A break from work, the Kodaikanal trip

It had been so many days and we hadn't done any travelling. 2007 Year end went in studies for Dada (as introduced in the last blog) and me. In Feb'08 I went to US whereas Dada and Vikas went home thus got a small break only. So we hadn't gone out for long and Chennai started being HOTTER again. In April, we decided to have a trip to some hill station nearby.

This time it were Dada, Vikas and me who wanted to go and decided to go to Kodaikanal. We got two more companions: Anshul and Abhimanyu (Dua, GIM batch-mate working in Chennai, we call him Abhi). We were not getting the train bookings so we hired a taxi: Tavera. We all left our houses and got on the car by 9.30 pm, fully packed with all the required items. In addition to that our Abhi added a big packet when we stopped at the petrol pump. Our journey began.

It took us approximately 3 hours to cross Chennai city because of the traffic even at that time of the night. At 6 in the morning we reached a village and stopped for about an hour for tea and water (for the car). There we came to know that we were late and it would take 3/4 hours more to reach Kodai. Vikas heard that the scene of sunrise in Kodai is very beautiful but when we were standing there that time only the sun was up so we missed on that chance.

The hill starts just 43 km before Kodai where we stopped for नारियल पानी and got energy for the hilly ride. On the way in the hills there was a small point from where we get a nice view of lake. Dada, Vikas and I took our cameras so we stopped there and did first lot of photography.

We reached Kodai at around 1 pm and checked into a cottage at J's Heritage Resort, which was booked by Dada. It was a nice cottage with bed capacity for 6 and a kitchen. We got ready and went for lunch towards the market. Near the famous Kurinji Andavar temple we found a small coffee shop who was serving snacks too. The food we ate there was best of all the food we had in Kodai. The cheese omelette was amazing at that shop.

The manager of the hotel guided us about the sightseeing in Kodai and gave us a card. The card listed 14 places in such manner that we could cover all in one big round of kodai. We got on to our taxi and started the sightseeing. The first place we all wanted to visit was Kodai lake so we went there but could come back the whole day.

The lake is situated in the center of the town and has a circumference of approx. 6 km. We first went for row boating then we took cycles on rent. There was a nice system of cycles on rent for 1 hour in only Rs. 10 and go for cycling around the lake. Cycling was one of the best experience because its scenic route and it took us to old school days. Anshul and I took a limousine cycle which both of us were riding the first time. Then we went for skating and tried our balancing skills at the skating rink. I fell off once while racing against Vikas.

For the evening Dada had arranged for a campfire at the resort along with a buffet dinner. We were only five and were very tired too so could not sit at the campfire for long so we went for sleep quickly.

Second day we thought of covering most of the places listed in the small card given by resort manager. We came to know about the Brijam lake which is the most beautiful place in Kodai but we need a pass from the governement to go there. So we dropped it and moved ahead. We had hard time making the driver understand what we wanted and he didn't know the place too well. The first point given in the card was Coaker's walk and we kept asking for it. We saw Bryant park but was looking so crowded that we left it and went ahead. On the way to next point we saw so many vehicles on the way so we also stopped and came to know that it was pine forest, famous for its valley.

We then went to pillar's rock where a long rock is standing without any support and looks like a pillar. Vikas was looking for suicide point which nobody knew at that place. We kept going on that route. All places were very far from each other. On the way we saw golf course and Green Valley View. We got down there and came to know that it was the point which Vikas was looking for so eagerly: Suicide point.

We had covered almost all the sights except Coaker's walk which we went at the last. I felt it to be the best place in Kodai. It was a platform on a side of mountain overlooking the valley. One can have a amazing view of the Nilgiri range and towns far off. Smaller hills with shadows of small designer clouds were looking looking simply awsome.

After finishing all the points in the list we went for lunch. The driver took us to the main circle in the city, in front of Kodaikanal Inter'l School, a 100 year old school with students from different countries. We went a nice looking restaurant opposite the school. The food was soooooo bad that we could not even figure out what was served on the plate. It was about 4 pm and we thought of leaving by 5.30 from there so that we could reach home early morning on Monday and could reach offices well in time. We bought pastries and pizza from the famous burger shop: Pastry Corner.

We packed and picked our luggage from the cottage and checked out. We left the town right away so that we could spend some time at the waterfall on the way back. In approximately one hour we reached the waterfall - Silver Cascade. It was a nice small waterfall. We spent around half an hour taking lots of photos of that. By the time we left the moon appeared and we enjoyed few hours of moon light drive in the hills.