A trek of eternal ecstasy to Kumaraparvatha

A trek to kumaraparvatha was a perfect feel of seemingly endless yet a touch of blissfulness, a feel of trekking in heaven. This makes me call it as a "A TREK OF ETERNAL ECSTASY" . Trust me this is the best and the toughest trek I have ever had in my life till date.

Brief about the peak and the trek :
Kumaraparvatha is located about 5700 feet above sea level, it is well situated in the western Ghat mountains range and is very close to the famous pilgrimage center Shri Kukke Subrahmanya Kshetra in South Canara District of Karnataka.
To ascent the kumaraparvatha peak there are 2 well known routes one from somvarpet which is in coorg and an other root is from kukke subramanya. I would be giving information on the trek to the peak from kukke subramanya. The kumaraparvatha is located toward the east of the temple. The peak is made of 6 peaks and the 7th peak is the Kumaraparvatha. Among which 3 are prominent peaks and the rest 4 are not small once. The 3 prominent peaks I am talking about are 'Shesha Parvatha','Siddha Parvatha' and 'Kumara Parvatha'. We will have to cross the Shesha Parvatha, before we can reach the Kumara Parvatha. The Shesha Parvatha faces to the south and it is said to look like a serpent with seven hoods. Its pretty much impossible to identify the look of serpent with seven hoods. The southern part of this mountain is very steep with about 2000 feet drop and looks very terrible. The Siddha Parvatha, another part of the mountain is inaccessible. There are few milestones which would be helpful for you to trace yourself to the peak.

The trek to this peak is a blend of trekking in rocky terrain, thick green forest trekking and trekking in bright green grasslands as well as a blend of trekking in rain, sunshine and mist, mind you this would be true only if u trek in monsoon or post monsoon.

Importance of this place :
This peak on the top is suppose to be the place were subramanya also known as murugan , karthikeya meditated for a long time and then descent down to the kukke subramanya and gave the darshan to his devotees. The foot prints of the divine lord can be spotted on the peak.
Apart from which there are 2 small temples of shiva linga on the top of the peak. Just behind one of these temples you can find the foot prints.

There is an other story were in the nagadeva comes seeking Subramanya help as refuge when he was being chased by garuda, hence this place is also suppose to be one of the natural habitat for cobra.

Few more facts about the peak, on the top of kumaraparvatha is a plateau about an acre. In the place where Shri Kumara Swamy was anointed, two footprints have been engraved on stones. The pilgrims worship these footprints and make offerings. They say that during the coronation ceremony the water flowed in two different directions, and these streamlets were called 'Ubhaya - Kumaradhara".

The two rivers flow separately upto eight miles from Subrahmanya where their confluence takes place and they flow together as one. The Subrahmanya Kshetra lies in between the 'Ubhaya - Kumaradhara' river. Even now, if we pour some water on these footprints the water will flow separately in two directions.

White stones called 'Kumaralinga' are found on the top of this mountain. Strangely enough these stones are all in the form of hexahedrons. We can in no way explain the process of the production of these stones unless by attributing it either to the greatness of God or to the mystery of nature. The size of the stones ranges from that of pulse to about half in inch. Strangest of all is the fact that all these stones are of uniform shape. Devotees collect these stones and worship them as they do to the 'Saligrama' and 'Shivalinga'.

Disclaimer : This is a collective information from lots of sites which have provided the information about kumaraparvatha

Duration : 2 days

Best time to trek :
Monsoon or post monsoon ( Late September to early January) . Can find thick green vegetation, very good scenic.

Things to watch out during this season
> Leeches if at all they scare you
> Cold winds which prick you hard
> Some times the mist may mask the scenic

One can even trek in summer but the whole scenic looks pale and trekking in the sultry will drain you out faster. You would be in need of more water and you find very less streams in this season.

Things specifically necessary for this trek :
> Carry tents along, other wise the cold winds will never let u sleep peacefully
> Carry every thing in covers, so that they wont get wet. Please get back those covers, dont litter !
> Carry all leech repellents you can find
> Although we havn't come across any snakes, I would suggest you to carry antivenin as this place is a natural habitat for cobras. Getting quick help in this trek is tuff
> Good shoe and backpack (please dont make the mistake of carry heavy back pack)

How to reach :
Its about 6 to 7 hrs of journey from bangalore to kukke. There is couple of KSRTC rajahamsa which leave at night after 10.00pm and the same for the return journey too. Apart from this there is one CPC travels bus which goes to kukke at around 10.15 from Anand rao circle, please try your best to avoid this bus. This bus is the worst bus one can ever travel in.

