VALPARAI-The Paradise of Tamil Nadu

 

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Valparai is a hill station with full of tea gardens. It is uncommercialised as people are rarely aware of this Taluk. It is located 3,500 feet (1,100 m) above sea level on the Anaimalai Hills range of the Western Ghats, at a distance of 100 kilometres (62 mi) from Coimbatore and 65 kilometres (40 mi) from
Pollachi.

I went to Valparai by rental car( MYLES ) with three of my friends- Rajni,
Rashmi and Debu. It took 13 hrs to reach there as it is 600 kms from Chennai.We
left in the Early morning, we stopped on the route for breakfast,lunch, dinner
and just good sightview. Once we paused at a Shiva Temple which has 1008 Shivlings
so beautifully aligned.

We talked, shared our life’s funniest moments and laughed hard.

After whole day journey, we finally reached Valparai crossing 40 hairpin bends.
With every hairpin bend, we were getting one step close to the top of the hill.
Now the problem there was we did not book any accomodation. We were running
short of time as we had to find the stay and had to have dinner also.

Everywhere we could see the homestays around. So we checked out a few homestays
and finally stopped by one. It’s a furnished 2 BHK flat. We found it ok and didn’t waste our time as we had
no options and prices were getting high because of weekend. After a quick
freshen-up, we went for dinner to restaurant named as’ Krishna Inn ‘. The food was
delicious- be it non-veg or veg.

That day after coming back to our stay, we gossipped and crashed out as next day we
had to get up early.

THE DAY 1…

So the next day , we left for the highest point taking a teenager as our guide.
Funny thing is he developed crush on me..LOL…but he is just in Grade 9 and so
intelligent and fluent in English in his age and at a small place like Valparai.
He took us around to the beautiful spots of the town.

Firstly we went to the highest point in Valparai where our car got stuck on a narrow road
and because of state Election, we couldn’t go further. Then we thought of going to Nirar Dam. Sun was on our heads. It was extremely hot there. This dam is very heighted. It was getting renovated that time, so could not even get in there.

But to be noted – interesting thing about this dam is it has 8 km long tunnel which has river upto knee length but that time we were restricted to go there too. After that we stopped by a small tea shop which served amazing tea with yummy cookies. And clicked many pictures of flora.

Then we headed to the Loam’s viewpoint and saw the sunset from the Grasshills. We were taking pictures and everything was going fine. Suddenly we heard some ROAR that too not once or twice,many times.
So we all were really frightened and we quickly went into the car. The roar gave us goosebumps. It was so horrifying
as we were in the jungle and Elephants, Tiger, boar and leapard are the commonest animals found there.

But then we moved ahead and realised that there was a temple nearby and some song played in the temple.
Huh..!!! What a relief it was..:P

Then comes the DAY 2..another exciting day of the trip..
We left early after having South Indian breakfast from the homestay as our return journey as per the plan
was going to be longer ( Returned via Kerala route). En route, we encountered many small waterfalls and foggy tea gardens.
We have also been to one of the well known dams i.e. SHOLAYAR DAM which is 20 kms from Valparai. It’s view from
top of the hill was splendid..!!!

We then moved ahead to next place while returning back to Chennai- Vazhachal falls and then Athirapally falls. Yeah,
the FAMOUS one WHERE the popular
songs like JIYA JALE(DIL SE..), BEHNE DE( RAAVAN), BAAHUBALI, CHURA LIYA HAI TUMNE etc. It was so crowded
that we got stuck in Traffic Jam. We did not get any place to park our car nearby the fall. So we had to park it
very far. We took tickets and we were astonished to see the crowd , it seemed like another ‘KUMBH MELA’…There were 3 routes to
go to the falls. Some people were coming back from one of the ways after taking bath there. We went to the least
crowded location of the fall where we could relax peacefully and enjoy the mother nature. On seeing the waterfall, we were OMG..!! GORGEOUS..!!

