Shivanasamudra & Talakkadu

This was the second bike trip with my school buddies Raghu, Akshay and Poly. After our Melukote and Wayanad trip, we wanted to ensure that the next destination should be better than before which was a hard task coz wayanad was a place beyond expectations !! We initially planned for a trip to Gopalswamy betta but Raghu's instincts on helplessness in a remote area on tyre getting punctured made us change the destination to Talakkad and somanathpura which are known for its archaeogical importance. I included Shivanasamudra to the list as it was nearby to these places and i felt it as an insult that i have never been here. Covering all 3 places on a single day was indeed a tough task which we thought was manageable...but it wasnt !!

Though our initial plan was Somanathpura - Talakkadu - Shivanasamudra, we had to change our plan based on our interaction with the localites there. They suggested that the most practical plan would be to cover Shivanasamudra and Talakkad as the route which we took (Kanakapura road) was a longer route to reach Somanathpura first.

The main falls is known as Barahchukki and this is where we can get into the water. There is a viewpoint called Gaganchukki from where you can get a complete view of Shivanasamudra. Another point called Darga is also visible from here. We started off with Gaganchukki to get an overview of Shivanasamudra. There were few steps that we had to climb down to reach the view point.

There is nothing exceptional about this point. So without wasting any time we moved to the main spot - Barahchukki !!


The localites showed us a shortcut to reach Barahchukki which saved some time though r bikes had a tough time to cut across those underconstruction roads ! Barahchukki was beyond r expectation. An ideal place for waterfall lovers !! The tiny falls seen from Gaganchukki now appeared Gigantic and beatuful.

Within no time we were all set to get drenched in Barahchukki.

There were coracle rides but they were quite expensive which they claim was due to the water force at that point of time. We had to cross the river to reach the spot beneath the falls. Walking across was an option which looked risky and adventurous. Few of them from r group were game in for adventure and few preferred shelling cash for the coracle. Once we reached the other side we had our own doubts if we should carry on to the next spot as per plan or spend the rest of the day here coz it was superb! After spending a couple of hrs and ciicking a hundred pics, we packed up.

The highlight about Gaganchukki was crossing the river by walking across. At 1 point I felt like "this is probably the end of tonymon" !! :P.



Our next target was Talakkad. But on our way back we spotted Darga and realized that this was another spot that was viewed from Gaganchukki. So we decided to drop in to this place too. Here we had some effortless trekking. Not that great but the place looked beautiful.

After spending an hr in Darga we went to our next spot - Talakkad. By the time we reached there it was quite evident that it was not possible to visit Somanathpura as it was already 6 pm. We quickly covered Talakkad and saw the miraculous temple which is burried under the sand and appears just once in 12 yrs !! But at present its visible throughout the yr to promote tourism (Localites clear up the sand when it covers the temple).

Once we were done with visiting the temples in Talakkad, it was already 7 so our next destination was home sweet home.

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SHIVANASAMUDRA REVISITED .....

My next visit to Shivanasamudra was on Nov 1st 2011. I had planned an outing with my team mates (Wipro - TraCE WT team) since long but nothing had worked out due to tight schedules. Since my proj release date was nearing (nov 30th), we finally decided to trip on nov 1st ! Though hognekkal was considered initially, we finalized on Shivanasamudra. Swathi, Supreet, Deepak, Swathis friends and me went in a TT to Shivanasamudra. We 1st visited the Gaganchukki falls which wasnt that interesting. All we had to do was walk down to the viewpoint and see the waterfall from a distance.

Barahchukki falls : We knew for sure that Barahchukki wont be disappointing since few of us had been there earlier. We started off with the coracle ride. It was peak season, they charged us Rs.150/head. We went close to the falls in 3 coracles and this was a nice experience. Once we were done with the coracle, we crossed the stream to reach the other side where the falls was located. Crossing this was an amazing experience. It wasnt that easy, there was no risk and hence it was exciting. Once we reached the other side, we got into the ice cold water and spent some time under the falls. Among guys, few of us got adventurous and climbed few rocks. Gals were adviced not to climb since the rocks were quite slippery !! Once we were done with Barahchukki we moved on to the next spot - Talakkad.

