A visit to the Princess of Hill stations

We planned our trip in October, with the Gandhi Jayanthi long weekend helping us in planning.

We took the night Tuticorin Express train to Kodai on 1st of October and reached there on 2nd October early morning.

Day 1

To reach the Kodai hill station, we would have to take either a taxi or go by the private buses that ply from kodai road to kodaikanal.

We were thinking as to what we have to do, by then we found another couple who were also ready with sharing the cab.

The taxi took us through the winding roads of palani hills while we exchanged our experiences of being married with quite an old couple :)

The couple got down at a point from where there picked up by a friend while we continued our journey into kodai to look for accommodation after having breakfast at the so called famous "woodland hotel". Although the accommodation was booked we thought of checking out various options that are closer to the town than far from it..

View from our hotel

Our hunt for a place to stay near Kodai Lake / town wasn’t very successful so we head towards our booked accommodation which is about 4kms from the town. To our dismay the place which was booked was not available as the cook was on leave!! So an alternate accommodation was provided. By this time I was tired and exhausted and so was Vivek. We looked at couple of rooms and finally settled on one that gave a good view...

After sufficient rest, we head towards the town by boarding a car passing by. Once in town we head towards Tava restaurant to have food. Having had only idli and dosa in the morning at Woodland restaurant, our stomachs were rumbling with hunger. But to aggravate this, the Tava restaurant was overflowing with people. We wait for our turn and once at the table we gobble up all the food until we are full and head to see the places of kodai.

 

Day 2

We woke up next morning and reach kodai town to go around tourist places in Kodai. We have breakfast at yet another restaurant near the lake and take a taxi to go around places. As per suggestions we leave out the regular places in Kodai, pack our lunch and head towards Mannavaram lake. 

Mannavaram Lake

  Mannavaram Lake is a beautiful lake far away from the noise of the town. It’s an ideal place for going on picnics... :)

Since our lunch was packed, we have it by the lake enjoying the serenity of the lake and vastness of the big mountains as a backdrop. As an indicator that all good things have to come to an end, the rain god showered his blessings on us indicating that this nice day has to end here and we wound up to head back towards Kodai.

On reaching kodai, we check out the hotel and move to another neat hotel close to the Lake. Evening is mostly dedicated to shopping and trying out hotels listed in the blogs.

Day3

This was our last day in Kodai and we wanted to make best use of it. So we wake up very early and grab our breakfast and head towards Kodai Lake to go cycling around it. The cycles are charged Rs10 per hour and cycling around the lake is the best thing to do in Kodai. It’s a very romantic experience. It was for me at least as V helped me with my starting trouble with cycles. Every time I would stop, I would need V's help in starting all over again :)

With cycling being done, there were some more places that we hadn’t covered. We started our walk to explore kodai and Coaker's walk was our first destination. It’s a long walk with good view of the Palani hills. Since we were a bit late in reaching there we had to face the heat and the crowd. After the coaker's walk we move towards a beautiful school on the Kodai main road. This place is where the Rockford movie was shot and then head towards Byrant Park. The park as such is nothing great but we spent some time in going around like newly-weds(Of course we were ;) ) clicked some pics for fun and this pic is one of my most favs :)

We head back towards hotel, pack our stuff and come back to Tava restaurant to have our lunch. Our next destination was boating in Kodai Lake. There are the peddle boats, row boats and shikaras as well, but we took up the row boating. I bet this was one of the best romantic lake rides I have had so far.

Just as we were looking around for boating we had noticed a place which had put up a list of activities like skating. It grabbed our attention immediately and we headed to the "fun" place. There wasn’t anything much as promised on the board but what was interesting was that we could skate on wooden floor with no audience or people to watch it :) By the time we both had enough of skating it was getting quite late and we were yet to walk the entire perimeter of the lake. So we start walking around the lake for the last time.

