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Who doesn't love maggi?
@Pramod - That pancake reminded me of iHop; wow, my mouth is full of water!!! Pancakes, maple, scrambled eggs, hash browns & coffee, what a great food to have.
Incidentally the first thing I cooked was Bhendi fry, with Dal, Rasam and rice. Top it with papads. I was 12 years old then.
I can proudly say that I taught my wife how to cook. Nowadays I'm damn lazy. But once in a blue moon, I do delight people with my culinary skills. I'm not a great cook though. But I can cook quite a lot of things. Being a pure vegetarian, I once cooked Chicken stuff over a barbecue for 3 of my friends (who were struggling to set up a fire). They couldn't believe that I'm a vegetarian.
Guess, IT pros have lost a sense of good taste that they claim I'm a good cook :D
Maggi to me is like pop corn for any movie buff! Doesn't interfere with regular cooking or food!
Sorry for all the OT. And yes, I don't customise maggi. For me, Maggi has to be prepared the original way.
We should plan on a Maggi meet in Kumaraparvata after monsoons.
Mandatory things to take.
Maggi noodles
Jagga
Mazhar and Unoczar's father's scorpio
Freakishly long hands of Smartcat to take photos
Addihemmige who will be our guide
Other appurtenances deemed requisite for a trek
Commonalities! Bhindi fry is the first thing that i cook when i am away from India.
"Maggi trek" - Not a bad idea at all.
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It was Dec 08. And we planned for a Ooty drive with Parents. I booked for Sagar Holiday Resort at LoveDale, Ooty. This Resort is constructed in a very unique way. Terrace Cultivation, i could say. Every room has a great View of the Ketti Valley.
Ketti Valley at LoveDale Ooty is supposed to the 2nd largest valley in Asia, i believe.
At Rs.2500 per couple, i find this a very decent accomodation for exploring Ooty.
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Pykara Lake -- around 45 min from Ooty towards Gudalur.
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Kamaraja Sagar -- A small reservoir, i can say. Again, this is on the way from Ooty to Gudalur. 15-20 min outside Ooty.
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Pramod, Snaps dont show up.
Ooty-5.jpg is awesome. Beautiful hues & a perfect sunset for a romantic evening. Pls do post some more pics if you've more of them. Tks.
There is nothing like the train. I was on it, this May and my kid into pure ecstasy.
It is an awesome piece of legacy and a well maintained one at that!
I had posted a photo of Yedakumeri station earlier on this thread.
I happen to get a few more of the snaps from that trek. Mind you, the digital age was not quite there yet in Early part of this decade. Hence, the photos are scanned
Dont mind the poor picture Quality. For me personally, looking at my classmates, my life long friends, in these snaps, brings a lot of pleasure.
These snaps are in the memory of my dear friend Anand, who passed away 3 years ago. He was the most cheerful person i have ever met.
You can recognize him, as he is the fattest among all others in these snaps.
We took a night bus to reach Gundia check post at 3.30 AM. We had to spend the next 2 hours atleast at the forest check post, as we dint wanna start the trail in the dark. Some of us slept on the road side of NH48. There were quite a few tea shops and LOCAL hotels, which serve as a break point for many truckers.
It was 5 AM and one of those small time hotels open up. We were damn hungry by this time. Fortunately, the lady running this hotel told us that, she could prepare some hot Dosas with sambhar. Sambhar was a 24 hr old for sure. Once heated, we were all too eager to gulp them down at 5 AM in the morning, next to the NH48 on Shiradi :)
At dawn break, we started the trek. It took us close to 9 Hours to reacj Yedakumeri, what with the girls gang coming along with us. Some of us had the honour of carrying some of their bags too, whenever they needed a break. Unfortunately, they breaked every 10 min.
It rained cats & dogs the whole night. We cleared the dirt inside one of the rooms on the Yedakumeri station (Abandoned previosuly).And slept in a long row inside that room. The obvious supper of Maggi was prepared inside the room, which acted as a heater to the 12 of us , inside that once abandoned room.
Next morning, we decided not to carry on till Donigal, as most of the gang were tired with the idea of crossing those long, deadly bridges, which even had some of the sleepers missing inbetween.
So, we took at right turn from the track and trekked towards the Kaginahara village (I found this a few days back, from addyhemmigi's thread.)
Here are some snaps.
We reached this house at the end of the trek, where we hit a road, which we later found that, it leads to Arakalgud.
We were all very hungry. We still had Maggi packets remaining with us.
The lady of this cute little house, allowed us to enter their kitchen, where we were allowed to prepare maggi. Then they even arranged a large mat for us to sit around and have it peacefully.
