A Trip to Gods Home – Kerala (Palakad)

             The plan for this trip started way back … before 3 weeks… actual plan was to go for a marriage of a girl working in ISG Hexaware. Normally we go for a marriage, but we wont attend the marriage instead roam around the places we went and enjoy and come back… I feel the only exception is subbu’s marriage in which everyone went in whole Team(ISG). Normally i used to plan for trip in the team .. this time subbu took the initiative… and a long mail chain went between lot of persons and finally subbu was in a stage to drop the trip and somehow the plan again started and worked out… Somehow subbu booked the tickets for going from Chennai to Coimbatore and return ticket from Coimbatore to Chennai… Till the last minute we are not sure we will go for the trip… Finally somehow the plan worked out… the Special thing SAM was on the trip around India for whole of the week… he he he this time to kerala….

I came back to room from office by 8pm.. and had a great dinner and started to board the train… The other guys enjoyed a party with cockroach which seems SAM has given… We all met in the station by 11:00pm… All had food and started to board the train… meanwhile subbu asked to get 3 packs of card which is probably  the permutation for 9 persons… There after we got the card we had a great fun with subbu making him tensed by telling we got only 2 pairs of card… The Fun continued and we land up in the train in 1st Platform.. We boarded the train and start putting mokkai.. the train left the station by 12:00 pm… we were making fun of each other and started playing cards for sometime… Some person in the group is really fond of sleeping, which made the whole group to go for sleep. We all slept by 1:30pm… In morning the train reached by 9:00am… we got down, started for the Gandhipuram bus stop. Reached the bus stop had a very heavy breakfast in Gowri Shankar which is one the best in Coimbatore. Had food and started back to palakad by 11:00 am . we boarded the bus and reached palakad by 1:00 pm…

we started searching for a room and we food one good place to stay and we all went to the room refreshed and started back to find the rent details for Car and to leave to some place nearby… with lot of possibilities everyone is telling one plan… even the Travel person got tensed and told that at least one should plan and implement that. SO finally it was a Lunch Time so we went to a nearby restaurant, had a good food and started planning again.. I felt like we are going to sleep in the room without going anywhere…  Somehow Subbu and Sam managed for find the way to go the nearby place Malampuzha…

  

We boarded a bus and went to the place. actually it was one the good place in palakad… but the time  we visited it was very hot and humid… hmmmm…. Malampuzha, a little township on the foothills of the Western Ghats, Palakad, Kerala, India.Major attractions are Dam, amusement park, boating facilities, rock garden and ropeway. we went to the Boating place… waited for atleast 1/2 hour for a ride.. had a very good ride in the boat for around 1/2 hour and came back… There i could find a Model named Karthick Srini and the very silent person Prasanna.. even a real model would not have taken so many picture in his lifetime… our Model took pictures more than that.. he he he…. The best comedian in the whole trip is our Junior Junior DBA  Stanley.. he he he…. The Pair to him is the Business Intellect Mani along with aravind…. The another Best person is Karthick… Not mentioning the  Model i was talking about… he can be termed as Hacker.. he he he…  With them it is we 3 SAM, subbu and Me… Since we are Bored a lot so went inside the park roamed here and there.. took lot of photos of Flowers… and Started playing the Role play game….

 

 

After sometime i got out and roamed the whole park viewing the Big DAM and a bridge which is like london bridge… after sometime a call came from subbu to come back for us to leave… So i came there and we started walking back to Room having juices and snacks… we met a Cab person with a Jeep… Finally we started planning for the next day.. We talked to that Cab person finally we decided to go to Silent Valley on the Next Day and we planned to start by 8:30 in morning… We started back to the room by Bus making a great fun… We came back to the room, planned for a big party there and it started… we talked and made FUN a lot…. We missed the our Model and Silent Person in the Party… Seems they both are preparing for seminar on monday… Hmmmm… Finally all enjoyed the party and want to play cards… since everyone are bit Heavy and feel so tired we slept by 2:00pm…

Next day all wake and got ready… He he he … It was pretty late by an Hour… we started from room by 8:30am by a Sumo… After some 1 Hour of drive everyone felt hungry and we stopped in Mannarkad, had a very heavy Breakfast and made a big Fun in the Hotel and started back to silent Valley…

 

Mukkali  which is a small village reached by negotiating atleast 19 hairpins from Mannarkad. Mukkali, has claim to fame is that its the entry point to Silent Valley. The Silent Valley National Park is the oldest patch of tropical evergreen forest in the world spread around 89 sq km area.

We reached there the “Forest Warden” Office and came to know that we need to book the tickets ahead. Finally subbu and the driver spoke and made arrangements to start inside the Forest in 2 jeeps. The ride in jeep was great. it was around 23Km into the forest. We are so unlucky that we could not see any animals there except lion tailed monkey and a Forest Squirrel . But we enjoyed the Ride and the Silent Forest with Full greenish trees. We came to know from the guide that the Kerala state’s electricity board  wanted to built a dam and generate electricity.The environmentalists stepped in and finally they stopped building the dam. We reached the top of the Hill By 3:00pm.. the climate was fantastic and we could heard the roaring of tiger and the sound of elephant there.

  

In the top of hill they have build a watch tower which is quite high we could see the whole of the Forest from the top. The view from the peak was awesome. We could see vast stretches of rain forests. The guide told that there are lot of leeches and we need to be careful. Unfortunately a Leech Bit me and blood came out at least for 3 minutes. We saw a museum which gives details about the whole forest. We started back and came back to the place we started by 5:00pm… then we stepped in a small stream took bath and started back to palakad. While returning back there was a heavy rain there and it is fantastic to see hills in rain. On the Way we had heavy food both lunch and dinner there in mannarkad. we reached palakad by 6:30pm… Made some Fun in Hotel room and started back to coimbatore by 8:30pm.. We reached Coimbatore  by 10:00pm.. Got into the train by 12:00pm reached Chennai by next day 9:30pm…

The Trip was enjoyable… Looking forward to write another blog in next trip.