Life is a journey ...

The 3-day wild escapade.. Valparai-Athirapally-Munnar (Part-II)

2011-01-26T12:47:00.002+05:30

Read the first part here.

Day 2

Trip meter : 683 km
Route covered: Valparai - Sholayar - Athirapally - Angamaly - Munnar

Even as I am getting up from the bed, stretching and yawning, yesterday's story hasn't gone anywhere from my mind. Today, the very purpose of doing this trip is about to be fulfilled - riding the forest stretch towards Athirapally. We take it at leisure as our plan for the day is to get to Athirapally, spend some time and head towards Coimbatore. By the time we had our breakfast and started rolling, it was almost a quarter past eight. And guess what, Sridhar's uni fails to start! We dismiss it as cold start issues and try after a few minutes. Voila, the engine cranks and we start chugging.

Barely a km or two from the town, as we stop for a shot the engine again fails to crank up. We head back to the town to find a mechanic and were informed that they would turn up only by 10 as it was a sunday. Simman rightly suspects the spark plug, removes and cleans it. This time, we tested the engine to our satusfaction and found that the spark plug was indeed the culprit. After all we did not want to get stranded in the middle of nowhere with no hope of calling anyone for help.

We are loving every bend and turn as we head towards the Sholayar dam and Malukuparai checkpost, the beginning of the forest road. And we obviously can't resist stopping here and there for a couple of shots.

The tea estates slowly start to disappear and I, who had been cherishing the sight of green tea leaves glittering in the hues of morning sun, was a touch disappointed about leaving the tea town. I tell myself that I'll come back to this place soon, may be by public transport which means I'll have more time to soak in and enjoy the place and also give myself some chance for spotting the rich wildlife here.

It is a little past 10 when we reach the TN-Kerala border and Malukuparai checkpost. We are required to stop our vehicles here and enter our details in a register. A forest gaurd walks up, does a thorough inspection of our bags and counts the number of plastic bags we are carrying along with us. This count is supposed to be checked at the checkpost at the other end as well but atleast in our case, the officer there didn't bother. Nevertheless, it is a good initiative from the Kerala forest department as a way to ensure that this pristine habitat of many a forest dwelling creature remains the way it does. I ask the guard "How is the road from here on?". He comes back with "Road danger only". Heck, if the road isn't good, tell 'It is in a bad shape'. Why use a word like danger to scare a man-eater-story-stricken being!

We roll on, seeing a few houses here and there, the last glimpses of civilization on this side. Soon the woods appear, and start to become dense and more dense. The roads which atleast partially existed till now suddenly vanish. Maneuvering our way through these broken stretches is tricky but slowly we get used to it. There is ample sunlight and no mist whatsoever, but the cover is dense enough at places to stop any light from coming in. We start to feel the forests. We see a small stream on the left at a bend, stop here and switch off our engines. All we hear is a soothing sound of an unhurried gentle stream making its way down through a set of small smooth rocks. Nothing else. If any other sound had the right to intrude such silence, it was the song of the cicadas. It was a wonderful moment. I wonder how this road would be in the monsoons with the forest looking many times greener, more small streams propping up here and there, and the possibility of some fog as well. It truely should be another pandora.

I put my imaginations to rest as we continue the ride through the winding path, always expecting something in the next bend. Sridhar was leading this time around and he probably experienced a tad more thrill than I had, not knowing what was in store for him ahead. We muched kilometer after kilometer. There are more twisties and more trees. No hopes for a better road yet. About 20 km from the checkpost, we start to see dried elephant dung and loads of it in the next few kilometers. There are broken stems of bamboo trees right on the road. This is elephant country. No doubt it is one of the busiest elephant corridors after dusk. I pray not to bump into one here though. I had no isues with coming across a herd on my earlier wayanad trip; it was NH212 and a different road altogether. Here, the roads didn't exist and there is not much hope for 'outriding' an elephant with the kind of terrain on offer!

Found a lonely forest bungalow in the middle of nowhere. How about a lone stay there for a night?

A few minutes later, we hit the Sholayar view point and stop to take the customary upper sholayar view shot.

The roads start getting better here though we couldn't rule out potholes every now and then. The dense jungle on both sides now gave way to a cliff on one side. The
view was much open on the left and the road was marked with tall dried grass.

A big cat's view, if one were stalking us:

We enjoyed the last few kms of the forest stretch as civilization started appearing again on the Vazhachal side. One thing we noticed is that there was much more
traffic than what I am used to reading from logs of people who have done this road. Perhaps because it was a sunday. But we would have seen about 15 cars and 7-8 bikes (local youth from kerala riding with pillion, without helmets) and atleast 2-3 cars sharing space with us at the sholayar view point. Is the route getting commercialized? I shudder to think of it. If thats the case, I wish the roads remain how they are, if that would keep the number of tourists down. We already see a speeding white BMW as we approach vazhachal. I now wish the forest department imposes a limit on the number of vehicles on a daily basis so as to restrict human
intrusion to this otherwise untouched abode of the wild.

As we stop for a shot just before Vazhachal, Simman spontaneously says "Let's go to Munnar". I laugh at it as a wishful joke. No, he is serious about it and asks Sridhar about his idea. The game-for-anything character that he is, Sridhar nods without even bothering about the distance, road condition, et al. Now it came down to me. I was giving it some thought but still haven't really made up my mind. We enquire at Vazhachal and Athirapally. I give a half-hearted nod at Athirapally as I was more concerned about the next day's ride between Munnar and chennai. It would be very hectic given that the next day after the ride, I had no other option but TO BE at office at 9 30 AM. After lunch at Athirapally, we take the left turn off opposite silver storm theme park to take the shortcut towards Angamaly, which would help us save some distance rather than going to chalakudy and join NH 47.

The 24 kms to Angamaly were nothing short of disastrous. First, we were mobbed by two groups of KErala youth to give some donation for a temple. We had to pay for
the second group after we got away with the first. This kind of behaviour can potentially tarnish the image of a tourist friendly state that the government and tourism department try to sustain. After a lot of bad bad roads, we finally reach NH 47. The ball is again thrown to me here. If I wished to take the right towards coimbatore, they're fine with starting the return leg. Less than a minute of deep thought and I say Munnar it is! The left is taken, enquiries about the route made at Angamaly and we're soon zipping our way past several cars and buses on our way to Perumbavoor. I started feeling better psychologically, perhaps because of the good roads or may be because I was going to hit tea country again!

There are the ghats and twisties making their presence again. Swing, swang, zoom. We had been riding on twisties the whole day and we shall continue to do so until munnar. We're loving the twist in the tale.

A few kms before Munnar, we see tea plantations again. And yes, the mist is here! It started feeling cold. We had got what we wanted and what we badly missed in
valparai. It was heavenly. A sense of accomplishment thoguh we did nothing enormous. Road trips are fun for the very fact that unplanned things like this come up and when they happen well, you can't help but grin.

After a long dinner (read gobi fry, bajjis of different varieties, pani puri, hot and cold tea, dosas and chocolates), we decided to call it a day.

Today had been wonderful with enough twists on the roads and elsewhere, tomorrow is going to be equally exciting for it would be in part a race against time (under
safe riding) to get home by dusk. Plus, we ride through yet another forest - the Chinanr WLS! Good night, no stories today :D

Day 3

Trip meter: 925 kms
Route covered: Munnar - Chinnar - Udumalaipet - Salem - Chennai

It is more than half past six when we tank up and finally roll out of yet another tea town, the tourists of which are still cuddling under their cozy blankets. The more than an hour ride to Marayoor offers nothing short of breath-taking views encouraging us to stop every now and then to capture them, time or no time left. The mist almost blinds our visors and renders the already impotent rear view mirrors of my machine useless. There is not much traffic on either side and scorching the hair-pins in the cold and mist on an empty road is undoubtedly a rider's dream!

First rays of morning sun:

We enter the chinnar forest in some time and my eyes are on the look out for anything big and grey. It is well past dawn but the scarce traffic and pleasant weather makes conditions conducive for a potential sighting. I played the lead here and was excited as I am reminded of my solo ride to munnar through the same route. I had also stopped for an hour's trek at Chinnar (Different story though).

Soon we re-group and reach the Kerala-TN border checkpost, where we are required to perform the writing ritual again. As we cross over to the other side, the terrain
becomes a lot flatter and roads straighter. This part of the forest is named anamalai tiger reserve and falls under TN jurisdiction. We have been riding in the same forest though - the pollachi-valparai, sholayar stretch, this, chinnar, parambikulam all are different names given to one single vast spread of forest land. The forest stretch is appearing to come to an end, the roads becoming good though narrow, and sridhar who's leading now is cruising in the 70's.

We are almost bored and wanted to have a good breakfast before anything else. The best thing about wilderness is it throws things at you when you least expect them. It almost seemed like a statue for all three of us, a statue standing by the side of the road, hardly a couple of feet into the woods. We come closer and see a herd of them. The 'anai's of the anamalai are here to meet us. Our eyes couldn't believe it. I had just met their cousins a month back, and now this elephant herd is here for a rendezvous with me. Simman subtly waved his hand at me in excitement and I acknowledged with a nod from behind. Just as this drama was unfolding, we hear a long shrill trumpet very close by, so much so that I felt that it was blown right into my ears. It was a single tusker with a broken tusk, simman manages to get a glimpse of it. I couldn't. It had been so close to the road.good that it hadn't chose to come on to the road. Nothing's more potentially dangerous in the wild than a lone tusker.

The elephants had been drooling around at the edge of the sanctuary. Barely a couple of kms from the scene, we came to the exit checkpost. We found a small dhaba hotel here and decided to fill our tummies, engaging in discussions on the elephant episode and sharing each one's perspectives.

There's not much story to tell after this incident - it was all about riding/ripping/cruising on monotonous highways to get home on time.

It was one awesome 1,600 km trip to write home about. Enough adventure for such a short trip. What was planned happened; what was unplanned happened equally well. I am still yearning to ride more; where and when, I do not know. But I just get the feeling that after hell a lot of tea, for a change, I would like some coffee!

The 3-day wild escapade.. Valparai-Athirapally-Munnar

2011-01-22T19:10:00.002+05:30

Three days of straight super smooth highways, wonderful twisties, tea plantations, one dense evergreen forest to ride through, wildlife when least expected, waterfalls.. I needn't say more,it was heavenly. And i mean it!

Trip summary

Total kms: 1,600
Days: 3
Route: Chennai - Valparai - Athirapally falls - Munnar - Chennai

The men and their machines: Sridhar (Unicorn), Simman (fz) and me (P220)

Prologue

I am loving this season of adventure. I surely am. It all started with a spontaneous solo ride to Pondy one fine sunday morning. Then the solo ride to Calicut through the wonderful forests of wayanad, followed up by an exhausting trek on the new year's day. It wasn't over yet. A bigger thing was awaiting me. The road not taken during my last trip to calicut was haunting me. Pictures and travelogues of the valparai - chalakudy forest road (if you could call it that) never stayed off my mind. Even before the calicut ride could sink in, I had made up my mind. I was gonna do this. Simman and Sridhar jumped in at the idea. The preparations were in full swing - weekend calls over getting the riding gear, status of roads, best routes, et al. The plan was finalized. We would do Chennai - Valparai - Athirapally - Chalakudy - NH47 - Chennai. Day 0 was closing in. We decided to hit vellore on day 0 to gain some leverage on the next day. All set, I was just waiting for the clock to tick to 5 PM on friday.

Day 0

In retrospect, it seemed a longer day than the following three days, when we had actually muched a lot of miles. I was waiting for the evening, almost eternally.
Rather it felt so. The three of us finally assembled and were good to go after tying the luggage. The trip was on. It was almost 6 PM when we were out of the city. I am generally a little paranoid about night riding and not very comfortable with good speeds at night. So I decided to push ahead to make the most of whatever daylight was left. After giving refuge to varied species of insects on my visor and jacket, I finally hit vellore by 7 30 and pulled over before the sathuvachari flyover to wait for the guys to join in.

By the time we got together, had a dinner of plum cakes and bananas outside a bakery, and finished our futile search for a visor shop (sridhar had a tinted visor which, after the raid of the myriad insects, had probably become an opaque object), it was almost 9 PM. But everyone felt better and refreshed and came to a consensus to push till krishnagiri. We hit krishnagiri and wade through the streets of the small town to find hotel velan. Quite unexpectedly, the town was wide awake with women drawing coloured wavings (kolams) outside their houses on the eve of Pongal. It is past 11 30 when we finally get to crash. Long day indeed, but longer days ahead!

