We had read quite a lot of good things about Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary and had been yearning to visit it for quite some time and ultimately the desire became a reality as we were able to plan for a long weekend to this place.
Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary lies amidst the Anamalai ranges of Tamilnadu and the Nelliampathy ranges of Kerala on the world famous western ghats biosphere. It was a long drive of about 420+ Km from Bangalore via Mysore. We had decided to split the travel over a night and had a early start Thursday evening and stopped over at a relatives place in Mysore. We went out for dinner at the Jungle themed restaurant in Pai Vista. The next day we started early as we still had to cover close to 300 Km. The drive takes us through the Sathymangalam forest range and the Sathy ghats which has about 27 hairpin bends. As we entered the forest boundaries, we were excited hoping that we would spot some wild animal but unluckily we did not come across any. However we happened to be in the middle of a migration season for butterflies and we saw thousand and thousands of butterflies as they crossed all along the road a short distance above the road. We were amazed at this sight as we had never seen so many butterflies at the same time. Actually, we had not seen a butterfly for a very long time in Bangalore. That says a lot about how green the "garden city" really is, well, at least most of the city.
The roads started to rise slowly as the Ghats started. The curves then became steep and we had to drive carefully and as I was driving I could not afford to be distracted by the amazing views of the valley beyond Sathy. Its really unfortunate that there was not many vista points along the route where you could stop to admire the view and the road was not wide enough to stop the vehicle if we desired to.
We stopped in Sathy to drink some coconut milk as we were thirsty because of the scorching heat. The weather had turned to worse since we had entered into Tamilnadu. There is a very famous temple here called Bannari Amma Temple about 13 Km from Sathy on the way, but we decided to give it a skip as we were not too keen to stop at that point of time. We reached Coimbatore in the afternoon and stopped for Lunch at some decent hotel. We were soon on our way to Pollachi which is the gateway to the Anamali forest through which we had to travel to reach Parambikulam. Apparently this is the only road access to Parambikulam.
After traveling for another couple of hours, we reached the Anamali ranges and it was already evening. There was a Safari ride scheduled at 5.30 PM in the evening and we were very keen not to miss that. We reached the Topslip forest check post and paid the entry fees to travel through the Anamali forest. This is also called the Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary. The forest was lush green and the road was not too bad, but we drove ahead slowly in order to enjoy the greenery and also hoping for encountering any wild animals., we were rewarded as we saw a few wild boars and peacocks, although we were hoping for something more... We then reached Topslip which is the park head quarters and contains accommodation for tourists. Its quite beautiful and we were not surprised to find many visitors here. After spending a few minutes, we went on our way. We then reached the Kerala forest check post, we had to pay the entry fee here for entering into the Parambikulam range. The check post is located in a scenic place right on the banks of a stream. We paid the entry fee for the Kerala forest here . We were happy to learn that only 30 vehicles are allowed to go through the Parambikulam Sanctuary in a day. You have to reserve your slot by calling the Range office for a particular day. Otherwise you will have to wait near the check post for a free slot (if at all there is one) before you can proceed. This rule is in force to ensure that there is minimum disturbance to the habitat. Other forest Sanctuaries must follow this example.
The drive from the check post to Annapady is just a few kms. We were surrounded by lush green forest and it was absolutely amazing. We spotted a lot of deers along the way. We had reserved 2 Swiss tents at Annapady. Annapady is the main accommodation center of the Parambikulam sanctuary although there are other accommodation options spread through out the sanctuary. They were comfortable with attached baths like you would find at any of the Jungle Lodges Camps throughout Karnataka. The accommodation area was surrounded by a large moat to restrict the movement of the wild animals inside the center. There were plenty of deer and wild boar all around the center.
We were just in time for the evening Safari and they waited a few minutes for us to check into our tents and put away our belongings. The Safari consisted of a ride in a maxi cab on the tarred road all the way to the Parambikulam reservoir. This was not your typical Safari into the core of the jungle on dirt tracks, but it was exciting nevertheless. As we passed the Thunakadavu Dam, we encountered a Elephant herd crossing the road and had to wait for the same for about 40 minutes. Here wild animals really have the right of the way and we were glad to see other motorists also patiently waiting for the herd to move away before they could carry on. We got down from the cab at a safe distance and observed the gentle giants (well they looked gentle at that time although they can be real ferocious and charge at you if they feel threatened). Later we saw a lot of Gaurs and Sambars, we were pretty thrilled because these are very shy and we seldom catch a glance before they disappear into the thickets in other forests, but here they just stood and stared curiously at us. We reached the reservoir and stopped for about 10 minutes to explore the area and take in the scenic beauty. The reservoir is huge and surrounded by hills covered with forests on all the sides and looked absolutely wonderful in the fading light.
It was quite dark on our way back and the moon shone through the dusky clouds creating eerie shadows among the trees. We were all staring into the shadows with anticipation hoping to spot a Tiger or a Leopard. Suddenly there was a small commotion in the first row as some lady screamed pointing outside into the Bamboo thickets saying that she felt that she saw some animal passing through between them. We immediately stopped the cab and pointed our torches at the thicket, immediately we did observe a pair of red eyes in between the thickets but were not able to make out the form of the body as it was simply too well camouflaged. We could see the eyes appear and then disappearing again as it passed through the shadows. The guide said that it seemed to be a Leopard from the color of the eyes as it shone. We waited for some more time but did not observe anything and decided to move on. Although we did not really see the animal, yet it was quite thrilling and we felt that it was a perfect start to our stay there.
We came back to Annapady and got fresh and went straight for dinner. Dinner consisted of Chappatis , Curry, Rice and Rasam. There was no Curds as is the case in many such places I have visited. It was average fare but was by no means unwelcome considering that we were famished by the long drive to Parambikulam and then the exhilarating Safari. We then retired for the day as we planned to go for a drive on our own early next morning.
