Monsoon Trip to Ooty

We had been to Ooty a couple of times earlier. But this time, we wanted to experience the monsoons in the Nilgiris. Hence we decided to go on a monsoon trip to Udagamandalam, popularly known as Ooty.

At Charring Cross

Route:
Bangalore -> Mysore -> Bandipur ->  Ooty(around 300 kms)
There are basically two routes to go from Bandipur to Ooty. One is via Masinagudi which has 36 hairpin bends. It has very sharp hairpin bends and hence on a monsoon trip, we decided to avoid this route and take the other route via Gundlupet. This way it was around additional 30 kms, but safe driving.

Accomodation:
We stayed in "Holiday Inn Cottages", which is around 2 kms from Ooty city center. Its a decent place to stay. They have all the basic amenities like in house restaurant, Children's play area (which is really big and kids would just love it), generator backup(which is really needed due to frequent power cuts), geyser, hot drinking water supply, etc.
We booked a 4 bedroom room, as we were traveling with my in laws. It was around Rs. 3500 per room (breakfast included)

Day 1:
Due to the bad condition of the roads caused by monsoons and the frequent breaks demanded by our little champ, and also a lot of work in progress on roads,  it took us almost 9 hours to reach Ooty, which usually takes around 5-6 hours. The last time when we had gone in a lighter shade of monsoon, it took us around 5.5 hours. We left in the morning at around 6 and reached Ooty at around 3 in the afternoon. We had breakfast in a restaurant on Mysore road and lunch in a hotel just before entering Bandipur. My suggestion would be to leave a little early so that you reach on time.

A cup of hot chai with some hot delicious pakodas were ready for us when we entered the home stay. By then monsoon had already showed its presence. So we decided to visit the market area. Did some chocolate shopping with loads of home made chocolates. We had dinner in a Rajasthani hotel in Ooty, my inlaws being very happy with their food. Finally we came back to our hotel and planned for the next day.

Day 2:
After having a great breakfast, we left for Dodabetta, which is the highest peak in the Nilgiris. It is around 8 kms from city center. Once we reached there, it started raining heavily and was windy too. After waiting for around 10 mins for rain to subside, finally we left to see the peak. Also bought a rainbow colored umbrella from there, it was the most essential thing we forgot to carry with us. The valley view was covered with fog and mist. But it is really fun to hang there in the monsoons and the strong winds.

After Dodabetta, we decided to go to Conoor which is around 20 kms from there. It is a different city and the route to Conoor is just breathtaking. Do not miss out to visit Conoor if you plan to visit Ooty. There is a toy train from Ooty to Conoor and back. But it needs advance train reservations and also takes around 5 hours for the travel. More ever, car will take you around 2 hours only.

In Conoor, we visited the sims park. It is like botanical garden and is really vast. In Conoor, monsoons had subsided so we could really enjoy the sims park. It was lunch time and we managed to get a decent hotel just next to the park.

We decided to skip the view point called "Lambs Rock" as it may be cloudy  and valley view may not be possible. I remember the last time when we visited this place, the drive was really adventurous with very narrow roads covered with dense fog.

We started back to Ooty. On the way, there is a golf club. We stopped by to see golf, but the guard stopped us as it was military area probably. So we had to move further.

By the time we reached Ooty, it was evening and we went directly to the Ooty lake. It was raining quite heavily there. so no boating services. Horse ride is also available there.



Very near to the lake, there is a dinosaur park. I guess the ticket costs around 400 per head. If you are interested, you can also visit that. Since we were tired, we did not visit that place.

Day 3:
The next day morning also it started raining. After having breakfast, we checkedout from the home stay. On the way, visited the Pykara Lake and Falls. We reached home late evening.

On the way, as we passed through the Bandipur forests, could see many many animals on the way.

Trip to Yerkaud

It was the long awaited long-weekend of October. Every soul in every corner of Bangalore was longing for this vacation. Due to the long weekend, most of the resorts were fully booked. After a big struggle, I managed to find an available resort in Yerkaud and quickly booked it online.

Yerkaud is a small hill station situated in Tamil Nadu and is around 5 hours drive from Bangalore. That would also avoid us the Mysore road and its Dushera rush.