At the end of this lake perimeter walk we see a tandem cycle waiting for us. It would have been fun if we could have cycled in the tandem but then we were running really late so we end up leaving it there and running towards our hotel. We get into the bus back to Bangalore and Eureka Vivek realizes that he hasn’t tasted the pastry in one of the popular eateries!! So he leaves me in the bus without ticket and heads to the pastry joint!! The bus is supposed to leave around 6.30, the ticket collector is asking for him and ticket and there is no sign of him!! Finally at 6.25 he reaches the bus with the excitement of eating the pastry and getting some for me :) With smiles and pastry on our face we head back to Bangalore :)

 

Quick Facts

Reaching Kodai:

By Train: Tuticorin Express reaches Kodai road. No train to Kodaikanal.

By bus:  Number of buses ply to kodaikanal but it’s a long journey in the bus.

Places to stay:

High-end: Hotel Carlton

Mid-range: Hotel Villa retreat.

Small- There are many hotels around the lake which offer accommodation at a reasonable price.

Places to eat:

1) Hotel Tava: This was the best place to eat lunch/dinner or any meal of the day... awesome phulkas and north Indian stuff... I would say don’t miss it...

2)Bhajji and chai at small local places surrounding the lake

Places we visited:

1)Kodai Lake

2)Coaker’s walk

3)Mannavaran lake

4)Silver Cascade waterfalls

5)Byrant Park

6)A school on the main road.. where Rockford movie was shot

There are quite a few tourist places which can be covered by taking a day trip from tourist office.

My First Trek

I am back again to blogging about our trips and for a reason, coz this was not a “trip” but a “trek”. A long awaited must-do for both of us. We had been planning and putting it off for a long time due to lot of constraints.

The day Lavanya mailed to check about our availability for this trek, we both were super excited coz this brought a small ray of hope to our sweet lil tent.

Though the initial plan was to start from Bangalore on the 28th night, start the trek and camp on the 29th night, trek back on 30th, take a day off 31st and visit some places around.

Since 31st was my father-in-law's birthday and also happened to be the day he was retiring from his service to SBI we thought it wouldn’t be apt to be away from home and hence conveyed to Lavanya about our unavailability on the 31st.  After a lot of dilly-dallying we finally decided that since no one else was joining us on the trek we would just make it a weekend trek and be back on Sunday night.

Chethan booked the tickets for both onward and return journey to and from Virajpet in Karnataka’s most luxurious bus “Airavata”.

After lots of planning and arranging for stuff like tents, food etc we left Bangalore on 28th night from the Satellite bus stand in Mysore Road. Both I and Vivek were so tired and deprived of sleep that the moment we hit the highway we dozed off.

Day 1

29th early morning brought to us the small bus stand of Virajpet at ungodly hour of 5.15 AM. We could hardly see anyone on the road and had no idea as to how to get to the bus stand which could take us to either Kakkabe or Napoklu.

With huge and heavy luggage on our backs we walked uphill to reach the private bus stand which could take us to our first destination Kakkabe. To our luck, there was one bus which could take us directly to the base of Tadiandamol. As the bus was in the process of having a bath and freshening, we thought of freshening up ourselves as well at a local paid restroom.

Now that we were fresh and there was still some more time for the bus to depart we headed towards a vegetarian restaurant for filling up ourselves. Our rumbling stomachs kept us so busy that we dint notice the honking of our bus which sped away from us even as Chethan tried chasing it. We were now left with no option than take another round about route to reach Napoklu and then travel to Kakkabe from there.

After a long arduous journey in a crowded bus we reached the starting point of our trek.

The initial km or so was almost a walk on plain road with nothing to point out. We reached Nalaknad palace around 10 and realized that if we start the trek we would reach the point very early and hence decided to visit the palace.

The Nalaknad palace has nothing special 
about it except the fact that it was used by a king as his hiding place. It has got dark rooms and underground hiding place. We clicked some pics, had a refreshment break with Oranges geared up ourselves for the long awaited path to lead us to Tadiandamol, the tallest mountain of the coorg district.