Day 1

It was almost 7 when we refreshed, checked out of the hotel and slowly made our way out of the town and tanked up. We decided to meet up next at The Thoppur a2b restaurant where we had planned to fill our tummies.This morning ride was a breeze. Sun rising slowly behind the hillocks, wondeful empty roads, a mild chill, it was
just the perfect setting to ride.

Post the stop at a2b, our next checkpoint was Bhavani. After a lot of discussions, we had zeroed in on the perundurai - kangeyam route to get to pollachi. We had also read in a forum about avoiding the NH47 after perundurai as 4-laning work was in progress. Salem - Bhavani was wonderful with even lesser traffic and a lot of arrow straight stretches. I refused to get below the 100 kph mark for most of this leg. After the meet at bhavani, we finally continued and derailed from NH47 to get into the 2-laned state highway towards kangeyam. After almost 450 kms of riding on no-nonsense 4-laned roads, the first few minutes were a tad difficult to adapt. After kangeyam, the road becomes wider and better as you join NH67 towards coimbatore. Probably halfway between kangeyam and palladam, the road meets a T-junction where you need to take a left and immediately a right to get towards Palladam/coimbatore. There is no proper signboard here (the board indicates a right turn will lead to 'pobgalur' but this same road leads to palladam/coimbatore) and you could easily get lost and proceed straight on Dharapuram. After a few kms from
palladam, the windmills came into sight. There were coconut trees swaying on both sides of the road lending the otherwise monotonous highway some beauty.

After a good lunch a pollachi, it was time to hit the hills. The afternoon sun was soothing as we crawled past the entrance of anamalai reserve - the beginning of the
climb to valparai.

Bring on the hair pins. One by one. I was loving it, no doubt! But some less sun and some mist would have added more to the milieu.

First upper views of Aliyar

The elusive nilgiri tahr did not show up anywhere during our climb, nor did the elusive-but-not-so-shy lion tailed macaques. I was disappointed more about the former as I missed a potential sighting during my ride to munnar as it was raining heavily then and the eravikulam park was closed. 'LTMs crossing, go slow' reads a signboard on the road. Funny but it has a lot of meaning. Recently there have been incidents of vehicles running over LTMs on the roads.

The last few kms towards valparai opened up wonderful vistas of lush green tea plantations. I was thrilled, I really do not know why, but am always excited by the sight of mountain slopes with tea plantations and the odd trees that hang in there for support to the tea plants.

Reached valparai by 4 and checked in into the 'green hills' hotel where I had called up and booked a room almost 10 days back. I walk in, tell the manager my name and he says 'No, none in your name has booked any room'in perhaps one of the most harsh tones I have heard recently. I told him the date, time, etc when I had called. He still refused blindly. I finally had to plead him for atleast an ordinary room as this was not an ooty with a lot of options to choose from. From my knowledge, this was the only hotel with secured covered parking facility. After being allotted a just about decent room, we got down to the restaurant to order some tea. there were atleast 3 waiters around (and just one other table being served) but none managed to come down to our table and take an order. We were puzzled after waiting for almost 20 minutes and decided to have that tea outside. Blame monopoly. It was sad. I was totally put off by the attitude of the hotel management and staff. If the government doesn't want to promote valparai as an active tourist destination, then why issue licenses to only select hotels? One
of those political mysteries. But this was a road trip. Things like this happen. We had to get back and do what we are here for. Soak in and enjoy and we started off to 'Nallamudi Poonjolai' village to do just that.

The first 2 kms from the town towards there was pathetic. Road was non-existent and we had to ride on stones. The road reasonably improved after that and we totally
loved the route. There were tea estates all around, as far as we could see, no tourists honking around in innovas and indicas, near perfect weather - though a tad hotter for the hills.

We spent less than an hour at the place watching the sunset and enjoying the quietness of the place. The carpets of tea all around were a feast for the eyes.

We returned to the hotel and decided to take a walk on the main road. Stopped at a roadside dhaba for a few hot bajjis and vadas. We felt something was missing. Oh ya, it isn't feeling cold. It feels like the chennai in december. But we couldn't believe it - we must be a good 3000 feet above sea level. We missed the mist and chill.

After dinner, we packed up our bags and prepared to hit the sack. Tomorrow is big. We ride the isolated 70 km forest stretch towards Athirapally.The possibility of
sighting some wildlife was not remote. No civilization or mobile signal on offer, this was going to be one engaging ride through one of the most dense evergreen
forests in the south. As though these weren't reasons enough to get the adrenaline going, Simman started reading out a story from the Jim Corbett collection that he
had got along. "The moon was in her third quarter and there could be several hours of darkness. After nothing happened for many minutes, I felt a gentle pull on the blackthorn shoots I was holding. No question now that I was dealing with a man-eater, and a very determined man-eater at that." Sridhar had probably slept but we were transported to the Kumaon of 1910, the era of man-eaters roaming around like stray dogs. Coming to think of it, it's ironic that today, the once-rich land of the big cats has to run vociferous 'save tiger' campaigns. We laughed at this fact but when we were in the last stages before getting into soporific bliss, all we could see in our blurred vision was a stealthy man-eater waiting in the shadows. The night fell. And I had wild dreams.

Read part II here.

From Marina to Kappad - 3 days of adrenaline rush

2010-12-25T22:41:00.008+05:30

If something has to happen, it will happen and it will happen only when it has to happen.
This trip was no different.

Trip Summary
Distance on the odo: 1,514 Kms
Days: 2 and a half
Farthest place: Kozhikode
Objective: To ride
Achieved: Bliss
The moment: A wild elephant herd in clicking/striking distance!

Prologue
It had been a long wish, that to ride and ride long. Rewind to September 2010 and that evening, when I had made all the preparations for myself and the bike, only to meet disappointment as I could not go ahead with the trip due to some personal reasons. For about 2 years now, every time I came across a ridalogue on xBhp or other forums, I would turn green. It would be infuriating on the inside. The urge to get on the saddle for hours together, passing through green fields, broad roads, misty mountains was haunting me. As the first line of this log goes, the ride had to happen now.

Day 0

It is Thursday evening, I still have not spoken to my manager about taking a leave on Saturday. (Friday was a holiday). 5 PM and I slowly walk up to my manager, spin a story about an all important family function and get a nod. I was not very excited even now for I didn’t know the destination yet. The valparai – Athirampally stretch has been in mind for a few months now but attempting it alone on a bike will test the limits of sanity. There’s only a thin line between being adventurous and stupid, and I didn’t want to find myself on the wrong side of the line. Ever since I had made a wayanad trip (on a car) last year, I wanted to ride on the gorgeous NH212 through the green forests. So option A was Valparai without doing the stretch to Athirampally and B was to ride to wayanad. But I still hadn’t chosen between the two. Now another question – Should I start after office and make it to Vellore for the night or start afresh tomorrow? The choice was tough as I was always for gaining time since this was my first long distance ride. Eventually I convinced myself that a fresh early morning ride would be much more productive than a risky night ride after a tired day at office.

Day 1

Trip meter - Start: 0 KM
Trip meter – End: 645 KM
Route covered: Chennai – Mysore - Kalpetta

It was 5 10 AM in the morning, still dark, very dark, a lame drizzle to worsen things and I set off on my maiden big ride on my black machine. A few minutes and it turned into a heavy drizzle and I was all wet even before I could cross the outskirts of Chennai. Little did I know that I had to endure this all the way until vellore. Started praying God for 2 things – daybreak and no rain. Wiping the visor every now and then was an ordeal. Wet roads meant low speeds of 60’s. I am basically a cautious rider and get even more circumspect with wet roads. At around 6 30, the first wish came true. Post a tank-up at vellore, the skies heard my call. It was cloudy and the weather was pleasant. The roads were dry and it was a breeze until Krishnagiri.

Krishnagiri had to come because that’s where I would make the decision of where to head to. And finally I approached the turn-off. It came down to a split second. Taking the right meant wayanad and left meant Valparai. On the back of the mind, I did not want to do Valparai without doing the famed 80 km forest stretch to Chalakudy. So the impulse was to take the right and I did. After a good breakfast, started out from Krishnagiri at 10 and headed towards Hosur. And ya, I got to see and was amazed by the different kinds of trailor trucks on the highways. First time experience and hence!

After Hosur, I was a little too conscious and kinda over-anticipating the diversion to the toll road (NICE road) towards Mysore; as a result, unnecessarily wandered into some diversions expecting the road and lost some time. But eventually took the road and woah, was it beautiful. It wasn’t as smooth as the NH4/HN46, but I did a constant 100 kph only here. The signboards were placed well at the Banneghatta road junction. And yes, paid the first and only toll here (twice) on this road. Having used to bypass every toll by the left, I was suddenly perplexed when the toll guy stopped me here! Finally reached SH17 and took a break. The time, to my amazement, was just 11 40. Now all I had in my mind as the day end target was Mysore, the farthest. I was never sure if I could do even those 500 kms at a stretch. But now I started thinking further. The thought of touching the west coast lured me. I decided to take it step by step. In fact that’s how I went about the whole trip. At start, I imagined my destination was vellore. At vellore, Krishnagiri. This way, it was the de facto fourth leg of my trip. I decided to get to Mysore and then decide if I should attempt the final leg till wayanad. SH17 was much traffic-less than how I had experienced it earlier. Bidadi, Ramnagara, Chennapatna – all the towns having their own share of speed-breakers – were done and dusted. I wanted to refresh and have a snack and remembered the McD in the BP bunk.

After some rest and ice-tea, the cruise resumed to hit Mysore by 2 15. Tanked up again and headed to the mysore palace entry for some pics.

And the road to Nanjangud – the most pathetic stretch of the entire journey! Narrow 2-lane road, broke road all the way till nanjangud, heavy traffic meant nothing but lots of time and energy wasted. Fortunately though, after nanjangud, it was the opposite - Less traffic and a smooth road. After crossing Gundulpet, the adrenaline got going as I knew the very purpose of taking this route was going to be fulfilled – the drive through the sanctuary. The Karnataka checkpost for Moolehole WLS was passed and I could smell the forests. Quite literally. I am here, finally. And on two wheels.

The traffic was sparse and that certainly added to the eeriness. The trees seemed to be trying to convey something to me. The twisty roads with the jungle setting were as elegant as a VVS Laxman flick. It’s any nature lover’s delight to ride in such a setting. Poetic to say the least. Traveling alone on a motorcycle through a forest road (never mind that it’s a NH) is an experience in itself. I have had it before when I rode a rented bike through Mudumalai/Bandipur and Masinagudi. It was dry season then and hence even more scary. The speeds were down to the 40’s and the evening was setting in. Every bend seemed to hold a surprise, which wasn’t to be. But when alone, you would want and still do not want it. The roads were good and I was glad they were. After all, I did not want a flat tyre at the end of the day in such a place. Stopped somewhere in the middle for a few snaps. Spotted a couple of deer inside the woods. Soon I was into Kerala.

After a while, the woods gave way to plantations and fields. I was in Wayanad district. A good reminder that you are in Kerala is when you are on the road. I have no clue why drivers in this part of the country drive the way they do, with absolutely no mercy for other vehicles. Whatever be the reason, I decided to head to Kalpetta than stay at Bathery as I wanted to put up at the hotel we stayed earlier over there. Unfortunately, the rooms were full and had to settle for another hotel. Had some snacks at Walnut Cakes, a popular bakery in the town and settled in the room for some movie on the television, accompanied by room served dinner. I was thrilled that I had done 650 kms in a day on my first big trip. The previous max kms per day was 320 km – the ride to pondy a few weeks earlier. Soon, the movie slowly faded from vision, so did the room, in a bliss I was and it was 7 AM.

Day 2

Trip start: 644 KM
Trip end: 987 KM
Route covered: Kalpetta – Kozhikode – Kalpetta – Mysore

I had planned a leisurely start today as Day 1 and day 3 demanded early starts and hectic rides. So when I finally started from my hotel, it was already 8 30 AM. But wait, the same issue – I did not know where to go - Kozhikode or in and around wayanad? Finally decided to hit the west coast. The road till entering the ghats was well laid and smooth. Little did I know there wouldn’t be a road at all after that. Stopped at a popular view point for a short break and some pics. The next 12 kms on the thamarassery ghat road were horrendous. But I was at least thankful that there was no mist or rain. Visibility woes on the back of bad ghat roads would have been disastrous.

There were huge craters every now and then and the joy of riding in the ghats was almost taken away. Patchworks have been started in places now. After Adivaram town (the base), it was the typical 2-lane Kerala highway with vehicles driving as though there’s no tomorrow!

The last few kms to Kozhikode beach had worse traffic with traffic signals. And I started sweating - indication that I was closer to the Marina-like conditions – the west coast is here.