We got up early as planned and retraced the same Safari route as the previous night. We stopped a little while near the much smaller Thunakadavu Dam and were surprised to find a few visitors already there so early in the morning. We took some photos and proceeded towards the Parambikulam reservoir. This time we did not see any animals apart from the deer. But we enjoyed the drive anyway. We came back to steaming mugs of tea and hot breakfast consisting of Idly and Puri. The plan for the day was to go Bamboo rafting in the Parambikulam reservoir and back to the camp for lunch and after some rest visit the village to see a tribal dance.
A light drizzle had started by the time we reached the reservoir. A short trek later, we were at the banks climbing into the large Bamboo rafts, which surprisingly had a small hut like structure built onto it. We were a large group consisting of many families from the camp and hence the raft was kind of crowded and we were jostling for good position on the rafts to enjoy the surrounding scenery. Then the drizzle turned into a downpour and all the people rushed to the cover of the hut. We stayed back outside, drenched and cold but absolutely enjoyed the experience. We even tried our hand at rowing the raft but found it quite strenous. Soon we were back on the bank and made our way to the tea shack for some hot tea. After that we just hung around waiting for the tribal dance to start. The dance was .... well.. tribal like... :-).
Back at the camp we had hot dinner consisting of chappatis and curry and looked forward to a relaxing night. However we were in store for a long, noisy, disturbing night because of a large family consisting of ignorant Bastards. Members of this family - Men, Women, Children alike were screaming at each other instead of conversion and in the silent night in the middle of a forest you can imagine how loud these Bastards might have sounded. On top of that the Men all got together in a tent and started boozing and talking loudly late into the night. We complained to the Rangers but although they went and tried to deal with them, they were unsuccessful. But later somehow they managed to close their party around midnight and there was peace after wards. I wonder why such people even travel to forests if they don't respect and enjoy the beauty and serenity of the nature.
Next morning we accompanied one of the guides on a morning walk to one of the small dams about 2 Km from the camp. It was a jeep trail and he mentioned that he often trekked this trail as there was a lot of chance of spotting Elephants and on the rare occasion a Tiger. We were pretty excited but we spotted neither but for a few deers. But the forest was amazing and after last nights horrid experience, we felt as if we were in heaven. We were accompanied by another naturalists who was also a keen botanist and he identified and showed us a lot of herbs/plants that are used as natural medicines by the tribals. We also spotted quite a few colorful birds none of whose name's I remember now. Then we went back to the camp and stopped for sometime at the teashop/canteen located near the camp. Did I mention that this guy serve's amazing tea and we were not satisfied until we had at least 3 cups each. Later we got to know that the meals provided at the camp were prepared in the same canteen. The owner told us an exciting story of a leopard encounter just a week before we were there. There are a lot of wild boars around the canteen because of the food scraps easily available and hence a leopard was stalking the boars during the night. But when the leopard tried to catch a wild boar, it was unsuccessful and then a couple of wild boars chased the leopard, cornered it and bludgeoned it to death right outside the canteen. It was a pity the leopard died but we were thrilled at the fact that such animals ventured so close to the camp.
We had decided to trek to the Vengoli peak later in the day and camp during the night at a camp located on top of the peak. We started in the afternoon and went by car to parambikulam and picked up the two forest guard and a guide, bought provisions for the night and started our trek. The trek consisted of walking along a stream and crossing it a couple of times which was quite thrilling and dangerous as the rocks were slippery and then a gradual climb through thick forests. As we were walking the guide suddenly asked us to stop and we just stood and held our breaths as he pointed to a cobra a step ahead of us. If he hadn't warned us, me and Smitz would have directly stepped on the snake and surely one of us would have been bitten. The snake which had been stationery until now suddenly moved away from the path before and disappeared into the outgrowth before we could bring up our camera. It was a close shave and very unnerving. We moved on and we were as silent as possible hoping to spot the wild animals. We then spotted a herd of Gaurs (Wild Buffalo) which is wrongly called the Bison. They disappeared into the thicket
as soon as they sensed us approaching along the trail. This trail was said to be used by one of the 27 Tigers abounding in Parambikulam and we were hoping against hope that we would be lucky enough to sight one. The rest of the trek was uneventful and it rained a bit towards the end and we reached the camp just before sunset. One of the guides went to collect fresh water from a waterhole about 250 meters from the camp and we rested a bit. The camp consists of a barebone shed with a couple of rusty iron cots thrown into the room with no bedding whatsoever. There was also a smaller kitchen with a big fireplace for cooking. While the guides started preparing for dinner, we meandered around absorbing the beauty of the place. Then they took us to the peak which was about 250 meters ahead and we were lost for words. We could see the entire Parambikulam forest range from here and in the twilight the scenery looked out of the world. We could see the parambikulam reservoir where we had done bamboo rafting the previous day and it looked glorious. It was also very breezy and supposedly many times its dangerous to venture to the peak because the winds reach very high speed but luckily that day, it was manageable. We spent about an hour there watching the sun set and taking photos and then retraced our steps back the camp in the gloom. It was one truly amazing experience.
We started a campfire and sat around that warming ourselves as the temperature dropped quite a bit and also we had been drenched during our trek. The guide then prepared some simple rice and rasam and we gorged ourselves from plates which resembled more like a begging bowl. These were utensils which are left in the camp for trekkers to utilize for cooking and eating. We observed a lone Gaur standing in the bushes near to the camp not 30 feet from us and observing us keenly. For some time we were concerned but then it just kept standing and chewing on the leaves and occasionally glancing at us.
Sleeping time - as soon as Smitz got onto a bed, it just broke in half :-). Seemed like it was broken long before and someone just managed to make it stand with some flimsy wooden stick for support. We managed to snuggle onto the remaining 2 cots but really struggled as we were wet and it was cold - around 7-8 Centigrades and we were literally shivering through the night. To top it all some enlightened souls had pissed in the room and it smelt so bad that you just could not bear it but then where could we go. Its unbearably cold outside even with the camp fire running and so we just stuck it out in the room although it was miserable. Thankfully it was morning again... It was around 5.30 AM when we got up and the guides were already up by that time and were making coffee (no milk). We got fresh had coffee and we were on our way back soon. We wanted to make sure that we trekked when it was likeliest that we would spot a wild animal and also we wanted to leave for Bangalore as early as possible as it was a long trip back.
