Hello Friends, This is my first blog. I am not a writer but yeah I roamed a lot and always wanted to share my roadtrip Experience with others. We have visited mainly Southern part of India. Focal point of our trip are Munnar , Varkala , Kanyakumari , Rameshawaram & Kodaikanal. Munna & Varkala are in Kerala where rest are in Tamilnadu.
Day 1 : Journey from Bangalore to Munnar
We left Bangalore in the morning at 5:30am. Our destination of that day was Munnar which is 480 km from Bangalore. Till Salem we took NH7. And we reached Salem at around 8:30am. We had breakfast at some local shop. I always prefer local food and interact with local people and i must say Dosa and omlet that we got in breakfast was delicious. From Salem we took diversion towards Coimbatore till Tiruppur. You will get 4 Lane highway till Tiruppur So probably at an avg 70km/hours you can travell on it.
After Tiruppur roads are bit average but if you add scenery with average road it will become extraordinary roads.We saw Thousand plus windmills on the way to Munnar. I had never seen that many windmills at once so I was pretty amazed by it and hence we stop by there and enjoyed the view.
After windmills, On Udumpet – Munnar Road, You will pass by remote and very dense Forest. Even you will see various sign boards saying panther crossing zone, Leopard crossing zone etc. It was very scary and remote place and very silent place. you can barely see any vehicles in those areas but it’s an experience of life time.
After that Forest you will enter in Kerala and with that small towns, Green hills with regular waterfalls will start as well. It was drizzling while we were driving which made our trip even more scenic. Entire way from Kerala boarder to Munnar was full of Grey clouds, green Coffee Plantations, small Waterfalls and chilly wind.
We stopped by at many places and sat there and I could not describe how peaceful it was. We reached to the highest point of that road in late evening and it was so foggy that we could barely see roads. I always wanted to drive in fog and I finally got chance to do that. Around 7pm we reached Munnar. We were tired and exhausted but we were not at all disappointed because it was one of the most scenic road I ever drove on to. Nights are very cold in munnar in December. Our stay at munnar was in Theresian homestay which was very different then my other hotel experiences so far. I feel one should live in home stays then in the hotels in order to intberact with local people and their life style. Dinner was unique as I never had rabbit in dinner before today. Can’t say I loved its taste but it was different which is what I prefer though my friend had enjoyed the meal and he told me that “Aaj to Khargosh ke maze lunga!”
Day 2 : Site Seeing in Munnar
Next morning We had Idli , wada & Coffee in breakfast at some small local shop but taste of that breakfast will definitely beat five-star restaurant. I must say you will get best coffee ever in Munnar at almost all the places. After having breakfast we left at around 9am to visit places around Munnar. It’s always better to leave early in Munnar because then traffic as well as crowd will increase with time. Good thing about munnar is you just need to follow 1 road for site seeing; all damns & lakes are situated around that road.
Far most place on that road is TOP station which is 34km away from Munnar. Top Station is highest point on that road and you will see fog there 24*7. Few view points are there. You need to trek down 200meters to reach there. It’s worth a shot.
While coming dawn from Top Station, first comes Kundala Dam & Kundala Lake. The Place is very scenic. You can do boating here. For those who likes to take photos, its a good place for that. We spend some time there. Small stalls are there , where you can do shopping of local items such as homemade chocolates, Winter wears & Sun glasses etc.
Then comes Echo point which is having same natural beauty as kundala Lake. Here also you will get small stalls where same stuff will be sold. Here you will find some dhaba where you can have “Bhajji & Tea”. If weather is cloudy then it gives more pleasure.
After trying out various sounds at “ECHO Point” we went to Muddupetty Damn & Lake. Water levels of all these dams & Lakes will vary with time. In Monsoon it’s very high while in other season it’s not that much. Even though water level changes beauty of these places remains same. Here also you can do boating and if interested you can do horse riding as well.
On the way from Mudupetty damn to to Munnar You can do elephant safari. You won’t find elephant safari everywhere so you can experience it here. Its cost is 400 rs/adult. You can do 200meters of Elephant riding. Route of that is fully covered with trees. If you wish you can feed Fruits to those elephants as well. Other than these points entire route is full of Tea farms plus you can see few botanical gardens as well.
