With less than a month left in college, I see everyone's status messages being changed to countdown of the days left. When I look back at these 4 years that I spent in college, I get all the sweet memories in my mind. I don't think I have had any major fight with anyone in the college, no enemies; although there have been few bitter incidents here and there. But, that's pretty much acceptable. I have come across some of the most beautiful people over here - I have been blessed to meet them, know them and befriend them, which I hope carries on even after the college. Guys like Basu, Prani, Puppy, Preetam, Rajan, Gogs, Poo, DD and all have been like a family. Whatever happens, you share with them, whether its good or bad, it doesn't matter. And branch-mates like Nitin, Sushant, Shri and Anna have been very supportive right from the time when I started to know them properly. Without Shri's and Anna's notes, clearing these 4 years would be an impossible task. Sushant was always there, whenever I needed any help regarding anything, but mostly academics. One night before the exam, I would go to his room and he'd explain me everything. There hasn't been a time when he would say no if he knew the solution. I wonder if I'll find these kind of guys anywhere down the line in my life. I still remember the first month of the college - I didn't speak much, would restrict myself to my room, but as I came to know slowly, I came to know how good they were and that it wasn't bad interacting with them. Slowly all of us grew fond of each other's company, we sat in one room cracking jokes, making fun of each other (always light-heartedly) and the common profs that we shared. From there till now, it has been a never-forgetting journey. The first month and the last month of the college are the worst, both in their own ways. Its never easy to say good-bye to anyone. Branch and party fare-well which will take place in few days time are going to be one emotional and senti affair. Will keep you updated with it. And all the four year break-up wise, I will post later sometime.
Apr 14, 2010
Apr 7, 2010
An Eventful Roadtrip to Wayanad
This trip was long pending. Nitin was really keen on going on a road-trip somewhere. After he came to know that Wayanad is not that far from here, we decided that we'll go there itself. So, we rented a car - Diesel Indica to be precise, and it was the five of us - me, Nitin, Anna, Sushant and Shri. We left at around 7 in the morning from college, had breakfast at the Dosa Camp in Mangalore and then took the NH-17 via Kasargod and Kannur. Kannur is around 150 kms from Mangalore, it took just a little over 3 hours to reach there. I drove till Kannur and from there on Anna started driving. We stopped a little at Kannur, checked fuel and then left. On the way, we saw an Indian Coffee House at a place just outside Kannur, called Vatakara. We had lunch over there, nothing great - just simple Egg Biryani and Omlette, and this was the place where we first got to drink the Herbal Water of Kerala. It is served hot and looks pink in color. The weather outside was getting real hot, but we couldn't do anything about it. We continued our journey after lunch, when just a little later, some vehicles which passed by, told us to check our right back wheel. It was wobbling, not just little, but a lot. So we stopped at few places to check for tyres before we were told to go to Flora Car Service Station. This station was like a blessing in a place where we couldn't find even a decent restaurant. It was like a proper Gulf station with all hydraulic machines. There we discovered that the disc which hold the tyre was slant, so we changed that disc with the one used for spare tyre. The owner of the place was a retired captain from Army, he was a really nice guy, when he saw us standing outside - he told us to relax and sit inside. And we were relieved to find some guy who knew something other than Malayalam. After this, we carried on with our journey. We were supposed to reach a place called Quilandy, where we had to change from NH to an SH. But, before we reached there, we got confused with some roads and ended up on the wrong route. After asking everyone, we somehow reached Wayanad district. From there to reach Kalapetta, we had to go through a ghat section where the traffic was really high, and this road was going to Ooty and Mysore on two separate ways. I was driving from there. Till we reached Kalapetta, the district HQ of Wayanad, it was already dark. We looked around for some hotels, but to our surprise it was peak season and we couldn't find anything. By some indirect contact, we found a home-stay, which cost us Rs 2000 per night for 2 rooms. The place was pretty decent, it had totally five rooms which could be given on home-stay, and the guy was staying with his family on the top floor. We had dinner at a nearby restaurant which wasn't so great because it was already 10pm till we reached there. We parked the car, and crashed the moment we reached, since all of us were really tired.
