Wayanad - Day 4 - Final Day

Read Day 3 here 

As it was the the final day and our check out was at 11:30 we planned to leave the hotel around that time compared to the other days when we left around 09:00 AM. Our train from Kozhikode to Chennai was at 20:30 so we had time between 11:30 and 20:30.

There was campfire the previous night in the resort which was wonderful. We went around the farm within Sylvan resort one more time. When went around last time it was raining and this time it was not raining heavily and there were occasional drizzles. As usual I was watchful for the leeches. We went around the farm and left the resort around 11:15.

We hadn't tried out the zipline so far and understood there were may places that offered zipline ride. Our guide and the driver stopped at one such place and we tried the zipline ride.

It was raining on and off and our next stop was at Pookode lake. The place was crowded compared to the previous days and probably it was because it was a weekend. There was a huge sign near the ticket counter which read "Caution::Leeches". We got the entry ticket and went inside. There was the lake surrounded by mist. There were boat rides available and we took the 4 seater boat which costs around Rs 450 for 20 mins. That was one good ride. There are gift shops inside the lake area and there is also a cafe.

We stopped for lunch and then headed for Tussaragiri waterfalls. While we descended there was a bus which had broken down just before hairpin bend 2 and so there was a huge traffic jam. One should factor for such things in their plan.

Tussaragiri waterfalls was even better than Kanthampara. There was mini waterfall before the main one and people were bathing in that.

Then we headed towards Kozhikode beach and there was heavy traffic on the beach road and somehow our guide managed to drop us at a spot and we spent some time in the beach.

Then we headed for our last minute purchase especially the famous banana chips and then he dropped us at the station around 18:30.

Overall it was a memorable trip.

Some after thoughts we didn't spend much time in the resort while with such beautiful resorts we can spend one full day there just soaking in the atmosphere.

Most of the places we went were not crowded so there were no waiting times and I am not sure if that will be the cases always.

Each places would require us to walk uphill and downhill so we have to be prepared for good walking.

It rained all the days so we should be prepared for that. While it rained everyday we didn't use the umbrella we carried with us.

The roads are mostly wide and well maintained except at some odd places. 

Even with 4 days we couldn't cover all the places such as Karlad lake, Attamalla glass bridge, Soochipara falls, Meenmutty falls etc. Some we couldn't visit as they were closed and some we had to skip for other reasons. 

If you rush through all the places with a early start you might be able to cover all places in 3 days but if you plan a relaxed itinerary  you would need more days.

You definitely need someone who knows the place so they can plan things better.

Wayanad is a beautiful place and God has blessed it bountifully and yes there have been some tragedies which we cannot ignore when we hear the name Wayanad.

Wayanad - Day 3

Read Day 2 here

Our legs were still aching from the previous days walk especially the Edakkal caves visit.

We headed to Bannasura Sagar dam and reached around 10:00 AM. There is a van which can take you to the top of the dam. We chose to walk and it is again a long walk and a climb. It is a massive dam. It was full of water. I noticed a sign saying "Beware of snakes" there. There is a zipline but we did not go for it. We chose the speed boat ride and it costs Rs 1000 per boat which can take 5 people. They take you on a long ride for around 15 mins and the scenery is just amazing.

Then we went to a place called Wonderland which is close by. It is a place where they have various birds and pet animals on display. You also get a chance to feed the birds and their nails does hurt. If you are brave enough you can snap a photo with a python or iguana. I ran away from them. There is also a fish spa inside.

Next stop was at Spices Garden. There is a spices shop and a saree shop. 

From there we headed for Kanthampara falls and skipped Karlad lake. Kanthampara falls was amazing. Taking bath in the falls was not allowed but people were allowed to swim upstream.

Then had our lunch and headed for the famous 900Kandy.

At 900Kandy it costs Rs 1250 for a trip to the top where the famous glass bridge is there. Once you reach the top it is again Rs 250 per head. The offroad trip to the top is not for the weak. It can make you vomit easily. I am surprised that the vehicles survive this ride. I will not forget this ride for a long time. There is nothing much at the top. The view from the glass bridge is great but the glass bridge was ok. 