We headed back to our hotel at 4pm and then at night we went for Martial Arts show and Kathakali Show. Both shows are 1 hour each and worth 200 rs/show. I never been to these shows and hence I wanted to see it and I am happy I went there. It was an incredible experience. Action & Art at once place. They fought with all the wapons though it is just a demonstration it is dangerous and you need guts to perform those stunts. Plus they did few stretching exercises which is impossible to do for most of us. You can see few of those in above pics. Well I am not a pro of Kathakalli dance and hence will make mistakes but I will write what I understood in that 1 hour. In the beginning of that show they will explain us what each hand gesture and facial expression means. They use various facial expressions to describe the moods of human being while hand gesture is used to describe the relationships like brother , sister etc. And after that they take one of the Ramayan part & play it. And trust me It‘s just incredible how with gesture & expression they communicate with audience. Certainly these two shows are the best thing Munnar had given to me.
If I have to summarise my visit to Munnar then it will be like this : Scenic road with lot of grey cloud , thick fog , Scary remote forest & green peaceful beautiful forest a biker can get And of course Elephant Riding , witnessing these two amazing Shows and experiencing spice farm where they will explain you how to grow spices. Spice farms will come on the way from Munnar to Kochi.
Day 3 : Amazingly Beautiful Drive From Munnar to Varkala via Western Ghats.
Ride from Munnar to Varkala Beach was the toughest & challenging ride of our trip so far because Kerala is famous for narrow roads and traffic plus rash driving. And to make it even worse we lost our way. Because of the unavailability of Network google map becomes helpless. As Reroute feature is not working anymore so we are on to our own and locals who speak mostly malyalam. But sometimes losing way will lead you toward better roads which is what happened with us. We talked with local people and neither My Friend Jai nor me belongs to Kerala or South India and still after some struggle we could able to communicate and reached to correct route. At that moment I realised that India is safe country and people are good. Even though they don’t understand our language they give their time and tried their best to guide us towards correct path.
While finding correct path we witnessed one of the most scenic path of our trip. It was dense Forest , noise of Birds and flowing river , Lashed green Mountain Range and River which is flowing between those mountain range with Sun signing just above mounts. When I was kid I used to make drawing like that and today I was observing it in real wow!!!! I can’t describe how beautiful that path was! I think that is real nature and real Kerala. We saw one bridge where we sat and did some photo session as well as we sat nostalgically for some time. Then we headed towards Iddukki famous for Idduki dam. Dam was pretty good. Water level was high and damn is surrounded by Mountain range so it was making one beautiful scene.
Well entire Route towards Varkala was passing by Western ghats and finally I drove my Karizma on western ghats. Well the beauty was not the only thing to remember from this ride , We had famous Kerala paratha first time since we entered in Kerala with Chicken gravy. I must say it was delicious. I still miss taste of those kerala parathas. After travelling for almost 11 hours and 280km we reached to Varkala and we missed sun set only bad part of that day. Our stay at Varkala was in bamboo cottage which was very new experience for me on that trip. We thought our Day3 is over now only thing left was having nice dinner and a good sleep. But well well well Actual best part of the day was still not came. So we went to have dinner towards route told by over Hotel’s receptionist and suddenly we heard noise of Wave’s of Sea. Then i recalled that yes Varkala has a cliff beach and we were on it. Wohooo!!! As it was Monday , there were 90% of foreigners. The Cliff was around 1.5 to 2km long and full of restaurants with each restaurants have artist who are playing different music. Some were playing Jazz , Some were playing Indian classical music. We walked entire Cliff and then settled at one restaurant where classical music was being played.
It was very very amazing and probably best experience at beach of my life. There were few foreigners who were sitting besides us and talking about india. They all were impressed by the versatility of our country. One guy was telling india is a planet not a Country and you need multiple visit of india to roam entire India. Then there were a group of European who were dancing on classical music. After some time they decided to play something for the people of india because they were so happy with people and the beauty of Varkala. They have played 5-6 songs with a guy on saxophone , a guy with flute and a girl on guitar with vocal. They made our visit at Varkala a special one!!!
I know I will come more then once to Varkala because I had an awesome time there. The best part of our trip will be captured in my memories as we didn’t took camara as we never thought this much gonna happen that night. Next Morning we actually saw the Cliff beach. After seeing first sight of that beach I stopped for a moment and was admiring the beauty of the beach. It is indeed best beach of India for me at least. It was so peaceful people are doing yoga and surfing there , some kids were playing Football.