Now lemme start of how our trek was

We were about 7 guys who planned for the KP trek, but only 6 of us ended up booking tickets to kukke on tuesday 4th october 2005 in CPC travels (now u understand why I said, dont get tickets from this travels ! I am a victim). The 6 of us were
Karthik (none other then me)
Sumanth
Vivekananda
Ajitpal
Sudhir
Saravan
Among 6, 4 of us got nto the bus at southend at about 9.20pm and he took us to anand rao circle at around 10.15pm, the other 2 got in here. We met another 6 guys who were going on the same trek. Initially we werent so keen to get along with another group. As you read this log you will understand we were 6 good friends when we went and we were 12 good friends when we came back. The bus started of at around 10.35pm and it took us on a free,bangalore night site seeing, he went through almost every area in the city to fill in the bus to the maximum possible and it took about 2 hrs to do that. He finally decided to leave bangalore at around 12.15am. The seats were bad, I could see almost every one in the bus struggling for sitting on their seats. Above every thing a paradox statement what I saw in a bold emprint on a sticker which was stuck above me read as " we make your journey a pleasure ". I couldn't stop laughing after I read that. I was sitting in the front seat and couldnt stretch my legs. Anyway after a tiring journey we reached kukke at about 6.50am in the morning.

8th October 2005 , Saturday - Day 1 of trekking

After we reached kukke, we 6 of us got freshed up as fast as possible, as we knew we had a hard day to face. We had our breakfast and started trekking at about 8.00am in the morning. We took a small galli and we reached a place were there was a board which was directing us left and it indicated 10kms - kumaraparvatha. I swear after you trek you really dont agree that the trek is about 10kms on one way. Some say its 13kms one way, but not sure of this distance.

I knew this was the toughest trek in karnataka and I am gonna start that in another few seconds. I was busy mentally preparing myself come one dude.. "I gotto finish this trek at ne cost" and the inner invoice in me was coming up saying dude.. "you havn't exercised nor been to ne trek from past 1 year .. you fatso you think you can do it...na..why strain yourself retire here itself". It was hard for me to dominate on my inner voice, but still did that for another 2 days.

We 6 of us started of the trek. Initially till about 3km we could still hear to lots of noise from one of the loudspeaker (I guess some local function would be going on). We trekked for about 10mins without a break, I could hear almost every one breathing out hard. Once we spotted few leeched around, we decided time to get ready to fight against leeches. We put in tobacco leaves in our socks, we put snuff to our shoes. For my surprise I saw sudhir putting deoderant to this shoe, I really couldnt stop laughing hard at that. The deos helps us to make the leech release at once when these leeches are feeding on your blood, but it doesnt stop one to get closer to you. We started moving forward towards the peak, I started realising the weight of my backpack as the trek route got steeper and steeper. I could also see sumanth and ajith breathing out hard from mouth, realised these two guys are a tired.
I too was tired, but was pushing myself hard out there. After about 20 to 25 mins Ajit breaks down, says he is too old for this. He said he cant make it and he is gonna go back to kukke, trust me at that very moment his cynasium really took over his willpower to trek ahead. Vivek took over the situation and handled it perfectly, after about 10mins Ajit said "no matter, what happens ? I will trek". For another 20mins with few small breaks to catch up with your breath (I call them breathers as this break which is about a minute or less will help you catch up with ur breath). After which I got tired like hell, sweating all over. When I was resting and trying to catch up my breath. I could get my ears on to the music of the forest, I claim it as a music because when you try to concentrate on the sounds these bugs, crickets, insects, birds and animals make, they sound rythmic. Apart from this I could smell of the greenary, what a relief ! no more bloody polluted air around, it was thin pure filtered air in these forest. I could realise all these when I closed my eye, as I opened them I could witness the thick forest preventing the sun rays to fall on us. We took frequent breaks here and there, now and then we used to have a debate on some useless topics. I didnt have to patience to talk, over which sudhir used to crack some disguesting PJs. Now and then most of us were curious to know the distance we would have covered, hope we had a GPS out there. Among us Sumanth was the only person who knew the route, as it was his second time trek to KP. We were searching for the first milestone its the huge rock which is a very comfortable place to have a good break. Once we reached out there, all of us litterly threw our backpacs and relaxed for about 10mins. It would take about 2 hrs to reach this place for a normal trekker. Saravan - it was his first trek ever, most of the time was always busy taking off leeches from his shoe, I used to enjoy when ever he starts cribbing over leeches trying to bite him. As we moved ahead from there , I could see Ajit was feeling better and had picked up his pace, he was leading the trek for some time. At that point I was really impressed at his will power which made a good come back. Umh I assume lots of things before I start of the log. Ok Ajit, myself and sumanth are fatso ! that doesnt mean we are too fat, a couple of kgs over weight. Ajith was the heaviest among us, so now you could understand why Ajit was struggling out there.
Our second milestone was the start of grassland, we could witnessed the gradual transformation of the vegetation around us as we trekked, the tall thick trees reduced as we approached the grassland and we could spot bright grass around. After about 20mins we started trekking in zigzag trails in these grasslands. There are faint trails which cut short the zigzag trails, but these trails are steep and risky. Remember its a natural habitat of snakes, why take risk ? It took us about 2 1/2hrs to reach the grasslands. We got few snaps along this trails. Our next milestone thats the third milestone was the bhatta's house.
We were tired but all of us still pushed our selves hard to reach bhatta's house, as we were approaching towards bhatta's house the oppression of heat made us get tired faster and our water bottles were getting empty, all these was basically because of the reason that there was not much shelter in these grass lands as in the forest. We were expecting the bhatta's house to be near by, all of us were eagarly waiting to see bhatta's house. We took few breathers now and then, took few snaps, ate few dates, candies and lots more junk on the way. I had sort of regained my strength in this stretch, especially after having a break were we had lots of dates. Ajit pace had again slowed down, he was pretty much tired. Vivek too was tired, only then I could realise that the culprit was my backpack, poor guy he carried almost half way to bhatta's house.
At some point we spotted an antenna, uffffff a sense of relief in every one's mind, we are near to Bhatta's house. There was a neatly arranged pavement as we approached Bhatta's house, as we were near to his house we could hear to few dogs barking. As soon as we reached there, we just dumped our backpacks and plonked into one of the sleep mats ! . Removed our shoes to check for the forest preditors, I luckily couldnt find any leeches. We greeted bhatta there and he told us he needs about 2hrs to prepare the food. Apart from that he gave us the shock of the trek. He told us that the forest department was not letting anyone to trek ahead to the peak. We were baffled for a second, then myself and sumanth we spoke to a person who was inside bhatta's house and he was one among the two persons incharge of the forest checkpost out there.

