The Monsoon Odyssey

27th June at about 2pm when i was just checking my Gmail, popped the 67th reply of the thread that came from Mr.Public Behavior(Shreesha) sorry man..not meant to hurt u.. just kiddin...it was all goin perfect but he pulled off from the Trip..i was bit worried for a moment but soon realized his situation for which he had taken that decision.

By 7pm I had reached Vinay's place from where me and Vinay had to leave for our Trip.In the evening we went for a bit of Shopping for the Trip. Purchased some Chocolates,Chips and Biscuits.I and vinay were waiting for the Tempo Traveller(TT) to come as we were about 10 people to go for the Trip to WAYANAD.Varun also was ready and came with his luggage and it was about 10:45pm when the TT came with Vijju(Vijay), cheryl, Varsha,Suresh,Sujith and Prasad. Only Yashas was there to be picked up.We reached her house in about 15 minutes.

Then we all were finally ready to leave Bangalore. Vinay had written one cd full of all new songs.Yashas had planned that we all will halt at Mysore at their Apartment so that the Driver gets rest at night but when we reached the place and asked the driver he told that he would prefer driving. So just half an hour and We moved on...

We reached the Hotel Kannur Ayurvedic Centre at Kalpetta a small town in Wayanad district at about 4:30 am in the morning.. the name of the hotel sounds like some medicine shop but it was really a gud place to stay..We all checked in to our respective Rooms.. and took some rest...We told the driver to get ready by 9am in the morning and even the hotel people to serve the breakfast at about 8:30am in the morning.
The 1st day :
Just after the Breakfast we all got ready in the vehicle and started thinkin of the first place to visit and it was the Pookote Lake.Set in a Beautiful Valley and Surrounded by Evergreen Forests and Wooded Hills, Pookote is one of Wayanad’s top visitors draws. This natural lake near Lakkidi is just a short distance off the National Highway 212.

It has been developed as a recreational centre having boating facilities, children’s park, shop for souvenirs and spices, and a fresh water aquarium. Replete with a café and restaurant, this is a good setting for day outings with family.. we all got the entry tickets and decided to go for a boat ride... but.. wats this . it started pouring heavily and my hopes of goin for a boat ride seemed grim. we had a group photo and then some of us started wearing the Live Jackets but me yashas, prasad as well as suresh were kind of havin a thought for the rain to stop.. and i had already made up my mind that i'll boat provided it doesn't rain. but it rained. so here we were .. only six ppl. went for the boating in heavy rain.. and the rest 4 of us kept watching them. within an hour they were back and i could see them fully drenched to the brim. but yes it was a nice experience for them.

Then we set out for a different place to njoy .. by now we had heard of a dam. it was Banasura Sagar Dam. seems to be nice place it was actually not the part of the dam rather it was the reservoir side...
though not much to see there but still we loved to njoy the place..
it was not raining rather just a litle bit of drizzle so we started njoying the cool and soothing weather..

and it was just the time we were about to return and it started raining heavily like cats and dogs.and we tried to get some place to have some shelter but it was small place for such a huge number of people. we managed to reach the TT with the help of the umbrella and by now i could feel that i was completely drenched from head to tail.. just kiddin...

then our next destination was the chain tree.. i was very much excited by the name of the tree but it all went in vain when we could not see much relevant details about the tree and the chain though the tree had some chain.
i think there was some local significance which could not be exploited by us...by this time it was pouring a lot.. so we decided to stay inside...











we had our lunch at a typical restaurant named SAHARA where u'll normally find the nonvegie stuff more than the other things ..
i could see that they had b*** also. but still our non veggie grp. asked for chicken..it was ok kind of food..

then we all set out for our next destination. we wanted to visit a fall.. but got to know that not much of water is there.. so just saw some animals on the way through a national sanctuary.. as it was written there...
By the evening we all had reached the hotel and i just felt like throwin out my clothes as i was fully drenched and it was sticking to my body also... i just wanted to relax. but no one was ready to relax as everyone wanted to enjoy the time.. so all started playin cards which never interested me at all. i was watching some cricket match and then felt asleep for about 2 hours. we had our dinner and finally the 1st day was over without much outing.at night time there was a lot of speculation that its going to rain the 2nd day also.. then we came up a with a strategy that we'll just visit the edakkal caves and if it rains more, then we'll check out..so far not a gud day for the trip...

