Bangalore Maduari Kodaikanal Road Trip Part 2

Next day, we started off with Masala dosas at the restaurant and I have to give it to the folks over here, they really know how to make the yummiest masala dosas! We take off for Kodaikanal from Madurai at 10:30, refuel our car and pump up the tyres. We followed the road towards Dindigual, on way we see a left signboard for Kodaikanal, we chase it, but fail to notice the final right turn, next to pertrol pump which directly leads to Kodaikanal and end up burning extra 15 km’s before we notice our folly.

We reached Kodaikanal at 1:00 and start calling up hotels. The trip meter stands at 577 KM’s. To our not-much-surprise, all the hotels either had zero availability or had posh rates associated with them. Hotel Tamilnadu then came to our rescue, we checked in one of their standard rooms which had Rs 1600 per day tariff. The staff here was extremely helpful and the manager at the reception answered just about all the queries I had and gave me a map and helped me fix up my itinerary completely. After getting all the info, we have our lunch at the restaurant and hop on to the bed our afternoon siesta.

We started our walk towards the lake at 5:10, and reach there at 5:35, but to our disappointment the ticket counter was closed right in front our eyes and were told that the counter is open till 5:30 only, sic. However, wherein lies disappointment, therein lies an opportunity. We decided to cycle around the lake and this was truly an amazing experience. And for a moment it felt like me and my wife were still dating! The traffic on the road did play a spoilsport couple of times. I strongly believe that all motor vehicle traffic should be stopped on this road.

An hour later, we started shopping around, Khyati found an amazing purse, chocolates and hair oil. After the exhilarating-empty-your-pocket shopping experience, we headed out for dinner. Tava was one place which was strongly recommended by people and we weren’t disappointed. The dal makhani here was truly lip-smacking. We reached back our room at 10. The cycle workout, had well, “worked out” and we doze off soon.

Next day after having the buffet breakfast at the hotel restaurant, we head out for sightseeing. We start off towards Coakers walk and follow the road straight towards Pillars rock. Our first stop for the day is upper lake view, here you would get an incredible birds eye view of the lake, some one suggested it looks like map of India, though to me it looked more akin to amoeba. We drove next to pine forest, once you go in the forest, the shade brings in a 3 degree temperature drop, we met a group of enthusiastic guys over here, and they were more than willing to take pics for us, no matter how much time it took. Thank you guys! Next up was Berijam lake, but nobody was being allowed to go over there, we were later told that the public will be allowed to enter from next day only. Damn!

Our next stop was Guna caves, parking over here is a mess, a common thing just about every place we visited. There are roadside stalls which occupy half of the road and the other half is supposed to be used for two way traffic, not the best scenario especially when going uphill. Done with parking, once you walk to the top, you might be disappointed to find out that there is a huge fence which blocks your path towards the caves. But the moment you reach the fence and look down, you would surely appreciate the rationale behind that. The slope is quite steep from here on and full of peril. On the other hand, if you climb up to your right, you will surely find one of the most tranquil views of gigantic pillar rocks. From here, you would also get a view of Guna caves. With the cool halcyon breeze gently touching us, we just laid down over there for over an hour and have to really push ourselves to get up and move over to the next destination, which was the official view of the pillar rock. This wasn’t as amazing, considering the fact that we had already got a heavenly view already, and with just too many people at the “official” viewpoint, I decided to get out of this place at the earliest. Further up we went to Green Valley View, this one was more like nano commercial street, with several shops put up in a small compressed space. We didn’t find anything worth to see or buy over here, and left this place also pretty quickly.

Coakers walk was next, here we were greeted by crooks who wanted us to pay for a video camera when we only had still camera. Gash! We took the stand of not paying even a bit extra, and pretty soon they let us in. Coakers walk presents a great view of city for the complete walk. Done with Coakers walk, it was time to feed-the-stomach event, and without second thoughts, there was only one place we had to go to, Tava. We treated ourselves to Prathas this time around, but somehow the dal makhani we had here the other day was still had its taste in me and I couldn’t control the urge and ordered one dal makhani also.