Actually I did not make it to Kappad – the reason I had it in the title was just to give a name to the west coast. The Kozhikode beach was sparsely crowded. I stopped the vehicle, clicked a few pics. 720 kms I have traveled, just to spend a few minutes in this city and turn back. Foolish, some would say. But the journey, as they say, is as or more important than the destination. Tanked up in the third state and headed back towards wayanad amidst a lot of traffic. Missed the ghat road after thamarassery and went on another route for about 10 kms, when I realized that the ghats had still not begun and the route was unfamiliar. Time and fuel wasted, got back on track to experience the craters again.

Kalpetta at around 2 PM meant there was sufficient time to get to Mysore before dusk, search a hotel and hit the sack early for an early start tomorrow. Stopped at a mechanic shop just after the town to lubricate the chain. He asked me where I was from and refused to take any bucks for the same. Proceeded towards Gundulpet and had no big hopes on the forest stretch as it was still afternoon and it’s not a great time to expect any denizens of the wild come out. Luckily, I was wrong.

After crossing Kerala border, there was a truck approaching me slowly from the opposite side. The driver stuck his head out and indicated something to me in some God-knows-what language (or God’s own language, for all you know), which I couldn’t understand. But if there was something he was going to convey at that place, it was going to be a sighting. A few metres ahead and a wild elephant herd right in front of me on the right side of the road, their faces turned to the other side. The brakes were on. There was an elephant calf in the family. From my little knowledge of the wild, I knew that it’s dangerous to be in the proximity of an elephant herd with a calf or a lone tusker. Elephants are extremely protective if they have a calf in their herd and will tolerate no intrusion whatsoever. Since the elephants were so close to the road, I had no idea whether they had already crossed the road or they were about to. So I decided to stop a good 150-200 metres behind, kept the engine on, maneuvered the bike in such a position that a u-turn was going to be easy, should there be a mock charge. As they say, its always better to hope for the best and be prepared for the worst. Had my camera in my shirt pocket exactly for this moment; took it slowly, ensured that the flash was off, clicked from the distance. The advantage I had was that the elephants were not facing me. A couple of clicks later, kept it inside and just then a SUV comes in the opposite direction and stops, right by the side of the elephants, surely at striking distance. Morons they were, not knowing how different spotting animals in the wild is from doing it in the zoo. I was frustrated since I was sure that the herd would start feeling uneasy. I decided to slowly start and roll as the elephants were only on the right side and that too a few feet away from the road, and they would have to cross the SUV to come to the left. Just as I started, so did the SUV moron and good that he did, because as I was crossing the elephants, one of them started the charge towards the slowly moving SUV. Trust me, witnessing a big elephant initiate a charge was scary. The charge was in the opposite direction and yet, it was chilling. The SUV would have fled the scene. So did I, atleast for the next km or two. I had just experienced the high moment of the trip and it will be unforgettable for the rest of my life, probably.

The rest of the ride through the forest was eventless but I wasn’t complaining. The sheer proximity to nature was more than enough to bring a broad smile on to the face.

Found a group of tourists stop their bus in the middle and picnic (having lunch) by the side of the road inside the sanctuary. Another type of mindless morons. After exiting the forests, the fields started appearing. Stopped for a break and plugged the music onto my ears. The elephant sighting was still sinking in.

Started ripping again and stopped at Nanjangud for some pics. Ah, the bad roads are back. Reached Mysore close to 6 PM and hunted for an affordable hotel with secure parking for almost an hour. Finally found one on Irwin road, settled, had the dinner, and hit the bed. Early start tomorrow. Today was great except for bad roads. I have done what I had been dreaming for long, with my own share of adventures too. Good night.

Day 3

Start trip: 987 KM
End trip: 1,514 KM
Route covered: Mysore - Chennai

The alarm buzzed and I was up in a jiffy. I wasn’t sure about the fitness of the machine and myself after 2 days of tiring ride. So planned to roll by 6, keeping in mind the chill. It was cold, very cold on SH17 but I couldn’t resist the 90’s. Whenever I slowed down to the 60’s, I felt a lot better but I didn’t like it. Witnessed a wonderful sunrise on the way to Maddur.

It was still cold and there was virtually no traffic in this direction, while on the other side, it was already heavy.

Also came across some convoys of superbikes on the other side but the relative speed was just too much for me to identify them. Breakfast was planned at Kamat but I somehow seemed to have missed it. So stopped at Hosur for some breakfast. After hosur, it was plain cruising all the way until the outskirts of Chennai. 6 15 AM at mysore and 1 15 PM at Poonamalle meant I had made good time. This also meant I had some part of the Sunday left to take some well deserved rest.

I was home with a never-felt-before satisfaction all over me. It was perhaps foolish for a first-timer to do this all alone, but never mind I thought, I had after all completed it and had no complaints. The black machine scored brownie points for offering a glitchless ride and some great company. Hope it continues to do the same in the future. Bye for now, to the highways and the riding gear. See you soon. I am already smelling Pongal. And some tea.

Of twisting roads and tea plantations

2009-10-04T14:42:00.038+05:30

Destination: Munnar, Kerala

Dates: Oct 2,3 2009

It was yet another time that God's own country beckoned me. This time, the choice was much simpler. I was always lured by the charm of endless evergreen carpets of tea plantations in the misty hills of Munnar and I decided to hit the town this weekend. This was going to be my third visit to this place but the only difference was that this time I planned to ride on my motorcycle and was traveling solo.

Started from Chennai in a bus for Udumalaipet (with my bike loaded on to the top) from where I planned to ride to Munnar. But I had to go until Polachi (the last stop) where I could unload the bike. So all set, it was 8 30 in the morning and I started by ride back towards Udumalaipet.

Day 1

Tripmeter - o.o Km

Reached Udumalaipet around 9 30 after doing some minor checks on my bike and having the breakfast and proceeded towards Chinnar which was 30 kms away.

Windmills near Udumalaipet

Road from Polachi to Udumalaipet

Entering Anaimalai reserve

Reached Chinnar check-post by 10 30 and checked the forest dept's eco-tourism shop to enquire about trekking activities in the region. Finally, decided to go on a short trek for about an hour and 15 minutes. I was accompanied by a local tribal guide, who was 'equipped' with a sickle. The trek was interesting as we went into the jungle. We could spot a herd of sambar deers as the guide was actually trying to track a herd of bisons as he sensed we were close by. Unfortunately, we couldn't spot any other animal till the end.

We could find lots of peacock feathers and a deer carcass apart from dried elephant dung.

Tree house at chinnar

Finally bid good bye to Chinnar by 12 and proceeded towards Munnar. Chinnar is basically a rain-shadow region and does not receive heavy rainfall like Munnar even in the monsoons. The vegetation in chinnar is mostly shrub and deciduous, which is in contrast to other popular wildlife reserves in Kerala like Wayanad, Parambikulam or Periyar.

Another 10 km from the Chinnar checkpost, you can find another eco-tourism shop on the right side from where you can buy a ticket to trek to the magnificient 'Thoovanam waterfalls'.

The gushing Thoovanam waterfalls as viewed from the main road

I could feel the ascent once I crossed Chinnar. After crossing Marayoor, I could finally catch a glimpse of the sprawling tea plantations everywhere.

One of the numerous waterfalls found in the Marayoor - Munnar route

All of a sudden, the drizzle turned into heavy rains. The mist and heavy rainfall lead to zero visibility after crossing the Marayoor gap. Riding in these conditions was challenging but I enjoyed every bit of it! Rajamala was closed due to these conditions and I had to miss the sighting of the elusive nilgiri thar. Stopped on a roadside shop and had hot bread toast. Couldn't have asked for a better lunch!

Lakkom falls

Reached Munnar around 3 pm after battling the heavy downpour and checked into the hotel (Greenview inn in old munnar). Decided not to venture out anywhere for the day as the rains were only going to get worse.

Day 2

Trip meter - 122.1 km

It was still raining and I was now considering a decision to shorten the trip to 2 days. Wanted to ride the Bodi - Madurai route downhill - so booked a ticket from Madurai for the night. Today was going to be hectic. A trip to Top station followed by the 170 km ride to Madurai.

Managed to be up by 8 AM and quickly got ready to ride towards Top station. The road was butter smooth through out until the last 2 kms which falls into TN. There was literally no road in the last 2-3 kms.

The inviting road to Top station

Top station, 32 km from Munnar, is located at 6,200 ft above sea level and falls in Theni district of TN. One could have amazing views of Theni district from here.

Amazing views just before Top station

One could head to the Pampadum shola national park, which offers trekking and camping facilities. This is a 1 km detour on the left side from Top station.

The so called road in the last 2-3 kms towards Top station

Roads until that point (Kerala side)

See the transition?

There used to be a 60 km road to Kodaikanal from here. But its being unused for a long time now and one could only find a trekkable path now. Groups have undertaken this trek from Top station to Berijam lake near Kodaikanal (The 'Escape route' trek).

On the way back to Munnar, there was a lot of traffic towards top station. Being an early bird (at least relatively!) helped me as I had no traffic whatsoever in my direction.

Traffic at Matupetty dam

Exciting views on the way back

Reached the hotel before 12 and prepared to check out and headed for lunch at Saravana Bhavan. It was almost 1, when I was all set to bid good bye to the charming town and start the challenging ride towards Madurai.

The 18 km ride between Munnar and Chinnakanal was heavenly!

Periyakanal waterfalls

25 kms into the ride, I crossed Poopara and the landscape changed completely. The tea plantations had vanished and given way to coconut trees and spice plantations.

Another 10 kms, it was Bodimettu and yet again, into TN. The 25 ride from Bodimettu to Bodi was a typical ghat road experience that you would have in places like Tirupathi. It was quite dry here and the roads were deserted. It was starting to get very monotonous and I started to test 50- 60 KMph.

The final leg, Bodi was Madurai was a 100 km rip fest in the plains. Finally managed to reach Madurai by 6 PM and packed and loaded the bike.

Trip meter - 366.9 km

Lakes, streams, waterfalls, forests, estates, plantations, mist, rains, blind curves, hair pins and so on, this was probably my most adventurous trip till date. What a way to celebrate my birthday, I thought!

The wayanad weekend

2009-05-01T10:02:00.005+05:30

Destination: Wayanad, Kerala

Dates: Apr 10-12, 2009

Members: Shankar, Sarav, Sid, Simman, Pravein and yours truly

Day 1

It was the wee hours of the Good Friday as we stopped yet another time to enquire one of the locals about the direction to Kalpetta. After a 15-minute drive, we reached the hotel - PPS tourist home at Kalpetta. It was certainly a tiring journey as I could barely catch any sleep sitting alongside the driver in the Qualis all the way from Bangalore. I had planned to have a nap at the shatabdi when we started the previous evening in Chennai but thanks to you-know-whom, I could never achieve that! So all this demanded a minimum sleep of a couple of hours and as none complained, we could easily manage that.

Soochipara falls

Well yes, that was our first destination for the day. We headed to Hotel Afaas for breakfast first and then proceeded towards Meppadi. This restaurant is damn inexpensive - for the food we had we were stunned to get a bill of Rs.30 each and the quality was not bad either. Soochipara falls is ~22 kms from Kalpetta (where we stayed) and Meppadi is the town we need to head first. As we slowly drove though the quaint villages and neared Meppadi, the lush tea estates started appearing. Reached the entry for the falls after an hour's drive.

Watch out for the right turn at Meppadi - the signboard is a little faded. Meppadi is 9 kms from Kalpetta and soochipara is further down 13 kms from here after taking the right. To get to the falls, you need to trek down for 2 kms, of course there are steps for the whole distance, not a very tough descent - you feel the pain while climbing up on the return though. There was a reasonable amount of water to have a bath underneath. But the weather was quite hot I should say.

Edakkal caves

After battling a tough ascent back from the falls, we headeds to the Edakkal caves where fascinating prehistoric rock etchings are found on the walls of the caves. The name “Edakkal” literally means “a stone in between”, and this describes how the cave is formed by a heavy boulder straddling a fissure in the rock. Wiki has some good info on this place. It was a long journey from Soochipara to Edakkal and we knew it but had to go for it since the two other places nearby soochipara - the chembra peak (a whole day trek) and Meenmutty falls (another ardous trek) dint fit into our agenda as we were already worn out and needed some good rest.

Edakkal caves is situated on a small hilltop to which there is a 900 metre pathway which can be down by walk or by the jeep services run here. Its ideal to take the jeep while climbing up and walk on descent. It costs Rs.40 for the whole jeep. The timings are from 9 am - 5 pm. The entry to the hill closes at 4 pm though. Once you reach the top, you need to start climbing a steep flight of stairs all the way to the caves, in the middle of which you need to get the tickets at the counter. The tickets are very nominally priced - Rs.10 pp and Rs.25 for a still camera.

