Awesome ooty

Category - Travel
Place - Ooty, Coonoor, DodaBetta etc
Time- 3 Days ( Friday morning to sunday night)
Cost ~ 2000 Rs/ head Mode of Transport - Taxi

20th March night --->

We wanted to go to ooty next morning but didn't have a car till 11 PM the previous night. We tried arranging it from some travel agencies but nobody seemed to care. We went to sleep leaving it all where it was and thought we'll see it in the morning ! As the luck would have it, i got a call next morning from the travel agent even before i woke up and he offered us a Tavera at 8 AM. We didn't let the opportunity go by this time :) !

21st March ---->

So we quickly readied ourselves and set off at 8.20 on Friday morning. We picked up two of or friends from koramangala and hit the Mysore road at around 9.15 AM. After coming to outskirts of Bangalore we took our breakfast. We spent an hour doing that. It was already 11 am by then. Journey was quite good. Weather was quite fine...it was raining lightly. We were enjoying the trip.
We reached Mysore at around 12.30 pm. Our first target place was Bandipur national park on the way to ooty. We wanted to make sure we reached there before 4 pm. As it is open only 4 pm to 6 pm in the eve. We reached there at 3.30 pm, got tickets for a safari for rs 95 per head. Though we did not see something great, safari was okay ! But we saw more animals (including elephants) roadside rather than on safari :D !



Well ! After an hour long safari we headed towards ooty. The next few hours were a few of the best in my life. Mood was upbeat. We were enjoying every bit of natural beauty and splendid weather.
We reached ooty by 7.30 pm. Driver took us to a hotel where we
checked in and had our dinner in nearby restaurants (one group took veg and another went for non-veg :D). We headed back to our rooms and had some serious discussions pertaining to trip plan and ...... :D :D !

(The Veg Group)


<<----Saturday 22nd March, 2008 (Holi - Festival of Colors) -->

We had planned to get ready by 8.30 Am and head to railway station to get a ride in ooty-coonoor train but as expected we were late by half an hour and we reached railway station at 9 am. There were no tickets available for the 9.15 am train. We went to plan B. We decided to visit ooty lake. It again proved to be a fantastic experience. We hired an eight seater motorboat and took boating :). We loved it so much that for a few extra bucks to the boatman we took an extra round. We had our breakfast in a nearby hotel and left for the railway station. We didn't want to miss the train this time round :D .

We got into the queue and got tickets after 40 minutes (There was
a queue even though the ticket window wasn't opened. :D).We were keenly waiting on the platform for the train to arrive. As expected there was too much rush and we had to put some real effort to get a seat. But the train journey was again memorable because of amazing surroundings on the way and in the train :). The man rightmost in the adjacent picture along with six of us made the trip memorable. We enjoyed the ride a lot and reached coonoor at 1.30 pm. rain had stopped.


We first went to Sim's park. It was a beautiful garden with lots of greenery. We even found rudraksh trees there :). With wide varieties of rare trees, plants, a beautiful boat house, lovely world map made up of flowers...it was worth visiting.



Close to SIM's park we saw a girl who had 'Holi' colors applied on herself. Mohit asked her about the place where she got the colors from. It was a shop we had left behind. Still enthusiastic Mohit decided to hunt for colors. After half an hour the fact that Holi colors were not so common on Holi day itself here, dawned on him. We set off for our next destination in coonoor. Our driver cum guide took us to High-field tea estates. The place was amazing or it seemed so because we had never been to a tea-estate. With beautiful Neelgiri in background, the greenery of tea-leaves was a view to die for. We tasted various varieties of tea - Masala tea, chocolate tea, green tea etc on a nearby shop for free. We even bought packets of tea which cost each of us Rs 180. After taking some lovely snaps, we left for ooty.

We arrived in ooty close to 5 pm. We planned to visit botanical garden for an hour but most of us were unwilling to spend an hour looking at plants. So we decided to skip it. We took something to eat. Meanwhile Mohit found a shop from where he could actually bought small packets of Holi colors. We decided to go to hotel. On the way we found 'vantage Point' being screened in a theater. We were so thrilled seeing the box ticket price (Rs. 30 / head...average ticket price in a Bangalore theater Rs 130 ) that we decided to get in. Anyways we had nothing to do after evening.

It was a nice movie. It didn't took more than 90 minutes. We took our dinner at hotel patel which served us a marwari thali. We hadn't tasted such nice food for months. After having dinner and sweet, we left to our hotel room.

Holi hai....

after arriving at hotel rooms...we changed to our worst possible clothes and started holi celebration s :D ! It was more of a formal celebration to begin with but as time progressed, bitsian spirit caught up with us. Well ! We actually spent some 30 minutes playing holi and another hour cleaning the mess created in the hotel room. It was a nice feeling to have played holi despite all those hurdles (rarity of holi colors, suitable place etc). We formed the plan for the next days trip and went to beds.

<--Sunday 30th March ---->

We started at around 9 Am to dodabetta. It is the highest peak in the Nilgiri's at about 2600 meters from MSL. Supposedly we could have great view of ooty town, ketty valley, film shooting points etc using a telescope located at the top of the hill. Alas ! It was not to be. Telescope house was close due to bad weather. But experiencing the even more chilling weather was refreshing :D ! We set out for our final stop, Pykara falls after an hour. On the way we found some cool places. One was Kamraj sagar Dam. We stopped our car roadside and went downhill to the lake. It was a very nice picnic spot. But due to lack of time, we departed as soon as we could.

After a short while on the way, we found many cars parked roadside at a place. Expecting it to be a nice place, two of us (including me : )) decided to go uphill promising others in the car to be back within 15 minutes. What we saw up their can't be explained here in words. You had to be there to feel it. Amazing blue Nilgiri standing tall all around a green hilly forest in a chilling weather ! After enjoying the beautiful natural sceneries for some half an hour we had to get back into the car to finish the trip in time.