Tadiandamol is also the second highest peak of Karnataka and is named from Malayalam word which means a mountain with largest base.
I and Lavanya had heard that the initial stretch after Nalaknad palace is very steep but we got the complete understanding of the word “steep” only after having a look at the road which leads to the mountain, yes it was a Road and not a mud / stone path to the mountain. 
The path wound around as we followed it with our heavy bags, the only silver lining being that the God showed mercy by hiding away the sun and blessed us with cool breeze…

 

 After a tiresome walk up the winding roads we reached a fork in the road where one looked extra steep compared to the one we had just covered and the other went downhill. Somehow all of us felt that we should take the path going to the right. A few steps later we realized that the road keeps going all the way down and now we need to check with someone if the road was correct but alas there was no one.

We took a path with our gut feeling and finally found a lonely soul who said we had taken a roundabout path to reach and the extra steep path was the correct one. After making some enquiries with him about camping at the base of the mountain, he suggested that we camp there near his place as there was a scare of wild elephants near the base. But we, being ourselves, were neither ready to trust our luggage with an unknown person nor give up the hope of camping at the base. We decided to carry our entire luggage to the base camp and try our luck if another group which we had seen earlier in the day joined us in camping up there.

With the help of a local boy and a dog, we treaded a rough path, to join the actual path. There wasn’t any path as such; just slippery rocks and mud all over the place. By the time we reached the main path all of us were zapped of our energy. But then our enthu to see the mountain kept us going.

After a walk, over an hour we reached the big rock at the base of the peak. It was an amazing feeling reaching the base of the peak. I had pushed my limits to reach where we were and it was worth all that effort, the view from there was mind blowing.

We rested on the big rock enjoying the cool breeze and the view it offered to the tired souls reaching there. Though the heart was getting its every bit of happiness the brain kept thinking what next? Should we dare and camp here, would there be any one else who could camp, there were lots of questions going across all of our minds when out of the bush a group of 5 emerged!

We had met them at the beginning of the trek and had seen that they had come prepared to camp with two tent sets. This brought a bright smile on all our faces for two reasons one  that we dint have to carry all our luggage down hill again and two that we could do our camping as well.

Though the newly arrived group and the thought of reaching the base had bought smiles on our faces we still had the big task of going to the peak, reaching the base and camping.

We were distracted from admiring the vast mountain ranges, mist, and breeze by our rumbling stomachs. Lavanya had made awesome soft chapattis which was supposed to be our lunch. We gobbled it up quickly and were ready to ascend the peak when it started to drizzle. I had nice long poncho but the others had umbrella with which they had to cover themselves and the luggage as well.

The rain decided to play spoil sport by visiting on and off and the ascent was delayed. When finally the rain did stop we hid all our bags under the bush and started our journey to the Peak.

The journey to the peak was very memorable to me and Lavanya. We were exhausted, tired and had no strength left in our legs to ascend the peak. We treaded the rough path slowly and steadily with our respective partners; Chethan behind us ensuring we are safe and Vivek ahead to ensure the path is safe. We had walked half the way when I was tired but Lavanya motivated me and said lets do it, this was more than enough for me to carry on.

We walked past dense forest lined with beautiful blue flowers. Since it had rained just before we started, the path was wet and infested with blood-sucking leeches. Apart from ensuring that we don’t trip and fall we also had to ensure that the bloody leeches don’t attack us. We had to check our shoes every mile or two to ensure there are no leeches. I was lucky for the reason that I had a white sports shoe, which made it easy to see if there was a leech. All others had black shoes which would make it next to impossible to identify a leech.

After passing through the forest the path became non-existent and all that was there was slippery rocks and grass. One small mistake or a slip would ensure that the person slides all the way down to the abyss. We could now the see the last part to reach the peak. By now both of us were very tired. Lavanya decided that she would sit on the next rock that we get on our way but I was too arrogant to accept that defeat after coming all the way up here. So this was my chance to motivate Lavanya saying that we were so close to conquer the peak and we should do it for our self satisfaction. We took a couple of minutes break and reached the peak.

