Juwal Bose Says

From Drop Box

I came back in the elderly chachas elderly ambassador. We tried to see the 7 tombs but it was closed. I had a ganna juice and then i came back to my luxury hotel room. After some food i decided to go and see the necklace road and other posh areas. So following the directions of the hotel receptionist i got in an auto. It was 25 rs to Imax.

I was going to see imax for the first time. Ppl have told me its once n a life time experience. The crowd was huge and posh. I was confused what to do as i didnt have an internet prior booking done for my show. But it was over the hedge in 3D. I took the ticket and then waited along with others. I was given one 3d glasses which seemsd pretty ordinary but once broken had a heavy duty fine on it. There was numbering on the ticket and my seat was unique.

I didnt know that either and sat on the top most seat. When others seemed particular about their seat, i check my ticket. it was a 2 digit numbering system which indicated the row and column of the chair position. I got into my chair ans watched in awe the size of the huge screen in front. It filled the whole view, i had to look to the sides to see the full picture. hmm..then the imax promo showed and then they put on spiderman 3 trailer.My first imax experience.

I put on the glasses and saw the film in its full glory. i had decided that i am gonna visit imax again tomorrow. The next day was the film 300 in imax. It was worth a million shows. One action packed movie and one huge screening..i enjoyed every bit of the action. It felt like i was in the film.

On the way back i had to catch auto. So i thought it would be 25 again. But alas it was 50. I started bargaining, but they all left when i started bargaining. Hmm..then i settled for 35 with one auto guy. He claimed that after 9 its night fare. The next day i had one good autoguy who told me his meter was the only genuine non altered meter. It didnt move in majority of the journey and i felt he was telling the truth. It showed 20 rs for the same distance that i followed the previous day. i gave him 25 anyways. He told me that if auto ppl demands more i should tell them to stop the rikshaw near a traffic police guy. They will get scared and will only ask genuine fare. I didnt want auto ppl to run me down so i thought may be its better to pay rather than to make them angry. But his advice really paid off the other day when i went to charminar.

Now was the trip to Ramooji film city…later ok!

Popularity: 55% [?]

From Drop Box

I had planned the trip to hyderabad one month prior. Then when the day came all my friends abandoned me. The friends in hybd went else where and no one from here was willing to come as all said its too hot in hybd. I had never thought about the heat and had no idea how hot it really was. People from chennai told that its hotter than chennai – it began to look like a bad decision. But i had decided to go anyway. I had to visit Golgonda Fort, charminar, Birla Temple, Planetorium, Imax and numerous other places if possible.

When the train reached secunderabad much of the people exited the train. There goes the first step wrong..i should have actually planned my stop at secunderabad. Anyways it gave me ample time to think and relax as i was totally consumed by a very talkative Telungu guy who was talking on and on about his multiple jobs. The lady opposite told me telungu ppl wee very talkative and they wont stop once started. She was feeling pity for me. Anyways the train had stopped in secunderabad and it was moving slowly to hybd. I saw the budha statue, the hussain sagar lake, the tank bund and the posh area of the city from the train.

After exiting the train i found a good AC room for rs 800 per day. it was a high posh hotel and the food and the stay was excellent. They arranged got the trip to golgonda, flalaknuma, 7 tombs and to the Ramooji film city. I cant really explain these places to any one…as these are places you should see for yourselves.

Golgonda fort: Acres spread across the hilltops of the outskirts of the city is this huge city inside a fort. It is currently in ruins, but an exceelent spot to be nostalgic about history. You can walk the mountain paths to the top mahal. If you dont take a guide with you then you can roam around freely and thats what i did. I walked around all over the place and found the corner guns called the ‘peeranky’ . These shot hot iron balls into the invaders. There were located at the corner vantage points as the hill overlooked the city beneath. There was also one temple atop the hill. On top of the highest mahal you can just see the beauty of the twin cities to the max. Small soap boxes of houses and other structures lined up towards the horizon.

It was hot, but thanks to mineral water bottles i was not dehydrated or anything. Lot of tourists and people were coming to see the place. Lot of guides were entertaining those people..i walked on every path i saw..some led to small caves when some led to cliffs. It was total nostalgia..i wished i had some one with me. A romantic mood leapt up, but i didnt want to miss the fun that was there even when i am alone. For all those couple out there, this is a place where you can sit around in the shadows or get lost for good. I saw a lot of couples in the shadows, but hey life is good right!

