Wayanad Trip..
Readers,
Its been ages since my last post. I understand that the world has completely changed by now, several significant events have taken place since my last post :)
* Chandrayaan I launched
* Bush winning the Shoe-Dodging-ing World Title!
* Terrorists & NSG playing hide&seek at Taj
* Obama trying desperately to ban at least the Jokes/Ads on Recession (if not recession itself)
* Bush winning the Shoe-Dodging-ing World Title!
* Terrorists & NSG playing hide&seek at Taj
* Obama trying desperately to ban at least the Jokes/Ads on Recession (if not recession itself)
I agree and wholeheartedly accept that my lethargy and only my lethargy attributed to this hibernation. Many a posts still lie as drafts and I don't wanna publish them as they would be now chronologically insane and invite abuses from readers more than anything else :P
So yeah, I have been a regular blogger (at least of my travel-logs) and this column is just to do justice to this ancient practice of mine. It was exactly an year after the Trip to Chikmaglur (NOT to be interpreted as Chick-maglur!), Dec 20 2008, that this one happened.
Wayanad, 255 kms from Bangalore is supposedly called The Plantation District of Kerala and true to its name, it was as we later discovered. A weekend was ahead and we (6 of us) decided to make the best of it. I managed to get hold of a Tavera (I am becoming more inclined to this vehicle and will vouch for it as my favourite trip vehicle, following one of my trip to Tirupathi with Driver_Basavaraj), with high-quality DVD/CD players and a more calm and composed driver than I had seen before. The new guy was rather more posh with a bluetooth headset, had fitted his vehicle with a LCD television screen and the vechicle looked clean. Accomodation was taken care of, we booked a resort at Kenichira called Hilia Resort , where mallu twin sisters Cicy and Elsy (I 'm not cooking things up here!!) were awaiting our arrival cleaning their koart-yaard (mallu for court yard) for our campfire :)
00:30 am, Dec 20 - we started off. The trip till Mysore was cool, none of us slept, there were music and jokes to keep us bright & awake. Highlights were the spike-strips that we so eagerly watched for in the Bangalore-Mysore highway and claimed points :) And ofcourse, Bino told us how our car looked like an aircraft and the highway a runway..
I bet anyone who travels to mysore on a private car will/must stop at one of the CCDs on the way. The ambience these have during the night can never be explained. We had some basic snacks & chai there, but Abheek had some visual entertainment as well :)
The route we followed was: Bangalore >> Mysore >> Nanganund >> Gundlupet >> Sulthan Bathery >> Kalpetta (Wayanad)
As we neared Sulthan Bathery, the stretch of bamboo forests began and we drove past the Bandipur Wild Life Santuary. It was exactly the time when Bino grabbed the front seat and a sudden enthu siezed him and he began paining people (esp his bong prey) to sleep. Our idea was to visit one of the falls in Wayanad and then head to our resort. It wasn't until 9 am that we reached Meenmutty Falls, supposedly one of the biggest falls in Wayanad. I hadn't the slightest idea that this was gonna be a cleaverly disguised intensive trekking as well.
