VIRTUAL KODAIKANAL EXPERIENCE

2010-07-31T12:02:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

After August, 2009 there were so many changes in my life. I got married in November, 2009 and moved to one of my dream role in my job. Life is different after marriage as I need to commit to lot of things. This has been a long gap for me to blog. I am back to share my experience regarding my recent trip to KODAIKANAL.

After 5 months of my marriage my wife came to me & told that she is getting bored with this corporate life and want to go for a holiday. We chose KODAIKANAL as it has been one of the top most hill stations. Our journey started on May 14th evening at 9:00 pm from Bangalore. We had booked the bus tickets through KSRTC. Most of my friends informed bus journey would be good. We also have trains, however we need to get down at Kodai road and then board a bus which would be time consuming. It took 12 hrs for us to reach this beautiful place.

We had booked our room at J's Heritage Hotel which has charged Rs.3100/- for 3 nights and 4 days which was okay. I would prefer people reading this blog not to check into this hotel as the service was not good at all. However as we had already booked it online through makemytrip.com, there was no other way for us. The climate was so cool and the place is approximately 7000 ft high above sea level. On May 15th, We got ready to explore this beautiful place after 12:00 pm. We had our lunch at WOODLAND VEG RESTAURANT quite opposite to bus stand. The food was good. The recipe was a bit of Andhra style.

After a good lunch we were sleepy however as we thought of sticking to timelines we planned to go to COAKER'S WALK which was just 0.8 miles away from bus stand. Below pictures are the WELCOME GATE for COAKER'S WALK and GOD'S creativity of this wonderful place.

We reached COAKER'S WALK within 10 mins from restaurant. The ticket price is Rs.3.00/- per head. For Digital and Lens camera they would charge Rs.10/- and for mobile camera Rs.5.00/-. It is always good to walk & check the places first in this place as most of them are very near to the bus stand. Do not ask for a taxi at all as soon as you get down at the bus stand. They would take you for a ride. Be careful.

I believe GOD might have taken special interest in creating this beautiful place. COAKER'S WALK is a path which would give you an eagle's view of entire places around KODAIKANAL. As we reached this place we became so busy in clicking each other's photos with a beautiful natural background.

After 1 hour of busy photography, walking, shopping and snacks at 2:00 pm we reached BRYANT PARK which is quite opposite to the welcome gate of COAKER'S WALK. The ticket in BRYANT PARK is Rs.5.00/- per head and for camera it is Rs.30/- which was too much compared to COAKER'S WALK.

These pictures are taken in Bryant's park. My wife likes flowers and she insisted me to come with as I was not much interested looking at flowers :-) However after I entered I felt if I would have not seen this place I would have missed something precious. As everyone would agree to my words that No one can beat NATURE'S BEAUTY.

I look a bit tired and trying to smile in one of these pictures.

The site seeing ended at 6:00 pm and we went to our hotel to get ready for dinner. Most of the hotels would be closed by 9:00 pm. We had Daal Roti in one of the Punjabi Hotels and slept by 11:00 pm which was not usual sleep time of me particularly in Bangalore :-)

On May 16th we got ready by 9:00 am to view other places. Our hotel receptionist has booked our site seeing tickets with Ayyappa Travels. Its a Swaraj Mazda which we call as Tempo. I would inform you all to book your tickets for site seeing in the hotel itself as it would cost less. The travel people took Rs.200/- per head which was worth it. The driver told us in Rs.150/- package which was booked by hotel receptionist does not include Green Valley, Guna caves & other good places. He charged us Rs.50/- more which we thought as reasonable after the trip was completed. One funny incident happened on this day. My wife's chappals were damaged and there were no shops nearby to buy a new pair. I believe my in-laws might have felt happy and proud about me regarding my sacrifice. I gave my brand new Woodland Sandals to my wife and walked bare foot the entire trip without any scratch on my feet :-) That was a great feeling though as I was the one who knows what pain is, without footwear.

The first picture is the KODAIKANAL LAKE VIEW which looks really great from approx 6100 feet high. The 2nd picture is one of the lake which provides drinking water to Kodaikanal town.

Here comes one of my favourite place PINE FOREST. I believe we have seen this background in most of the romantic movies. This place is mindblowing for photography. There is a small waterfall at this place however as there were no heavy rains not much water was flowing.

Not only me, everyone would look so great in a photograph with such a beautiful background. The other picture has the tempo in which we had seen all the site seeing.

This beautiful place is at Chamundeshwari temple where we can have an eagle's view of Palani temple which is 4 hours, approx 150 kms away from Kodaikanal. We didn't have a clear view of Palani as there were clouds everywhere. It was sunny when these pics were taken.

This is POOMBARAI VILLAGE. All vegetables to Kodaikanal would be supplied from this village. This area consists of 400 acres approximately which was given to tribal people by Tamilnadu Government. Most of the movies like Parugu (Telugu) and Paiyya (Tamil) are shot in this village. The 1st half of Parugu movie is shot here. An unforgettable view.

