Chronicles Of Kerala, Gods Own Country

"Gods Own Country" is the quote which is utilized by the kerala tourism dept to death. Whenever in kerala the chances of missing this quote is unheard of and i can guarantee at least 5-6 sightings a day. Even though I agree some places in Kerala are near to heaven , the commercialization of everything related to tourism makes sure that we pay through the nose to be part of this dreamland.

The combination of Monsoons, Onam and Kerala is an awesome combination not only in terms of nature's beauty but also in terms minimal tourist flow to these regions. "An Offer One Cant Refuse"(Said in true Don Corleone Style :P) is an appropriate phrase. We were 6 guys(Chandan, Jenny, PPR, Manju, Umesh and Myself)  and had a total of 4 days at our disposal to explore  this tiny Indian state.

On the night of 19th August 2010 we boarded a Rajahamsa bus for a 14 hr long and tiring journey to Ernakulam, our starting point and ending point of the trip. We had failed to get the more comfortable train tickets bcoz of the mad rush of  keralites to get back home for festivities. We had planned a circular route comprising Ernakulam-Munnar-Thekkady-Allephey-Ernakulam.

Day 1 (20th Aug 2010)

We reached Ernakulam at around 10 in the morning against 7 am predicted by the KSRTC website. Heights of prediction. Visibly everyone was irritated. Also we had informed our taxi driver Sujoy that we would be reaching at 7, so he was waiting at that place since 6.30 in morning. As soon as we got down at the Ernakulam Bus Stand we headed for the nearest eatery to have some food before we continue our roadtrip but in different mode of transport all the way to Munnar. As we came out of Arya Bhavan having our breakfast the road were jampacked and I thought Bangalore traffic was worst of them all. Bangalore's spot surely has a serious competitor.

Inner View Of A Waterfalls

As we came out of the city limits the traffic density went down considerably and one would start experiencing the lush greenery surrounding in all the directions.The roads starts winding left and right smoothly. A perfect biking road. Well I could say almost perfect if not for huge ad posters of various jewelery chains, silk Saree chains having super hot female models. Simply eye catching and in short distracting for the drivers. We love our imperfections dont we :P .

As we start climbing the Munnar ghats , the density of the greenery notches up to a different level. Monsoons simply makes everything in this world so lively. There are a lots of water falls enroute flowing with full glory and there is something which are longer and flow with equal gusto,  and these are the names of the same waterfalls. Nearly a mile long and serious tongue twisters. 4 stops and still I dont even remember one :P. At one falls enroute there is a path right inside the falls. Simply superb views one gets from behind the veil of  water.

Before we reach Munnar we took a detour to Attukkad Waterfalls, supposedly the most impressive of all the waterfalls in Munnar. But thanks to heavy mist now engulfing the entire Munnar town we had to give this a miss. Finally at around 4 pm we reached Munnar and checked  into the Springdale resorts nearly 7 kms from the town centre. A british era type of resort, a very cosy one. Spent the rest of the evening going for a walk around the resort.

Day 2 (21 Aug 2010)

The day dedicated for trekking and sightseeing. Anamudi the tallest peak of India apart from the Himalayan ranges was our prime attraction for the day. We had hoped and planned to climb all the way to the top  at 2695 m. But we had some disappointment in store. We arrived at the Eravikulam National Park to catch a park bus to travel a considerable distance towards the peak. The views offered during this 10 mins bus ride was good with majestic views of the Anamudi Peak from a distance and surrounded by lots of greenery. The bus stops at a point where we have to start on foot.

Happy that the trek had finally started we started with much enthusiasm. This park is home to endangered  Nilgiri Tahr an animal similiar to mountain goat. But as far as what I observed this park was not friendly to this innocent looking animals. If at all any Tahr is found most of the tourists would gang up on it simply scaring the animals. Not an ideal scene for discrete animal lovers. We moved up hoping for our elusive destination. But bang on our track we were stopped by the forest guard saying it was the final point for trek(if at all it is called so) and no one can move further and requires high level permission for the complete trek. Disappointed we returned back.

Nilgiri Tahr Lamb

Even though the views offered along the path were beautiful in their own right , but the fact that our expectation was huge made us dissappointed.  We moved back to Munnar town to check out places towards Mattupetty dam side. There are lot of tourist spots along this route which comes one after the another.

Anamudi Peak

First came the "Photo Point". This has nothing but a smoothly spread tea garden. Further down the road comes Mattupetty Dam. A huge reservoir and a cozy place offering some nice views of the mountains, dam and the water. Boating facility is available at this place. Next comes the "Echo Point". Again this too has a water body and any call is returned by an echo. Further down the lake comes Kundala lake. Having huge eucalyptus trees by the banks this was quite different from the previous spots. And finally we reached "Top Station". On a clear day we are supposed to get clear views of the Tamil Nadu plains. But on this day we were not so lucky. With clouds surrounding this spot we were still able to get some beautiful shots. In fact all these spots are perfect honeymoon getaways and we guys looking for some adventure were looking out of the place.