We again saw the same heard of Gaur on our way back and they again ran away into the thicket as soon as they sensed us approaching. As we were trekking back the strap of Smitz's Sandal tore and we had to tie a piece of cloth around the sandal and her foot to hold the sandal in place. Though this helped, it made our progress slow and gradually me, Smitz and the guide were about 50 paces behind Harsha and the other 2 gaurds. As we were walking suddenly our guide pointed to a leech on his feet and was talking something about it. I suddenly glanced ahead to see Harsha waving and turning back and as I watched, a Tiger leaped into the surrounding outgrowth in a blur of moment. It was as if it was a dream. I hadn't even seen it for a second. There was silence everywhere and then Harsha started jumping and waving out of pure, unconcealed joy. The group ahead had seen the Tiger just some 50 feet away while at same inopportune moment our guide distracted us to look at the leech stuck on his foot. Harsha had turned back and had been wildly waving at us as we had turned to see the leech. The Tiger was walking on the same trail coming from the opposite direction and was unaware of our presence until about 50 feet and then it just froze in its tracks as soon as it saw the group and at the same time these people saw it. After about 20 -30 seconds it just leapt to the side and disappeared in the thicket. Smitz was terribly disappointed as she had not even caught a glance of it and we have been desperate to sight a Tiger for many years now. We continued our way back with broken hearts and going over the scene again and again and cursing our luck and privately the guide for distracting us showing us a leech when there was a Tiger right ahead, while Harsha had a wide smile as he had finally spotted a Tiger in the wild so close. I must say we were terribly Jealous of him. We still are.... envious now...
We reached Parambikulam and paid the guide and the guards handsomely and had breakfast and then started our way to Bangalore. Throughout the journey back we kept discussing about how lucky Harsha had been and how unlucky we were. I so badly want to revisit that moment and replay it to my favor...
We reached Bangalore in the night in time for dinner and already felt the pangs of coming back to the monotonous city life. Parambikulam is truly a heavenly place for nature enthusiasts and we will surely go back again and again.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
A much needed break!!!
Just came back from a much needed short weekend trip to Mysore. The trip was almost jeopardized because the Varamaha Lakshmi festival fell on the same day as Independence day and my wife and my friend's wife were hell bent upon celebrating the same. I for one, wanted to make sure that the trip lasted all of three days (long weekend) rather than just the Saturday and Sunday. Ultimately we managed to convince the ladies to keep the festival short and sweet (minus the relatives :-)) and the four of us (Bhaskar, Meg, Smitz & me) left to Mysore around 1:00 PM on Friday after the puja.
The plan was to just relax in the idyllic city and we had booked appointments for all of us at the Windflower Spa on Sunday and were eagerly looking forward to the Spa experience.
Pitstop
On the way we stopped at the Barista Cafe near Ramanagar and dug into some yummy cheesy spinach sandwiches and gulped loads of Latte / Ginger Tea/ Barissta Caramello. Its surprising at the number of cafe joints that have sprung up all along the way to Mysore and beyond. I am sure they must be doing real good business considering the crowd we noticed in all of these cafes.
Ranganathittu
We had initially planned to visit Talkad and then go to Mysore but changed plans along the way and opted to go to Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary near Srirangapatna. The tickets cost us about Rs 100 + 25 (Camera). The concerned people did not actually give us the tickets and just waived us through the gate after collecting the money. On inquiring, they gave some lame excuse about the ticket machine not working. They would have pocketed the money in all likelihood.
Boating in the sanctuary had been stopped due to the rise in water levels as it had been raining incessantly for the past few days. However the weather was just perfect. Not sure if we saw all the variety of birds that usually are common sight here during the season. We did see a lot of Ibis (Black Headed), Herons (White and Purple), Egrets and Cormorants from afar. Maybe if there was boating, we would have been able to sight a few more of the birds. We could not see the crocodiles though, much to my displeasure. I love those reptiles... Cannot say the same about Meg.. She absolutely freaks out at the sight of any reptile... I have see her reaction encountering a leech on her foot in Kudremukh (Sigh! What a wonderful place, another story to share another time), I can imagine her reaction towards a big Croc :-)
We were in store for a surprise here as we came across a long lost friend of ours who had drifted away from us over the last few years for reasons that are best explained as being Unsavory. I must say that it was not really the kind of encounter we were looking forward to but in the end, was, kind of welcome.
"Ale mane"
We went on towards Mysore and Bhaskar suggested that we stop over at a village near Srirangapatna to watch the Jaggery making process at one of the "ale mane". A worker explained that We saw the huge pots(?) that are used to caramelize the Sugarcane juice into Jaggery. We also saw the wooden dye boards that were used to make the ""bella achhu". There were bees all around the boards and we were pretty concerned about being stung. Apparently there are more bees when the actual process is going on and the workers there are often stung by the bees, but they are quite used to it. After Bhaskar took some photographs, we went on our way to Mysore.
"Kings Court Hotel" - whom were you kidding when you named it?
We reached Mysore around 7.00 PM and immediately checked in to the Hotel Kings Court (Opposite Metropole). They had messed up by booking one of the two rooms we had asked, with twin bed instead of a double bed room. Apparently you have to specify that you need a king size double bed even after you have told them that the room is needed for a married couple. This ridiculous statement was made by non other than the owner of the Hotel. It was a pity that we could not change to any other hotel as they were all full as it was a long weekend. We forced the staff to join the cots and put a king size bed over it. The rooms were okay other than the fact that they needed a major face lift and replacement of the light fixtures - the cover of the night lamp just fell off as soon as I pressed the switch built into it. The plumbing in the bathrooms was horrible and leaky and it was ironic that they had a board in there saying "Conserve Water" while the flush tank was leaking water like a open tap throughout our stay. They could not fix it for whatever reason. This certainly will be the last time we ever stay in this setup.