I have been to Goa as well as Gokarna and I have been to Pondicherry plus my native where I born and brought up is just 4 km away from Arabic Sea so i have some standard when it comes to decide which beach is the best in India that i have visited. Overall I saw everything in Kerala Mountains of Munnar , Western Ghats and Varkala Beach one cannot ask anything more from kerala then this.
Day 4 : Crazy Drive from Varkala to Kanyakumari
After enjoying the morning at beach and having American Breakfast Cliff Beach of Varkala, We headed towards Kanyakumari, End point of India. Well it’s not just an End point of Indian Land but also the only place in World from where you can see sun rise and sun set plus it is the place where Three Ocean , Bay of Bengal , Indian Ocean and Arabic Ocean meets. The place where these three Ocean meets are called Triveni sangam. Distance wise this was our shortest ride of this trip just 140kms. But I must admit it’s the challenging ride of my life so far. Kerala is full of cities & Towns and highway is passing from them and to make it worst Its just 2 Lane and without fly overs. Driving of people in Kerala is pathetic, they don’t give u side plus they can even bash you in order to overtake u. This 140km took 4+hours. I had a close call with bus in Kerala on this route so rider be safe while you travel in Kerala’s highways, keep patience. Once we entered in Tamilnadu, traffic got reduced plus driving of people became more disciplined.
After that irritating ride we reached close Kanyakumari & we wanted to take a photo with milestone of Kanyakumari so we searched for some 15mins on that road and finally we found one where its written in English so we stopped by that milestone to take photo.This is what I wanted to achieve, “Travelling to the end point of India by my Karizma on my own”. After that We reached to Kanyakumari at around 4:30pm. When I reached to Kanyakumari, I was so frustrated because of the traffic and hence I was not at all in a mood to visit anything. But we were staying there for just a night so we decided to visit sunset point and sleep.
Though I saw sunset manytimes before in my life at home as well as in Goa & Gokarna, This one was special, amazing and awesome. It has changed my mood completely. Then while returning from Sunset point we roamed to Local market which is on the beach only. It is kind of huge market where you can get Toys , Jackets etc. The Market is crowded and that is the part which we didn’t like in Kanyakumari but overall my evening was fantastic. Only thing we wanted was a good non-veg meal & we thankfully got good local dhaba named AFZAL DHABA where we had nice meal. Finally had rice, Chicken and Fish on my south india trip. This is what local people in this region eat, I mean rice in the meal.
Day 5 : Sunrise, Vivekanand Rock Memorial & Road trip to Rameshawam
Next Morning was going to be special for me because I had never seen sun rise from sea in my entire life even I got chance once in Pondycherry but due to cloud and rain I missed It so in no way I am gonna screw this chance hence we got up early at around 5:15am and left our hotel at 5:30am in the morning. Best part of Kanyakumari is all hotels are walkable distance away from the Beach and hence you don’t need much time to reach to sunset or sunrise point. Time for sunrise was 6:07am that day and I was there, very happy and eager to see first sunrise of my life. There were few cloud but still I managed to see sunrise and It was simply awesome. Orange sun coming out of sky blue water Shades of sun was changing from red at the beginning to Orange at the end of sun rise. I was happy and indeed its best morning of my this trip for sure. I had 2 major goals in Kanyakumari 1. To see Sun rise & 2. To see Triveni sangam where Three Ocean meets. So 1 Goal was completed and now only left part was Vivekanand Rock Memorial and hope to see 3 shades of different sea merging at Triveni-Sangam.
To go to Vivekanand Rock Memorial you need use Fairy provided by Govt of TN at very reasonable rate of 34Rs/Person. This Rock Memorial was at some height and from there i could see 3 shades of sea in Line.
Last night I was unhappy as I could not able to differentiate 3 Sea but now after some struggle I managed to see all 3 Sea together. That was simply incredible. I bet you will never see this Sangam anywhere else in the world. It is unique, beautiful. Among 3 shades, Darkest one is Arabic Ocean , Lightest one is Indian Ocean and the remaining is Bay Of Bengal. Finally I saw everything in Kanyakumari. One should go to Kanyakumari atleast once in their lifetime because the View & nature you see here is not seen anywhere in the World.
