Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Wayanad Trip!!

Photos @ http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=xxy9t7t.40rippu5&x=0&y=-hohrr2

It all started during a jog on wednesday morning..I was commenting on how boring the work is at office and probably its time we went for a trip..And to my surprise both dindu and KD agreed to go for one , if not the same weekend atleast the next weeknd.Murali was goling home the next weeknd and kuka was in a dilemma too as his mock cat was starting that weeknd.So, it was finally decided to go to Wayanad the very same weekend. I went on thurday mroning and booked the To- Journey tickets for me,murali,kuka,kd and mudhalva (this was the only part of our whole trip which was planned)..Kd was given the onus to collect as many docs related to wayanad..So there we set out on the "Most Unplanned Trip" :)

We reached majestic for the 8 o clock bus at 7.40..had our dinner in a restaurant there..KD was my financier for ther whole trip.Actually,I needn;t have carried my purse et all for the whole trip.I hardly used it save for max 2-3 instances :)) We got our places in the last 5 rear seats of the bus. and u can imagine how a bumpy ride in a hilly path wud be..We were too sleepy to care for that and when we woke up , rather waken up at 3.30. we were asked to get down in some remote dark road.We dinst have a clue where we were..All that we knew was that the place is called "Kalpetta".Murali went n asked a bystander for "Wayanad", and he gave a look like koundamani..Rightly so..coz Wayanad is a district and it comprises of 3 sub-regions or places..so,it was like coming to bangalore and asking for karnataka :)))

We checked few hotels in kalpetta , some were full and many were out of our budget.So, we decided the most-optimal option of sleeping in the bus stand itself..Kuka and Murali decided to booze in the meanwhile and unlucky for them and luckily for us there were no liquor shops open at that goddamn hr..
When i woke up.. oops..waken up..I heard someone cryng.."Going to Nepal...sheikh..come fast.."...Nepal?? i didnt give a heed about the logistics..I pulled up my blanket and sprinted to the bus..Only later did i realise that it was Meppaadi and not Nepal..Dont ask me how i heard it as NEpal in my half sleep :P

Meppadi was a small town whre u can get only the essentials..If u ask for anything more..they will point u to Kalpetta..Cinema theatre..?? kalpetta..Bike on rent?? Kalpetta..ATM atleast? KAlpetta..Anyways, we decided to stay put in meppadi as it was the onlly place where we cud find a roof over our head..The acco was quite cheap..800 per day for a one bed room with five beds..But iam damn sure we were taken for a ride..

We set off to shoochepura falls on saturday morning arnd 10 AM..There was lots written in blogs so, we went in with quite high expectations..but all that we did was a nice trek for some 3-4 kms to the falls...and another 8 kms to the bus stop when we headed back..Guys got liquor and i as usual gave company emptying the limca :) The falls was very slippery and each one us fell atleast once reaching the mainstaream. And monkey Man - Murali kept climbing to some rock or the other..

Luckily we got hold of a jeep on our way back..Kuka was feeling a bit dizzy during the ride bac and he started vomiting on a queer stone pillar which was nailed (mudhalva called it as a seyvenai hehehehheheeh)..We were getting him water to drink n wobble when an old lady kept shouting at us in mallu..This was the turinign point of our Trip!!! Nothing went right at first go from then on for the entire trip and we blamed it all on Kuka'a cursed vomit..

We then planned to go for idukkal Cave in the evning..We set out at 4.30 and reached the place at 6 only to know that Cave closes at 5. GRRRR.. Murali had heard from one of his collegues that
Cave was quite scary and is a must go..So, we decided to go for Chembur Hills in the morning for sunrise and go to Caves in the afternoon before packing our bags home..

We returned bac to Meppaadi and confirmed with the "Mis-information" Auto guy to come at 4.15 in the morning. He gave us a number and as i didnt carry my mobile with me , i jotted it down in a visiting card w/o realsing that it had only 9 numbers...eeeeeeeekkss!!!Like in pursiut of Happiness!! This part of my life is called Being stupid!!.. We got up at 4 (unusually), waiting till 4.30 n the auto guy didnt show up..so murali and me went to the busstand and luckily there was a shop open at that time..I had heard the auto guy say it as a reliance number..So, i asked that shop owner if he can guve any idea abt the starting numbers for reliance..he said 2 numbers and one did match exactly..yupppie!! We went back to the room and called the auto guy..and we got to hear only the sweet voice telling tat phone is switched off..Felt like killing that #@~#@.. Finally we had no other go but to hit the bed for another hr , and then catch an auto at 6..Kuka meanwhile strode out with the cam..We got up at 6 and headed to Chembur hills..We had walked abt 10 steps when tat auto wala shows up and says to kd that he had thought that it was 4 in the evening..I wonder how sunrise happenes in the evening..n i told him repeatedly some 3 times..grrr..Anyways,,we finally set off to Chembur and when he dropped us off thr..He turns back and tells us not to trek up as u need a Forest permission slip from the bottom of the hill..eeekks!!! God giv us patience!! We were not bothered to be caught and we were not going bac w/o trekking, so we asked him how to reach the top..he showed us a path right next to where he dropped us..cool! there was a watchtower at far end..We decided to click photos ans return bac to climb..And we retuned bac, we struck conversation with a guy there only to find tat the path to top is right next to the watch tower....WOW!! Now you know y we named the auto guy "MR.Mis-information"..

