“Princess of all Hill Stations”, Kodaikanal!

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A long weekend and you are getting wasted again?

No not this time; this time I went to the “Princess of all Hill Stations”, the ever so popular, a most sort out location but yet remains ‘pristine’, ‘calm’,’ welcoming’, more or less easy on the pocket for the budget traveler. The place I’m talking about is “Kodaikanal” .

Day 1.
9 Hrs in an A/C KSRTC bus and you would almost want to shut yourself down and not see the light of day for the next 10 to 12 Hrs; the tag A/C makes it sound posh and comfortable but trust me the moment you enter the bus you can get the aroma of smelly socks floating around and if you happened to sit next to someone who has a bit of an indigestion then you have to kiss yourself goodnight and hope to get some sleep; however if you manage to get a good decent amount of sleep then you’re one of the lucky ones.
Anyways, complaining is what a teenage girl does; as for me I got down and headed straight to the toilets at the Kodaikanal bus station and trying to figure out how hygienically I can brush my teeth and wash my face because the wash room at the bus station in Kodaikanal is not the cleanest of wash rooms I have come across throughout South India, although most of them are fairly clean with more or less useable plumbing. Satisfied with my morning obligations, I headed straight down to the Forest Office with an intention to obtain a pass for “Berijam Lake”. A bit of asking from the local by standers and I found my way to the Forest office. I knew it would still be closed because it opens only after 9 AM; however a few early birds were already queuing at the gate; mostly taxi and tours operators trying to seek their early passes to the lake. I was informed by one of the taxi driver that I cannot obtain a pass without having some sort of a four wheeler and two wheelers are restricted from entering the forest area, so either I would have to hire a taxi which would cost me not less than a 1000 bucks or more, or I would have to hop onto a bus with all the other tourist and spend the whole day being carried around to most of the popular tourist area in and around Kodaikanal. This sounds like a good feasible option and from what I enquired these tourist busses would charge you not less than 300 bucks or more.
I gave up on the plan of visiting the lake and decided to have my breakfast at the Forest office mess which is just next to forest office; eat some ‘dosa’ with a surprisingly tasty kind of a tomato chutney cum sobjee*. Having had a nice breakfast and feeling energized, I knew where I’m heading and also knew that it’s going to be a long walk. Kodaikanal town to Vattakanal village is about 8 KM and Kodaikanal to Pillars Rock is about 8 Km, so if you want to walk till Pillars Rock and back track again to Vata then please be my guest because I did the same and the walk was more than satisfying. On the way you get to walk along “Croaker Walk”. And on a clear sunny day I suppose the view would be enchanting. Cross the paved roads of the upper “Palini Forest Area” and along the way go straight up the road to catch a glimpse of the Kodaikanal Lake and then back track a few meters walk down the road reach a junction where you take a left to “Vatakanal” take right to see Fiery Falls; though this time the falls was almost dry but that name somehow made me want to see the falls; on the Fiery Falls area you would see a nice locality which I felt like I was somewhere in my home town “Shillong”; then you back track again and hit the main road; walk past “Suicide Point” and the “Golf Course” which by far are the best paved roads in Kodaikanal . A little bit further you will reach “Pillar Rock View Point”; from here you go further up the road and you get to see this place called the “Devil’s Kitchen” or “Cuna Caves”, mind you all these places are very crowded throughout the year. Then you go further up the hill where you will get a back side view of Pillar Rock and this place is called “Moir Point”.
Now if you are still ready to walk back till Vattakanal then please do; cause I did not see any local taxi who you can just stop on the way and asked them to take you to where ever you going unless you have already booked them from Kodaikanal town; I did attempt to ask for a lift from one or two vans but I decided to continue walking. Walking down the road to Vattakanal you would find Vatakanal falls. I took a little bit of a de-tour where in I cut through the forest to only find a few thrill seeking mongrels shouting at the top of their lungs as if they were in some kind of an exotic planet which they have never ever seen before; this always makes me wonder why do people have to shout or talk so loud especially when you’re in the forest; I was almost about to tell them “hey I live here and my baby is sleeping” keep your volume down. As I waited for them to cross a tiny little rock which took them forever I hurriedly walk past them and climb my way up the river only to reach another level of the river where it was calm and I rested for some time and took a few shots and got up and found my way back to the road. Walk down a few bends and finally reached Vatta. There I met the lady Arisso who at first I was supposed to check for accommodation at her place, however decided to check with another guy named Mohan. Now Mohan was not at his place so this gave me some time to even walk further down to see “Eco Rock “, “Mountain Beauty” and “Dolphin Point”. Now I needed to get some food so I decided to have a Cup Noodle, some Bread Omelet and a chai at the shop in “Mountain Beauty” view point. I can feel my legs already giving away to all the walking so I took a long nice relaxing rest checking out the scenery and the tourist at “Mountain Beauty”. Feeling rejuvenated with the rest, I headed down to see “Dolphin Nose”; basically this piece of stone protruding off this chasm; a worthwhile place to visit. Deciding that I have had enough of a walk for the day which was basically a walk in the park, (LMAO) I headed up the hill where I needed to find Mohan. Reached Mohan’s place which was not exactly his place but it was Dilip’s place the owner who later I came to know was a local pastor from the Vattakanal area. This place was basically a cottage with 4 bed rooms decent enough. My concern was that it had a bed, the rest I will figure it out. Please know that the toilet is a shamble at this place and water is a problem. There were three other boys from Bangalore who were staying there for the night and the following night as well; so here I am again in a place far from home with people I met on the way and how quickly we have acquainted our self’s, introducing our self and finally move on to the important topic of what we are planning to trip on for the night. Well lucky for me, I stopped smoking cigarettes and stopped smoking up as well so I wasn’t worried about that part. Now Mohan finally arrived and I did a quick bargain with him for 300 bucks for the night stay and also for some whisky or rum if he had any; well he agreed for the 300 and also promised to give me some rum from his own stock;
The night went well with Mohan setting up a fire at the fire place and I drank a couple of pecks and had some dinner. We chatted a bit, listen to some music; we were a bit distraught because we couldn’t get any mushroom to trip; however we all agreed to go the next day to town to score some.