The whole reason for not allowing us, there is as small story I got to narrate now. The forest department people told us this ---
Some looser insane phd student from IISC had been on a solo trek to KP. To get rid of his frustration in life as his thesis submission didnt go on well, he some how managed to get lost in the forest of kumaraparvatha. He is supposed to have fought his death in that forest without food for about 9 days. It took about 5 days for the forest department officials and local police to find this guy. It seems this guy was in a pretty bad state when found and was almost near to death. When this fellow was interrogated for the reason of getting lost in the forest, he has informed the department that the dense mist and heavy rainfall were the main convicts for him to take the wrong trail.

After hearing to this story, we tried convincing him which didnt help in any way. He later on took us to one of his senior for negotiations. Myself, sumanth and vivek had tuff time convincing these people to let us go. The whole drama went on for about 1 1/2hr and finally he said, on one condition he will let us go " Just make a move before the next group arrives in there". We rushed back to bhatta's house to skip the lunch at his house and make a move. When we reached there, for our misfortune the other group had arrived. It was our bad luck again and we had no choice, so we made up our mind to leave next day morning to the peak. We spoke a lot with the other group, gradually got to know them better. But the other group was pretty much confident on convincing the forest department to leave both our groups to the peak. After about an hour, these people told we are leaving to the peak after finishing the lunch. The whole drama went on for about 3hrs. We had a very good lunch at bhatta's house and both the groups started moving towards the peak. Now we were 12 of us and we left bhatta's house at about 3.15pm.
The new 6 into the group were
Anil (trekking for the 8th time)
Raghu (trekking for the 3rd time)
Ranjith(trekking for 4th time)
Naveen (trekking for the 3rd time)
Janardhan (trekking for the 6th time)
Hari(first time to KP)
The trek pace from here changed a lot, trust me these guys knew how to trek, there trekking pace was too good. These people pushed us hard, without them we wouldnt have finished the trek. We got to know each other well as we trekked along to the peak. The climate changed a lot, it got cloudly, cold and it was time for us to put on the jackets. Ajit had a tuff time trekking from here, he was constantly pushed hard from vivek and ranjith, sumanth too was accompanying ajit as he too was tired trekking in this stretch. We hardly took any breaks from here on. Anil led the whole group, he was a trekking as if he was walking on a flat road ! gosh this guy was fully filled with energy. In about an hour or so we were walking in clouds, this experience was too good. It was chill and when ever a cloud passes by us, it used to leave out droplets on our hairs, face, all over. This thing appears as if some one has sprayed water on you. It was a wonderful experience to trek in such a weather out there. Later after about 1hr 40mins we reached our next milestone the fourth milestone the mantapa, a very small mantapa.