Route:
Bangalore -> Krishnagiri -> Dharmapuri -> Salem -> Yerkaud (ard 225 kms)

The road from Bangalore till Salem is a perfect 4 lane road.
Bangalore -> Krishnagiri is the Chennai Expressway.
In Krishnagiri, take the road towards Salem.
From Salem, take a right to reach Yerkaud. From there, the uphill ascent starts with 20 hairpin bends. (ard 30 kms)
This drive from Salem to Yerkaud is really pleasant and enchanting with the dense forests, the mountains, the monkeys, the mist.

Accomodation:
We stayed in the GreenBerry Resort which on the way to Pagoda point.
It is nestled in the lush green forests, around 3 kms away from Yerkaud city.
They have a in house restuarent and also childrens play area.
As it was away from the city, our stay there was very pleasant.

Day 1:
We left Bangalore at 6 in the morning and reached Yerkaud at ard 11.30 noon.
Usually it takes ard 4-5 hours. But due to heavy rush at the Hosur toll gate, we took one hour extra.

Once you enter the Yerkaud town, the first thing that u see is the Yerkaud Lake. There are different boating options available. You can either go for motor boat or pedal boat or row boat. We went for row boating.

Next to it is the Deer Park. Though it is called deer park, you will find many other animals there like peacock, Guinea pig, etc. There are also some swings to entertain the kids.

Thats Charvi feeding the rabbits...

From there, we further went to Ladies Seat, from where you can get a view of the valley. Next to it, is the Gents Seat and also the Rose Garden. After savouring the authentic fruit called "RamFal", we returned back to our resort. Below is the picture of  the warning painted on rock next to the Ladies Seat.

In the late evening, we started for the Pagoda Point. The drive to this place is very scenic. Pagoda point is again a view point, but on a cliff where you get a good view of Salem city. The bext time to visit this place is in the late evening. We reached there at around 6.00 PM, when there was still some daylight. The experience of seeing the daylight fading away and taken over by moonlight was a mesmerizing one. Slowly we could see the lights in Salem city coming up.

After a wholesome happening day, we went back to the yerkaud town for dinner. The food options here are really less, especially if you are not a Chettinad fan. Once again we had to survive on the "Kal Dosa".

Day 2:
After having "Kal Dosa" once again for breakfast, we checked out of our resort and then started for Raja Rajeshwari temple. Since it was Dushera, we had reserved all temple visits for that day.

After the Raja Rajeshwari temple visit, we went further to visit the Servaroyan temple. This temple has a narrow and dark cave dedicated to the God Servarayan and the Goddess Kaveri. This place is usually very misty as it is the highest point in Yerkaud.

Finally we went to the Anna Park, which is just opposite the Big Lake. After a big stroll there, we decided to head back. After some fruit shopping - RamFal, Figs and Butter Fruit, we started our way back at around 12.30 PM. We had lunch at Dominos in Salem. On the way, also shopped some firecrackers in Hosur for Diwali preparations. Finally reached home at 6.00 PM.

Pondy Mahabalipuram Trip

One Friday morning, I got a surprise call from my husband. He said - "Start packing your bags. Guess what...We are going on a vacation to Pondy."
It was christmas time and everyone was in vacation mood in office. It was almost after 2 years we were going on a vacation, so we both were very excited. Fortunately I was at home that day, so I could manage packing the bags.

Route:
The initial plan was to go to Pondy but later we also visited Mahabalipuram.
Route to Pondy:
Bangalore -> Krishnagiri -> Vellore -> Cheyyar -> Vandavasi -> Tindivanam -> Pondicherry (ard 380 kms)
We left Blore at around 6 in the morning and reached Pondy at 1.00 PM. The road till Vellore is just awesome as it is the 6 lane Chennai express way.Further it is a single lane road and the route is quite confusing at times. On the way, we had breakfast at Krishnagiri.
From Pondy to Mahabalipuram, we took the East Coast road which runs parallel to the coastline. It is just 100 kms and should be around 2 hours drive.
Route back to Blore
Mahabalipuram -> Chengalpattu -> Kanchipuram -> Vellore -> Krishnagiri -> Bangalore (ard 350 kms)

Accomodation:
In Pondicherry, we stayed in Anandha Inn Resorts for 3 days
In Mahabalipuram, we stayed in Pallava Dynasty for 2 days

Day 1: In Pondicherry
We reached Pondy at around 1.00 PM. After having lunch, we took a short nap and then explored the resort. In the evening, we went to the Promenade beach. It is a rocky beach and hence one cannot enter the waters. This was a little disappointment for us. But the beach was really beautiful. We spent the whole evening on the beach side. Along the beach side, you can also see many Fench colonies. There is also this French War Memorial and a Gandhi statue. After having dinner, we returned back to our hotel.

