Team-BHP - Story of a Vacation (:-))

We saw that there is a mini train around, this helped the kids to get cheer up. We all enjoyed a mini train ride (that we missed at Raja's seat in Madikeri) for some 10 minutes

We saw an interesting advertisement targeted towards the ladies. :D For just RS 195, one (=a lady ?) can buy Branded Gents in all sizes !!!, The advertisement turned out to be nothing but all bubbles filled with air.

:uncontrol

Eventually after spending some 60-70 minutes, we left the Boat House towards the Rose Garden. We found that SUN is fast moving towards the West, Darkness has started to decend onto Nilgiries, Fog also try to get his slice in.

Are we able to see the beautiful roses ?.. I was eager to know.

It took us some 10 minutes to reach the Rose Garden. The Ticket COunter is at the enterance, one can drive up to the gate of Rose Garden and park the vehicle there, i think the parking space is very limited. There is a Horticulture Department office and a shop from where one can buy fruits, Rose plants and Fruit products like jams, jelly etc.

Rose = The Queen of Flower, Symbol of love, affection, purity, friendship. When you offer a rose to even the most angry person, it is likely to bring smiles to his/her lips. A weapon used by the boys to win over their girls (i still remember the rose day at the colleage time), a form of welcome greeting. Every Colour has a unique meaning.

I present you the best collection of roses found from the Rose Garden along with the deeper meaning they bring to the occation, relationship and our life.

Please excuse me as it was already evening (fading light), the photographs may not have come very clear. But the inherent beauties (=Roses) always stoodout.

About the Rose Garden itself, i take help of some description found on the internet

Quote:

The Rose Garden of Ooty or the Centenary Rose Garden is spread across six acres of land in the slopes of Elk hills, located in the Vijayanagaram farms; Needless to say, it is the largest rose garden in the country. There are large varieties of roses including some rare species as well. There are about 17000 varieties of rose plants.

The important feature of the Rose Garden is that, it has been recognized by the world federation of rose societies. Another distinction is that it is the first Rose Garden in India that has been recognized as the “Garden of Excellence”. Truly a must see place in Ooty.

The Rose Garden of Ooty is maintained by the Department of horticulture of the Government of Tamilnadu. It is in the form of five terraces where these beautiful rose plants are grown. There is a small entry fee. It’s a great place to click some amazing photos. The walk down the pavement undoubtedly would be a memorable experience.

I will let the pictures speak for itself. I liked the statue of winged white angel as well as view of a part of Ooty town. Eventually after walking around the garden, the kids were really really tired. It has been a very long day, Yours truely was also very tired. But the ladies still had planning to go for shopping. We all boarded the vehicle. Asif bhai started driving towards the hotel..i was slowly making up my mind...

Soon we reached the hotel room, The kids were dead tired, hungry. Soon they got thier favourite Plum cakes, Cookies and Lays wafers. They switched on the TV and put on their favourite channel.. No doubts.. Cartoon network.. Doraemon and Nobita were discussing some gadget. Only noise heard was from the TV and that of munching.

Ladies freshened up, I told my better half that i would prefer to stay in the room with the kids and babysit them while they complete their shopping. My wife was more than happy to leave me behind to go for shopping which leaves her free of any "Are you done ?" questions every few minutes. Soon my friend, his wife and my wife left for shopping.

I joined the kids incorus with munching music. I also switched on my notebook, replicated my mails, responded to some customer communications over last 5-6 days. Also responded to some happy new year messages. Once done, logged on to you know what... Team BHP Forum and browsed through the updates in most of the subscribed threads.

After long time, the shoppers returned. it was almost 8:45 PM. Again went down into the Indian resturant, had some simple Dal Chaval, Kerala Parota and vegitables. Enquired with the Manager, what time the resturant would be open for breakfast. We were told that breakfast would be ready only by 8 AM. But we wanted to leave by 7 AM. requested him to serve us some breakfast by 6:45. After some negotiation, it was agreed that we would get some breakfast at 7 AM, but only Idly-Sambhar-Chetney and Coffee/Tea. It was like doctors ordered the patient what he/she wants.
We all retired into rooms by 9:45 PM. I do not rememberwhat time i dived into deep sleep.

