Moi Clicks!! - Kovalam

Catamaran @ the shore

Shoreline

A little Arthropod friend

Moi Clicks!! - From Wayand

Panorama from Gopalaswamy Beta

Sunset @ Calicut Beach

Lakshmi @ Chembra foothill

Rock Carvings @ Edakkal Caves

Shops @ Edakkal Caves

Shops @ Edakkal Caves

The Wayanad Expedition

Olive Homestay

Wayanad – a trekker’s paradise, haven for all nature lovers and vacationers alike.  We had started making plans to hit Wayanad a month back. With things going from pillar to post, we somehow managed to get our stay and logistics finalized. Biju Thomas was glad to have us at his homestay, Olive Homes in Kalpeta, which we concluded as the closest spot to all prime locations after an half assed research. 

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By Murphy’s, Biju calls us on friday morning informing us of the eminent hartal all over Kerala the next day. When plans started taking a downward death spiral, me and my friends decided to leave Chennai by early evening on Friday at any cost, but ‘where?’ was still a question. I made a quick sketch which would include visiting Gopalaswamy betta, near Bandhipur and taking a tour through Masinagudi, Mudumalai, spending time in Ooty and reach Wayanad by nightfall, everyone agreed and we had our sails set for the getaway.

Mysore Place

Sujesh, our driver was literally romancing the highway, got us to Mysore by early morning around 5 AM. We stopped by the palace to pay our respects to the Wodeyars. From there it was a non-stop drive to Gopalswamy Betta (which is approx. 1400 m high), perched on its top is an ancient Krishna temple built almost 800 years back. The guards at the check post, warn you to make the trip quick, since the betta is not unknown for tiger sightings. As we started to climb our car gave away within 10 minutes, yours truly so determined to reach the top, suggested that we scale it on foot. My last visit was some three years back and that too was in a car, all I remember was fifteen minutes’ drive. We started hiking and left our car far behind, it was almost 2 -2.5 Kms away now, with no sign of life forms except for the occasional vrooming of other cars every 20 mins or so. It went well, till I spotted a huge gigantic pile of elephant dump on the slopes. That’s when my friend got panicky. We started contemplating our actions for worst case scenarios.   Luckily in another 10 mins, our driver joined us fixing the car. We reached the Temple in another 10. 

Gopalaswamy Betta

Panorama from the top of the betta offers a breathtaking view, earlier it was allowed for one to trek beyond the temple into the endless grass spread on the mountains. This time there was a security with a plastic whistle in his mouth, shouting at us to return.  We sat there enjoying the cold breeze and basking in the view that the betta had to offer, before stating to Masinagudi. After a half hour drive, upon entering Bandipur, the gang wanted to go to Wayanad instead. Being a chennaite hartal doesn’t bother you much, we underestimated the Keralites and that cost us big time. Damn, diesel hikes.

Gopalaswamy Betta

On the way to Wayanad, we were stopped in Muthanga for nearly three hours, with rains poring cats and dogs outside. Lucky for us, we had a mini LCD TV in the car, saw ‘thadayara thakka’ which wasn’t bad. Even when we reached the city, they were several gangs on the highway, but this time they respectfully asked us to pullover for 10 minutes, every time we crossed one such gang. We reached Olive Homes by night fall, had quick dinner and slept like a log. 

Edakkal Caves

Edakkal Caves

Early morning, next day we went down, Raji (Biju’s wife) had prepared an excellent breakfast, appams and pooris, we started stuffing our stomachs. Biju gave us some pointers on places to visit. He suggested that we visit Edakkal caves first and Muthanga Sanctuary in the evening. We took his advice and started to Edakkal caves. Before reaching the base of the mountain, one has to hike for about 15 minutes on a manmade pavement. Then from the base it’s a steep climb, very safe with carved rocks and steel steps to enable the climb. On top is the huge cave, more like mammoth boulders stuck together to form the cave. The openings on the top, allowing sunlight to fall inside added to the beauty of the caves. 'Ted's Architectural fun fact' - One can see ancient hieroglyphics on the stone walls on one side followed by a two liner in a medieval script.

Edakkal Caves

From there we started to Muthanga Sanctuary which was on the other side of Wayanad. They start issuing tickets at 3 pm and tokens to get tickets by 2.30 pm. After a couple of hours of waiting, we got our tickets and booked a jeep for the safari. The safari was highly disappointing, we did a spot a deer though and the rest were elephant dumplings and footprints. With our chin down, we started back to Olive homes. Had an amazing dinner on the way, mental note – Kerala parotta is super awesome.

Sunrise from Olive Homestay

Last day here in Wayanad, we packed our things stuffed them in the car. Raji had made, idly and puttu for breakfast, have to say she is an amazing cook. After asking our plans, Biju suggested that we go to soochipara falls first and on our way back hit Chembra peak. Any place of importance in Wayanad, you have to climb or hike a bit before reaching the place. Soochipara was no different. Water was flowing at such a pace that people were allowed only near the shores and the security would blow his whistle if someone ventures towards the falls. Ted’s fun fact – the name soochipara is derived from soochi=needle and para=rock. We headed to Chembra peak, a place I really wanted to see after hearing and reading so much about it. Supposedly there’s a heart shape lake on the top, which we couldn’t see, since we arrived 15 mins late after the permitted time. After 1pm, no visitors are allowed to scale Chembra, but as a consolation, they allow us to hike up to the watch tower providing a wide panaroma of the Western Ghats.

