Tripping up the Hills

A few years ago, I had been to the Kallakkad - Mundanthurai tiger reserve and spent a very enjoyable time there.An interest on my part to share the beauties of the place with Hubs and a shortage of time (isn't that always the case?) led us to plan to spend a couple of days at the reserve - more specifically, at this place called Kudhiraivetti.

With directions from Google Maps and numerous people on the road, we reached the foot of the Manjolai Hills, atop which Kudhiraivetti is nestled. The Reserve sprawls over these hills and can be reached two ways - from Papanaasam and from Kallidaikurichi and onto Manjolai. The Papanaasam route is much more eventful, with many falls on the way. But we picked the latter, since we wanted to see Manjolai.

Early morning start

The Reserve is a protected area (read: Red tape) and requires prior permission to visit or stay. We had obtained the permission from Forest dept. We now reached the check post near the Manimutharu Dam where they check if you have really obtained the permission (word of caution: be sure to pay any fees in exact change here. Any change remaining may be kept back as 'tips' ).

Manimuthaaru Dam

Since we had picked July to visit the place, we had to brave the elements to sightsee. First stop was Manimutharu Falls. Here a chain is tied across the bridge over the river, barring your path. A shameless beggar in a forest ranger uniform demands bribe from you here to open the chain. Whatever the season be, apparently we have to brave the pitiful humans too. Passing him with disgust, we also passed by the chance to bathe in the falls since it was raining and also windy, and went on driving up.

Manimuthaaru Falls

A word of caution here. If you are planning to make a trip to the same place, before you start check your car. If it's a compact car like our Chevy Spark, stop right there. Because a few kilometers after the Falls, the roads become extremely pothole-y. We had a tough time with the little Spark! You need a rugged beast of a four wheeler to navigate those roads.

The Bison that posed for us

Another thing to remember is to never ask the locals on those mountain roads the distance to a certain place unless you wish to have hopelessly inaccurate data. Rule of thumb is multiply the number by three to get the approximate distance.

Beautiful Hills and Beastly roads

There is a place called Naalu mukku after the main Manjolai town(?) which literally feeds the guests at Kudhiraivetti. We had to buy supplies for dinner here and carry it up with us.

Nallumukku Postoffice

Village of Naalumukku. Notice the loaded sacks atop each roof - to prevent it flying away!

A branch from Naalu mukku took us to the Kodhaiyar Dam. This place was mist-ifyin to us. No really. It was so completely covered with mists that we might as well have tried to see through clouds. And to think that we had actually spun stories to the forest ranger at the gate to the Dam about a fictional uncle in the Department to make him let us through, to be completely fogged up in the end! But then, for about 10 seconds there was a break in the mist which enabled us to see the beautiful Upper and the Lower Kodhaiyar Dams.

At Kodhaiyar Dam

To strike a balance, the roads were trying hard to cancel out the feelings of joy at the wonderful scenery surrounding us. Imagine our feelings when we heard from a local that the approach to Kudhiraivetti was much worse than this road!
With sinking hearts, we took the road up and found that he had not erred. After a shaky journey, we reached the destination. The place was as beautiful as I remembered and winds were as strong too!

The Kudhiraivetti Watchtower

View from the tower

Finding our compact room ready we thankfully stretched our limbs for a while before heading out to sight-see. Happy we were, for immediately we saw a lone tusker ambling along the hill-face some distance from us.

The pachyderm's picture

After he disappeared down, we found that there wasn't much else to see because again the mist had beat us there first! Next best thing to do was to go to bed.
Next day, all refreshed and ready to tackle the road we went straight down to the Falls for the morning bath. But sadly (for us) it was crowded with tourists so we went elsewhere in search of a peaceful place. Since we were familiar with the area, we went straight down and out of the Reserve and reached a village called Munnirpallam which lies on the banks of Tamirabarani where we could take a dip in the river in peace. After a leisurely and fun-filled wallowing, we started homeward taking with us bittersweet memories.

On the way back, I was wondering what could've made this trip less enjoyable than my first one. Then I hit on it - the first time we took the trip, my dad had taken care of the reservations, the driving and the general planning. My mom had taken care of the food side and the looking-after-the-family side. All I had to do was take/pose for pictures and revel in the wonderful scenery. Now I wonder how my mom enjoyed it then...

As the Eagle flies

Here I am!

I haven't disappeared, dear Reader. Ever since I shifted my job, from being a Software Engineer working 5 days a week to a mother working 24/7, its been kinda hard to fit in the blogging!

Usually a thought takes shape in my mind and before I can document it, my time is claimed by the little one. But, I have squeezed in the blogging (though it takes me about three days to write one post) because, I've missed it!!

In this post, I'm gonna take you with me to Langkawi. It is a touristy island in Malaysia, filled with beautiful beaches and plenty of rain forests (Note to self: Stop sounding like a tour brochure). Since we wanted to taste the best of both worlds, we booked two nights at a hotel inland amidst wooded areas and two nights in a hotel overlooking the bay.

There is a great beach in Langkawi, called Pantai Cenang. (Pantai = Beach in Malay). It has the most famous and crowded restaurants and night life in the island. That is to say, this is the only area which is alive after 10.00 pm. Of our four nights there, we had to head back here three nights for dinner! Talking of dinner, let me recommend you the Little Mexican at Pantai Cenang. Absolutely deliciously tasty mexican food!

Getting back to the things to do (rather, things we did) in Langkawi, renting a Toyota Vios we drove to Kampung Tok Senik resort. We lost our way and ended up taking a longer, and incidentally scenic, route to the resort. The resort was set in a Malay village style (hence the Kampung in the name). Beautiful wooden houses with wooden furnishings complete wioth creaking floorboards! After a lunch of half-baked potatoes and chicken (they had the gall to call it Madras Chicken Curry!) at the resort's restaurant, Warung Tok Mat, we headed to the Pantai Cenang which is known for the water sports it offers.

