We were hoping the train would stop at Perambur station, but the driver failed us. If it had stopped, it is hardly 15 meters walk to my house from Perambur station and almost all of them are from Perambur, so everybody has the easy access. We went to central and catch the local train came to home around 10.30AM.
An end came to the eventful trip.
I’ll be back again, once we finish our Goa trip. We have planned it for January. I’ll be happy to go back to kerala, not to Munnar or Cochin, but to Allapuzha and Vayanad. In Vayanad, I want to see a king cobra, which is one of the most dangerous snake on earth.
Hope you readers enjoyed the moments, we enjoyed. Mistakes in the post are regrettable. Comments and feedback are most welcome!
Write to me at Bharath.agkbk@gmail.com
Sunday, October 5, 2008
ON 16/August/08
This our last day of our tour. Guys got up early and started reading papers and packing there things and set to go for veega land. We were so thrilled to go. Vijay felt bit sad for missing adarapalli falls. He said that he missed it for the third time. At last we went to veega land and had our breakfast. Lots of rush and lots of fun!!!
We went some rides, and started our water games. We were intending to spend more time in the water games. We went tide pool, swimming pool and water slides. Here the most amazing factor is that, Sujan behaved like a child.
Sujan were not bothering us at all, running with the other children and first to complete the water slide games. Nobody wants to forget that. We are not complaining any way. I appreciate that childhood behavior; we don’t have that much courage to show that in public. We enjoyed a lot. We had lots of fun. We came to parking lawn at around 5.30PM. We started back to hotel.
While we are going back to Cochin main area routes are diverted, we have to go around Cochin because of some political party meet. After some struggle we reached the main area but the driver nitwit missed the MG road. I never saw such a nitwit in my life. He went to some other road. After a while we found some short route and we went to the road which we want to. I got tensed and nervous, yes time machine threatening us. We must catch train; we need to pack some things also. At last nitwit went to the hotel. After vacating our room we went to the railway station. I was praying to the God we should meet the train in time. After some disturbances we stopped near railway station and its time to have dinner. I’m not really happy with the driver and I was not had any intention to talk to him. I’m really not even interested to say “good bye” to him. Without seeing his face I went to the hotel. Vijay, venkat and Selwyn settled the bill and we had the dinner. We went to the Ernakulam railway station to catch TVC Chennai express. Guys keep bugging my anger and frustration and passing some jokes. At last train came and we boarded and happy to finish our holidays. In train we calculated our expenditures which spent for past three days, it took nearly an hour to finish our calculation. Since we don’t want to see any conflicts between us, we accounted each and every item. We shared our money even for chocolates, tea etc. So we spent equally.
We went some rides, and started our water games. We were intending to spend more time in the water games. We went tide pool, swimming pool and water slides. Here the most amazing factor is that, Sujan behaved like a child.
Sujan were not bothering us at all, running with the other children and first to complete the water slide games. Nobody wants to forget that. We are not complaining any way. I appreciate that childhood behavior; we don’t have that much courage to show that in public. We enjoyed a lot. We had lots of fun. We came to parking lawn at around 5.30PM. We started back to hotel.
While we are going back to Cochin main area routes are diverted, we have to go around Cochin because of some political party meet. After some struggle we reached the main area but the driver nitwit missed the MG road. I never saw such a nitwit in my life. He went to some other road. After a while we found some short route and we went to the road which we want to. I got tensed and nervous, yes time machine threatening us. We must catch train; we need to pack some things also. At last nitwit went to the hotel. After vacating our room we went to the railway station. I was praying to the God we should meet the train in time. After some disturbances we stopped near railway station and its time to have dinner. I’m not really happy with the driver and I was not had any intention to talk to him. I’m really not even interested to say “good bye” to him. Without seeing his face I went to the hotel. Vijay, venkat and Selwyn settled the bill and we had the dinner. We went to the Ernakulam railway station to catch TVC Chennai express. Guys keep bugging my anger and frustration and passing some jokes. At last train came and we boarded and happy to finish our holidays. In train we calculated our expenditures which spent for past three days, it took nearly an hour to finish our calculation. Since we don’t want to see any conflicts between us, we accounted each and every item. We shared our money even for chocolates, tea etc. So we spent equally.