We returned from Vivekanand Rock memorial at 12noon. After that I went to a temple of goddess Parvati ( Shiva’s wife) which is situated at the Triveni sangam beach. Just behind that temple, rocky place is there, View from that place is incredible. We went there though it was noon and hot because the place was really very beautiful. Even we sat there for about half an hour and we were just admiring the view and enjoying few last moments at Kanyakumari. After that we had good vegetarian Meal and started towards Rameshwar.
Distance of Rameshwaram from Kanyakumari is 300 km approx. Our plan was to drive as much as we can till 6:15pm because after sunset it is tough. So we headed towards Rameshwaram, In my mind I was still carrying images of Kerala roads which are 2 lane and full of Traffic and Rash driving So I was not in good mood but when we touched NH7 that is in 3-4 km, I saw 4-lane Roads, NH7 had never given me more happiness then at that moment, Both My Friend and Me had started riding on a 90+ km/hour speed. Once we touched NH7, in 5-7km we found Wind Mills Farm and Shadows of those wind mills were falling on the roads. You may feel what’s so special in that but trust me It was amazing experience because its moving shadows. Speed of Wind in other direction was making our ride bit tougher but these windmills and other scenery were making amend of it. Overall we travelled on NH7 till Tiruppur and then we took NH45B and travelled another 45+ kms in some 30-35 mins. In Tamilnadu at every Tollpost , Police were stopping us and just asking us few question , Are you on Trip & Where are you going? Are you alone? My answer was “no my friend is coming on another bike behind me” and then they will say”Po Po Po” means Go go go in Tamil. They are really taking care of you. They just want to make sure that you are going in right direction and you are travelling safe. Plus they will do all these things with smile. Wow that was my best experience with Police so far though i didn’t has many interaction but it has changed image of police in my eye at least. So after NH45B we got NH49 which is called “East Coast Highway” and then that high way will take us till Rameshwaram. we almost completed 230km till 6:15pm and we reached to Ramnathpuram at around 6:30pm which is good achievement as we were driving in heat of Tamilnadu plus NH49 was just a 2 Lane highway. After Ramanathpuram Rameshwaram was another 50+ km. But these journey has made us too tired and now we just wanted to reach to our Hotel Brindavan Recidency and want to Sleep. In another 45 mins I saw a check post and just after that checkpost Pamban bridge started. My dream was to travel my bike on Pamban bridge and We i was living my dream. As it was night we could just able to feel the breeze & hear the sound of Sea but we could not able to see how beautiful the bridge looks. so our main goal for Day after tomorrow was to see the bridge, do some photo session and stop by that bridge and enjoy the view. After 2-3 km bridge ended and we were in Rameshwaram, Holly land where Shiva’s one of 12 Shivlinga exists. We reached to our hotel at 8pm and after freshen up , we went to a small Dhaba where you can just get Nir dhosa , Chapati , Kerala Paratha , Idli & Kurma ( It is basically a grevy which you can eat with rest of the stuff , It looks ordinary but taste extra ordinary ). We had it and as we were so tired we directly slept.
Day 6 : Darshan at Holy Temple Rameshwar & visit to Dhanushkodi – A Ghost Town.
Darshan at Rameshwaram starts at 4:30am. We left for it at around 6:30am. There was not much crowd as it was weekday which was my assumption. The temple was very huge in structure, Main gate has 11 floor tall structure a typical south Indian temple structure. Color of it is Golden, inside that Door, you can see a huge statue of Nandi where people were wishing in its ears as there is a belief that whatever u wish/speak in the ears of Nandi(Vehicle of Shiva) , That Thing will happen for them or they will get those things. After that, queue for darshan started, Queue wasn’t huge and it took us just an hour to reach to the gate from where you can see the Shivalinga. I saw few shivalinga from 12 but this was very different then those plus it was so beautiful. I was lucky enough to see it for some time. After this we went for temple of Parvati ( Shiva’s wife ) and then went for 22 Kunds. Belief is one should take bath at all of them. Well I didn’t do that but was reading slogans written at all 22 kunds. For Example “If you take bath at this kund you will go to heaven”. But I roamed entire temple just to see how beautiful the pillar of it has been developed. Level of Art at those time were really far far better than today. You can see symmetric structure and its designs and measurement and accuracy level of these work is so high , I bet we can’t produced same with whatever high technology we have developed today. Well while coming out of the temple we saw message of swami Vivekanand written on the Wall of the start of the temple when he visited it in 1901. It was saying that “One should be pure from heart and help selflessly”, what I liked about it is in 1901 his thinking was way better and advanced than current generation. Vivekanand is simply way ahead of his time in terms of his thought and knowledge. Respect for him will always be high. After visiting this Holy Temple we went to our Hotel for check out as We booked another hotel for this day. While Checking out I met hotel’s owner and as i was wearing my riding Gear , He was asking me , From where you come? I told “Bangalore” then he was asking You directly came to Rameshwar on bike from Bangalore? So i replied : “no Sir we went to Munnar then from there via Varkala we went to Kanyakumari and from Kanyakumari we came to Rameshwar and in total we have travelled 1300 kms so far.” He was amazed and impressed by this and he was wishing us Happy & Safe journey. I liked talking to that guy and like this at every place we got good people with whom we talked and came to know india is full of good and humble people. While going from one hotel to another hotel I saw my Bike’s tire was flat and hence we fixed that at one shop which is infront of a School where our very own Messile man Dr APJ Abdul Kalam had studied. Then after fixing my Bike’s Puncture we went to see Dr APJ Abdul Kalam’s house.
