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 Awesomest Driving Experience

 
This was a pretty random plan that we came up with, just within a period of 2-3 hours. We rented a Santro, which was in a really good condition (which rented cars are rarely in one). On Friday night, after coming back from watching LSD, we thought of going somewhere long, since the car didn't have any distance limit. We thought of Gokarna (which most of us had visited), Kemmangundi (Chikmaglore dist.) and Kodachadri (Shimoga dist.). After searching for all these places on net, and working on the feasibility of driving conditions, we selected Kemmangundi, since only one guy amongst us had been there. I'd been to Baba Budangiri Range, which is pretty close to Kemmangundi, but that was 2 years back with family relatives, and I badly wanted to drive to a place like this. Kodachadri was ruled out, because we didn't want to drive at night, and the best part about Kodachadri is night-trek and sun-rise. So, Kemmangundi it was then. Along with me were - Puppy, Preetam, Pranam and Basu. We found the shortest route to take, from college to Kemmangundi (with the help of Google Maps). It went through Moodbidri, Belthangady and Chikmagalore, along the Charmadi ghat. We left at around 6.30 in the morning, filled petrol and checked tyres on the way.

We stopped at Moodbidri for breakfast, and then continued our journey, taking turns to drive. Then started the Charmadi ghat, which was pretty fine on the lower HP (hair pin) bends, and they weren't really sharp HP curves, so even long buses could take turns over there, unlike the Agumbe Ghat which had pretty acute curves for long buses. We reached Chikmaglore at around 12 noon. Just while entering Chikmaglore, we saw a CCD, where we stopped and had a pretty sumptuous lunch. Just for the record - CCD actually has most of its estates in Chikmaglore and its headquarters is also located here. Hence, that makes it special to have in a CCD where its roots lie. Chikmaglore is actually home to India's best coffee. So, we chilled out in CCD for sometime, freshen ourselves up, and then left to Kemmangundi. At a T-junction, when enquired, we were told to take a left, since that was a shorter route compared to the straight route which also led to Kemmangundi.

Now, coming to the route. The route that we took was real bad, comparing even to Indian Standards. It was supposedly a State Highway, but it didn't look like one, in any manner. Although the road was bad, we never stopped enjoying on the way. We came up with random lyrics in some Tulu words, for some trance music, which Preetam was playing, since he was driving the car, and we were just irritating him. As we reached higher and higher, our ears started closing and opening (if that is how I should put), and the road condition also became worse. At one place where we were supposed to take a lower right which led to Kemmangundi, we took the upper right, since it was directed properly. This other route led us to Baba Budangiri Range (Dada Pahad/ Datta Peeta) and a waterfall called Manikyadhara. This road was very narrow, and was really freaky since the level was very high and there was no fencing on any of the sides. So it was just like driving on the Grand Canyon of NFS Carbon game (only difference being the condition of the road).

Since Manakyadhara was just 3 kms away, we thought we'll just stop over there for 10 minutes or so. Manikyadhara was nothing great, it is basically a pilgrimage place and the falls was just little water flowing from the top of a cliff. We took some photos over there and hurried there withing 15 mins.

From top, I drove back to Kemmangundi. On the way, we thought we might run out of fuel to go back till Chikmaglore, and since there were no other petrol pumps, we considered filling it there itself. When inquired, we were told one hotel keeps fuel. So we went over there, and he was selling it for 75 Rs/L. Since we had no other option we filled some 6L over there and carried on to Kemmangundi. The further road was even worse, it wasn't even a Pukka road, to make matters worse. To cover a distance of 25 kms, we took more than 2 hours. After reaching Kemmangundi, we asked about the jeeps which would take us to Hebbe Falls from there. It was at a distance of 11 km from there, but the road was totally messed! I haven't gone in a road more bumpier than this one. I mean there were huge rocks all over on the road, and the jeep was going on top of all of them. Plus, the condition of the jeep was pathetic, I wonder what it was holding up to. But, I'm pretty sure there was no other vehicle which would've gone there.


