Greetings to all those who came here with cycle chain, hockey bat and exhaust vent pipe to bash VW for yet another edition. Ease up on. I leave you with my kodaikanal travelogue.
You have probably seen the Hollywood movie
shutter. On the hero's shoulder sits a ghost. When he was weighed, the weight of two people showed up. After being married for five years, I have not been on a trip with my spouse. Doctors, we both have become accustomed to having only 3 to 4 hours of free time per day. I have, however, accompanied my college friends on several trips over the past five years. Fake conferences on the weekends allows a married man to go for trips with friends. It was my belief that if a tour was happening, it must be with friends. For all these years, my wife has come up with many plans to take a trip that I have avoided.
While I can create fake conferences to alleviate my stress, I didn't consider the perspective of my wife, who is in the same profession and has some added responsibilities than me. The thoughts of gulit settled on my shoulder, as they billowed and took on the shape of devil. In an effort to shake it off, I decided to tour Kodaikanal with my wife and 4 year kid.So my mission of the tour was to spend quality time with family.
Booking:
Searched Trip advisor for top rated hotels and booked
Villa retreat. Reviewers found it different from a standard hotel, and its tagline said it was close to nature. Who cares. I chose this hotel because it was right next to Coakers Walk and most of the major attractions were within walking distance.
Duration of stay: 2 nights
Members involved In my capacity as a photographer:
Photographs were integral to travelogues. Additionally, good photographs will lighten the load of words.
‘Mayakkam enna’ is a tamil film. Despite being a good photographer, the protagonist was highly discouraged by experts. In order to make a meaningful impact, he travelled to the jungle to take photograph of animals. Each animal did what it was supposed to be doing, but the protagonist found everything mundane. The wretched man then sat down on a tree's foot, having spent the entire day in misery. When my throat had difficulty in swallowing, seeing hero’s pathetic state, A bird came from nowhere and sat on a tree and unfurled its wings for him, to take a picture. Goosebumps ran down my spine and thats when I decided I want to become a professional photographer.
It's been ten years since I saw the movie and my photographic skills now.
Whenever a bird came to sat on a tree branch infront of me, it was always to soothe the itching on its beak or legs.
Itinerary:
Thoothukudi- Madurai- batlagundu- kodaikanal
Day 1: We set off from home at around 2 pm. Destination was 250 kms away. Car had suffered two injector failures earlier, which made us apprehensive. Considering the recent one happened two months ago, I didn't expect it to happen soon.
We began climbing the ghat roads at around 5:30 pm. It was the first time my wife and son navigating ghat roads, so both were awestruck by the views. It was Friday night and there was barely any traffic in roads. Polo negotiates curves with surgical precision. Upon arriving at the hotel at 8 pm, we checked in and headed right to the restaurant. I ordered parottas without looking at the menu. It's my usual fare since I am from Thoothukudi in Tamilnadu, which is famous for its parottas. We went straight to sleep after our meal.
Hotel entrance Snowman from Kodaikanal Day 2:
Finished complimentary breakfast at about 8 am and We headed out to visit
Pillar rocks and
Guna caves before crowds clog the roads. Roads were nearly empty and we decided to take the left side of the belly of snow man. A shop keeper by the road side asked us to took the right side of the belly of snowman as the left limb is blocked at pillar rocks. I took a U-turn and revved up the accelerator just as a squirrel was on the left side of the road, standing on its two limbs well outside of the road edge. As soon as I noticed the squirrel, I steered to the right, to give him space, in case he decided to cross. Unfortunately it decided to cross and ended up under the left tyre. I pulled over and noticed smudges through the internal rear view mirror. As my emotions filled my body, I violently hit the steering wheel and I decided to head back to my room.
It would be unthinkable that, a baby squirrel born on a tree top in the hills, months earlier, had its fate written that it would be hit by a car from 250 kms away, that had taken a U-turn seconds earlier.
Leaving my car in the hotel, I requested a ten minutes break and walked to the streets alone. I've allowed my thoughts to run their course. Every time I am stressed, this is my usual routine. I experience the emotions fully so that I will not be shocked by them, when they resurface in a different environment.
Over reaction they say. But I see my pet dog's eye in every animal's eye.
When I returned, we decided to take a stroll along
Coakers walk. We were greeted by a full mist. There was actually nothing to see.
This is my son putting the itchy bird to shame.
Our next destination was
Lake. We went out boating and rented a pedal boat that we had to handle ourselves.
Having pedaled a boat for a while, we returned to our hotel for a cup of coffee. Our hotel had a view of the valley at the back. Spent an hour admiring it and planning our next visit.
Valley view at back of hotel
Then we visited
Bryant Park across the street from the lake. The park is huge and draped in fog.
Bryant park
At about 6pm, we decided to head back to hotel. We sat on a bench by the back of the hotel. As we admired the valley, we spent almost two hours chatting. In detail, my wife described how she wanted to build a house similar to the hotel. She was on a word jargon and my mind responded to her ‘
you can only build that in these mist’ whereas my mouth vocalised ‘
ok we will’ in contradictory to mind and reality.
Went to the room and switched on the tv. There is still one more over to play in the thriller cricket match between
Dolakhpur and
aliens, which obviously was won by Dolakhpur. Aliens left the world as guaranteed by them, before the match. Knowing we were in safe hands of bheem, we drifted off to sleep.
Day 3:
Right side of the belly of snow man was still there for us to explore. Our first stop was the
solar observatory museum along this limb, where we chose to walk in, as there wasn't much crowd. The moment I entered the first room in the museum, it suddenly dawned on me that, I was unaware of the names of 12 planets in our solar system. It was my wife who corrected me, saying there were 11 planets. In the middle of this healthy discussion, another voice spoke up. The museum's guide, who graduated with a degree in physics, called us out to see the sun with specialised goggles. His 10 minutes speech revealed that, he is passionate about physics and the solar system. A newly married couple entered the arena and when the guide was busy explaining things to them, we planned our escape. we had an
apocalypto run out of solar observatory. Sorry mate. You deserve better audience.
Our next stop was
Moir point. Parked the car on the sides of road. Huge crowds. I snuck through the cracks hoping for something different. Yet again, what we see is a fog factory.
Next came
Pine forest.
Following a customary photograph, proceeded to the next station.
Guna caves:
Its original name was
Devil’s kitchen because the fog emanates from the caves in the valley. I just wonder why so many men throng to see the
Devil’s kitchen by paying money. It was my suggestion to my wife, to keep this name for the kitchen, in her imaginary hotel house. Got an earful.
Thats our last spot on this tour. Saw
Golf course enroute.
Went straight to room and packed things up. As I close the door one last time, a painting at the far end of the room caught my eye and made me feel heavy-hearted.
Is this mission a success?
In essence, in this tour we noticed fog in different places bearing different names. It does not mean it is a mundane hill station. Perhaps an experienced guy knows when to visit to get a clear view of all attractions.
In
Lost world, when sarah was on a windshield creaking below her and a wireless phone dangling above and we were biting our nail in our childhood, anticipating what will happen next. Similarly my wife always complain about my carelessness which can be related to the wireless dangling above and sarah can be related to my marriage life.(Metaphor. She was in no way related to my marriage life). This kodai tour says “
lend me your hand, sarah”.
The painting I saw before I close the room door.