First I went Parasailing. This was the first time I was doing it all by myself. If you haven't done it yet, make time to get it done soon! Its one of the 1000 Things To Do Before You Die. The absolutely liberating feeling of being propelled by air, meeting the setting sun eye-to-eye, seeing the gray-blue sea waving at you below your feet instead of through the tiny oval of an airplane window, and getting to wave hullo to the passing airplane - beautiful beautiful feeling! After the parasailing, I also tried the Jet Skiing. It was pretty exhilarating to skim along the water in something other than a boat!

The next day we headed to the famous skybridge of Langkawi (See Billa or Don!) which is reached by a cable car. Beautiful views from up there, all mountains and sea and islands and such. Then we headed to another beach called the Tanjung Rhu from where we could charter a boat for island tour.

Since it was pretty late in the day, not many people were there and so we got a boat all for ourselves. The journey started through a mangrove forest (do you call it forest?). The boatman first stopped at a fish farm, where the fishes are grown(for food) in the sea water in small square encampments. Living in an island, visiting other islands, you can have one too many fishes to see. Fish and ocean life have begun to bore me!

So we moved quickly to the next activity - Eagle feeding. There are many bloggers out there who request the tourist to Langkawi to discourage the boatmen from this activity and I join their list.

Out boatman stopped the boat, dropped some food for the eagles in the water and then raised the motor a few times. About six or seven eagles came from nowhere and started swooping up and down grabbing the food - all for our entertainment! The argument against this activity is that the eagles lose their natural capacity to hunt and their dependency may endanger their lives.

Next he took us to a scary cave (it was dusk remember!) and said it was the Crocodile Cave. He must have seen me slowly freezing in fear for he said reassuringly, "No crocodiles now". Thank god for that!

Next stop was an even scarier cave called the Bat Cave. Here, we had to proceed on foot. The boatman conveniently moored his boat and asked us to go ahead on our own. Inside it was absolute darkness and all we were armed with was the boatman's flashlight. I shone it on the cave's ceiling and it was like I was in my worst nightmare, but awake. (Like Chandler said, I was even being charged for it!)

The ceiling was covered with about two hundred bats - and that's only at the patch of light. I kept shining the light here and there and saw the bats everywhere. I literally dragged Hubs out of the cave as fast as I could. The man actually wanted to linger and take a closer look!!

I ran and he walked to the boat and the boatman now took the sea route to the mainland (rather main island) instead of the backwater route we came by. On the way we saw many yachts moored in the water which the boatman explained to us belong to tourists who sail in to Langkawi from Australia, Europe etc. Apparently, they park here since the water is calmer rather than the main harbor.

We also visited the all famous Eagle Square of Langkawi - nothing but a huge statue of an eagle about to fly. A very typical tourist place. Enough said.

The next day we went to Durian Perangin - one of the accessible waterfalls of Langkawi. Maybe there hasn't been much rain, but this waterfall wasn't very impressive. We had to climb a whole lot of steps to reach the top of the waterfall and we had to stop half-way since climbing while carrying the tot was hard labor!

Next, we planned to go to the tallest mountain in Langkawi - Gunung Raya. We drove for about 15 km and almost reached the peak to be met with this!

So it was a U-Turn and back to the ground!

And that was the end of a much-needed relaxing vacation. Lets wave goodbye to the eagle land!

Oh, are you wondering why I call it Eagle land? Langkawi in Malay means Reddish-Brown Eagle.

'Tis the last day

This is the last of a eight parts series. Check out the others Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7. 

After a breakfast in the beautiful garden of Undercliff, we were shown over the winery by Jane Hashmere. We sampled their house wines and my favorite was what she called a dessert wine - a sweet offering with nothing of the bitterness of the usual wines.

Bidding goodbye to Tannin who obligingly posed for a few photographs with us, we were on our way back to Sydney.

It was a straightforward expressway until we neared Sydney. The highway we were on was to take us via the famous harbour bridge to the heart of the town where our hotel was located. The husband had read that the road splits into two - one goes to the bridge and the other to a tunnel. He was cautiously driving so as not to take the wrong turn into the tunnel.

The helpful signs told us we weren't far from the Harbour Bridge. And at the blink of four eyes (ours of course) we saw that we had missed turning into the lane which was to take us to the bridge and instead were headed to the tunnel. 

Our anguished eyes saw other vehicles merrily rolling along our left towards the Bridge (at break neck speed) and we had no choice but to follow our chosen path.

Now we were in the tunnel, and he slowed down a little bit so that we don't make another costly mistake and immediately was honked at by our followers - no slow pokes carefully scrutinising the road signs were allowed!

So he speeded up and at the next blink we saw that we had missed our turning again and were now headed to somewhere totally unrelated to our destination! Well, what will you! 

We surrendered ourselves to the nasty fate and went where the road took us - which turned out to be Bondi Beach.

With our half-spoilt mood at having to drive in the lo-o-ong boring tunnel and being tricked by the universe in general left me in no mood to appreciate the Bondi (pronounced Bon-dye) Beach. All that I can say now about it is that, it was like Marina on a hot day with a cool breeze filled with sunbathers. 

Mentally cursing fate and fully realising what our prophetess-of-the-diner had meant by 'No GPS? You can't drive!', we took ourselves off to the hotel to drop off the car ASAP.

We switched our preferred mode of transport to train and from King's Cross Station (oh yes they have one here) we took a double decker metro train (really!) to the Sydney Sky Tower.

It's another boring commercial entertainment spot where you get to ride a closed lift all the way to the top of a tower and get to see Sydney. And the entertainment ends there.

We got down quick and strolled around Hyde Park (they have that too!) for a while and then went on to the famous Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. 