We took another break at ketty valley on the way for two minutes.
We reached Pykara around 12.30 in the afternoon. Well ! We were not too impressed by the place. The fall which we found was only a few feet in height ( Though you may not notice the same in the picture). But we spend half an hour at the peaceful place and got back to a roadside restaurant. We had our lunch there and started our return journey towards Bangalore at 2.00 PM.



There is nothing much to write about it though. Yeah..well ! We also avoided an accident with a scooter- close to Mysore when the scooter driver suddenly took a right turn without giving any intimation at all. It was a real close shave. It could have been really bad had the driver of our car been not alert enough to react quickly ! Apart from that, we had a few good discussions in the car, mostly about the state of politics and education in India; and what could be done to better it. After reviewing the trip everyone was happy ! We left one of our mates at Bangalore City Railway Station as he had to board a train (that's why we tried to be strictly on schedule !). We reached home by 10 PM.

So ooty was indeed awesome. It was once in a life time experience. The kind of environment I saw there for three days is really uncommon. Surroundings were green and handsome too. I would recommend a trip to ooty to one and all as soon as it can get !!

Sayonara .....

Wounds on Goan Glory

With the British newpapers publishing stories of Fiona Mackowen's NOT-SO-GOOD background, doubts are sure to creep in Police's mind in India. There may be truth in her allegations of involvement of police and politicians yet they are largely based on nothing. There are loopholes but the Fiona part must also be investigated.

Goa has been a great and safe tourist spot since long. But a few incidents which took place in recent years seem to suggest otherwise. Criminal incidents occur everywhere in the world. Goa is no exception.British teen Scarlett Keeling's murder was supposed to be just another case of crime against foreign tourists in Goa. But the issue has grown much bigger and seems to threaten Goan glory. After following the news carefully over the last weekend, I have observed that this is not just another simple case. People seem to trying to use it to their advantage. Media is divided in britain over the issue. There are many loopholes. There exist more than one view to the whole issue.

With the British newpapers publishing stories of Fiona Mackowen's NOT-SO-GOOD background, doubts are sure to creep in Police's mind in India. There may be truth in her allegations of involvement of police and politicians yet they are largely based on nothing. There are loopholes but the Fiona part must also be investigated. She plans to settle in a state where her daughter got murdered and where the administrations is faulty! That is worth noticing.

Is she trying to take advantage of her daughter's killing and wants to secure a good future for her family exploiting Goa government by blowing the issue out of proportion? Is she trying to get media sympathy and publicity ? Is she trying to defame Goa ? Is it a foreign set-up for some bigger cause ?

These questions are not right now very easy to answer. Let's wait and see how it turns out. I hope justice is delivered and all those involved are punished. Goa government must step up the security to foreigners in order to prevent such incidents from recurring. It can try to educate people to behave properly with tourists by making them aware of consequences. All this said, case must be thoroughly investigated and Fiona's intentions and allegations must be verified.

(Image Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/15/wgoa115.xml)

A trip to Hogenakkal Falls

Quick Details

Category - Travel
Place - Hogenakkal Falls
Distance from Bangalore - 190 kms
Time required one way - 3 Hrs
Things to carry - Drinking water, cap, fast food is available at the place still i'll prefer to carry it along
What to see - Hogenakkal fallls
I liked - Lovely ride on NH-7 with amazing surroundings, taking a shower under falls while sitting in coracle, playing in calm running shallow water close to small beach nearby.
Total Expense- 600-1000 Rs per head (It was 650 Rs/head for us.)

Bangalore has got good hang out places around. We have visited Nandi Hills, Meekadatu etc earlier. This week the gang planned a trip to Hogenakkal Falls. Most of us, for belonging to north India, could not even pronounce the name of the place and so didn't even have much information about the place just except a little details available from internet.

We booked a qualis and nine of us started quite early in the morning. We left at 6 AM from Bangalore for no particular reason. We weren't even sure of the distance but assumed it to be around 150 kms. Journey to the place was really good. Most part of it was set on beautiful National Highway No 7. Colorful flowers on the dividers and amazing natural scenarios around the highway made the journey outstanding. We reached there by 9 AM. We looked for a place to eat found a small shop offering Dosas nearby. It was the best Dosa (Plain dosa) I ever had in south India. Most of us were really satisfied with that breakfast. Then we went for sightseeing. There were so many boat-riders who encircled us and requested to take a ride to waterfall in their boat. The fare they quoted was very high as per the expectations - 110 rs a head for a round trip to fall and nearby places and double the amount if we stayed there for a while. After some bargaining we settled for 400 Rs a boat (which could carry maximum 6 people). We made an offer to pay extra amount if we wished to stay there.

Ride in the peculiar boat called coracle or puttu was special. It was a round boat which could carry maximum of six passengers. It needed some extra skill to push that boat through the waters in a particular direction. The boat-owner took us close to a smaller fall and made us feel the water. We all were wet and there was quite a lot water in the boat too. But it was a great experience. Then he took us to a small beach close by. After seeing the place we decided to stay for a while in exchange of extra money and enjoy in running water. We played in the running water for almost an hour. It was really fun being in that clean cold water with the group.

We set to depart at 2.30 pm. As we had not taken our lunch, we decided to stop roadside on NH-7. We prepared sandwiches and had cold drinks. Then we went atop a small hill close by. View from the top of it was breathtaking. We enjoyed ourselves throughout the trip and reached to the outskirts of Bangalore around 7 pm. And then it started to rain !! Traffic became really slow and crippled badly. We could barely move our car for an hour. After wasting 2 hours to traffic we could finally reach home at 10 pm. In all, it proved to be an exciting trip- full of fun.