Most of them who goto Shivanasamudra, make it a point to visit Talakkad also coz they are nearby ! By the time we reached Talakkad, it was a bit late and hence we couldnt enter the temple. We spent time in the beech. Guys went on another coracle ride and by about 7pm we were done for the day. We returned to our TT and reached Bangalore by about 10 pm. During our return journey we played "Telugu vs Hindi" anthakshari. We had a good time during our travel in the TT !!

Kodachadri, Jog falls and Mookambika

Credits : Johnson, Reji, Richie, Alex and Tonymon
Distance from Bangalore : Jog falls - approx 350kms ; Kodachadri - approx 400kms
Route - Bangalore - Shimoga - Kollur


This has been the best unplanned trip till date !! Since a week we had been planning for a trip but the venue kept changing every now and then. Finally Johnson came up with the Kodachadri plan on 26th evening. But many of them kept dropping in and out of the plan. At about 7pm on 26th it was decided that we would be going to Gopalswamy betta by bike. At about 8pm there was a conference call between johnson, reji, alex and me. Our final decision was Kodachadri and we decided to go by a Qualis. Reji arranged for a Qualis and the plan was to pick up Alex from his flat. At 10:30, the driver gets a shock that we had a 2 day plan in mind :D ...he disagreed and we were wondering how to go !! The next immediate plan was to go by train but prob was that Alex would have to board the train from Majestic as that was closest for him and he had to travel from Ejipura to Majestic in 25 minutes !! With great difficulty in filmy ishtyle Alex reached in time and got into the train and we boarded the same train from Ypur. We jumped into the Sleeper coach though we had a general ticket. As expected TT and cop caught us and warned us that we may have to pay a penality of 300 per head for traveling in a sleeper coach with a general ticket. Reji used his flattering and buttering skills to resolve this issue. The TT finally arranged for AC tickets !! (charged us Rs.70 extra but thats fine coz we got to travel comfortable !! )

We reached Shimoga by 6am the next day (27th Nov). From there we had to reach Simha farms which was rated the best as per my rough google search. After boarding into the bus we realized that there are no rooms available in Simha farms which was a big disappointment for us. The co passengers in the bus suggested that the best option for us would be to stay in Kollur as that was the nearest to Kodachadri. We went by the majorties opinion. The bus took 5 hrs to reach Kollur which was just 130 kms from Shimoga !!! As expected Kollur was a very religious place. We found lots of newly married couples roaming around Kollur in their Kerala attire !! To our disappointment the lodge that we found there wasnt as per what we dreamt about Simha farms but the low tariff rates balanced our disappointment :D. After a pathetic lunch we asked the lodge owner to arrange for a jeep to take us to kodachadri which was 30 kms away from Kollur.

Our mantra for the day while visiting Kodachadri was "MIST is a MUST". But unfortunately there wasnt any mist when we reached there. Without any delay we started our trek after promising the driver that we would return by 6:30pm. We kept walking amidst the scenic beauty.

There was a regular trekking path so wasn't hard to figure out the way. Finally we reached the spot where Shankracharya used to meditate. Like all other hills there was just a temple on top but the view was awesome.

Mist would have made it look better but nevertheless it matched our expectation. Some college students had come to camp on the hilltop. We too had plans of staying back till sunrise but considering the jeep driver we started our return trek after sunset coz it was getting darker minute by minute !!

By the time we reached the parking lot it was pitch dark. On returning to our room we played cards for about an hr and all of us fell asleep.