The 2nd day :

we all got up ,as used to, by 9am and were ready for the breakfast.then we had to move for our next destination thats the edakkal caves but on the way we came upon the Banasura dam so we just set out to have a view of the dam . it was not raining exactly but drizzling and the weather was too gud to enjoy.

so after the dam we proceeded to the phantom rocks located close to Ambalavayal town, and we decided to go there as it was just a few kms from the caves .. first when i saw the rocks i could not get its significance with the name of phantom..but actually if you try to analyse and compare the phantom with it then you ll see that it has been named so because of its skull head shape.we really enjoyed the place...for reaching near the rock we had to walk for a few meters but suresh stopped on the way only..we reached near the rock.. the scenic beauty of the valley from the top was too gud...
Then we set out, after spending some half an hour,to the caves about which yashas had been tellin us from a long time...

we reached there in some minutes and had to keep our TT there itself.. and then in a jeep we all 10 were jam packed to have the hilarious roller coaster ride and hence reached the top from where we had to start our trek..
After reachin the top we had to purchase the tickets and proceeded further up...i used to look back at some piont of time during the climb and the view was wow.. i mean mindblowing.. some ppl. returning back suggested not the move further as the rocks had become too slipery due to continuous rain..so some of us decided not to trek further and i think varun, vinay,varsha, sujith and prasad moved ahead..but only sujith and prasad reached the top.we could see their diminishing faces from our point of halt.
Then we all decided to move to have a glimpse at the caves..suddenly one of the guys who had been giving company to suresh started explaining about the neolithic nature of the caves and the tribal ppl. who had been associated with it, etc.

then after spending sometime there we moved back and had some snacks and waited for the jeep to come and finaly we reached down. It was about 3pm and all of us were hungry so we went to a nearby town for the lunch..
We all got refreshed after the lunch..started moving along the montains covered with tea gardens and the view was awesome. it was our next and in fact the ultimate destination thats the soochipura falls..



we parked the TT and walked for about one and half miles on a well furnished stoned path downwards towards the fall..and yes we reached the climax thats the soochipura falls. it was awesome .. the water gushing from the top and there was plenty of it as it had rained since the last few days..

the whole place was filled with mist due the tremendous force of the waterfall..we realy enjoyed the place..and it was almost the time for us to come back and call it a day..on our way back we took some snaps in the tea gardens and scenic beauty of the place which had fascinated all of us..we reached the hotel by about 6pm in the evening..





we all decided to get freshen up for a bit of shopping at the nearby market place in kalpetta itself.
and ya the main reason was b'day celebration of suresh..
so we all got ready and went to a nearby bakery for the cake..then we went to a restaurant for the dinner. nice food it was..and of course it was suresh's b'day treat..and ya finally returned back to the hotel for check out.. and yup it was about 11pm at night we left kalpetta..
we really had enjoyed the whole trip but none was tired to fall asleep they all started playing singing and 20-20 game..but i could see varun talkin with the driver so that he s able to concentrate on his job. when we had crossed the border of kerela and karnataka . i suggested varun to take some rest and i took over his job of keepin an eye on the driver.. on the way we had a halt at yashaswini' place in Mysore..

then after half an hour we further proceeded and reached bangalore at about 04:30 am in the morning of 30th june.one by one all were dropped into their respective places and hence the trip came to an end..
And at last the vote of thanks he he he.. to Vinay for good planning .. Vijay for arranging the vehicle.. Suresh for having a good amount of search about the stay and the places to visit, Yashaswini for her research into the places of visit.










and ya Varun especially for guiding us during the whole trip as he was well versed with the local language.
And thanks to all of the trip members to participate actively in the trip and as well as making the trip "the monsoon odyssey".

1st Anniversary of Coastal Express

it was the most pleasant moment of my life that i went for a long trip with the jades(very close friends of my engg. class) for the first time on 7th june 2007..







and its the 1st anniversary of the trip.. and hence m releasing the best moments in a small video.