What can I say about Opera House? We saw it, took photos to tell everybody we saw it and that's about it. Had I been an architect, I would've gone into raptures over the complex building style maybe. As it is, I'm not the former and and I did not do the latter. 

After a delicious dinner at India Quay, we took a bus back to the hotel and rested preparatory to the long journey back home on the morrow.

The dreamy seventh day

This is the seventh of a eight parts series. Check out the others Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 8. 

Whenever I wanted to feel a little superstitious, I have always considered the number 7 to be my lucky number. And its fun to be superstitious now and then, just for the heck of it. 

In this trip too, 7 proved to be lucky. Day 7 of this trip was the best of the lot!

On this day, we started to a much-visited tourist spot - The Blue Mountains at Katoomba. Though we could've enjoyed it better without the sun shining away merrily, it was still a visually appealing spot.

The first stop was at the Three Sisters. A rock formation in the mountains. (Of course there's more info about it in Wikipedia, check here)

Taking the World's Steepest Railway, we descended into the Jamison valley between the mountains and walked along the rainforest boardwalk, getting our history lesson on the olden day coal miners and botany lessons about the flora of the rainforest. Our ascent back was by the the World's Steepest Cablecar, imaginatively named the Sceniscender.

Beside these, there weren't many to be seen (or described) in that place apart from commercial entertainments. So we were back on the road to our next destination - Hunter Valley. 

Our Lonely Planet guide had told us that Hunter Valley was home to numerous vineyards and we had planned to visit one of them and if possible stay the night there.

Being used to automatic transmission hitherto (for five days *wink*), I had many differences of opinion with the rented Getz. But the drivers behind me on the road were admirably much calm and composed (or resigned) compared to my poor husband who was going into apoplexies at my arguments with the car.

So I finally yielded the controls to him, and leant back to enjoy the scenery, in pleasurable anticipation of visiting a real live vineyard.

It was about ages later (half an hour in the real world) that I was still leaning back, not heeding the scenery and in anticipation that was fast losing its pleasure. We began to despair of ever reaching the Valley before sundown and were downcast at having to spend another precious day in just driving the stupidly long roads.

We saw a sign advertising Fresh Strawberries and stopped to buy some, hoping to learn from the shopkeeper the expected distance to Hunter Valley. We found a sulky school girl inside and asked her how far is it to Hunter Valley or the nearest vineyard. She turned a blank look upon us and said "I don't know" quite abruptly then tacked on a "Sorry" as an afterthought.

And we drove on. 

Our planned destination was the town, Cessnock. But it seemed to be too far away into the future and frankly we were getting fed up with the drive. Just as we were about to decide that it was no good and turn back, we chanced upon Wollombi.

Wollmbi (pronounced Woh-Lom-Bye) looked like a sleepy village, and except for loud coversations floating from the Wollombi Tavern, the scenery was peaceful. Silent roads, sleepy buildings and solemn hills surrounded us. Even the loud conversations did not mar the sense of beauty around us, it only added a cheery note! 

All our boredom fell away and we were excitedly looking out for a winery. Following our instincts and a sign along the way, we drove over a much rutted road and reached Undercliff winery.

A rose bush lined path took us into the heart of the establishment and we parked near a small cottage, looking for signs of inhabitation. Suddenly, a dog bounded out and started barking like mad wagging its tail. We stayed inside the car, not trusting the tail and soon a lady approached us shouting "Down Shannon" (I later found it was Tannin not Shannon).

Finding out that we were looking for a B&B, Jane Hashmere (who was our hostess) took us over the living quarters, which was the cottage we had parked by. 

It was a wooden cottage, built in 1847 by the first settlers in Wollombi. ("Quite historical you know".) The front door opened on to a living room complete with a fireplace (with a real poker!), mantelpiece with pictures, sofas that can bury you and old fashioned carpet and draperies.

To the left was a dining room leading to a kitchen and the bedroom (with a four poster bed AND a canopy!) beyond that. The furnishings, the wooden floors and panels, the old-fashined book cases, the decorations, the delicate china utensils, the little flower patterned bed clothes - as far as I was concerned, it was perfect! I had stepped into a Jane Austen! Nothing can compare to the joy brought by the feeling of living in a book!

Well, the cottage was ours for the night if we wanted and we were welcome to look over the gardens in the fast fading sunlight. Do we wish to take it? Do we! Telling her breathlessly that we would LOVE to take it, out we rushed, to explore the garden before sundown. And what a garden it was! Perfectly manicured lawns, rows and rows of grapevines, maple (I think) trees, olive bushes, and many more shrubs and trees I can't name and to top it all off, a brook nearby! 

It was a dream to be there! And we roamed hither and thither with Tannin who was actually a very friendly dog, not getting enough of it. Out of the gathering dusk (Oooh I finally used this phrase!) came our hostess' voice, "I wouldn't go late to town for dinner if I were you". Brought back to earth, we drove back to the main street for dinner and stopped at Panino's.

Served by a friendly and patient waiter who had the time to explain the menu, suggest vegetarian alternatives and make jokes with us ensured a fine dining experience. And the italian dishes all tasted so good. My recommendation to anyone planning to visit Panino's - do! 

Soon we were back, doing what we love to do - Stargazing. And this time it was not from a french window. We sat on convenient logs in the garden and slowly lost ourselves to the overwhelming beauty that enveloped us. It was one of those rare and beautiful moments in life when you feel that indescribable feeling of happiness mingled with an awe of nature! 

Good things come to an end, and so did the seventh day and now my post. Next and last day in my next post.

Reaching Sydney

This is the sixth of a eight parts series. Check out the others Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 7, Day 8. 

It was the sixth day and we had optimistically planned to drive all the way to Sydney from Melbourne, halting for the night somewhere. 

But we had reckoned without that all important factor - weather. We had apparently picked the hottest week to go sight seeing!