ON 15/August/2008
Not all of them sleeping too much, Got up quickly in the morning started doing our chores. We want to left munnar at 11 AM. Since some places are left to see and want to go to Cochin in time. Funniest thing was that, we offered bathroom for the driver but he refused to have a bath, we felt sorry for Selwyn(AHAHAHA) since he was sitting next to him. In the beginning we thought the driver be so cooperative but later he shows some agony and frustration indirectly. We had the breakfast in the same hotel, where we had the late lunch at previous evening. Some of the breakfast are not convincing for Logesh. He ordered for dosa, he was not too happy with that, since the mix of dosa was not fermented. In the cold hilly areas, during morning we believed that dosa or idly mixes are hard to get fermented because of the weather. After we shopped a bit, buyed some flavored teas and lemons. Sujan walked through more shops to buy lemons at low-cost. Meanwhile room boys keep coming and asked about vacating room, I was distressed. Any how guys are not caring much about it and we packed our sack and started at 11AM.
We took some photographs in the busy market area blocking the bridges, fortunately no one was complaining. We went to some private area and went to the magnificent water falls. The roads are too small to travel but we through it. We reached beautiful scenery area.
The falls was so wild, so enthusiastic, and so vulnerable got the huge mouth, roaring a bit. Really we enjoyed that moment. We had the tea in the hill top, venkat was not too happy about it. Yes he has some reasons for that, since tea per cup costs Rs15/=.
Logesh was crying for photo where, none of us were interested to take a snap of him. He was giving some gentle man pose and waiting for vijay to take a snap, where as, vijay closed his camera shutter and went off. Lately, vijay acknowledges his cry and took a snap. We gave some lunatic poses and from there we started to Ernakulam alias Cochin.
In Munnar we are not able to see typical keralities. Since the place is mixed with malayalee and tamil population. Everybody speaks tamil there, so I don’t find any difference from tamil nadu. Journey started at 1PM we are not intending to take food since we are going down from the hill. But sujan was not that much convincing, I think I need not explain to you that, why sujan was that much convincing. He may be right we should have took some little amount food without oils etc. The road is much wider than the previous one, but in a zigzag way. Everybody felt the vomiting sensation; even lemons are not helping us. On the way we are able to see some beautiful houses are built, that houses may not be in typical kerala house. Those houses are quite modern looks and so beautiful. Lately around 4.30PM we entered to cochin. Wow now I’m able to see typical malayalee peoples, unfortunately or fortunately we was not able to see typical kerala girls. See how unlucky we are(:(). I can see lots of Todi shops in Cochin than munnar. Locals advised us to not to take any drink from todi shops. Obviously we are not intending to have a drink. We reached a restaurant at 5PM, "not again" we are so late for lunch. Waiter in the restaurant bugging us by saying “This is tea time in kerala” I got tensed and amused. I don’t want to quarrel but wants some food. We are so dried out of food. Please don’t ask about sujan! Any how he was not complaining about it. Good boy isn’t it? Alright! We filled our stomach and heading towards the hotel where we want to stay. Unlike Munnar, in cochin not many are speaking in tamil. We asked for the route to the security, he speaks quickly in Malayalam. After some struggle we understood some thing. I suspect the driver knows the route but he refused to show us. For the past two days we did nothing bad to him. We offered food and money. Its ok! never mind the little slothful fellow!!!After some struggle we found Mahatma Gandhi road and able to find the hotel with the help of the locals. They were so nice to us. We found the hotel and breathed better. On the way I was able to see mammoth shopping malls. Lately, I came to know that the entire mall is for jewelry. Vijay said even people comes from coimbatore and shops here. Yes! He is right Cochin is so commercialized lots of shops, lots of traffic, lots of congestion.We stayed in the room rested better and as usual we played cards and watched telugu movie pokiri. Really fun it was, I don’t see telugu movies but I know how the story line is! etc. I can see barely lots of heroics in the movie, actually we watched it for Illeana. After some time vijay’s friend Jomet Jose who stays in kerala came to see him and chatted for long time. He spends really good time with us. He said about hotels will be closed at 9PM or 9.30PM. So in a hurry went to a hotel near by. We went by car, now also kannan refused to have a food. Alright leave crook! We went in and tasted some non-veg foods especially fish. Actually I want to taste fish there, since kerala is famous for sea foods. After dinner we went to the beach, quite a beautiful view from the road.