Sunset @ Calicut Beach

We started by around 2.30 PM, made a quick stop in Vythiri for lunch and headed to Calicut. The downhill route from Wayanad to Calicut is a splendid drive. I’m a sucker for sunrises and sunsets, I insisted that we drive to Calicut beach, to catch the sunset. It’s a beautiful beach, except for the canal kind of thing that runs right in the middle. After clicking some shots, we started home, stopping in between to stash our repo with some good old classic movies, like the Rajni starer ‘Thilu Mullu’, Kamal’s ‘Anbe Sivam’. It was a 12 hr nonstop movie marathon till Chennai. We reached home, by Tuesday morning. 

Wayanad expedition turned to be a good one. Open road, friends, fun what more could a guy ask for!!

One thing and I believe it’s mutual across all men and women alike, don’t we all hate getting back to work, the same day we get from a vacation? 

If you’re looking to relax, take off 2-3 days from your busy schedule, Wayanad is just the place for you.

P.S For more pics, please click the below link
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.365736986839565.87823.131407226939210&type=3

Togetherness

        *Click to enlarge

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The Road Trip

This was typed, with a dizzy head, aching muscles of driving a bike for three days [ close to 500kms]...

‘All good things must come to end’ I hate that cliché. My two year MBA has come to an end too. This is the place where I’ve truly grown to be a different individual. I have learnt so many things from my peers and friends even little things as it may seem, has changed me in some way. It would never been this fun and this good without them. I love them all. I dedicate this post to them.

Sensing the end of this good thing, we realized that it could be the last chance that all of us could be together. And So begins the Road trip. Ooty and Sathyamangalam in mind, we start on Friday morning. This was taken by me, from the tea stall outside our hostel. 

7 bikes and a car what more can anyone ask.  Thanks to my friends in batch A, for kindly lending me their bike, that too, on a weekend. You guys are amazing. We headed towards Mettupalayam, had our breakfast at Sri Annapoorna, this entity has nothing to do with the Coimbatore legend. Just then Parthi cried out at a passing bus, supposedly carrying Batch A guys, who were headed to ooty as well.

Back on the road again, being a first timer to Ooty, cruising through the curves and hairpin bends, admiring the scenic beauty of the blue hills was breath taking. At Conoor I picked up my roomie, Balaji A.K.A Dino [Please don’t ask why]  and let him drive, coz now I just wanted to look around, box like houses placed on the mountain slopes, tea plantations, people passing by, amazingly tall trees. 

We reached Ooty by around 11 I guess. Thanks to Darsan, who managed to get a big cottage for us. The view from one of the rooms was amazing. From there we started to Pykara Falls. The entire way was filled with so much greenery and trees; we were actually driving through canopy of trees at discrete intervals. We stopped at a lake and took some snaps before Pykara. There I got to know of one thing, it was more of a rocky stream than a water fall. Then we started to the boat house, somehow we came back without boating. Did I miss Jos tried wheeling in between? We decided to go to the ninth mile instead. 

Amazing piece of land, this is where most of duets get shot. I was able to imagine all those artists, running around in silly clothes. Let me describe Ninth mile first, better yet let me show you.

By evening we came back to the cottage, roamed around the city for a while. We all had hot shawarmas from the usual place. Perfect day, even CSK won the thriller against KKR. Had a wholesome dinner, I slept off early. Lot happened after that I hear, we’ll keep that for another day. 

Next we headed to Dodabetta, highest point among the blue hills. Then we went to the Tea Museum, I bought myself some nice chocolate tea powder.  Then we headed to Sathy via Kothagiri. From the Kothagiri, the ride to Sathy was a hell riser. Empty highway hardly another vehicle in sight, we were driving in full throttle. 

We stayed at a lodge, owned by one my friends, Balaji. We went to the Banari Amman Temple in the evening. Next day we took our morning bath in Koduveri of Bhavani river. Then we went to the Lower Bhavani Project, the dam. Darsan and I,drove the bike over the dam, that was awesome. These were the snaps we took there. 

We had a feast of an lunch, courtesy Balaji’s Mom. Later in the evening we started back to Coimbatore.

An excellent road trip which I’ll remember and cherish forever. 

Up Close and Personal

Guys in Chennai, the core city and i dont mean the outskirts are oblivious to the fact, that there are power shutdowns almost 2-3 hours a day in the rest of the state. The Sociapath, sadly resides with his parents in suburb which is bit away from the city. His brother's new Canon SX30 has provoked his interests in photography, which was already there but in hibernation due to lack of proper equipments. One might ask, what is this? Photography and power shutdowns? where is it leading?

Guys.... A bored guy, with a camera nothing else to do... Go figure...

 It is a common picture wing dragon fly...

  A Indian garden lizard

 An itsy bitsy spider... Dont really know its name...

 An Indian Squirrel

A Fulvous forest skimmer I believe...