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Published: September 6th 2009
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This is a hippie trip and this is a blog written in true hippie style…on my mobile. Forgive me for not rambling this time in my blog because I get all nauseous and stuff when I continue typing while the bus goes around in circles on the hills. I will keep this one more direct at the expense of being tad boring.
Guys and gals the big change this time around is that I am trying to convert my wife (who is blissfully ignorant of my travelling ways)
So we land up at the Trichy station at 5 in the morning with a faint idea that we need to explore trichy and thanjavur before moving towards madurai. With the rules of quickest,economical and practical (QEP rule)to guide me I landed up at the 'upper class' waiting room at the trichy station.Nalinee was ok with the idea of washing and changing at the waiting room as long as the bathroom was clean (which was fortunately the case).While I took guards at the luggage and Nalinee went for the ladies washroom I heard the announcement that a passenger train (tht means a train that stops at every godforesaken station on the way) was
The bridge over the sea
Its a breathtaking view from the train...visit Rameshwaram just to experience this due to leave for Rameshwaram in the next 20 minutes. But there stood 60 odd people that stood between me and my ticket to Rameshwaram.Any other place and I would have resorted to my last trick..venturing on the travel without a ticket that is..but this being south i was more sanguine and true to my expectations the 60 people were negotiated deftly in the next 10 min and I reached the train just in time. Rameshwaram takes 7 hours by passanger train and the journey was quite uneventful till the time we reached the Pamban bridge which connects the island of Rameshwaram with mainland India.The view was breathtaking and the feeling of moving over the sea awesome.
From the station we went to the Mandir in tamtam(horse carriage).Since the temple was closed from 2-3pm we utilised the time in hogging gujarati food@50 unlimited(papad extra).Now my gujarati brothers have a bit different pronounciations which also lends itself to errors while writing. Can be really funny sometimes like one of the notices below-
This 1 almost made me laugh to death
Next stop temple..
My folks had warned me atleast 10
Gujarati notice
This almost made me laugh to death times about the pandas of Rameshwaram taking us for a ride.Apparently they were taken for a big 1 when they had come some 20 years ago..me..I negotiated without any problem.
Bhagwan Ram as the legend goes had given his piece of mind to the sea when it tried to act rough thousands of years ago.Till this day the waves don't rise more than 3cm..he could be quite persuasive you see.
After picking up a few memorabilias we went back to the station and picked up a ticket for madurai.(obviously because that was the first train available…any later and I would have landed in Chennai)
Rameshwsram to Madurai was bad.The train was overstuffed and we had a few not so pleasant discussions with our co-passangers with the result that we were throwing intelligent seemingly innocuous insults at each other throughout the trip. On reaching Madurai we realised that the next day was a big 'Muhurtam' auspicious day for marriage and all the hotels were booked to capacity.I had to book an expensive hotel and hence breaking my E rule but then these trips are all about not following rules..not even the ones made by me.We had a really good time
though..an amazing sleep after a day spent negotiating general bogies and waiting rooms.
Meenakshi temple was good and now we are on our way to Kodaikanal on bus enjoying each other's company and also catching up on some lost sleep
Kodaikanal is cool...cold to be precise.When we started from cochin it was so hot and humid that it was hard to imagine that any place in south could be worth carrying warm clothes but then a hill station is a hill station.
We reached at around 7pm and started our search for a hotel with the QEP theory to guide us...P- as in nearest from the bus station and easy to reach and leave E-obviously the most economical and Q-as in quick access to cheap eating joints and shops.
We got one with a grand view of kodai
The next day is spent negotiating the ‘view points’ of Kodai with 19 other tourists. Not exactly my idea of a hippie trip but I don’t want to make this trip totally alien for the lady. We went Ram-The Lord
Living on the edge- All tracks end here to the regulation suicide points et al. Kodaikanal is actually beautiful. Commercialised yes but still very beautiful and the temperature at around 15 degrees was just what we needed after Kochi.
The idea was to move on to the next day in our destiny but then we are staying because we feel like staying (can you imagine doing that in a meticulously planned trip??)
Today we have left hotel at 7 in the morning and now we are moving towards Cochin (330 kms away…on hills mind you) by bus (insane isn’t it…will keep you posted)
We have reached Palani and moving towards a supposedly famous Karthikeya temple. Our attaraction is that it is accessible by rope way…the only thing that was missing in this trip…rope way
On our way back to the bus station. The luggage is at the cloak room. Still moving towards Cochin.
We landed next at Pollachi whose claim to fame is Asia’s biggest jaggery market. Not interested. Next stop Palakkad.
We both are kind of bored now and these rucksacks keep on getting heavier. The next bus to Cochin…where are thou?
We reach Kochi via Thrissur at arnd 9:30 pm. Went to the railway station to collect the bike and then sneaked out with the bike so that we don’t have to pay Rs. 15 extra to the parking guy…good fun. Reached home..Onam tomo…lots of ctaching up on sleep is required tomo.
Cya guys…Good night and don’t forget to leave that all important comment.
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trina
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bhaaaa...nt baaad ...... good to see u bak on d road and wid wifey too....sahi hai :-))