There is a path that goes even past the point where the caves are located. This gets you to the topmost point in the hill and offers a magnificent view of the whole town. We decided to skip it as it was really hot the time we went and we were just waiting to hit the bed. So after the walk down the stairs and the hill, finally after another long journey reached the hotel and crashed into the bed for a good evening nap. (well, that in fact doesn't qualify to be called a 'nap' :P)

Day 2

Meenmutty falls

This was the day we were waiting for. We had heard and read a lot about this trek - rave reviews everywhere. We were just thrilled! Another 30 km drive from Kalpetta on the same route towards Meppadi - but this time going straight from Meppadi towards Ooty , we got there around 10.30. We tried to push our qualis on the dirt track at least till the forest dept entry checkpost (~ 1 km from the main road) but it couldn't hold on after half the way. So we decided to walk all the way - the tea estates were there all around and looked wonderful even in this hot season! I wondered how lush they would be during the monsoons and wanted to come back again here until that incident* happened!

Got the tickets from the checkpost - a forest dept guide accompanies you for the whole trek - descent to the falls and climbing up back. It is a wonderful 45 min descent - for the first 15 min you should have absolutely no trouble- its not so steep and the views are awesome - you can view the Chembra peak from here. But then slowly it gets tougher and tougher. There are ropes along the side to support you. But sometimes even they don't help you from slipping. The guide was telling about one of the tourists (a lady) who slipped and fell down the cliff. Probably that wasn't the best time for us to hear him recount his experiences!

It was really thrilling and we were just waiting to get to the falls once we heard the thumping sound of the water falling from a great height. And finally the sight of the 3-tier falls! It was hundred times worth the arduous trek we thought.

*That incident

We were just climbing a rock to relieve ourselves of our clothes and shoes, the guide who was leading us asked to follow him. For a moment, I was really astonished by the beauty of the falls - I did listen to him but without any sense whatsoever stepped on a moss-laden part of the rock. It wasn't half a second , probably just a quarter second and I fell flat bang on the rock. My luck that I was looking to my left and dint bang head on.

And for the next few minutes it was a lot of blood, words of consolation (you know what that means when i don't listen to the guide when he specifically said not to go in that direction ;)) and finally some popularity :P .. Close to 45 min there and we started our climb back. Boy, this was really tiring. It was past 12 and the heat was taking its toll.. The locals here put up a shop at the place where the ascent comes to an end where you get buttermilk, coconut water, etc. We stopped there for quite a long time as not only me, everyone was worn out! It was already past 2 when we reached our hotel and as I proceeded to a hospital nearby to get the wound stitched.

Banasura sagar dam

We had plans to cover chembra peak base after the meenmutty trek but the plan was shelved, courtesy that fiasco. A plan to visit Pookote lake in the evening clubbed with the Lakkidi view point was later altered to visiting the Banasura sagar dam as we got to know that Pookote is more crowded and the scenery was better off at BSD.

BSD is a 24 km drive from Kalpetta and we reached the place around 5 in the evening. As in the other tourist spots, you have the option of walking or taking a jeep to the dam from the entry point. 'Speed boating' is the attraction here. Entry tickets - Rs.10 pp, jeep ride - Rs.50 per jeep (10 persons), speed boat ride - Rs.300 for a 15-minute ride for 5 persons.

The weather chilled down as it began to drizzle. The setting was perfect for a boat ride on the lake. However, I had to shield my wound from the drizzle. I would highly recommend this place to anyone - both for its natural beauty (with hills all around) and the non-touristy setting. We had a nice time at the dam clicking some pics and walked down on descent as usual. We called it a day on returning to Kalpetta after Simman had a cracker of a dinner - I cant mention the list here, its way too long :P..

Day 3

Well, the final day of our trip. Everything had went according to our plan thus far - we didn't want to cover all the places, rather were for seeing the best ones and we had one left in the must-see list - the Kuruva islands.

Kuruva Dweep

Kuruva Dweep is a group of islets in the river Kabini along the northeast border of Wayanad district. Kuruva is only 45 km away from Kalpetta and a few submergible satellite islands. These islands present a unique ecosystem, which can be of great significance to nature lovers. One needs to get to Mananthavady - 30 kms from Kalpetta to get to Kuruva. The Kuruva island again is maintained by the Forest dept.

The entry ticket is Rs.10 and a river rafting programme costs Rs.300 for a raft. You can opt for the forest trekking programme for Rs.800 (5 persons, Rs.100 per additional person) accompanied by a guide or just take a guide and stroll around - Rs.100 for a guide. We rafted for around an hour at the backwaters of Kabini and then decided to have a bath in one of the not-so-frequently visited parts of the river. (Of course it didn't turn out to be that way!) ..

There are so many islands within and you need to make short river crossings to hop between them. And ya, there si also a tree top hut within the islands that they rent out to tourists - just costs Rs.750 per night. the guide said that up to 3 ppl are allowed to stay. (where on earth do you get a tree house as cheap as that!)..

It was past 1 pm as we had some refreshments and started off on our return journey. We were to choose between Vishnu bhavan @ mysore and Kamat @ SH17 for our belaaaated lunch but hunger got the better of us as we halted at Mysore. SH17 after 6 pm seemed to be a city road - there were so many vehicles returning towards B'lore after the long weekend. We dropped Shankar first at the Yeshwantpur station - the poor guy thought his train was at 10.40 and it happened to be at 10.20. Good that we didn't drop him anywhere else - else if he had not boarded the train, he wouldn't have been able to board it anywhere at all for the next stop of the train was at Kacheguda! (his destination)..

It was home sweet home the next morning after the truly adventurous weekend we had! Now I know why the place's called God's own country and I promise to make it sometime again in the monsoons for a different experience..

Some info:

Check this website for wayanad tourism promoted by the locals and DTPC wayanad for detailed info on places to see.

Maps of wayanad

The sanctuaries: The sanctuaries were closed when we were there and hence I couldn't pen down any info on them. However, I learnt that Tholpetty WLS has better chances of wildlife spotting than Muthanga in summer. But you never know, you might want to check out both. Also note that both these are located at two extremes of Wayand district. Its best to stay at Mananthavady for Tholpetty and Sulthan bathery for Muthanga.

Getting there:

Wayanad district has three main towns - Kalpetta, Sultan bathery and Mananthavady - Kalpetta being the headquarters. These three towns form a triangle and are roughly 30 ks from each other. Its best to stay at Kalpetta as its almost equidistant to all the tourist spots around.

By road:

Wayanad can be reached by road from Mysore in two different routes:
1. Mysore- H.D.Kote - Nagarhole - Mananthavady
2. Mysore - Nanjangod - Gundlupet - Muthanga WLS - Sulthan bathery (140 kms)

Alternatively one can each Wayanad from these routes as well:
1. Kozhikode - Vythiri - Kalpetta (75 kms/ 2 hrs)
2. ooty - Meppadi - Kalpetta (100 kms)
3. Coorg - Tholpetty WLS - Mananthavady

By rail/air:

Kozhikode is the nearest airport and railhead to approach wayanad. Taxi should cost Rs.1,200 - 1,400 from Kozhikode. There are state run buses as well.

Where to stay

Well, there are a multitude of options ranging from luxury to economy.
- Luxury options include Vythiri resort , rain country and edakkal hermitage.
- The popular mid-range hotels are Hotel Harithagiri and Woodlands and Green gates
- The best of the economy options is PPS Tourist home.
See here for a complete list of hotels.

Where to eat

Almost all hotels have an attached restaurant here as there are not many options outside. All these towns are very small.

A must-visit is 'Walnut cakes' - a great bakery on the main road in Kalpetta. You get all the stuff - cakes, puff, brownies, shakes at an incredible price.

Worth sharing:

- Have enough bottles filled up with water wherever you go, because almost all the places require a moderate trek/climb
- Head to the falls (Soochipara/Meenmutty) as early in the morning to avoid huge crowds. This also makes your treks free and easy.
- Wear loose clothing (preferably tees and shorts) and light slippers for the Kuruva islands. You need to do river crossings frequently!
- And ya, be careful at the Meenmutty falls ;)

Patrolling the periyar reserve

2009-04-14T17:12:00.012+05:30

Destination: Periyar tiger reserve, Thekkady

Date: Apr 3, 2009

Warning: A long one, read on only if you have some time in your hands ;)

It was already 6.45 PM as I was waiting in the loooong queue of people before the SBI ATM at the CMBT terminus. The new amended rule by RBI allowing free usage of any bank's ATMs probably saw the first victim in me. I had to wait for 20 long minutes before getting my turn. 'Sorry, unable to process your request' was the machine's answer after I keyed in all the info it asked for! Heights of frustration. There began my jog (I don't want to make people believe I actually ran :P)towards the bus-stand for private buses where I had to board my 7.15 bus to Cumbum. Gasping and sweating all over, finally managed to perch on my seat on time!

Reaching Cumbum at 5.30 in the morning was unbelievable - I din't get a clue of how quickly the bus got there. With less than 100 bucks in my purse, I had to hunt for an ATM first and luckily could spot one in a few yards from the place. Quickly got a bus to kumily - usually the base camp for periyar and got myself seated - much to my ill luck, had to watch one of the crap movies of 'sparrow star' .. and they had 3 TVs to show that !! The early morning mist and the winding roads with huge pipes from the mullai periyar dam criss-crossing them was a delight to the eyes which strived to escape the deluge of TVs kept to haunt me!

So there I was at Kumily as early as 6.15. Kumily is actually the border between TN and Kerala and the border is signaled by the checkpost at the beginning of the town. Buses which belong to the TN road transport fleet stop just before the checkpost. Only KSRTC and other private buses operate from the bus-stand in Kumily.

Having done a lot of research about the place, I had already learnt that the first and the last boat trips at the periyar were the best bets to spot wildlife. So there I decided to skip checking in to my room and decided to set off to the reserve (thekkady) straight away! You should have seen the delight (and of course determination :P) on my face once I got my ticket for the upper deck at 6.30. The entire lake was serene and beautiful - half covered with mist and frequented by the tiny flying inmates of the forest.

Periyar tiger reserve primarily has a huge lake surrounded by dense evergreen forests on all the sides. Ferries are operated by both the Forest department and KTDC (Kerala Tourism Development Corporation) five times a day - these are the only govt organized 'safaris' into the reserve. The Boats operated by the forest dept do not have upper decks while those operated by the KTDC (Kerala Tourism Development Corporation) do. The KTDC boats are charged higher than that of forest dept's. Typically all these boats have names like vanalakshmi, jalasundari, vanamohini, etc .The boats starting with 'vana' belong to the forest dept ('vana' meaning forest) and those having 'jala' are owned by the KTDC. KTDC boats have both lower and upper decks. (Rs.75 and Rs.150 pp respectively)

I could manage to get a corner seat (read plastic chair - plastic chairs are arranged on the ferry , there are no seats as such! :P) as the ferry pulled off from the shores at 7 am sharp. As we sailed smoothly we could first spot cormorants - plenty of them to say , perching on top of the lifeless tree trunks found all over the lake.

A lone kingfisher was basking in the early morning sun as a family of otters enjoyed themselves playing near the shores. A majestic snake bird (also called Darters in some parts of the world) rushed to sit on a trunk top spreading its wings gloriously to assert its presence.
There were other species as well - the hornbill, the flycatchers , the vultures - no less in number.

The one and a half hour cruise ended with sightings of a herd of bisons slowly making their way to have their breakfast.

The host at Mickeys cottage (where I was going to be put up) was shocked as I told her that I had already finished a boat ride after entering the town :) I checked into the room, refreshed for sometime and went out to explore the town and have a good breakfast. Kumily is basically a very small town with no real big fancy hotels or restaurants in place. I checked out the bus-stand, bazaar road , had food at a local joint ( ananda bhavan I guess) and caught a nap straight away.

Four alarm rings from my phone and i wake up on time to get ready for the evening ride :D.. well I dint want to miss it as well! On the way to the reserve, stopped at the forest office and got myself booked for the 'jungle patrol'- the 3 hour night trek from 7-10 pm. Boy, how excited I was !! Off I went into the reserve, got my tickets for the 4 pm ride and hooked on into the boat. You should see the way in which you are allowed to board the boats - four boats are stopped in parallel and you get into your boat through the others, people for the last boat are allowed first and so on..

The ride this time was more productive - in the sense that I could see some wildlife as such - bisons, barking deer, cheetal, wild boars, and ofcourse the numerous birds. There were bisons almost everywhere! Curse my point and shoot camera , I couldn't capture them in their full glory as they were at a good distance from the boat.

