A weekend in truly God’s own Country

It’s now been a few months in Kerala – God’s own country and Rekha and I have visited a few places, the same I have blogged earlier. The last trip we did was to the Travancore Heritage a resort about 30 Kms from Trivandrum.

Let me start saying ‘WOW’ – what a wonderful and blissful experience it was. First the rates we paid were off –season and then got a corporate rate as well and it was still expensive in my terms. But got to give to the resort, that the price tag was just peanuts for the solace and bliss we got out just being out there for a day and night. To give a bit of the resort – it is perched on a 50 metre high cliff and you would need to take the elevator, which is within the cliff to go down to hit the beach.

We reached Travancore Heritage at about 4 p.m. on Saturday afternoon (we had booked for a late check in and out) to be welcomed with some, Kerala style Tender coconut. You may feel, so what ?, but what got my attention was the way they had cut the coconut, its bottom, basically that the coconut could rest on the table. A first time view of such a creative way to cut a tender coconut. Then we were escorted to our cottage – I had especially asked for one facing the ocean. I was stunned immediately as we reached out cottage, for, the view of the ocean was not only breath taking but truly out of this world, absolutely spectacular.

Usually, my experience of resorts have been such that, there is nature all around you, but the cottage or your logout you lodge into is pretty posh and in tune with the luxury. But this resort and their cottages are different. The cottages are truly built and furnished to ensure the interiors are in sync with the nature and the environment that you are in. The best about the cottage I liked was the bathroom. A quarter of it is open, allowing the sun to penetrate into the toilet, keeping it fresh, thanks to the wind and the sun. The best part is that, when it rains you can shower under the best water available in this planet.

We checked in, refreshed and hit the beach to feel the ocean waters. The sea was rough and waves high, but we really enjoyed ourselves for about an hour. We returned to our cottage and spent the evening sitting out on the verandah facing the sea and watching the sunset and the high waves splashing the shores. The sound of the waves, the noises the insects were making and the absolute still silence in the resort truly moved us closer to nature. This spell of a few hours, surely rejuvenated me from the hectic work life I was going through the last few weeks and am sure as for Rekha, helped her to throw out her frustration of being lonely at home by being one with nature. We proceeded for dinner and as in all resorts the buffet spread was lavish. We indulged into the spread and hit the sack to the comfort of a noisy air-conditioner.

The next day was a stroll around the resort, enjoy the environment, take a few snaps and then the lunch, which in my opinion was better than the dinner and that we missed the breakfast, the food was really melting into our mouths. We then rested ourselves onto the hammocks, like how a python would do after its meal. Just being still on the hammock with the noise of the waves and the cool green surrounding, I wanted this experience to continue non stop. But as all things come to an end, we had to check out and drive home. We reached our lovely home close to dusk to end a wonderful weekend. I would say this probably has been the best experience so far, that I have had in Kerala.

the Photos of the trip can be accessed from this link http://picasaweb.google.com/askpriyesh/TravancoreHeritage18July09#

Munnar and Thekkady the final Part

I know this blog has been a long time coming. As usual as normal and silly human being’s the excuse is lack of time. No, Actually its laziness. But as the old saying goes, ‘finish FULLY, what you began’ encourages and inspires me to write this blog. Also the fact that I promised to write as a series and not completing it is ‘Total Out Integrity’. If you were thinking, Integrity – All bullshit, trust me, Integrity is the soul of our life. Integrity is simple – ‘saying you would do something and doing it in the said time’. Easy isn’t it ?, but takes a hell a lot of effort to stick to everything you say. Being in Integrity alters your life and you would read the same in my next log on the effect of not being in Integrity.

So let me recollect the last leg of my road trip. We woke up early and head towards munnar from our resort, a twenty odd KMS drive to the hill station where we had to meet up our Chennai family friends. An incident on the way took some time of the drive and the serenity surrounding us. I had a minor accident on the way and in the steep winding ghats, I would say it is a possibility that things like this might happen. Probably it was my error of judgement on a curve or the other vehicle did not hear my honking. Whatever, it led to a negotiation situation on who was right and wrong and in a situation where the other vehicle had more a dozen boys and me with Rekha, I was the weak link. We negotiated on the amount I had to pay and headed to munnar.

We started of to a dam and ended up going to a speed boating centre. I was really scared at the method in which the boats were being driven, really mad stuff. Probably the wilder the group or more the noise, the more the rash the driver was. Anyway’s we waited for an hour for our turn and the ride was awesome. I had to shrug of my fear of water and the rashness of the driver. It truly was an exhilarating experience.

By now the accident was a thing of the distant past. Life just has a way to level things out – isn’t it.

We then went to have the famous Munnar Masala Chai – what a taste, I had two at a go. Then we drove to what would have been a wildlife sanctuary, but decided halfway to return, as the roads were acute and really bad and we were a few hours away from dusk and we had to return to the resort as well. On the way back we visited another dam, finished the basic duties and snapped a few photographs to help your memory re-capitulate them in the future and of course say – those days were great. (Actually hope that does not happen, as I love to live everyday as the best there is, though the memories will linger, am sure 20 years later life would be the best and I would not be left dwelling on the past).Also we had a great laugh with the english spelling's used -- brilliant Hinglish or total Desi style.