Next day morning (28th Nov) we woke up wondering whats in store for the day coz we had no clue where to go. After our discussion with the lodge owner we were left with 2 options - Jog falls and Murudeshwara. We finally settled with jog falls. The lodge owner arranged for a Xylo.

We started our day 2 journey by visiting Mookambika temple. All of us were excited to see the Elephant blessing those who gave a rupee as an offering. We too received blessings and then off we left to Jog falls !!

Jog is nearly 70kms from Kollur and it took us 2 hrs to reach there. But once we reached there we weren't that convinced coz Jog didn't appear as dynamic as we had visualized. The very thought of climbing 1400 steps brought down our spirits. But after climbing down we were back to form coz we had ample time to play in the water. None of us were swimming experts so didn't test our swimming skills much. The place was such that my Vrikshasan pose was obvious :D ...

For nearly an hr we played in the water and then decided to leave Jog coz we had planned our return journey by bus from Shimoga.Climbing 1400 steps was a BIG TASK !! Reached the bus stop just in time, boarded the 6:45 bus and reached Shimoga by 10, got into the 11pm bus to Blore and reached Blore by 6am. We were dead tired after our 2 days of unplanned trip and the 5 of us felt that this has been the best of this sort till date !!

Haunted house on St.Marks Road !!

25th Sep 2010 : I had been to Nandini hotel on St.Marks road with few of my college friends. On our way, Vj showed us this house and explained the story behind this house. Here goes the story : There were 2 sisters who lived in this house. They were spinsters and the younger one ?(Vera Vaaz) was an advocate. On an unlucky day in 2001, Doice Vaaz was killed when Vera was not in town. The scary part is that she was killed and burried in that house itself..!! Vera was later asked to vacate from the house. Since then this house is left abandoned and was declared haunted by the public.

From the day I heard this story I was curious to enter this haunted house. I did a bit of research in net and was shocked to read a few scary incidents. I then made up my mind that I would visit this house the following week. After convincing few of my friends, we finally visited the house on Gandhi jayanti (Oct 2nd). Our team consisted of Raghu, Johnson, Basil, Sanal, Shiju, Titus and me. We were looking for the piano and the headless statue that was mentioned in few of the blogs.

The outside view of the house did give a negative feeling (probably coz of the stories that we had heard). There was a broken window through which we entered.It was pitch dark inside. Glad that we had a couple of mobile torches !! The house was completely ruined inside. The sofa sets, dining table, glasses, bottles, showcase etc were all there but in a messed up state ! We spotted the Grand piano in the living room. But it was a treasure hunt to spot the headless statue. We started investigating the house. We found her spectacles, sandals, utensils, magazines, gramaphone disc etc etc. Finally we found the so called headless statue. It was barely 15cms !!







There were lots of rooms and each room led to another room. Only thing that gave a haunted look was that there were roots of trees creeping through the walls of a room..!

I guess the Vaz sisters were obsessed with glasses. There were glasses all over the house and the strange thing is that noones dared to flick them since 10 yrs ..!!  We even found some court papers inside the car (They probably belonged to Adv.Vera).

 
 After about an hour of investigation we came to a conclusion that the stories about this house being haunted is all bogus and imaginary. There was no cross that made loud sounds and none of us burnt our backs. The so called headless statue brought a smile on our face and not a shiver. We just picturized the house 10 yrs back and unknowingly cursed all those who were responsible for this house to be tagged as haunted !!

Final verdict : This house is haunted because people claim that its haunted and not because its actually haunted !!! Sad that there's no-one to claim for this house. This sure is an abandoned beauty. 

wayanad

Since 2 yrs I had been planning a trip to wayanad with many groups. But it always flopped somehow or the other. Finally materialized with my IISc gang on sep 17th.

sept 17th : Raghu stayed over at my place the prev night and we woke up at 4:30am to get started with our trip. Gopi was ready at 4:30 itself and started walking from Nagaland circle to mathikere coz he had no other work. By about 5:15 gopi, akshay and poly gathered at my place and we left to soma's place to pick him. The route was Bangalore - mysore - Gundlupet - bandipur - wayanad. We reached Mysore by about 8 and Crossed Blore border by about 11.