By the time we returned back it started to pour. So already exhausted of the days quota of sightseeing we decided to return to our resort rooms to kill time till late evening when we had appointments for some authentic keralite ayurvedic massages. After relaxing a bit we returned back for the date with massages. Did some shopping for home made chocolates, spices, honey etc. We had divided the 6 guys into small groups of 3 with one going for Mantra Ayurvedic Centre and others going for Mayur Centre. I had been placed into the former and selected some Special Massage (1200 bucks) which includes some special head massage where oil is made to trickle on the head.

Hawa Mein Udtha Jaaye- Echo Point

As the masseur entered the room he asked me to strip. Now in most outrageous imaginations also a strip would mean dressing  down to your undies and I was wearing a pair of boxers just for this occasion to protect my modesty. But the masseur had a different mind of his own, telling to strip down to the birthday suite so that I might wear a small piece of cloth called "komna" in our native. It is very similar to a g-string, except that we guys have some extra baggage :P . Now you can imagine the exposure we were getting :D . Surely this goes into my Top 20 most embarrassing moments of life.

Kundala Lake

The massage starts with the full body medicated oil massage. As soon as it began,  started to feel very relaxed and sleepy.  After this a thin stream of warm oil is made to trickle on the head and flow down. Now this feeling was simply awesome as oil slowly flows and makes it way down from the head. After this a steam bath is given and this removes the greasy layer of the oil. This entire process takes nearly 1 hr 15 mins. Overall a good experience.

Top Station

Day 3 (22 Aug 2010)

Periyar Wildlife Santuary

On this we were supposed to move from Munnar towards Thekkady and finally to Alleppey. This day was primarily singled out where we do maximum travel and less sight seeing. Nearly 275 kms of on road travel. We left the resort early in the morning and took the Coimbatore route. Now this route was the first access route to Munnar built during the British era and hence was quite narrow. The entire path is strewn with some or other type of plantations such as tea, spices , coffee, arecanut etc and very little natural vegetation as seen in the Ernakulam-Munnar route. Even then this is a picture some route. Enroute are some view points just off the road , but today this route was engulfed by mist. Also we came across a beautiful falls flowing right across the road. Didn’t even bother to get to know its name :P.

Our driver had some contacts at the Periyar Reserve Forest and had stuct a deal of 3K for a safari Jeep as againt the standard rate of around 1.8K per head. So we decided to give the normally taken boat cruise along the Thekkady river a miss where the chances of animal sightings is much lesser.At first we are unaware regarding the type of the deal that had been struck between the forest contact and the driver , but as we got into the park the entire picture emerged. It so happened that the some of the forest officers had gone on a vacation due to Onam. So this left the lower forest guards to run an illegal business of their own. Also the route they are supposed to take was out of bounds for the tourists. So when I came to know abt this was feeling slightly guilty. After we entered the forest reserves we entered using a Mahindra Jeep for these rough roads. Also greasing the hands of the various officials who I guess didnt get their leaves approved :D.

Sambhar Herd

The restricted part of the park is blocked by a iron railing gate , and even if you have key to it takes nearly 3 persons to open it. We sighted a herd of Sambhar, Bisons, Monkeys, Baboons, etc along the way. Also since this path was not frequented by tourists it had blood sucking leeches searching for their ultimate prized nectar. Jenny who was wearing shorts and sandals was getting special attention from the leeches quite similiar to how guys start staring at chicks in mini skirts :D.

Bison Herd

As we entered a huge open grasslands, a usual grazing grounds for the huge elephant we were very expectant to catch sight of atleast one herd.This huge grasslands was simply beautiful. And we were not disappointed. We caught sight of not one but two herds grazing peacefully. This was supposedly our last stop and we were to return back along the same path. Also on a clear day one gets to see Sabrimalai temple just 17 kms from this spot.

Elephant Herd

We returned back and continued on our journey to Allephey. By the time we reached some 30 kms to Allephey started the famed backwaters. Since it was already dark we couldnt get the proper view of the backwater canal accompanying the highway all the way to Allephey and beyond. The lights getting reflected from the water of this water bodies on the dark highway was simply mystical. Its was as if some dark unknown shiny thing was just dying to get itself introduced to us.

We reached Allephey and went directly to our guest house Gowri Residency after having dinner enroute. The manager at Gowri Residence was actually acting as a middle man and set us up in a home stay next door called Snehadhara. This home stay was infact impressive. This was a 60 year bungalow with the rooms decorated as if to be the interiors of house boats, the iconic symbols of Kerala.

