Life - A travelogue to death

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.