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.