We checked into a lodge called Doha and then headed towards Meenumutti falls. Our plan was to cover Meenumutti and sujipara falls on day 1 & Chembara peak and Edakkal caves on day 2.

Meenumutti falls was hard to trek. We had to strain ourselves depending on ropes tied here and there to help us in treking. The trek was tough and the guides irritating words made it tougher. He kept blowing his trumpet that he could trek Meenumutti in 20 mins ! Even towards the end of trek wen I asked him how much more to trek he repled "For me it'll take 5 more mins but for u all it would be 20 mins" We felt like throwing him into the falls. Trek was awesome but the disappointing part was that we werent allowed to get into the water. The ideal time to visit Meenumutti falls is Nov-Dec coz only during this time we are allowed to get into the water.

We finished Meenumutti trek by 3 and then went to some toddy shop to have lunch. We had some toddy also to refresh ourselves ! From our interaction with the localites we realized that Sujipara would be boring after treking Meenumutti so we headed towards Pookot lake. We had to rush coz the closing time was 5. We reached pookot lake by 5 and just wen we reached Boating time was over. We found many school kids here. We wondered whats so special about Pookot Lake !! We couldnt play in the water and there was just boating for which we were late :D

So we clicked few pics here and then headed towards some viewpoint near wayanad border. But our bad luck was so good that the entire area was filled with fog. We could barely see each other so let alone viewing Wayanad from there ..!! :D We clicked a pic there just for records (the background was pure white and the pic looks like a studio pic :P )







By about 8 we returned to our lodge and bought some food parcel on our way. Dinner was sponsored by RD and Soma. We slept by 11 coz we had to wake up early next morning for the trek to Edakkal caves.

Sept 18th : Our plan was to vacate the lodge and head towards Edakkal by 7:30 . But RD had to spend time in the bathroom from 6 to 7 which delayed our plans :D We kept pulling RD's legs throughout the day for this :D By about 8 we left our lodge and reached Edakkal by 8:30. This place looked beautiful and we had a spledid time treking up the caves. There were jeeps available to take us to the caves but we chose to walk the distance. We had a good laugh at Soma's style of treking coz he wasnt comfortable treking. We reached the caves by about 9:30 and spent some time there.

The guide told us about the history of edakkal caves. There were some carving on the walls of the caves which was done by inhabitants 4000yrs ago.We expected some intellectual mindblowing message oriented carvings. But to our surprise inhabitants 4000 yrs ago had carved pictures of a man, elephant and sun :D By about 10:30 we reached the parking lot.

Our next destination was Kuruva Dweep coz we were told that its too late to goto Chembra peak. Chembra peak was a half day trek and we had to leave by 4 so we changed our destination from Chembara to Kuruva. Kuruva was about 40kms from Edakkal. The road was blocked when we were just 3 kms away from Kuruva. So we had to park the car there and walk for 3 kms through some forest. After a long walk we reached the spot. We had to cross the river on a raft after which we had to walk for a km to reach the island.

We played in the water for about half an hr and by about 3 we decided to walk back. It started drizzling while walking back but thankfully the drizzle didnt last long. We reached the car by about 4:30 and started heading back to Bangalore. At about 5:45 we realized that the checkpost at Wayanad border closes by 6. So we had to rush to avoid staying back in wayanad. Poly's drving skills saved the day for us ! While crossing the Bandipur forest we got to see some wild bull too !