In all this melee, we forgot to carry waterbottles or snacks..And the guy scraed us telling that it was a 2.5 hr trip to the top..so it is impossible to carryon w/o water..hahhahaa...This part of our trip is wot i call "Being Crazy"..WE decided to trek w/o water and we reached the Artin-Pond comfortably in 1.5 hrs..We were so tired that we drank water from that pond..( which is the reason iam blogging this piece from home and have been home-struck with fever for last 2 days)..We climbed down rather fastly ..i virtually ran down in 45 mins..n found a old man posing as a sadu under a guy..He called me up and offered water..If it had been any other day, i wud have courteosly said thanks..But i was dying of thirst..I drank a gulp even before i uttered a word..Water!! true is the elixir of Life :) The old man was mentioning about his new found hobby of travelling places..He was too fit for his age and climber down the hill path quite comfortablly along with kd and mudhalva..

Our bad times didnt end there..we had to walk some 4 km to find an auto back home..We were almost in ravaging hunger when we reached home and we hit straight to the restaurant..We decided to pack pur bags and head for the cave and leave for mysore from there..We had booked our rooms only for a day and it was already 6 hrs past that time...So, we donned our culprit caps and left the key in the door and packed our bags to the cave straight :)

The journey to the cave was another 1 hr and for the hype created for the cave...there was virtually nothing in that goddamn place..there were few lines here n there and some sanskrit like scribblings..and to c this crap, one had to walk some 3 km uphill..But there is one thing common in kerala..u can;t find any thing worth watching in a plain..Its a different thing if u actually got to c something nice after climbing so much..but all we got to c is some crap..I wanna c that guy who said it was scary to Murali!!

And again we walked another 3 km to the busstop and left to Sultan Bathery,supposedly a better town that the other 2 we had encountered till now..Kuka was desperate to watch the film with Mammooty + 5 heroines..He wud have asked a min of 5 ppl fr the theatre screening it..and unluckily it was not shwing in bathery but there was prithviraj(Mozhi) in a film called khaakee..We decided to give it a try..We were in the nick of the time for the evening show..and only when i sat down i realised that i was having a bad headache..My running nose worsened in that half n hr..and for all the sound in the theatre my head was breaking..I have sinusites right from my child hood and i get this headache often..though not of late..But i usually get this when i stay in water for long.At the end of the film..I was in a horrible state,,I was waiting to be back to bangalore.I couldn't bear anymore..

We started enquiring about the buses to mysore after the film..Everyone were almost sure that we won't get tickets as it was a sunday..So, we went to the bus depot and got the timings of the ksrtc buses..The first bus was at 9.50.. and the last one at 1.00 AM, after which there were a couple of private ones..We decided to have dinner in the meantime..We went to the restaurant right next to the bus stop..My headache was now crssing its bearable limit...I could feel my nerve propping up in my left forehead..Mudhalva was quippng something abt me and i usually take it as a sport..I was patient enuff even then, and told him not to do that now, as iam in a bad state..He quipped one more time wantedly and i picked up the glass of water i had and splashed it right across his face in the middle of the restaurant..I would have thrown the glass at the first instant, luckily atleast i had the sense not to do that..I know i was stupid doing that..but i dont regret doing that even now.

So, the trip ended with sour note..Me and kd leaving by the 9.50 bus, I didnt mind it being crowded..While kuka,muali and mudhale preferred to stay bac and try thier luck in the next bus.. We got to sit near the futboard till mysore..and finallly got to travel comfortably from mysore to bangalore...
We reached bangalre at 4 in the morning and i jus abt managed to carry myself to my house..I bid bye to kd and crawled into my bed..

After Trip: I was down with high fever,body pain and headache for 2 days and managed to go to office only on the 3rd day.