Travel During Covid 2.0 : Kais Kodai Trip 2k21 🌍💫
👬🕴️👬
Well it was our first trip as NARIKOOTAM alias KAIPULLA GUYzzzz. Being in friendship for 3+ years, we 5 use to be in same page of understanding. Any fun involved among ourselves stood among ourselves and I thank god for giving such friends with same mental disorder.😉
1. Giri (🌍The Gallivanter)
2. Bharathi (😏Virat Kohli)
3. Saravanan (😎CEO)
4. Nambi (💪Bagubali)
5. Kicha (🕴️ALAN of our HANGOVER Team)
ATTAKAASAM of Nari Kootam :
The plan was firstly initiated by NambiRajan PaulRathnam, as we’re separated for more than an year and missing each others physical presence. The plan itself started for a trip to The Princess of Hills, Kodaikanal and let’s see how it became the reality below.
GTG Plan Document : Click Here..
We’ve booked the train tickets @last minute and to our luck, we got confirmed tickets. Bharathi who resides @Dindukal is the meeting point for all of us as it is near to Kodaikanal too.
Chennai Rains During Departure :
Train Details :
1) Nambi : Ananthapuri Exp (06724). Valliyur-Dindukal : 6:30pm-12:17am.
2) Kicha : Pearl City (02694). Tuty-Dindukal : 8:05pm-12:07am.
3) Giri : Pandian exp. Egmore-Dindukal : 9:40pm-04:00am.
4) CEO: Pandian exp.Tambaram-Dindukal : 10:05pm-04:00am.
Nambi & Krishna reached Dindukal on-time as per the plan and were resting @Bharathis Home until myself and CEO reach Dindukal in another 4-5 hours.
2021-07-17 - Saturday :
We all got refreshed on reaching Dindukal @Bharathis Home. We took an Toyoto Innova along with a Driver Mr Christopher. Christopher is 31 years old married young man and he was well in sync with all of us. We left from Dindukal probably by 05:30am.
@06:45am, we reached the foot-hills of Kodaikanal, stopped for a short Tea Break before getting up-hill.
ALAN ARMY :
Around 08:30am, we entered the Gateway of Kodaikanal (toll-booth) and our first spot was Silver Cascade Waterfalls. The toll-booth charges for car is Rs 60 and including same day return, Rs 85. It’s just 100m distance from the toll to Silver Cascade Waterfalls. As it was post heavy rain accompanied with slight drizzles, the waterfalls looked too good to sight for us.
Silver Cascade Waterfalls :
The Silver Cascade Falls formed as a result of the over flowing of the famous man-made Kodai Lake, are the perfect way to have a break while on a long road trip. You are confronted by the stunning sight of water pouring down from 150 feet height with its strength and beauty. Public can’t able to take bath in this waterfalls, but for it’s view, it’s very famous in and around Kodaikanal. Many road-side shops will be available for food / snacks options, and other hill-station accessories like coolers, monkey caps, hats.etc.
Completing our visit to Silver Cascade Falls, we proceed with our Morning Breakfast. We opted to have decent South Indian Breakfast as usual, as it’s travel time for next 2 days and we should not disturb our bodies usual mechanism. We went to Sri Parameshwara Mess @Kodaikanal Market, which serves decent breakfast with multiple options a budgeted price.
Cycling :
Completing out breakfast, we went for Cycling near Kodai Lake. Renting a bicycle is easy in Kodaikanal. You can get one by the hour, and it makes for an exciting way to get around town. You can cycle to various sightseeing points and the nearby villages. Taking a cycle ride around the Kodaikanal Lake is one of the best things to do in Kodaikanal. Here you can find a dedicated track for cyclists and walkers, providing you with a scenic view of the Lake as you cruise along. Remember to carry a bottle of water; cycling in the hills can be tiring!
Annan Dindukal Sarathy Bharathi : 😂
We halted at various scenic spots and clicked some memories.
