The Ten days: Travel log

This post is a log of my travel around Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in the last ten days. 

Highlights: Six night travels in 10 days, beaches, sleaze, Ooty chill, beautiful Kanyakumari, breathtaking Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu bus stands and that Assamese girl in bus! Read on! 

Friday, 19th Dec 08. Bangalore

5 pm: Things are not looking good at work. A few serious bugs. 

6 pm: Meeting. Worried faces. But the expected bad news doesnt come. 

6.30 pm: Meeting ends on a positive note. I leave office. The unpacked bag at home is making my home-ward journey jittery. 

8 pm: I am home. Bag packing bagins. Simultaneous dinner. 

9 pm: I leave home. Sparse BMTCs makes life a little tough. But I make it. 

10 pm: KSRTC bus stop. Friends are already there. 

11 pm: Bus leaves. Destination Honnavara. 

Saturday, 20th Dec 08. Honnavara

7 am: Stop at Sagara. An admirable town. Beautiful weather. 

8 am: Breathtaking scenes of the Sharavathy Valley. 

9 am: Honnavara bus stop. A claustrophobic auto journey to GB’s house. 

9:20 am: GB’s beautiful house. Amazing family. Very very helpful inspite of the next day’s big occasion. 

11 am: Maruthi Van arrives. The coastal rendezvous begins. 

12:30 pm: Gokarna. Bad news- Temples closed. Who cares! We head to the beach. 

1 pm: OM beach. Beautiful Foreigners. Bikinis. Some passionate kisses. Wow!

2 pm: Boat ride. Chasing dolphins. I am bored. More beaches. More sleaze.

3 pm: Lunch. We hit the road again.

3:30 pm: Mirjan Fort. Mysterious but beautiful. Photo-session.

5:30 pm: Apsarakonda. Anti-climactic waterfall. But an utterly ravishing view of the Arabian sea. Escapade of GK and AG. Delay.

7:30 pm: Murudeshwara. Beautiful temple. Awesome idol. But no devotion.

8 pm:  We hit the beach. Some take advantage of the darkness! 

9 pm: Dinner at Kamat. 

10 pm: Back to Honnavara. Bath. Sleep. 

Sunday, 21st Dec 08. Honnavara

10 am: South Africa on to a famous run chase. Who is this Duminy fellow? They hit and we cheer. 

11.30 am: Marriage hall finally. Discussions begin on our marriages- what kind of girl, what kind of family, what kind of marriage, where, why etc. 

12:30 pm: Discussion ends. Most of us have arrived at answers. No problems for HN though! We head to the dining hall. 

1.30 pm: Lunch done. We head to beach again. This time its kasarakod. 

3 pm: We are alone on the beach. AG and GK are the first to dive into water as usual. KMS is undecided. Me and HN decide to discover the Sharavathy delta and begin our trek. 

4 pm: After almost an hour, there’s still no sight of the delta. We decide to go back. A crab attacks a fisherman. 

5 pm: Everyone is in the sea except me. I am contented taking pics. 

6:30 pm: Back to Honnavara. 

7:30 pm: Hotel Kamat again. The biggest wish of my life is finally satisfied- I eat Mangaluru buns. 

8 pm: Bus arrives. Sleeper coach. Paa Paa Pandu Chidananda behind me. A rocky sleep.  

Monday, 22nd Dec 08. Bangalore. 

6:30 am: Back in Bangalore. Shivery weather. 

10 am: Office. Work. Work. Work. 

11 pm: Back home. Sleep. 

Tuesday, 23rd Dec 08. Bangalore. 

10 am: Office. Work. More German.

6:30 pm: Meeting. I give my quota of good news to the team. Things look positive.  

7:30 pm: Unofficial meeting near my cubicle. Everyone is cheerful. 

8 pm: I leave office. Some good auto driver agrees to go to my locality. 120 rupees gone. 

9 pm: Packing. Dinner. Packing. 

9:30 pm: Auto again. Price negotiation fails. I end up paying 170 rupees. 

10.10 pm: Satellite bus terminus. Bus arrives. Destination Ooty. 

(midnight): Mysore palace. Brilliance. Delight.

Wednesday, 24th Dec 08. Ooty. 

6 am: Green valleys. Tea plantations. Sunrise.

8 am: YWCA. What a place! Colonial building. We smell Christmas everywhere.  Wonderful rooms. Fireplace. Study table. Bible. I start with the Old Testament. 

9 am: Bible reading continues. Adam and Eve to Abel and Cain. Others in bath. 

10 am: I am done with Genesis. 

10:30 am: We share the dining hall with a few French and a few British tourists. Poori, Bread, Jam, Butter, Omlette. Who cares about the bill! 

11 am: We head out. First stop- Botanical Gardens. 

12:30 pm: We are bored. The gardens are green and splendid. But it doesnt stimulate us. We get out. 

1:30 pm: Lunch. ATM. Ooty Railway station.

3 pm: The train arrives. Ours is a reserved coach. The other two coaches are filled to the brim. The train starts. 