At 12noon we started towards Dhanushkodi. This place is 22km away from Rameshwaram. Dhanushkodi is indeed a best part of our stay at Rameshwaram. Just 5 km before Dhanushkodi we have to park our bike as you need to either go into their local bus or by walk to Dhanushkodi. We don’t know we can get bus so we started walking at 12noon. After walking for 1 km, we realised what mistake we did, It was hot, plus there was not even a single cloud in the sky and we were exhausted. We were stupid enough as we didn’t carry snacks or water with us plus no cap or hat. My friend told me “Bhai ye to man vs wild wala experience ho raha hai!! ;)” and adding to that he told me in this trip we had all experiences. We were full of sweat and whoever is passing by us we were asking how far? Even I was seeing google map after every 2 mins to see how much distance we covered and our location had hardly changed in that much time. Only good part of that walk was we can see Blue Sea everywhere and White beach sand, Scene was beautiful to observe.
While walking was saw buses going from back water, At first I was like what the hell they are doing , and I was like you can see this thing only in India, my incredible India. We were laughing at it and this photo as a proof as i bet no one will believe it. Finally we were seeing some destroyed structures few hundred meters away and we were happy just to reach to Ghost town Dhanushkodi. It was destroyed exactly 51 years ago by a hurricane. Dhanushkodi has broken Church, some broken structures, houses and A railway line was there but now it’s not working now. We directly went to the first shop we saw and sat there order 2 glasses of Nimbu pani then plus 1 and plus 1 and so on. We had snacks there.
While we were busy regaining our lost body water and energy, shop keeper of that shop showed us a stone, whose structure is same as the stone of Ramsetu. You all must know Ramsetu is a floating bridge, which is made up of a floating stones by Ram sena to reach to Sri Lanka. He then put that stone into a bucket full of water and it was really floating then we checked the stone and it was indeed a stone but with lighter weight and different structure then the usual Stone. I was so amazed and couldn’t believe it. Well to all who wants to visit Ramsetu, It is another 4 km from Dhanushkodi and there is no path to reach there, you need to go by walk and no guide will come with you, you are on your own for it. And due to this plus we already walked 5 km in that heat, My friend told me he can’t come and if I want to go he can wait for me but then I decided not to go as already I felt I had enough of an adventure for a day. So after sitting in that shop for more than an hour and regaining our energy we went to see the small Ghost town. We saw the destructed structures and sat on a beach.
Took some photos and again went to a shop for Lime Water. While we were sitting there, many tourists came and they were doing chit chat, and we were laughing on it. For example one girl came and taunting her mom that “Ma aap bhi ajavo and Srilanka dekh lo! Bade aye Srilanka dikhane wale” As there is belief that from Ramsetu you can see Srilankan boarder well we couldn’t able to see it. But it was fun as we were relaxing and people were making us laugh in their own unique way. After that while returning we decided we are not walking any more so we talked with some bus guy and he agreed to take us with him. Fee was 100/- per person. This bus trip of mine was best bus trip so far not only of this trip but overall. He was driving in back water, there were some part where you have to drive in water but then you can drive on land but our driver has his own way of driving bus, he was driving bus into water only. He was overtaking other bus by doing that and we were taunting him that “Bhaiya I think apko boat chalane me interest hai and ap galti se bus chala rahe ho!!” in that he was laughing but keep on driving in back water. It was awesome, all the travellers in that bus were enjoying. So with that we reached back to place where we parked our bike. While returning we saw a temple where Ram did Rajyabhishek of Vibhisan brother of Ravana. Dhanushkodi has quiet a big role in Ramayana i think. When we reached to our hotel, we were completely tan due to a man vs wild experience. We took bath and then we went to roam Rameshwaram City which is around the temple only. Eat food at some restaurant and slept. Overall Shivalinga and Dhanushkodi has made my trip to Rameshwaram A very memorable one.