We shopped for few things in Munnar and returned to the resort. Chatted up, played cards, had dinner and hit the sack. The next day woke up had breakfast and decided to hit Trivandrum in one go – close to 500 Kms. Our first destination was Madurai, a 140 Km drive through the Ghats – the roads were fabulous and kudos to the Tamilnadu government for fantastic roads they have created. I had no strain driving through the Ghats, where as the drive from thekkady to Munnar was horrendous, the same I mentioned in my last post. Had proper Madurai sappadu – Madurai is the hub for great Tamil food and we headed towards Tirunelveli. Of course we did not stop to buy any halwa but refuelled the car and called nature and headed towards Nagercoil and through to Trivandrum. We reached safe, close to midnight and made some quick dinner and hit the bed. I was nearly exhausted, driving a straight 500 KMS. I have to mention this again, thanks to the Tamilnadu government, the roads from Madurai to Nagercoil were fabulous, 4 lane throughout and you would not feel the strain of making the distance, as you just need to push the pedal down. At times I was clocking a 140 KMPH on my poor alto, which withstood the journey. I thank my car, God, Time and my Wife for making this trip a memorable one.

Adios to Munnar and Thekkady.

Road Trip Munnar and Thekkady Part 2

Hi All

This has been a long time coming and i apologise for the same. The reason is the same old one, no time. Here we go for the second part before i forget the critical areas of the trip.

We got ready to hit the Periyar National Park or Periyar Tiger Reserve by 10 in the morning. It was only a 5 minute drive from our hotel. We reached at the entrance and had to buy our entry passes. At the gate we were informed about the rules (No Litter, No Plastic, No horns and care for the animals if they pass you) and that the next boat ride was at 11 and we were thrilled. To look at wildlife, elephants and tigers in their habitat -- wow. We got our tickets and were parking our car where we met our family friends who had come from Chennai and was a blessing in disguise, as they had the contact's in Thekkady and they could get us the tickets for the boat ride, as it was a run for the tickets being the Easter weekend.

We had sometime before we hit the boats and during that time, i was fascinated with a few monkey's, little one's, just a few weeks old, hanging around, learning to climb and jump, to eat and of course getting all the unconditional LOVE from their mother's. It was a truly an awesome site. I just gave myself up there, nothing of myself was there and I was into the monkey's totally.

Then the time came for our ride and we were excited to check out the animals. We got a top deck on a boat for a panoramic view of the tiger reserve. The climate was passionate, slight drizzle, 20 odd degrees, the nature at its best, the calm surrounding me -- exhilarating. I just gave myself once again to nature. The boat ride for 2 hours was great, but we did not find any animals, except a few birds and bison's. I thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride though -- AN experience if your one of them trying to seek solace and inner peace.

The ride took most of the time of the day. At the end of the reserve, we could see a bit of the Periyar dam's cleansing system. Not many people are allowed there. It was an awesome site and thanks to the diplomacy and bureaucracy in the political system -- guess what - the actual mechanised system does not work and labourers have to go in deep daily to flush out the debris.

We headed for lunch and check out and the 140 Km drive to Munnar. An awesome drive through the western ghats, narrow roads and the evening setting in quickly. An absolute bad stretch of 20 KM took out most of our time and wasted, more than a hour of the three hour drive. As the evening set, we could feel the mist through the head lights and we had to slow down considerably with the vicinity dropping by the minute. We reached our wonderful resort around 8 in the evening and the resort was about 20 Km before Munnar. We said a temporary bye to our family friends whose booking was in munnar and the resort had no vacancies to accommodate them as well. We had dinner and hit the bed to go Munnar in the Morning.

A good day -- so to say. 

Keep watching this space for Part three and Munnar -- Trust me the best is to come.

The Road Trip Munnar and Thekkady - part 1

Hi All

Its taken sometime for me to blog about the trip, catching up after driving around nearly 1000 kms in less than 4 days, viewing GODS OWN COUNTRY (truly -- no wonder they call it, right through my senses) and having fun, frolic and a very minor accident. Also would like to capture every day of the trip as a separate blog.

So here we go with day 1. 

We set out at about 10 am on Friday the 10 of April from Trivandrum, thanks to the overnight and early morning rain that disrupted our early morning start. We had all our gears ready, the map and the routes printed out, the fruits and the shorts eats stacked up, the Red Bulls for the energy, our bags and lastly the basic outdoor kit like, screw drivers, hammers and all the paraphernalia and not to forget google map and GPRS on the phone.

The drive to thekkady was truly great, all through Kerala, touching firstly Kollam and then Padanapuram (you really got to this accent right else, you can't reach this place and Rekha mastered this. Yes, its true, she can speak better Malayalam than Tamil), Pathinthita and then Kumily, where our room was booked. Thekkady is a 4 Km walk from Kumily. We reached at 4 in the evening after a 270 KM drive, non stop, except for the snaps which mother nature called for and of course, my very own nature's call. As it was good Friday, it was a dry evening and we caught up some sleep and dinner and were ready for the morning assault in Thekkady and the subsequent drive to Munnar the next day.

The best bit of the day was the cloud cover over the western ghats forming a true blanket -- if you want to figure it out you can imagine it to a bit like the table mountains in Cape Town in South Africa. Awesome sight -- Truly Gods Own Country.

Keep watching this space for part two.