A very long day, but very eventful, full of activities and fun.

Today is the 7th day of our vacation trip, it is also the last day of 2009. So we woke up for the last time this year quite early 6:00 AM. but the cold weather prevented us from leaving the bed. so eventually the mobile alarm snoozed several times and we eventually left the bed by 6:20 AM.

We had all the bags packed yesterday night itself. We instantly decided to postpone our bathing activities to the evening. Got freshend up, dressed, left the room by 6:50 AM. Asif bhai was already near the car, but he had just woken up. He had to sleep in the vehicle itself last time. He gave us the key so that we can load our bags in and he went into the hotel for freshening up. After loading our bags inside, we went into the resturant for the breakfast. 7 AM the hot breakfast was served.

Cold outside, steeming Idli with Hot Sambhar was exactly the need of the hour. Soon Asifbhai joned us at the breakfast. After having the coffee, we left the resturant by 7:40 AM, It took another 20 minutes to shift the bags to the over the top carrier, tie it up nicely, heat up the engine, soon at 8 AM we were on our way towards Gudalur.

The town was still waking up. Today the sky was once again very clear, no fog seen anywhere. Last day of the year was very bright and sunny, giving some early indication of the the coming year.. or atleast i thought so.

I have attached couple of pictures viz. the road outside the Hotel Charring Cross, a makeshift temple and gate like temporary structures built for Dy. CM's visit the previous day, A church, a milestone board and a lake found on the way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cheeronwheels (Post 1697468)

Hi Star, this is an amazing travelogue ! :thumbs up

Nice pictures too..

Couldn't prevent myself from logging in and posting a congrats messge to you.

Read upto Madikeri. Will try to read the full by today.

Thanks Cheeronwheels for your appreciation and taking trouble to post the message. It certainly motivates me to do better. Still the 2-3 more days to go, hope to complete it asap so that, it keeps you interested.

Moving forward...

Quote:

About Pykara lake

The Pykara is the largest river in the District. It is considered very sacred by the Todas. The Pykara river rises at Mukurthi peak. It passes through hilly tract, generally keeping to North and turns to West after reaching the Plateau's edge. It gets down majestically in a series of cascades; and the last two falls of 55 meters and 61 meters are known as Pykara falls. They are about 20 kms from Ooty.

The Pykara Lake is about 21 kms from Ooty on the Ooty-Mysore road. Boating on the Pykara lake is enjoyable. A restaurant is also available. Wenlock Downs, a vast Expanse of grassy meadow on way to Pykara, is a favorite picnic location and is very popular with the movie makers of this country.

I think some 10-12 KM distance from shooting medu was covered in less than 10 minutes. There is a left turn from the main road. the narrow road between the forest leads to the Pykara Lake We reached the Pykara lake by 8:45 AM.

I will let the snaps take over from here as i find it difficult to get the adjectives to describe the Queen of Lakes from South India.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cheeronwheels (Post 1698058)

Star, Hats off for your patience to write such an detailed travelogue !

Truely it has come out it an awesome flow. Seems you own an amazing passion for travel, and your writing truely reflects this. :thumbs up

You have detailed even some minute aspects of your travel, which other travelers (like me..!)tend to avoid, thinking that they are unimportant. And that makes reading this a pleasure, almost to the same extend of your travel.

The narration about Talacauvery and near by places are splendid. I never thought that those area have so much to provide for a visitor.

Also the pictures of Kotagiri Kodanad stands out !

Thanks Cheeronwheels !!.