City falls in sleep very quickly. We back from sea area to room around 11.30PM. Later vijay and jomet along with sujan went to jomet’s office and to Cochin port. Vijay said that they came back at 2.30AM. Rest of us were in sound sleep.
We took some photographs in the busy market area blocking the bridges, fortunately no one was complaining. We went to some private area and went to the magnificent water falls. The roads are too small to travel but we through it. We reached beautiful scenery area.
The falls was so wild, so enthusiastic, and so vulnerable got the huge mouth, roaring a bit. Really we enjoyed that moment. We had the tea in the hill top, venkat was not too happy about it. Yes he has some reasons for that, since tea per cup costs Rs15/=.
Logesh was crying for photo where, none of us were interested to take a snap of him. He was giving some gentle man pose and waiting for vijay to take a snap, where as, vijay closed his camera shutter and went off. Lately, vijay acknowledges his cry and took a snap. We gave some lunatic poses and from there we started to Ernakulam alias Cochin.
In Munnar we are not able to see typical keralities. Since the place is mixed with malayalee and tamil population. Everybody speaks tamil there, so I don’t find any difference from tamil nadu. Journey started at 1PM we are not intending to take food since we are going down from the hill. But sujan was not that much convincing, I think I need not explain to you that, why sujan was that much convincing. He may be right we should have took some little amount food without oils etc. The road is much wider than the previous one, but in a zigzag way. Everybody felt the vomiting sensation; even lemons are not helping us. On the way we are able to see some beautiful houses are built, that houses may not be in typical kerala house. Those houses are quite modern looks and so beautiful. Lately around 4.30PM we entered to cochin. Wow now I’m able to see typical malayalee peoples, unfortunately or fortunately we was not able to see typical kerala girls. See how unlucky we are(:(). I can see lots of Todi shops in Cochin than munnar. Locals advised us to not to take any drink from todi shops. Obviously we are not intending to have a drink. We reached a restaurant at 5PM, "not again" we are so late for lunch. Waiter in the restaurant bugging us by saying “This is tea time in kerala” I got tensed and amused. I don’t want to quarrel but wants some food. We are so dried out of food. Please don’t ask about sujan! Any how he was not complaining about it. Good boy isn’t it? Alright! We filled our stomach and heading towards the hotel where we want to stay. Unlike Munnar, in cochin not many are speaking in tamil. We asked for the route to the security, he speaks quickly in Malayalam. After some struggle we understood some thing. I suspect the driver knows the route but he refused to show us. For the past two days we did nothing bad to him. We offered food and money. Its ok! never mind the little slothful fellow!!!After some struggle we found Mahatma Gandhi road and able to find the hotel with the help of the locals. They were so nice to us. We found the hotel and breathed better. On the way I was able to see mammoth shopping malls. Lately, I came to know that the entire mall is for jewelry. Vijay said even people comes from coimbatore and shops here. Yes! He is right Cochin is so commercialized lots of shops, lots of traffic, lots of congestion.We stayed in the room rested better and as usual we played cards and watched telugu movie pokiri. Really fun it was, I don’t see telugu movies but I know how the story line is! etc. I can see barely lots of heroics in the movie, actually we watched it for Illeana. After some time vijay’s friend Jomet Jose who stays in kerala came to see him and chatted for long time. He spends really good time with us. He said about hotels will be closed at 9PM or 9.30PM. So in a hurry went to a hotel near by. We went by car, now also kannan refused to have a food. Alright leave crook! We went in and tasted some non-veg foods especially fish. Actually I want to taste fish there, since kerala is famous for sea foods. After dinner we went to the beach, quite a beautiful view from the road.
City falls in sleep very quickly. We back from sea area to room around 11.30PM. Later vijay and jomet along with sujan went to jomet’s office and to Cochin port. Vijay said that they came back at 2.30AM. Rest of us were in sound sleep.