Popularity: 34% [?]

From Athirappilly Trip

On the way back was a small falls similar to the one on way to adimaly. THis one was bigger and we enjoyed the scenery, took some more photos. Everyone was hungry and we hoped that there will be good hotels down there at athirappilly. We reached the place and immediately looked for hotels and found one with a good view of the falls. We could see the falls at a distance and hear the roar.
We had food, not bad as this time all were hungry. Time for dress changes. As the ladies were
outside we rushed to change dress into burmudas. All were supposed to jump in the water, but none
knew anything abt the chances of that and even no one was certain if they really wanted to jump
in. These were notoriously famous place for accidents in the water. There was a slippery path
leading down to the river. Mom was walking slowly and i accompanied her. Others went ahead and
found a lot of monkeys having a social gathering. Eldhose found that really amusing and he was
clicking away photos. he wanted a more intimate shot of the monkey and he tried reaching closer to
one perched on a chair. The monkey reacted ferociously and eldhose was taken aback. He helplessly cried out “Sorry,..Sorry..” and everyone surrounding went into a fit of laughter. So much for 100 literacy..a Monkey who knew English , or is it another monkey who didnt know that monkeys didnt know English?
Anyways we joied with the gang and we could see the river flowing ahead of us. It was a steep
climb down over the rocks so mom agreed to wait up. There was huge roar of the falls and the sight
on it was breath taking. About half the height was filled with watervapour and mist and tons of
water was falling down with thunderous sound. We enjoyed the sight and clicked some more photos.

The might of nature in full beauty! It was a place with network coverage and people started
getting and making calls. Now where were we supposed to bath? Devraj the guide(well not really)
told that it was another path which led to the bottom of the falls. We all started in that
direction..the climb down was dangerous as it was all slippery due to rain. Mom waited for us on a
bench perched on top of the falls. We went down thru the curves mud road in between the pine
trees. Anupama made abhi accompany her all round the total length of the road when we all cut it
short by climbing straight down thru a more dangerous path. Leter on Anu did make up for it by
climbing this path with us on way back.
The sight that awaited us was heavenly. The atmosphere was full of watervapour and had a heaenly
touch to it. Mist all over and we were drenched in water very soon. We climbed a top the rocks and
proceeded to see the full might of the falls. The sound was tremendous. Every one was delighted and rejuvenated by this unearthly experience. We had an unforgettable time there where we took a lot of photos and enjoyed thoroughly.
One totally rejuvenated team returned up after half an hour. it was time for our return. On the way back we went to drop Anu off at her home (at some place with out electric lines) and reached back at night. Many had small fits of fever and body pain the next day, but all was worth the fun. The spirits were soaring as we closed offices for Onam holidays.

Popularity: 30% [?]

From Athirappilly Trip

Ok..another travel blog and this time to Athirappilly and Vazhachal falls. When we think about tours from our office, they seem colorless and boring – well not for us. We had an unforgettable
experience back there @ athirappilly. We were 11 ppl including my mom who was supposed to take
rest due to chickenginuya, yet forced to come with us to lead our girl gang. Now that i think of
it, there seemed no need for that, thanks to our enthusiastic female couple. The plan was to leave
at 6.30 morning in our remodeled tempo traveller. The driver guy told us that DVD player which he
had bought exclusively for this trip was not working. We had taken the cd for Kalyana raman and
eventually the DVD player did work and we did see the movie. We had planned ahead to take some
fruits and some play items like frizbee and some indoor plaiying sets.Now that i look back we just
carried them with us and never had a chance to even look inside. Although we played the frizbee
for the sake of it at vazhachal parking lot.

FIrst stop was vazhachal. It didnt take much tie to reach the chalakkudy junction and we were very eager to get there that we missed all the good hotels. The only hotel that we coulf find wa sone
outside Dreamworld theme park. I wont repeat that mistake again. We had a mouth splitting Pori. We were all shocked as Anish did order an additional one. Damn , he was really hungry man! oh the
start was bad..although we had some fun on the traveller..the food let it down.
But then we reached the place. Nature in its fury mode. WHite water crushing down thru the rocks.
We could all just stand there and watch it for all day. It was beautiful sight. We walk along the
banks and mom sat on a bench letitng us to roam away. Now it was photo sessions. All had mobiles
with cameras and weere clicking away.. We thought of playing some games that we had bought with
us..but then all were too busy sight seeing. The couples with us were enjoying the sceneries..i
thought may be Sunil had forgotten abt salini as he seemed heavily consumed by the natures beauty.
We wnt up along the banks till the path led and then entered into the delta inside the river. We
sat there for some time chatting and seeing the fishermen trying to make their living. There were
people living on the banks..and they were going about their day to day life. It was time to get
back to the trveller. As we wnt back the child iside us suddenly got released.