Day 2: In Pondicherry
We got up early morning to visit the beach again, this time to see the sunrise. To our surprise, there was a huge crowd at the beach side. Most of the people had come for morning walk. And some were tourists like us, who had come to experience the divine sunrise. After capturing the sunrise in our eyes, we retuned back to our hotel. Breakfast was included complimentary in our package. After filling our tummies, we started with our next tourist spot - the well known Aurobindo Ashram. Kids are not allowed to enter this Ashram, Hence we had to go one by one. The Ashram is full of potted plants and you can see people in deep meditation around the samadhi. They also sell books on Aurobindo's works - the Mother. After this. we next headed towards Pondy museum. It showcases a wide diversity from astronomy to history. After the museum, we visited the Pondycherry Botanical Gardens. Finally we retuned back to our hotel. After lunch followed by a short nap, we continued our sight seeing again. We visited the Church of Sacred Jesus. It is very huge and has a Gothic architecture. Next we visted the Paradise beach, which is the only sandy beach in Pondy. By the time we reached there, it was very late evening and and the beach was very lonely and dark, so we decided to return back. On the way back, we had dinner in a Vietnamese Restuarent. You can find lot of Thai, Vietnamese, Italian and French restuarents here.

Day 3: In Pondicherry
After having breakfast in the hotel, we left towards the lake. It is around half an hour drive. The lake is very big and they also have boating facilities. We decided to go for motor boat as we had an infant daughter. The boat ride is for half an hour and it will take a complete round of the lake. You can spot some species of birds on a small island housed by the lake. After the mesmerising boat ride, we then went back to our hotel. We had lunch in our hotel and after a short nap started again towards the Paradise beach. My hubby was hoping to have a bath there. There were some handful of people this time on the beach. But the beach is quite deep and hence not suitable for taking a bath. So we just had a stroll along the beach dipping our legs in the water and playing with the water. On the way back, we again visited our favourite Promenade beach and had dinner in one of the restuarents there and returned back. On our way back, we also visited "Pothys". It is a huge shopping mart.

Day 4: In Mahabalipuram
After checking out from the resort, we started our journey to Mahabalipuram. The road to Mahabalipuram runs parallel to the East coastline, and hence it turned out to be a very pleasant drive. Once we reached Mahabalipuram, our first task was hotel hunt. We quickly managed to find a very good hotel in the centre of the city. After reaching there, we realised that it is a very small town. The owner told us that Indian Dance Festival had started there just 2 days back and we should not miss to see that. I guess thats the reason the place was flooded with foreigners. The same day in the evening we went to see the sea shore. The walk to the sea shore was difficult as the place was loaded with tourists and stalls. After that, we went to see the Dance festival. It was a good experience. Earlier we had decided to stay just one day here. But after visiting this place, we fell in love with it and decided to extend by one more day.

Day 5: In Mahabalipuram
Next day, early morning, we went to the beach to see the sun rise. The beach was not very clean but fine enough for a bath and my hubby did not miss this golden oppurtunity. On the other hand, I was having some fun time with my daughter. After the divine bath, we next went to the Varaha caves. The small trekking was really fun. Then we visited the Light House, from where you can get a good view of this town and also the beach. then we visited "Arjuna's Penance" There is also this Stone, which is known for its balancing technique. Then we visted some temples. By then, it was evening time, and we could not miss the Bharatnatyam dance at the Dance Festival. Late night, we explored the city and did some shopping. This city is known for stone sculptures. Here you can see lot of people carving amazing items from stone.

Day 6: In Mahabalipuram
It was the last day of our vacation. Early morning, we visited the Sea Shore Temple and then the Five Rathas. Both these monuments are listed as World Heritage sites and they are must see places in Mahabalipuram. Finally at around 12.00 PM, we left for Bangalore and reached home at around 7.00 PM.

We will always cherish and relive all those wonderful memories and the amazing time spent with family in this trip.