After settling in we wanted to have some great dinner and decided on Metropole. We have always had our food here whenever we have traveled to Mysore and have liked it a lot. However this time, that was not to be the case. The service was lousy and the food was also equally lousy. We were pretty pissed at the fact that we had to pay a fortune for this experience and complained to the F&B Manager on our way out. He assured us that he would do his best to address the issues. We headed back to our rooms and then decided to call it a day as we had planned to climb up the Chamundi hill early next morning.
Chamundi Hill
The stairs used to climb up Chamundi hill has about 1000 steps. We were quite surprised to see quite a lot of people, old and young alike, climbing up the stairs. Around half the way we were beginning to get real tired (not so much because of the difficulty, as because of our fitness levels) and Meg gave up saying she would go back to the car and drive it up the hill and meet us at the parking lot near the temple. We toiled along and came across the Nandi. We admired it for a while - It looks so serene and graceful in that posture. We took rest here for a while and drank the Sugarcane juice and also ate cucumber. We flagged down Meg as she drove past and she also stopped and ate along with us. By then we had covered about 600 steps and had another 400 to go. We continued along the stairs as Meg continued by Car. The rest of the climb was not so tiresome. The scene was pretty much the same as you would find across any of the zillion temples in our country. Lots of small shops and hawkers selling puja items, wooden/plastic toys and trinkets etc, lots and lots of people from all walks of life, lots of monkeys, lots of street dogs. We drank coconut milk while Bhaskar went in search of Meg. In the meanwhile we settled down in a corner bench and waited for Bhaskar and Meg. Once they came and had their quota of coconut milk, we decided to leave and go have breakfast in Mysore city.
Mylari Hotel
After the previous nights experience in Metropole, we had decided that we would not go to some other such hotel and had decided to try out some of the famous small eateries. Bhaskar knew all these places as he had lived here for a short while earlier during his schooling. We headed to the "Original Mylari Hotel" located in the Nazarbad main road. This is a very small place and often crowded and is famous for the Masala Dosas and chutney. Luckily we got seats almost immediately as it was a bit late in the morning (around 10.30 AM). We had worked up quite an appetite by then and ordered Masala Dosas and shortly were biting into the delicious Dosas. After previous night's experience at Metropole, this was heaven for us. We had coffee later which had more water than milk and then went on our way to the "ale mane" once again as the care taker had told that they would get a fresh supply of Sugarcane this morning. However it turned out that it still had not arrived and so we went to the Zoo.
Mysore Zoo
It had been a long time since any of us had been to a Zoo and we were kind off looking forward to the experience. The Mysore Zoo is reasonably maintained compared to Indian standards and a lot of development work seemed to be happening all around. Being a weekend we had expected it to be crowded and so it was. The Zoo has a 3 Km winding path around which the enclosures are present. First stop was the Giraffe enclosure and I set my eyes upon a Giraffe the first time ever in my life. I have seen them a lot of times on National Geographic but this was nothing compared to seeing that. They are tall and very graceful animals. Next we came across the Bird enclosures and saw a lot of exotic species like the golden Chinese pheasant, yellow pheasant, peacocks, peahens, Cockatoos, Parakeets, etc. But it really was a pity that these are caged and they all seemed to be a little off color except for a few. Next was the Rhinoceros enclosure, this animal is huge. It looks very majestic too. We also saw the Hippo, many species of Macaques, Blackbuck deers, Sambar deers, Marsh deers, Barking deers, Neelghai, Zebras, etc. We then came across the Tiger enclosure. These tigers were put in cages around 15 X 15 feet and seemed very restless as they were roaming around continuously in the confined space. It did not help that most of the crowd were focusing their attention on these enclosures and were churning up a racket, screaming, talking loudly, whistling etc. It was really sad and frustrating to see such a beautiful animal subjugated to such a situation. After this, we just felt that we did not want to be in that Zoo any longer. After having a short break at the Ice cream parlor, we headed to the exit quickly. Once we were out,
Iyer's Mess
This is a small, no-frills, vegetarian meal on a plantain leaf, setup near the law courts. I must say we were not really very hungry because of the late (& heavy) breakfast but nevertheless ate the meal with relish as it was quite tasty. The meal was pretty simple with a Chapathi and couple of curries, rice, Sambhar, Rasam and Curds. Its amazing how you get such delicious food at such small joints - beats the star hotels on any give day... well, at least some of the food items if not all...
Then we headed back to the hotel to have a siesta as we were pretty tired from the exertion in the morning climb and afternoon Zoo tour. We planned to go to Planet X for some bowling/gokarting action later in the evening.
Planet X
Boy, was it crowded or what. We had arrived much later than we had expected as we all awoke late from our siesta. Since it was already late we had decided to grab some light supper. We wanted to try out the Ragi Rotti at the Nalpak hotel as it is supposed to be quite delicious. However it was not all that much great in taste as we had heard but nevertheless it was better than whatever we had at Metropole. By the time we arrived at Planet X, the gokarting was closed and there was a hour long wait for the bowling. We decided against the same as we were not too keen to be in such a crowded place. I then suggested that we drive down all the way to Bandipur and Mudumalai Sanctuary, it would be a nice long drive and also would be thrilling to go for a night ride through the forest. Everybody was game for it and at 9.00 PM we left towards Bandipur.
Bandipur
The road between Nanjangud and Gundlupet was pretty bad and it took us about 2 Hrs before we reached Bandipur. There was also a lot of vehicular traffic in the route. There was a full moon that night and also there was supposed to be a Lunar eclipse later in the midnight. The forest looked amazing in the moonlight. We saw quite a bit of spotted deer and Sambar deers grazing alongside the road. They seemed to be least concerned about the vehicles zipping by on the road. We crossed the border and paid Rs 20 for forest entry fee at the forest check post. Then we were stopped by the Tamilnadu police in the police check post, beside the forest check post. They asked for Rs. 50 to let us through and we were pretty irritated and argued that we had just payed the forest entry fee. They immediately asked us to park the car and started examining the vehicle documents, license etc. We then realized that Bhaskar had left his RC book back in Bangalore and we had to pay a fee of Rs 100. The policeman advised us smartly that if we had shut up and paid up the Rs. 50, we would not have had this problem. I wonder how many illegal logging trucks, poachers, smugglers, terrorists have passed through this check post paying up this Rs 50/XXX amount.