It was 6 15 as I came back from the boat ride and finished my late lunch (!).. I decided to walk to the forest entry gate which is about 2kms from the bus-stand. The walk was awesome as I got to explore the local roads and shops. The welcome board in front of Spice village resort en route had a price list of food items put up at their gates (yeah! ;))and a line at the end read 'Prices slashed due to economic recession'! (:P).. How popular was this R word!

Jungle patrol - The night trek

It suddenly turned dark in no time and I was waiting in front of the guard's room to start the trek. A group of 4 arrived in a few minutes (min of 5 required for this programme) and we set off with range officer Suhaas and another guide. They had 3 powerful torches to spot animals and we were given small LED torches each to watch out on our path for stones or any reptiles (this is what the guide told!!)..The guide held one torch in each hand and was looking for animals on both sides while Suhaas had a rifle and carried a torch and acted as the tail. I was the last person in the group and was bugging Suhaas about wildlife sightings in the area.

As we entered into the buffer zone of the jungle, Suhaas started mentioning about the different trees along with their botanical names. Wonder how he managed to know the Bot names for so any different species of trees! He led us to a tree with a huge hole in the trunk and wow there were fruit bats right at the top of the inner part of the trunk .. Have never seen those before ..

As we just proceeded from there, we could see quite a lot of sambars, barking deer and mouse deer. The eyes of Sambar shine in bright orange when they come across the light beam from the torch and that's how the guides spot them easily. We were now nearby a water stream running parallel to our path. It was quite dark but the guides used their torches to full effect looking out for animals. Suddenly there seemed to a white sheet moving in a swift pace on the other side of the stream. It was so long and fast. We realized that it was a herd of cows running as quickly as they could .. apparently they were running for their lives .. It doesn't take rocket science to decipher the reason for their fleeing - they had sensed a predator around! What was that animal? Where was it hiding? Was it behind them or on our side of the stream .. The eeriness of the dark night along with these questions running all over in our minds was spine-chilling.

The guides started looking out for the elusive predator - all along the bushes, the trees, the pits, everywhere. After almost ten minutes of futile search, they concluded that it wasn't on our side - probably it had stopped chasing when it became aware of some human presence nearby! Was it one of the big cats ? May be, if so, I would at least be content with having made so close to seeing one! Assumptions galore :)

We were almost half way through the trek and halted at the Aranya nivas hotel's park. Aranya nivas is the one of the two hotels owned by KTDC located within the reserve. After some ice-breaking conversations along with the other people, we set off for the next leg of the trek. Suhaas suddenly asked us to be silent and pointed a unique sound that he heard. We couldn't really hear what it was. He said that it was the sound of the 'Makana' elephant scratching the trees. 'Makana' is a rare species of elephant - a male elephant having the features of a female (no tusks!). He said that its a very dangerous species and we leave the place quickly. We crossed the road leading to the reserve and went to the other side. Suhaas asked us to rush through as he heard the sound of a herds of elephants on the other side of the lake. We were there in a whisker and wow, there was a family of five just before the lake! Awesome sight it was at night.. I was disappointed that I couldn't spot any elephants despite a couple of boat trips but now it was a delight to watch them! The magnificent mammoths had overshadowed the other denizens who were standing so close to us quenching their thirst in the lake. Just then, we saw a herd of sambar and cheetal a few yards from us, a group of wild boar nearby and behind us with the younger ones as well, a bison herd right before us. Boy it was like a zoo!! The guides themselves told that even they didn't get to see such a sight so often .. The sight had made my day :)After all I had come all the way for this!

It was retuning time as I was chatting with Suhaas. He had been working there for ten years now and one of the very few people who are entrusted for this jungle patrol programme. He himself admitted that it is a high-risk programme and he has the responsibility of the safe return of all the tourists to the base point. He was telling an experience when one of the elephants once took off one hand of one of the tourists. He was talking about the behavior of elephants like how they are stubborn in nature. Seems that elephants have a very strong sense of scent. If they happen to catch human scent, most elephants back off in a different direction but there are some of them who proceed in the same direction to attack the humans. And once they decide to attack you, there's no escape. He talked about an incident where a person climbed up the tree to save himself from a chasing elephant. The elephant was waiting under a tree for hours together and even tried bring down the tree itself pushing the tree trunk hard. He also showed elephant trench dug out in the buffer zone - elephants can't go beyond this and the staff quarters for all the forest dept personnel are located on this side. These trenches are also present around all the KTDC hotels inside the sanctuary.

So there we were after a 2 hr 50 min venture into the periyar tiger reserve. Thanked Suhaas for the excellent company and bid goodbye to the other guys.. It was a lifetime experience I should say .. I returned to the room and packed my bags to leave for Madurai (and the theme for the weekend had to be shifted from wildlife to pilgrimage overnight ;))..

All said and done, the image of the majestic Panthera Tigris was hovering in my mind all the way .. I told myself that I 'll spot him sometime somewhere sooner or later .. Well, so ranthambore, here I come ;)

Some info:

Getting to Thekkady:

Kumily is the base town for visiting Thekkady - Kumily is located 4 kms from Thekkady (Thekkady is basically the place where the reserve is locatewd and Kumily the entry point). One can reach Kumily in various directions. If you are entering from TN, theni - cumbum - kumily is the route. Theni is reachable by bus from all major parts of TN. There are forest dept run buses to take you into the reserve from Kumily but its best you take an auto (50 Rs.)
Rail and air: Reach Madurai and Take a bus/cab to Kumily (140 kms)

Where to stay:

Well, there are so many options in Thekkady and Kumily from the budget to the luxury.
There are only three hotels within the reserve in thekkady - all operated by KTDC: Periyar house, Aranya nivas and Lake palace from the most to least economical in that order. From what I heard from people, Periyar house seems to be a pretty decent bargain.
Just outside the reserve, you will find quite a lot of hotels and homestays. Spice village and Club mahindra's resort are among the private high-end options.
Mickeys' cottage, Coffee Inn (both have high patronage from backpackers outside India) are good budget homestay options. I stayed in Mickeys and the rooms were very tidy (ask for the room on the backside:))Kumily gate is another option right at the entrance of Kumily.

Where to eat:

There are limited options for restaurants serving Indian food. You will have to dine in your hotel's restaurant better. Ananda bhavan and Arya bhavan are two restaurants serving simple Indian food near the bus-stand but you don't expect anything much over here. You can try Coffee inn, Michael's Inn (offers lodging as well) and Chrissie's for some western fare.

What to do:
Kumily:

- Kumily is basically a spice-trading town. You might want to take a stroll at the bazaar and pick up some spices to take home.
- A lot of tour operators offer plantation tours - visit coffee, pepper plantations, etc. Fixed charges for a day tour.
- Pick a bicycle for hire and just roam around the quaint little hill town all by yourself

At the reserve in Thekkady

Well, here there is quite a lot to do. KTDC along with the Forest dept has so many 'community-based eco-tourism programmes' (as they call it) to offer for the tourists. Visit the website of Periyar Tiger reserve and DTPC Idukki for more details. Must-do activities are boating rides - the first one at 7 am and the last one at 4 pm (pretty good time-slots to catch a glimpse of the animals coming down to drink water at the lake), Periyar tiger trail (if you have 2 days to spare) , the jungle patrol (3 hr night trek - if you don't manage to do the tiger trail)and bamboo rafting.

One humble request from my side: As I have discussed about it earlier here, please do maintain silence while in the jungle. The group which came with me for the trek were constantly murmuring and laughing and it was so frustrating! Also please learn to adore the beauty of the jungle and the surroundings. DO NOT go with the only aim of spotting wildlife to avoid disappointments. The primary purpose pf the trip should be to enjoy the environs and any wildlife sighting should be viewed as a bonus. These are just my two cents :)

The jungle etiquette

2009-04-08T19:40:00.007+05:30

Well, yes. If your workplace or a party or even a dining hall carries an etiquette to be followed, the jungle deserves one as well. My definition of the jungle etiquette includes the following do's and dont's when you visit the jungle - a sanctuary or a national park.

- First things first, observe the golden rule of dwelling in the jungle - Silence. Don't keep chatting all the way with your mates - not only do you disturb the denizens of the jungle but also spoil your (and others') chances of enjoying the wonderful natural sounds of the forest.

- Always Wear muted colours. Don't wear a pink (it might be your favourite colour but its against the colours of a jungle!) , an orangle or a blinding violet dress and expect to sight some wildlife. Never! Wear the greens and light browns which are synonymous with the environs around.

- Go easy on perfumes/aftershaves/talc. Animals have a strong odour sense and generally do not come out in the direction of human odour - and these are only going to add up as repellants.

- Do not scream/shout on excitement on spotting a deer - you might scare off a predator behind the bush (there by missing to have a look at it!)

- Do not try to feed monkeys or any other animals. You are not doing any favour by doing so and don't expect to have fun with this act at the expense of disturbing their natural habits!

- Last but not the least, DO NOT LITTER! Even small amount of plastic can take its toll on the already waning animal population in our forests.

Walking up the 7 hills to Tirumala

2009-04-05T10:03:00.004+05:30

Destination: Tirupathi - Tirumala

Dates: 21,22 Mar,2009

Members: Bharath, Naren, Keerthi and yours truly

It was the fifth time I was going to take up this climb but the excitement was nevertheless the same as I first tried the climb six years ago with my friend Rajesh who introduced me to this amazing way of getting to HIS abode. But this was the first time we were doing the trek/climb in the evening hours so that we escape the summer heat. So there we started from Alipiri (the foot of the hills aka base camp) at around 5 pm after depositing our bags in the free luggage transportation system run by the TTD.

The first few steps are quite steep but since you are energetic and more enthu when you begin the climb, you don't get tired. But as you probably cross 500 steps or so, you begin to gasp for breath (at least we did so :P). The steps are numbered at defined intervals - guess every 50 steps. From then on, to put it frankly it was a struggle :P Each of us would draw inspiration from the other who abruptly disappears for a break and gets flat on the cement railings ;)

So after about fighting to get to the 2000 mark, you reach a place called the 'Gali gopuram' (meaning empty tower)which is a popular pit stop for everyone undertaking the arduous climb. From here, you get an amazing view of the plains below and is a perfect spot to exhibit your photographic skills. We reached the place by twilight and the beauty of the setting sun along with the slow appearance of the lights on the plains make up a scenery! And ya, this place turned out to be special for bharath as 'something' happened to him, courtesy naren :P (waiting for keerthi's comments ;)) And because of that incident, we got delayed by a solid 1 1/2 hours!

The gali gopuram and the views:

Once you cross this place, the stairs are spread out and its more walking than climbing - you get to walk at least around 30 yards between two stairs. This place is real fun as you can make up for your long pit stops earlier. Watch out for the fenced enclosure on the left side, where quite a lot of spotted deer are protected - and they pose pretty well for your lenses :)

After an hour from here, you should reach the second major stop, where you find a huge statue of Hanuman. This place is intersected by the downhill road. Previously, there used to be a couple of peacocks kept in a cage at this place but this time we couldn't find them! Hope they are safe somewhere :)

A few minutes from here and you start walking on the road (used for the downhill journey) for about 2-3 kms. Its an amazing walk and you get absolutely amazing views of the hills on your right side. There is a footpath on the right side of the road and you need to strictly walk on that - else you get hit by the mad driving of jeeps and buses coming down the slopes! So finally after walking the road, once again you reach a point where you need to climb stairs. Now this is the steepest flight and you need to gear up for the last leg of the trek - chant HIS name and get going :) That's how your fellow tourists/pilgrims do!

So we were there finally at 10 pm after traversing through the 3,400 odd stairs in about 5 hours! Bharath was getting better now as we started wandering in search of a room though we couldn't manage to find anything at all ultimately!

After an adventurous night (read shivering in the cold, wandering in search of a restaurant at 2, standing in the queue for accommodation from 4 AM, etc :P), we managed to catch a glimpse of Mr. Venky the next noon and set off to chennai with yet another album filled with memories ....
The team:

Some info:

- From Tirupathi bus stand/rly station, take an auto to Alipiri (Rs.30-40), dump your bags in the transportation system - make sure you put a lock to your bags as this is MANDATORY! (they give you a receipt for the bags) and start enjoying your climb!
- There are shops aplenty on the way selling bottled water, soft drinks,hot beverages, lemon soda (tell you, a very refreshing drink !!),biscuits and other snacks - so you needn't worry carrying any of these from the base (Even glucose and chocolate bars are available to energize your batteries ;) glucose is one thing which keeps us going every time :P)
- Do dress up in comfortable cottons as you would be drenched in sweat in a few minutes after the start. Also its advisable to carry enough/large towels/hand kerchiefs.
- The luggage collection center at Tirumala is just en route the path towards the main temple and you just need to present your receipt
- Other facilities like restrooms and water taps for refreshing yourself are available in plenty on the way up
- Average time for the climb - 4 - 4.5 hours, youngsters - around 3 1/2 hours (uh.. people like us are an exception though :P)

Biking in the Nilgiris

2009-03-28T12:17:00.006+05:30

Destination(s): Ooty - Avalanche - Mudumalai

Dates: 14,15-mar, 2009

Day 1:

Well it was almost 11.30 when I was ready and was given the bike keys. For a hired motorcycle, I expected a dusty, never serviced, partially brake-less old model one. It was a pleasant surprise when i saw a near brand new Honda shine. I was more so relieved as the gear system was akin to my bike's. And so, with loads of excitement for a first time drive in the hills, it was get set vrrroooooooom!