Finally, at around 6 pm just before sunset, we reached our destination. From there we had to trek for about 10-15 mins to reach to the waterfall. The waterfall was worth all the trouble that we went through. It falls in two stages - Dodda Hebbe (Big Falls) and Chikka Hebbe (Small Falls), totally from a height of 550 ft. The falls are properly isolated, and are surrounded by dense forests and coffee plantations, which makes them more beautiful. Since the time we went was pretty late, and it was already getting dark, the waterfall looked just like milk flowing, among the greenery. We just took a dip in freezing cold water, and since we had no time we couldn't go under falls, as it would be difficult for us to trek back after it would get dark. So we left when the left was just enough to take us till our jeep. The bumpy ride was back yet again, and thankfully the headlights of the jeep were working. Given the condition that it was in, we had serious doubts. We reached back Kemmangundi by 7.30 pm, and we reached we were shocked to see the whole place deserted. I mean the time when we left there was a shack and there were some jeep guys sitting over there; when we come back, we see only our car parked over there. After that, we paid the jeep guy and asked him the shortest route to Chikmaglore from there. He guided us to something which worked wonders for us. The route he told us was not just short, but it was good too. After a distance of 20 km, we joined the State Highway and smoothly reached Chikmaglore, with our safe driver Pupps, who drove all the way back at night.


After reaching Chikmaglore, we had our dinner at a decent restaurant, and inquired about a good place to stay there. After getting to know the accommodation rates, we had a discussion on whether to stay during night or drive back to college. We settled on staying back, since traveling on the ghats was a little risky. And given the fact that most of us were sleep-deprived for the past 2 or so days. We stayed at a place called Krishna Residency; the rooms were decent and we had a really good sleep, although the power kept coming and going. I came to know about the power cut only in the morning, that's how well I slept. Got up in the morning, had proper south-Indian breakfast at a decent restaurant and left to college. We took the same way back to college, by which we had come. Again all of us took turns in driving, and we reached college in around 4.5 hours from there.

This was, by far, the best road trip for me till date. I have got experience in driving Ghat sections now, and am more confident. It will, Inshaallah, serve me well in the future.

Sringeri, Hanuman Gundi and Sirimane Waterfalls

This was like a mini class trip. I was asked if I am interested in coming to Hanuman Gundi falls and I, obviously never miss an opportunity to see new places, and Hanuman Gundi had been on my wishlist for quite sometime now, and what better way to go than with a group of 15 guys. They were me, Aslam, Varun, Mishra, Soumyajit, Sorabh, Pavan, Abhishek, Sethi, Nandu, Priyam, Bharath, Kamath, Sushant and Hemagiri. We started off early in the morning at around 7 o' clock, we hired a mini bus, which had capacity of 15. It was pretty good, had DVD and audio player, and the seats were pretty comfortable. The place is around 2 and a half hours from our college. It falls in Chikmaglore district, and is in the heart of Kudremukh National Park. We took the way from Padubidri, and then NH 17 via Karkala. We stopped just outside Karkala for breakfast. After having breakfast, we stopped to get a pass for entering Kudremukh National Park, which was valid till evening 6 o' clock. Just after around 10 kms from there, we reached our destination - Soothanabbi Falls or more famously known as Hanuman Gundi falls. It is named after Hindu god Hanuman, and Gundi means a deep descent, like a gorge or something. The water falls into this hole, from a height of 22m.

After reaching the falls, we bought entrance ticket of Rs 20, and then we had to go down the steps (around 380 of them). The steps had recently been made, otherwise people had to trek down to see the falls. It was a beautiful sight when we reached down - waterfalls right in middle of the forest. I had read few blogs about this place, some days back, they scared me a lot. They said that the place is infested with honey bees, crabs and snakes. But, none of us found anything close to them. Guess, the developments made way for their extinction from the place. But, nonetheless, it was a really good hangout spot. We had come all prepared - we had towels, extra pair of clothes and inner wears. After taking some snaps of the falls, it was time to get wet. So, I changed into my shorts and jumped into water (not exactly jumped, I exaggerate sometimes). Viewer discretion is advised in some photos, they contain unintentional partial nudity. :D