The girls started it by getting on the swings. Then the boys followed. THey got on the slide and
the see saw. All were trying to weigh down Anish. ehhmm.. Me along with shiju and shyju went on
the slide and withpout sliding down, ran down.. well i still have all bones intact. When the girs
went away it was the boys time to get on the swings. That was nice time as we were children once
again.

Me and mom went to buy Honey which they claimed to be original and collected from the forests.
Outside all had started playing frizbee. Now it didnt last much as all got tired very soon..so
much for our ages..we are old now na. SO back inside the traveller we had to take one sudden
decision : whether to go to Sholayar Dams or not. The decisin was unanimously taken to go. SO we
started towards sholayar dams. Sholayar is a heavy forest which reminded me of our Mukruthy trip.

All the way there was elephant wastes..but no elephant to see. Suddenyl due to the eerie and scary
atmosphere all felt a little scared. We also started playing Bingo (thanks to Anish for that idea)
Bingo was a instant hit. We had to give 1 rupee to play and got money back if we got lucky. Anish
was the anchor first and on the way back it was shiju who never liked the idea of giving money to
play. ehhmm..

I felt kinda dizzy later on and we stopped the game..i felt the smell of unmistakable 5% alchohl
beverage..anyways. Then all of a sudden the driver stopped the vehicle and to our amazement we saw a huge snake slithering with remendous power..within 2 seconds it crossed the road and was gone. I asked the driver in confirmation of the snake “well that was a huge cobra right?” He replied “Well that not a cobra, but a King Cobra!” Wow a king cobra for real. and in front of us..this was
getting intense. Mom had already started talkingaabt how dangerous the forest really was. After 35
kms of journey thru the think forest we reached the dam. And there was the biggest
dissappointment. The dam was closed to visitors..we needed to take paases from trissur..35 kms and nothing! There was a lone big butterfly and Guards. The butterfly was thier sole companion in the forest. Too bad! We sat down and rested some time and then started back. When near a scenery was stopped and started our food session. Bread with honey! Depp forest and sitting besides the deep falls we ate our food. There was a big deer running across and we had some good time watching it dissappear into the wilderness. Salini spotted some Lion tailed Monkeys on the way back. We had water from one of the numerous springs nearby. I didnt notice it at that time but a leech had got on my arm. later on my way back i noticed it and we all had lessons on how to remove a leech. The dirver simply produced a room freshner and withing few seconds the thing detached itself. The blood didnt stop for some time and i had a cotton onti the wound. All were suddenly tense abt looking about themselves. What if they had a leech on them! The most curious thing abt these are that we wont even know these things are there even when they are sucking our blood. Vicious
things! It was a slow journey back and it was also raining. Everyone was in a mood to sleep..
salini was in look out for an elephant or a leopard. Mom was talking abt real tigers and even
smelling a tiger or an elephant nearby..

The wait was worth it as what was to come was an unforgettable experience.

Popularity: 28% [?]

