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.
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