The next day we left at around 8.30 in the morning, had breakfast at a place called Udupi Restaurant, which was no where close to any of the restaurants in Udupi, food-wise. On the way, we found a tourist information centre, where we got a proper tour guide and a map of Wayanad. The guy over there told us about the places that we can visit in one day. he shortlisted Edakkal Caves, Kanthampara Waterfalls and the stretch of Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary till the Karnataka Border. We started off with Kanthampara Falls. It was a nice little falls, we were happy to see that there was hardly any trek to reach the falls unlike most of the other falls that I'd gone. And other strange thing was, we were not going from the foot of the falls, we were approaching it from where it was falling. We stayed there for sometime, took bath. All of us who had taken had bath over there had problem changing underwear since we forgot to get towels. We literally went in between the bushes to change.
We then moved on to our next destination - the Edikkal Caves. It was really crowded here, and after reaching there, we had to wait for sometime for the jeep which would take us on top. Of course you could even walk till there, but we were in no mood to take any physical exercise in that heat. We then hopped on the jeep which took us through a really steep track to reach the caves. That wasn't the end of it, we hadn't reached our destination yet. From there, we had to buy tickets and trek more till we could reach the caves. After a trek which involved getting into some other caves, waiting for the incoming traffic and lot of heat, we finally reached our destination. The caves had some Neolitic Age writings, the oldest in India apparently. But after all that trek, we expected them to be a little more worthy. We stopped there for sometime, took photos and headed back. Till we reached the foothill it was already evening and clouds were hovering over us. We sat there outside for sometime, bought souvenir and had juice. Just when we were heading back to our car, it started raining pretty heavily, it was good to feel the rain after months of heat. But rain would mean harder to drive back. A little while later the rains became light and the weather had become beautiful. Fresh breeze and good roads are a perfect combination. We realized this when we started driving on the NH to Mysore, we passed Sulthan Batery on the way, it was a small town which was densely populated (we could see that by the badly maintained traffic in the town).
After driving a little on that same NH, we entered the stretch of Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary. The road was covered with bamboos on both the sides, some places the bamboos from both the sides made a canopy on the road, which was spectacular. The whole part - the after rain effect, the smooth wide road, less traffic - all made the drive look beautiful. We stopped at few places in between, took some snaps and carried on. The only thing that we were missing were some hot pakodas and good coffee! We stopped at one place where we found a tree house sort of structure, just few kilometers before the K'taka border, had tea over there (which wasn't so great). On the way we found the entrance to the sanctuary, but it was closed till the end of this month for some works. We reached the K'taka border and then decided to head back since it was already getting late. I drove on the way back to Kalapetta, we reached there just before the sunset. Went to our home-stay, refreshed and relaxed for sometime. Then, for dinner we decided to go to a restaurant attached to the Woodland's Hotel. The food was just okay, it wasn't so great. We came back to our rooms and dozed off in sometime.
The next day we woke up a little late, and we had many things to do. We had to see some places around and then head back to college. We started off with Banasura Sagar Dam, apparently the largest earthen dam in India and second largest in Asia. There were speed-boats available at the reservoir of the dam. The boat-ride was pretty good, it was for 20 minutes. There was a waterfall called Meenmutti waterfall around 3 kms from there, so we decided to go over there also. But as we reached the falls, we came to know that the water had dried and it was just rocks left over there. We still trekked all the way till top, took some snaps on the way and headed back. We were then headed to Mananthavady, a place where we were supposed to decide either to go via Kannur or Coorg. After having lunch at a decent place in Mananthavady, we thought of taking the Coorg way, since the distance was almost same and most of us hadn't seen Coorg.
After driving for some distance, we thought we made a wise decision by taking this route since it was pretty good. But we were proved wrong, just 10 kms before the K'taka border, we came across the worst road possible, it wasn't even a proper route, we were just going along the path. Till after 15 kms into K'taka the road was like this. After this the road wasn't great but it was still bearable. It was just narrow, and the shoulders were at a different level from the road, so when it was problematic to overtake and when two vehicles would pass. Coorg was around 107 kms from the K'taka border. We passed through Virajpet on the way. I drove till Madikere, and we stopped in Madikere for sometime, looked around few places there. We went to Raja Seat, it is on top of a hill from where the whole road to Mangalore was visible. The garden was maintained really well, the flowers were beautiful, and there was this small toy-train thing outside it. We went on a ride in it. After that, the musical fountain started, it was beautiful. The sync of the lights and the water with the music was splendid. It was getting dark, and we had to drive back to Mangalore which was still 140 kms far, so we left from there.