We had no clue of the coming disaster when we sat for breakfast with Graham Wells, and were sampling the huge bowl of fruit salad he had provided as starters, unconcernedly enjoying the view from the cool living room. We didn't know the previous day but the living room offered a beautiful view of his large farm and beyond that the Mornington Peninsula.

After breakfast, he hitched a ride with us till the main town saying he has 'temporarily lost the use of his license'. I immediately pricked up my ears sensing a story behind that sentence but was denied the joy by not knowing the correct wording to form a question which is both polite and hides my curiosity!

We made the Phillip Island National Park our next stop where we got to feed strange looking pellets to Wallabies and Kangaroos which lapped up the stuff like it was...a strange looking pellet.

By now, the sun was making itself felt quite strongly and I refused to come out from under my shady tree while hubby pranced about feeding kangaroos. The lucky guy got to feed a large sized kangaroo with a joey! But escaping a heatstroke scores with me everytime over feeding a 'roo.

It was becoming hellishly hot and I was envious of the Koala bears who were getting a shower. But the poor things needed more than that. They were crouched in their own cool nook in their tree. After the mild entertainment of watching hubby get his hand nipped by one of the large sized ducks, we decided we had had enough of wildlife to last us a long time yet and decided to get back to civilization - the Sydney part of it.

And so started the long, long drive. Driving through deserted countryside, losing our way in the middle, picking it up yet again - it was a fairly uneventful journey. As we reached Melbourne after what seemed like an eternity of boring drive through the too-hot region, we began to despair of ever reaching Sydney. Sudden change in plans made us dump the car back at the rental agency and book a flight through to Sydney. A few hours and a comfortable air journey later, we found ourselves in Sydney.

The mild disasters of losing one of our bags (thankfully full of clothes only) and renting a 2-Door Getz (which was such an anti-climax after being used to Lancers and Camrys) stumped our already tired spirits and dejectedly we made our way to Chifley's at Potts Point where we were to spend the night.

Comfortable rooms greeted us along with news from the airline that they had located our bag. With revived spirits we set out to explore the neighborhood and grab a bite. The cheerful girl behind the counter at the all-night diner offered us confused advice on sight seeing Sydney - 'You don't have GPS in your car? Then you can't drive around here'.

How dumb, I thought. Does everyone have to be latest-techno-savvy to be able to get around a city? That's too much of a city to expect of its tourists, even if it enjoys the status of being Australia's Most Expensive.

Reader, you must be anticipating the cliche and here it comes - I was to be proved completely wrong... - I can't resist adding another cliche here - ...and that's another story! (which you will find in the subsequent posts).

I'll tell you all about our (mis)adventures in driving in Sydney but let me go chronologically and first tell you about the most wonderful part of our trip and the most wonderful place we've ever stayed at. In the next post.

Happy Feet at Phillip Island

This is the fifth of a eight parts series. Check out the others Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8. 

Fifth day found us bound for Phillip Island. A long drive was ahead.  It was another new experience for me to don the role of the GPS and carefully keep tracing the route with a finger. The downside was that I tended to stare more at the Street Directory than at the roads.

The countryside in Victoria gets monotonous after a while. It was exciting at first to see extremely fat cows, roly-poly sheep and stately horses grazing about amidst huge rolling meadows and large bales of hay. But soon, the familiarity bred not exactly contempt but a sort of smiling indulgence. 

We finally reached Queenscliff from where a ferry was to carry us and our car to Sorrento, from where we would drive on to Phillip Island. After a comfortable but uneventful journey while the mercury was rising slowly but steadily, we reached the Penguin Parade.

It was here that we were to meet the world's smallest penguins coming back at dusk from their day-long forage into the sea to catch and eat fish. Their kids were waiting in the land in little burrows and these sweet parents regurgitate their food to feed their young. Translated into more understandable terms, that sentence reads 'the parents puke. children eat the puked contents.'

Wish I had confined myself to the euphemistic talk don't you?

These stomach-churnings aside, those penguins were one of the cutest 

animals alive and their waddling was such a funny-cute sight to behold! They are about a feet high and about half a feet wide and it was so lovely to watch the dear little things emerging from the beach and pass unconcernedly the horde of humans seated in platforms.

Penguin parading over, we again went in search of a place to stay the night and came upon a Bed & Breakfast along the road. We took the turn and after a bumpy ride came upon a long low building in gloom. And without warning the lights came on, brightly lighting the yard. A short stocky man came out of the shadows with a hearty welcome.

It was too cinematic to be believed and I approached him with some trepidation. But nothing cinematic happened. After satisfactory negotiation of terms he invited us in to take a look at our room. 

We entered the main entrance and came upon a living room so cluttered with articles that it was hard to see where the walls ended and where the furniture began.

It was a large, high ceilinged room, with two pianos, a computer in a corner, sofas arranged around the fireplace, a dining table, numerous chairs, cushions and knick knacks spread about and draperies, pictures, more knick knacks and books lining the walls. The christmas decorations hadn't been taken down yet. We passed on to our sleeping quarters which was a tiny bed room with a massive bed which had pillows and cushions and blankets piled on it. 

The best thing about the room was a french window opening directly onto the backyard. It was this that made us choose this room over others shown by our enthusiastic host. Once we were settled our host, Graham Wells, asked us to join him in a drink and we sat around the fireplace 'getting acquainted'.

Maybe it was the combined effects of my overactive imagination and the previous night's Dahl, but thoughts of another, non-eatable Dahl and one his stories (The Landlady. Have you read it? 'tis a good one) kept popping up in my head all the time we were there. But do not fear, dear reader (assuming you are one of those who do so), my story had a different ending!

We were tired and we had another long drive ahead of us the next day. Sleep was the only thing we desired, or so we thought. We pushed away most of the cushions and switched off the lights....and saw the sky glittering with a billion diamonds through the french window. What price sleep now?