Mudumulai
We then proceeded towards Mudumalai and saw many Elephants and a Gaur along the way. From Mudumalai we took the diversion towards Masinagudi as I had been through the route before and felt that there are more chances of sighting wild animals in this route as the traffic is negligible compared to the Ooty route. I was proven terribly wrong as we came across jeeps and jeeps loaded with people all through the route. We saw some parked in the middle of the road with their headlights directed towards a herd of Elephants and thats when we realised that these were out on night Safari. There are a number of resorts all around Masinagudi and these rides are organised by them. We were very disturbed to see these people intruding upon the Elephants space and disturbing them like this. The forest department should keep tabs on these activities and also should ensure that they are not so invasive... We then turned around and headed back towards Mysore as it had gotten pretty late - around 1.00 AM.
Cafe Coffee Day Pitstop
We had noticed this just outside Gundlupet, on our way to Bandipur. This was a 24 hour cafe and we stopped over for some much needed coffee to keep us awake during the ride back to Mysore. We sat for about 1/2 hour drinking the steaming latte and felt quite refreshed. Then we were on our way yet again. We reached Mysore around 3.00 AM in the morning.
Windflower Spa
We woke up between 9.30 - 10.00 AM and got fresh and by the time we checked out of the hotel, it was around 11.00 Am. We headed towards GTR as we wanted to try the Idli's there and then headed towards Mylari for a plate of Masala Dosa. Unfortunately they were serving only plain dosa by then and we had to make do with that. After that we went to the Windflower Spa.
Its surprising that given the amount of tourists Mysore has, there are not many Spas here. Actually I know of only two - Windflower and the Indus Valley Ayur. Of these we choose the Windflower Spa. The ambience is quite impressive and classy. However the rooms are a touch too bright and not sound proof. The noise from the outside keeps drifting in. Also the staff should be better trained, I had gone for a Abhyanga massage - a tandem massage which involves two people doing synchronised massage but there was nothing synchronous in their massaging. They both were massaging with different pressures and it was a touch irritating. Also they did not play any soothing music you tend to encounter at such places. However all in all I guess it was reasonable compared to the price they were offering these services.
After the massage, we were sitting in the lawn as we were waiting for Meg and Smitz. Here we saw a resident white Cockatoo. The poor birds wings had been clipped so that it would not fly away. The staff mentioned that it belonged to the owner of the Windflower and was a favourite among the guests. It looked to be in a decent condition but after a while we saw hordes of guests/children surrounding and repeatedly petting, and plucking at the hapless bird. It looked to be in discomfort because of the unwanted attention and also started cawing loudly until the staff came and politely asked the guests to move away and put the bird in its cage. It was really sad to see this. I will be complaining about the bird to some animal welfare organization very soon.
We then walked down to the restaurant for lunch but found that they were serving only Chinese as it was already beyond 3.00 PM. We decided to grab a Sub instead and left the Spa.
Back for good
The drive back was pretty tiresome as there was a lot of traffic and to add to that, it rained quite heavily all the way between Maddur and Ramnagar. We stopped along the way at a Cafe Coffee Day and had some light refreshments and continued on our way. It was 8.00 PM by the time we reached our homes in Bangalore.
All in all a good and much needed break from the grind!
The plan was to just relax in the idyllic city and we had booked appointments for all of us at the Windflower Spa on Sunday and were eagerly looking forward to the Spa experience.
Pitstop
On the way we stopped at the Barista Cafe near Ramanagar and dug into some yummy cheesy spinach sandwiches and gulped loads of Latte / Ginger Tea/ Barissta Caramello. Its surprising at the number of cafe joints that have sprung up all along the way to Mysore and beyond. I am sure they must be doing real good business considering the crowd we noticed in all of these cafes.
Ranganathittu
We had initially planned to visit Talkad and then go to Mysore but changed plans along the way and opted to go to Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary near Srirangapatna. The tickets cost us about Rs 100 + 25 (Camera). The concerned people did not actually give us the tickets and just waived us through the gate after collecting the money. On inquiring, they gave some lame excuse about the ticket machine not working. They would have pocketed the money in all likelihood.
Boating in the sanctuary had been stopped due to the rise in water levels as it had been raining incessantly for the past few days. However the weather was just perfect. Not sure if we saw all the variety of birds that usually are common sight here during the season. We did see a lot of Ibis (Black Headed), Herons (White and Purple), Egrets and Cormorants from afar. Maybe if there was boating, we would have been able to sight a few more of the birds. We could not see the crocodiles though, much to my displeasure. I love those reptiles... Cannot say the same about Meg.. She absolutely freaks out at the sight of any reptile... I have see her reaction encountering a leech on her foot in Kudremukh (Sigh! What a wonderful place, another story to share another time), I can imagine her reaction towards a big Croc :-)
We were in store for a surprise here as we came across a long lost friend of ours who had drifted away from us over the last few years for reasons that are best explained as being Unsavory. I must say that it was not really the kind of encounter we were looking forward to but in the end, was, kind of welcome.
"Ale mane"
We went on towards Mysore and Bhaskar suggested that we stop over at a village near Srirangapatna to watch the Jaggery making process at one of the "ale mane". A worker explained that
"Kings Court Hotel" - whom were you kidding when you named it?