The history behind this mantapa it is actually called 'Girimutt'. Its was suppose to have been construsted about 500yrs back. It is said that a 'Jangama Mutt' (Lingayat) existed in this place in the past. This Mantapa is built of stone which is about sixteen feet in length and eight feet in breadth. This is supported in four corners by four pillars with engravings and is roofed with slabs of stone. The original roof of the mantapa was down few years back, now there is a replacement for this roof. From this place onwards the trekking path becomes very steep and rises almost like a vertical wall (exaggerating a bit). When we rested near mantapa, we could hardly see anything which was 8feet away from us. It was at this spot it started raining heavily. Our group was in a dilemma to continue the trek or to abandon our trek for the day, we were pretty much tired and were more worried about Ajit's condition who had a sprained ankle. But we didnt have any place to pitch the tent, we were forced to trek for few more distance in the rain. We pushed ourselved hard and trekked in the rain. We trekked about 1 1/2 hr in rain with out any breaks. The rain was a sort of catalyst for our trek, it reduced our sweat, thirst, pains. This was the toughest stretch and we trekked like mad in this stretch. After we got drenched in rain, my backpack was weighing as if it was about 15kgs approximately, this added on to the complexity of the trek. At about 6.00pm we reached a place , were you get to see a very good scenic of the peaks around. It was the best view of the KP. It was time to cross a small stretch of forest, this stretch is suppose to be the link between two forest on either side of the peak and one can encounter wild bisons in this stretch. This start of forest is the fifth milestone. It was getting darker and it was time for us to put snuff /salt on to our boots to fight against the tiger leeches (these leeches are a varient among the leeches, which are of bigger size) and cross the forest range. It takes about 20mins to cross this range. At the last part of the forest trek, it had got dark and we had to trek with the help of torches. As the forest range ends, the rocky mountains shows up. It pretty steep, slippery and one has to watch every step he takes in here. We did a hour of adventerous night trek and it was a amazing experience, it was my first night trek. We reached the peak at about 7.30pm and couldnt see anything on the peak. We had to use torches all the time to reach the peak. We had no clue how the peak looks as it was pitch dark. We pitched our tents, had our dinner and went to sleep at around 10.00pm. My tent was a new tent and it took me time to pitch that. Ajith, sumanth, saravan and vivek slept in one big tent. Myself and sudhir slept in my tent. The other group had bought a big tent and all of them fitted into it. It was getting cold as the night went on . Almost all of us were freezing out there, vivek and few more slept with wet clothes, poor guys didnt have any dry clothing.

9th October 2005 , Sunday - Day 2 of trekking

At around 3.30am I woke up and couldnt sleep after that, the cold out there didnt let me sleep peacefully. In between that I could hear to lots of noises around the tents, didnt have patience to see what it was ? but one thing that was prominently heard to every one around was the snoaring of ajit and sumanth, it was a like a snoaring competation between them. At around 5.30am, I was getting restless in my tent and just stepped out of the tent. I could see a bit of light in the sky, I just sat outside witnessing the dark running away gradually. It was a very good moment of the trek, where in everything around was silent and I had a moment to think, trying to get a look at how the peak looks as the sun came up slowly.

At around 6.30am few guy were out and we lit up a small campfire as couldnt resist the cold. This was very much necessary for us at that moment. At around 7.30am almost every one was awake. We took some interesting snaps , this snaps are really going to be memerable once.
The scenic from the peak was simply mind blowing. I was cursing myself very badly for not having a camera of my own to capture the moments of my life. At around 8.00am we did pooja to the shiva linga which was there on the top of the hill. We saw the foot prints of the divine lord Muruga. After the pooja all 12 of us sat down and had our breakfast. The sun was totally up and it was getting hotter.

It was time to trek down, the whole experience of trekking down was different. I had gradually developed neck pain looking down the whole trek on the second day. As it had rained the previous day, the whole trail had got more slippery than we expected. As we started of the trek for the day, we could see the whole scary rocky terrain on the top of the peak that we had trekked at night.
As we trekked down it was getting sunny and we had a better look of the scenic. Almost every one on the trek would have fell down atleast a couple of times. I had the best fall among every one, I toppled down about 6 to 7 feet down with 1 summersault and 2 rollovers. As it was on a grassland, it didnt hurt me much, but I still enjoyed the fall. As we reached manatapa, there is a small stream out there were we relaxed for some time and made a move again towards bhatta's house.

We reached bhatta's house at around 1.30pm. After having our lunch we rested for about 15mins and made a move. Just as we started trekking again to the kukke subramanya, it started raining heavily. As I said before trekking in rain is painless, we trekked to the bottom with only one small break on the big rock. We had lots of fun getting down, I was talking to naveen almost for about an hour or so and for my surprise, he asked me and sudhir whether we are interested in getting married. If it was yes he had a bride ready for us, I was totally taken aback when he told me this. This stretch of trek was not so slippery and we took about 2hrs 45mins to get down. The first set of junta reached the base camp at around 4.10pm and I reached the base camp along with sudhir at around 4.15pm and the last set of junta reached at around 4.35pm. There was a huge applause from every one, once Ajitpal finished his trek. All of us had a final session of leech removal from our shoes. I had a flawless victory over the leeches, I had zero leech bits, isn't that great. That was the end of KP, the toughest trek I have had till date. Uffffff a memorable trek of my life. Thanks to Anil and his junta, without them it would have merely been impossible for us to trek to the peak on the same day.

