The Quest for Red Rain!!

Craving doesn’t have boundaries. And craving something as weirdly amusing as “Red rain” is definitely not questionable. The moment I saw this picture, I was like “Red rain? Seriously?”. Googling it up would’ve spoiled the fun allnd so we packed our bags and were out 
on the roads to our quest for red rain.

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Bangalore-Theni- Thekkady

Throughout these 500 kms of a pleasant start, continued with getting horribly tanned in the Tamil Nadu sun, dancing through the musically vibrant towns, eating delicious food at every step and travelling 3 states in a day, one thing remained constant. And that was the excitement that made us scream like kids on the roads, “We’re going to Idduki and we will see red rain”.

By 8pm, we were in Thekkady, which did not seem like any other tourist place at all-'Some lottery shops on the right, people walking around in the market, a bus stand on the left with an open theatre playiThe“Gandhi” for a fact that it was Oct 2 and some food carts serving steaming hot idlis.'

The best part was, even with all these people around, not for a moment did that place feel noisy or crowded. 
We went straight to our homestay- Claus Garden. How we wished Omana aunty would adopt us. This one is so beautifully made that you'd never feel like leaving.

Day 2

Not planning has it’s own pros and cons. Getting up in the foggy dawn and wondering what to do is one of them. 
“So the closest option is Periyar Lake. Why don't we just go there and figure out the rest later?”

 

At the Periyar Tiger Reserve checkpost, hungry as we are always, we found this chai place open. Vadas/idlis/apams, 
everything was delicious there. 
That itself made our day..A
beautiful ride among the lush green forest and the fresh breeze touching the face as if it was -


 
-wishing us a great morning, led us to the lake we
 couldn't afford to enter. That place was like a kumbh mela at 7 in the
 morning. Not even 5 seconds and we knew 
where we were headed next-“Vagamon”.

with Stella aunty and friends 

That's Jaya Jackson and Rajni

“Walking on clouds and paragliding was a little i knew about this place”. 
 But did we have expectations? No. 
 So surprises were in store
 for us. Thekkady to Vagamon was one hell of a
 ride.
 Stella aunty and her estate friends, Jaya
 Jackson and team, some excited and some
 scared kids we threw chocolates at, were our
 company through all the right and wrong turns
 we took.

selfie time :D

And i forgot her name

Sat near the flowing stream for some blissful sketching time

The "wrong" turn we took at Wagamon

Day 3

The Claus family

Another try to the Periyar Lake was justifiable is 
what we thought. The routine was the same as the previous day. Just that today we atleast had a glance at the lake. Maybe, for us Periyar lake was just a
place to have amazing breakfast and plan the rest of the day. So we packed our luggage, took a picture with the Claus family and left for Chellarkovil.

I don’t know how we ended up going to Chellarkovil just by seeing a picture on the internet.
And so it wasn’t less of a surprise. 
A bumpy, adventurous ride at the edge of the  mountain leading to a not so great guest house at the end. "THAT" was Chellarkovil. Not too great a discovery I know. Maybe we just weren’t too lucky. 

After that little disappointment, Munnar road was simply brilliant. “Those curves were sorta dangerous, got us dizzy". But then a hot cup of  coffee wasn’t too difficult to look for. Around 36km from Munnar was a view which was truly non-erasable from our memories. 

Down the green valley

It was just tea plantations to eternity. Words would not do justice if I try explain that beauty. That moment onwards, there were surprises lying for us every 500m.
About 21km from the city, at this sexy pin bend, we stopped by at Madhi uncle’s chai stall.  2 hours of admiring, jumping,some tea,coffee,Maggie and corn and finally finally it rained!!

Madhi uncle's chai stall

Hamari red rain wali maggi!!

But the rain was nowhere close to what we thought it'd be. It was plain normal colorless rain. 
But who cares!! Madhi uncle and his wife were 
quite a great company in that not-so-red pour down. Nothing could spoil the beauty of
 that moment. Not even the purpose of our travel.

with Madhi uncle and his wife

After sucha blissful time, getting stuck in 2 hour-mountain traffic-jam too wasn’t traumatic. We enjoyed even that. Made some

biker friends,screamt, guided, commented and

laughed with others around.

Now reaching Munnar was a pain in the bum, but staying there, even more. Hogged at sarvana bhavan and did the impossible of finding an accomodation for us-Rose Garden homestay, around 12km towards Kochi. Not to forget the micro-minute adventure where we almost killed ourselves at the Glenmore resorts. Rose garden was a relief for having a hassle free entry. It was a pretty comfortable nice place with some good home    food.