ON 14/August/2008
This was our plan, We boarded the train Thiruvananthapuram express which goes via Arakonam, Coimbatore to Trivandrum which wont go to Coimbatore but a nearby place called Pothanur. We planned to get down there, from Pothanur we had arranged a cab that we can reach munnar before 9AM. It was 4.30 AM, Most amazing thing was that, all the guys got up even before 4AM. So there was no use of the alarm. We got down in Pothanur, we were much exited to go to munnar by Toyota Qualis, which was booked by Vijay through his friend. After coming out of the station, we were all searching for the Qualis. We called the driver, and amazingly he was standing next to us. We asked for the car he showed us a Chevrolet’s Travera, which none of us liked. Since we wanted our trip to be more enjoyable we didn’t showed any agony. We started from pothanur to munnar. The distance was around 190KMS.
It was a wintry early morning, not a winter season though. Western Ghats was kind to us. After a while we refreshed ourself with coffee and some snacks (cake, cocunut bun, biscuit, chips, lolly-pop and muttaai(toffee)) and moved on. In places around Coimbatore, tea shops are more like bakeries they sell (old)cakes even in the early morning. Journey started with music.
I forgetted to tell about the one more character, his name is Kannan, the driver. I'll tell more about him later.
It was an amazing weather drizzling around and cold wind, car moving in a moderate speed, no chaotic traffic, hills around, Oh my God! Quite romantic! Quite thrilled. Unfortunately we were all guys. So sad, isn’t it?? Really it was pleasant, we forgot everything; forgetting our families even each others. We all enjoying ourselves in the car by seeing these sceneries, guys keep bugging each other, talked about our past and pleasant experiences, Yup! Lots of talking was going in the car. Selwyn was our DJ who was sitting in the front seat. This was the first time I’m seeing wind mill so close, quite mammoth one. It was an early morning gloomy, rain God threatening us. We are passing village by village. I can see lots of peoples were walking around. Even though we hadn’t had a proper sleep before, none of them were tired. It was 6Am we are nearing the hill area, where we had a break for a while, since that hilly forest area to be opened at 6.30AM only.
Our driver said that, the elephants may pass by any moment in the early morning so the forest peoples won’t allow peoples to go in. We are exited to see elephants but dangerous too. Even five sensed animal cheated us. It never turned up. The highway to munnar in the hilly area is not wide enough, but barely, I can say it was the most fantastic route I have ever seen.
We switched on the Illayaraja music, slow songs which added more excitement and pleasant. Car goes on and on the hilly area. After we passed the Tamilnadu-Kerala checkposts, we started to move on. On the side, Sujan’s stomach started breathing hard, he was crying for food. Of course it was 7.30AM only; but we got up early so there were some reasons to be hungry right? We are enjoying the sight seeing. We can able to see the waterfall on the top of the hill. It flows from the top to bottom by different ways. As I told you the munnar highway is not that much wide, so we are able to see the bottom of the hill much clearly. It was lush and green here and there, we can see rocks. It’s a forest cum tea plantation area. Here I like to say some few things about munnar. It was belong to Tamilnadu before partitioning of states, now belongs to kerala, but still you can see tamil written boards. Munnar means three rivers. They might pass by, I don’t see the river but just water falls. Here and there we can see some small water falls. It almost 8.30AM, At last we reached the place that we are looking for. Thanks to Vijay he altered the plan before we started from chennai, thats why we were so early. I arranged the rooms from Chennai itself to avoid last minute confusion and rush. After chores we had breakfast. We were exited to have food in kerala other than meals, since rice are much bigger in size.I had visited munnar before three years, I’m not able to see much changes. We had dosas and idlis and eggs.
After that, we started to eco point. It was so greenery bounded by forest and a lake. We are shouted, but only few words are reflected. We sat there while and had a carrot; it was so cheap and fresh. Even though munnar is a tourist place, there main occupation is tea plantation; Tatas owns huge acres of mountain from Kannan devan tea industry. We had cashews too, it was much cheaper than Chennai. Later we went to the boat house, but we didn’t opt for boating we sat in the park and walked through the area. And 3 creatures namely Sujan, Venkat and Logesh went away for photo shoot they shoot themselves by posing in different ways.
