujith came directly to my house. Adi had taken his Swift and I had taken my Swift. So we left Bangalore at 3 PM hoping for a 'Swift' journey.
The Mysore road was pretty empty and we kept a very nice pace through out. We took a small coffee break near Maddur. Apart from that there were no stops in the entire journey. We had booked a room in Kalapetta which is one of the bigger towns in Wayanad. People had told me that it would take 6 hours to reach Kalapetta. Considering the night journey in the latter part I had told the Chandragiri Inn (hotel where we stayed) that I would reach by 10 PM and would do dinner on the way.
After Mysore road, we took the Ring Road to join Ooty road (NH 212). The stretch of road from Mysore to Nanjangud is not that good. Though there are no potholes, the tarmac is not smooth either. But after Nanjangud, the road becomes a heaven to drive. At Gundulpet, we took a right deviation towards Bandipur-->Manthunga-->Sultan Bathery-->Kalpetta. The road is excellent throughout and the weather was cool. A pleasant surprise for us. We reached Kalpetta at 7:30 PM. Just 5 hrs 30 mins drive including a short break. I realized that we had ripped a little, but we were happy to have reached early.
We settled down in the room. The room was good. Fully carpeted, excellent bathroom with all modern fittings, cable TV, double bed and a small balcony. We had booked 3 such rooms which cost us Rs 550/- per day. Indeed Chandragiri Inn is a nice budget hotel at the center of the town. After that we went to Haritagiri for dinner. This is the part of Kerla I hate. The food, where ever you go in Kerla is pathetic for tourists (the locals do enjoy it :-)) It feels that every food is immersed in coconut oil. Everything smells like the oiled head of a Mallu. After dinner we went back to the room, played some Uhno cards and slept. We had planned lot of things for the next morning.
As usual we were late in getting ready and behind the schedule. We had planned to cover Soochipura falls, Meenmutty falls, Pookode Lake, Likkidi view points and if time permitted an Ayurvedic massage. We had breakfast at Woodlands hotel. This is the worst hotel I have seen regarding service. It has just 1 chef who takes all the orders. But even sadder part is he prepares everything order by order. So if two people have ordered dosas he wont put it together, but he will put one dosa first and then again put another dosa after severing the first one. Dumbos! Drive to Soochipura falls was mesmerizing. The winding roads through tea plantations was pleasure to the eyes. After 30 mins of traveling we reached the falls. We had to walk couple of kilometers on steps to reach the falls. But once we reached the falls, we were shocked to see the crowd. Its was extremely crowded. There was not even a inch of space under the falls. Most of them did not want to get into the water there and continue to Meenmutty falls. But after waiting for sometime, we decided to get down. Even the crowd had reduced by this time. And what a wonderful decision it turned out to be. The Soochipura falls is heaven on earth. Although the rocks are damn slippery near the falls, its all worth the effort. All the 8 of us got under the falls. Although couple of them did manage to fall (including me), there were no serious incidents. The climb back was tiring. The sun was out in full force and that meant all our energy was sapped by now. So was most of our enthu. We had lunch is a very bad restaurant who took a total 1 hour to serve pathetic food. By this time half of them wanted to skip Meenmutty falls(not me). So a coin was tossed to make a decision. They won, so Meenmutty was skipped :-(
We headed back to our room, and it started raining. I guess in Wayanad it never rains, it only pours! Each drop was like a small rock. It was a short thunder storm. After it subdued, we headed towards Pookode Lake. Its an amazing lake. Very serene. Nice picnic spot with boating and stuff. But for a bunch of hooligans like us, its a boring place. The boating was suspended and later closed due to the rain. We took a walk around the lake, ate some stuff and since there was lot of time left, we came back to the room hoping for an Ayurvedic massage. But the crowd beat us there again. To our disappointment all the places were fully booked for the night. So we just had dinner, and slept blissfully.
Our agenda for the next morning was to finish Edkkal caves and drive back home. So we had breakfast in Kalapetta and checked out of our rooms. After a short drive to Edkkal caves, we started our hike. The climb to the caves is steep and strenuous. There is nothing much to see in the caves. Some prehistoric carvings that none of us bothered about. I felt the actual cave part was very small for it to become such a big tourist attraction. But later I realized that it was not just the caves that interested people, but the trek after the caves to the peak of the hill. The climb does get pretty tough at certain points, but nothing unmanageable. The climb to the top was tiring and people from our group started to drop off in the middle. First casualty was Sujith. No big surprise there. Next to drop off were KV and KP. Again no big surprise. The rest reached the top of the peak. The local maxima. The view was wonderful. The climb down was easier that I thought it would be.
The drive back to Bangalore was as pleasurable as the drive to Wayanad had been. Relaxing. That was the theme of our trip. Apart from the climb to Edakkal caves rest of the trip was so relaxing that at times I felt we were outright lazy. In all it was a fun filled trip, with loads of wonderful memories. Although the place did have its charm, it was the company of these amazing friends that made this trip a pleasure. Looking forward for the next trip :-)
2 comments:
Seem to be missing some lines every time you go to bed in this rip ;-) Oweing to your blog's popularity I guess ;-)
yep... its sad that at a place where I can write the truth, I have come to hide some of it... but somethings are not meant to be written ;-)
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