We went to the window and were amazed anew at the stellar display of the stars and nothing but stars in a clear sky. But the garage light was still on and hubby voiced our cumulative wish ' I wish he would switch off that light'. And at the next second, the lights were off! 

Chuckling at our good luck, we settled down at the french window, forgetting sleep and fatigue. And the fifth day came to an end to find us watching the countless sparklers and shooting stars and holding whispered conversation since that night was too sacredly beautiful to be talked in normally. It was like another 'night to remember'. 

The next day posed a stark contrast to such a romantic night and I'll tell you all about it in the next post.

A Delightful Drive

This is the fourth of a eight parts series. Check out the others Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 5, Day 6,Day 7, Day 8. 

The fourth morning found us excitedly aboard the rented Camry, on our way to the Great Ocean Road - described in guide sites as 'One of world's most scenic drives' - which stretches itself along the southern coast of Australia.

Calling it blandly a 'road' gives it an impression of a tame pathway, even with the 'Great' tacked on to it. It was more than just a path and it was to take us on a wonderful journey. In retrospect and in a much Anne Shirley-ish way I'd like to rename it the Brown Way of Delight!

This road (I have to use this generic for want of a better one) has a multitude of little stops along the way - usually they are lookout points offering a grand (and sometimes not so grand) view of the Southern Ocean, or they are little paths leading to little beaches or they lead the way to some historic spot.

The first turn we took brought us to the Split Point Lighthouse at a little town called Airey's Inlet. If we had a helicopter, maybe we could've seen the 'split point' for ourselves I believe. As it is, we just saw this medium sized light house. Nearby in the sea, there were huge rock formations - one of them named the Table Rock and the other, Eagle Rock.

Walking back, we came upon a Tea Room which displayed handwritten notices that they serve light meals as well. So in we went. It was a cottage converted into an eatery. Tables and chairs were laid in the garden amidst rose bushes and other flowering plants. We entered inside to place our order and the room we entered into must have been the kitchen. What I presumed to be a family consisting of a mother, father and a grown up son were in charge of the place.
It was particularly delightful to sit in that homely surroundings and munch on delicious sandwiches.

I have to pass lightly over the various stops we made at various 'scenic lookout' points. To say it in a line - they offered scenic view of the ocean. Oh, how lame that sounds! I'm hampered by not having words powerful enough to describe the beauty the actual view offered.

Into every ointment, a fly must fall. And in ours, not one but hordes of flies fell. At every stop, once we were out of the car, about a million friendly flies came to greet us. And what an effusive greeting it was! They were everywhere at once - any part of us which was not covered were claimed by the flies as their dancing ground. I'm sure we presented a comical sight to the other travellers - waving our hands about and doing all sorts of gyrations to remove the flies from our persons - had the other travellers time enough to stop their gyrations to take a look at us!

A beautiful river (the Cumberland River), a not-so-beautiful falls (Erskine Falls) and a scenic lookout spot with a cute name (Teddy's Lookout) were visually taken in by us next. Then it was onward for the most famous of them all - The Twelve Apostles. Man, they totally deserve those capitals. The geography lesson is in that Wikipedia article. All I have to offer in addition is one huge 'WOW'.

And it was between the Apostles and the Loch Ard Gorge nearby, we played pendulums. After the apostles, we took ourselves off to see the Gorge, making a mental note to be back to see the sunset with the Apostles. If I ever have a 'Things to see before I die' list, I can now blissfully put a tick next to 'Watch sunset with the Apostles'. It was definitely worth more than the drive back from the Gorge.

After the sunset, we drove again to the Gorge because the beach there stuck snugly between the humungous rocks was too attractive to be missed. After dipping our feet in that ice cold water, we scrambled up and drove back (again) to the Apostles to find a place to stay the night.

After some search, we finally chanced upon the romantically named Summer's Rest near the Port Campbell town. We caught the Filipino owner eagerly watching the final minutes of an Australian Open game - and were thankful for her interest in tennis without which she would've gone home earlier locking the place up!

She suggested we hie ourselves at the blink of an eye to the town if we wanted to see any trace of dinner. Hie we did. And entered Waves just before they closed the doors. The harried waiter firmly told us that the only thing he can get us late comers will be Veg Curry or Chicken Curry with Rice and Dahl. (Not Dal or Dhal. Dahl).

We happily couldn't believe our ears. We never expected to be presented with our good old rice, dal (though it was Dahl) and curry in a tiny Australian town. If the waiter thought we would be disappointed at not getting the more exotic fares at Waves, he was sadly mistaken!
The simple but nice meal was over and we were back to our refuge for the night - a cute and cheerfully appointed apartment with all necessary comforts packed in that single room. With that, the fourth day came to a rest at Summer's Rest.

The morrow was to bring us penguins, a long drive, a ferry ride and night halt at a Bed & Breakfast, the likes of which we had never seen before. And that is in the next post.

On to Melbourne

This is the third of a eight parts series. Check out the others Day 1, Day 2, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6,Day 7, Day 8. 

I was woken up from my disturbed and cramped sleep by a bright glare and looking out from my cabin window showed me a new beautiful sight - sunrise from the skies! It was fascinating to behold a sunrise from a completely new vantage point. I could sleep no more and spent the rest of the flight alternating my gaze between the sunrise and the huge rolling lands below which I hopefully imagined to be part of the famous Outback.

Soon we landed in Melbourne where glaring sun and a cold wind greeted us. Did I mention it is summer in Australia now? The phrase 'The days were long' showed its full meaning there. The sun rose before we did (though that happens wherever we are) at around 6.30 - 7.00 AM and it took its time setting which was anytime between 8.30 - 9.00 PM! Well, all the better for us tourists. Longer day spells more sightseeing!

