Vattakanal, India's little Israel,
Better known as Vatta among backpackers, is a small town a little ahead of Kodaikanal, a serene hill station in Tamil Nadu. It is also well known as the little Israel of India because of its heavy Israeli tourist population. About 5 kms away from kodai, travellers can easily be seen hitchhiking and walking to the destination via two routes, one by the road and other via a narrow lane through the woods. About seven years ago, vatta did not have a lot of backpacker’s attractions. The only existing hostel was green youth hostel and it's first cafe, the famous Altaf's cafe. Today, Bhaskar, who is originally from Rishikesh, another hippie hot spot in India, runs the place and serves the whole day single handily. He and his friend Altaf, opened this cafe focused on Middle eastern and Italian cuisine around seven years ago. There are various affordable backpacking hostels in this town and various other pocket friendly cottages to accommodate this generation of budget travellers.
Both tourists and slow travellers can experience this peace-loving town in their own ways. There are various tourist attraction spots within reach from here, Dolphin’s nose and Pine tree forest being the top visited places by tourists. A slow chilled out experience could be relaxing at Altaf’s café till afternoon and indulge in authentic Tahini and Falafel with great ginger lime tea and a beautiful view of the mountains. Another could be finding a corner at Manna’s café and reading a book or journaling as you see people heading to Dolphin’s nose below and mountains far away through the lush trees. Hostel’s arrange for a bonfire every night as Vatta’s cold can give chills to the bone to a city person. Backpackers from around the world and India live as a community in these hostels and cook meals for each other, maintain the hostel property voluntarily and arrange group tours to Sunrise points of the village most of the days, to enjoy the magical sunrises that this place has to offer. If travelling and seeing places is not your cup of tea, you can also enroll yourself in rejuvenating yoga and meditation classes organised by the locals or foreigners who settled here. Having mentioned all the ways to enjoy your time at this hippie hill station, logistics can get a little tricky if you do not know how to bargain. There is a taxi point right near Altaf’s café, where the charges per ride are said to be fixed (around 400 inr one way to Kodaikanal town) but are pretty adjustable. Charges for Indians and foreigners are different and if you want to go easy on your pocket, a way could be to find a group of people who plan on heading to kodaikanal at the same time as you and split the bill. Most travellers prefer this or you might as well just get lucky if you know the local language and know how to socialise with the drivers. Vattakanal is one among the lesser known places on the “Indian hippie trail” but definitely worth a shot if you want some peace and calm or make global friends!