A guide accompanied us into the forests leading to the waterfall and the path got more and more wilder and unnavigable as we moved on. Fatigue took charge and frequent sutta breaks became a necessity! We kept paining the guide at regular intervals to tell us how far we had come close to the fall & about the return route. After a stretch, we could see ropes tied to trees along the mud way to help people move ahead. After an hour of intense trekking, we reached a point from where we could see the Meenmutty falls flowing down from the hills. There was bright sunshine now and it made the water dazzle in a rainbow attire. The rocks where the falls hit the floor, threw off little white flakes of water. It was a visual treat to watch, the roar of water being a stress-reliever. We dropped our initial decision to return after a glimpse of the falls, deciding to instead head till the foot of the waterfalls and probably drench ourselves in the water :)
But, getting to that point wasn't easy either, the rocks were horrendously slippery and gaining a firm foothold was as difficult as trying to touch your nose with the tongue ;) (Well, don't try it now..). Failing our grip, we were once even dragged into the water. I was reminded of the Anjuna Beach in Goa, where wandering in the beach was equivalently painful, the situation there being worse because of dozens of crabs lying clinged onto the rocks. So, reach we did finally and my little Sony Ericsson k530 2MP camera captured all images there (I am glad it's still working despite being profusely drenched). We perched on top of a rock which was continuously hit by the falls and turned around. Boy! Looking at the huge column of water 200 meters high, cascading down towards us and getting us wet was simply smashing. Meenmutty was undoubtedly a prospective candidate for the next Liril Ad ;)
It was now noon and the trek back to our car made us starving souls. Our guide brought us to a hut where they had buttermilk and water as energy-replenishers. Finding a way to Hilia Resort, Kenichira now became a pain. We drove on & on, Cicy and Elsy directing us to all wierd places and routes. But, Hilia Resort wasn't that bad after all. We checked in quick, had a quick shower and darted off to the kitchen where Manu (our patient, strong mallu-englished attendent) served us food. Personally, I loved the food at that moment of hunger and dived into all possible dishes. There were deserts as well - "Sir, please taik these Benena", Manu remarked :)
After this heavy lunch, we decided to take a nap. And Bino, who had brought with him his sentimental tent (his life-time ambition to sleep in a tent was going to materialize!), unpacked his stuff. We found a lawn nearby where we began setting the tent. I was excited to spend the entire night in it. After a heavy nap (an oxymoron??), we woke up in the evening and called for the campfire which was lit just beside the lawn in the koart-yard (as Cicy & Elcy had sincerely mentioned). It was then that we spotted few hammocks in the garden and in the scurry to capture one for myself, I tripped not noticing a broad ditch and sprained my toe!
We ordered some starters sitting beside the campfire. While we were wondering what to talk about, Bino began unravelling his secret questions ;) The ones over which he had pondered for long and for whom the answers he never knew. We argued on ones like - "Euthenesia being legal or not!", "AI taking over the world entirely in near future?" and a holistic talk about topics like marriage, sex etc.. We finally realized that everybody has a opinion of his own and establishing any conclusion/consensus wasn't always the right thing to do. But, ofcourse the brainstorming was good :) I remembered my college days, it was during the exam nights that we used to do the popular group study. We would discuss about all social/political/xyz/.. topics. Couple of hours before the semester exams, there would be arguments on why Sachin is better than Ganguly, why Bush was an a******, which famous business idea would revolutionize the world, hot vs homely girls :P, etc.. We decided that we shall have the dinner and come back to the campfire and spend some time late night before we went to bed. Bino & me planned to take the tent. We stayed awake till 2 am singing/screaming in the night (ironically we were the only people in that house, so it didn't matter), till sleep and the pain in my toe almost took over and I had to crash in the tent. It was cozy and warm, we zipped the tent from inside and kept little windows open. It was a cool feeling to lie down listening to sounds in the forest and the moist fragrance of the trees around. I had a sound sleep and woke up at only 10 am next morning. We had planned to wake up early and visit most places before we left Wayanad, but it seemed like we were late already. Calling up Manu, we decided we would pack up, have lunch and leave to Bangalore, visiting two places on the way, Pookot Lake & Lakkidi Hill View. The lunch was taking a while and we thought of exploring the Hilia Resort garden where we found that they had impressive recreational facilities as well - a badminton court, TableTennis, Carrom and a Cricket Kit!
We had our last food @ Hilia and left the place at 3:30 pm. It was getting dark and we had to cover ~35-40 kms to reach the Pookot Lake. When we did finally, we realized that we were late by 5 mins and the boating was closed for the day :( There was now no choice but to walk around the lake and we moved on not knowing what else to do. But, this walk was significant in several aspects - we had the most hilarious of all conversations and came up with some business plans as well. Sanjay and Bino devised their Healthy Cigarrettes product, cigarrettes which could basically serve a purpose to heal people of ailments and be used universally with the statuatory warning - Cigarrette smoking is now RECOMMENDED for good health :) A little further, we found a whole new concept of social networking <<content suppressed> > ..
Taking couple of snaps, we headed to the Lakkidi View Point, which was just a roadside on a hill, where from one could see the district of Wayanad below. The highway to Calicut meandered amongst the forests with little lights of vehicles flashing (it was getting dark now and cold as well). We spent couple of minutes there and started off back to Bangalore, it was 6:30 pm now.
By the time we reached Mysore, we were shit hungry and were lucky enough to get into a good hotel for dinner. And after the food, we decided to relax and played a movie in our Tavera. When we got back home (Bangalore) it was 2 pm.
