Marvellous Megamalai

Between hectic weekends and slogging weekdays at office, managed to pull up a weekend to relax !

Having been thought about the destination for quite some time, decided July to be right time to visit this place and booked tickets.

Dates :: July 28 and 29, 2012
Trip :: Chennai - Cumbum - Megamalai - Cumbum - Chennai
Tripmates ::  Karthik, Premkumar, Harish P, Sanjeev, Ilangathir

Started on Friday evening through TAT, reached Cumbum on morning. Reached Premkumar home and had an amazing welcome :-), and great hospitality. After packing breakfast, we started in a 4x jeep. Again, arranged by Prem's family. We went to Suruli falls for a bath. Quite disappointed with the water flow and too much of people (that Saturday was something festive in the nearby temple). Gulped the breakfast and collected Lunch from Prem's home, started the ride towards Megamalai through Chinnamannur.

Definitely, once you reach Chinnamannur, you can never site a decent road until you return back ! Started the uphill journey and all we could see was one bike following us and none on either way ! The trees and soil were quite dry and the so called road was really breaking our back ! In fact, we felt tired and sort of felt bad about the decision to make it to Megamalai. The sign board says 29 kms from Chinnamannur, but, certainly, it was much more. Starting around 11:30, after a ride of 90 minutes, we felt moisture filled air and suddenly, the climate and scenary changed. We decided to stop inbetween and felt the rich flora around us. Once we crossed the Megamalai village, the REAL Megamalai started.

WOW  !!!!!!!!! What a SCENIC PLACE .... VIRGIN MOUNTAINS !!!!!! UNTOCUHED BY COMMERICALs !!

We soon reached HIGHWAVYS DAM around 3:30 PM.  Premkumar had booked us a cottage (IB) at the Highwavys dam. The view from the cottage was one of the spectacular views. As the room got delayed as someone did not check out, we were directed to goto Thoovanam Dam and return.

30 mins ride from the Highwavys Dam, we reached THOOVANAM dam. The dam was a class place and the other side was the end of a hill - the water falls provided water to Suruli. The cold wind and the clouds, made us realize we were really in MEGAMALAI. With no heart to leave the place, we were forced to return back to make sure we get our rooms.

The rooms were so clean and amazing few. We checked-in and had our lunch around 6 PM ! :-). There is only one mess - Petchiamman Mess. No other sources for food. So, book dinner/breakfast/lunch as early as possible. Only if booked, you get food and they are so strict ! Food is okay !

After having food at 6 PM, we walked inside in Highwavys dam and felt the cold wind and amazing surroundings for next 2 hours. After that, the wind was unbearable and so cold. We were in our shorts and did not have proper winter clothing. Thanks to good beddings in the IB, we had a good sleep until 3AM. The strong winds were getting stronger and the sound was scary. Couple of us woke up and FELT the wind !

Next morning, having booked breakfast in the mess, we started the day trip at 8 AM; towards the final tip of Megamalai - Eravangalar DAM.

We were directed to go through the banks of the river, as there was not water, which was much better then the roads and a shortcut. What a scenic drive ! Saw Manalar dam on the way.

After a 90 mins drive, we reached Eravangalar Dam. YES ! We saw Heaven for some minutes ! Mild sunshine for 2 mins, sudden heavy rain for few mins, slight drizzle for few mins, heavy clouds for few mins, slight clouds and mild drizzle for few mins, and sunshine is back ! Just see the photos below ... I cannot explain what we saw !!!

AWESOME !!! FREAKING AWESOME !!

This was Megamalai !

We spent almost an hour there and started our journey back. We heard about Vattaparai and started our jeep drive towards ! We drive for 30 mins and felt we were very tired and sort of missed the route as well. We decided to return back and dont know what we missed there....

Check-out from IB and return back. We made it to Suruli falls again to refresh after the return journey... filled the stomach with Aapams and Idlis @Prem's family courtesy and returned to Chennai.

Tips :: 
NEVER MISS MEGAMALAI !
Bookings at IB requires someone to backup...
Only one eatery.. so plan accordingly !
Get winter clothings also.. it may help !

Family Trip to Mysore

A 2-1/2 day trip with family - parents, wife and daughter !

Dates :: Ugadi weekend - Mar 23, 24 and 25, 2012
Trip :: Chennai - Mysore - Chennai

A pre-planned/well-planned trip to Mysore - started by Kaveri express on 22nd night from Chennai and reached Mysore railway station by 8 AM on 23rd. We had booked Hotel Ginger well in advance and had also booked a Tata Indica A/C for 2.5 days of site seeing - right from railway station pick-up to drop.

The plan was as below (suggested by the cab service and duly accepted by me - it is better at times to accept the itinerary suggested at popular places, than we deciding ourselves).

Day -1 - Chamundi Hill, Lalitha Mahal Palace, Wax Museum, Zoo,St.Philomena's Church, Shopping, & Brindhavan Garden
Day -2 - Srirangapatna, Fort, Ranganathaswamy temple, Gumbaz, Dariya Daulath, Birdsantury, Jaganmohan Art Gallery & Mysore Palace lighting
Day 3 - Somnathpur

Day 1: After refreshing, we asked the cab driver (knows Tamil also) to take us to a 'local' restaurant to taste Mysore food for breakfast around 09:30. We did get good dishes and filled our stomach for the long day ! Wax museum - this is a place where they have all sorts of music troops - old, traditional, western, hispanic and all made of Wax. Felt the entrance ticket of Rs.30 was on the higher side, any how, it was not aided by government and probably demanded more fee for maintenance. Then, we proceeded towards Chamundi hill, the ultimate destination for my parents to visit on Ugadi! The queue was normal and we finished the darshan in less than 30 minutes. The day was quite hot and chilled with tender coconuts. We decided to skill Lalitha mahal, now a 5-star hotel.