The same hotel check-in problem happened here too. 'Come in the afternoon' they told us firmly and politely. So depositing our bags, we took ourselves off for catching the sights of the city. Australia Day was being celebrated that day and on the streets we caught sight of many wearing their flags draped about their selves or faces painted in the flag colors.

A free tram runs around the city square (a rectangle actually) and we hopped on. The city was a typical blend of the old and new - beautiful Old English style buildings (I want to call them Victorian but I'm an architectural rookie) interspersed with boring gleaming metal and glass structures.
Next stop was Victoria Harbour where we saw Jelly fish - not behind a glass wall either but in their natural habitat! There was a curious structure on a platform nearby - a sculpture of a huge cubist cow stuck upside down on a...tree. You heard me right.
The inscription below said the scuptor meant it to represent flood situation in Australia during which it may be common to catch sight of a dead cow upon a tree.
Before I read that, I imagined it to be the cow which had landed at the wrong place after 'jumping over the moon'. Ah well, to each his own!

Next stop was the Melbourne Aquarium. There were cute penguins there, from Antartica. And there ends the interesting stuff. Looking at fish behind a glass wall is something I can get quickly bored with. And I did. After feeling we had wasted about $65, we left the place to have a quick freshening up and lunch.

We then took a stroll along a busy street - Swanston Street - filled with shops and eateries on both sides of the road. The street was lined on both sides by a broad sidewalk and it is one of these that we found something to arrest our progress - Sidewalk Artists!
The year before last, I was mesmerized by a video of a spray paint artist on a Manhattan sidewalk [Check out the video here ] and imagine my delight on seeing a similar one in person. This guy too, did not fail to mesmerize!

Across the street were people in gaily colored dresses dancing on stilts and nearby was a man who was cutting silhouettes out of cardboard of real people posing for him. In all, it was a nice experience to be sitting on a comfortable bench, with a cool wind playing around, munching fried cashewnuts and being entertained by people... each an artist in their own way!

The little hand of my watch was creeping towards 8 and we made another of our impulse decisions to find a beach from which we can catch the sunset. Another tram journey later, we were at the South Melbourne Beach watching a sunset at 8.30 pm, along with a flock of sea gulls.

The beachfront was a beautiful place - a neat road with beautiful Old Worldy buildings lining it. The houses we saw nearby reminded me so much of those that I had hitherto only read about in Agatha Christies and P.G.Wodehouses and James Herriots.

After a pleasant stroll in the neighborhood, we wound up the day with a delicious dinner at Gharana, run by a friendly and courteous Pakistani man. And so Day Three came to a close, rather quickly in our opinion - since we still could not reconcile ourselves to the fact that the Australian summer days end with the sunset.

The next day... Next post.

Darwin Day 2

This is the second of a eight parts series. Check out the others Day 1, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6,Day 7, Day 8. 

Day Two at Darwin started with a visit to World War II Oil Storage Tunnels. These were huge tubes through which we could take a walk, pausing here and there to take a look at the WWII related photographs tacked to the walls of the tunnels in the extremely dim light.
After this little traipse back in history, and after a little souvenir shopping, it was Ho! for Berry Springs Wildlife Park in the outskirts of Darwin. It was a lovely drive along the rain-drenched neat roads.

At the park, we came upon Wallabies (See note) which we were happy to see though a little disappointed that they were not Kangaroos.
After doing the usual touristy stuff at the park (taking a train around the park trails, catching a show on Birds of Prey and having the park guide proudly point out the buffaloes we see in our dear smelly Cooum as 'Water Buffaloes' ) we drove on to the actual Berry Springs.
But recent rains had left the spring swelling up so much that we were banned from swimming.
The river itself posed a pretty picture, running among rocks and greenery and reminding me of another river I had seen back home - the rock formation, trees in the banks and the approach path all reminded me of a summer spent at Mundanthurai, near Papanaasam, and the river bank on which I spent many moments happily woolgathering. I couldn't find much difference between the two!

'Oh not again', I chided myself. I've been noting that during foreign travels, I suddenly have these flashes of familiarity that irk me no end. I want to go visit a foreign land that is so completely foreign to me. But somehow or other, each place has something that reminds me of a similar place in my homeland! Now I know what my geography textbook was talking about when it told me "India is a diverse country".

Enough digressing. Lets get back on track. We did. Our flight was late at night and we had loads of time to kill. We started back to Darwin and I took whichever turn off the road that took my fancy! You know, that really is the best kind of drive! One such turn brought us to a deserted stretch and there we practised our Boomerang throw.

The poor thing that we had bought as a souvenir really knew what 'battered and bruised' means in a Boomerang's life, after our practice session. Taking pity on it, we stopped and continued our journey. I was happily cruising along - really cruising. Driving a Lancer for the first time and also a car with automatic transmission for the first time I was totally revelling in the new experience of never having to change gears - the one thing I used to hate in driving. As an added delight, the car also had a cruise control! So there I was, pressing neither the accelerator nor the clutch save the occasional brakes!

Well, not only was the driving experience new, there was another new experience waiting for me around the corner - literally. After one of our impulse turns, while coming back to the main road, I took the turn too fast and (not too) narrowly missed another car travelling at about twice my speed. What happened next maybe expected in a book but I certainly didn't. The guy actually gave me a finger!!! For the first time in life! No, No, I'm not proud of that. I was totally in the wrong so I didn't get too angry or resent it too much. It was just another experience to be added to my 'New' list, though a slightly bitter one at that!

After a few more drives around the area, we drove on to the airport and boarded our flight to Melbourne. What happened next is, of course, another story!

Note 1: Wallabies

They look, jump and behave just like Kangaroos. But are called wallabies 'coz they're smaller! Google them to know the technical difference.

The First Big Leap

This is the first of a eight parts series. Check out the others Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8. 