Later we made a move to the tea shop, it was a bit relaxing out there. We purchased few dry clothing and had a clean bath at the kumaradhare. After which we went to the temple for darshan at around 7.00pm. We had dinner and lazed out for some time waiting to catch up our bus to bangalore at 10.30pm. The other group ops lemme say the Anil and his junta of our group had to catch up a bus at 10.15pm. It was a peaceful journey back to bangalore in the rajahamsa. I really pity the people who sat in front of us in the bus, struggling to breath the air with a blend of my stinking shoes. We all reached bangalore at around 5.50am and i plonked onto the bed at around 6.30am. It was feeling great to come back and relax after a great mission. I got up at around 11.00am that day, was back to office.

On a whole it was a very good experience trekking at kumaraparvatha, I would suggest all the trek lovers not to miss this trek . Atleast do it once in your life time.


More to come ! :)

A Cruise to Munnar

Munnar its located 5000ft above sea level that’s about 1600mts, which was basically built as a comfort station by the british planters. It is a land with rolling hills, steep gorges, carpeted with green tea by TATA, it partially holds tropical forest and has a treasure of plants and wildlife. Munnar is one of the most naturally beautiful hill-stations in South India. It is located in the Western Ghats in the Eastern parts of Central Kerala and an adjoining part of Tamilnadu. The former, mainly in Devikulam Taluks of Idukki district, Kerala is usually known as the Kannan Devan hills or the High Ranges. The plantations in High Ranges are clustered around the town of Munnar (10 N 77 E) which is about 130 km from Cochin. Kodaikanal, another famous hill-station is just 90kms from Munnar. Munnar is known for world class tea and spices. TATA's own about 65500 odd acres of teas plantation in here, the famous brand of Tata tea Kannan devan chai is a origin from here.

There are 3 rivers Mudrapuzha, Nallathanni and Kundala which meet at the center of the town and hence the name munnar, were the ‘munn’ means three and the ‘aar’ means ‘sangama’ which means the three rivers confluence here.

Duration : Our trip was for 3 days. To look at the whole of munnar you need about 5 complete days.

Best time to visit : Post monsoon and winter for good scenic. Summer if you want to beat away the heat.

Ways to reach :

Nearest airports

• Madurai (140 km)
• Kochi (130 km)
• Thiruvananthapuram (265 km)

Nearest Railheads

• Theni (60 km)
• Kottayam (114 km)
• Changanassery (114 km)
• Kochi (130 km)

There are frequent bus services from almost all cities in south india.

Accomodation : Its preferable to have the accomodation booked well in advance, especially during season it becomes impossible finding a stay in munnar. I have provided few contacts in this travelog. There are lots more hotels what you can find around.

Our trip to munnar :
Where shall I start off with?? before starting let me tell you the perfect defination of dynamic planning....! The plan was to go to Kodai but at the nth moment our instincts (dynamic decision) drove us towards munnar....!It was a worth it decision...!

I called it a cruise to munnar, for the first time.....we were in no hurry to reach the destination it was like a smooth drive to munnar through ooty.... ! doesnt it sound good... !

Day 1 : 13th August 2005 - Friday

We were 4 dudes.. Karthik (thats me), Sunil, Sumanth and KK who cruised to munnar in a tata indica (we claim it as deisel truck - rugged, gives mind blowing mileage - beleive or not we got about 22kms/litre on long......umhhh doesnt that sound good).

We had planned to leave at 3.00 am on 13th August 2005 and it was a long weekend.