Later, we went to Top station, this place is located in Tamilnadu-Kerala border belongs to tamil nadu. We went there except Selwyn; he was not well because of tiredness. So we left him in the car along with his best friend kannan, the driver. We walked in for a while, it is an absolute forest area but, I’m quite affirmative about the animals, which won’t intrude that place. There were narrow road which is connecting kodaikanal, but the road was closed for some reasons. We walked through the narrow lane. After paying Rs 10/= per head, the private area peoples allowed us in to the top station. That place meant for trekking only it is not the perfect place for sight seeing. The place located in very high and the area is secured with iron mesh to avoid any accidents and incidents. We walked down through the steps; steps are rock made, rocks are bigger in size.You need to bend your knee much to climb up. We went nearly 100 meters. From there we felt we don’t want to go further, since we are not prepared for any trekking. After photo session for 30 minutes, we started climbing back by the steps; I told you, that the steps are rock made and bigger in size. I’m almost running to the top to reach quickly than others and to avoid pain in my thighs. Yes, I was wrong, totally wrong. I don’t feel any pain but wheezing started for me. I and vijay are breathing harder than others; of course vijay was not running. I felt that I’m going to die, but my instinct says that I won’t. We sat down in the steps for half an hour, this time we walked slowly, really it’s hard to fill the heights of the rock. After that we had half a litre of soda with salt, breathed much better. When we reached the car Selwyn looks so fresh, I don’t know what he had, but we are so tired.
It was noon nearly 3.00PM yet to have the food. We are away nearly 30 KMS from centre point of the munnar. But we are not interested to have a food there; guys had little refreshment but I wasn’t had anything. From there we started again to the place we stayed. Again rain God threatening us, of course one cannot expect comfortable whether in the hilly areas. I’m happy to see that locals are well prepared for that, they are not worrying about the rain and minding their works. It was 5 past 5 we are prepared to take lunch(Oops so late). Everybody was so hungry to have a food. We found one good vegetarian hotel. We ordered some dosas and other quickly gettable items. But so sad for Selwyn, He ordered for fried rice and waited for long. Sujan was almost emptying other plates too. I’m quite enjoyed that moment we ordered more items and had stomach full of food, but paid less when we compared to paying in Chennai. After rain slows down its pace we walked around, shops a bit. I’m not ready to say what we buyed for. Later we went to the room playing cards and watching TV for longer hours and went to sleep around 11PM. Before we sleep, logesh had done some magnificent things which none of us wants to forget till our death.
ON 13/August/2008
The Beginning
Hello to all!!!
Here I like to share my beautiful trip to munnar and Cochin. This may not be so adventurous! We are six of us. First, Let me introduce myself, I’m Bharath Kumar working in a private firm. Of course we are close friends for over 10 years now. This was our first trip as a group. We had planned for a 3 day trip.
We started our journey on 13th of August. It was the most tensed moments for four of us, since two of the idiots dint turn-up till 9 PM, and our train was scheduled to depart at 9.15PM. Yes, they are Selwyn and Sujan. After 5 minutes past 9 Selwyn turned in. Where the hell was Sujan???, was the question on everyones mind. He was supposed to come with us to the railway station in auto, but got late due to some idiotic reasons. It was nearing 9.10PM, and Thank God!!! he came in. 'Alright', I breathed deeper now, my sweating reduced. My T-Shirt was almost wet.
Oh, I forget to introduce other three. Logesh, Vijayanand and Venkat. After dinner, we chatted for an hour or so about the plans etc. Everybody were so tired and wanted to sleep, but two creatures namely Logesh and Sujan keep on chatting and disturbing us and dint let the others sleep until 1am.
Hello to all!!!
Here I like to share my beautiful trip to munnar and Cochin. This may not be so adventurous! We are six of us. First, Let me introduce myself, I’m Bharath Kumar working in a private firm. Of course we are close friends for over 10 years now. This was our first trip as a group. We had planned for a 3 day trip.
We started our journey on 13th of August. It was the most tensed moments for four of us, since two of the idiots dint turn-up till 9 PM, and our train was scheduled to depart at 9.15PM. Yes, they are Selwyn and Sujan. After 5 minutes past 9 Selwyn turned in. Where the hell was Sujan???, was the question on everyones mind. He was supposed to come with us to the railway station in auto, but got late due to some idiotic reasons. It was nearing 9.10PM, and Thank God!!! he came in. 'Alright', I breathed deeper now, my sweating reduced. My T-Shirt was almost wet.
Oh, I forget to introduce other three. Logesh, Vijayanand and Venkat. After dinner, we chatted for an hour or so about the plans etc. Everybody were so tired and wanted to sleep, but two creatures namely Logesh and Sujan keep on chatting and disturbing us and dint let the others sleep until 1am.
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