The water was freezing cold. After shivering in the water for first 5 minutes, I got adjusted to it. The rocks were very slippery, we had to be careful while walking inside the water. We then decided to go near the falls, right under where the water was falling. As we went close, the splashing of water made it even colder. But, standing right under water falling from a height of around 70 ft is something unexplainable. It was an amazing experience. After Sita Falls, this was the second place where I took bath directly under the water falls. We stayed there for sometime, and then relaxed just around the falls sitting on some non-slippery rocks and posing for some photos. After that, some guys discovered a pond on a little lower level of the falls, and decided to swim there. The water was pretty deep over there, and it was uneven too, and since I did not know swimming, I decided to stay out of it. Then, climbing back to top was a pain, it was exhausting. While coming down, I never felt that there were so many steps, but while going up, they were just never ending. Somehow, we made it to top, and then had Puliyogere, a traditional rice made with tamarind. After all the hard work, the food looked too delicious. We didn't care about plates and spoons, had it directly with our hands right from the container. Pavan had got it from his home, and we thanked him for saving our day. Since, it was just 12 o' clock, some of us suggested visiting Sringeri which was just 30 km from there. When asked the gate man of the falls about places to see in Sringeri, he suggested a temple and Sirimane waterfalls.

On the way, we stopped at a place which overlooked a valley and had many shades of mountains visible from it. We took many photos over there, and then headed to Sringeri.

We also found many monkeys on the way, and some of them were funny and candid.

We continued the same NH 13 and reached Sringeri, it is a famous place for Sharadamba Temple, which, they say, is more than a thousand years old. The temple was beautiful, and there were some expansions done to it on the inside and outside. It was very hot and walking bare foot inside was very uncomfortable, there were mats put on some places, which did help a little. All other guys took prasad and applied teeka(kumkum) on their foreheads. Then, we had lunch in the temple itself. The food was very simple - white rice, daal and sambar. Later, we went to a pond which was connected to the temple premises. It was a relief keeping your foot on the water, after walking bare foot in the scorching heat. The pond had insane number of fishes, all of the same kind and almost same sizes. Everyone was feeding them something like roasted rice(murmure/bhel) and some fruits. We didn't have anything, since we never knew something like this existed. One guy who was feeding banana was gracious enough to give us one, which we divided amongst ourselves. He also showed us how to feed it to the fish. I held a small piece of it on the edge of four fingers of my palm, kept it stationary for sometime, and then woah, I get a sudden shock, a sweet one though. A fish just came and grabbed it out of my hand. It didn't have teeth, so it didn't bite, but I got a shock when it clutched my fingers. We thought camera would not be allowed in the temple, so we didn't take one. Although, we realised later that the camera was restricted only inside the temple where the gods were kept. We did take some photos from mobile camera.

Then, we headed off to Sirimane Falls, which is like 13 km from Sringeri on the way back. We had to take a deviation on right on NH 13. The road was very narrow and bumpy too. We paid the entrance fee of Rs 5 and entered the falls. It was just a few steps down. There were too many sounds of people screaming and shouting, and only after reaching down, did we come to know the reason as to why they were so excited. There were these 4 foreigners - 2 guys and 2 girls, who were also present over there. Just to attract them, these guys were over-excited. Okay, lets not deviate from the falls. Sirimane waterfalls was pretty ok, nothing too extra-ordinary. But, the good thing about this falls was that the rocks were not slippery, so some of us found a place under the falls, where we wouldn't get wet. Since, we didn't have much time left, we decided not to take bath and just took some snaps over there, and decided to head off. On the way back climbing the steps, we struck a conversation with the foreigners, they said they were from UK and Australia. They had come in Enfields all the way from Goa. In fact, they bought the bikes in Goa, and rode from there to Karwar, Jog Falls, Sringeri (I remember seeing the same bikes outside the temple) and were here now. There were 3 bikes, which meant that a girl was also riding a bike, well not just a bike, but a 500cc Enfield. I was like WOW.