Day 2.
My day started late because I woke up late; guess the walking has taken its toll on me; but then I wanted to go online and see if I got a reply on one of the queries I had on You Tube for directions to a place in Kodaikanal; so woke up and walked back till the junction where you go to Pillar Rock; let me tell you that if you take shortcuts through the bushes and don’t mind trespassing you would reach this point in no; would safe you some precious bucks. Deciding not to walk till town I stop at every passenger vehicle passing my way but mind you it’s not that easy to get one. Finally a Van stopped and drove me till town, charged me 30 bucks and I happily paid him, said my thanks and headed towards finding a Cyber Café. The direction I was looking came out to be of no good, since the guy couldn’t actually remember the way or the name of the place; if you check on some of the videos in You Tube for Vatakanal you will see my question on one of them and you will know what I’m talking about. Now, since no luck on the location, I came out of the café and I knew I had to look for “Majic”. How do u find “Majic”? Now if you ask around be careful not to ask the wrong people, but usually it’s not that hard, the taxi drivers are the best people to ask from; having said that don’t go around asking the first taxi driver you see; in my case I was approach by them, so I dint even had to fret. Now with the deal set; I stumble upon the boys from the cottage and we decided on the score; made the quick score and off we left, though I was still keen in seeing the few places around town so I handed their share of the score and I went my way.
I headed to the lake but did not enter since it was so crowded; walk down the 7th Road and saw a few good café’s to eat, some good handicrafts shops and also the “Royal Tibetan Restaurant” which I have a bit of a story to tell, but that will be towards the end.
I took the road round the lake; looks like you can rent bicycles for a joy ride there. I decided to head back to Croaker Walk and get some shots and a few videos.
Now heading back to the town I decided to hire a taxi; they will charge you 150 Rs from the town to Vattakanal. Michael the Taxi driver drove me off and in no time I was back at the cottage. My new found friends have already devoured almost all of their shroom s and it was my turn; now I can’t really describe how felt after eating the shrooms; you need to try it and experience it for yourself. We again chatted listen to music had dinner until I realized that I wanted to see the sunrise at Dolphin’s Nose so I retired, set the alarm at 5:00 AM and quickly went off to sleep.