Before we left, early in morning
Sunil came home at around 3.45 am
Sunil : Morning dude ! ....with a disappointing look on his face but at the same time not able to control laugh KLPD maga !
Karthik : wht happenned ? I was worried.. and praying god.. no this trip shouldnt get cancelled
Sunil : With a grin AC and the Front display board aren't working.
Previous day night the mechanic had screwed around with the fuse panel and 'cuse of some loose connection, things weren't working. Any ways.. that didnt make ne difference. Nothing could stop us to go.. !
After that I checked whether any thing can be fixed.....as if I am a stud mechanic .....didnt have luck ...couldnt fix it !
We later on picked up KK and Sumanth.... I was still thnking hard about what could be wrong and how to fix it.... na...I still didnt succeed in fixing it !
As expected left an hour late. We hit the pitch dark artistically sculptured mysore road at around 4.15am It took us about 3 hours to reach mysore, god knows when they are gonna complete that express highway which was started ages back. The initial part of the bangalore - mysore could say till channapatna the road was pretty bad, some times its tough to figure out whether we are on a road or on a dirt track, the tyre manufacturers are really gratefull to karnataka government as there sales in karnataka has shot up ....cheers to these people, any one whoz interested in stock market... you can consider this as a tip from my end.. go buy these stocks..!!(disclaimer : I am not responsible for ne loss, but plz do consider me if you make profit).
It was about 6.30 when we were in the outskirts of mysore taking the new ringroad of mysore leading towards ooty...! It was a beautiful drive umh now say cruise from there on .. almost every one aboard were shivering of cold and we still didnt hesitate to pull down the windows. The cool breeze gave us such a relief, could sense a tinch of freshness. As the sun came up, we stopped aside to take few snaps in a sunflower fields. We did gulp in few slices of bread along with riped mango juice having a glimpse at the golden rays piercing through the morning haze, which was a worthwhile watching it. We took off again and as we reached the bandipur range .....ufff.. it was as if we were put in a room painted with green all around. It was total greenary, could smell the odor of a fresh thick wild forest. We could spot few deers, lots of peacocks and for our bad luck couldnt spot any elephants, wild boars and wild buffalo which are commonly seen animals in this forest range.


We reached the forest office at around 9.30 from here there are two routes which lead to ooty, among which one route has 33 steep hairpin bend curves which is about 30kms and another route is about 70kms which is pretty easy, smooth way to reach ooty.
You know we guys are ambitious as expected we choose the tougher route, we surely paid for it. Hitertho the journey was good no troubles, then the tata designed indica couldnt take the steep, had to stop at couple of places to cool the engine and take it up from there.
We didnt crib a lot about the car, we hogged, take snaps, enjoy the greenary around during that time ! At one stop we could spot a huge waterfalls, it was a very good scenic.....the forest out there was very dense.
Before going ahead, let me tell u the nightmare sunil had. Myself, sunil , kk and one more guy had been about 6 mnths back in the same route and had faced similar sort of problem with Indica. But then it was a new car and he was scared that his car was screwed, after the trip with "a lot of research with mechanics in bangalore", he concluded saying there was some minor problem. This time he was confident and took it up as a challenge, but his car pulled him down.
One more problem apart from this car was our kk dude, whoz a software engg working on the automobile domain, trust me this dude has hell lot of knowledge ! He keeps bugging us with his technology......every time he starts of... we guys feel..not again !
We reached ooty, we had our breakfast out there. Spent about a hour to get the problems repaired at a garage out there. We left to mettupalyam were we had out lunch. On the way to mettupalyam the AC and the front display panel again stopped working. It was about 30kms ghat roads to mettupalyam. We had a pit stop for our lunch.

At around 1.45pm we started again towards coimbatore which was about 30kms from there, filled in few fuel there. Now started towards palani which was about 40kms from there. This stretch was boring, few of us had a good nap in the car after a heavy lunch. After which as we moved towards pollachi which was about 30kms again from palani, we caught up with a good smooth highway(very impressive road) and on this road we found few good scenics around. There was lots of wind, the Sulzon had installed lot of windmills aside this highway on the later part of the highway towards pollachi. Sumanth really enjoyed driving crazily n these road.....it was the first time sumanth was driving a deisel car !! was struggling a bit... infact forcing to drive a deisel car like a petrol car.. ! hahaha...I couldnt stop laughing at his driving style.

As we reached pollachi we came to the junction.. it was the critical turning point of the whole trip, we came across a board.. which had directions to kodai and munnar...it was showing about 122kms to kodai and about 88kms to munnar..........It was almost 4 pm
I just make a statement, initially was not serious about the statement
Karthik : "guys how about munnar instead of kodai"
there was a pause from all of them
Junta : "why not "
that made me give a big smile
Karthik : "chalo...lets rock to munnar"
we took the diversion towards munnar,then I guess KK thought a lot, after a while spoke out
KK : "guys, we had planned every thing for kodai, we knew which all places to go in kodai".
We pulled aside the car, had a talk for about 2 minutes........all enthu souls..decided chuck kodai and lets go to munnar. It was a wise decision we made, that night I heard that due to heavy rainfall the previous day at kodai, lots of road were blocked. We thought we were lucky that we took right decision at right time... other wise we had to repent a lot if we had taken Kodai route !