We finally reached Blore by midnight. Poly gopi and RD stayed over at my place and left home the next day morning. This sure was a trip to remember considering that I had been waiting for this since 2 yrs ..!! :)

Kodai & Munnar

It was Abiramis wedding in Tamil Nadu (near Karaikudy). Abhith, SK and me decided to attend the wedding and then visit Kodai which is close to Abiramis place. Vipin was also interested in the trip and so we pulled him also along. Abhith, SK and Vipin reached TN 1 day b4 the marriage. I had to come from Kerala and I reached on the day of the wedding. Once the wedding got over we bid good bye to our coll mates who had attended the wedding and started of our journey..!!

September 2008 : We went by bus to Kodai and reached there late in the night. As soon as we reached a Maruthi van came speeding towards us and stopped. They asked us if we need any lodge, we said yes and they opened the door. We got in and they started speeding towards some lodge. It appeared like a kidnap to us and we were staring at each other :D. But we reached the lodge safely and the driver even said that he'l send a guide and jeep for the next morning.

The next morning we had breakfast and then visited Coakers walk. It was cold and we felt the weather was perfect ! After Coakers walk, we went to La Salette Church which was nearly 150yrs old !!! We then went to the pine forest. The speciality of Pine forest is that the alignment of trees look the same from every point. Our next destination was the suicide spot. The spot looks scary and it is sad that there are no safety measures for this place. Anyone is free to jump from here :D. Our guide narrated an incident wherein a couple had jumped from that spot a week before we had been there.

The next spot was Guna Caves. The very entrance to this cave reminded us of Kamal Hassans movie "Guna". We were eagerly waiting to see this cave. Entering inside the cave was prohibitted. But we bribed our guide (Yesuraj Annai) and went inside. The view from Guna caves was mind Blowing. Yesuraj Annai explained to us why this cave is known as Devils Kitchen. (The fog enters the cave from one opening and leaves from another opening due to which it appears from an arial view that someones cooking and hence the name 'Devils Kitchen'. Later it was popular as Guna caves after Kamal shot the movie 'Guna' here ! We clicked pics posing at the spot where 'Kanmani anbodu kadalan' was shot.

We then set out on a trek to Moutain Beauty. The view from here was amazing. Yesuraj Annai was our guide come photographer.He took us to some shooting spots where a song frmo Thenali, Lyril soap ad, a still from the film Ram, etc were shot. Dolphin nose and Echo point were scary.

Yesuraj annai told us that the hero in 'Ram' stood on leg at echo point. We were shocked to know this coz we were scared to stand there on 2 legs itself :D. Trekking came to an end after we visited 2 waterfalls, mountain beauty, Echo point, Dolphin nose and Bear caves.
We returned to our hotel and a good sleep.

Next morning we spent some time in star lake. We went boating and horse riding around the lake. By lunch we started our journey to Munnar. We changed 3 buses and finally reached Munnar by night. It was raining cats and dogs when we reached there. We were lucky enough to get a good lodge. Like in Kodai, we made previous day arrangements for a jeep and a guide.
Next day morning we freshened up and got into our jeep. The guide to us to some photopoint where tourists generally pose for pics. We then visited some dam (I ges its known as Mattupetti).

From there we went to the elephant lake which is besides some jungle.We couldnt spot any Elephant there and couldnt get into the water also.

There was another nearby lake where we found some wild horses. After a small session of photography there, we moved on to Attukkal falls. This was nothing different and remarkable. We spent about an hr here and then decided to goto my hometown 'Perumbavoor'. That was the end of our memorable trip. We didnt find Munnar all that great probably coz we enjoyed Kodai to the core and were quite tired after reaching Munnar.






                                                                   THE END !

Pondicherry

My 1st overnight trip with my coll gang ! This was during our semester break after 7th sem.

*in :- Abhith, Vj, Suda, Bala, SK, Vipin and Tonymon

22nd Jan 2008 : All of us gathered in Majestic to board the Rajahamsa to Pondicherry.We reached pondy on 23rd morning and went searching for some lodges. We finally found one lodge could accommodate all 7 in 1 room. We freshened up as early as possible to kick start our pondy tour :) Our plan was to cover Church, temple,  Pondy beach, Aurobindo Ashram and French colony on day 1. Auroville Beach, Matrimandir, park, Nehru street was the agenda for day 2 !Our mode of transport were Atlas cycles (We rented them).

