[mallumowgli]

Lovely travelogue as usual GeneralJazz. Kodai is always enchanting and your log has brought out its beauty well. And of course what's a travelogue without a few tempting food pics

[pandabear]

Originally Posted by GeneralJazz

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller” – Ibn Battuta

Prologue

A trip to Kodaikanal has been on our list for a long time. I've been in Coimbatore for 4 years now, and its embarrassing to say that I'm yet to visit the Princess of Hill Stations! .

Congrats on the beautiful travelogue, all I can say is you were not alone. Looks like now I'm the only person left in Coimbatore who is yet to visit Kodaikanal.

[pd1108]

Hi GeneralJazz, Lovely travelogue and really detailed. Pictures outside the car are great. From within the car, you definitely need a polarizer to cut the glare

[batterylow]

Lovely pictures and rendition GeneralJazz and glad that you liked my homestay suggestion.

The rapid must have been in its elements in the drive up the ghats. The hill road to Kodai is much narrower compared to the Ooty road so one has to plan the overtakes well or one will be left to crawl behind buses sniffing exhaust fumes for a long time till the next overtaking opportunity.

The food pics alone tempt me into going for a drive to Kodai again.

And yes, the windmills still give me a scare, despite all the times I have driven on the same road.

[GeneralJazz]

Originally Posted by Achilles

Nicely written travelogue Generaljazz!
While scrolling through the photos, I found we were classmates

Indeed we were! Took me a bit to make the Mattannur connection! I think I might have seen your Aspire in one of your SM updates somewhere! Small world indeed!

Originally Posted by shashanka

A great travelogue, GeneralJazz - Kodaikanal is justly named. The photo of the meadows behind the sheep pen is like so much of the English countryside that one sees in their landscape photos.

Thanks again - a great travelogue sprinkled with lively humor - the wind farms and the aliens was a neat touch!

Thank you for the kind words shashanka!

Originally Posted by TheHelix0202

Amazing thread, with an even more amazing car! I notice that the projector setup is aftermarket. Looks neat, please share the details!

Thank you TheHelix0202 .Its a Genome HID unit. Not the greatest one around but gets the job done.

Originally Posted by mallumowgli

Lovely travelogue as usual GeneralJazz. Kodai is always enchanting and your log has brought out its beauty well. And of course what's a travelogue without a few tempting food pics

Thanks Praveenji! The food was excellent! Though nothing would compare to our naadan porotta + BDF!

Originally Posted by pandabear

Congrats on the beautiful travelogue, all I can say is you were not alone. Looks like now I'm the only person left in Coimbatore who is yet to visit Kodaikanal.

Thank you pandabear. I hope this motivates you to make a Kodai plan asap!

Originally Posted by pd1108

Hi GeneralJazz, Lovely travelogue and really detailed. Pictures outside the car are great. From within the car, you definitely need a polarizer to cut the glare

Thank you pd1108! Yes the glare was awful. Plus the dashcam angle was completely off, taking in a lot of reflection of the dash.

Originally Posted by batterylow

Lovely pictures and rendition GeneralJazz and glad that you liked my homestay suggestion.

The rapid must have been in its elements in the drive up the ghats. The hill road to Kodai is much narrower compared to the Ooty road so one has to plan the overtakes well or one will be left to crawl behind buses sniffing exhaust fumes for a long time till the next overtaking opportunity.

The food pics alone tempt me into going for a drive to Kodai again.

And yes, the windmills still give me a scare, despite all the times I have driven on the same road.

Oh yes, we had a wonderful time at the place! Fantastic suggestion saar! And yeah, the Rapid was perfectly at home in the hills, and the remap was a sweet bonus!

Like you mentioned, due to the roads being really narrow, its very easy to get stuck behind heavy vehicles for several kms at a stretch. Several idiots kept trying to pull off risky overtakes, and we witnessed several near misses.

Talking about the windmills, any way to get up close to them? Long back, when we visited Chaturangapara, we were able to stand right under them. That was really scary!

[sukhbirST]

A trip to Kodaikanal, the Princess of Hill Stations is totally different than any other hill station where the drive itself is enchanting. Apart from the hill station, a break in Palani has its own charm. Palani is home to one of the most sacred shrines of the Lord Muruga, as worshiped in the Hindu sect of Kaumaram. The morning climb/walk up the hill is really beautiful. I also have heard of drive from Kodaikanal to Munnar side across the Ghats.

[robincsamuel]

@GeneralJazz, thanks for the travelogue.

We had a trip to Kodaikanal in April and your travelogue was our reference. We covered almost the same places you listed, the Muncheez cafe, the Mannavanur lake & the boating there; the sheep research center is something we'd have definitely missed without your travelogue.

It wasn't too crowded as we visited on weekdays. The weather was nice was foggy & cloudy.

I am sharing a few photos from the trip.

Near the golf course.



En route to Mannavanur lake.





We had to wait 10 minutes to view the pillar rock. It was completely covered by the dense fog and we had no clue where exactly it is.



The lake view from the sheep research center.



Mannavanur lake.



Our hotel, Villa Retreat.