After about 18kms in that route we found a diversion towards munnar and one more going to amaravathi dam, crocodile park. I felt it would be wise to complete those places on the 3rd day on the way back to bangalore. It was about 4.55pm, we were at the entrance of the chinnar wildlife sanctuary which is a part of periyar forest range, had to sign in at the forest check post and started off into the forest range. The initial part for about 10kms was pretty dry even the road was a bit bumpy and the ride was boring. I was wondering did we take a wrong decision. After about 5kms from there we could make out a smooth transition in weather and vegetation around. I was driving the car, I knew we had very less time before the sunset and had to cover as much distance as possible. It was about 5.40 pm we were still about 50kms away from munnar, mind you it was a single track road too many curves. Now it was getting cold, getting a bit darker, it was very silent outside in the forest. For a second I felt like I was dreaming, the dusk was getting better and better, there was absolutely no traffic now I had started enjoying the drive. We guys spoke about lots of things, after some time Sunil took over the driving. Myself and Sumanth were in the back seat, we all started speaking about girls, how sumanth and kk patafy them ! ...they were giving gyan to me and sunil ! I was taken aback with sumanths talents ......he is the dude ! lots of interesting topics pop up. I swear we didnt know how the time swayed away, it was about 8 pm and we were almost close to munnar I can say about 10kms away. There were lots of landslides because of the rain, at one spot there was a bad landslide and a bus was struggling to pass by, we had to slow down for the bus to pass off, thats when Sunil spotted a Fox, it stood beneath a small stream about 30 feet from our car, its eye was sparkling in the dark. We then made it to munnar.......ah my god.. that was a long drive .. ! we stopped in the main market of the munnar. Spotted a good hotel for dinner it was "saravanabhava" umh.. the name was familiar and thought the food would be good..... it was not very good. For that reason people out there suggested us saying that was the best hotel around, trust me thats true..... the food out here is far better than any other restaurant around... obvoiusly there were star hotels.. we didnt even thnk about those. For those people who are interested in staying in good star hotels, resorts. Here are few contacts

Umh , after the dinner our search for the cottage/room started. It was a off season, but as it was a long weekend the prices of the rooms were high and we found it tough locating any room around. Our hunt for a room went on for about 2hrs, we resigned there , said no more searching and we are gonna sleep in the car itself. Before going to sleep, we decided to go for a walk. Trust me this idea was good one, about a km away from the main market as we were walking we found a couple of guys dumping there luggage into a car. We took a wild guess and asked a person out there are u ppl chking out, they said ya..! there was a good smile on my face... there we go.. our luckiest day ......all good things happening for us. More over the price for the room was very less. Later lots of stuff happened, they told they can't give the room as it was already booked by someone else. They directed us to an other place, on the way to the new lodge, I was again cursing for my fate...thought I have to take back my word " luckiest day". Then we landed up into a place were it was dark, hardly any lights around. It was in a peak locatily and could get a few of the whole munnar town. Later he took us into a house, were the house was converted to a lodge..... when we went into the room, we realise again.. "luckiest day". The room was pretty worth the money we paid. It was Rs.600 /- for a double bed room for a night. We all were tired after a long day...jumped into and bed and were fast asleep.

End of day one.

Route & Distance covered:
Bangalore - Ramanagaram : 62kms
Ramanagaram - mandya : 40kms
Mandya - mysore : 30kms
Mysore -nanjangud-bandipur- ooty : 130kms
Ooty - metupalyam - 30kms
Metupalyam - coimbatore - 30kms
Coimbatore - palani - 40kms
Palani - pollachi - 30kms
Pollachi - munnar - 88kms
Approximate distance through this route Bangalore-Ooty-Munnar is about 500kms

Day 2 : 14th August 2005 - Saturday

We woke up at about 6.15am, the weather was so cold that we all decided not to have a bath. There was one erotic painting in the room, sumanth insisted sunil to take a snap of that. We lucky got hold on to a guide his name was Yesudas, later we came to know that he was one of the best guide of munnar. We were lucky to get such a person as our guide, he showed us in and out of munnar. He is about 60yrs and an ex-service men n army !
We took our own time to have our breakfast and yesudas was suppose to meet us at about 9.30am in front of the church in the main market area. We waited for him and finally we left for munnar site seeing at around 10.00am in the morning, I thought we were late and couldnt cover much of the places. He took us almost all places around in munnar in a day !

On the second day we woke up at about 6.15am, the weather was so cold that we all decided not to have a bath. There was one erotic painting in the room, sumanth insisted sunil to take a snap of that. As soon as we stepped out of the cottage it was cold, it was drizzling and we could see a beautiful morning view of the whole munnar from there as I told it was located on the top of the hill. We quickly got into our car and made a move to the saravanabhava hotel for the breakfast. We waited for Lupans Yesudas, he is about 60yrs and suppose to be the best and the most experienced guide in munnar. He is an ex-serviceman, his contact info is 9447220616. If he is not available on this number, just ask for yesudas in the super studio which is in front of saravanabhava, they will get you in touch with him. Luckily we got a hold on to him from his son who works at the lodge where we stayed . The contact info of the lodge/cottage we stayed is