The landscape looks so great as if GOD has designed by his own hands. We had lunch at this place which was not at all good as it was a very small hotel village side. Its better to get the food packed while going for these kind of trips.

At 3:00 pm we reached GREEN VALLEY which was earlier called as SUICIDE POINT. The place where I was standing is the edge and one push I would be no where. The entire place was covered by clouds and we were unable to see what's down.

I don't know how I made it till this place. I feel very proud whenever I look at these 2 pictures especially. I now feel that I can do dare devil stunts as well :-) This place is 7000 ft high above sea level and I am standing at the peak. One push, everything is OVER........

This place is CINE SHOOTING SPOT which is 1 km away from GUNA CAVES. The recent movie shot at this place was PAYYA (Tamil). If you remember its the rain song which was shot at this place. I thought to have a horse ride however as Radhika was there with me, dropped the idea.

The most scariest place in Kodaikanal. These pictures were taken near GUNA CAVES. The name GUNA was named for this place after Kamal Hassan's movie GUNA was shot. Kamal has won a national award for this movie.

The first picture above is BEAR SHOLA FALLS. As the Monsoon just started there are no falls. Visitors and local people said the good time to see this falls is in AUGUST till OCTOBER. The 2nd picture above was taken near KURUNJI ANDAVAR temple. It is MURUGAN GOD's temple. The name KURUNJI is derived from a flower. It can be seen every 12 years only. It was last seen in 2007.

At 12:30 pm after our visit to temple we decided to have lunch. We hired a taxi for Rs.1000/- to show us other places which we missed on the previous day. He was very friendly and has shared lot of information about the place. He took us to WOODY'S RESORT which also has a restaurant attached for lunch. The resort was so environment friendly. There are deluxe and normal rooms which cost about Rs.8000/- minimum per day. Following are some of these resort pics.

This resort is so close to nature and I felt we would have booked our accomodation at this resort. I had taken these pictures till our lunch was at our desk. The lunch was ready after 30 minutes and you can see the picture how yummy it looks. As we were hungry we finished our lunch within no time.

Post lunch we started to see the most beautiful places which are MOUNTAIN VIEW, DOLPHIN'S NOSE, DIFFERENCE ROCK and ECHO ROCK. On our way there were a couple of waterfalls which our driver had taken us. You can see the picture below.

It was a 20 minutes drive from this waterfall to MOUNTAIN VIEW, DOLPHIN'S NOSE etc. To reach these places you need to walk for 15 minutes down as there is no way for cars to go. After you reach this place you feel that you are not in this world. You would certainly appreciate GOD'S creation.

Here we are with the beautiful MOUNTAIN VIEW. Its a fabulous experience. You will feel more than me when you visit this place :-)

We are lucky that there was no mist when we went to these places. This route leads to DOLPHIN'S NOSE & the water pipe which you see in the above picture would provide water to one of the low lying village which is 5 kms away from Dolphin's nose.

The day you drop in Kodaikanal, you would here from every mouth about this place. I believe you can see the NOSE in this picture.

Here I am, standing on the Dolphin's nose which is 2000 ft approx from sea level.

It was so scary and I can feel that my heart is beating more than normal :-) The trees you see are the pine trees which would normally be more than 1000 ft. The guy beside me is the car driver.

As I said the height is 2000 ft above sea level approximately.

Having a cup of coffee or tea at this place is unforgettable. We had a cup of coffee and our driver has taken this beautiful picture with one of the amazing background :-)

The driver told that the above plant is the KURUNJI plant. Not sure if it is correct :-)

Please be careful if you want to do this stunt. This is the DIFFERENCE ROCK I am talking about. It really seems easy in the picture however the rock on which my foot is resting is parted from the entire moutain. That is why it is called Difference Rock. The rock which you see in the background is ECHO ROCK. The reason why it is known as Echo rock because it echoes when you shout from here :-) The MOUNTAIN VIEW, DIFFERENCE ROCK, DOLPHIN'S NOSE & ECHO ROCK are at the same place. There might be some drivers who might lie to you saying all these places would not be at the same place. Do not believe. Please have a small walk so that you cannot miss out these amazing places.

This is a village which is 5 kms away from Dolphin's nose and the water pipe which you saw in one of the above pic would supply water to this village. Strange but true. The mode of transport for this villagers is walking and nothing else. They grow vegetables and fruits, carry it to Kodaikanal and sell it. In a day a person from this village would walk 20 kms approximately.

These are Kodaikanal tomatoes which grow on large trees. If you don't believe, taste it and you would realize.While going to the above places you would never realize that you had walked 2 kms down however you get that feeling when you trek back. It is really a nice place to trek. Please remember to wear shoes when you visit these places :-)

After spending 2 hours at this beautiful place, way back to our hotel we saw this 300 year old tree which has Ashoka's emblem. It you concentrate on this picture you can see it :-)

The above picture is Gemini Ganeshan's residence. One of the senior actors in Tamil Film Industry.