On way back from angamaly we planned to see the Sankaracharya Stoopam and the Kodanadu Elephant Kraal. The stoopam had an entry fee of 2rs each and e can walk along the spiral staircase which depicted the life and journey of sankaracharya. There were different statues which depicted some important symbols which i could never figure out. On the top there is a big statue of shankaracharya with his disciples and the lords blessing him.From Okkal we took the deviation to kodanadu. It was a 10 km journey in Eldhoses Estillo. The entry pass again was 2 rs each. The attraction there was the small kid elephants and the Elephant cage which is used to train young elephants. They are contained in the cage and trained by professionals. Elephant ride for 4 cost 200 rupees and we were not in the mood.
On the other side there was the river where they bathed the elephants. When we were watching they took the kid elephant sfor a bath. All children and adults alike were amused by the little mammal. When a youg tusker followed ppl went into a small panic as they wll had to make way for the elephant. The Pappan or the elephant driver was explaining that he could get rs 4000 for one day for functions involving elephants.
There was a mini zoo also which had python, crocodile, monkeys, pigeons, peacock, deers and many other species of animals. Some notorious monkey there was famous for stealing mobile hpones from ppl and wreaking those for fun. The caretakers never warned any one and they are known to levy fees to get the stuff back from the monkey. hmm..anyways the monkey didnt attach us. One small monkey was roaming outside the cage and looked very cute.
We stared at the female elephant which was the biggest in the lot. She was showing some wierd facial postures. Then all of a sudden made some sounds and shook the head vigorously. Ppl were alarmed, but it was just something stuck in her mouth. She was trying to get that out. And meanwhile she let us see her bug tongue and the yellow teeth and gigantic mouth.
We rested at the park in the cool tree shades. Children were on the seaswa callin gout numbers of each swing they made. It was my first time there even when i lived close by. We made our way back another way which lead us to kuruppampady. I hope to visit thattekkad some day soon. Birds lagoon is the target.

Popularity: 39% [?]

Ok..i know its been very long. But things were happening around me and i could barely get in touch with my friends..but i had this new year resolution of mine : To travel a lot. See all the places..enjoy with friends..this year i just realised how insignificant a human can be, life is so big..we should work extra hard to enjoy at least a little bit of what life has to offer. So with aby the Trekker dude i joined forces for a trip. First plan was to go to Pune and see some pune girls..well ehmm, finally the plan boiled out into a trip to some place called Mukruthy. Aah..what the hell, who gives a damn. And ppl who dont give a damn joined forces with us. Hl, pullechan, Mooppan, me and aby set our for this trip. We were supposed to take 2 pairs of underwear, chappals, tshirts, sweater, etc etc..and ppl who dont give a damn..well, need i say more. SO the ppl who arranged the trip reached last…me and anish started late night from aluva to coimbatoor. Reached there at 2 and laid down to sleep. Well mosquitoes and a good lady on the side bench kept me awake. HL reached from chennai at 5 and we started waiting for the party. The guide and his team arrived and we were still waiting for veterans. Atlast by 730 all were in the attendance register. We took off to Ootty. The guide who took us was mallu and he was a Karate teacher. Wow!. We were in a qualis..well god help it. We talked about all the things under the sun. politics, travel, ppl, friends, india, america, hl everything was discussed..all were eager to have the black label scotch on rock in the chill of ootty. We had planned to bath at a fishing hut that day..but due to the perfect timing we were sure not to make it in time. We had a break at the forest guard office where we needed to take passes. It was restrcited area…and the guide took our money..ehhm this better be good Dude.
So we ate and started again..new ppl joined us and our old guide left us. New guy didnt know malayalam and was typical tamilan. One the way we passed one of my life most horrific places. A place where whole ootty dumps here wates. It was spread pver 3 football fields. All rotten stuff with so pungent smell that we could not talk for atleast 15 mins. Every rose has its thorn. I thought ppl will not ever come back again due to this filth. The it was the pine forests..the primates in us leapt out and joined forces with the original ones. We had bought green apples which were the centre of attraction for all..then it started to become dark..we reached closed barricades which forest guides opened up for us. There was barren mountains which some of us tried to climb up ..that was some thing which told us that we were not anymore the young bloods of cec. So every one lept in the qualis and the vehicle moved on. The sight was excellent..small streamm flowing down the valley…We suddenly saw some wild bucks..huge and majestic. Then it was usddenly pitch dark..Forest. Everyone felt the chill of fear and cold. The path was going on and on…curving up and down..the vehicle had lost some balancer or something which i dont know anything abt. Atlast we reached the place. It was a cottage in the centre of the forest. Pitch black…no lights and No KEY! Well no key..so what to do we started to walk around in the dark. Dripping water..streams flowing some where…glowing eyes..ehhm. We started down the side..there was a cottage down the drop, and it was abandoned..hmm we found a tamil horror novel inside. Humans!. Then we found the creek..water flowing in from between the roots of a overgrown tree, a truely horrific sight. We decided not to move far away as it was Tiger infested forests. Once back in the cottage some one decided that i should accompany the guide back t find the key. Wel..what the hell, i did. Pitch black and only mobile light..hahaha tigers will have a great time playing with us. That was an experience which i wont repeat again. SO we found the original veteran guide some way down the road and they told me how the tigers wont attack. According to them elephants are the ones to be afraid of. hmm back in the cottage we had fire hearth and a grand food. Super chapathy and chicken. The we had the black label and these guys made me drink it on the ROCKS! Well well..we were supposed to wake up at 5 and i took that responsibility. Th trek started at 6, after noodles breakfast. The guide was moving like a rocket and we all in sweaters were trying hard to keep up. He told not to make noise as there is a tiget trial and seems like a tiger has moved in our direction. We saw pug marks and tigershit. AAhh..everywhere tree and big branches were blocking the path. The way seemed endless. Atlast we reached the banks of the river which was actually part of Podumund dam. We all looked up and the guide told us where we were heading. There was a mountain range up ahead which looked like an apes head. We were supposed to get atop his nose. Wow!. And it looked like moles and miles away! The uphill journey was very tiresome..unless i had those blue berries and glucose and ofcourse water i could have fallen down. It felt like hours but we reached the top in 3 hours. We reasted before the last strech and then began the troublesome climb. Not much difficult but all were very tired. We reched the top and there was this tribal god sitting in the middle. i looked down and …we were far above the clouds..thick mist and cluds were under us. TO one side was beautiful mottakkunnus , grasslands and other side it was forest cliffs. Actually it was Kerala. This was energising stuff. All were very excited and the tiredness vanished. We decided not to have the breakfast but to make it down to the lake and swim in there.. We sat there feeling the ecstasy..and then started back. We were actually running back and it took only 1 hour or so to reah the lake..then we dived in. Wow icy water, rejuvenated everyone. We were young and 2 years just broke off. We spent some time in the cold water and swam around. Then we saw some other ppl coming up and we thought better to start back. We had some food and went back to our cottage. Once back all were down on the beds. No one wanted to wake up. As the vehicle was not able to lift us up over the mountain we wee supposed to walk again back to pothmund. Now that was a bad decision. We really were totally used up when we actually reached the vehicle back on the other side. on the way we saw the pothmund dam. Then all started feeling the side effects..everyone wanted to vomit and the decision was taken to stay back in coimbatore for the night. The traffic was heavy and it was very late when we reached coimbatoe. We took a room for all of us and sent pullechan back to blore. We kona adied for some time took some instant decisions and were back on trains at 12 the next day. Me and anish had the company of some girls gang returning home. And we enjoyed that…Well now i am looking for the next trip. It should not be a trek, but a holiday spot. Lets wait and see.