After driving on the ghat section for around 15 kms, we stopped on the way to pee. After this, when we tried starting the car, it wouldn't. No one had any clue what went wrong with it, the dashboard was showing 'Check Engine' remark and we didn't know what to do. So here we were in middle of no where in pitch dark, had no clue what went wrong with the car and the next town was around 30 kms far. Thankfully, there was this small hotel where we stopped. We asked him for some help, but he said there won't be any mechanics since it was a Sunday. One car stopped on the way while passing by. They looked at the engine and other things, and found that the water in the radiator container was completely empty. So that meant that the car wasn't starting because it was heated totally. So we filled water back there, but it wouldn't stay there, it was leaking all out. We thought we were in some big trouble, and had no idea what to do, whether to go back to Coorg/Madikere(15kms) or continue driving till we find the next town (at least 30 kms). We decided to carry water in the water bottles that we had and drive back to Madikere, since it was risky driving back more than 100 kms in that condition. We reached Madikere at around 10pm. I called up one of my didi who was staying there. She told we could come and stay at her place. We had dinner and stayed at her place for the night.
In the morning, she served us a real sumptuous meal for breakfast. All of us hogged properly, and then got our car checked, and headed to M'lore. The drive back was fine, this time the car showed no problems, but the heat was killing us. We drove via Sullia, Puttur, B.C. Road to Mangalore. Anna drove till Sullia, Nitin tried his hands at the stretch from Sullia to Puttur and I continued from there till Mangalore. We reached Mangalore by 5pm, returned the car and took our advance back, that we had kept with him. We then had ice-cream at Ideal's parlor in Hampankatta. We reached all tired and exhausted to college at 6pm. The trip was good, apart from few incidents in between, but incidents are experiences that are part of life. That's what makes life more fun and interesting.
All the photos have been uploaded here. Do check them out :
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=198627&id=507927124&l=3abf4b60de
The next day we left at around 8.30 in the morning, had breakfast at a place called Udupi Restaurant, which was no where close to any of the restaurants in Udupi, food-wise. On the way, we found a tourist information centre, where we got a proper tour guide and a map of Wayanad. The guy over there told us about the places that we can visit in one day. he shortlisted Edakkal Caves, Kanthampara Waterfalls and the stretch of Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary till the Karnataka Border. We started off with Kanthampara Falls. It was a nice little falls, we were happy to see that there was hardly any trek to reach the falls unlike most of the other falls that I'd gone. And other strange thing was, we were not going from the foot of the falls, we were approaching it from where it was falling. We stayed there for sometime, took bath. All of us who had taken had bath over there had problem changing underwear since we forgot to get towels. We literally went in between the bushes to change.
We then moved on to our next destination - the Edikkal Caves. It was really crowded here, and after reaching there, we had to wait for sometime for the jeep which would take us on top. Of course you could even walk till there, but we were in no mood to take any physical exercise in that heat. We then hopped on the jeep which took us through a really steep track to reach the caves. That wasn't the end of it, we hadn't reached our destination yet. From there, we had to buy tickets and trek more till we could reach the caves. After a trek which involved getting into some other caves, waiting for the incoming traffic and lot of heat, we finally reached our destination. The caves had some Neolitic Age writings, the oldest in India apparently. But after all that trek, we expected them to be a little more worthy. We stopped there for sometime, took photos and headed back. Till we reached the foothill it was already evening and clouds were hovering over us. We sat there outside for sometime, bought souvenir and had juice. Just when we were heading back to our car, it started raining pretty heavily, it was good to feel the rain after months of heat. But rain would mean harder to drive back. A little while later the rains became light and the weather had become beautiful. Fresh breeze and good roads are a perfect combination. We realized this when we started driving on the NH to Mysore, we passed Sulthan Batery on the way, it was a small town which was densely populated (we could see that by the badly maintained traffic in the town).