It has finally happened!!!
I've grown up enough to venture into another continent beside my birth one.
All you globe trotters out there, I can see you smirking but hey, a girl who has longed to travel but somehow never went beyond India's borders can be excused for blowing her trumpets far and wide just because she visited another continent, albeit just for a week.

After becoming a Mrs. my travel dreams were starting to fulfill, one by one. I took baby steps to countries nearby - starting with Maldives for a honeymoon trip, then on to Singapore for establishing a family, the net slowly widened to include Hong Kong and Malaysia. Then one fine day, the baby steps turned to a leap and landed I did Down Under!

One of the reasons which make me look fondly at my fellow singaporeans is that they celebrate the chinese new year for 2 days - which, translated, means we get more holidays! Though we had known about the holidays beforehand, a lull in office work spurred us to take consecutive days off and book passage to Australia. (I know I should say 'flight to Australia' - but 'Passage' is much better sounding and Old Worldy!!)

A drizzly night found us landing at the Darwin airport located on the northern tip of the Oz land.We rented a car from AVIS and drove to our hotel - where an almost-rude desk clerk said we can check in not one minute before 12 noon. So bundling our bags, we scoured the Darwin streets in search of a place to rest our tired, sleep ridden selves (I LOVE how much of a traveller I sound!!!). Save a few aborigines on the streets, most of Darwin was sleeping. Finally, we chanced upon a friendly cafe owner who was just opening his shop who pointed out Maleluca on Mitchell to us - a backpacker's accomodation. (If you're a newbie, see Note to know what a Backpacker's accomodation is)

After much needed sleep and bath, it was on to Italian Brunch at Chianti's. After Singapore, we felt like we were paying exorbitant amounts for food. We had paid less for petrol! If we had come straight from India, we would've gone without food!
By this time it was afternoon and we could check in at the Darwin Central Hotel - and were very impressed when we did so. The room was spacious, comfy and cozy. And the bed was very welcoming compared to the warm Darwin sun pouring thru the window.
Resisting the impulse to sleep yet more, we set out to explore the city - and found it almost as sleepy as it was in the early morning.

This state capital can be compared to one of our large developing villages - a few main streets filled with shops, hotels and bars, one mall and people going about their business slowly and you're sure they all have time to 'stop and smell the roses'.

A sign over a little eatery begged us to enter - "Little India" it proclaimed with audacity, whilst serving malaysian dishes that we were all too used to at S'pore! After a hasty microwaved roti, we drove around the city, taking in its few tourist attractions. Soon it was time for Aquascene, where we get to feed fish that come up with the tide and swim quite tamely between our feet.

If the fish could've spoken, they would've given a new meaning to our local phrase ' as loud as a fishmarket'. The fight for the pieces of bread we were throwing them was raging in that fish kingdom and they were quite unashamedly swimming over, under and beside each other to grab a bite. Dignity was a word they had never heard of!!

After this entertaining spectacle of watching fishes making fools of themselves, we went to a Sailing club nearby from where we caught a glorius sunset. We also included the Mindel Beach, Cullen Bay, Dudley Point and East Point in our circuit. It makes no sense for me to explain each - travel brochures already do that. And a dinner at Garam Masala (yes!) wound up Day 1 in Australia for M&M. (See Note)

Since this post is long enough already, I'll close it here and start Day 2 in another one. (Grrrrr... Do I hear relieved sighs?)




Note 1.Backpacker's Accommodation
In two words..Cheap accommodation. Rooms with only bare necessities.

Note 2. M&M
Not the candy brand. This is us - I and my Hubs.

A Magical Journey

In the midst of the busy hustle and bustle of Chennai Central Railway Station, there were four figures scanning the information board.

"Shatabdi Express on Platform 2A"

We four started in search of 2A. We saw platform 2. We saw platform 3. And we saw a solid wall seperating the two. Nowhere could we see 2A. I and Niv turned to each other. "This is just like Harry Potter! Are we supposed to walk through it?", we giggled. Then Sarat walked a little way ahead and found 2A tucked between 2 and 3 snugly.

We were excited to be on Shatabdi. It was our first time. Our idea of an 'AC Chair Car' was a usual sort of train with no option of berths. With this impression I entered my coach and was hit with stares from a sea of faces! It was like entering a plane. It was like I was given a new toy, to play with and to discover the many things that it can do.

The train pushed off and soon an announcement came on air from the Train Superintendent. The whole setup was so like a flight. I wonder which came first? Plane or Shatabdi?

Soon we were given tea and sandwiches. Munching the sandwiches, we spent the time talking and sight seeing through the window. Time crawled on. The sandwich was over. The topics were exhausted. It was too dark to see outside. Ennui was setting in.

Relief came in the form of Coach Attendants. This time they were bringing soup. That helped to somewhat vary the monotony.

Even a soup has to end sometime. Out came a book which helped to pass time. But the chairs were in an uncomfortable angle to enable a good read. By this time another hour had passed and our guardian angels now came in bringing dinner. And that provided entertainment for a half hour. After that, we again began to crave some entertainment.

That's when Snehil entered the scene. Snehil is a lively one-and-a-half-year old sitting right behind us with his Ma and Papa. He was fascinated with our camera and came sat with us. Soon he was fascinated with other stuff. My bracelet, the fan switch, the story book, the magazine, an old ticket, pencil, wafers all were playthings! By a strange and happy coincidence, when it was his bedtime, we had reached our journey's end.

'Twas a happy and content four that got off the train at Bangalore. Wait...don't I mean Bengaluru?
;-)

My First Travelogue!

Sonu Nigam is humming ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’ in my ears. A cold wind is brushing my face. We’re coursing along a mountain route. I see a great green carpet of tea plants in the moonlight. I hear snatches of conversation around me; “Hey you took the 9 of spades”, “lakshminarayanan srinivasan are you there?”, “hey Praveen adutha paatu paadu da (Hey Praveen, sing the next song)”. How did I end up here?

