Friday, December 24, 2021

Christmas Vacation - 2021


Yet another Christmas Vacation and we are ready to travel. This time, the travel Itinerary was not made as we planned to meet one of my old friend, Ajith. He is coming home to Sulur from his workplace, Bareilly. Along with this we clubbed to visit our neighbour friends (Barani, Prabha & their kids Rohit & Dakshu) who have moved to Coimbatore recently.

The broad plan is to visit Coimbatore first, next to Sulur and then travel to God’s Own Country.
As the Christmas day was on a weekend, we planned to drive to Coimbatore the previous noon itself. It was a good decision though as we had less than normal traffic. Also later we came to know that people who travelled on Christmas day were highly affected by traffic & checking.
As planned, we reached our friend’s home before 6 pm, relaxed a bit & then later went out for dinner. By the time, Ajith also reached Sulur by flight.

The Christmas day & the next day was dedicated to Shopping & Food. My 2 girls shopped some clothes for their upcoming birthdays in Jan that falls on the same day. One of the reason/excuse for ladies to shop. As we all are foodies, we tasted various cuisine during the first 2 days.

Day-3
The day started with a beautiful sunrise from their terrace, followed by a dance session of a peacock on the neighboring terrace. Later we planned to visit the famous Marudamalai Subramanya Swami Temple on the outskirts. It’s time to burn some calories now. 
 

It was a 20 Kms drive from their home. We reached there by 8:30 AM. We wanted to climb the steps & so we didn’t take the road uphill as there is an option. We parked the vehicle, started climbing the steps and we reached the top in 30 mins. It was not crowded as we chose a weekday and we finished the darshan very fast. 
 

A small walk down the hill on the rear side will lead you to the Paambaati Sithar Cave temple. The location of that temple was nice to relax surrounded by vegetation. In no time we finished the darshan climbed up to the main temple. Immediately we started to climb down to our parking.  With a breakfast break in between, we then drove back to Prabha’s Farm house which was located nearby Isha Foundation.  It was a 30 mins drive from the temple. Spending some time around the Farm, we left the Farm house after a late lunch.
We reached Barani’s home back, packed our bags & left to Ajith’s house in Sulur. We were warmly welcomed by Ajith, Raji & their son Arun at their home near the Sulur Air base. After sharing the last 3 days’ happenings, we wasted no time in planning for the next 4 days. Finally, we drafted a plan to travel till Guruvayur & visiting a few places in between. Later Chavakkad was included as it had the nearest beach. We booked the stay for the next night in Thrippalur (near Alathur) & decided to leave early in the morning. Also we planned to book for the other nights on the go.

Day-4
As decided, we left home by 6 am and visited the Sri Malayala Devi Durga Baghavati Amman Temple on the way, which had a huge Nandi Statue. Some pooja was being performed in the temple as we waited for darshan. We had a bad experience in the temple as the priests were so rude with their own set of strange rules. 
 

As I wanted to stop for breakfast, Ajith insisted that we shall have some Kerala delicacy after crossing the border. As promised we had some delicious Puttu, Appam, etc in one of the restaurants at Kanjikode, on the Salem-Kochi Highway. The view of the hills from the restaurant was awesome.
The first place to visit is the Malampuzha dam. We took off the highway to some small roads to reach the closed Kanjikode Railway Gate. We waited for the train to come that reminded me of my childhood days where the bus to our native used to stop at the crossing. Nostalgic…
 

As we were about to reach the dam, we could see the cable car service crossing the road over our heads. We reached the dam by 11 AM and first took the cable car ride. Each car would seat only 2 and me & my daughter shared 1. We could get a bird’s view of the dam & the park from the car travelling at a slow pace. There were 2 hanging bridges too running across the water body that flows from the dam. There was also boating service available in the water-body.
 

Following the flight in the car, we entered the park area, walked across the gardens, on the hanging bridge to reach a huge Yakshi statue, the famous 30 ft tall structure of a nude woman.
 

Having travelled in road and air, we now decided to take the water route.  The boating was refreshing & adventurous as the boatman rode in between the pillars of the bridge across the water body.
 

The only pending thing was to walk over the dam, which we did after boating. After sipping a cool sharbat, we walked to the right end of the dam area, where there were steps to climb to the top. There was an awesome view of the reservoir from the top. We walked on the top to the left end of the dam, climbed down through the garden area to reach our parking.


From there we drove to Palakkad to have our lunch. Post lunch, we visited the nearby Palakkad Fort. Just like other forts, this one is also surrounded by water with only one entrance. As we walked inside, we passed through a Hanuman temple in the entrance. We strolled through the periphery of the fort to see some very old trees & building inside. The architecture of the fort was quite interesting that you get the same view from inside each of the 7 minars in the circumference of the fort.


After a nice cup of tea, we headed to our accommodation in Alathur and reached by 5 PM. In the evening, Ajith took us to his native place, Kunissery & the nearby temples: Sree Pookkulangara Bhagavathy Temple & the Angalamman Kovil.  Later he took us to a shop in Alathur where you get one-of-a-kind tasty banana chips. I didn’t believe it until I placed one of the freshly made hot chips in my mouth, as it just melted in my mouth. It was so delicious that I cannot compare that to the ones we get in Bangalore. It was selling like hot cakes. We purchased a little for the rest of our journey & pinned it in my map to visit during our return journey.


The day ended with a light meal for dinner at a nearby restaurant and preparations for the next day.