Doddabetta:

To get to doddabetta, one needs to take the road leading to kothagiri (another small town in the nilgiris) for a few kms and at a fork junction, take the right and travel for 1 or 2 kms. Once you take the right, the road is a lot narrow and steep with tall bamboo trees all over on the sidelines. A treat to watch :)

Avalanche:

After the return from doddabetta, I was determined to visit Avalanche, a secluded small village around 34 km from ooty. I came to know about the place in my favourite travel forum - http://www.indiamike.com/ , where one of the members had posted an amazing trip report on the place.

The drive was awesome, the roads deserted, its only you and the mighty hills all around, small villages en route where children wave to you, an occasional bus coming on the opposite side, no sights of tourist crowd, its just wonderful!

After the tiring drive, had lunch in one of the restaurants on the commercial road and retired for the afternoon. After catching some sleep, got up late evening and decided to check out the botanical gardens. The gardens were huge, and ideal for a picnic kinda activity. Two large groups of college students were having fun in the huge lawn space in the front when I got reminded of 'those golden days'.

After the visit, decided to roam around to get a familiarity of the topography. Zipped across the winding narrow streets, did some window shopping here and there and it was almost 7 30. So decided to get back to the hotel and call it a day after a good dinner.

Day 2:

It was 5 30 as I was woken by the jarring alarm on my mobile phone. It was 6 when I could finally manage to get out of the bed and get steady on my foot. I had three options for the morning - a. Parsons valley, b.Kothagiri, c. again mudumalai-masinagudi. a. was ruled out as I learnt from the caretaker that there was nothing so scenic there except if you are going to trek. There was a stiff competition between b and c, but the reminiscence of the steep climb along 36 hair-pin bends from masinagudi pulled me towards option c. It was 6 30 and with my woolen gloves and a cap, I set off towards mudumalai.

I was quite familiar with the route as we did the same journey other way a couple of months back. It was shivering cold and I somehow managed to ride through NH 67 towards talaikundah on the way to gudalur. The first glimpse of the morning sun was so refreshing for the soul.

My first stop en route was at pykara, where I decided to have my breakfast at 7.30. The place was deserted with no tourists and a few locals walking by. Walked into a north-indian dhaba where I had to wait for half an hour to get my aloo parathas. Poor guy, he wouldn't hae expected a customer so early in the morning, he had to go somewhere, get the flour and start everything! :P And the view from the place is indescribable! The golden sun rising over the might ranges of the nilgiris with its rays falling on a small lake in a small valley below was a spectacular sight :) Needs to be experienced though!

It was around 9 when I entered the mudumalai forest area as I was requested by a man working in the forest dept to drop me at kargudi en route to thepakkadu. We had a small discussion about the forest fires, water shortage, et al in the sanctuary. After I dropped him, I was on the constant look out for some wildlife on both the sides. A vast area of the forest was visible since most of the trees have gone dry near the highway. It was a very quiet theppakadu junction this time, given that the sanctuary is closed; had a cup of tea at the refreshment stall opp the forest dept office and rode off towards masinagudi. I was not disappointed as the usual sightings were there - the deers, the langurs, a cute peacock crossing the road and ofcourse a variety of strange species of birds. The 7 km ride towards masinagudi was so thrilling, the forests dry, and the hopes high :P The elusive cat family never showed up though. After half an hour, I was all set at the base to take on the ascent., the thrill knew no bounds. Honda shine outperformed my expectations and made its way though the consecutive winding hair-pins with great comfort. I was having a ball negotiating through the rough turns every now and then. I had finally conquered it and reached thalaikundah around 10.30. For a first time hill rider, this was an amazing experience :D

It was almost time to return the bike as I settled for lunch on reaching the hotel. The afternoon was spend leisurely watching the drizzle outside my room. It was 4 and I set out to check the rose garden and do some shopping (read home-made chocolates and tea). As i returned, it was already 5.30 and time to bid adieu to the queen promising to come back sooner or later, hoping for more adventure.

Some info:

I am not going to write about the tourist spots in ooty as you can find those in every possible travel site!

Roads to ooty: There are basically 4 routes to reach ooty from the plains if you are driving on your own:
1. The usual metupalayam-coonoor-ooty
2. Another common one - mysore- gundlupet - bandipur - gudalur -ooty
3. same as above except bandipur - mudumalai - masinagudi - kalhatty - ooty
4. mettupalayam - kothagiri - ooty

Avalanche: The Emarald lake is the only attraction here (if you are looking for places as such). Of course one needs to go here for the serenity, good opportunities for birding and other wildlife sighting as well.
Approach:
1. From coimbatore - karamadai - geddai
2. From ooty - palada -Emerald
Accommodation: Only one forest rest house is available. You need to take permission from the DFO at ooty.
A cozy alternative is Destiny farm stay at Emerald
For more info, read this compendium on avalanche

Mudumalai-masinagudi:
Please refer to my post 'A date with the wild' below

Accomodation in ooty:
If you are a budget traveler, then Hotel tamilnadu and their youth hostel, located very close to the Charring cross and YWCA on Ettines road are the best bets. Both options also offer dorms for students and backpackers.
(P.S: Just to clarify, its just their guest house and men are allowed to stay in YWCA :))

Hiring a bike:

From what I read in various blogs, hiring a motorcycle/bicycle shouldn't be a problem in ooty.
- For bicycle, you can hire at the shop nearby assembly rooms theater on the road leading to botanical gardens ( I guess the name is modern cycle shop)
- For a motorcycle, the person I got from - Saba - +91 94438 97643 . (Note: I dint meet or even speak to him. Everything was arranged by the hotel caretaker)
Charges for motorcycle: Rs.350 for 24 hrs flat

Trip to vedanthangal

2009-02-20T22:52:00.007+05:30

Destination: Vedanthangal

Date: 14-Feb (the trip has nothing to do with this date :P)

Members:6

It was after months together (or even years?!) that I was breathing the fresh early morning air. Its been so long since I had seen 5.30 AM. Never can I imagine to get up so early and that day was going to be no exception ;) thats precisely why i chose not to sleep through the night! I managed to start from my house at 6.15 and reached tambaram in half an hour, where I was supposed to meet Keerthi and co. I was damn hungry and decided to proceed to find the next restaurant I could find (Don't ask me what i did to skip all the restaurants in Tambaram n before! :P) .. I went on and on and finally found a small restaurant .. err .. bunk shop in urapakkam! After getting done with my breakfast, I just had to wait for one more hour even before the gang joined :P So finally 4 bikes (which inlcluded my super splendour :P)kicked off towards vedanthangal ..

After an hour's drive probably, we finally reached the place.. I expected the place to be quite bigger (have heard it being called vedanthangal sanctuary!) but its just a ~300-400 m walking stretch alongside the lake where the birds are found..Ofcourse the lake is huge! There is no boating facility unlike other other bird sanctuaries and you need to get contended with watching from one end of the lake..There is a watch tower from where you can get an aerial view but its still a futile effort without a binocular ..

We could spot quite a few varieties but I could recognize only storks and pelicans , that too with the help of pictorial boards that were in place there!.. (I also did a google images search the night before so that I could identify the species on seeing them, and yet I was not successful :P) ..so after around an hour of bird-watching (!!) , we finally decided to head back ..

Some info:

Hit the NH-45 and head to Chengelpet from Tambaram. Just keep going on for ~10-12 km beyond chengelpet (on the NH) and you will find a signboard on the left indicating a right to be taken to Vedanthangal. Take the detour on the right and proceed for 12 km to reach the village. Take a left turn here for ~1 km to reach the sanctuary.

Transport: Private vehicles are best. Else you need to take a bus to chengelpet and from there to vedanthangal. No eateries around except for small shops selling fruits and biscuits.

A date with the wild

2009-02-16T20:19:00.013+05:30

Destination: Bandipur - Mudumalai - Masinagudi

Dates: 24 - 26 Jan, 2009

Members: Saravanan, Praveen, Sid, Shankar, Simman and yours truly

It was 8.30 pm and we were having our dinner @ Krishna Bhavan, a few yards away from IIM-B. We had just completed an awesome road trip to Mysore and were heading back to Chennai that night. And as it normally happens when one trip ends, a discussion about the next destination sprang up. A few of us vouched for Ooty; we wanted to try the toy train up the hill and from nowhere, a mention about Bandipur came up. We just thought it was a cool idea and carried on bidding farewell to the b'lore guys.. Next time when they visited Chennai, things shaped up and we decided we gonna alter the plan and head to Bandipur. A six of us from Chennai planned to reach Bangalore and join the guys from there. But as ill luck would have it, 4 of them dropped out in the last week(for various reasons)and myself and Simman somehow managed to take the 11.30 train to Bangalore on the 24th.

The journey

The Qualis we had arranged for the trip was supposed to be at our place at 9 am and the driver was just 2 hrs late! We managed to get ourselves and our bags stuffed and hit the NICE road (to our surprise, this time it was motorable) before 11.30. We reached Mysore by 2, had our lunch at Vishnu Bhavan close to the bus stand and started off towards the Ooty road. The roads were good except for a horrible ~8 km stretch after Gundlupet.

We crossed Bandipur checkpost around 5 as a hospitable peacock posed to us. We were actually heading to Masinagudi (7 km from Mudumalai) as we had arranged for our accommodation there; crossed the TN checkpost and reached Theppakadu (center of Mudumalai where the forest office is located) around 5.30.

Elephant camp

We decided to visit the elephant camp as it was the feeding time for the elephants there. The camp is just a 2 min walk from the Thepakadu junction. It is supposed to be the best time to visit the camp. We bought the tickets and went in to watch the pachyderms get fed. There was an amazingly cute baby elephant waiting to pose for us. It was very tourist-friendly and went on to shake hands with many ppl around :P For the bigger ones, they make huge cakes out of some stuff and feed them one at a time. There is also a small museum like building within the camp where animal bones, etc are on for display.

Masinagudi

We carried on to Masinagudi and reached the E.B guest house (where we had arranged for our stay) around 6.30. Despite the fading light, I couldn't resist clicking the full bloom of the flowers around. We checked in and then relaxed at the entrance of the place (it was a loooong pathway with flowers on both sides; was just picture-perfect!). It was dinner time as we gobbled up the hot idlis and chapatis in no time. It was 9.30 now and we were excited as we had the sight of the jeep entering the guest house pathway.

The night safari

We got into the jeep, all 6 of us crammed into the rear part, shunning the single seat next to the driver for safety reasons :P .. We started driving our way from Masinagudi to Mudumalai through the dense jungle road.. The jeep was open on all sides adding to the excitement in the air! .. The wind was chilly and the atmosphere eerie .. It was pitch dark, not an iota of light barring our headlights .. For a moment we just thought what would happen if our jeep broke down in the middle of the jungle!.. that too with a wide open jeep with no windows!.. (i preferred to use the cliched phrase 'for a moment' but the truth was the other way round :P) We reached Theppakadu and turned left towards Gudalur .. Our jeep was speeding up and suddenly we came to a screeching halt .. it was a porcupine waiting to cross the road .. we took a good look at it with the headlights on as it crossed the road and disappeared in a few seconds ..As we proceeded on, we were really struck by the way our driver was on the look out for some wildlife .. He criss-crossed from left to right and made full use of the headlights looking for animals in the periphery. After a few minutes, he suddenly stopped and showed us a bison grazing on the sideliines .. We dint have a clue how he spotted it! .. Ofcourse its his profession and he has been doing this for the past20 years.. He stopped there for almost a minute as we tried to click some pics .. but in vain as there was absolutely no light around .. We then proceeded in the other direction towards Bandipur. There were a herd of huge elephants very close to the road side. We greeted them and drove on our way back. More than the joy of spotting animals, the dark and scary atmosphere is itself worth your buck. It was an awesome 2 hr ride as we finally hit the bed after making arrangements for our trek into the jungle the next morning.