Overall, an extremely memorable trip - full of Bino ;) We missed out few other places in Wayanad, which are noteably good as well. If you are planning to visit Wayanad, please note the following:
1) Wayanad, is not a town by itself. It's an entire district.
2) Other Popular places (apart from ones mentioned above) of visit are - Muthanga Wildlife Santuary, Chembra Peak, Edakkal Caves, Soochipara Falls, Kuruva Dweep
3) A weekend may not be sufficient to explore all of them, especially if you are planning to relax at a resort :)
Wayanad, 255 kms from Bangalore is supposedly called The Plantation District of Kerala and true to its name, it was as we later discovered. A weekend was ahead and we (6 of us) decided to make the best of it. I managed to get hold of a Tavera (I am becoming more inclined to this vehicle and will vouch for it as my favourite trip vehicle, following one of my trip to Tirupathi with Driver_Basavaraj), with high-quality DVD/CD players and a more calm and composed driver than I had seen before. The new guy was rather more posh with a bluetooth headset, had fitted his vehicle with a LCD television screen and the vechicle looked clean. Accomodation was taken care of, we booked a resort at Kenichira called Hilia Resort , where mallu twin sisters Cicy and Elsy (I 'm not cooking things up here!!) were awaiting our arrival cleaning their koart-yaard (mallu for court yard) for our campfire :)
00:30 am, Dec 20 - we started off. The trip till Mysore was cool, none of us slept, there were music and jokes to keep us bright & awake. Highlights were the spike-strips that we so eagerly watched for in the Bangalore-Mysore highway and claimed points :) And ofcourse, Bino told us how our car looked like an aircraft and the highway a runway..I bet anyone who travels to mysore on a private car will/must stop at one of the CCDs on the way. The ambience these have during the night can never be explained. We had some basic snacks & chai there, but Abheek had some visual entertainment as well :)
The route we followed was: Bangalore >> Mysore >> Nanganund >> Gundlupet >> Sulthan Bathery >> Kalpetta (Wayanad)
As we neared Sulthan Bathery, the stretch of bamboo forests began and we drove past the Bandipur Wild Life Santuary. It was exactly the time when Bino grabbed the front seat and a sudden enthu siezed him and he began paining people (esp his bong prey) to sleep. Our idea was to visit one of the falls in Wayanad and then head to our resort. It wasn't until 9 am that we reached Meenmutty Falls, supposedly one of the biggest falls in Wayanad. I hadn't the slightest idea that this was gonna be a cleaverly disguised intensive trekking as well.
A guide accompanied us into the forests leading to the waterfall and the path got more and more wilder and unnavigable as we moved on. Fatigue took charge and frequent sutta breaks became a necessity! We kept paining the guide at regular intervals to tell us how far we had come close to the fall & about the return route. After a stretch, we could see ropes tied to trees along the mud way to help people move ahead. After an hour of intense trekking, we reached a point from where we could see the Meenmutty falls flowing down from the hills. There was bright sunshine now and it made the water dazzle in a rainbow attire. The rocks where the falls hit the floor, threw off little white flakes of water. It was a visual treat to watch, the roar of water being a stress-reliever. We dropped our initial decision to return after a glimpse of the falls, deciding to instead head till the foot of the waterfalls and probably drench ourselves in the water :)
But, getting to that point wasn't easy either, the rocks were horrendously slippery and gaining a firm foothold was as difficult as trying to touch your nose with the tongue ;) (Well, don't try it now..). Failing our grip, we were once even dragged into the water. I was reminded of the Anjuna Beach in Goa, where wandering in the beach was equivalently painful, the situation there being worse because of dozens of crabs lying clinged onto the rocks. So, reach we did finally and my little Sony Ericsson k530 2MP camera captured all images there (I am glad it's still working despite being profusely drenched). We perched on top of a rock which was continuously hit by the falls and turned around. Boy! Looking at the huge column of water 200 meters high, cascading down towards us and getting us wet was simply smashing. Meenmutty was undoubtedly a prospective candidate for the next Liril Ad ;)
It was now noon and the trek back to our car made us starving souls. Our guide brought us to a hut where they had buttermilk and water as energy-replenishers. Finding a way to Hilia Resort, Kenichira now became a pain. We drove on & on, Cicy and Elsy directing us to all wierd places and routes. But, Hilia Resort wasn't that bad after all. We checked in quick, had a quick shower and darted off to the kitchen where Manu (our patient, strong mallu-englished attendent) served us food. Personally, I loved the food at that moment of hunger and dived into all possible dishes. There were deserts as well - "Sir, please taik these Benena", Manu remarked :)
After this heavy lunch, we decided to take a nap. And Bino, who had brought with him his sentimental tent (his life-time ambition to sleep in a tent was going to materialize!), unpacked his stuff. We found a lawn nearby where we began setting the tent. I was excited to spend the entire night in it. After a heavy nap (an oxymoron??), we woke up in the evening and called for the campfire which was lit just beside the lawn in the koart-yard (as Cicy & Elcy had sincerely mentioned). It was then that we spotted few hammocks in the garden and in the scurry to capture one for myself, I tripped not noticing a broad ditch and sprained my toe!