Day-5
The day started with breakfast and we headed to not-so-famous hill station named Nelliampathy. The route to Nelliampathy is through forest area & as we crossed the forest check post, they informed us to be back by 3 pm. This is for our safety in order to avoid the elephant movement in the evenings.


On the way, we stopped to see a dam and some beautiful sceneries. There were a lot of hairpin bends all over & we as many others once got stuck behind an inexperienced (bus) driver who didn’t know to drive on the ghats. Somehow managed to overtake him to go on our pace. There were many view points on the way to take some good pics.


Finally, we reached the top & visited an Orange & Vegetable farm. There were a lot of interesting things in the farm except oranges as it was off-season.
 

After spending some time there, we headed to Seetharkundu, which is further more inside the hills. On the way, there were some beautiful tea plantations. We reached the parking & started walking to the final Seetharkundu View point. The weather was clear and the place was picturesque to capture some memories for the album.


While returning from the Seetharkundu, we stopped for lunch in one of the available restaurant. Later, the same inexperienced bus driver blocked the traffic once again. Finally, we managed to reach the check post by 3:15 PM. 
From there, we headed straight to Trissur, our resting place for that night. Late in the evening, we visited the famous Sri Vadakkunnathan Temple, followed by dinner & retired for the day.

Day-6
The plan for the day is to explore nearby places & reach Guruvayur by noon. Google maps showed quite a few places, but not so famous ones. The first one selected was a place called Chappra Rock/Cave and we headed there after a delicious breakfast on the way.

In 40 mins we reached the spot to see a not so huge rock with a path & railing to reach the top. We parked our vehicle in the shade & started climbing. One can reach the top in a few minutes to see a huge flat area with some seating arrangement dotted here & there.  We walked through the length of the rock and clicked some pics before coming down to our parking area. A lime soda was very well needed to cool us off from the heat there at one of the 2 shops in the base.
 

Later we went to Poomala Dam, 5 kms away from the rock. It was a small dam with a garden at the bottom. It also had a small man-made waterfall sort of, where we spent some time.


We then headed to Guruvayur that was 30 Kms away and reached our hotel around 3 PM with a lunch break in between. After relaxing a bit in the room, we were ready to visit the CISO Marine World, India’s Largest Public Aquarium at Panchavadi that was 20 kms away. We reached there, purchased the entry tickets and felt that the amount (Rs. 350/-) was more for an aquarium. We entered inside a low lit room that had fish tanks at eye level. It also had a stream of water flowing across the room with fishes in it. You can dip your feet in the water so that you can enjoy the fish pedicure/therapy across the entire room. And of course there were colourful fishes in each of the fish tanks. 


As we were exiting that room, we were thinking that the entry fee was not too high for only this. What came next surprised us. We went on walking from one room to other to other endlessly to see so many varieties of fishes & other under water creatures. There were tanks in all shapes & sizes with small fishes to huge ones including the sharks. We also saw some huge lobsters in a vertical tank. This blog will not be enough to describe all that we saw there. The main highlight of the aquarium is that it has an Under Water Tunnel, where you will be surrounded by water & the fishes. You will feel that you are under water. 


We 5 were scattered inside enjoying the variety of fishes & finally met outside the aquarium around 6 PM. Now all of us were convinced that the amount we paid was not so high. I would say that it is a must visit place if you are around this area and kids will definitely enjoy seeing those creatures. The aquarium has more than 250 types of fishes.
 
Watch the full video in YouTube here: "https://youtu.be/-aQd-4TXGIU"

Wasting no time, we walked to the adjacent beach for which my daughter was waiting for the past 4 days. We played in the beach until dark later enjoyed some hot bajjis. While walking back, a tea shop guy offered place to change our clothes. We thanked him by having some tea & snacks from his shop as he didn’t charge for his facilities.
 

The task being accomplished for the day, we headed back to our room in Guruvayur after dinner.

Day-7
We got ready early in the morning & visited the Guruvayur Temple. It was crowded though. It took us some 2 hrs from darshan to finally buy some prasadam from the crowded counter.  We headed for breakfast immediately after coming out of the temple. 
 

Checking out of our hotel, we visited the nearby Mammiyur Sri Mahadeva Temple, as a ritual that it has to be visited after Guruvayur Temple visit.


From there we headed to the last place of our trip, Punnathur Kotta, which is an elephant sanctuary/camp. We travelled some 3 kms from Guruvayur to reach this place. Having seen the camps at Dubare & Sakrebyle, this elephant camp seemed familar. But this one had so many elephants in all sizes. We strolled around the camp to see all the elephants, one enjoying its meal, one taking order from its master, another 2 were seen playing in a jolly mood and a few pouring mud on them. It was worth the visit. Also some places were prohibited to go as the animals may be untrained. 


As our trip to God’s Own Country comes to an end, we headed back to Sulur with a break for lunch in between.  After lunch we headed to get our souvenir of the trip. Any guesses… Ha Ha, It’s the chips shop in Alathur. We bought a variety of chips from there & then drove straight to Sulur with a tea break in between. After reaching Sulur, we prepared for a small party at home to welcome the New Year. 


The new year’s day, we woke up late, relaxed & visited a temple nearby and started packing our luggage for the return journey to Bangalore. The next day, we left Sulur early in the morning after a cup of tea. With a halt for breakfast at Bhavani, we reached Bangalore before noon.

Distance traveled: 1370 Kms
For more of my travel stories, do visit “My Wanderlust Experiences”

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