We reached Mysore around 7.00 PM and immediately checked in to the Hotel Kings Court (Opposite Metropole). They had messed up by booking one of the two rooms we had asked, with twin bed instead of a double bed room. Apparently you have to specify that you need a king size double bed even after you have told them that the room is needed for a married couple. This ridiculous statement was made by non other than the owner of the Hotel. It was a pity that we could not change to any other hotel as they were all full as it was a long weekend. We forced the staff to join the cots and put a king size bed over it. The rooms were okay other than the fact that they needed a major face lift and replacement of the light fixtures - the cover of the night lamp just fell off as soon as I pressed the switch built into it. The plumbing in the bathrooms was horrible and leaky and it was ironic that they had a board in there saying "Conserve Water" while the flush tank was leaking water like a open tap throughout our stay. They could not fix it for whatever reason. This certainly will be the last time we ever stay in this setup.
After settling in we wanted to have some great dinner and decided on Metropole. We have always had our food here whenever we have traveled to Mysore and have liked it a lot. However this time, that was not to be the case. The service was lousy and the food was also equally lousy. We were pretty pissed at the fact that we had to pay a fortune for this experience and complained to the F&B Manager on our way out. He assured us that he would do his best to address the issues. We headed back to our rooms and then decided to call it a day as we had planned to climb up the Chamundi hill early next morning.
Chamundi Hill
The stairs used to climb up Chamundi hill has about 1000 steps. We were quite surprised to see quite a lot of people, old and young alike, climbing up the stairs. Around half the way we were beginning to get real tired (not so much because of the difficulty, as because of our fitness levels) and Meg gave up saying she would go back to the car and drive it up the hill and meet us at the parking lot near the temple. We toiled along and came across the Nandi. We admired it for a while - It looks so serene and graceful in that posture. We took rest here for a while and drank the Sugarcane juice and also ate cucumber. We flagged down Meg as she drove past and she also stopped and ate along with us. By then we had covered about 600 steps and had another 400 to go. We continued along the stairs as Meg continued by Car. The rest of the climb was not so tiresome. The scene was pretty much the same as you would find across any of the zillion temples in our country. Lots of small shops and hawkers selling puja items, wooden/plastic toys and trinkets etc, lots and lots of people from all walks of life, lots of monkeys, lots of street dogs. We drank coconut milk while Bhaskar went in search of Meg. In the meanwhile we settled down in a corner bench and waited for Bhaskar and Meg. Once they came and had their quota of coconut milk, we decided to leave and go have breakfast in Mysore city.
Mylari Hotel
After the previous nights experience in Metropole, we had decided that we would not go to some other such hotel and had decided to try out some of the famous small eateries. Bhaskar knew all these places as he had lived here for a short while earlier during his schooling. We headed to the "Original Mylari Hotel" located in the Nazarbad main road. This is a very small place and often crowded and is famous for the Masala Dosas and chutney. Luckily we got seats almost immediately as it was a bit late in the morning (around 10.30 AM). We had worked up quite an appetite by then and ordered Masala Dosas and shortly were biting into the delicious Dosas. After previous night's experience at Metropole, this was heaven for us. We had coffee later which had more water than milk and then went on our way to the "ale mane" once again as the care taker had told that they would get a fresh supply of Sugarcane this morning. However it turned out that it still had not arrived and so we went to the Zoo.
Mysore Zoo
It had been a long time since any of us had been to a Zoo and we were kind off looking forward to the experience. The Mysore Zoo is reasonably maintained compared to Indian standards and a lot of development work seemed to be happening all around. Being a weekend we had expected it to be crowded and so it was. The Zoo has a 3 Km winding path around which the enclosures are present. First stop was the Giraffe enclosure and I set my eyes upon a Giraffe the first time ever in my life. I have seen them a lot of times on National Geographic but this was nothing compared to seeing that. They are tall and very graceful animals. Next we came across the Bird enclosures and saw a lot of exotic species like the golden Chinese pheasant, yellow pheasant, peacocks, peahens, Cockatoos, Parakeets, etc. But it really was a pity that these are caged and they all seemed to be a little off color except for a few. Next was the Rhinoceros enclosure, this animal is huge. It looks very majestic too. We also saw the Hippo, many species of Macaques, Blackbuck deers, Sambar deers, Marsh deers, Barking deers, Neelghai, Zebras, etc. We then came across the Tiger enclosure. These tigers were put in cages around 15 X 15 feet and seemed very restless as they were roaming around continuously in the confined space. It did not help that most of the crowd were focusing their attention on these enclosures and were churning up a racket, screaming, talking loudly, whistling etc. It was really sad and frustrating to see such a beautiful animal subjugated to such a situation. After this, we just felt that we did not want to be in that Zoo any longer. After having a short break at the Ice cream parlor, we headed to the exit quickly. Once we were out,
Iyer's Mess
This is a small, no-frills, vegetarian meal on a plantain leaf, setup near the law courts. I must say we were not really very hungry because of the late (& heavy) breakfast but nevertheless ate the meal with relish as it was quite tasty. The meal was pretty simple with a Chapathi and couple of curries, rice, Sambhar, Rasam and Curds. Its amazing how you get such delicious food at such small joints - beats the star hotels on any give day... well, at least some of the food items if not all...
Then we headed back to the hotel to have a siesta as we were pretty tired from the exertion in the morning climb and afternoon Zoo tour. We planned to go to Planet X for some bowling/gokarting action later in the evening.
Planet X
Boy, was it crowded or what. We had arrived much later than we had expected as we all awoke late from our siesta. Since it was already late we had decided to grab some light supper. We wanted to try out the Ragi Rotti at the Nalpak hotel as it is supposed to be quite delicious. However it was not all that much great in taste as we had heard but nevertheless it was better than whatever we had at Metropole. By the time we arrived at Planet X, the gokarting was closed and there was a hour long wait for the bowling. We decided against the same as we were not too keen to be in such a crowded place. I then suggested that we drive down all the way to Bandipur and Mudumalai Sanctuary, it would be a nice long drive and also would be thrilling to go for a night ride through the forest. Everybody was game for it and at 9.00 PM we left towards Bandipur.