Who do u think, in a city be that curteous. Next month, i am going to go in search of this house and show them these snaps. I would love to see their reaction. Straight from a movie scene.
The more I go through these travelogues, the more I am convinced that it is not possible to completely enjoy the beauty of our country in a single life.
Great pictures and memories Mr.Pramod. I wish many such journeys for you.
Thanks Vamsi. Yes, I may take a life time to see just South India :)
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In 2005, a group of 7 decided to get together. We had finished our College in 2004. And it was high time, we got together and did something worth while. So, i booked for Jungle resorts - Doddammakali nature camp.
This camp is really isolated. We initially thought, it was close to Bheemeshwari camp and head towards kanakapura and beyond from bangalore South on NH209. Once we reached Bheemeshwari nature camp, we enquired the guys inside the resort and they informed us that, Doddammakali may be 10 Kms upstream on cauvery, but definitely 60 Kms away on Road!! So we drove towards Kollegal road and finally hit Kollegal road somewhere near Malavalli, i guess.
We take a left here and drove till Shimsha Hydro Electric project.
Once you reach this, there is a small jeep track on the right side, after you reach Shimsha. You need to take this jeep track. This route takes you all the way down the mountains on some trecherous track to reach the bottom of the valley, where cauvery is flowing in all her glory. Distance on jeep track is 9 Kms.
No electricity, No human settlements around. Nothing. Just 6 to 8 Tents. Beautiful. peaceful.
This trip happened when i was still driving my beloved 800 :) And there was my friend Anand's Esteem.
Route:
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Bangalore - Kanakapura Road (NH209) join at JP.nagar Ring road - Harohalli - Kanakapura - Halagooru - Malavalli - (Left) -Shimsha - Doddamakali
Activities:
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We reached there by lunch time. Had a nice buffet of typical Jungle resorts food. Mixture of South and North Indian food.
Rested for a while in the very nice tents with 2 beds each. A attached toilet to boot. Clean.
At 4 PM, they gave us a few anglers and locally made fishing sticks :D, and a lot of chapathi dough as bait. We spent 1.5 hours of pure fun with this, even though we never hit any "Mahaseer".
Mahaseer or Mahasheer is the biggest and the most popular game fish in this belt of cauvery.
We took the coracle ride for a few spins. We were not taken far enough as it was post monsoon and the water level was swell.
We spent time appreciating the birds around. Spotted a number of brilliant ones. Kingfishers, ofcourse.
It was dark now. And the guards lit the camp fire. Time for some snacks and BBQ. We sit there and chatted for a long time. Finally had dinner and hit the bed.
Morning 7 am. Guide wakes us all and wants to take us on a hill hike to see the cauvery valley from a vantage point. The girls had a horrid time climbing the hill. At the end of it all, even they felt, it was worth climbing to get that magnificient view of the cauvery.
Cauvery truely flows in some brilliant terrain. Most of which is not accessible around this belt. And in prime Elephant territory.
We come back to the camp. Have a breakfast of Omelettes, bread, upma, dosas and coffee. We spend some time clicking group photos in our analog camera. Digital was not quite there yet. Atleast in our hands.
We finally pack up at 12 noon and decide to leave the camp. It had rained a bit the previous night. And hence the track which looked quite OK, while climbing down when we reached the previous noon, now seemed quite challenging, wat with a maruit 800 2WD ! Gravel was slippery and the tyres were rotating at the idol point. Finally, getting some traction into the tyres with some zig-zag steer, we cross the few slippery hair pins and get back on NH209. And finally reached bangalore via Maddur - Ramanagaram - Bangalore.
Snaps below:
Guys.. where are you all!! Not replies to 2 of my trip posts.
Though I travelled a lot I am not quite good at maintaining a journal or whatever you may call that. Moreover, most of my adventures were at rather young age when Digicams weren't too popular. After looking at your travelogues I think I have to cultivate this habit. Keep them coming. And also you seem to be pretty good with your photography, though I don't have much authority on this matter.
Vamsi -- I really dont maintain any memoirs as such. Its all the snaps, which help us bring back the memories of all the trips. Just buy a external drive and store the snaps in them.
I have burnt my hand, trying to save all snaps on 1 laptop, which got stolen from my car in Seattle downtown. So, many of the snaps are lost. Fortunately, a few of those trips were on social ntw sites. Low resolution. But its there atleast.
ampere -- I will post another thread on VietNam. Hop on :)
Pramod..awesome thread and very neat pics dude! I am regretting the fact that I never saved or bothered to collect any of the pics of my adventures with friends.Dont let silence on this thread deter you buddy..I am sure most of them have turned their house/desktop/laptop upside down to search for their trip pics! Keep it coming:thumbs up
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