For me, Vacations and Travel are moments of fun and it is important to make them worthy of remembering a life time. This travelogue helps in doing the same. Ofcourse any traveller will remember the name of the destination, money spent etc. But often forget the details, fun moments lived during the trip etc over the period of time. This is just an attempt to try to capture as many of those moments as possible so that we (especially the kid) can read it, remember it for years to come.

I am just re-using my basic skills in remembering my interactions with people, making minutes of meeting/record of notes, making a technical report etc etc in writing this story...nothing special or great.

Everyone of us have been blessed with these skills..some use more often than others.

I would like to thank the forum for providing me with the tool to share this story and all the readers for reading it. I am amazed to see there have been over 4400 views, I never thought our story would be this popular.

Thanks guys for reading, appreciating the story so far..

I could not post anything over last 8-10 days due to some domestic work as well as Goa trip over the weekend and business priorities.

continuing the story after Pykara Lake....

The Motor boat ride ended. We collected the security deposit and boarded the chariot.

Pykara lake was the last viewing point we had planned in Nilgiries. Now it is time to leave Nilgiries and go towards Mysore. Watch was showing 9:35, Only person who was happy was Asifbhai

He was very happy that we are going towards Mysore, I do not know why ?. he drove like man possessed. Quickly we crossed Mudumalai tiger reserves, Bandipur National Park. Most of the people in the vehicle were sleeping. I was clicking some snaps of the roads and hills and what not.

My mind was still at Ooty. I was wondering why the Ooty stay ended so soon. Soon i convinced my heart and mind that like all good things need to come to an end, this trip to Nilgiries has also ended so that we can plan our next trip to Nilgiris. Hope the day comes soon.

I attach here some pictures of the route from Ooty till Mysore.

But our vaction was not over..another 2.5 days to go out of which 1.5 days we had to complete Mysore (KR Sagar dam, Gardens, Palace, Zoo, Chamundi hills, Shopping), Somanathpura temple, Sri-rangapattana (Temple, Tipu's palace, dealth place, museum, Hyderali and Tipu's Tomb). My mind started working overtime how we will accomplish all these things.

We stopped for a cup of Tea Hotel Bandipur Plaza. Everyone freshend up.

Soon We crossed Nanjangudu. Conversations re-started. We discussed about the opinon about the Ooty Hotel. Children said they liked the Hotel a lot becasue, it had a TV and they could see the Cartoon network. There is a saying in Kannada "Ajjige Ajji Chinte"..meaning "Grand monther has Grand motherly worries". What a reason to like a hotel room at Ooty compared to that at Kothagiri or homestay at Murnad/Coorg. "Bacche Man ke Sachhe" (Children are always with pure mind/heart) and never say the un-truth.

For the rest of us here is the evaluation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MX6 (Post 1714500)

Excel-lant analysis of the hotel there!
Nice pics you got there of your travel. Going by the Ooty photos, Offseason seems to be the best season to go there!
Been to kodai 18 times. Never been to Ooty even once.

WoW... been to Kodai 18 times clap:... You need to be crowned FAN of Kodai, the way Laluks has been crowned Fan of Ooty. (Hey Laluks...one more award for you..please accept).

Reached Mysore (i think) by 1.30 PM. Kids were already doing conducting their orchestra of being hungry since over 30 minutes. Asifbhai took us straight to OM SHANTI Vegetarian resturant. The parking lot was full, but still the security guard made some arrangement for the vehicle parking.
Resturant was jam packed. We asked Asifbhai to have his lunch and we went into A/C hall. To our luck one table was empty. Soon the ladies and kids went to the rest room to get freshened up. We ordered Special Thali lunch. By the time everyone returned, lunch was served.

I will let the photograph share what it included. apart from the items shown it has one sweet, one rice bowl, Sambhar, Rasam as per needs.
it cost RS 100/- each. Everyone quietly eat their respective food.
We requested the waiter to exchange 3 rice bowls with puries. It was promtly done. Kids enjoyed eating their favourite puries.

after the lunch we had a Masala Pan outside. It was excellent.