Bandipur
The road between Nanjangud and Gundlupet was pretty bad and it took us about 2 Hrs before we reached Bandipur. There was also a lot of vehicular traffic in the route. There was a full moon that night and also there was supposed to be a Lunar eclipse later in the midnight. The forest looked amazing in the moonlight. We saw quite a bit of spotted deer and Sambar deers grazing alongside the road. They seemed to be least concerned about the vehicles zipping by on the road. We crossed the border and paid Rs 20 for forest entry fee at the forest check post. Then we were stopped by the Tamilnadu police in the police check post, beside the forest check post. They asked for Rs. 50 to let us through and we were pretty irritated and argued that we had just payed the forest entry fee. They immediately asked us to park the car and started examining the vehicle documents, license etc. We then realized that Bhaskar had left his RC book back in Bangalore and we had to pay a fee of Rs 100. The policeman advised us smartly that if we had shut up and paid up the Rs. 50, we would not have had this problem. I wonder how many illegal logging trucks, poachers, smugglers, terrorists have passed through this check post paying up this Rs 50/XXX amount.
Mudumulai
We then proceeded towards Mudumalai and saw many Elephants and a Gaur along the way. From Mudumalai we took the diversion towards Masinagudi as I had been through the route before and felt that there are more chances of sighting wild animals in this route as the traffic is negligible compared to the Ooty route. I was proven terribly wrong as we came across jeeps and jeeps loaded with people all through the route. We saw some parked in the middle of the road with their headlights directed towards a herd of Elephants and thats when we realised that these were out on night Safari. There are a number of resorts all around Masinagudi and these rides are organised by them. We were very disturbed to see these people intruding upon the Elephants space and disturbing them like this. The forest department should keep tabs on these activities and also should ensure that they are not so invasive... We then turned around and headed back towards Mysore as it had gotten pretty late - around 1.00 AM.
Cafe Coffee Day Pitstop
We had noticed this just outside Gundlupet, on our way to Bandipur. This was a 24 hour cafe and we stopped over for some much needed coffee to keep us awake during the ride back to Mysore. We sat for about 1/2 hour drinking the steaming latte and felt quite refreshed. Then we were on our way yet again. We reached Mysore around 3.00 AM in the morning.
Windflower Spa
We woke up between 9.30 - 10.00 AM and got fresh and by the time we checked out of the hotel, it was around 11.00 Am. We headed towards GTR as we wanted to try the Idli's there and then headed towards Mylari for a plate of Masala Dosa. Unfortunately they were serving only plain dosa by then and we had to make do with that. After that we went to the Windflower Spa.
Its surprising that given the amount of tourists Mysore has, there are not many Spas here. Actually I know of only two - Windflower and the Indus Valley Ayur. Of these we choose the Windflower Spa. The ambience is quite impressive and classy. However the rooms are a touch too bright and not sound proof. The noise from the outside keeps drifting in. Also the staff should be better trained, I had gone for a Abhyanga massage - a tandem massage which involves two people doing synchronised massage but there was nothing synchronous in their massaging. They both were massaging with different pressures and it was a touch irritating. Also they did not play any soothing music you tend to encounter at such places. However all in all I guess it was reasonable compared to the price they were offering these services.
After the massage, we were sitting in the lawn as we were waiting for Meg and Smitz. Here we saw a resident white Cockatoo. The poor birds wings had been clipped so that it would not fly away. The staff mentioned that it belonged to the owner of the Windflower and was a favourite among the guests. It looked to be in a decent condition but after a while we saw hordes of guests/children surrounding and repeatedly petting, and plucking at the hapless bird. It looked to be in discomfort because of the unwanted attention and also started cawing loudly until the staff came and politely asked the guests to move away and put the bird in its cage. It was really sad to see this. I will be complaining about the bird to some animal welfare organization very soon.
We then walked down to the restaurant for lunch but found that they were serving only Chinese as it was already beyond 3.00 PM. We decided to grab a Sub instead and left the Spa.
Back for good
The drive back was pretty tiresome as there was a lot of traffic and to add to that, it rained quite heavily all the way between Maddur and Ramnagar. We stopped along the way at a Cafe Coffee Day and had some light refreshments and continued on our way. It was 8.00 PM by the time we reached our homes in Bangalore.
All in all a good and much needed break from the grind!
Sunday, August 20, 2006
A Walk in the Clouds
Kudremukh! The name evokes memories of beautiful moments spent during the monsoon of 2006 amidst this wonderful bounty of nature. This was the only time almost all of our close friends (made it to any trip and it made the experience even more special.
All the friends who made it:
We left a little late in the day but the road via Hassan and Mudigere was reasonably good and we covered good distance within a short time. The weather was perfect and there was a light drizzle throughout our journey. We stopped along the way at Hassan for breakfast and later at a small hamlet for tea. The hamlet was surrounded by lush farms and was a great location. We ventured into the farms for a short while before we carried on with our journey. The climb up to Kudremukh was fantastic as we passed along many a stream and water fall along the road side. We stopped to enjoy the sceneries often and played in the streams.
Scenic route
We stopped over at the Kudremukh Range Office to collect the receipts for the accommodation booking made at the Bhagavathi Nature Camp. This is an amazing place located about 13 KM away from the Kudremukh town and about a KM off the road through a mud track. The accommodation options consist of a Cottage with 2 rooms, a dormitory with 12 beds and many tents. we had booked the cottage and the dormitory. It was basic but well maintained.
By the time we reached the nature camp, it was already late evening and getting to be dark and it was continuously drizzling. As soon as we approached the cottage, we saw a lot of Gaur's grazing around the cottage. We were thrilled to see them so near to the camp. We would often see them during the period of our stay. The guard warned us to be careful while walking around the camp because of the presence of the Gaur's.
The Bhadra stream flows right next to the Bhagavathi nature camp. The next day morning we went down to the stream but did not get into it as it had risen dangerously because of the rains and the currents were very strong. We were treated to some good breakfast by the resident cook (we had purchased the groceries in the Kudremukh town) and enjoyed the hot cup of tea in the cold, rainy weather.