The view from the peak was heavenly; worth all the pain, leeches, tiredness,  everything that took us to reach there. We were surrounded by forest, mountain, mist engulfing those huge overlooking mountains and absolute silence. I think any tired soul (mentally or physically) would find Nirvana or Bliss here. I dint want to do anything but keep staring long and enjoying the silent beauty of the mountains. But all good things have to end sometime and it was time for us to descend as it would be difficult once the sun goes down. We clicked few pictures which turned out to be quite pretty, what more to expect when the nature decides to act as the backdrop to the pictures. Every angle was amazing to take pictures but we were limited by the time ticking away.

The way back was not easy either. We had to watch every step to ensure that we don’t step on any of loose soil or slippery rocks and of course the leeches. However there were some slips though no one was hurt.

We reached the base but we were extremely late, it was getting dark and the skies showed dark overcast. We had to get our bags from bushes and also pitch tents and be done with our dinner before the rain gods smiled upon us mockingly.

Me and Vivek had pitched our tent only once and even then it was not completely with pegs. It was pretty new for Chethan and Lavanya as well. While Chethan and Vivek went about to get some water from the stream, me and Lavanya tried to pitch our tents.  

With lots of hassles we pitched our tent in the dark and then as usual the ladies were left to arrange the items in the tent while the men went to work up a fire. The damp floor dint support a fire and we decided to finish up dinner before it started to rain again. But the weather had its own plan; we had just started the dinner when it began to rain. We gathered our belongings and dashed our respective tents.

All the food stuff came with me and Vivek into our tent including Lavanya’s plate. Poor girl had to wait for the weather to show mercy on her before she could fill her stomach. Finally when the rain subsided both of them joined us for dinner.

The rain also did havoc apart from starving Lavanya, it started to make its entry into their tents. Initially it wasn’t much and we were informed that they may have to shift to our tent in case it starts pouring which eventually happened. What happened with this havoc is something that I may not be able to do justice with my writing but a snap shot of what happened; Chethan moved to another group’s tent while me, Vivek and Lavanya (both with long legs) managed to cramp ourselves in a two member tent waiting for the Dawn.

Day 2

We woke up to the knock on our tent from Chethan who had to spend the night in a neighboring tent. The tent cover opened to a misty morning, we could hardly see any longer than few feet.

We finished our daily chores before anyone else woke up and now it was time for some morning snaps and the most imp garam chai :)

Vivek being his organized self, had managed to get a small stove which would use big camphor cakes to heat up stuff. We borrowed a small vessel from our neighbors and boiled the milk we had carried all the way along. While Vivek was busy making coffee/bournvita (since there was no chai equipment) I made up the quick breakfast. We ate to our satisfaction and filled our bottles again with some water

Finally it was time to leave this heaven on earth; we packed all our stuff, undid the tent and started to descend. Walking down the slope was initially tuff with carrying heavy bags and managing not slip but then we eventually walked down to Nalaknad Palace.

It was time for lunch but since no one of us was hungry we ate up some stuff before we started again walking to reach the bus stop. We were about to leav,e when we noticed the watchman of the Nalaknad palace. We wanted to check about the bus timings to reach Virajpet from where our bus to Bangalore was to depart. We also wanted to know if we could reach Igguthappa temple. To our luck, he informed us that we could get an auto which can take us all the way to Igguthappa temple and drop us at Kakkabe from where we can take another bus to reach Virajpet. The auto was called for; we saddled the auto with our luggage and sped off to the temple. Even with four people and huge bags the auto did literally speed like the one in James Bond movie.

The Iguthappa temple is one of the popular temples in Coorg district. Talacauvery is the female deity of Coorg and Igguthappa is the male deity. The temple is dedicated to God “Subbramanya swamy” who is also known as Igguthappa. Iggu meaning grains and Thappa means to give. The temple provides food to all devotees visiting the temple and we were also lucky enough to offer our prayers and eat the food.

How we reached Virajpet bus stand is a story on its own which I wouldn’t add here as the narrative would drag along. But in short it was continuation to our James Bond auto drive!

The Airavata brought us back to Bangalore mocking about the grind to follow from the day on.