We were lucky that these places were less crowded.

I tried Unniappam and Pazham pori. Unniappam is Paniyaram in Tamilnadu.

Tomorrow we have to check out and that will complete our 4 day visit to Wayanad. 

Wayanad - Day 2

Read Day 1 here 

Vettaiyan got released and learnt Ratan Tata expired. 

After breakfast we started out Day 2 at 09:00 AM. Our first stop was at Karapuzha Dam. There was almost no crowd when we reached there around 10:15 AM. There are some standard rides there and there is also longest Zipline. They have VR zones like we see in any city mall. But the dam and the garden around that and the view of the mountains from there is awesome. It is well maintained.

Our next destination was Edakkal caves. I didn't know what was in store and it is not a easy one. From parking till the ticket counter is a steep walk. There are lot of shops on the way and every one literally pulls you. From the ticket counter to the actual cave is a heavy climb. But I could see small kids just doing it easily. At last when you reach the cave it feels good. The downward journey is also not an easy one. My legs are still aching.

We had lunch after that and headed towards Muthanga for 15:00 Hrs safari. We reached the ticketing counter by 14:45 but they opened exactly at 15:00 Hrs. The Jeep costs Rs 2000 and for the bus it is Rs 350 per head. They said no Jeep available so I went ahead for the bus but we had to wait till the bus is full. The safari started around 16:00 Hrs. The trip lasted an hour during which we could see few Elephants, some were walking with humans, and few Deers. Other than that it was just the expanse of the trees. Some fell asleep. It was raining and it was very chilly.

On the way back we stopped at the Jain temple. There is nothing much to see but I could tick off that in my list.

We came back the resort around 18:45.

It was raining on and off and it was mostly chilly. It gets chilly especially during the nights.

To continue in Day 3.

Wayanad - Day 1

 Based on recommendation from a friend who visited Wayanad few months back I planned to visit Wayanad between Oct 9 - 12. I booked my tickets for Chennai to Kozhikode and return and also blocked hotel bookings. Post that Wayanad was badly impacted because of rains. The news that was coming out was very grim. I did not change my plans and still went ahead with the visit.

We started from Chennai on Oct 8th taking Mangaluru mail from Chennai Central. The train started at 20:10 and we reached Kozhikode 10 mins delayed at 07:40 on the 9th of Oct. Prior to this I searched on what to do in Wayanad and prepared plan based on location of the places where I was planning to stay.

I had chosen Sylvan resort for my stay based on my search in agoda and bookings. I called the resort directly and made the bookings. They also gave me a reference to a driver and I had arranged for him to pick us at 07:30 at Kozhikode. He was there waiting for us as we reached Kozhikode. We got into the cab and our first stop was for breakfast at Annapoorna around 09:00.

Then we proceeded towards Wayanad and the route offers some scenic views of the mountain. There are 9 hairpin bends. The roads are quite wide. We stopped at Lakkidi view point. It was not as cold as I expected. The view was great.

The next stop was at En Ooru a tribal village set up. We have to wait for a Jeep to take us further inside and there are two options to book the Jeep. You can either book an entire Jeep or book for shared. Booking for shared is not a good option as we had to wait for 8 people. Many people book their own Jeep so wait time is high for shared option. En Ooru has some shops and scenic settings in the top of the mountain. There is some good amount of walking.

The next stop was at Honey museum and one volunteer comes with each visitor group and explains interesting things about bees. I learnt a lot about drone bees, queen bees, worker bees, bee wax, different types of honey etc. There is a shop where you can buy different honey.

Had lunch around 13:30 in Vythri and when we came out of the hotel it started raining and we reached the resort. The resort is set in Kalpetta and it is around 2 kms from Kalpetta town and the road is not a easy route. It is situated in remote part and it will be difficult to walk to nearby places.

The resort itself is surrounded by thick forest. It was as if you are inside a jungle. The view from the room was great. The staff are very friendly. The only gripe I had was it was raining continuously. The staff took us around the resort which has a farm, a pond and some interesting plants. All the while it was raining and he warned us about leech, so I was looking out for leeches throughout the walk. 