We’re on our 3rd day of our much-looked-forward-to trip! It all started with one of my best friends getting married at Salem. Our gang planned to couple the wedding trip with a sight seeing tour. Since about a month before the actual tour, lunch time conversations consist of nothing but “trip planning”.

We started from Chennai Friday night. Two decks of cards came out when the train started moving. After some good games, we all felt considerate of other passengers and told each other dutifully that it was time to switch off the lights. Up came the berths and we all curled up intending to sleep. None felt sleepy!!! Slowly we looked at each other and all sat up in their berths. The conversations started then! We discussed life in general, love, marriage, family, parents, friends, colleagues, career… everything but the kitchen sink! One by one dropped off and finally it was just me and Vidya still continuing the discussion! Conversation with a friend lasting all night long – try it! I can’t explain the special feeling of bonding that arises from such convo!

We got our first look of Salem in the dawn of Saturday. That whole day and the Sunday morning were spent totally in the marriage celebrations! Sunday afternoon our van was ready to take us to Marayoor, the place where we had booked rooms.

We started from Salem all geared up for the sightseeing! With stops on the way for lunch at Kangeyam, to get a permit to enter Kerala at Pollachi and for tea at Udumalpet, we finally reached our destination Marayoor, Idukki District, Kerala at night. Our rooms at Chandana Residency were comfortable and we liked the first look of them which washed away our fears of getting cheated by what we saw of the hotel in the Internet! Since our rooms were adjacent, we could go from one room to another just by climbing over the balconies! We all freshened up, had dinner and while some went to sleep, some of us assembled at the balcony and played cards till after midnight! I went to sleep in pleasurable anticipation of what the next day has in store!

I awoke to the sound of Nivi saying “Mathi wake up!! Come and see outside, it’s great”. I sat up groggily and blinked at the muted sunlight. My watch showed 6.00am. I pulled on a jacket and went and stood at the balcony. All I could see was a green, green field spreading from the other side of the street and beyond that a row of brownish green mountains whose tips were wearing cloudy crowns. We planned to take a walk and left the room. That’s when I got the next surprise. Our room opened to a corridor through which we saw more mountains in the same uniform. Our hotel was plump in the middle of a valley! We took a long slow walk along the street with Thiru clicking away with his new camera. We bought coffee from a small mom-and-pop shop on the way. After we drank that down, we walked back to the hotel ready to start the trip!

While we were getting ready Suku was planning the day’s course with a map. Since we wanted to make Munnar our ultimate destination we decided to make Dolmen Caves our first stop. This cave lies on the way to Munnar from Marayoor. We reached the place where the mountains formed a kind of “U” and the road to the cave was situated in the bend. The road was not open to the Van so we walked down the path. We kept walking through the undergrowth, and suddenly we saw that ‘Two roads diverged in the woods’. Since both of them looked well traveled by, we chose the right one and just kept forging ahead without reaching anywhere. After a while the track ended abruptly!After that it was just a sheer fall. So we all trooped back and now took the left track. We passed a small culvert on the way and when we over the wall we saw that there was a tiny waterfall!! With a whoop, we slid down the sides and reached our waterfall. We squealed with joy when our feet touched the water…it was so cold! Some one then had the bright idea to thrust just the head thru the screen of water! We all lined up and did it!!! After a while we realized that we still hadn’t actually seen the Dolmen Cave. But no one was in the mood to leave! We finally left the place and walked on. The end of the road had a small dark Temple. We assumed (maybe wrongly!) that maybe the Temple is the cave after all! But we didn’t regret not seeing the cave a bit!

We came back to the Van and went to our next destination, Lakkam Falls. This was another amazing place for waterbabies like us! The Falls wasn’t a mighty expanse. It was a medium-sized yet proud sheet of water! We spent, like, an hour in the water, forgetting everything like lunch, time, and the need to go to the next place! I think the best kind of trip is the one you take where you enjoy to your heart’s content and don’t bother about wanting to include everything on the map!

There was a particularly deep place just at the feet of the Falls where we could actually swim! That was my first experience of swimming at a place other than a pool! When I went underwater, the whole world around me was green, the sunlight was piercing the water and I could see tiny rocks far below at the waterbed! That was a lucky-to-be-alive moment!

Other friends who hadn’t gotten into the water started yelling it was time to go, only then we left! From there we reached Munnar where we had time only for lunch and some souvenir shopping since we had to travel about 40+ km back to reach Marayoor. By the time we started it was dark. The full moon kept us company all the way back. There were fireflies blinking like tiny dots of fire along the road. That wide huge expanse of mountain sides in the moonlight was one sight I’ll carry to my deathbed!

The next day our driver refused to take us up the mountains again, saying that the Van has some problems. So we decided to go visit some lower areas. Our first stop was Tirumoorthi Dam where we went boating. On the way we saw windmills which presented a mighty sight! From there we visited Aazhiyar Dam. I felt a secret connection to this Dam since my mother had told me that my grandfather was the Chief Engineer for this Dam Project.

Next stop was Monkey Falls. It wasn't as much a falls as a cascade of water. We scrambled up to find the origin of the falls and saw that the flowing water was actually a leak from an old dilapidated dam! But since we reached the place near closing time we couldn’t spend much time there. Tired, wet and happy we finally left the area and were on our way to Coimbatore to catch our train!

The trip has given us a lot of memories, filled with laughter, jokes, ribbings, leg-pullings, bursting-into-song moments, feasts for the eyes and of course fights! Without the fights there wouldn’t have been the proper mix of spices to make this complete! Fight we may, Love we may, our principle was Har pal yahan jeebhar jiyo, Jo hai sama kal ho na ho (Live every moment here to your heart's content, The time that is here may not be tomorrow)!! And we did!