Popularity: 19% [?]

This was the last day as we had decided to skip Chembra trek, Pakshipathalam and Kanthampara falls. will be visiting Wayanad again for these treks with some of my trekking friends. So first was Banasura sagar dam which was the larges earth dam in Asia. Now i was not much particular about this as there was nothing much to do at the dam. We later found out that there was speedboating option at the dam site.
We took bus to Pandijarethara from Kalpetta. From padinjarethara it was 2 kms walk on the roadside to the dam. Now we didnt take the necessary deviation towards the dam and ended up at a different spot. This made things more wonderful as we gt the chance to walk by the side of the reservoir and trek onto small hills which ended at some rock quarries.

From Wayanad Dec 21 08

We followed lorry trails and walked through the dense vegetation by the reservoir and explored some scenic points. We could see the boating and the dam to the side and we saved the ticket charges also. There was no person in sight and the whole land was barren with lots of domestic cows and goats scattered here and there.

From Wayanad Dec 21 08

We walked back to the town adn got a bus back to Kalpetta. After food we got on a bus to sultan bethery and from there to Muthanga. The timing at the Wildlife sanctuary was from 3-5 in the after noon. There was a shortage for guides and hence the queue for the tickets were not moving. We got our tickets at 4.45 and got on to the jeep with our guide ‘balan’. It was 1.15 hours of jeep guided tour inside the forest for 22 kms.Again it was 10 rs for entry, rs 25 for camera rs 100 for the guide and then rs 300 for the jeep. Now take care to get as many companions to share the jeep charges. We had t handle it ourselves. We were concerned as the place was on the border to karnataka and buses seemed less. This was the last stop for many buses, but the guide told us that there are lots of buses.