We settled inside the room for the rest of the day and I started typing this. The resort has good wifi connection. There is a great little pool as well and kids playing area.

I am hoping for a sunny day tomorrow and hope we will be able to hit some of the places I had planned.

This is my first visit to Kerala. Everyone I spoke to can respond in Malayalam mixed Tamil. It is slightly difficult to understand but we can manage. Buses mostly has name boards only in Malayalam which is a problem for non natives.

Will update more in the next post.

A trip to Pondicherry

 When I thought of a quick get away from Chennai the only thing that popped into my head was Pondicherry. I wanted to give my kids a taste of road trip and also wanted to prepare them for a longer one. So Pondicherry easily fit into my plans. 

I booked my hotel one month ago through Agoda. I find Agoda easy way to book hotels but I am still not sure if I got the best deal around. I had booked Shenbaga Hotel from 22nd Apr to 24th Apr.

We started from Chennai around 10:00 AM. The check in time was 1400 Hrs and I didn't want to be too early. I estimated 3 to 3.5 hours including a stop over for lunch.

The traffic was relatively less and I could also see GST road has been broadened and the drive was pleasant. Made a quick halt for fuel and realized petrol was 111 Rs/litre. From then on it was a great drive and took left at Tindivanam for Pondicherry. It was my first time in this road. The road was great.

There are three tolls in this route which costs 60, 65 and 45.

Had lunch at KFC, Jipmer and then headed into Kamaraj Salai, Anna Salai and turned into MG road and reached the hotel. As usual Google Maps helped here.

My room was in 6th floor and view was great from there.

Since I had learnt Paradise Beach can get crowded during  weekend and closes by 1800 Hrs, we freshed up and immediately headed out to Paradise Beach. To avoid any traffic issue I decided to take Ola cab and the cost for 7 to 8 KM travel to Chunnambar Boat house was 400 Rs. There is an entry fee to get into the boat house and we had to purchase ticket for the boat ride to the beach inside the boat house. There are couple of shops inside the boat house.

It was a hot day and we took the boat to the beach. The beach was not that crowded. The sand is softer compared to other beaches. After playing in the waves we took return ride and reach the boat house by 1700. We walked few meters to take an auto back to the hotel. It costed 300 Rs. I regretted not taking my car.

We freshened up again at the room and went out looking for a restaurant and took all wrong routes and couldn't find one. Finally we had chat items in a near by shop. That completed day 1.

Day 2 I wanted to start early so I could take my kids for swimming in the hotels swimming pool. I wanted to avoid the crowd as it was weekend. Also breakfast at hotel can also get crowded. So we decided to have breakfast around 8 and then we headed to the swimming pool. The breakfast spread was good.

We had the swimming pool to ourselves and the kids enjoyed it. Then we headed to Botanical garden as per plan but this time I decided to use personal transport. Botanical garden is a great place to spend some time if you are there in Pondy. We noticed it was already 1200 and Aurobindo ashram closes by 12 and reopens at only 1400. So we headed to the Providence mall for lunch and shopping. We decided to skip aurobindo ashram and headed back to hotel. We refreshed and then took a stroll to rock beach. It is 1 KM from the hotel but then you have to again walk from one end of rock beach to the other. So altogether it was a long walk.

For dinner I was looking for a french restaurant and went to one and they told the waiting time was 40 mins. We roamed around and found a restaurant named Hope and we just went in. I found out it was a vegetarian restaurant. The food was extremely good though.

Then we walked back to the hotel through the white town. It wore a deserted look but never felt unsafe. I also found Manakula Vinayagar street on the way. Finally we reached the hotel. That was end of day 2.

Day 3, the day we should start back to Chennai. This day we first went for a swim and found it had more people than the previous day. I was already told that Sundays can get crowded. We finished breakfast. We wanted to do some last minute shopping so we decided it will be good to check out and head for shopping. 

Since Amit Shah a minister was travelling through the road where the hotel was, the traffic was stopped for few minutes. We checked out and headed towards the white town. We shopped around Manakula Vinayagar temple and then started towards Chennai around 1230.