Day 3.
Alarmed at 5:00 AM and I realized I can close my eyes for another half an hour, so I got up at 5:30, drank some water and headed down to Dolphin’s Nose. As expected the sun was up by 6:15 AM; had my share of the sunrise, clicked enough pictures and was thinking twice if I should go even further down to “Velagevi” village which was a 2 ½ hrs trek. This dint seem to be a good time to do that since it was my last day and wanted to do a bit of shopping in town , so I thought I will just hang around the cottage and get some insight from the people and what usually goes on at the village
So I headed back up only to meet the cab driver of the boys who were staying at the cottage; so we decided to go have some tea at Arisso shop, which is the first shop to open in the morning probably by 7:30 AM. On the way again met a few other guys who were staying at the village; these boys where from Mumbai and later I came to know that they were the ones who were playing music the whole night, which ultimately led to a small complain from the people around that area.
Head back to the cottage and the boys were already up and were ready to full fill their morning obligations but then remember I told you that water is a problem and if you want to actually have a proper wash you need to walk a bit down the village path where you find a spring water and there you can actually have a nice refreshing wash. Well the boys were game to go to this place but half through the decided to come back and to my and complain that the place was too far and you had to walk so they decided against having a wash and got ready to pack and leave. We exchange contacts; they said their good bye and left. Now alone again I started talking to Dilip the property owner and came to know that he is a pastor and 75% of the people in that area are Christians.
Since my bus was schedule at 6:00 PM I still had a lot of time to spend, so I decided to go find some lunch at Vatta; I doubted that I could find a proper meal at Vatta since the only thing which they were selling was bread omelet and cup noodles and I have already had that. So I walked down the path which goes down to Mountain Beauty and the first shop on your right the moment you get down the road is where I stop and enquired. Well to my surprise a welcoming lady invited me and I asked if I can get some rice, well she said it would take 10 to 15 min for rice and puri and some potato sobjee to get prepared and I willingly said take your own time. I had Tea, some hot hot puri and then later rice with potato sobjee and sambar with some omelet and I was set and happy. The lady also have a place where you can stay, so maybe next time I’d go check with her. Having being served a tummy full and with a good spirit I headed back to the cottage and was just trying to kill time, took some shots. All the 2 previous days the weather was sunny and pleasant and no rains, however the last day saw a cloudy and periodic rains. I decided to leave at 3:30 PM from Vatta so I called Michael the taxi driver and asked him to come and pick me up at around 3:30 PM. Killing some more time I decided to go freshen up and went down the village path where you find the spring water area; had a nice bath, no doubt the water was cold but it washed away all the cob webs which were in my head.
3:30 PM and Michael was there; I dint have to speak to anyone cause no one was there; I got in the taxi and left for Kodaikanal. Now on the way I told Michael that I had a few more hrs to spend until my bus so he decided to take me around in his taxi showing me few other places in around Kodaikanal, that’s when I saw “Green Valley View” or “Suicide Point”.
Since like everyone else I did a bit of a research before leaving to Kodai and I read in one of the blogs that the Tibetan Momos at Kodai are awesome; so like any good traveler you shouldn’t miss on the sumptuous local delicacy; although momos are not native to kodai but yet momos they can be relish anywhere and this is where the short story about the Royal Tibetan Restaurant comes in. I already had in mind that I had to packed some momos before I leave so that I can eat in the bus, so after saying my goodbye to Michael who had been kind enough to let me kill sometime on his trips, I headed to the chocolates shops and bought some of those and then went straight to The Royal Tibetan Restaurant and there she was just waiting for me, rewind back..I mean I ordered my momos and this lovely girl who was so keen in talking to me because she enjoyed the company of people from other places and especially Bangalore since she has her attachment with the place; she was kind enough and offered me tea, I realize that I dint have much time and wish I had came a bit earlier and could have spent some more time with her. After a bit of an ice breaker and chit chat I said my goodbye though I felt like kicking myself because I didn’t have the courage to ask for her contact or even her name. I suppose it would have been odd if I asked for her contact since she was just friendly to me. Anyways I took my parcel and left. I reach the bus station and the bus was already at the station.
I got inside the bus found my seat and was reminiscing on the events which took place just a few hours back, especially the last 45 min of my trip; it left me with a smile on my face though I can’t deny that I felt like a few stones were left unturned , so I vowed to come back soon. Remember the momos, they were still warm so I ate them with joy.
The bus sped away and I put on my music and the next thing I remember hearing the conductor shouting my drop point; quickly got up and hurried to the door, by then a rick was already waiting which I happily jumped in and whisked me back to “my abode of clouds”.

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Photos

Kodaikanal Lake
Kodaikanal Lake with a view of Parimal Peak in the background.

Paved Road
Kodaikanal Golflinks Paved Road.

Croker's Walk.
An artist at work.

Sunrise at Dolphin's Nose.
Sunrise at Dolphin's Nose, Vattakanal.

Misty Clouds
Misty Clouds with the Doordarshan TV Tower in the background.

Clouds hovering.
Clouds hovering over the Pambar Shola.