Juwal Bose Says

Check out these photos of the trip

Last time when cousins came to my place i was neck deep with work. I really felt it bad when i could not arrange something cool for them. But this time around i had decided to make the trip count and to make some marks in their memories. So when they turned up this weekend i had to plan everything fast. As my mom is working and there is no one to help her in the kitchen (eehh..) cousins usually planned one day outing to my place. This will lower the burden it crates on Kitchen end of things. So new plan was initiated to stay for one more day. They came on a saturday when i was away to ekm. They spent their time seeing the film ‘Madambi’ by great actor Mohanlal.

It seemed like a time killer, but they had come to see me and relatives and not the film. So when i met up with them late night 9 pm the new plan was initiated over the current ‘cut’ from 9.30 to 10.00. The plan was to make a trip down to ThommanKuth, an ecotourism project near our place. Calls were made and a driver was made available to drive our alto with the 5 of us. Vinoj and Shyam from Thrissur with me and my brother. Shyam had just got placed in infy and his treat was due. But we let it go for the time being as there is lot time to do the treat in near future, when he will be earning a lot of infy money.

So early morning we started at 9 pm (too early huh) after packing some cheangeover dresses and some eatables. We didnt know what to expect, all i knew was that it was having waterfalls and people drown there usually. So it was all considered dangerous. The thing was that all aunties were overly protective of their sons and the blade hung over my neck if something went wrong. But these people were grown up enough and i believe they can handle things perfectly well. The path taken was throuth Kothamangalam – Pothanikkad – Paingaottur – Vannappuran – ThommanKuth. This was news for me as i only knew the way through Thodupuzha.

Anyways we reached the place and we were among the first to reach there. We were also praying that it doesnot rain as rain is gonna play spoilsport. We could see the falls and the river at a distance and the cliff was fenced off limits. We could only watch from the balconies constructed for sight seeing. We were dissappointed to see that there was nothing else to do but watch the falls from such distance. Then i saw the ecotourism arch board to the top with a path leading inside the forest. So we can roam inside the forest and follow the river up its path for a ticket of 10rs. We took 5 tickets for 50rs and started the journey carrying our dress and food with us. There was no restrictions and no guards anywhere. SO if we fell into the river of found ourselves in some trouble all we could do is scream.

The rivers white water made big thunderous sounds as we followed it upriver. There were small falls here and there which made beautiful photo points. Then we came upto one tree house on top of the river. It looked old and a piece from a museum. But it was rock solid and the tree on which it was build upon didnt budge as all of us entered the house. We had our driver also accompanying with us as this was first time for him also. We took some snaps in the tree house and continued the journey. Later on we reached the main waterfall which was beautiful and if only we could swim across to bath under the falling water. If i was with my other friends we could have done it, but now with these guys. So we continued our journey through the river side rather than through the forest way up. After some time we came to the dead end where we could only go one deangerously over the big and slippery rocks inside the river.

We could hear the screams and animal voices raised by a batallion of youth up our track where they followed the forest path up. We decided to cut up through the undergrowth up the steep side of the river. We made it to the path and followed it tl we found where the team of youth were stationed. They were having a blast with all kinds of liquids and something else. But they were enjoying their time and making no problems for others (very rare in Kerala)
We started or journey back after 1.45 hours of inward journey. We had decided to bath at some shallow place. Everywhere we could see signs of danger and how many people have died, etc. We took our food and backtracked to the place where we had seen some grownups bath earlier. Our driver went back to the car as we had to look some time to find the exact spot to bath as it was now deserted.

We had a nice time in the water where i was checking myself always in the fear of some leeches. i ave the bad memory from my Athirappilly trip when one leech made its way into my elbow. After half an hour n the water receiving some really envious looks from passers by we decided to return and call it a day. On our way back we had Kerala lunch from Vannappuran with fried fish and it really tasted good. After reaching back home all fell onto the bed and none woke up even when it was the Asia cup cricket finals between India and Srilanka.

Well no surprise there as India lost the all critical Final.