Day 7 : Pumban Bridge & Road trip to Kodaikanal
Next Morning at around 6:30am we started riding towards last destination of our trip Kodaikanal. Main attraction of our today’s 300km ride was Pamban bridge which connects Rameshwaram to Rest of India. I feel India has many good bridges but if I need to choose best 3 then it will be C-Link of Mumbai, Hawrah Bridge of Kalkatta and Pamban bridge. So at the starting point of pamban bridge only we stopped and sat for a while because many buses were stopping on the bridge and hence it was kind of crowdie place which we don’t prefer so we sat there took some snaps and enjoyed the view. Then we stopped on the bridge from where we saw the railway bridge which is opening when some ship is passing from there that is what I heard. While we were enjoying the view from pamban bridge, cold, fresh breeze with Ocean waves’ sound were making atmosphere full of positivity and freshness. Our morning undoubtedly became good by it. After that, route is decent. We had breakfast at Ramnathpuram. Then from there our next pit stop was Madurai. Road till Madurai was average and It is 2 lane only but with very less traffic and scenery vise it is same beautiful south india full of rice farms with few coconut trees. After Madurai we got NH7 for some 30kms. During Madurai due to traffic i Lost my friend and hence i had to wait for him on highway. Where i talked with few policeman and few locals who were impressed by our road trips and safety measures As i was wearing proper gears. After that we took some inner route and on that route just before start of wastern guards we ate wada and chatni. One thing i noticed everywhere taste of “chatni and wada” was differing but the thing that didn’t differ was awesomeness of the food.
The length of Wastern gaurds we need to travel to reach to Kodaikanal was of 51km but with best quality roads. Roads were scenic with green dense forest and hair pin curves. To be frank ride from Blore to Munnar was way better then ride from Rameshawaram to Kodaikanal. Kodaikanal is in general very cold and our hotel was on Misty Mountains in Kodaikanal which is even higher then rest of Kodaikanal and that was adding more chilliness. We booked a hotel whose rating was just 1. So we were feeling that we might not get a good hotel this time but when we reached at our hotel, It was simply awesome with wooden floor, good service , camp fire and very good mountain view.
Thing to learn here is if you like hotels or a place please give review so it will be helpful to other travellers. After freshen up we thought of going out to visit some places or Kodaikanal but it was so cold and foggy that we couldn’t able to go out of our room and hence we decided to take rest and enjoy the chilly weather of Kodaikanal instead of going on a ride for that day. I must say we got very good Coffee here in our hotel, entire kodaikanal and munnar were providing good coffee/Tea due to its Tea and Coffee plantation. At night we decided which all places to visit tomorrow. Our plan is to go for Guna caves in the morning then while returning we will see fairy’s fall , vatakanal falls , Lion’s cave and Dolphin’s Nose.
Day 8 : Roaming around in Kodaikanal
Next Morning we left hotel at 9am and reached to Guna caves in half an hour. We thought we will see caves but it turns out, due to some issue they have closed the cave and now u can just see it from outside. The place wasn’t good at all. We wasted sometime there then while returning there is one rocky Garden from where you can see Mountain Range. Another disappointment as we have been travelling in mountain range of western ghats from sometime now so we didn’t felt it much attractive though people were liking it and taking snaps. While returning we saw a big gold cort but it was reserved by some club. I wish to play golf someday for sure. From there only you can see a point called Green Valley point or Suiside point which is now protected by fencing. I felt there must be hell of a suicide happened and hence they had to make fence. So from the first time on this trip our morning is screwed.