Day 4 (23 Aug 2010)

Snehadhara Resort

We were now officially in Allephey the Venice Of the East as described my Marco Polo in one of his travelogues. Also some of these canals were dating back to 12 th century when they were built for an easy mode of transportation. Our plan for the day included exploring the backwaters and returning back to catch a bus from ernakulam to bangalore in the evening. After having a delicious breakfast of guli-appams (similiar to Shavige in our native) at the home stay we headed towards the docking point. Since it was off season we were able to bargain a rate of 350/hr for an entire boat all for ourselves. In peak season it is not expected to come below 600/hr. So we booked the boat for 3 hrs to roam around the backwaters.

Only thing missing is a gun and a cigarette :P

The boat eventhough was a motorized one was pretty slow one. But we were not complaining and we were just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful view. The backwaters within the main town is quite smelly and repulsive , but as we enter the outskirts and rural areas we get to witness a beautiful canvas. It is infact aptly described as the Venice of the East since the entire backwaters had houses and villages on either side and the only differentiating factor is that instead of roads there were water canals. These backwaters are the backbone for the residents livelihood.

Similar to the  popular quote which goes "A Picture is better than a thousand words", some of the snaps of the backwaters better describe the beauty of these backwaters than any word of mine could summarize it. The canal size varies between a 100 feet to a few feet to a never-ending lakes, it has it all. After roaming the backwaters for nearly 3 continuous hrs we were more than satisfied. Also one can avail a houseboat to roam around, a 5-star hotel on wheels.. sorry sails :P.. .. it has it all.. TV-.. AC... Sattelite connection... luxury rooms.... but guess the cost will be much more.

Paddy Fields

At last we returned to firm ground and had a ordinary lunch, againt a special Onam treat we were all so expectant of having. Went back to our rooms packed the bags and ready to leave for a couple of hours drive to Ernakulam. The Ernakulam city was quite deserted due to the festive mood and that was a blessing in disguise. Caught the evening bus to Bangalore from the dinghy Ernakulam Bus stand.

House boat Crossing A Bridge : A La Venice :P

Finally reached Bangalore at 7 am in morning thus officially ending the trip to heaven. More or less a leisure and relaxed trip with not even a single muscle stressed beyond its comfort zone. The lasting memory of this trip is still the backwaters never having been exposed to such a phenomenon earlier :P. Truly  "Gods own country" I must say.

Picture Frame

Total Summary:

Total Cost Per Person(Including Accomodation, Food, Massage, etc) -> 6.25K

Resort Details->
Munnar ->  http://www.springdaleresort.com/public/tariff.php
Allephey -> http://www.snehadhara.com/facilities.html

Snaps Link
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/unithinbhat/Kerala?feat=email#
http://picasaweb.google.com/manjunathmb/KeralaTrip#
http://picasaweb.google.com/ppr.bms/Munnar?authkey=Gv1sRgCMOG1vrm1buqKg#

The Eleventh Commandment

"Thou shall not get caught, If caught thou shall not reveal any info about CIA. The CIA will always take care of its operatives"-----This is supposed to be the eleventh commandment according to Jeffrey Archer. Although I don't remember any of its ten earlier successors, thanks to the author I remember the eleventh :P.

It has been a long time since I sat down to read a novel. The last one being "The Kite Runner" read nearly 10 months back. So when I saw this book added into my brothers mini-library and being a great fan of fiction literatures, I had to get my hands on it. The only other book I had read from the same author was "Matter Of Honour" , read a long time back. This novel is nothing short of a Hollywood "masala" movie. But still I am not sure why this has not been made into a movie. Guess it projects the Russian President in a very bad light, but since when has Hollywood bothered about such trivial matters.

The novel starts with the Connor Fitzgerald a highly decorated CIA assassin executing a Colombian President candidate whose views against the USA was hostile. The chief character Connor is under the impression that this assassination is ordered by the highest authority of the country i.e the President of USA, but that was not to be the case. Enter Helen Dexter the Director Of CIA who is taking all the decisions on her own whims and making it look like it has been approved from the top. So when the heat builds up the President whose is in the first place, suspicious of the Directors role in the assassination orders that those guilty be brought to book.

Hence Helen hatches a plan to save her own skin and make Connor the scapegoat. He is again given an assignment to assassinate a facist Russian President hopeful again under the pretext that it came from the top. But it is actually a trap set up to get him captured, since anyway as a CIA operative he will be following the eleventh commandment. From this place onwards starts the roller coaster rides of ups and down which includes the Russian Mafya, the President of USA, President of Russia, the CIA and finally Connor making the five chief sides in this drama thriller.

Overall a good book which is worth a read a single time. If one is familiar to Dan Brown's style of  writing then they would surely like this novel. Fast paced , edgy and lots of twists and turns in between. The only complain which I have is the manner in which it is ended. Like a typical Hollywood potboiler. Looks like it was written keeping that in mind in the first place. The author probably had some multi-million dollar copyrights deal in mind :P.