Mysore Zoo (Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens) was the next destination - around 11:30 AM. Perhaps, the best - clean zoo in India. The most striking nature of the zoo is -- good directions and the whole of the trek is under shade ! During sunny days, the visit to the zoo is worth ! Most collection of Fauna in the zoo was really good ! The Zoo also has the battery operated car. We chose to walk as my daughter may prefer few of them to be viewed for a longer time. It gave us the liberty to spend as much time as possible to see the animal, if not in first sight. We also had 'some' lunch at the canteen in the zoo - not bad !

Came out of zoo around 3 PM and drive to St.Philomenas Church. Awesome piece of history ! Grand ! Then, was the Brindhavan gardens. It is around 25km from the city and the light-sound show is timed at 7 PM. We reached the gardens after a tiresome day around 4:45 PM. We walked across the walkover bridge on the right flank of the garden and reached the visitor's gallery, where the 'show' was about to begin. The show went on for 20-25 mins and we started early to avoid mad rush at the parking area. Way back, had dinner at Hotel Dashaprkash, not so g(f)ood :-(

Day 2: A good sleep and nice buffet breakfast at Ginger, started our day towards Srirangapatna - the island across river Cauvery ! This was the kingdom of Tipu Sultan ! We visited the Ranganatha Swamy temple, it is small compared to Srirangam and the Lord's posture is same as Srirangam ! Then, visited the dungeon built for British prisoners, Tipu Sultan's body found place, mosque, memorial (Gumbaz) and summer palace (Dariya Daulat). Dariya Daulat had awesome paintings, but most of them were tampered with :-(.

 Then, came the best place we visited for the day - Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary ! What a serene, calm, clean place to visit. For the first time, I visited a bird sanctuary and we could sight hundreds of Storks, Cranes, Pelicans, Hornbills in hand feel distance. The boat ride took us closer to nature and we would site couple of crocodiles as well. A sure visit for anyone traveling to Mysore !!!

We returned back to Mysore for lunch and had a very good one at Hotel Sidharth. Post lunch, we visited Jaganmohan Art gallery - Ravi Varma's paintings were so lively, almost beating high resolution digital photos ! It was so worth - bad thing was that camera not allowed ! Around 3:30 PM, we reached the Mysore palace. Really it is a pride to visit this place. I has more than half of the grandeur that Taj Mahal posses !!!!! We went around the palace for some photos - camera not allowed when we visit the palace inside. We need to deposit the camera at a counter near entry.

We returned back to the rooms for an hour of rest before going back to see the PALACE under lights. There was light-sound show - portraying the history of Mysore, the greatness of the Maharajas and Lord Chamundi. The play was well done and the 1 hour show felt like 10 mins. The whole palace was illuminated for 5 minutes. WOW !

 
Day 3 : As we had booked tickets to return by Shatapdi express by afternoon, we decided to visit Somnathpur - very similar to Belur and Halebid. This was quite small when compared to other two and was mostly destroyed ! Somnathpur is around 45 kms from Mysore and worth a visit. We also visited Rail Museum, which hosted historical engines and the Maharani's saloon - private train used by highness !

Thus, ended our trip and boarded back !

Anantapur - Belum Caves - Horsely Hills

2-day weekend trip to Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh) for teammate's marriage - Naresh Gupta ! We managed to visit two places - Belum caves and Horsely hills.....

Dates :: 8th and 9th February 2012
Route :: Chennai - Anantapur - Belum Caves - Anantapur - Horsely Hills - Chennai
Members :: Karthik, Sakthivel, Pranesh, Premkumar, Ramesh Kumar, Harish P, Sanjeev, Vednath, Shaik Kashif, Deepan

On 7th Feb evening around 6 PM, we drove to Anantapur in a Tempo Traveller. - a 450km drive. We reached Anantapur by 5 AM in the morning and rested for couple of hours at Hotel Sampoorna. After having breakfast in a kai-yendhi-bhavan (yummy-yummy dosa/poori/vada/idlis), we started to BELUM CAVES !

90 kms from Anantapur through the Tadipatri road is Belum Caves. On the way at 20 kms is Singanamala lake. We decided to stop there when we return and proceeded further. A road where no greenery can be sited and quite dry. Thanks to our decision of taking a AC cab from Chennai worked out !

We arrived at Belum Caves - history from Wiki :-)

Belum Caves is the second largest cave in Indian subcontinent and the longest caves in plains of Indian Subcontinent, known for its stalactite and stalagmite formations. Belum Caves have long passages, spacious chambers, fresh water galleries and siphons.

The caves reach its deepest point (120 feet from entrance level) at the point known as Pataala-Ganga.

3.5 km of the cave has been successfully explored, though only 1.5 km is open to tourists.

The caves are of hard limestone and we heard from the guide that the whole cave maintains a temperature of 33 degrees irrespective of the climate outside ! Oh yeah .. we were sweating already ....... It was nice to walk through all 1.5 kms tourists were allowed to. The guide was quite helpful to understand and also patient enough to let us take photos at will. Also, he did his best to keep us excited us adventurous at times !

There is a "linga" at 120 feet below ground and there is water at the linga alone ! We heard that the whole of the cave formation was because of water movement - naturally formed. After 2 hour stint under ground, we were very hungry and had the spicy Andhra food on the way back to Anantapur.

After attending the reception and marriage functions, we started back to Chennai. On the way back, 28 km ahead from Madanapalle - right side from the highway. It is a small hill station meant to be a chill out ! It was very sunny on the day we went but the views were guide good. It also hosts a park for children and a restaurant.