We got in the jeep and the guide was sanding outside dangling onto the jeep sigting different animals for us. He spotted Elephant herds, lots of Deers, Wild Bison, Mountain squirrels, Huge termite houses and peacocks. We saw some beautiful peacock flights and encountered a herd of elephants passing the jeep trail. On our way back we tried to negotiate the jeep rates to no avail.

From Wayanad Dec 21 08

All through the journey across wayanad we could see a lot of Adivasis who are real jungle people. The locals say that adivasis are well off as they are getting all kinds of allowances from the Govt. Adivasis would work hard and spent money at Toddy shops and Civil suplies beverages shops. They cant be molested or attacked as it was a bailless arrest for 30 days. I also heard that there were orphanages dedicated to children of these adivasis, courtesy of many forest officers and other govt officials.

So there ended our Wayanad trip and we returned home on the xmas day.

Popularity: 30% [?]

So the second day the plan was different, we had decided to take a vehicle. The thing with the last days experience made us realise that this place was not much connected with buses. After breakfast we went to the Taxi stand and enquired the rates, it was 1300 for an Indica for a day. So we decided to cover Edakkal Caves, Phantom Rock, Heritage museum and Kuruva Island. First was Edakkal caves and we are in mood for a trek to the top.
There are some private parking at the bottom of the road, dont park here. You will have to pay here and then again walk to the top. There is free parking at thestart of the trek road. Also there will be jeeps which will say that the trek is 2 kms and they will cover half for rs 70. DONT take this also, as if you cant walk this then there is no point going top. You will have to walk a lot and may be even try the trek to the tip. Carry a lot of water and get ready to get your hands dirty.

From Wayanad Dec 21 08

Entry fees are rs 10 and rs 25 for camera. You will pass through some cave like structures and lots of roack covered areas. After some easy climbing through paved ways and ladders you will reach the real Edakkal cave. There are some kind of drawings and carvings on the walls of the cave. Also when you look up you will see that you are actually standing right below a huge rock which is on its way down. This rock is being held there by 2 rocks on its sides. This is a peculiar sight.

From this point you can either go back or decide to trek t the top. Now the latter is really dangerous. We will have to climb holding on to make shift steps which are actually holes made into the rock. Also there is some ropes being available at some places to haul yourselves up. At some point i was a little bit afraid as i had the responsibility of my cousin. Well anyways we made it to tetop with soem enthusiastic students from some college. It was an accomplishments in itself. Now the thought of climbing down was scintillating. But its just a mind game as we reached back in half the time and it was really very easy when compared to the uphill trek.

From Wayanad Dec 21 08

We reached back at noon and decided to head for Phantom rock. There is nothing much to see here as its some kind of wierd rock formation which looks like a head and hence the name.

From Wayanad Dec 21 08

We also visited te wayanad heritage museum where the entrance fee was rs 10 and we didnt take the camera pass this tme. Lots of archeological finds of local wayanad was kept there. Main attraction was Veerakkallu which was used to cover dead people in the past. It depicted how they died.

From Wayanad Dec 21 08

Then we had food and stopped at the Jain temple on way to Kuruva island. Jain temple access was restricted and we found our way in through the vegetation nearby. THis was bombed by Tippu when he was having his run. Lots of stone carvings and architectural marvel was to be seen here.

From Wayanad Dec 21 08

We were late for Kuruva sight seeing as the island closed at 5. So we decided to make things fast. The island is 950 acres of wild area and we can have some soothing time there. We decided not to take the boat and to walk across the rived to reach the island. This was fun. Onreaching the island we had to take tickets for rs 10 and rs 10 for camera. We had half an hour at our disposal and we decided to have a bath in the river. The thing is tat you will get total privacy here and can have all the enjoyment. After bath we thought of going back using the boat, but it seemed to be closed. No one was in sight and then we found 2 lost people who didnt know what to do now. We told them to follow us as we can cross the river to the main land. So the four of us made the adventurous trip back across the river.

From Wayanad Dec 21 08

Now this was expensive day and we decided that we will not be taking vehicle any more. Most of the tourist destinations were over and we thought of winding things up with a visit to Banasura Dam ad Muthanga Wild life sanctuary the next day

Popularity: 33% [?]