The amazing trek

Unfortunately, I was not well and had to miss out on the jungle trek. That was one thing I regret about the whole trip.. this is why -

The early morning atmosphere was just awesome and the guys who went were enjoying the mist surrounding them. They were accom panied by a couple of guides who had absolutely no weapons with them! They dint seem to bother much about it though .. After a good 2-hr trek, as they were getting ready to wrap up, they found a bush getting shaken up . One of the guides, being cautious enough realizing they have nothing to save themselves, backed out while the other tried his heroics going near the bush only to see an angered tusker emerging out of it! This was THE moment! As the tusker started charging towards the guide, the guys started fleeing in all directions!.. it dint last for long but the thrill was good enough for them and they somehow managed to get to the main road and meet each other! .. All this had happened when I was wandering in search of a medical shop :(

We then went to the Moyyar falls .. It is a short trek to get to a suicide point from which you can view the falls.. But the area was very dry and isolated.. We came back and decided to have our bath in the moyyar river but decided against it after going all the way and looking at its state; then had a good lunch and decided to take a short nap and try the evening safari @ Bandipur. It was Sunday and the seats were filled up when we were there!.. we roamed to and fro on the Bandipur-Mudumalai road with the hopes of spotting some wildlife but without any luck. Finally, we decided to spend some time by the river where a couple of mahouts were trying to tame an elephant. My god! they were throwing crackers right at its face to try and make it succumb to their orders!

It was twilight as we were returning to Masinagudi .. Something crossed the road ~100m before our car ..was it a deer? a bison?!.. nope it was too short for those..finally we were convinced we had spotted a bear as we drove past it! .. our driver stopped the car as we watched it disappear into the woods.

We were lucky to spot a bear, told the caretaker in our guesthouse. He also told stories about how he had spotted tigers in the Masinagudi-Moyyar route. So we decided to take our own vehicle and try our luck for leopards or tigers that night! We got into our car at 10 after our dinner. As we were about to start, we found that our driver was drunk and withdrew the plan for obvious reasons.. We wouldn't want our driver stop the car and get down in the middle of the night in an isolated part of a jungle :P

Pykara

The next morning, we got up as early as 5, packed and headed for Pykara, 25 km from ooty. We took the 36km ghat road through Kalhatty; the 20 km stretch till Talkunda with 36 hair pin bends was a visual treat! The road is so narrow but well laid and is advisable only for experienced drivers. Our driver maneuvered the hair pins with such an impeccable ease .. we stopped at the Kalhatty falls and it proved to be an amazing pitstop for capturing the hills around!(though the falls was quite distant and had little water) The sight of early morning rays slowly getting spread over the top of the hills was really spectacular.

We had a stop at the much hyped ninth mile and found it to be very ordinary. Then we went on to Pykara waterfalls which is on the same road en route to Gudalur. It is a 20 min walk to get to the waterfalls area. There was very little water but we had a great time there clicking! We had a good breakfast of hot parottas and dosas (which turned cold within few seconds!) as we were admiring a very cute kid staring at us in the restaurant.

The pykara boating lake was a few km ahead and it was worth the journey! It was far less touristy and the whole place has a very serene feel to it. There are both pedal boats and speed boats and we preferred the latter. On our way back, we crossed the mudumalai-Bandipur area yet again as the langurs posed merrily this time.

We finally had our lunch at 5 pm at the famed Kamat on the Mysore-bangalore highway. The restaurant very much lived up to its hype! It was close to 7 as we reached home and yet again there were discussions propping up about the next trip ;)

Some info:

Getting there:
Bus: All govt/private buses from Bangalore/Mysore to Ooty pass through Bandipur - mudumalai.
Getting a private vehicle is the best way to explore this place. Route from Bangalore (place,km):Bangalore - 140 - Mysore - 20 - nanjangod - 30 -gundlupet - 22 - Bandipur - 8 - TN border - 5 - Theppakadu.
Theppakadu is the focal point of Mudumalai. The forest reception office where tickets are sold for the safari is located here.
Masinagudi: When coming from Bangalore/Mysore direction, at Thepakkadu, take the road at the left which begins with a narrow bridge. Proceed further for 7 km to find Masinagudi . From here, you need to take the left to reach Moyyar (10 km from this point, signboards available)
To ooty: There are 2 ways to reach ooty from Theppakadu (Mudumalai)
1. Go straight (when coming from Mysore direction) towards Gudalur (NH 67) and then to Ooty. Detailed route: Theppakadu - 17 - Gudalur - 30 - Pykara - 13 - Talakunda - take right - 8 - Ooty.
2. Take left from Theppakadu towards Masinagudi and keep going straight. Route: Theppakadu - 7 - Masinagudi - 20 (36 hair-pins) - Talakunda - 8 - ooty

Things to do:

Govt Safari: Van safari available at both mudumalai and bandipur. At mudumalai its supposed to be very noisy though. Jeep safari at bandipur now scrapped.

Night safari: This is not approved by the forest officials. Guides charge you a 1000 bucks for a jeep for a 1.5 - 2 hr ride. The jeep won't go into the jungle though. They just try their luck on the highway. Still its very much worth it!

Detours:

Gopalaswamy betta: An ideal half-a-day trek and picnic spot. Take the right turn some 15 km after Gundlupet (you can see some signboard) and then you will have to drive around 10 km into it.

Glenmorgan: Supposed to be a non-touristy 'yet to be commercialized' place. While coming from ooty,10km after Talakunda, you can see a diversion on the right with signboard. Go 10 km into the road for Glenmorgan.

Worth sharing:

Look out for the chill coconut water on the way from Nanjangod to Gundlupet ;)
The nearest petrol bunk for mudumalai-bandipur is at Thorappally (beginning of Gudalur) on the ooty side or at Gundlupet on the mysore side.
The nearest full-fledged restaurant is Bandipur plaza, some 3-5 km before Bandipur checkpost (beginning of Bandipur forest area)or you need to go to Thorapally (~ 15 km from Theppakadu)
Try the Masinagudi -Moyar route at night if you are quite confident of yourself and your vehicle :P We heard from locals that it was the best route to spot tigers and leopards, and the best time being between 1 -5 am. Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any consequences (read mis-adventures) arising out of this :P

A day at the pink city

2009-02-15T22:17:00.003+05:30

Destination: Jaipur

Journey dates:2 -3 Jan, 2009

(Warning: This is a post which I had written when I was damn bored and has turned out to be toooo lengthy! Keep yourself awake :P )

It was a cold january morning in Gurgaon. I was sitting at my office desk waiting for some work to come. It was a long long wait and I knew I would get nothing till the end. It is the season when our consultants are on the beach, literally! It was just 4 of us in our team in the Gurgaon office and we were doing nothing other than debating whether Shakti (one of my colleagues) should or not start looking for a girl to marry :P It was 2 30 and I decided it was a waste of time staring at the monitor. I had one and a half days before I had to leave for Agra for my training and so decided to set off to the pink city. I started off to the guest house in a rick. It was damn cold (being a chennaiite) even at that time of the day!

That elevator at the guest house sucks badly.. I could have reached Jaipur the time I had to wait for the lift to arrive and take me through to the 17th floor. Finally, rushed to my room, had a sip of chai, packed in a hurry and reached IFFCO chowk around 3.30. There was something special about this trip I was about to start - the first time I was travelling alone, a leisure trip all alone ;)

A lot of buses went by but I was determined to take the volvo. After almost an hour of futile wait, all I could get is a typical Haryana state dabba bus! .. I got into it, got a seat, plugged my music player and started to enjoy NH8 in half-sleep. The bus stopped midway around 6.30 where I gobbled a packet of lays. As I was standing outside waiting for the bus to start, a guy in late 20's flashed a friendly smile and went on to ask me if I studied in some xyz college in Chandigarh. I was like ?!!?! and explained him that I studied in a college 2k km downsouth in Chennai. He dint seem to be convinced and was like 'no, you look like my college junior'.. ooph! thank god, the bus started in a couple of minutes!

Finally the bus reached Jaipur sindhi camp bus stand by 9. I rushed to the counter to book my volvo ticket for the next afternoon; the guy in the counter told that seats were available, much to my relief; got my change, said a stylish 'thank you' and left, only to realize after five minutes that I forgot to collect my ticket! I rushed back to the counter, the guy was decent enough to tell me 'koi problem nahi .. anyway I would have been in the counter tomorrow when you come to board bus' .. For a moment I thought what kind of respect I 'd have got in my city in a similar situation!!

The hotel I had booked sent me a cab for pick up and how good was the driver's English! Honestly, he sounded like a Harvard grad (don't ask me if I have spoken to a harvard grad before :P).. Perhaps they are trained to cater to the huge influx of foreign tourists in Jaipur. The hotel 'Krishna palace' had around 7-8 rooms most of which were occupied by foreigners. It was 9.30 when I settled in my room. The hotel was under renovation but the rooms were decent and the hospitality above par for a reasonable 500 bucks a night. I had a shot at the mouth watery parathas and malai kofta and decided I should stop after I felt I was going overboard after 6 parathas :P..

The next day was going to be hectic. I had to wrap up sight seeing before noon and board my bus at 3. The manager booked for me a seat in the RTDC's (Rajastan tourism) half a day sight seeing tour. The time was 10.30 and I hit the bed relishing the lingering taste of malai kofta :P

The few hrs going around Jaipur:

It was 7.40 when I got up and I had to be at the RTDC's starting point by 8 for their city tour. I dint even know what I did in the next 15 min and was there at 8 sharp .. And then the sad part! The guy was like ' sorry saab .. ghaadi full ho chuki hai'.. i was like what the hell !!.. I couldn't argue much with my broken hindi and decided to listen to him .. finally he arranged for a prepaid auto after making me wait for close to half an hour. The driver was really cool and he started explaining me the history of jaipur. The city seems to have totally built by two main rulers - Mansingh and Jaisingh.

First we started through the broad and wide roads of the new city. We went thro the statue circle, a popular junction in the city. The city basically consists of three divisions - the new city, the old city and the pink city which is surrounded by walls on all the sides and has seven gates to enter and exit. I had an entirely different notion of jaipur, that of congested streets and dusty roads. How much I was disproved! The new city was tidy and awesome, putting its metro counterparts to shame. The driver first stopped at the Rajmandir, a cinema with its interiors built in the form of a palace. It was too early at 9 in the morning and I couldn't try the place :P .. Then we went on to the Birla mandir, where we stopped and I went inside to offer prayers. It was the typical birla mandir which you find in other places, the pleasing white marble, the serene surroundings, a beautiful pathway leading to the temple. I clicked a few snaps and we left to the next point - the city museum. It wasn't open yet and I had to contend with clicking the exteriors and moving on.

The pink city:

We passed through a gate and entered the pink city boundary. We first went through the Hawa mahal. This was a huge structure with more than 300 windows in the exterior. (I dint count though, just telling what the guide told me ;)). It seems that in the early days, ladies were not allowed to come to the streets to watch the activities during any festival or any other ritual and hence the ladies of the royal family would watch from those windows. I clicked a snap from the outside and we moved on.

It was so amazing to see each and every building painted in pink. The driver cum guide was explaining to me the history of the pink city. It seems the then ruler of jaipur covered the entire city with pink sheets of cloth to welcome some British general who was visiting the city. The then jaipur's boundary was just the pink city area as its presently called. The ruler got very impressed by the decoration and ordered the entire city to be painted in pink. And since then, this part of the city, all the streets, shops and houses are always clad in pink. It seems that the pink colour they use is not chemical paint but natural colour got from mixing brick powder and water.

The pink city is also known for its excellent planning. Its a belief that no disasters or natural calamities have happened to the city owing to its perfect planning (includes some vasthu and stuff). I also heard something interesting from the driver regarding the recent bomb blasts in jaipur. It seems the government had actually altered some traffic movement into and out of the pink city a few weeks before the attack. I dont remember exactly but i guess it was about the swapping of entry and exit gates for the city. The driver told that the people there believe that this altering of vasthu had led to the sudden terrorist attack in the city, which for ages had not been affected by any such disaster. Interesting!!

The driver told me a lot of valuable information about the history of the town and the rulers but unfortunately I dint have anything to note them down. The fact that I am remembering this much after almost a month is itself a testimony to my memory :P .. And he was kind enough to speak slowly to me realizing that I am not able to catch up with his natural speed of talking hindi.

The old city:

We then exit the pink city as I skipped to see the city palace. The palace is still being occupied by people of the royal family and they have renovated a part of it and built a star hotel. We went on to visit the Amer fort, some 20 km away from the city. The jaigarh fort is en route but I skipped it as the driver said tourists are not allowed inside the fort. The Amer fort was just awesome, its located on a small hill away from the city. You need to climb quite an amount of steps to get to the top. You can also take an elephant ride to the top but I preferred to take the stairs. There is a huge hall which houses all the antique stuff of the Rajput period. This place is a must visit in Jaipur and I found it to be the best of all the places!

