Wayanad Trip - II

After our ‘head(light)-less’ journey heroics, we embarked on our search for a shelter. Wayanad is a place which doesn’t boast of too many hotels. Middlemen make money by doubling some guest houses as hotels. The middleman we settled with took us through many locations. One was a shabby small hotel; another was a scary lonely building (I couldn’t stop from thinking of its similarity with the building in a Telugu film Mantra including an unused car in front of the house!!!) and many more. Finally we settled with two double rooms in a decent looking hotel.

We planned to visit the waterfalls, lake and the peak the next day. However, considering Langda tyagi (read Varun)’s situation, we dropped the visit to the peak. A light breakfast started our day and we are off to the waterfalls.

Believe me, the place is a visual delight. There’s greenery everywhere and after every 100 metres we were stopping to click some photos. It was no wonder, this state is called God’s Own country. There was so much natural beauty on view and we couldn’t take our eyes off it.

Talking to hardcore mallus in English, Hindi and Tamil (Valli) we somehow made our way to the waterfalls. We had to park our bikes some 2 km before the steep route to the falls began.

We had to take a call now on Langda Tyagi and he decided not to risk his limbs. This meant it was left to the three of us, Yoki, Valli and me to continue the journey. The sight of the waterfalls brought a huge grin even on the face of Yoki (he uses it very very very sparingly). The next one hour was real fun. Water was cold and the flow was electrifying but the experience was enthralling. Even a minute spent directly under the flowing water was like a hot massage.



An hour in the water looked like a minute and all of us wanted more but Tyagi alone. So, we had to start again!

Next stop for us is the lake. The ride in the lake was pretty awesome; and tiresome too! Valli and I took the duty of peddling the boat and were enjoying it though can’t say the same about our legs. The scenic beauty had all of us spell bound. We started on our journey back to Kozhikode right after.

It was a weekend spent well. Though we missed Butcher (aka the usual suspect – Vimal) in the whole trip and Varun in some parts, it was memorable for many reasons- the bike ride, the waterfalls, lake trip, the visit to the scary guesthouse…everything was as memorable as the other. Tired bodies were carried back to the hostel with echoing words Yeh Dil maange more!!!

Trip to wayanad - thrill, masti, fun...we had it all (PART I)

Journey through a ghat section is always tricky, especially if it is in the night. Add to that an aged bike which has no headlights as the transport medium and you have a recipe for a movie thriller. My trip to Wayanad the last week was exactly this.

End of a gruelling mid term (bouncers…bouncers…and more bouncers…Lee has a competition from my examination blues) brought the best of smiles on our faces. A rare weekend of no deadlines meant we have two full days to enjoy. It took no time in deciding the destination – Wayanad. Long over due, this trip is something we were looking forward to.

After the dropout of ‘the usual suspect’, four of us – Valli, Yoki, Varun and I, started on our journey at around 5 P.M. from the campus. Varun braved a ‘major’ leg injury to join us on the trip. None of us know the route but we have affable mallus helping us out. Half an hour into the journey and Yoki dropped a bomb shell - Yaar my bike doesn’t have a head light. Holy Jesus!!! We are embarking on a ghat trip, in the night and we have a bike without head lights! A quick stock of the situation and we decided to go on with the journey. But how? Valli would be on our side functioning as our beacon. It was very thrilling. We haven’t yet started on the ghat and Yoki was circling the turns, literally.

Enter the ghat...well it wasn’t the first time that I’m travelling on a bike at night but definitely the first time on a head (light) less bike. It was very funny because whenever the beacon (read Valli’s bike) was away from us, we were riding blind. Whenever we used to encounter a bus or a truck going in the same direction, Yoki would say that we need to stay behind and relax. But the pace of that vehicle used to be the deterrent and we used to move on.

Not even scary turns or steeply curves deterred us. And in some of the turns we even got the better of our beacons. The ghat section was very enthralling and we really enjoyed the 40 odd minute trip. Then we were on the normal road. But still, we do not have a head light which meant it’s still a handicap. To make matters worse, it started raining. Then, we just missed a snake which was lazing on the road; and we never knew that at that time.By the time we reached Wayanad and checked into our rooms it was around 10 in the night. It was an eventful journey and I enjoyed every bit of it though I can’t say the same of Yoki.

Yoki was a little scared and he was scared to hell when we saw the ghat the next morning. He was left speechless.

A picture is worth a thousand words. But, am not sure if the above pic gave you an impression of what the ghat actually is! It was a sort of journey (on a lightless bike) which I wouldn’t subscribe to any of you, but I should admit one thing….I loved it