Day 4

Its this moment when you are no more excited coz you’re going back home. And it wasn’t just a flashback, calm and peaceful, it was a crazy way back home. Getting stuck in the horrifying-unstoppable ligtening and rain, swimming in dirty stagnant water with other vehicles, trying to start the bike for 2 hours and luckily finding a cab to get back. 
But whatsoever, If you ask me how my trip was, in one word i’d say-”GREEN”. Suddenly Bangalore sounded like Rajasthan. 

"4 days of riding in those hills and valleys makes you feel that the entire world is an extension of you, wherever you go, wherever you stay. 

As a traveler, you would never always take the right turn, and for us those wrong turns we took, made our journey worth sharing."

Some crazy moments from our trip

Bought lottery tickets both the days.
Just missed the chance of winning a crore :'(

Crazy rain we got stuck in

Route map :D

PS : Try not to order Hyderabadi biryani or fried rice in restaurants there..its a heartbreak.
Don't forget to buy a lottery ticket. You never know when your luck shiNes :D 

Exploring Madhya Pradesh-Pachmari and Ratapani

After exploring quite a lot of south, and on a long holiday at home, i was a little bored until this friend of mine rode all the way to Bhopal on his sexy Enfield just to meet me. I wanted to take him around and show him a little of the state I was brought up. So yes, after a lot of confusion on where to go, we settled on to Pachmari. First, it’s a hill station( even though equally hot as Bhopal) and second, there are waterfalls to jump in to after roaming in the hot sun.

Rata Pani Wildlife Sanctuary

So this is how the plan was made-

A night before, the four of us(Mona, Kiran, Anand and me) went out for a drive at the Bhopal-Pachmari road and saw a board that said Pachmari 195kms, and we knew it all!

 I love how random trips could get. It was just Pachmari anyways. Staying out of home all these years forgot what it is like to go out on a trip with friends being with parents. We woke up in the morning and were all set to go, but my parents weren’t. With no plans at all, I just happened to answer a rapid fire game by dad. My answer was pretty much constant "Ehh..i dunno..we'll figure out something". So yea, dad had to book the rooms and a driver to pick us up half way and mum could not let us go out empty stomach. And for bonus she packed up a lotta food too.” Mom please! There is something called a restaurant!”

1,2,3

 Anyway we let them do their chores and left home at 8am, happily driving our way through this single lane road with my sister and her brilliant history of no driving experience on the highways. So the adventure had already started. I guess we were all pretty strong hearted. Thank god mum packed food, there is nothing called  a “restaurant “on this route. 

click :D

So yes we picked up the driver from Piparia, around 60 km away from Pachmari and drove our way through the dry leaf fields around those sexy curves. 

The best way to enjoy curves is to turn back and to watch everything go away from you through the rear glass. It gives a weird satisfaction. Everyone knows it, we’ve all done that atleast once in our childhood.

We stopped at Nandan van around 2pm. That’s where we were to stay. Threw our bags in our rooms and left for the waterfall.There will be guides waiting to take you around the place.You could hire them if you want, or just explore the place yourself. A jeep drive down to the falls, almost falling off the cliff and here we were " Bee Falls"

That was just the beginning

drive to the falls

 

our personal chaiwali

A lot of walking and 190 steps definitely scared Anand, but it wasn’t too tough. Rather, getting into the water was. Freezing cold! I can feel the icy-chilled water hitting me while I type this.

But we didn’t wanna come out of the water, not coz we were enjoying too much, but coz we’d have to climb those deadly 190(felt like 400), 2’ high steps. Staring at them didn’t help and no strategy would work. “Just climb lazy bums”.

After 20 minutes of pain in the right knee, we got a slight view of the jeep waiting for us. I wanted to go hug the jeep guy but somehow controlled my feelings.
Pachmari is a day place, and unlike other tourists, we didn’t wanna go to our hotel after sunset and chit chat on the swings. Rather we decided to know the city a little better, and so we headed to the market. And we saw Neelam tea stall. Hot refreshing ginger tea is all we craved for and Mona decided to add some glamour to the stall. But we had a horrible bad luck with food. After the burnt-eggless-egg biryani at Khalsa plus the stale cheese Pizza and the hairy burger at “Pizza Café chino” (the place was cute though), we kinda lost all hopes. Maggi was such a savior! It saved me the pain of getting up at 3 in the morning and going for a treasure hunt to satisfy my tummy to continue dreaming.

