Life - A travelogue to death

I can be so sure of this theory because, I hardly knew these mates for 3months and haven’t met them in my entire life before, but now they are my closest friends. So, we all alike minded, same frequency guys had set off to Hoganekkal.

Hogenakkal Waterfalls (A.K.A Hogenekal, Hogenekkal, Hoganakal, Hoganakal,Hogenakal, Hogennekal, Hogennekal, Hogennakal, Hoggenakal, Hoggenakkal, Hoggenekal, Hoggenekkal, Hogennakkal, and Hogennakal), known as the Niagara of India, are not a single waterfalls but a series of falls. The falls situated in the Darmapuri district of Tamil Nadu is about 180 km from Bangalore and 46 km from Dharmapuri.

We reached there early in the morning by, about 7:30. We got

down the bus and freshened ourselves by a speedy brushing anda face wash, as we were pretty sure we are going to have a good bath at the falls. We were tagged along by localities asking if we require a guide or a boatman for exploring the place. We ignored them and proceeded to a tea shop for having a cup of tea n some snacks. We then walked towards the shore where we could get a boat to view the picturesque sceneries all way through. The boat is not an ordinary boat it’s a coracle, locally known as ‘Parisal’ in Tamil and ‘teppa’ or ‘harigolu’ in Kannada. This circular shaped coracle is made of bamboo sticks tied together making an inverse arch structure and coated with tar or some sticky material at the bottom on stretched hides, and believe me its too heavy. We bargained with some oarsmen and finally got into one coracle, with the rate they told us. The bargaining didn’t go well with them…… lol JJ. We got into it carefully as instructed by the rower and took the window seats…. lol J. We coursed though the river flown from the waterfalls enjoying our Mother Nature.

The water was still, since the whole water body was enclosed by big walls of rock(But as we near the falls, the current get increased ). Onthe way we could see Small kids jumping into the 50 ft deep water from a great height. They were fearless, as if it’s a child play. I mean they are children, but it’s not a child play. The oarsman understood that we are from Kerala from the jokes that we made during the travel. He told us that Malayalam film actor Mohanal came here for a shooting and the place they shot is nearby. It was fun when we tried to row the coracle and cracking jokes all the time. The greatest thing about nature is that it teaches us to forget our entire burden in life. We saw lot of small waterfalls flowing while we row though. We halted in a small island where we had our lunch there. Don’t expect a restaurant with buffet there. It was a place where local-ite ladies prepare fried or smoked fish with rice and ‘idly’. But to be frank with it was awesome. We changed our clothes since we would have to take a bath in our next halt. We all wore swimwear’s and again hopped in to the coracle. The rower told us that some places which are restricted cus this entire falls belong to two states – Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, Where some of the falls belong to Karnataka andsome in Tamil Nadu. He also reminded us and moreover showed us the place where ‘Chinna Chinna asai’ song of tamil movie ‘Roja’ was shot. While rowing through, along came a mobile eatable shop in a coracle oat where we could buy stuffs like chips biscuits, etc. I wonder there are infinite ways which people make their livelihood.The travel was not at a stretch. We had to get down at a place, walk a little distant, while the oarsman carries the heavy coracle and again row towards the falls

Moreover, why should keralites like us take an ayurvedic massage from another state when the ayurvedic oils are been regularly used in our home. We got immersed ourselves in the cool clear water where the currents were medium low enough to get a good swim without getting drowned. For any help our rower was near us, keeping an eye on our bags and dresses.

We stayed in the water for along time playing and pushing each other into the water and taking some snaps [Explicit Content Suppressed]. We then called our rower and enjoined that we shall move on. We all got into the coracle again and rowed back to the starting point. On the way back he showed us some tricks to row the coracle differently, rotating it rapidly but still moving further. We praised it and he got happier. The more we praised the more rapidly he did it. In no more that 45 mins we returned back to the starting place. Payed the money to the rower as fixed and thanked him for giving such a wonderful trip.

We then waited for the next bus from there to Dharmapuri. As soon as it came we got in to it and from there we got a bus towards Bangalore. I then caught a night train towards Chennai from there.

Useful TipZ:

If you are working in IT industry, you would better know the state of working throughout dealing with computers and computers only, the technical bull shit!! This made us learn the theory of – “if you get an opportunity to get out of this hell, make the most of it”. This time we (Me, Arun, Jinu , Abhinay and Aravind) set our destination to Yercaud.

Yercaud, some say it’s called “Poor man’s Ooty”. Hmm… I’m not sure of it though. This place is away from all the rush and the freakin’ people with mobiles attached to their ears. But still lot of visitors comes to see this beautiful place.

Technically, Yercaud is a Hill station near Salem, Tamil Nadu, India in the Servarayan range of hills (anglicized as Shevaroys) in the Eastern Ghats. It is at an altitude of 1515 metres (4969 feet) above the mean sea level. The town gets its name from the lake located at its center - inTamil "Yeri" means "lake" and "Kaadu" means "forest". Yercaud is known for coffee plantations and orange groves. It also has an orchidarium run by the Botanical Survey of India.

To describe about our journey, all my friends were coming from Bangalore and I alone am traveling from Chennai since I am working there. So it was decided to meet up at Selam. I started of by night, booked bus tickets with a help of my friend from CMBT bus station, Chennai. It’s almost a 6 hrs journey to Selam. I reached there in the morning and met ma friends there who also came up to there by bus. It was almost 7 in the morning. We took another bus to Yercaud after waiting for half an hour. The bus was almost full cos there are not many busses that go directly to Yercaud. We reached there in not more that 2 hours throgh all the 18 hair pin roads. Got down the bus and Jinu became our guide. Since he did his college in Selam it was an easy thing for him. We decided to walk up hill which was the most exciting part of our trip. While walking it began to drizzle. We managed some caps and plastic-bag-caps to wear so that we won’t get sick. It was really cool to walk in the drizzle and crack jokes as we walk by. We rested near a tea shop and had some tea and “parippuvada” (for those who are unfamiliar it’s a tea snack made of dal or the kernel of peas).

On the mid-way we had an opportunity to ride the All-Terrain Bikes, which was totally rejoicing. But those people made a big hole into our pockets. It was 200-250 for a ride, I mean just to go around the yard, but if you see those bikes you couldn’t resist yourselves from paying for 2. :D and that’s what we did. After all those biking stuffs we walked a few kms to reach the top, say 8. Walking for 2 Hrs had already made us tired and damn hungry. But still we thought of moving on, see the places nearby and then have a full tummy food. So went to the Pakoda pont, a fascinating view point in Yercaud form where we can see a part of Tamil Nadu including Selam. Took some pics and bough some snacks to put the fire out in our stomach, for awhile. There are other view points like Gents Seat, Ladies Seat, Childrens Seat, etc. I din understand why each place was named like that…. mysterious. There is a water falls nearby but which require trekking quiet a distance. We were already fed up with walking and were in no situation to do it further.

Now after roaming around for 2 more hours we decide to rest and have a good lunch even though it was almost 3:00 in the evening. We hired an auto to Hotel Grand palace. This hotel had good ambience and quiet a good place to rest. We went to the Lounge Bar – “Cloud 9” and had a round of appetizer. It was fun trying out different Cocktails and music that was been played was even a booster. The hospitality by the hotel was appreciable. We ordered for some South and North Indian mixed cuisines. After all the chit-chatting and boozing it was late evening. We went out of the hotel just to feel, how the eve at Yercaud would be. Chilled breeze was wailing on us and we were wearing ordinary cotton shirts and jeans. It was like we were in a room surrounded with AC in all direction. Particularly, if you are a Chennai-ite then it would be felt even worse. However having a couple of pegs of Whiskey and walking in that breeze was awesome (Not advised though, cuz its full of mist and you wouldn’t see a thing). We packed up ourselves around 7 and freshend up to leave Yercaud the night itself. We hired a cab through the hotel and drove towards Yercaud bus station in a hope that we will get the last bus towards Selam from there.We boarded the bus from there and reached Selam around 9.

Here comes the twist towards our trip. When we reach Selam we were thinking of going back toBangalore. But then we rescheduled the trip and thought, y not we go somewhere else since we have 1 more day to spend, the weekend. The next reachable place was Hogainakkal which was in between selam and Bangalore. But the next bus available was at 2 Am after midnight. We took ticket in the next Theater for a boring Salman Khan film – “Yuvaraj”. As planned we got into the bus……..

The story will b continued as my next blog … Trip to Hogainekkal

Tips if you plan to go:

• Don’t expect too much, but its worth for a weekend
• Carry water, enough food with you while trekking
• Carry a torch in case of emergency
• Carry raincoats or caps coz there may be drizzling
• Carry liquor if you are not planning to have it in a 3 star hotel.
• Do not tire you out.