After driving a little on that same NH, we entered the stretch of Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary. The road was covered with bamboos on both the sides, some places the bamboos from both the sides made a canopy on the road, which was spectacular. The whole part - the after rain effect, the smooth wide road, less traffic - all made the drive look beautiful. We stopped at few places in between, took some snaps and carried on. The only thing that we were missing were some hot pakodas and good coffee! We stopped at one place where we found a tree house sort of structure, just few kilometers before the K'taka border, had tea over there (which wasn't so great). On the way we found the entrance to the sanctuary, but it was closed till the end of this month for some works. We reached the K'taka border and then decided to head back since it was already getting late. I drove on the way back to Kalapetta, we reached there just before the sunset. Went to our home-stay, refreshed and relaxed for sometime. Then, for dinner we decided to go to a restaurant attached to the Woodland's Hotel. The food was just okay, it wasn't so great. We came back to our rooms and dozed off in sometime.
The next day we woke up a little late, and we had many things to do. We had to see some places around and then head back to college. We started off with Banasura Sagar Dam, apparently the largest earthen dam in India and second largest in Asia. There were speed-boats available at the reservoir of the dam. The boat-ride was pretty good, it was for 20 minutes. There was a waterfall called Meenmutti waterfall around 3 kms from there, so we decided to go over there also. But as we reached the falls, we came to know that the water had dried and it was just rocks left over there. We still trekked all the way till top, took some snaps on the way and headed back. We were then headed to Mananthavady, a place where we were supposed to decide either to go via Kannur or Coorg. After having lunch at a decent place in Mananthavady, we thought of taking the Coorg way, since the distance was almost same and most of us hadn't seen Coorg.
After driving for some distance, we thought we made a wise decision by taking this route since it was pretty good. But we were proved wrong, just 10 kms before the K'taka border, we came across the worst road possible, it wasn't even a proper route, we were just going along the path. Till after 15 kms into K'taka the road was like this. After this the road wasn't great but it was still bearable. It was just narrow, and the shoulders were at a different level from the road, so when it was problematic to overtake and when two vehicles would pass. Coorg was around 107 kms from the K'taka border. We passed through Virajpet on the way. I drove till Madikere, and we stopped in Madikere for sometime, looked around few places there. We went to Raja Seat, it is on top of a hill from where the whole road to Mangalore was visible. The garden was maintained really well, the flowers were beautiful, and there was this small toy-train thing outside it. We went on a ride in it. After that, the musical fountain started, it was beautiful. The sync of the lights and the water with the music was splendid. It was getting dark, and we had to drive back to Mangalore which was still 140 kms far, so we left from there.
After driving on the ghat section for around 15 kms, we stopped on the way to pee. After this, when we tried starting the car, it wouldn't. No one had any clue what went wrong with it, the dashboard was showing 'Check Engine' remark and we didn't know what to do. So here we were in middle of no where in pitch dark, had no clue what went wrong with the car and the next town was around 30 kms far. Thankfully, there was this small hotel where we stopped. We asked him for some help, but he said there won't be any mechanics since it was a Sunday. One car stopped on the way while passing by. They looked at the engine and other things, and found that the water in the radiator container was completely empty. So that meant that the car wasn't starting because it was heated totally. So we filled water back there, but it wouldn't stay there, it was leaking all out. We thought we were in some big trouble, and had no idea what to do, whether to go back to Coorg/Madikere(15kms) or continue driving till we find the next town (at least 30 kms). We decided to carry water in the water bottles that we had and drive back to Madikere, since it was risky driving back more than 100 kms in that condition. We reached Madikere at around 10pm. I called up one of my didi who was staying there. She told we could come and stay at her place. We had dinner and stayed at her place for the night.
In the morning, she served us a real sumptuous meal for breakfast. All of us hogged properly, and then got our car checked, and headed to M'lore. The drive back was fine, this time the car showed no problems, but the heat was killing us. We drove via Sullia, Puttur, B.C. Road to Mangalore. Anna drove till Sullia, Nitin tried his hands at the stretch from Sullia to Puttur and I continued from there till Mangalore. We reached Mangalore by 5pm, returned the car and took our advance back, that we had kept with him. We then had ice-cream at Ideal's parlor in Hampankatta. We reached all tired and exhausted to college at 6pm. The trip was good, apart from few incidents in between, but incidents are experiences that are part of life. That's what makes life more fun and interesting.
All the photos have been uploaded here. Do check them out :
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=198627&id=507927124&l=3abf4b60de
Labels:
Travelogue,
Trips
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