Of the original five planned for the tour, two dropped out due to unavoidable reasons. That was in keeping with our planning - we either cancel the entire outing, or there are drops out. But this was one trip that materialized with the three of us - ex-roommates and close buddies from TCS, who conveniently are still bachelors. To make this memorable, Sudhi did his best on the very first leg of the trip - landed up at the Bangalore railway station at his convenience, which was around 60 minutes after our train had left. Never to lose heart at such setbacks, we harassed a close friend of ours at work and had her book our tickets on a KPN full sleeper to Cochin. (She was such a benevolent soul; she declined our sincere effort to pay her back for the tickets).
25th Aug - Saji meanwhile had lined up a prospective alliance to check out in the first morning of our four day trip. Being the kind soul that he is, he made a dish in the name of upma that had nothing (absolutely nothing, no exaggeration here) in it other than sooji and incidentally chose to have his breakfast with the girl he was about to 'check out'. As expected we were well behind our schedule and to make up for his 'upma' and our agonizing wait on empty stomachs, Saji took us to a buffet place that would serve as a palliative. Key takeaway at this point was Sudhi's initiation into what would become an obsession with him for the rest of the trip - "Fish Curry and Fish Fry". Post lunch, the little Santro did its best to pull up three heavily built guys, their luggage and the beating it got at the hands of Saji. Nobody ever dare ask him the question - 'if it were your car, would you drive like this?’ We got our answer during this road trip. As the rains started beating down on the winding roads, we were taken in by the beauty of the greenery all around drenched in mist and rain. Over the next few days we realized that, it was probably a great idea to visit Munnar and Thekkady during the rains, and wondered if it really made sense to call it as an off-season. After a drive of about 160Kms, at 8 PM we checked into Muir Cottage built in 1914, which was a well maintained relic owned by the Kannan Devan group. After ordering a meal befitting kings, we chose to retire for the day, not before reminiscing our days in the US and other profound matters of life :-). Loss of the day - Sudhi lost his adidas cap, after coming so close to losing his glasses too at a wayside waterfall. Some people never change ;-)
26th Aug - We woke up to some freshly brewed chai and gave in to Sudhi's new found indulgence - Photography. The hot puttu and peas curry was just as liberating as the verdant lush tea plantations and various other floras that glistened in the early morning rains. The mere thought of the breathtaking scenery that remained to be explored, made us haul ourselves from our beds and set on doing the mandatory touch points at madupatty dam, echo point, top position et al. The highlight of the day though happened to be our lunch at a shack that served 'Naadan' (country) meal of rice, fish curry, sambar, rasam, more-kuzhambu, poriyals, pickle, papad and fried fish. We topped off the meal with the umpteenth cup of chai. The climb up and down to 'Top Position' was the most arduous one and gave us a stark reminder of our fitness levels. Just to make it little more adventurous, Sudhi chose to leave Saji's Lee Cooper sandals at a strategic location by the roadside while losing himself into his Canon D40. We had no choice but hope that on the way back, we would be able to spot the place where Sudhi parked his loaned sandals. Life is harsh sometimes and people are cruel - the person who lifted the suede sandals, knowing our plight in locating the exact place of our misfortune, left behind a vital clue - his beaten down chappals. We were crazy and picked up that pair and stared at the feet (Not in a way that we were used to) of bystanders and plantation workers hoping that we would catch the culprit red-handed, but had no luck whatsoever. However, we were just plain lucky to see at hardly a distance of 30 meters, a calf and two female elephants feasting on a thick patch of green grass. Back at the cottage, we feasted on the parottas, chappatis, fish, chicken curry et al that we parceled from the best non-veg serving outlet in Munnar town. Loss of the day - Saji's Lee Cooper Sandals.
27th Aug - Our original plan was to leave for Thekkady at 5:30 AM and given our standards, the eventual start at 6:15 AM was not that bad. Easily the best stretch of scenery was the initial 40 Kms or so from Munnar towards Thekkady. Never have I seen in my life, such a riot of greenery nestled in stunning valleys, masked in misty dew and the constant heavy downpour. 'Breathtaking' probably would not suffice to express the visuals tapestry that we saw and it was one of the few rare moments, when I became philosophical and despondent about our city lives. The water from the waterfalls tasted so much better than the mineral water that we are used to consuming. There were occasions when we just closed our eyes and exerted ourselves to breathe in as much of the fresh air that we could. A sense of calm descended upon us during such moments. The breakfast we had at one of the smaller towns was pure mallu food - puttu made in coconut shells, chemmandi (coconut chutney), egg curry, appam, parotta, dosa and chai. On reaching Periyar reserve, we checked out the KTDC hotel within the park and the Ranger Wood hotel just outside the park. The former was not well maintained, had small rooms and a curfew past 6 PM. The choice was easy and we checked into a Rs.1750 room in Ranger wood, whose balcony had a beatific view of the reserve. We went on the 2 hour boat ride on Periyar Lake and could spot limited fauna - wild boar, deer, wild gaur, few faraway elephants and lots of herons. Later in the evening, we went on the mandatory Kalaripayattu and Kathakali performances for about Rs.350 per head, but were taken in more by the fresh 'parippu vada' and super chai outside the performance theatres. There is something about this deadly combo, and more so about the ‘chaya’ (tea) in Kerala :-)
28th Aug - We had to leave in time to catch our return train to Bangalore from Kochi and with that single-mindedness, we headed to the buffet breakfast on offer at the hotel we stayed in:-) Saji worked himself into a frenzy and emptied half a bowl of butter and jam, couple of litres of coffee and tea, and 8 slices of toasted bread. The drive from Thekkady to Kochi was a race against time and we did stop for a naadan lunch, but were heartbroken when we saw the last of the fried fish being served at the table adjacent to us. By now Sudhi had developed something equivalent of a tennis elbow that tennis players develop - he had a 'photographer wrist' that he developed by spending majority of his time handling the heavy DSLR. We were on the lookout for river or temple pond to take a dip, but that we could never manage. Reality dawned upon us as we approached the Cochin station - it became unbearably sultry and warm, more traffic and chaos. We made in time this time around to catch the return train. It was the toughest part of the tour - the realization that the trip was over and we would miss the awesome time we had for the last 4 days. Oh by the way….Loss of the day - Rajesh's fast-track case
One of the lady tourists enquired if were single and if we were experiencing the 'Zindegi Na Milegi Dobara' feeling.