புது மாப்பிள்ளைக்கு பப்பப்பரே : 😋😋😋
Poombarai :
As it was COVID time and traveling wasn’t fully recovered from it, no any other spots like Guna Caves, Boating, Moir’s Point .etc were open.Also we won’t be preferring such spots as those are already existing and we guys use to be in thirst of searching and exploring something new. Therefore, we headed towards Poombarai, a village in Kodaikanal. Poombarai is famous for it’s natural beauty in and around the village. The plantations and the climate adds additional beauty to the village located at the valley of Kodaikanal Hills.
Kodai Woods :
We analyse a lot through google and social platforms and came to know about Kodai Woods. They provide very good adventure packages at worthy price. They also provide packages for families and honeymoon couples. There are also options to customize our package according to individuals needs. We were in contact with Mr Saravanan who was the organizer of Kodai Woods.
An High-level Itinerary about the package which we opted it : (1.8k per head)
We made arrangements for Christopher @Hotel Bismi which you can find while entering Poombarai, just before KaiKaati. Hotel Bismi provides Dorms @reasonable price of Rs 100-200. They also have different food options. Alternative food options, we can find Hotel Bala at a walk-able distance (60-70m).
The pick-up got delayed due to unavoidable circumstances. But once getting-in the share jeep, we forgot all of our worries and hunger over lunch. The ride was so adventurous and made us scare for each and every second inside the ride.
Me met a team of 7 guys who were also in same age group. The guys were in good sync and wavelength looked to be familiar with us.
It was a nice experience through-out the ride for an hour and finally, we reached the stay location. Reaching there, the view from the tent was mesmerizing and just had a killing sight over Poombarai Village from Hill-top. We stood stunned over the looks and felt it for some minutes. It was a different level of experience. We firstly arranged our bags inside the tent as it was somewhat drizzling, followed by lunch.
We were served with Ghee Rice and Chicken Curry, which was decent hot in that cold shivering climate. The taste also felt good and the curry was so cooked soft.
We’re taken care by Mr Hussain (who owns that land area which was around 150 acre’s) and some of their Garden men’s who were around 60+ of age.
Finishing our lunch, we spend some time with the dogs which was grown by them. There we met another team of 6 and we both the teams start to play Box Cricket.
It was a different level of experience while playing your favorite sport in such shivering weather at the height of 2,200m from sea-level. We played cricket till 06:30pm followed by Jungle Walk for Sunset view.
The place through the jungle was filled with Pear Trees and it was it’s peak season. We found fresh pear fruits over the grounds and in the trees. The walk was accompanied by fresh pear fruits and an 65 years old man guided us along with a torch. Reaching the sunset view, we spend some time to relax after playing cricket for 2+ hours. The view was amazing as the sun sets down and watching the mist entering the Poombarai village in that moon light. The view comprises of Palani Hills View and Pollachi-Valparai side towards the left.We sat down and had some inputs from that old person, who shared his experience of 65 years for 30 minutes and that’s the beauty of TRAVEL!!
Completing the sunset with a relaxed mood, we were back to the camp site. Here we go, the camp fire party has started!!
Note : Individual camp-fire also will be provided based on our requirement. But we came to enjoy and have some fun and we didn’t demand for the same. There are a total of 3 group and we had 3 different camp-fire sites. Speakers are ready and boom boom bah!!
We were provided with Barbecues cooked @ camp-site. Individuals can also get 4-5 Roti’s accompanied with Veg Kurma (which was too spice and good t=in that cold weather).
Completing our dinner, we all were ready for jungle safari by 09:00pm. It was too dark and surrounded. With pin drop silence. Only sound apart from our vehicle and our fun moments, all we could hear was some birds, insects, forest dogs, and peacock voices. We were through Pear Forest and got a lots of Pear Fruits, which we had during the adventurous jungle safari travel time. We also carried our BlueTooth Speaker along with us for better thrill experience with thriller background musics. Completing our jungle safari, we were back to our camp-site and fallen asleep.
2021-07-18 - Sunday :
The next day morning, we all waken by 05:45am. Getting awake, the view from the tent was amazing and we were over the top of the clouds. The panoramic view comprises of over the clouds, followed by poombarai village covered with mist and hills of kodaikanal.
This night sleep was one of the best among all of my travel experiences as it was in a tent stay, deep inside the jungle and mainly above the clouds which made us feel like sleeping in the SKY!!!