After some shopping in the outskirts of Kodaikanal the driver dropped us at Kodai lake. We were 5 minutes before closing time of the boating club which is at 6:00 pm. We thought of taking a rowing boat however as that club didn't have it we managed to go in a shared boat. The climate was so romantic and I believe you can see others smiling and enjoying the boat ride.We reached our hotel at 7:00 pm with smiles on our face. We went to sleep with the beautiful experience we had at this place.

The third and final day in Kodaikanal ended up in no time. We went to Coaker's walk at 11:00 am and were there till 2:00 pm churning our great experience at this place. After a good lunch at Annapoorna Hotel nearer to our hotel we thought of going near the lake and shop. At 3:00 pm we thought to go for boating in other club. There are 4 boating clubs around the lake and we thought of taking a rowing boat however ended up taking a pedal boat. After the boat ride we planned to cycle around the lake which was another unforgettable experience. They charged Rs. 50/- or hundred I don't remember the exact pice for the double seated cycle. We enjoyed the cycling for 15 minutes around the lake. It is 5 kms around the lake and the experience we had was priceless.

At 05:30 pm we were at Kodaikanal's bus stand to board our bus. On the way we bought home made chocolates which were tasty. We left this amazing hillstation with the beautiful clouds following us till sunset :-)

Hope so you had a virtual journey with me and ready to pack your bags to experience it.

SOME IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

It is always good to go in public transport than taking risk in driving your own car on the ghat roads.
Do not carry any valuables when you are travelling to these kind of places.
Please gather as much information as you can before you leave to any of your favourite places.
Do not hire a taxi blindly and be aware of the language they speak.
Some of the sites for booking your tickets:
ksrtc.co.in, redbus.in
Hotel booking sites:
makemytrip.com, clubmahindra.com etc

HAPPY JOURNEY, KEEP SMILING AND BE HAPPY, HAPPY ALL THE TIME :-)

Here's the picture which I was talking about

2009-10-07T08:39:00.000-07:00

When you compare the previous picture & this picture you can see the swans in the previous one & not in this one on top. If you zoom in, the carvings on all the four pillars are different. The royalty of this gate is, you have 2 lions on both sides welcoming us to this BEAUTIFUL HISTORICAL city.

2009-09-21T11:24:00.000-07:00

WARANGAL WELCOMES

This is the logo of WARANGAL CITY. This welcome gate(thorana) belongs to 1262 AD & still counting its age. There are plenty of gates like these in the city however this one in the picture is pretty old. If you check the other gate similar to this, it does not have the swans on top.

1262 AD..SHIVALING

2009-09-10T04:13:00.000-07:00

A masterpiece of work done by the sculptures in 1262 AD. If you zoom in & check, the carvings of the idol are so neatly designed. Even the "WELCOME GATES" (KEERTHI THORANAS) are also designed by the same sculptures those days. Most of the brilliant work done by these sculptures are secured & now as this fort is a tourist place we are lucky to see this beautiful idols.

WARANGAL FORT THROUGH MY EYES

2009-08-28T18:05:00.000-07:00

This is my first visit to Warangal fort. Even I was born & brought up in this district. Its so interesting & unforgettable visit. I went to my hometown for Rakshabandhan, however was not in a mood to celebrate the festival as I lost my mother 2 years back on the same day. As she used to say, " LIFE HAS TO MOVE ON DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME BY SITTING & THINKING ABOUT YOUR PAST, AS YOU CANNOT CHANGE IT", I started this new journey in my life to blog on rarely seen historical places.

Many of them do not know more about this beautiful fort. That was a sunny day & I was carrying one of my friend's camera. On my way to fort I met my sister who was in her office & she burst into laughter when I said that I am going to take the pictures of Warangal Fort. Later, she was surprised by knowing that this was the first time I am going to visit the fort. It took me 45 minutes from my home to reach the fort. As & when I was entering the fort on my bike this was the first picture I took. I was surprised because I heard a lot about the fort & was in a jinx if this is the entrance of the fort. When I entered this road I started seeing the GREAT "KEERTHI THORANAS" (THE WELCOME GATES). It was a great feeling I had when I was entering these gates.

To brief about this beautiful monument, the fort is built in a shape of a circle. It has got 4 entries, North, South, East & West. The range of this fort is 3 to 4 km approximately. The most interesting part is when you enter inside the fort you keep on exploring on how long this fort is. As I had my bike, I took a half round of the fort as the other half was not good to go on bike.

According to me, it is always better to see the entire place on your bike & then start knowing more by stopping at each & every spot you find interesting. I directly went till the end of the fort & then started taking pictures of the fort. It took 4 hours for me to explore the fort & collect information.

I always used to have a dream when I was in my college days. It was to see the monuments in Warangal with my girlfriend on my bike & explain about the history of the city if she is interested to know.

I HAVE THE BIKE, I HAVE THE INFORMATION, JUST WAITING FOR HER TO COME & EXPLORE THESE RARELY SEEN HISTORICAL SITES WITH ME.

Narrsun Rojanaala's - RARELY SEEN HISTORICAL SITES

VIRTUAL KODAIKANAL EXPERIENCE

Here's the picture which I was talking about

1262 AD..SHIVALING

WARANGAL FORT THROUGH MY EYES