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.

L

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