The trekking option was ruled out because of the incessant rains and also the leech infested trails. There were leech all over the place. Just stepping out of the cottage would ensure that quite a few of them would climb onto your leg and suck the blood. Most of us had experienced this and did not care much about it. But a couple of them were repelled by these slimy creatures and spent sleepless nights imagining the leech to be around them all the time. We did have good fun at their expense :). We decided to drive around and visit the various falls dotted around the place. And so we went to see the Hanumangundi falls. You need to climb down steep stairs for a distance of 300 Mt's in order to see the falls. It was beautiful especially because of the season we visited. The water was gushing down in full force and there was lush greenery all around. The rocks were all slippery and we had to be very careful to avoid falling and getting hurt badly. After spending an hour here, we drove back towards Kalsa to visit the Annapoorneshwari temple and we also stopped near the Kadambi falls on the way.
On the way we stopped near a vista point to enjoy the view and here we were covered totally in mist most of the time, We walked around totally enveloped in the mist, getting drenched in the light drizzle and caressed by the cool breeze. We literally danced in the middle of the road enjoying the experience. It is beyond word to describe.
We stopped over at the Kudremukh Range Office to collect the receipts for the accommodation booking made at the Bhagavathi Nature Camp. This is an amazing place located about 13 KM away from the Kudremukh town and about a KM off the road through a mud track. The accommodation options consist of a Cottage with 2 rooms, a dormitory with 12 beds and many tents. we had booked the cottage and the dormitory. It was basic but well maintained.
By the time we reached the nature camp, it was already late evening and getting to be dark and it was continuously drizzling. As soon as we approached the cottage, we saw a lot of Gaur's grazing around the cottage. We were thrilled to see them so near to the camp. We would often see them during the period of our stay. The guard warned us to be careful while walking around the camp because of the presence of the Gaur's.
The Bhadra stream flows right next to the Bhagavathi nature camp. The next day morning we went down to the stream but did not get into it as it had risen dangerously because of the rains and the currents were very strong. We were treated to some good breakfast by the resident cook (we had purchased the groceries in the Kudremukh town) and enjoyed the hot cup of tea in the cold, rainy weather.
The trekking option was ruled out because of the incessant rains and also the leech infested trails. There were leech all over the place. Just stepping out of the cottage would ensure that quite a few of them would climb onto your leg and suck the blood. Most of us had experienced this and did not care much about it. But a couple of them were repelled by these slimy creatures and spent sleepless nights imagining the leech to be around them all the time. We did have good fun at their expense :). We decided to drive around and visit the various falls dotted around the place. And so we went to see the Hanumangundi falls. You need to climb down steep stairs for a distance of 300 Mt's in order to see the falls. It was beautiful especially because of the season we visited. The water was gushing down in full force and there was lush greenery all around. The rocks were all slippery and we had to be very careful to avoid falling and getting hurt badly. After spending an hour here, we drove back towards Kalsa to visit the Annapoorneshwari temple and we also stopped near the Kadambi falls on the way.
On the way we stopped near a vista point to enjoy the view and here we were covered totally in mist most of the time, We walked around totally enveloped in the mist, getting drenched in the light drizzle and caressed by the cool breeze. We literally danced in the middle of the road enjoying the experience. It is beyond word to describe.
We then visited the Lakya dam which is a Pollution Control dam used by the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited. We were surprised to see that the dam held no water but there was mud all over. The guards explained that these were tailings, wastes from the mining activity. Its well known that the mining activities has damaged the Kudremukh biosphere beyond repair and thankfully the Supreme Court has issued orders to stop the mining activity here. Its a step in the right directions that needs to be replicated in many other such issues.
The Annapoorneshwari temple is in Hornadu about 7 Kms from Kalsa. Hornadu is a picturesque place set admits lush forests and valley. We enjoyed the scenic beauty as we drove down to the temple. Once there, we offered our prayers, donated rice and money as is the tradition here. The temple provides food for all visitors and so we had lunch at the temple complex itself. Later we stopped over at Kalsa for some snacks and tea and bought umbrellas as well. We also shopped around for some honey and other herbal oils. On the way back to the nature camp we stopped beside a tea shop on the bridge across the Tunga river. The river was had ebbed to dangerous levels and was almost to the level of the bridge. After some photo ops we carried on towards the camp stopping every now and then to admire the scenery.
It was a pity that we could not have camp fire during the nights as it rained continuously. But someone came up with the idea of playing dumb charades and we passed time having great fun playing charades.
In the morning the guard informed that there was a Gaur that was grazing near the stream very near to the camp site and some of the guys wanted to photograph it and tried to stealthily get close to it but the Gaur could sense there presence and immediately charged towards them. They all ran for their dear life. Luckily it was only a mock charge to scare them off.
We left early after breakfast so that we would be back in Bangalore by early evening and well rested to face the coming work week. We promised ourselves that we would be back here again and its still unfulfilled...
The Annapoorneshwari temple is in Hornadu about 7 Kms from Kalsa. Hornadu is a picturesque place set admits lush forests and valley. We enjoyed the scenic beauty as we drove down to the temple. Once there, we offered our prayers, donated rice and money as is the tradition here. The temple provides food for all visitors and so we had lunch at the temple complex itself. Later we stopped over at Kalsa for some snacks and tea and bought umbrellas as well. We also shopped around for some honey and other herbal oils. On the way back to the nature camp we stopped beside a tea shop on the bridge across the Tunga river. The river was had ebbed to dangerous levels and was almost to the level of the bridge. After some photo ops we carried on towards the camp stopping every now and then to admire the scenery.
It was a pity that we could not have camp fire during the nights as it rained continuously. But someone came up with the idea of playing dumb charades and we passed time having great fun playing charades.
In the morning the guard informed that there was a Gaur that was grazing near the stream very near to the camp site and some of the guys wanted to photograph it and tried to stealthily get close to it but the Gaur could sense there presence and immediately charged towards them. They all ran for their dear life. Luckily it was only a mock charge to scare them off.
We left early after breakfast so that we would be back in Bangalore by early evening and well rested to face the coming work week. We promised ourselves that we would be back here again and its still unfulfilled...
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