With stops to buy nongu and for lunch we reached home around 1600.

Overall a memorable trip.

It's a mad mad mad mad world

It's been a long time since I laughed hard like this. This is one movie which was in my watch list for a long time and finally watched it over the weekend. This movie run time is over 3 hours and you won't be bored even for a second.

The movie stars the legendary Spencer Tracy and while I am only used to a serious Spencer Tracy from Dr.Jekyll and Hyde, this movie showed a different Tracy.

This movie has so many subtle comic elements to it that it will definitely warrant a second viewing to absorb all those moments.

If you are someone who is looking for a break from the serious side of life plunge into this movie.

We do not see movies like this anymore. Rat Race is one movie which resembles this a lot.

In Tamil Crazy and Kamal only can match such a laugh riot.

Chennai to Dindigul

Though a big fan of road trips in movies and in life was not fortunate enough to go on many such trips. This weekend completed my third road trip and this one is the longest.

My first one was from Chennai to Cuddalore and it was close to 200 Kms each way. The second one was Chennai to Trichy which was 300 Kms each way. The last one was Chennai to Dindigul and it was 400 Kms each way.

Me and my friend started from Palavanthangal at 8:30 AM. After filling the tank to full and checking Nitrogen in tyres we hit the road. The plan was to pick up another friend in Chengelpat. After a brief stop at Chengelpet we were on the highway. There was close to 5 to 6 tolls and each one costs a lot. There were huge queues in each of of the tolls.

We had a brief stop for restroom and snacks around 1130 closer to Villupuram. Then we made our biggest mistake by taking Trichy bypass and were on our way to Madurai. We had another brief halt for lunch and didn't realise were on wrong route until we checked google map. By that time we were closer to Madurai and we had to stop and take a different route through Thuvarankurichi. And there were took the route through Elamanam to connect to the NH which will take us to Dindigul. We lost closer to an hour and 40 KMs because of this. By the time we reached Dindigul it was nearing 5 PM.

The next day we started early at around 8:15 AM for the return trip and took the right route. We made just couple of stops one for Elaneer and another for restroom. We also bought big Jackfruit. I was more confident during the return trip and mostly hovered around 100 in the speedometer. We dropped the friend at Chengelpet and was back in Palavanthangal by 245 PM.

The trip was really a good stress buster.

First Road Trip

This weekend went on my first longest road trip and that too with no one to guide. But google came to my rescue. I just love google maps it is highly dependable.

There was a wedding of my colleague at Kurinjipadi and I decided it was time for my first road trip. A friend who was supposed to join me had to back out at the last minute and I had to make the critical go/no go decision and I decided to go.

I was planning to go through ECR but since the friend didnt join me I decided to take the Tindivanam route. After filling my cars tank full I hit the GST. I started at 2 and there was less traffic luckily for me and I crossed Tambaram and crossed the toll and took Chengelpet by pass. NH 45 is awesome first time I enjoyed driving. I was going steadily at 80 and vehicles were overtaking me. There was another toll before Tindivanam and after crossing it there was one more toll. After that there was a board which said Tanjaore/Kumbakonam to left and Villupuram and Trichy straight. I was actually looking for NH 45C and there was no road numbers mentioned. I went straight ahead and realised I should have taken the Kumbakonam route and came back for that.

NH 45C goes through Panruti and that road was a nightmare. It was a two lane road with one for incoming and another outgoing traffic. I stopped there for 15 minutes for a coffee break. Once I started I noticed buses and lorries doesn't mind the oncoming traffic they just come on to you. It was 60 kms of pure nightmare in that horrible road. Google was guiding me beautifully and after reaching Vadalur I took left to go to Kurinjipadi. Reached my destination at 6:45 PM. It was 214 Kms till the wedding hall.

Started from there around 8:45 and took the same route.NH 45C was even more dangerous during night but  still I was sriving with more confidence as I knew the route now. Once I reached NH 45 I just took a 5 mins break and reached home around 12:15 AM.

Though it was tiring it was worth it.