A Travelogue - Memorable Trip To Kodai…

Friday, June 16, 2006. I don’t like to forget that day… I have started one of the memorable trip on that day… We have started our journey towards Kodaikanal, most beautiful hill-station of south India, around 8:40 PM from technopark. So many pick-up points on the way… The enthusiasm started increasing when each person boarded the bus. Some thrilling moments… with lots of fun..lots of music and dance… the mood of celebration was created so early, and it continued till the very end, that was the best part of it… Each and everyone were in a festive mood… That was a sleepless night not only for me but for almost everyone…. Dancing and singing continues till 1 o clock in the morning… I finally managed to get the back seat for sleeping… After a d-few minutes the memories started fading and I was slowly entered into the sleep… When I woke up, the bus was stopped by the side of high-way… I heard someone shouting outside that the bus was puncture. It was around 2:30 in the morning. Finally we found out a garage. When we started wheeling again, it was around 3:30. Unfortunately, we were kilometers away from our destination… All our dreams of reaching Kodai in the morning were shattered… I didn’t feel like sleeping but slowly fall into sleep sometimes later…Bus was moving very slowly, almost below 60kph… I could see so many disappointed faces inside the bus… We have lost some precious hours… But we have reached our destination around 01:30pm…that too after a 16 Hrs of journey. We were stayed in a very small rest house there in outer-kodai. But all our thoughts changed once we saw the facilities… Even though its a small one, the facilities and the services provided were excellent. We had already lost 4 valuable hours… We had a quick round of refreshment and when we reached the dining hall, the typical kerala food was ready for all of us… I do believe that the food need some kind of remarks. We were expecting an average food from there. But the food was excellent…

It was a sunny, bright afternoon there in Kodai. Since we have lost a few hours, we were really confused to select a place to go… At last someone suggested about “Dolphin-Nose“. Soon after the lunch we have started walking towards our next target… It was really difficult to walk through the road… Later it became a narrow passage which is very difficult to move ahead. We walked for a long time expecting that we will reach the dolphin nose very soon… But the passage became very hard to endure… Time was running out, and we hadn’t even seen the hint of the destination… Time was around 6 o clock in the evening… Some of us started yelling that we should return to the hotel… But some determined pals, kept on walking… after walking around 15 minutes we have reached near the dolphin nose… The rock projecting towards the valley resembles to the nose of a dolphin… the steep cliff walls reminds me the film cliff hanger… The tale part of the rock was so steep that one would afraid of going to the tip of it… It was getting darken when we started our journey back… It was a tough job for us to get back to our base camp… Journey was a rigorous one… We hardly have any torch or any candle with us. But the mobile phones came for our rescue… We took arund 3 hours to get back to our hotel… While we were taking rest at the hotel, one of the hotel crew told us that we have traveled around 15 kilometers to and fro… It was quite surprise for all of us… We never knew that we have walked this much distance… But it was a totally different experience… Just like a team-building exercise….

Best part of the day came when we had camp-fire in the night… Lots of music and dance… Anthakshari section was quite hilarious… We had a great supper with grilled chicken… Those were really above our expectations… I was really tired and thought of going to bed. But that didn’t work out when my friends called me for playing cards…. That went till 2 o clock in the late night… After that somehow I reached my room and went to bed…

When woke up in the morning, everyone were getting ready with more and more enthusiasm, that was visible in their faces… around 9 o clock in the morning, we had our break fast and headed towards the outing places…At first we had gone to Suicide point and later we went to pillar rock. At that time, someone suggested the anme Pine forest… When we were on the way to Pine forest, we took left turn which led us to the “Guna Caves“. Only after reaching there, we had realized that we have taken the wrong path… Later we found the right path and started walking towards that… Surprisingly Pine forest was one of the most beautiful places in Kodai… The nature lovers were really happy to visit such a place. I would say, they were really enjoying that… A chilling atmosphere and the snow was slowly coming down through the pine woods… It was really an amazing feast for the eyes… Most of the photo sessions were took place there itself… Later we went to lake-side and had our food from there… Then it was the time for boating and cycling… Boating for around half an hour and a quick round of shopping… We were really running out of time… Bought some home-made chocolates and got back to bus… Around 4:30 in the evening we have titrated our journey back… A silent farewell to Kodai…While we were demounting the hair-pins of Kodai, everyone were just thinking about the few hours we were enjoyed in that hill station…

The bus was moving like a tortoise… cars and buses were overtaking us and driver didn’t mind giving them space to go ahead… That was a desperate situation… Slow movement of the bus made everyone to loss the temper for a while… We were doubting that last day’s long journey might repeat once again… But later on its started moving in pace… The mood of the trip came back once the music and dance came in gain… But it didn’t last long…Slowly everyone’s attention switched over to the movie… Some of us were still singing some melodies and trying to keep the atmosphere more lively… But after the dinner, the bus has slowly went to sleep…

Around 4 o clock, when I opened my eyes, the bus was stopping somewhere. I thought, damn It got puncture again… But suddenly I realized that we were stopping in Trivandrum… It was a real amusement for us. Around 6 o clock in the morning I reached my home… And that was the end of 2 day’s excitement...

We ere enjoyed a lot… My mind is still not reday to accept that its all over… The tour is over… I am still in that enjoyment mood… I do believe that those who have enjoyed the trip will be in such a mood now also… Each and everyone of us have enjoyed the trip… They get to know one another… The trekking was a real team building activity… so now what I feel is that the fragrance of this tour will always be with me forever… This tour has given me lots of memorable moments… Lots of new friends… Feeling of togetherness is still in my mind… I do believe that we have taken lots n lots of things back than what we have carried to that hill station…

No doubt it was a memorable trip… I may never get a chance to be the part of such a tour and such a team… Truly from my heart I would say, I am waiting for another occasion like this to be with this team…