Vilayil cottage – munnar P.O. ,
Munnar town, kerala-685612
Email : vilayilcottage2003@yahoo.co.in
Tel : 04865 – 232409
BLR contact : 080-25267457

The stay in here is pretty average stay. If you are looking for a very good place and if money is not a criterion, you could check out

Edassery Eastend,
Temple road, Munnar – 685612
Tel : 04865 – 230451/2/3/191
Fax : 04865 – 230227
Email : info@edasserygroup.com
Web : www.edasserygroup.com

The stay in here seems to really impressive, the website should tell you everything.
We started of with our site seeing , the first stop was in a very weird place on some road. I was wondering what is out here to have a look at, this experienced guide showed us one of the oldest trees in munnar and the tree which beholds the highest number of bee hives every year. He even gave us a lecture on the bees for about 15mins, trust me it was very informative. With prior request this chap can also arrange for pure honey, good tea powder and lots more. He also showed us a very peculiar leaf, which when torn apart gives a feel of a cotton, so it is suppose to be called as the cotton leaf, don’t know much about that.
He later on took us to place were the tea plantation was so neatly trimmed , it looks like a green blanket spread over and hence the name green blanket. Again this is a property of TATA tea. What ever you see around till about 5km or more in radius from munnar town belongs to TATA tea.
Our next view point was mattupetty lake, which has a speed boating and about 2kms from there you can see a Indo Swiss dairy project. About year back they used to allow visitors to this dairy project. There is lots of research which goes into this dairy and the cows here suppose to give twice the milk than a normal cow. We found couple of very good spots in this locality, clicked few snaps around and made a move to the echo point which was about 3kms from there. Trust me the echo is very prominent, we screamed a lot till we got tired. This are the few snaps clicked out here. You get some good carrot, pineapple out here. We later on made a move to the top station which is located 6270ft above sea level were we had a small trek, it was pretty tiresome and this trek was enough to make us sweat in that weather. Our guide showed us a trail which was way small to look from this peak and told us that is the one day trek route from munnar to kodai, this made both me and sumanth smile at each other. So we are planning to trek on this route some time, obviously with a guide. It’s about 30kms trek, really not sure whether it can be completed in one day. After which we made a move kundalay lake , this guide had discovered an other echo point . It seems this point is not known to public. It was about 3.30pm, we hadn’t had our lunch and it was time to rush back to munnar town as we were very hungry. We again hogged at saravanbhava, after which it was another round of hunting for the stay for that night. The prices for stay had again shot up, we all of us decided to make a move from munnar to another place by name marayoor, which was about 30kms from there. The drive to this place was good, the whether was too good and we started discussing about girls again …..umh the hot topic. Sumanth was some reason was shocked at few facts and lets forget the topic there, as sumanth started imagining lots of things which werent facts. The discussion went on for about 3hrs.
On the way to marayoor, we found a very impressive falls. We took some good snaps in here. Finally we reached marayoor and we just scanned around the whole place for a good stay. Trust me his place has very good resorts, cottage and lodges. The stay out here is affordable and mind you the climate out here is not as cold as in munnar. But a very scenic place to stay in. Here is the contact of the place were we stayed

Chandana royal resort
Munnar, Marayoor P.O.
Kerala – 685620
Tel : 04865 – 252222, 252322, 252221

This people have about 4 hotels and resorts in the same place. The stay in here was good and the early morning scenic around the resort is very good. There are couple of small water falls near to this place, you can spent some good time in here if one is interested.

Day 3 : 15th August 2005 - Sunday

It was on a Independence day, the sad part was we missed the holiday as it was on a weekend. We got up a bit late at around 7.00am in morning and left at around 8.00am to few more places around.
We went to sandal wood and bamboo forest , there was hardly any thing to see out there. After which we started moving towards coimbatore route, where we had to pass the chinnar wild life sanctuary again. There are couple of trekking trails in this sanctuary. As soon as this sanctuary ends we get the forest department, this people do arrange for about 4 different types of treks in this sanctuary. All trek lovers you can check out with this people out there.
After the check post we visited amaravathi dam which was about 10kms from there, spent some time there. It was pretty hot, we had already lost the hill station weather in here. We also visited a crocodile park out there and it was around 12.00pm . It was time for us to get back to Bangalore. We stopped at pollachi to have our lunch and from there we took a different route, a short route to Bangalore. We took route to erode via dharapuram . Once we reached erode we took up the statehighway to salem. And from salem we took up the rocking golden quadrilateral. I swear this road is too good. It was about 6.00pm when we reached the start of golden quadrilateral. Sunil started driving from here, it took him about 3hrs to reach banglore, you can guess the sort of road I am talking about and the sort of drive it was. Sunil would have touched about 140kms/hr on this road. It was a very fast and smooth drive back to Bangalore from munnar on this route. It is approximately about 400kms from munnar to Bangalore on this route.