Then without any hope we went to Dolphin’s Neck. The place is in Vattakanal and you need to trek for 25-30mins downhill to reach there. While going down first comes Mountain point which is a good view point so we sat there in one dhaba. we had noodles and tea there. We sat there for a while as we have nothing to do plus it was peaceful. After sometime we went further down to see dolphin’s neck; the place is kind of risky though people were risking their life for just a photo, it was kind of funny. Near to it one echo point was there. The place was very silent, peaceful with pure air and very greenery. We sat on stones there for an hour. It was very peaceful. No one is disturbing you and you can just relax and you are there with the best company of yourself. While coming back from Dolphin’s neck to the top was one hell of a hiking. It was tough because the place is at some height from sea level. Finally in that chilly weather we were sweating. This hiking has made amend of our spoilt morning. But what’s coming next was indeed one of the best part of Kodaikanal that is Vattakanal falls.
This fall is called Liril falls due to commercial of liril has been shoot at this place. The fall was very very beautiful and un risky. You can even take bath in that cold stream. It wasn’t that slippery. We went in to that fall and had some fun.
Then from there we walked for 500 meters to each to lion’s cave. The cave is not special but the route that takes you there was special. You have to fallow the stream of vattakanal falls for 500 meters. It was creating one good natural scene. On the way we found many falls before we reached to Lion’s cave. Where we relaxed and enjoyed nature for some time. Noise of stream and birds were making the place more special. When we were sitting there some fog passed by us it was too good. This trek and falls has made a visit to kodaikanal a worthy one. After that we saw fairy’s fall which is one of the many falls you can find in Kodaikanal and then we went to one restaurant for lunch where we got tasty noodles and pasta.
In the evening we went to kodaikanal Lake which is bit commercialized. you can do boating here. The lake was huge plus in the evening it is foggy so boating would be very good experience in the evening. There are people who were riding cycles around the lake. I think it would be great to hire a cycle and roam around.
After that we went to Coakers walk which is highly rated place in Kodaikanal. After walking for 1.5km walk I too felt it is the best place of kodaikanal. During that 1.5 kms you can see different part of kodaikanal, mountains. As we went at around 5pm it was full of fog so we could see only some part of Kodaikanal from there but we enjoyed walking in fog. There are few telescopes too. But when we went those shops were closed. I bet it would be great to see view from telescope. I still feel Coaker’s Walk would be great place to go in noon. After that walk we headed towards our hotel where we got decent meal and an awesome coffee, we had it and sat at camp fire of our hotel and we went to sleep as next day we need to travel 500km from Kodaikanal to Bangalore. Overall except our today’s morning, It was good experience of visiting Kodaikanal.
Kodaikanal is the coldest place I have visited in south india so far.
Day 9 : Way Back to Home from Kodaikanal
Next day Morning we started at 9am towards Bangalore. After travelling 51kms of wastern Gaurds and another 50kms of State high way we touched NH7. From there travelling was easy as the road was good and it was 4 Lane plus luckily on that day weather was cloudy. We reached home by 7pm. Distance we covered on that day was almost 500kms and it was tiring as we were travelling from last 8 days but when we reached to Electronic City Flyover in Bangalore we were so happy as we achieved something,
We Travelled 2200kms on our Bikes across the Western ghats, Villages of Kerala and Tamilnadu and three Occean : Arabic Occean , Indian Occean and Bay Of Bangal. Proud Feeling!!!
traveldairyofvatsal 
Great my friend
Information you share will be useful to so many people👍🏻
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Thanks Jagrut 🙂 That was the reason behind this blog 🙂
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Nice work Vatsal !!
I am sure it will be helpful for many to plan their trip.
Hope to see more similar posts soon. 🙂
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Thank bhai 🙂 you always encourage me to roam and share my experience 🙂
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Incredible work vatsal
Hope some day I can visit
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Thanks Rutvi Didi 🙂
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Awesome! Next Plan for west coast of Karnataka ! 🙂
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Sure Brother.. But i studied in NITK and hence i was there for 2 years. roamed almost entire west coast of Karnataka though its pretty enough to be visited multiple times. will plan surely 🙂
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Trully inspiring account to go all out for what you really like!!! Munnar and Varkala are back on wishlist after reading this. Way to go Vatsal! Keep living your wanderer dream and cover every inch of our beautiful country! 🙂
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yeah Nitika thats the plan!!! lets see how much i will cover. Though u are one of the inspirations for many of my trips and specially sharing my travel experience as i read few of ur amazing blogs too 🙂
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Keep rocking brother…
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bhai bike trip ka best partner to tu hi hai 🙂
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Each n every moment beautifully described… I’ve literally relived the trip through this blog 🙂
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Thanks Jai. That trip was a special one!!!
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