Once the butterflies were made siletn, it was time do what we couldn’t do the other day, boating. We walked to the lake, got ourselves a ticket, and off we go. While boating, we notice one boat on the shore with a family being served with hot tea and snacks by the canteen guy who has his shop right on the shore. For all the opportunities life gives you, I wasn’t going to miss this one. By the time we reached over there, it had started to drizzle a bit, and soon we were boating while eating samosa and sipping hot tea with soft drizzle. It is that just this very moment, which is has made this trip one of the most memorable ones!

Done with boating, we went for another round of cycling, this time it was much better as there weren’t many folks driving and honking around the lake. We also tried our hands on double cycle, but weren’t much successful over there. After cycling we went back straight to our hotel and dozed off soon after having dinner.

We checked out next day at 10 and bid adieu to Kodaikanal[607] at 10:15. Khyati took over driving from here on and she covered up the complete downhill impressing me again how quickly she has had picked up driving. Once we were down, I took over and we passed by Dindigul [695] at 12:30, Thoppur[913] at 3:00. Here, my wife again took over driving and started clocking 120 K’s on her first highway outing itself!. She drove till Hosur where I took over again. We were at home[1062] at 5:30, much in advance of 7:00 PM target that we had set for us.which Khyati wanted to meet so that she could watch Roadies!

Here are the pics......

Bangalore Maduari Kodaikanal Road Trip

Good Friday is just about the most amazing day of the year. For one, it means no office for both me and my wifey. For two, Saturday and Sunday follow it making it awesome threesome! For three, a no excuse long holiday!

For more than a month we were waiting for this day, we shortlisted few places, but Kodaikanal was on top of both of our lists. Khyati wanted to club in Madurai also. More the merrier, I say.

The day before, Khyati starts off by cooking her signature chips. We already had printouts of maps, travelogues and hotel phone numbers, so packed them all up. For a change we decided not to do any advance hotel reservations so having a printout of hotel phone numbers came in handy. We finished off packing around 11PM. The plan is to get up at 4:30 and start off by 5, but my mind had other plans and no amount of convincing to my mind helped it go to sleep. I finally catch up with sleep around 1 AM.

The alarm starts to buzz at 4:30, and after dilly dallying we start off from our house at 5:45. The first stop was at newly opened Kamat Upachar, Kamandoddi which is part of the do-not-refuel-here Reliance petrol station. We leave from here around 7:10 and at 7:40 we were at Krisnagiri toll booth. The moment we reached here, it seemed we were not the only ones who were planning a vacation! There were just so many people who had weekend plans! We crossed our fingers hoping that we would still get rooms to stay!

Hereon, I decide to push the throttle a bit, and started clocking around 120-140 K’s and reached Thoppur toll gate at 8:30, there isn’t much rush over here, seems like we beat everybody! The tripmeter reads 154Km. Omalur [190] isn’t behind, we reach there at 9:05 We cross Rasamapalayam [256] at 9:55 and Velanchet [328] at 10:50. By 12:30 we are in Madurai [440] and we start looking around for hotels. But boy! The heat over here; reminded me of the hot, hot days in Chandigarh! We checked up the rooms at Hotel Empee and Hotel Tamilnadu, both the places were similar, except Empee had the rooms a bit cheaper, 1200, including service tax for a deluxe AC room.

We checked in around 1:30 and switch on the AC immediately, freshen up and go for lunch in the attached restaurant. I go for a North Indian Thali while Khyati goes for the only-thing-she-ever-orders-in-South-Indian-Restaurants, Masala dosa :). North Indian thalli was amazing, huge amount of rice, cold chapattis, sambhar, and yes, north Indian chole! Welcome to “Real” South India! But to give it to the folks over here, sambhar is amazing, so I soaked all my rice with sambhar and ate it.

We start off our holy trip at 4:30, but we are advised to cover up the Thirumalai Nayak Palace first, as it closes for public at 5:30. The artwork here is pretty amazing, a nice teaser for what awaits at Meenakshi temple. As most of the “palace” part no longer exists, I wonder why it should still be called a palace.


Next up on the list is Meenakshi temple, and the golden lotus greets us, we sit around the lotus for half an hour and soak ourselves with all the divinity around. Gopurams here have magnificent sculpture and paintings. I am bedazzled with the symmetry and attention to detail wherever I put my eyes. We leave from here around 7:00 and on our way back we find that the crowds waiting for security check line has increased tenfold! Thankfully, we were bang on time to enter the temple.


To be continued..


Here are the pictures: