Amazing Greenery

Being in bangalore, it’s almost impossible to not hear about Wayanad, if you are bitten by travel bug. Finally, in June, 08, I was able to plan the trip to Wayanad at very short notice without being able to book any hotel/resort in advance.

We started from bangalore at 5:30a.m. one saturday morning, crossed Mysore Palace by 8a.m., had breakfast at Kamat on road towards Bandipur and reached Kalpetta by 11a.m. started searching for a hotel, and luckily since the school holidays had ended and it was start of rainy season, it was not so much crowded. We got some rooms available at least at every hotel we enquired, however, finally settled at The Woodlands. Booked only for one day as we were thinking of booking some resort for the next day.

After some rest, we enquired about the sightseeing places around and what we could cover same day. Since dam and Pookat lake used to close around 5p.m. and it was already 3:30, we decided to go to Soochhipara waterfalls. The receptionist confirmed that because of last few days rain, there was good enough water in the falls. While on the way, we took a wrong turn and got the first treat of the day for our eyes. Lush green tea estates on one side of the road with Chembra peak at the back was enough reason to come out of the car and forget about the waterfalls. The peak is unique in the sense it seems like green carpet is laid out till the very top of it. Just as good as in the photographs you may see on websites.

The long winding road on the way to falls, we stopped at several places. Tea estates, coffee estates and just plain jungles. It looked like we are covering Munnar, Coorg and Ooty all in same day. One has to walk almost 1km from the parking and then walk down the stairs to the base of the falls. Not fit for too elederly or people with small kids. However, just for scenery on the way, I will recommend you drive and come back.

Next morning, we went to Kuruva island. It also takes half a day at least including the travel time ffrom kalpetta. The drive was again scenic. When we reached the island, it started pouring and the security guy there told the river is deep enough to not cross on foot. We crossed the river by boat to reach kuruva island. There is nothing to see in the island except that you can walk through the island on a muddy road. However, the real fun was waiting at the end. It’s a group of 63 islands through which Kabini river wades through. It creates channels of water rapids between the islands and it’s real fun crossing the river to reach another island and so on. It’s not so easy and not so difficult, just good enough. Though, it’s better to hire a guide so that you know if it’s too deep at some point. Photo attached with us in the middle of rapid sitting at one rock.

Till now we had become sure that we will end up spending all our time in sightseeing and so left the idea of booking into some resort and extended our stay in same hotel.After we came back to Kalpetta, had lunch and headed towards Pookat lake. The lake is very calm and scenic, was less crowded that day. However, couldn’t do boating because there was huge waiting. I wonder what they do in peak season since the number of boats in operation were so small in number.

Went to lakkidi view point which is on highway to Calicut. Since we were already overwhelmed with the scenery, we had expected the view point to be something similar. However, this time it was not the view of the hills but the valley view. It was already 5p.m. by the time we reached there and we could see the mist rising from bottom of the valley to the top where we stood. We could just spend entire day sitting there probably and still not feel enough.

On way back, I took a turn to see Rain country resort. The road led to a hill from where we had a n awesome view and the clouds slowly started encirling our car. Just want to go there again and stay at the same resort.

Wanted to see Edakkal caves next day, but we had planned to see Mysore palace and Vrindavan Gardens so left early from Wayanad and skipped it. Through Bandipur, saw a group of deer grazing just near the road.

I would like to strongly recommend Wayanad to everyone. Wayanad is one more reason for Kerala’s claim to God’s own country.

History not 'deserted'

Jaisalmer is an unique destination because of two things. One, it’s proximity to the famous thar sand dunes and another, probably, the only living fort in India. That’s why I titled this review, "History not deserted". The Golden Fort in Jaisalmer still houses about 600 families within its compound walls and comprises of hotels, restaurants, markets and whatever one can imagine in a small touristy town. I was told that during emergency, king thought that entire fort could be nationalized and so he gave ownership of their residences to those 600 families who used to stay inside the fort and therefore, it remained occupied. Ofcourse, the town currently extends well beyond the fort walls.


It's also very popular with the foreign tourists and so, lot of hotels and restaurants cater to them. One can find Italian/continental food more easily than proper Rajasthani food in Rajasthani heartland. Also, unlike Jodhpur and Mount Abu, the food is not good in cheaper eateries.

There are many camps which run in winter season only near the sand dunes. One can have a camel ride to the dunes in the evening and stay in these camps at night with dinner and cultural programs as value adds. After much research, I zeroed in on Desert Safari Camp and booked a tent. It was expensive and it was heartbreaking. At that price, we got a breakfast buffet really wanting in variety and a dinner buffet, which was heavily crowded because of day visitors.


Talk about cultural programs. I am very sorry to say it’s a ploy to just fool and loot foreign visitors. The quality of these programs is one of the very worst, the dancers are untrained and they are performed very unprofessionally. The better option, as far as I could guess later, one can stay in one of the most expensive hotels in Jaisalmer and just visit the sand dunes in the evening and come back. Probably, the cultural programs there would be better, though, I didn’t get time to check that.


Also, don’t get lured by the fact that you will stay near to the dunes at night. Whichever camps I saw including the one I stayed in, were at least a few kms away from dunes and the landscape resembled any village in plains.Sand dunes are an attraction in itself. However, more often than not, tourists are dumped on a particular sand dune, whichever happens to be nearest, in numbers. So, you find all over camel or human foot marks over the sand.

We took a camel safari for 2 hours and went for a sand dune further down and there we could shoot the way they are naturally with wrinkles. Those who think they will be rewarded with a view of sand all around till horizon will get disappointed like me. Actually, sand dunes are followed by some barren land and then some other dune follows. Though, their length is adequate, the width of the dunes is usually not so and one can easily see the land beyond the sand a few hundred metres away. Still, you can always get a shot which gives an impression that you are standing in a never ending ocean of sand.

There are hotels all over the fort, small houses converted to few room hotels. Foreign visitors are attracted to them for they get to stay inside the fort and usually they all have some antique feeling associated with them. However, Indians and especially from north will be disappointed with the kind of rooms they get at that price inside the fort. The better option is to book into some hotels outside the fort which are more spacious and star category hotels.

It’s better one hires a guide for sightseeing which basically is the fort and havelis. Jaisalmer has one of the finest stone carvings on display and that’s why everywhere camera tickets are more than per person charge. Most of the houses in the fort have carved jharokhas on their outer walls. My guide told that earlier it used to be a symbol of richness. The more carvings, richer they were. Jain temple and palace is a must visit inside the fort. Patwon ki haveli, built by five brothers who were Nagar Seth, is the richest in carving details. I was overwhelmed when I stood in between the five havelis on whose walls, the carvings were so fine that entire wall looked like made of wood.

Jodhpur and Mandore

In any tourist guide, the first three must to visit places in Jodhpur are Mehrangarh Fort, Jaswant Thada and Umeid Bhawan Palace. The palace has been turned into a hotel and it’s waste to go to visit inside even after paying a meagre 15 bucks since they just show you two rooms with some antique items which probably they couldn’t use even for hotel interior decor. If your budget permits, better have a visit to their restaurant or stay there(the latter is quite a budget!!) to really see something worthwhile.

The fort is one of the very well maintained ones however, many parts of it are just remains of a foregone era. There is a museum also inside which houses the weaponry, and other antique articles used by kings and queens. The fort walls are beautifully carved, however, not as good carving as in Jaisalmer (Read about it in my Jaisalmer review). A few rooms are well preserved, though.

The real thing and about which I would like to talk a bit more is Mandore. This was the capital of state before Jodhpur. However, now it is a victim of government’s apathy and poor maintenance. The famous Mandore Gardens is free to visit, even for Langoors. If you visit the place, you can easily make out the difference what it could have been and what it has become. Probably it is not in foreign tourists’ map and so government hasn’t cared for it as well as it cares for monuments in jodhpur. And I really wonder why it is not in foreign tourists’ map if that’s really the case.

Mandore gardens has chhatris which have been buit in memory of certain kings. It’s a really beautiful place and despite the neglect, it towers the Fort and Palace in my memory. Obviously, since it’s free it’s crowded on most of the days still if you can find some lonely corner and stare at those monuments, it’s worth going there. And believe me, even if you are least interested in architecture or historical monuments, you can keep your eyes on them for quite a while.

Jodhpur city is like any other 2 tier city and you will have to dig hard to find any glimpse of rich heritage. Except that all the houses and buildings are made of stone and exteriors are almost uniform throughout. However, it’s called blue city and you can see the old city from the fort which mainly comprises of houses painted blue.

I had the famous ’Makhania Lassi’ too. It’s distinctly different from the kind of lassi that Punjabi and UP people refer to. It’s very thick and not meant for people on strict diet or whose stomach can’t accomodate enough.:-) However, the shop (Mishrilal’s) really needs renovation. Especially so when the shop has become kind of tourist place where even foreigners just come and take a seat and the service boys just bring the lassi glasses without even waiting for them to order.

All in all, an okay place but I assign ’good’ rating because of Mandore only.

Mount Abu

I visited this Rajasthani hill station in Dec, 2007 during my Rajasthan trip. It’s also very near to Ahmedabad so lot of gujaratis travel to this place for a day trip or weekend stay.

I travelled from Bangalore by Jodhpur Exp. It stops at Abu road, which is the nearest railway station from Mount abu at about 28kms. One can hire a taxi or bus to reach Mount Abu for Rs300 at max(250 or less in off season). The road goes through a wildlife sanctuary with langoors abound, and if you are lucky, you can see some leopard or a bear at best. It’s perfectly safe to travel on this road at night and taxis etc ply from Abu Road station to Mount Abu 24 hrs a day.

If one has already travelled enough destinations already, the tendancy is to compare. And at first sight, Mount Abu seems very unimpressive compared to more popular South indian cousins like Ooty, Munnar etc more because the color of flora in Mount Abu blends so well into the rocky terrain that it seems almost barren and naked from a distance. However, as I mentioned, there is a quite dense forest out there.

Nakki lake is the center point of Mount Abu and quite a attraction. There are different kinds of boats available, including the not so commonly found, Shikara boat. It’s one of the most well maintained lakes surrounded by a rocky boundary. However, it’s serenity is most of the times perturbed by loud speakers in nearby restaurants and shops. Avoid going very near to the lake boundary while boating. There is a not so busy road adjoining the lake and when we went one group was drinking and made several abusive comments, that kind of spoiled all the fun.

View points are always a highlight of any hill station and Mount Abu is no exception. However, most of the view points in Mount Abu (Guru Shikhar, Honeymoon Point, Sunset point) offer similar landscape. One unique aspect of view points here is the expanse of land one can see, probably because there is no other mountain in the surrounding region to block the line of sight. From the highest point, Guru Shikhar, our guide showed some small hills close to Pakistan border some 580kms away. This is quite unlike other hill stations where one peak is usually followed by a valley and another neighboring peak limiting the view to few kms, not to say, it’s any less splendid.

From the top, if you are a hindi movie buff, your guide can show you the location where Aamir Khan and Karishma stayed in Raja Hindustani film. Also, one can see distant hills surrounded in mist offering a dreamy scenery. Mount Abu is also famous for Dilwara Temples. Don’t get disheartened by the less than average exteriors of the temple complex. It’s the inside that’s interesting.

In Mount Abu, almost all the hotels(even the most expensive ones like Hillock, Hilltone) are on the same road. So to say, you are not rewarded with some splendid location if one books into a resort. So if one is looking for value for money, or budget, or if you want to save money for some other destination, one can get away very cheaply in Mount Abu with decent quality accomodation and food.

We stayed in SRP Inn run by Seth Sri Raghunath das Parihaar Dharmshala Trust and it was a steal in just 350 bucks for a room. The suite room(with a TV)costs 500. It’s very clean and well maintained, rooms are spacious and food is good. However, this hotel doesn’t allow drinking and non veg food in its premises and very strict about it (heavy penalty in case of violation) and allows only families to come in. If one is okay with these restrictions(we were), then I will definitely recommend this.

In short, I will not recommend this destination as strongly as I recommend Munnar to everyone. However, if you are around the place, it’s worth a visit.