We left from there by around 4.15 pm and crossed the limits of Kudremukh National Park at

around 5.30 pm (which was well before 6pm). Then, at a place called Bajegoli, we

stopped to prepare Maggi, which we had kept delaying. There was a Jain temple, from where

we could get water. We prepared it just before the sunset and it was just enough to satisfy

the 15 of us. Got tea and coffee from the nearby canteen. Then, we headed back and reached

college by 8'o clock.

The best thing about this trip, for me was that, it was the cheapest one I've

had till now and one of the best day trips. I just spent 300 Rs for the whole trip.

Isn't that awesome! Just 300 bucks for a day full of fun and adventure.

A trip to Munnar - One of the wonders of God's Own Country

Before reading the post, keep these points in mind:

Some things about the post:

- its written in a very informal language, so please don't mind, if you come across some grammatical errors.

- I've tried to include most of the things which occurred, in case I've missed some, do excuse me for that.

- Sorry for the photos scattered here and there, too lazy to sit and edit them.

Some things to know about Kerala:

- always go with a friend who is a Keralite or at least knows Malayalam, because its very difficult to make conversation otherwise, as most of them know nothing other than Malayalam.

- look out for some beautiful mosques and churches, as they keep coming, at a distance of every kilometer or so.

- you'll find ads only of gold jewelers and sarees on the way.

The main motive of this semester for me was to visit as many new places as possible. So, when I heard that Rotaract Club was going on a trip to Munnar, I requested them to put my name also in the list. And that was an awesome decision. All the arrangements, regarding the transportation, stay and the local sight seeing, were done by the Presi Sourabh. And there were totally around 30 guys and 10 girls. I didn't many guys from the club, except for my juniors and few other batch mates. But, by end of the trip, I was befriend with most of the them. There was so much in the trip, its hard to recapitulate the fine details. But, I will still go through the whole journey, whatever I remember.

We boarded the Mangalore-Thiruvananthapuram Express at 1840 from Mangalore Junction. The train journey was fun. Me and Poo slept for an hour or so, in the start, but after that we were fresh, and we went to meet our juniors and other guys. We found them playing cards and joined them. We played poker, UNO, trumps, etc. Then, we had dinner and, just when we started playing cards again, the TTE told us to stop, since it was already past midnight, and we had to go back to our seats(which were all scattered here and there). We reached Aluwa at around 0350 hours, after a delay of an hour or so. On the way, we saw Cochin Int'l Airport from the train. Our bus was ready, and we boarded it to Munnar at around 0410 hours. It was a pretty decent bus, with 2 and 3 seaters. Guys in the back starting rolling. Some started dancing to Sexy Bitch, which was in turn declared as the Roto Anthem, as it played most of the time, and we were so sick and tired of it. Anyways, the journey was pretty good. On the way, I saw some beautiful mosques and churches. We stopped at a place at around 0600 hours for tea. I had black tea, it was decent(for 3 Rs). As the sun rose, the road turned out to be really beautiful, there were awesome valleys, tea plantations and waterfalls on the way. And yeah, the hoardings, how can I forget about them, every other hoarding would be either of gold jeweler or a Saree shop. If not them, then a poster of Mohan Lal or Mammooty would turn up. We reached Munnar at around 0900 hours, and our hotel's name was SN Annex. The rooms were pretty decent, but it was freaking cold over there. We had to remove our jackets and sweaters, to cover ourselves up. We got refreshed in the hotel, and were then on our way to explore Munnar. I'd started liking the place there itself, because of its weather and the scenic beauty.

