Saturday, May 23, 2009
May 2009 Kerala Trip
The trip was to take a break from hectic work life and totally relax. We chose Kerala and it did not let us down in spite of being May summer! Kerala is a beauty. The route we took was
Bangalore - Erode - Coimbatore - Malampuzha - Palakkad - Guruvayoor - Thrissur - Adirapally - Cochin - Munnar - Erode - Bangalore
Visiting Marudamalai and Bharathiar University campus was soothing... All of us who went were from Bharathiar University. And yes we did spot a Peacock in the campus. When we went the boys hostel was empty. Lot of new buildings but the forest feeling is still there (thank god).
I had seen Palakkad fort before but did not recognize it. So worth the visit. The fort had some amazing huge very old mango trees. It is great to realize how old the trees around that fort are standing time. Malampuzha dam was not that pleasing as it was I visited it before. May be due to summer. The dam staff sounded as rude as the ones in Bangalore Lalbagh.
Guruvayoor was crowded. I did not have patience to go through the queue so just prayed from outside. Thrissur was on the way. Somehow we did not plan well to make it to the Vadakkunnathan temple. We saw it just from outside.
Adirapally falls was amazing. When my Dad took us to Kerala tour, this is something we had to give up in our agenda. So I insisted on this in this tour. Going down to the foot of the falls and climbing back was a mini trekking.
We headed to Cochin, stayed there for 3 nights. We booked KTDC tour package to see the backwaters, village life, etc. We had wonderfull Kerala food. The ayurvedic massage was just ok. The ELA restaurant on Marine Drive was good food for reasonable price. Very decent service.
The back waters of Cochin was the key part of our tour. The green, waters, birds and fishes were pleasing to our eyes. I did not concentrate much on my photography. In fact I did not even use my SLR or Tripod. Rather I was just adoring the beauty. But I must do better photography in upcoming tours. It is so good to see the pictures time and again and share with friends.
When we went to Munnar we just realized getting accomodation without reservation is tough. We just changed our mind, roamed a bit seeing the views and headed back to Erode. While crossing Kerala/TN border, the TN check post was collecting Rs 20 from every car. We could not understand what it was for so left without paying it.
Both onward and return we stayed whole day in Erode to spend time with family. Of course we had some good food and shopping in Erode. From Erode we returned to Bangalore.
This is first long trip for my Scorpio. It did excellent. The drive was 1750 KMs. Average mileage was 14.3 Kmpl. Next time I will try to capture average speed between destinations. Kerala roads were really good. The road sense i.e., lane discipline, proper honking, responding to honk was something I should mention. May be it is due to being a highly literate state. But they drive really fast even on narrow roads.
Please leave your comments and let me know what you think
Bangalore - Erode - Coimbatore - Malampuzha - Palakkad - Guruvayoor - Thrissur - Adirapally - Cochin - Munnar - Erode - Bangalore
Visiting Marudamalai and Bharathiar University campus was soothing... All of us who went were from Bharathiar University. And yes we did spot a Peacock in the campus. When we went the boys hostel was empty. Lot of new buildings but the forest feeling is still there (thank god).
I had seen Palakkad fort before but did not recognize it. So worth the visit. The fort had some amazing huge very old mango trees. It is great to realize how old the trees around that fort are standing time. Malampuzha dam was not that pleasing as it was I visited it before. May be due to summer. The dam staff sounded as rude as the ones in Bangalore Lalbagh.
Guruvayoor was crowded. I did not have patience to go through the queue so just prayed from outside. Thrissur was on the way. Somehow we did not plan well to make it to the Vadakkunnathan temple. We saw it just from outside.
Adirapally falls was amazing. When my Dad took us to Kerala tour, this is something we had to give up in our agenda. So I insisted on this in this tour. Going down to the foot of the falls and climbing back was a mini trekking.
We headed to Cochin, stayed there for 3 nights. We booked KTDC tour package to see the backwaters, village life, etc. We had wonderfull Kerala food. The ayurvedic massage was just ok. The ELA restaurant on Marine Drive was good food for reasonable price. Very decent service.
The back waters of Cochin was the key part of our tour. The green, waters, birds and fishes were pleasing to our eyes. I did not concentrate much on my photography. In fact I did not even use my SLR or Tripod. Rather I was just adoring the beauty. But I must do better photography in upcoming tours. It is so good to see the pictures time and again and share with friends.
When we went to Munnar we just realized getting accomodation without reservation is tough. We just changed our mind, roamed a bit seeing the views and headed back to Erode. While crossing Kerala/TN border, the TN check post was collecting Rs 20 from every car. We could not understand what it was for so left without paying it.
Both onward and return we stayed whole day in Erode to spend time with family. Of course we had some good food and shopping in Erode. From Erode we returned to Bangalore.
This is first long trip for my Scorpio. It did excellent. The drive was 1750 KMs. Average mileage was 14.3 Kmpl. Next time I will try to capture average speed between destinations. Kerala roads were really good. The road sense i.e., lane discipline, proper honking, responding to honk was something I should mention. May be it is due to being a highly literate state. But they drive really fast even on narrow roads.
Please leave your comments and let me know what you think
Labels: Kerala, Roadtrip, Travel
Friday, May 22, 2009
Veluppillai Prabhakaran
Veluppillai Prabhakaran is shown as dead on news channels. Triggers many questions in my mind.
Who had won?
Who had lost?
From the almost 35 year old civil war...
What are the learnings for members of Minority Communities?
What are the learnings for members of Majority Communities?
What are the learnings for Terrorists?
What are the learnings for Governments?
What are the learnings for Migrants?
In almost all such conflicts in the world today, the one who raises a force usually is the one who is forced to put it to an end!
History is extremely important as it repeats itself
Earlier I felt I am free to live anywhere in the world as long as I obey rules of the land and respect sentiments of the people. But I had grown deeply consious about where I belong, where I can establish and where I can afford to carry my identities openly.
(Note: I had had trip to Sri Nagar too, and had heart felt conversations with kashmiris' too)
Who had won?
Who had lost?
From the almost 35 year old civil war...
What are the learnings for members of Minority Communities?
What are the learnings for members of Majority Communities?
What are the learnings for Terrorists?
What are the learnings for Governments?
What are the learnings for Migrants?
In almost all such conflicts in the world today, the one who raises a force usually is the one who is forced to put it to an end!
History is extremely important as it repeats itself
Earlier I felt I am free to live anywhere in the world as long as I obey rules of the land and respect sentiments of the people. But I had grown deeply consious about where I belong, where I can establish and where I can afford to carry my identities openly.
(Note: I had had trip to Sri Nagar too, and had heart felt conversations with kashmiris' too)
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Indifference / கண்டும்கானாம ...
Sometimes months after I write a blog, some one tells me it was a good one! This happens when I have a phone conversation or meet them. But I have no clue whether there are readers for my blogs are not! It is a great gesture to post a single word or sentence as comment :)
படிச்சுட்டு எதுவும் சொல்லாம போகாதீங்க :(
படிச்சுட்டு எதுவும் சொல்லாம போகாதீங்க :(
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