We ordered some starters sitting beside the campfire. While we were wondering what to talk about, Bino began unravelling his secret questions ;) The ones over which he had pondered for long and for whom the answers he never knew. We argued on ones like - "Euthenesia being legal or not!", "AI taking over the world entirely in near future?" and a holistic talk about topics like marriage, sex etc.. We finally realized that everybody has a opinion of his own and establishing any conclusion/consensus wasn't always the right thing to do. But, ofcourse the brainstorming was good :) I remembered my college days, it was during the exam nights that we used to do the popular group study. We would discuss about all social/political/xyz/.. topics. Couple of hours before the semester exams, there would be arguments on why Sachin is better than Ganguly, why Bush was an a******, which famous business idea would revolutionize the world, hot vs homely girls :P, etc.. We decided that we shall have the dinner and come back to the campfire and spend some time late night before we went to bed. Bino & me planned to take the tent. We stayed awake till 2 am singing/screaming in the night (ironically we were the only people in that house, so it didn't matter), till sleep and the pain in my toe almost took over and I had to crash in the tent. It was cozy and warm, we zipped the tent from inside and kept little windows open. It was a cool feeling to lie down listening to sounds in the forest and the moist fragrance of the trees around. I had a sound sleep and woke up at only 10 am next morning. We had planned to wake up early and visit most places before we left Wayanad, but it seemed like we were late already. Calling up Manu, we decided we would pack up, have lunch and leave to Bangalore, visiting two places on the way, Pookot Lake & Lakkidi Hill View. The lunch was taking a while and we thought of exploring the Hilia Resort garden where we found that they had impressive recreational facilities as well - a badminton court, TableTennis, Carrom and a Cricket Kit!
We had our last food @ Hilia and left the place at 3:30 pm. It was getting dark and we had to cover ~35-40 kms to reach the Pookot Lake. When we did finally, we realized that we were late by 5 mins and the boating was closed for the day :( There was now no choice but to walk around the lake and we moved on not knowing what else to do. But, this walk was significant in several aspects - we had the most hilarious of all conversations and came up with some business plans as well. Sanjay and Bino devised their Healthy Cigarrettes product, cigarrettes which could basically serve a purpose to heal people of ailments and be used universally with the statuatory warning - Cigarrette smoking is now RECOMMENDED for good health :) A little further, we found a whole new concept of social networking <<
Taking couple of snaps, we headed to the Lakkidi View Point, which was just a roadside on a hill, where from one could see the district of Wayanad below. The highway to Calicut meandered amongst the forests with little lights of vehicles flashing (it was getting dark now and cold as well). We spent couple of minutes there and started off back to Bangalore, it was 6:30 pm now.
By the time we reached Mysore, we were shit hungry and were lucky enough to get into a good hotel for dinner. And after the food, we decided to relax and played a movie in our Tavera. When we got back home (Bangalore) it was 2 pm.
Overall, an extremely memorable trip - full of Bino ;) We missed out few other places in Wayanad, which are noteably good as well. If you are planning to visit Wayanad, please note the following:
1) Wayanad, is not a town by itself. It's an entire district.
2) Other Popular places (apart from ones mentioned above) of visit are - Muthanga Wildlife Santuary, Chembra Peak, Edakkal Caves, Soochipara Falls, Kuruva Dweep
3) A weekend may not be sufficient to explore all of them, especially if you are planning to relax at a resort :)