3 pm to 6:30 pm: Heaven. Paradise. Eden. Every inch of the mountain railway is an engineering marvel. Especially the Coonoor-Mettupaluyam track. 

6:30 pm. Mettupalyam bus stop. Bus to Ooty is crowded. We have to go standing. Call from office- We have reached GM. Hurray!

6:45 to 10 pm: An arduous bus journey punctuated by some lesbian action in front of us. Back to Ooty. 

10 pm: We are starving. But entire Ooty is shut. We find solace in a bakery. 

11 pm: Back at YWCA. More Bible reading- Joseph goes into exile. Sleep. 

Thursday, 25th Dec 08. Ooty. 

7 am: Unbearable chillness. Cant even walk. 

8 am: Done with bath. More Bible reading. 

9 am: Breakfast. Onion Dosa is a joke. 

11 am: Dodda Betta. Boring place again. We decide to make it adventurous. We evade police, cross the fence and head into the jungle. 

11:30 am: Somewhere in the midst of nowhere. Debate- Continue into the jungle or head back to base? Common sense prevails. Back to Dodda Betta. 

1 pm: Ooty bus stop. We have an idea- Head to Kanyakumari. Eight agree. One opposes. TNSTC tickets booked to Kanyakumari. 

2 pm to 5 pm: Shopping. Packing.

5 pm: Bus starts. A 16-hour journey ahead of us.  

6 pm: Beautiful scenes of sunset from bus. But I am busy trying to look at the Assamese girl in front of me! We start playing a word building game. I am frequently distracted by the girl. She has a pleasant faced brother and father. But her mother looks like a monster. 

The entire night: Sleep. Dreams. The girl. Her teeth. Her hair. A wonderful Christmas. 

Friday, 26th Dec 08. Kanyakumari. 

10 am: First view of the Rock Memorial. Beach. Rocks. And certainly not pleasant. A few wounds. But still an exhilarating experience. 

12:30 pm: Back to room. Bath. 

2 pm: Lunch. Then to boat jetty. 

2:30 pm: On the boat to Rock Memorial. 

3 pm: Rock memorial. More photo posing. Shopping at the book store. Realization of  the significance of the date of our visit- “Vivekananda landed on the rock on 26th Dec 1893. Tsunami struck on 26th Dec 2004.” Teenaged American girls. More sleaze. 

4:30 pm: Statue of Saint Thiruvalluvar. Disappointment. 

5:30 pm: Back on land. We head to temple. Shirts removed. Banians removed. I curse the system. Whatever is the tradition, I can never look at something with concentration or devotion when I am feeling naked. But I still manage to catch a glimpse of the glittering diety. It matches the description I have read in books. 

6 pm: Kanyakumari sunset. Back to room.

7 pm: Dinner at some dirty hotel. Trek to the bus stop. I get kicked by someone on my ankle on the way. 

9 pm: Bus finally arrives after an hour’s delay. Destination Kodaikanal. 

Saturday, 27th Dec 08. Kodaikanal

9 am: Kodaikanal bus stop. Ankle swollen. Head to Hotel Tourist International. There is absolutely nothing international about it. 

10 am: I am struggling to walk. Bath. Head out. 

11:30 am: Breakfast at Hotel Astoria. We have named it ‘Aston Villa’!  Roam around. ATM. Medical shop. 

1 pm: Tata Sumo arrives. Tour begins. Waterfalls. More ankle pain. I help a few children and a beautiful lady cross a stream. Joy! 

2:30 pm: The trek begins. Arduous. Ankle screaming with pain. But the trek is worth all the pain. Beautiful views of the mountain range. Munnar, somewhere in the distance. Kerala border. A couple of very risky photo shoots. 

6 pm: Trek ends. Tata Sumo picks us. Shopping. Lots of chocolates. Lots of spices. I am worried about my ankle. 

8 pm: Back to Aston Villa. Dinner. ‘Sociological analysis’ of honeymoon couples, classifying them into ‘love’ and ‘arranged’. Paneer Butter Masala. Gobi manchuri. Wow! 

9 pm: Freezing cold outside. Walk back to the ‘international’ lodge. Chips and Sprite. Sleep. 

Sunday, 28th Dec 08. Kodaikanal. 

8 am: Aston Villa. Breakfast. Ankle is better. But still swollen. 

9 am: Back in the Tata Sumo. Coaker’s Walk. La Salette church. Pine forests. Suicide point. Pillar rocks. Nature’s astounding beauty. 

1 :30 pm: Kodaikanal lake. Heavy lunch. Chocolate ice-cream.

2:30 pm: Boating. Tired of pedalling. Steering the boat rocks! We try Schumacher style overtaking manoeuvres.  

4 pm: Bryant park. Rest. 

5 pm: Walk back to lodge. Pack. Leave. 

6 pm: Bus arrives. Rajahamsa. Confusion with the E-ticket. Sprint in search of  a photocopying shop.

6:30 pm: Departure. Destination Bangalore.

Monday, 29th Dec 08. Bangalore.

6:30 am: Bangalore finally.