Next Novel in progress "Kane and Abel" from the same author and it looks a lot more promising than the outnumbered commandment :P.

Hessarghatta : Bengaluru's Hidden Gem

A google result says it all. While the more popular destinations of Nandi Hills and Bannerghatta gives nearly 1/3 a million and almost a million results respectively, a search for Hessarghatta gives just above a 50K mark results. This pretty much gives an illustration of the unknown lands of Hessarghatta. I was not even aware of the existence of such a serene place in the vicinity of Bangalore a few months back, until I came across a blog.

A Dried Up Hessarghatta Lake

So it was decided that we would pedal all the way to this place on one such lazy "nothing better to do" weekend i.e. on 7th August 2010. Only 2 bikers this time and it was me and Raghav. We met up at around 5.50 am at Deve Gowda petrol bunk to be consistent with our policy of  'bike hard till the Sun gets hard on you' . We continued on the ring road till Mysore Road and moved towards the BU campus to take a shortcut to join the Outer Ring Road.

 [Pose of a Cyclist]

The ride through the Jnanabharathi campus was good and we joined the outer ring road. Since its a six lane road we had a whole lane all to ourselves with no one bothering us or zipping close to us as larger vehicles tend to do on a 4 lane Mysore Road or the BSK Ring Road. We pedaled a good distance to reach the Tumkur road. Since Raghav had not touched his bike since the last bike ride to Bannerghatta nearly 3 months back he was more or less "out of shape" as rightly put by him. So this time I was pretty much leading the entire ride and he was lagging far behind which was against the norm :P. As we reached the Tumkur road we continued to ride away from the city till we came across the diversion to Hessarghatta. Leaving the first couple of kilometres the entire stretch was perfect for biking with minimal traffic and smooth roads. There are a lot of Y forks and its better to ask the locals for directions. After pedaling for nearly 2 hrs we finally arrived at Hessarghatta. There is a diversion there to your right which would take you to the lake/kuteeram/nrityagama/our native village.

First we came across the Hessarghatta Lake. After climbing the steep bund walls while pushing our rides the view what we say was a complete contrast than what I had expected. I had expected it to be a huge lake filled with water, even though it is a huge lake it was completely dried up with puddles of water here and there. But even then this view was far from disappointing. We could see miles and miles of grassland as on the lake and we decided to descend to this lake bed do some offroading exploration. After spending time exploring we decided to continue onwards towards the Nrityagram.

[A Road to the Horizon]

This part of the city is literally filled with all sorts of animal farms, turkeys, emu, ducks, pig , you name it and they have it. While moving towards the Nrityagrama there is a turn to the right, which is so often described by the fellow bloggers as the place not to be missed. A huge grassland going on and on till the horizon and a kuccha road accompanying the grasslands to infinity. After a couple a kms of exploring this road came across a cluster of trees. This place was truely impressive. Roaming around and exploring some trails we decided to move Nrityagama , a place set by Late Protima Bedi and we were expectant to catch a glimse of some hot traditional dancers. But alas the place opens up only at 10 am and we had 1hr to kill which was not acceptable since that meant one extra hour cycling in the afternoon sun. So taking at 10 min break at the entrance of Nrityagram and Taj Kuteeram which itself was quite impressive, we decided to head back home.

Until this time the weather was quite pleasant and even after this it was with some few exceptions in between due to traffic flow. We reached Tumkur road and took the Outer Ring Road. But at the Magadi Road junction we didnt take a right since we saw a new road which is also christened as Outer Ring Road. Now this road till Nayandhahalli was simply superb. There was literally no interesections at all, with flyovers etc build at strategic points. But the only complain on this 6 lane highway was that the wind was blowing against us making it somewhat an effort.

Our Pit Stop

The connection of this road to Outer Ring road is incomplete at Nayandahalli requiring a 200m detour to reach the main ring road. Now this narrow detour was jamed to the brim with no place for any vehicles to move. But being on humble cycles we had an advantage. We just passed through small gaps and the other vehicles owners face was going green seeing how easily we passed through the jam :P. Would be happy if atleast one person in that jam takes up cycling , bcoz thats basically how I got inspired in the first place.

Finally we reached our destination at 12.40 pm after negotiating some huge inclines on the BSK ring road. More or less didnt find this ride that exhaustive as the previous ones, guess that might be becoz of the frequent unintended breaks we took.

Figures:

Trip 'O' Meter -> 91 kms
Time Taken -> 6 hrs 55 mins
Average Speed -> 13.15 km/hr

100's ----------------------------->1
50's ------------------------------>5 (including the Bidadi ride at the beginning of this month)


Snaps Link -

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/unithinbhat/Hessarghatta#