We first visited some famous church and temple in Pondy. Our next destination was the french colony which we had seen in many movies. There is hell lot of difference between the pondy town and French colony though they lie adjacent to each other. French colony is extremely clean and the roads are all cemented. The entire colony is calm and peaceful. This is very close to the pondy beach. Aurobindo ashram is inside the French colony so visited that too. A very divine place where you couldnt stop yourself from staying quiet !!
We even visited some museum close to the ashram.

We then headed towards the Pondy beach. But getting into the water is prohibited here so we tried looking for a spot where we can get into the water. Vijay spotted some lonely beach and it appeared quite nearby. So we started cycling towards that direction. But no matter how much we cycled the beach still appeared far away. We cycled for nearly 10-15 kms reached the beach that Vijay had spotted. After reaching there we realized that it was Auroville Beach which was our schedule for day 2 :D.. This beach was very clean and we spent some time playing in the water.

 We even burried Abhith in the sand. :D After about an hr we left from there coz we had to get back to pondy by eve. After returning to Pondy we had dinner and roamed around Nehru street. We then went to Pondy beach and sat on those rocks till midnight. It was great fun to sit on those rocks and look at the waves during the night time !

24th Jan : We vacated our rooms and headed towards Matrimandir. The cycling experience was a memorable one. But on our way to Matrimandir we got scammed at some restaurant. We ordered lime juice. They gave us water, lemons and sugar separate and CHARGED RS.20 for this ...!!!

The golden globe was still under construction and we were disappointed to know that we wouldnt be allowed to enter inside coz we had to take permission from the concerned authority one day in advance ! So we roamed around the place for sometime and cycled back to Pondy.

We now had lots of time to kill coz we had to board our bus in the night. So we visited some park in Pondy. We then went to Nehru street and spent the rest of the time shopping. By night we went to Pondy bus stand and reached Blore on 25th morn.








Like they say that you would never forget your 1st Love, I am sure the 7 of us would never forget our 1st overnight trip ! :) 

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PONDICHERRY REVISITED .........

Pondicherry is 1 place where people love to go again and again. Rakesh, Murali, Vikku and me had been to Gokarna earlier which was a bit disappointing coz it was off season when we had been there. We planned to compensate that by going to Pondy. My 2nd visit to Pondy was with Rakri, Vikku, Liddu, Tiju, Manu, Thoma, Balu, Vinod, Ashok and Vineeth.

Tiju, Liddu and me left from Bangalore by bus and reached Pondy the next day morning. All of us gathered at a hotel. Once the entire gang had arrived, we checked in to a lodge to freshen up. By the time we were ready it was almost evening and we left to paradise beech.

Paradise beech : Supposedly this is the best beech in Pondy and we decided to go and find out what makes this special. At the enterance we were asked to take tickets for the boat ride. You have to go by boat for about a km to reach Paradise beech. By the time we got our turn to go it was quite late and hence we couldnt spend time in paradise beech. We just went on a boat ride and returned to the mainland after viewing the beech from a distance !!

Auroville beech : Our next destination was Auroville. We knew that it was too late to go there but we had no other choice since we had nothing else to do. Without wasting any time we reached Auroville by bus and noticed that people were returning from the beech when we reached there. We just had a glimpse of the beech and we also returned from there. We barely spent 15 mins in Auroville beech :P We then returned to our lodge and dozed off.

                                                                                                                       The next day we spent Manu, Liddu and me woke up early and visited a nearby church. After the mass we roamed around the french colony on cycles and returned to our lodge by lunch. Post lunch we had nothing much to do and we all dispersed in different directions. I was off to Nehru street for some shopping. We gathered at the bus stand by eve and left to Blore.