Bangalore - Kodaikanal - Bangalore
I always wanted to go to Kodaikanal since a long time and when it was time to go on a vacation next i had almost decided it would be kodai. I then met some people who told me it was a wrong time to goto Kodai since it would be raining and thats when i came here and asked you all here if i should go to Kodai or Coorg. I then read Shishir's travelgue and decided it would be Kodai.
Day 1:
Bangalore - Krishnagiri - Salem - Dindigul - Batlagundu - Kodai
Total : 465 kms.
We started at around 5:50 from our house in Bangalore and hence found most roads to be the empty. The car was tanked up the night before and the air pressure checked. The drive was fantastic and NH7 is a treat to drive on and to the eyes.... . We reached Salem by about 8:30 with justone stop at the A2B in Thoppur. We finally reached Kodai around 1:30 in the afternoon and checked into Villa Retreat. Some pics enroute. So we took around 7 and a half hours to reach Kodai with about 3 breaks in between. The major road blocks were in Salem and Batlagundu. In Salem because of the two wheelers who came out of no where and in batlagundu because of that narrow road in between the town that we had to take to reach the kodai ghat road.
The electronic city fly over.
Beautiful NH7.....
Kodai Ghat road. Sorry for the blurred pics, they were taken while the car was moving.
Rat Tail falls. I was just glad to see some water in the falls. I just didnt want to be dry.
Silver casade falls.
View from the hotel
After checking into the hotel, we ordered lunch, which was ok, and kind of just relaxed most of the evening. The hotel room was excelled and the view from the room we were in was awesome. In the late evening, we walked around Kodai lake and the surrounding places so that we knew where the restaraunts etc were.
After having a good dinner at "Tava" we slept off at around 11.
Day 2: Kodaikanal Sight seeing.
We woke up in the morning and decided to do Pillar rock today. When we checked at the reception they told us that there is a 15 km circut road where in we could cover about 7 view points, so we decided to do that.
This road has the following view points.
1. Green valley view.
2. Golf course
3. Pine forest view.
4. Guna caves
5. Pillar rock
6. Moir point.
7. Upper lake view.
In all these view points the best ones were the Pillar rocks , Pine forest view and the Upper lake view. The main disadvantage though was that all these view points are extremely crowded. Infact we avoided Guna caves cause when we reached that point, the crowd was so loud and that was a major put off.
Pillar rocks was interesting mainly cause the view changes every couple of minutes with the fog playing hide and seek. Following are some pictures from the circuit drive.
Golf course view:
Upper lake view.
In the afternoon we had a great pizza at Cloud street cafe. They make some amazing brownies too. Infact the brownies were so good that we got some packed. We went back to the hotel for a short afternoon nap .
In the evening we went to the lake thinking we might go boating, but when we saw the crowd there we decided to walk around the lake instead. Dinner was at Hilltop Inn which was very average. We came back to the hotel and enjoyed the night time view with some hot tea and called it a night. Tomorrow we go to Berajim lake.
Day 3: Coakers walk and Berajim lake
Next day morning, we decided to go to Coakers walk which was right next to the hotel. We were the first ones there and so it was fun to just walk around. The view was great but then it was the same as we got from the hotel. The entrance fee was 3Rs per person and 10 Rs for the camera.
At around 10:30 the taxi was ready to take us to Berajim lake. We decided to take the taxi for this tour since you need permissions to go into the forest. We started from the hotel at around 10:30. The entrance to the forest is right next to the Moir point. We were told by the hotel guys that at the entrance the forest guard would trake Rs.50 as the cleaning charges and that we need to pay that there. I am very sure that cleaning charges go into the guards pocket. So we paid the fifty bucks and went in.
The first point was the silent valley view point. We could hardly see anything from here as it was all covered it fog. The view point is also securely barricaded since apparently people have tried to commit suicide from here.
The second point was the Upper berajim lake view point. When we reached the view point it was already crowded. People were pushing each other just to get a good view. We waited until the crowd left to go up the view point.
The third view point was the Caps valley view point. This view point was also completely fogged out and so i didnt feel the need to walk completely inside. I just took a few pictures and left. This worked out to our advantage since we kind of left the crowd behind.
The next point was called " madi kettinsole" in tamil. Please correct me if i am wrong. The drive told us that this means that people who get lost in this area of the forest get disoriented and hence loose their minds.
The last point was the Berajim lake. The lake was very serene and calm. People apparently have picnics here which was visible thanks to the trash around, but we decided to leave early.
We reached the hotel by about 1:30 and went to have to lunch at Tibetian Brothers. Apprently every sunday there is a sunday market and so PT road was jam packed. Cards arent allowed entry and so we had to park a little further away. We went to cloud street cafe and packed some brownies to get them back to Bangalore.
In the evening, we just walked around the lake again, bought chocolates, had dinner at "Tava" again and came back to the hotel and slept off.
Day 4:
Drive back to Bangalore. Followed the same route back to Bangalore. Villa retreat was a pleasure to stay in . As a gift they gave us a picture of us in the hotel garden, which was a really nice gesture. We started at around 8:50 and reached the outskirts of Bangalore around 3:50. Unfortunately the traffic was bad and so got home around 5.
Overall, Kodai was a beautiful place to go to. The roads were a treat to drive on and the car performed fantastically well. Major put off though was that at every nook and corner there are these touts who keep coming and asking Sir room chahiye......