Pachmari catholic church

Feeling satisfied as hell, we reached our hotels and jumped onto our beds. Before sleeping, we had a very healthy discussion about ghosts and spirits, about real life experiences, and what we know and have heard about them. We kinda got a lil too involved in it and scared the shit outa Mona with our ghost stories who had to listen to Hanuman chalisa before she slept. Poor girl with that puppy face was trying to defend herself, saying she was not scared just that she didn't want the lights off. With that Hanuman chalisa in the background, even a retard could tell.

We did get some sleep though without any of those "Highly awaited ghost rendezvous" . Early morning, we went to this tiny church nearby to put those thoughts away from our minds. Actually no,we went there for a not-so-tiny photoshoot. Ahh..these girls u know :P

Out of all the tourist attractions our driver had planned for us (Dhoopgarh, Chauragadh,Gupt Mahadev, Jata Shankar, Handi khoh), we went only to 2 of them “Handi Khoh and Gupt Mahadev”. We were too lazy and exhausted to go anywhere else. Plus, I had something else on my mind- Rata Pani.

So we drove back, dropped Mr Driver at Pipariya and headed towards Bhopal. Rata pani was just 40 km before Bhopal. To our luck, we knew nothing about that place. I forever thought it’s a dam where I’d already been and that’s it. I mistook it as Kolar dam. So what we saw and experienced was totally unexpected. After asking a few people and convincing the guards with our theatrical skills to let us in the sanctuary since we were half an hour late, we finally drove in. 

They said the dam was 11 km from there and that we would take time to reach. We started at 4:30 and trust me those 11 km took 45 min to cover, with the condition of the car and the roads and also,all our waste efforts to capture flying peacocks. But it was all worth it! What we saw then, after the 11 kms of deadly slow driving, is stamped on my heart and brain. It was exquisite! How could I never know that a place so serene and mesmerizing sat so close all the time? Well they say it right, you need to have an open eye and an open mind to explore the beauty around you. 

Breathing serenity

We sat there quietly with our feet inside the water watching those puddles creating a pattern on the setting sun’s reflection. Inner peace kinda stuff!

There was even a tower from which you can see the entire 360 degree panaromic view of the water forming an abstract art on the surrounding land.

Stuffed with a picturesque memory in our brains, we left Rata Pani at 7 pm and by 8pm, we were back home.

PS: There is a resort inside the Sanctuary, staying there for a day could be a pretty good idea.

Doodhsagar Waterfalls

Getting up in a tented suite with a forest-like feel around is just awesome, but lazying around there is even more blissful.That was what Doodhsagar Spa Resort was like.

 “So what’s the plan for today?” None of us had really thought of anything. “Why don’t we go to Doodhsagar falls and decide the rest later.” So be it.

That's Bhabhi on the backseat !

Totally unplanned for the days itinerary, we left for Doodhsagar. The only way to go to Doodhsagar Falls is to go in a Jeep or a 2-day trek (which was clearly not happening). On some days, if you are lucky, there are bikers who take you to the falls. But we weren’t all that lucky. The resort people promised to provide us a Jeep there, so we save time but that also didn’t happen.

Anyways, we rode for some 18km and reached the base where we had to park our bikes and go in Jeeps further on. That place was crowded!! So we had to wait for almost 1.5 hours, which was quite a pain for me but not for these two guys happily searching for my “Bhabhi”.

The route to the falls

It was our turn now. We sat in the Jeep and in the next 2 minutes I understood why other vehicles are not allowed there. Jumping on that muddy and rocky road, going through 2ft deep water puddles and climbing up a 45 degree slope on that not so even track is not something other cars/ bikes can do. Boy was that fun! We even found some Youth Hostel people trekking their way up to the falls. 

Doodhsagar was just how I expected it to be-mighty!! Well it’s mightier if you go in the monsoons. With all heads up looking at the crest and clicking pictures, a train just passed by the track right along the middle of the falls. I wished I was in that train, to be so close to the waterfall. It’s dreamy!

We went ahead and without any thought, jumped into the still water with our life jackets on. Swam to where the waterfall could hit our heads and make it difficult to breathe. There’s nothing like swimming in cold fresh mountain water on a hot sunny day. 

With some 100 people at the falls, only a few would actually jump into the water. And it’s funny how the others just watch, standing out with their life jackets on. After all that fun, all refreshed, we headed back to the resort.