On our way back, we stopped at the Jal mahal, a palace in the middle of a lake. The water looked dirty but it seems the Oberois have taken up the work of cleansing it and there are plans to convert it into a five star hotel.

So now I was done with all the places and well ahead of my schedule. I got dropped off at my hotel around 1. My checkout time was 12 noon and I braved to convince the hotel manager with my hindi skills that I will vacate the room by 2. He finally agreed when I told him that I was going to have my lunch there. This time it was panner butter masala (home made paneer :P). Delicious! I finished my last meal at jaipur and was just lazing on my bed. Suddenly I woke up to realize that it was 2.40 and I had dozed off after a heavy meal. I packed my bags, settled my hotel dues (the manager was so good not to bother about my extra time or was he bad not to wake me up ?! :P) and rushed to the bus stand. The volvo was comfortable and I plugged my music player, starting to read my traveller magazine.

Some observations ...

A middle-aged lady was sitting next to me. She was on her phone all the time for the next one hour almost and it dint seem to be all important stuff as well. Abuse of a technology I thought! .. The bus stopped at Rajasthan government's 'Hotel midway' which is almost located at midway distance to Delhi. I went to the counter and asked him a bill for 'Tea, sandwich' which he heard as 'theen sandwich' ! .. ooph .. gobbled up three sandwiches with no complaints. The bus started moving and the lady struck into a conversation. She lives in Delhi and comes to Jaipur every month to get some stuff for her business in Delhi (Jaipuri bed sheets, sarees, etc) .. Oh ya I forgot!.. In jaipur, the auto driver took me to the cottage industries complex where I was explained how they make natural colour prints on rajais, sarees and other dresses. It was really interesting until they started marketing the rajais to me. It took me some time to make him understand that I was not interested in buying anything there!.. But seriously, you should take a look at those twin sided rajais, they come with different colorful designs and jaipur is told to be famous for those.

Coming back to the journey, the lady started talking about a lot of things including the courtesy and helping nature of south indians, etc. The topic drifted towards inter-caste marriages and stuff, she being a Punjabi and her husband a Bengali, she was talking about how they adjusted in their early days.. she started talking about her two sons and showed me some pics of their drawings which she had in her mobile.. There I found a striking difference between people in the south and in the north. In the north, people befriend very easily, they say a hello, start talking , more discussions, arguments and they part as brothers at the end of a journey. I have observed this quite earlier during my trips to ahmedabad as well. But I feel people in the south are a little more conservative to strangers, as in, they don't open up easily and even if they do, its just a casual talk lasting for a few minutes.

Traveling alone has its own advantages and downsides. Downsides - the obvious, you need to be all alone, none to share your views on places and things, and of course the clicking part :P (how tough it was!.. I would catch hold of foreign tourists in almost every place to get clicked .. and the pics came well :P) But I 'd say there are more advantages to travelling alone - you get to observe things in that place, no distractions around, you tend to observe the local culture and flavours, you tend to talk to different people, its really amazing. Atleast I enjoyed it ;) Finally it was around 8.30 after the driver battled the heavy fog to reach IFFCO chowk. It was biting cold with lots and lots of fog coming out of my mouth. I took a rick and reached my guest house in ten minutes. Finally! what a journey it was.. My first 'I,me,myself' trip , I would say, was a truly memorable one!

From Delhi to Jaipur:

Bus: There are a lot of Rajasthan and Haryana state transport buses. The best option is to take a Rajasthan state transport goldline or volvo bus. Journey time: 5.5 - 6.5 hrs (depending on traffic and fog in winter). Fare: Goldline A/c - Rs.400, Volvo - Rs.500.

Train: A couple of day trains. Takes 5 1/2 - 6 hrs. If you are on a very hectic schedule, try the early morning Shatabdi frm Delhi which reaches Jaipur around 11. You have around 6 hours for seeing around and you can take the return Shatabdi around 6.

Jaipur sight seeing:
RTDC half-day tour: 180 per head (covers almost all places) ,there is a night tour as well from 6.30 to 10.30 , fare: 200 (incl. dinner)
Prepaid auto: 400 (all places). Must-see: Amer fort. Also try Choki Dhani, a heritage village some 20 km away from the city.

Mist, Mountains and more - The sikkim sojourn - Part 2

2009-02-14T21:00:00.001+05:30

We reached the hotel and as soon as the mattress caught our eye we pounced on it for it was a tiring journey uphill in spite of a comfortable cab and splendid roads. The view through our room window was just awesssssssome !! The mist playing hide and seek with the mountains all the evening was a treat to watch .. We had an early dinner and hit the bed as early as 9, which would have been my 'late evening time' in chennai !

I was woken up by a hazy ray of light in the middle of my sleep, i got up and wow,the dawn was almost there !.. 'so soon ?!' i thought and started groping for my phone to know the time . '4:15' read the time! 'What happened to my phone !' i thought , shaking it ,switching it off and on again,still it only managed to show the same time. It was after i reached out to dad's watch that i realized that my phone was working perfectly! .. It struck me then .. I was in the far east of the country , the altitude adding to it! I have never seen natural light creep into the bedroom as early as quarter past 4 ! I was thrilled ..

It was 8.30 as we were all set to start for the 2 hour journey to changu lake, 12k feet above sea level. The hotel boy packed for us bread and jam for breakfast which we had to gobble up before our local cab reached the main taxi stand from which we were to take the share jeep to changu lake. Finally around 9, our jeep of 10 ppl started towards changu lake as were sitting,more excited than ever!..

Soon we were climbing the steepest of roads, narrow and slippery as it was drizzling nonstop.. Steep curves welcomed us all through the journey as our driver, a lad of around 17, pulled it off through the bends at no less than 60 kmph! .. yes, you heard it right ! At around 10k feet above sea level with narrow roads and rains ( not drizzle anymore! ) reducing the visibility levels, you wouldn't enjoy your 'driver kid' racing at such a feverish pace !.. yet, to me it was thrilling enough :D

It was noon when we reached our first stop - 'Baba Mandir' at 13,000 feet above sea level.. Now we were just a few kms away from Chinese soil !..The mandir is located just about 5 kms before the Indo - China Border .My hands were shiverrrrring as we got down from our jeep, we jus couldn't believe our eyes!.. There was mist,mist and more mist all around us!!.. there was absolutely no visibility at all.. The drizzle added splendor to the scenic mist covering the mountains layer by layer .. the entire atmosphere was divine .. There was a small park like area beside the mandir where i posed for a few snaps ( 'a few' for my standards :D ).. The temple is built in memory of an Indian soldier Baba Harbajhan Singh, who had his last breath near that spot ; his spirit is still believed to exist and guard the Indian border!..

As we descended from the mandir, the next stop was at Changu lake at 12k feet .. It was almost 2.30 and I was already hungry as if I had starved for days together! Our driver left us a km ahead of the actual parking lot there so that we could admire the beauty of the lake walking around it .. Much to our ill luck it started pouring and pouring heavily !!.. Imagine at an altitude of 12k feet, with heavy rains, we were on our foot walking on the slippery road beside the lake.. But to be frank, I just luvvvvvved it !.. my hands almost froze and my body trembling with shiver with just a sweater on and i almost couldn't feel my feet !!.. ooph .. I had my breath after reaching the shades of the market complex there built near the lake. I got 3 plates of noodles packed and carried it to the jeep and we finished it in no time ! In that cold,the super hot noodles, though priced at 25 per plate, seemed no less than a delicious maharaja buffet meal !! ..

On our way back,it was already getting dark but the sceneries were just splendid !!.. I felt there are a very few adjectives in English to admire the mystic beauty of the hills ! .. 'Breath-taking' by all means is an understatement !!.. my fingers were glued on to the click button of my cam.. These 2 hrs were lifetime memories !!.. The white mist slowly covering the entire stretch of greenish mountains was much more than just a visual treat !.. Such a scenery touches deep into your soul , an experience which only can be undergone and relished and hard to describe !.. Just take a look at these pics. I felt I was sailing though the clouds!!

The next morning, we hired a cab and headed for local sightseeing which included a host of viewpoints - Ganesh tok, hanuman tok ( these are temples with an awesome viewpoint!) and Tashi. Lastly we visited a monastry, a stupa and an institute (museum) exhibiting Buddhist history.. All the places are definitely worth seeing per se, but the changu lake hangover shadowed them all !..

It was an excellent 2 day stay at sikkim but for a small regret - that we couldn't make it to the Nathu La pass which is the Indo - China border at a 14k feet height... And as my mind was getting filled with cherishable memories - the memories of mist and mountains, I vowed to come back to Sikkim sometime again and conquer the historic Nathu La !!

Location and general info:

You can take a look at this site for all Sikkim related info

Getting there:

Rail: Take a train from Kolkata to Siliguri/New Jalpaiguri (These are twin towns located around 10 km from each other).
Air: Fly to Bagdogra, a 40-minute flight from Kolkata. Bagdogra is around 15km from Siliguri town.

Siliguri is the base for both Darjeeling and Gangtok. Both Sikkim state transport and WestBengal transport operate buses from Siliguri to Gangtok. Its best to take a shared jeep (10 ppl in a mahindra jeep) for Rs.150 if you are travelling economy. A jeep for yourself costs around Rs. 1,300 - 1,500. It takes about 3 1/2 hrs for the 115 km drive from Siliguri to Gangtok.

Places to hang out:

In Gangtok: There is no dearth of view points - Ganesh Tok, Hanuman Tok, Tashi, etc . The Tibetology institute is a must-visit if you are a lover of antiques and artefacts . There are quite a lot of monasteries, the one at Rumtek (40 km away) being the largest and the best among all.

Around Gangtok: Take the most popular excursion to Nathu La pass at 14k feet above sea level (Indo-China border) and Changu lake at 12k feet (actual name being Tsongo lake). You will also be taken to Baba mandir at 13k feet. Cost per person in a shared jeep: Rs.250, a full jeep: around Rs.2,000 - 2,500. Try and visit Pelling, a 3 hr drive from Gangtok. You can also enquire about 2N/3D North sikkim packages to Yumthang valley and Gurudongmar lake (at 17 k feet).

Worth sharing:

Take an evening stroll at the M.G Marg (the mall road of Gangtok)
Try 'Rasoi' restaurant at the beginning of M.G Marg. Great food , worth the price.
Try walking as much as possible through the ups and downs.. you discover thousands of wonderful sceneries as you walk:)
You can drop in at the Sikkim Tourism Information Center at the beginning of M.G marg for any info. The staff there are very helpful.
Be ready to spend quite some money on local transportation since you have to rely only upon omni taxis who charge you heavily. No jeeps are allowed inside the town and jeeps from Siliguri are stopped at a jeep stand 2 km before the town.
Try the yak ride at Changu lake :)

Mist, Mountains and more - The sikkim sojourn

2009-02-14T20:31:00.001+05:30

(Note: This is the same version as is in my general blog)
It was the the 6th of june,2008, a fine pleasant evening ,we landed at Bagdogra ,the nearest airport to sikkim. As it was already late , we decided not to venture climbing uphill to Gangtok and so planned a halt at siliguri ,the base town for both the hill stations Gangtok and Darjeeling.The next morning it was around 11 when we hired a cab and hit the NH 31A for the uphill journey for our dream destination.

The first 20 kms or so were plains as we crossed through the defence territories towards the bengal border. At around 12, we started ascending amidst the dense forests in the hills accompanied by the perennial river Teesta throughout. There were curves and hairpins on the road, yet our driver was reluctant to drive at anything below 50 kmph! Of course the striking feature was that the road was definitely not as narrow and uneven as other roads we usually experience in hilly terrains. NH 31A stood apart for its broad smooth laying, adequate signboards and enough protection in steep curves. Half an hour past two,we stopped at a small town Malli to have our lunch. How delicious were the aloo paraathas! i would luv to take up that journey for the paraathas alone !! It was around 3 when we crossed a little bridge with a huge signboard reading 'Welcome to Sikkim' .

This was Rangpo , the Bengal - Sikkim border and 40 kms before Gangtok. We were asked to get down from our cab and walk through the border gates. Now this is a unique custom practised by the Sikkimese. The reason - when we pass through the gates, they pour a disinfectant liquid on our legs and also on the car tyres as to prevent any tourist from importing any sort of disease into their pristine state ! Did i say pristine ? Yes, it certainly was.

It was around 4 that we entered the town of Gangtok and now we discovered that Sikkim was a class apart from its counterpart states. Its clean,shiny and litter free roads stun you so much so that you believe you have crossed the Indian borders! We could breathe the fresh chilly wind hitting our face ; the whole town meant beauty, pristine beauty ..
(Continued in Part 2)