Completing some photo-shoots, we were getting ready to leave from Kodai Woods. They provide us 2 plug points and thank god we brought a spike buster along with us to fill the stomach of our mobile phones.
Kodai Woods made us enjoy our trip to the core with multiple adventure activities. In fact the itinerary also included a waterfall trek, but in that cold weather and the commitment for us to visit Mannavanur and shopping @Kodaikanal made us to decide skipping that. Will surely visit once again and again. In fact, we don’t know whether we would have enjoyed like this even if all the common tourist spots were open.
Heading back to Poombarai, we were started our journey towards Mannavanur along with Mr Christopher. Since it was a Sunday, we were stuck in traffic for 10-15 mins. Reaching Mannavanur, the lake and ark remains shut due to covid out-break. But came to enjoy the beauty of the hill-town and explore the unknown. We gone through carrot farms , purchased some fresh carrots for Rs 50 per kg, hill garlic for Rs 350 per kg, fresh honey for Rs 400 per bottle.
It was peak noon and we were tired by back-to-back adventurous experiences. It was a good time to relax over there.
Heading back to Kodaikanal, we were done with our lunch @Hotel Jacobs Kitchen which was a famous group in and around kodai. For lunch, they provide us good veg, non-veg meals, tiffen items like dosa, chapathis with some gravies, fried rice and noodles.
Jacob's Kitchen : Menu For The Day
Suicide Point :
Shopping :
Shopping @Kodaikanal is one of the best experiences to have. We reached suicide point where we met Mr Sudevan, who owns SOUTH INDIA SPICES. This was came to known from Mr Christopher and the quality of the spices they offer with different varieties and honest suggestions over their products made me ticking my spices shopping list over there. They also provide us various varieties of chocolates, including home made and flavored one. The shopping time over suicide point costs over 1.5 hours as we can fine a large varieties of different fields of shopping items, from food till home docors.
Completing our shopping, we got down the kodaikanal hills at the time of sun-set, which made us to view the Manjalaar Dam so beautiful. We reached Dindukal probably by 07:30pm and completed our dinner @Hotel Siva Briyani, which was famous for the land owned name of Dindukal Briyani.
Filling our tummy with yummy dindukal briyani, we reached the house of Bharathi. A happy send0-off to Mr Christopher and Toyoto innovo, He was in great sync with us and having such experiences guider along with us made our job easier in various departments like shopping, restaurants.etc.
Contact Mr Christopher @ 9994314798 for travel in and around Dindukal, Madurai and Kodaikanal circle. Not only Innovo, he also own a Chevy Tavera. We can also enquire and request for any other cars which he will manage to arrange within his friends circle. For this kodaikanal trip, it costs Rs 10,000 INR which is quite reasonable considering the diesel costs per ltr was Rs 108 @Kodaikanal Hills during the time of our visit.
@Bharathis Home, we had sufficient time to play some card games as our train time was in the mid-night only.
Return Train Details :
1) Nambi : Ananthapuri Exp. Dindukal-Valliyur : 11:45pm-04:40am.
2) Kicha : Pearl City Exp. Dindukal-Tuty : 02:15am-06:45am.
3) Giri & CEO : Pandian Exp. Dindukal-Chennai Central : 11:50pm-07:50am.
Take Only Memories.. Leave Footprints..
MS Dhoni About Kodaikanal :
Lessons Learnt / Conclusion :
Kodaikanal isn’t a place to be visited in a day or isn’t a place known only for Guna Cave, Moir’s Point.etc. There are a lots and lots of hidden gems and it’s in our thoughts to analyse and explore the available resources. Poombarai, Mannavanur, Kookal are some of the hidden attractions which can be promoted and visited to get some peace of mind and calmness.
DON”T TELL ME HOW EDUCATED YOU ARE. TELL ME HOW MUCH YOU TRAVELED! 🌎
Dood vera level 🥳🥳🥳
ReplyDeleteபுது மாப்பிள்ளை HAPPY அண்ணாச்சி.. 😉
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ReplyDeleteநன்றி நன்றி Mr Wildlife Photographer அவர்களே! 📸 😇🌍💫
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