The year was going to be over and i had missed my big travel this year. Now was the time to do it and i got my cousin Vijay to accompany me to the wild Wayanad. I started off at 10 am from Kothamangalam and picked up Vijay from Trissur and got on a KSRTC bus to Kozhikode. We had food from Kozhikode from where we got a bus to Kalpetta. I had planned the timing so that we could see the thamarassery churam in the beauty of the evening. People in the bus were very cooperative and let us see the whole beauty of the cliff from inside the bus. There was not much cold even when it was december.

At Kalpetta we took a room at Arun Lodge which had accomodation for rs 200 and deluxe room for rs 440. We took the deluxe room and it was really good one. We got some pamplets to work outour plans as we have not planned anything out. The original idea was to spent the whole week at Wayanad.

The next day after some asking around we decided to catch buses to possible locations. Our list had Pookot lake, Chain tree, Tamarassery Churam, Soochippara Fallas, Meenmutty falls and Kanthampara falls. We took a but to Vythiri from where we got an Auto to pookot lake. Rs 10 entry fees and Rs 10 for the camera, then the boating costed Rs 30 for 20 mins. We can have a walk around te lake and sit around taking photos and enjoying the beauty of the lake. We can pedal around in the pedal boat and go to the Ambal group to one end and make it back within 20 mins.

They will keep extra rs 30 as security if you extend the stay in water for more than 20 mins. We got back in time though. I bought some jungle honey and Then nellikka. We walked bac to the bus stop and tok the next bus to lakkidi.

We had a difficult time finding the chain tree. It was not much, but a big chan fixed to the ground after going rounf a big tree. Legend has it that a wild mans ghost is being imprisoned that way. This guy supposedly helped the British officer make the Thamarassery pass and the officer killed hi to take all the credit of the find. Te Ghost was wreaking havoc on all vehicles passing thriugh the pass and he was eventually captured and chained to the tree.

From Wayanad Dec 21 08

We walked back to the Thamarassery pass and walked down some hair pins. There are 9 hairpins and the sight below is breath taking.

From Wayanad Dec 21 08

After a photo shoot and some fruits from the vendors there we decided to head back. We got bus to Kalpetta and then to a place called Meppadi. From mepadi we had a bus to soochippara junction. Bus to this place is a rare find and from the stop itself there is a trek of 2 kms to reach the falls. Lots of people were there majorly consisting of college and school students on tour.

From Wayanad Dec 21 08

We had food after 1km which consisted of Kerala Rice and Fish fry. One our way down the mountain slope we went to the wrong directon (left) and ended up at a small falls which we thought was the original falls. Now there was no way to go down, but we managed down and had a bath. On our way back in order to get back and head for other places in the list we saw the original route. We heard whistles and shouts from that direction and following the trail ended up at the real Soochipara falls. Now we decided to cancel all other destnations and to enjoy here. The thing is that there are no guards or any kind of safety system at the place. The endeavour was dangerous of sorts as any one cal slip on the slippery rocks and fall into the rushing water. But the effect of standing under the white misty falls was heavenly. Me and my cousin spent some time under the falls and i swam my way back to the shore after some cooling off in the freezing water.

From Wayanad Dec 21 08

We reached back at the junction at 6 and we found that it was already dark.. There was no humans in sight or any other vehicles. We decided to walk back all the wayand after some walk we got a jeep. If we could not have gotten that jeep then it would have been some night. We got back to our room at 8 and had some food. Then we did some planning for the next day and went to sleep.

Popularity: 35% [?]

Its been long time since i had been to my moms place at Lavanapadom off Vadakkancherry, Thrissur – Palakkad border. When grand father wanted to meet me I decided to spent the weekend at their place. On sunday we planned a trip to a near by scenis place called Palakkuzhy. The place was a wild waterfalls which had taken a lot of lives of visitors. We took an auto to the place named the same and the auto was finding it really hard to haul us all on the rising road. We had to take turns to walk and ride untill we reached there.
Any body can come to the place via Thrissur, Vadakkancherry, Valkulambu, Palakkuzhy. But the bus are scarce and the ideal thing will be to get a jeep.



We have to trek a little along the river till we reach the falls where the scene is like the edge of the world. The ground suddenly falls and the scenery is inspiring yet fills us with fear.



This is near virgin forests and you can see monkeys and other wild life up close. You can opt to trek around and climb the rocky mountains to the sides or decide to have a bath.



Take care not to bath too close to the falls as a sudden ruch of water can take you down.



There had been instances in the past when rain upstream had caused many casualities when the water suddenly gushed in.

Popularity: 9% [?]