[KRRaj]

Nicely written travelogue and amazing pictures

makes me want to go to Kodai, its been a long time since I had been there. Looking forward to the rest of your travelogue

[Chevy_lover]

Day 7 – Kodaikanal Tour

We woke up early on day 7 of our journey. We had decided to go on a sight seeing trip around Kodai. I planned on covering La Salette Church, Upper Lake View, Pillar Rocks, etc. We started our journey after a quick breakfast of Idlis from Bala at 9:30 am. As soon as we started, it started to rain heavily. We just cursed our bad luck and drove on.

There were so many touts standing near Coaker’s Walk, asking whether we needed a guide. I knew the route quite well, even after a gap of 9 years. So we decided against taking any strangers in our car.

We reached La Salette church in ten minutes. It is very near to Coaker’s walk. The church is more than a 100 years old. It was very beautiful. A torrential downpour started as soon we got out of our car. Luckily we had our umbrellas in our car. We got really wet, but enjoyed the beauty of the Church tremendously.

[Chevy_lover]

More photos of the Church...

[ElantraGT]

awesome writeup my friend. You brought back memories of my honeymm trip two years ago. Me and my wifey decided to walk around the lake and trust me when i reached the 3/4th of the distance I started panicking thinking that it is a bad idea to go for a walk. When we finished the walk, i was really mesmerized by the beauty. I didnt see the tree house when we went, this must be a new one i beleive. I stayed in a place called Ganesan lodge. You get great food.. its next to the Kodai international hotel. The place is called High School/ Zion school. This church is close by to the place I stayed.

[Chevy_lover]

Originally Posted by ElantraGT

awesome writeup my friend. You brought back memories of my honeymm trip two years ago. Me and my wifey decided to walk around the lake and trust me when i reached the 3/4th of the distance I started panicking thinking that it is a bad idea to go for a walk. When we finished the walk, i was really mesmerized by the beauty. I didnt see the tree house when we went, this must be a new one i beleive. I stayed in a place called Ganesan lodge. You get great food.. its next to the Kodai international hotel. The place is called High School/ Zion school. This church is close by to the place I stayed.

Thanks ElantraGT. I had walked and then cycled the entire stretch around the lake, when I visited nine years back. At that time I was a footballer. But this time, I was like a heavy weight wrestler.

Wifey panicked when we reached almost half the distance. She was really tired after the long journey the previous night. So she had to take rest on every milestone!

I made her walk saying that the way to the city is 'just around the next corner'. Somehow I got the feeling that she did not trust me, when I said that at atleast 15 corners.

After some time, she stopped asking me when the ordeal is going to end!!! She just walked!!! I kept two arm distance from her, just in case! And I walked behind her, so that it was easier to run, in case of an attack!

The worst part is that there are no autos to rescue you! I must've lost 5 kilos after the walk!!! Luckily we had water with us. Otherwise we would have had to drink from the lake. Not many shops en-route!

Poor wifey, somehow managed to smile! That is what I call spirit!!!

I still kept two arm distance from her when I clicked!!! Just in case!

[ElantraGT]

Well said. I did the same, maintaining 2 arm distance from my wifey. Fortuntely we found a tea shop on the west end of the lake. Luckily we didnt press along till we had snacks else it would have been a disastor as there were no shops till we reached the main road on the east end of the lake. I just called my wifey and showed her the pictres and she smiled remembering those days. I took some pictures of the lake which were good. I will search for them and send it to you. Please send us the early morning dosage of your writing.

[Chevy_lover]

We spent close to an hour in the church. We waited for twenty minutes hoping that the rain would cease. But the wait turned out to be futile. So we decided to drive to our next destination, which was the Upper lake view. Wifey had no recollection of Kodai. She had made the trip ten years back. So I made it a point to scare her as much as I could. I would say that I lost my way and she would immediately panic. So it was a fun drive to upper lake view point. The rain had ceased by now.

We were stopped some distance ahead of the Upper Lake View, by two cops. They were out to make a quick buck and were troubling all outstation vehicles.

I saw three KL registered cars stopped by them. They looked at my car and thoroughly examined all documents. Seeing that everything is in order, they wanted to know who the owner of the car was. Then they compared my name on my license and on my RC word by word. They had a long look at my projectors. But since they were installed lower than the original headlights, I was not worried.

Finally after wasting my fifteen minutes they let me go and I was finally on my way. We reached Upper Lake View in another ten minutes.

We got a good view of the lake from there.

[Chevy_lover]

Then it started to rain again. It turned into a torrential downpour soon after. We decided to head back to the town. There was no point in continuing to the rest of the points and seeing everything from under an umbrella. I hated getting wet and then driving with the AC on. We have never driven Chevy without AC and even in the biting cold of Kodai, it was no different.

We reached the town in half an hour. It was still raining very heavily. So we decided to go for a drive around the lake with ice creams as appetizers. We drove at a leisurely pace and soaked in the natural beauty around the lake. There were hardly any vehicles in the circuit. So we were able to drive peacefully.

I love the wet roads nice pics looks like you had lot of fun

[Chevy_lover]

Some more photos of the lake side.

[Chevy_lover]

We then went on a drive towards the observatory. I knew that it was closed to public, but still wanted to drive on that route.

By now it was raining cats and dogs. The road was getting flooded and there were so many small natural waterfalls developing everywhere.

[Chevy_lover]

We returned to the city and had lunch from the bakery run by Hotel Hill Top. We had pizzas and burgers. They tasted good.

There is also a Pizza Corner on the first floor. But the prices were highly inflated. It was much more expensive than Pune, which is one of the costliest cities in India.

[Chevy_lover]

After our lunch, we decided to fall back on our original plan. We left for the mountains to see Green Valley View, which was previously known as Suicide Point, Golf course and Pillar Rocks. We decided to go to Pillar Rocks first and then visit the other two points on our way back.

We had an amazing drive up to Pillar Rocks. The road was in good condition. There are some bad patches after Golf course. But overall, the road condition was excellent.

[Chevy_lover]

We reached Pillar Rocks after a journey of over half an hour.

We got a brilliant view of the vista. There was no fog when we were at Pillar Rocks. We were lucky to get a clean view of the rocks. The sky was cloudy most of the time. We got some amazing pics of the clouds.

[Chevy_lover]

Breathtaking view from Pillar Rock.