Day 1:

Then we went to this huge dam (I forgot the name) which was in a place called Mattupatty. There was an elephant camp there, but none of us were interested in an elephant ride, so we just stopped there, took photos and left to our next destination. Our next stop was at a boating park. There was speedboating over there for a group of 5 in each, apart from a platoon ride for 10 people. We guys selected our group of 5 and went for speedboating. It was a fun ride, the valleys and the tea gardens looked beautiful, and the boat driver would occasionally surprise with a tilt and splash of water. It was for 10-15 minutes. After that, we guys just chilled out for sometime over there, since other guys were still getting there boat rides. In that time, some guys came up with an imaginary subdivision of Roto Club, called PMR (perverted members of roto), by looking at the chics at that place and rating them out of 10. Then we guys left for another dam called Kundla Dam, where, yet again there was boating, but pedal boating and Kashmiri Shikkaras, this time. We just took some photos over there, and had lunch. The bread omelette in that place was awesome. We also tried passion fruit, and I absolutely loved it, I had like 4 or 5 of them for myself. Then, we bought some home-made chocolates and marsh-mellows from there, which were pretty good. After that, we left to a place called Echo-point, and there was pedal-boating over there too. Some of us did boating here, whereas rest of us just sat in the bus. Later, we left back to hotel, relaxed for sometime, before we were served dinner, courtesy - the hotel where we were staying. Then, we had camp-fire at supposedly a park(which wasn't at all like one) planned for the night. At around 2100 hours, we took multiple trips in auto and left for that place. It was freezing cold by then. It was totally not like a camp-fire, but we still enjoyed whatever it was. The music wasn't that great, and there was another group (who were supposed to be after us) which was just staring at us dance. We stayed there till like 2230 hours, and then we had Innova arranged for our return to hotel. That night, I had an awesome sleep. It was cold, cozy and comfortable, because we had the necessary supply of blankets(thankfully). Me, Poo, Shaun and Andrew all slept on the bed.

Day 2:

It was difficult waking up in the morning, with the conditions we're under. It was too cold to leave the bed, and we hadn't slept for the past two nights, and we were tired. But we still managed to wake up by around 0830 hours, freshened up and had breakfast. Then, we vacated our rooms in an hour, and left for a trek to tea gardens in the nearby valley. It was situated beside a dam, and the location was beautiful. We guys started our trek over there, and after reaching like quarter of the hill, we decided that we have to reach the summit. We didn't take the easier path, but we took the harder way of climbing through the tea plantations, it wasn't that difficult, since you always had strong branches of the tea plants to catch, in case you slipped or something. The trek was tiring, but reaching the top and just resting for sometime over there made us fresh again. We took lots of photos over there. And there was just one girl, who made it till the top with us - Snehal, hats off to her. And thank god, she came, because, she was the only one who had camera amongst us. And she didn't mind taking photos of us, some of partial nudity too. Then, we took the easier way back down. Then, we guys thought of skipping the lunch, since most of us were interested in having a sumptuous meal, as we were going to Cochin, and what better than something finger lickin' good - yeah KFC is what I'm talking about. We reached Cochin and headed off straight to KFC, whereas some veggies from the group decided to go to Marine Drive, instead of joining us. We had two buckets over there of 20 pieces, shared by four guys. After that, some guys wanted to do sheesha, so we found a place for it, where we could even watch a very important football match between Chelsea and Arsenal. We watched till the first half and then headed for the station, since we had to catch our train back. Train journey this time was not so great, we just had to go back and sleep, since it was already pretty late and we had our seats scattered all over, and most of them were either in upper or middle berth. We reached back to Mangalore at 0900 hours.

Some things which I might have forgotten:

- Sexy Bitch (by David Guetta feat Akon) was officially declared as the anthem of Roto, since it played so many times in the bus. And, Ranjhani, my civil junior, was given the title of the song, since she would dance to it for all the times it was being played.

- Whole bus journey, we had just one audio cd (with around 18 tracks) which kept repeating all the time.

- By the end of the trip, there were number of groups formed amongst us - Team A was headed by the presi Sourabh himself, which included all the north Indians, Team B included some of us, and Team C were the remaining random ones.

- I made so many new friends during the trip, and I got close to many of my juniors, and so many of them were so much of fun, like Bhowmik, Ramsel, Jeeva and all.

- Overall, this was one of the best trips I have had in my college.