The bliss-pool at the bottom was crystal clear that we could see our foot vividly. Then we had lunch
at the nearby restaurant there. My friends had freshwater fish and I had Kerala meals – Lipsmacking it was..!!

And then we returned back to Chennai with a lot of memories ..!!!!

Varkala- Beach with a cliff

What an amazing place it is..!!

As soon as you enter the Varkala town, you will find it is nothing different than any other town. But the difference comes when you go the North Cliff Helipad and see the beach from the top of the cliff.

so how I went there ?

I went to Varkala from Trivandrum. Easily one can get local bus to Varkala from Trivandrum bus Terminal. It takes around 2 hrs to reach there. Then after reaching Varkala town, I took an auto-rickshaw to the North Cliff Helipad. I had my stay booked at Vedanta Wake-Up that too a very comfy bamboo room .

After reaching…

I checked-in to the Vedanta wake-Up and then freshened up and left for the beach. The beach is walkable distance from the stay. You will find Helipad on reaching there. From there if you go towards the left, you will see Papanasam beach where priests and people use to go for holy bath and yagya. You will even find ATM there and good affordable South Indian restaurant. ATMs are very rare there, especially in North Cliff( No ATM at all ). Mostly purchasing is made on cash.

Then I headed towards the North Cliff. A line of rooftop restaurants is there. Each one has there own ambiance . Apart from restaurants, many shops you will see and ayurvedic spa-various spas( even I had ayurvedic spa of one kind ) and ofcourse it is a vacation place for large crowd of foreigners. I strolled around the cliff and then went down to the beach. The beach has two kind of crowds- Indian and foreign. Indian crowd beach is dirty but the other one is quiet clean . The waves get higher in the night and the only sound you listen sitting on the rooftop of any restaurant with a glass of beer in hand is of Waves. This is so effective that you will get lost somewhere for sure. That day I met a group of Keralites and then a Swedish man at my accomodation. He was talking about how dirty India is, street dogs roam around and bark leading to  irritation and guys walk together, girls walk with girls ..kinda gay or lesbian thing here. But I convinced him its kinda brotherhood and sisterhood in India. Still he found it weird as compared to his country.

This is how my Day 1 ended. Then the next day I had very less time as I had to return back to Chennai. So I went to the beach early morning and then the South Cliff. I also had Spa appointment( Spa in just 500 bucks ). So I rushed to do all the things . The day was very sunny as I went there in March but the night was supercool. I was also out of cash , then I had to get some cash from a forex shop where they charged me Rs 50 extra. Then I shopped a scarf, hat , miniature cards etc. from the cliff shops( Bargaining skills needed :P).

Somehow I was left with some time as my train timing for Varkala was 3 pm. So I went to the Black beach, a little ahead of This beach. It’s good but water depth is more here.

Now it was time to say Good Bye to Varkala …!!

I went to the town and caught my train which took 17 hrs to reach Chennai. As the plan was sudden, so I did not get the tickets , so had to go in General coach. I did not feel any discomfort in General as on a whole my trip was amazing and the spa worked..:)

 

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My South India Journey

Finally my first post about travelling.

Before posting about any place or any trip, I would love to introduce you about myself.

Well..I am Isha from Indore, a foodie’s city located in the state of Madhya Pradesh in Central part of India. I am Software Engineer by profession or say by destiny following the mad rat-race unfortunately and die-hard traveller and shopper by passion. I am fond of exploring places and talking to people and clicking pictures and making others click my pictures and of course collecting souvenirs..LOL..

I work for an MNC in Chennai since 1.5 years. Starting my career with it, I eventually developed interest in travelling. Earlier also I wanted to travel , but I did not get a company and was financially dependent. I always wanted to travel on my own earnings, so I can feel proud of myself.

South India always attract me like a magnet. It’s greener , surrounded by oceans and also there are hella lot of places to visit. So I had prepared a check-list of all those  places and now I am checking off them one by one with souvenirs, candid photographs and unforgettable memories.

Huh..!! That’s enough said….

Let’s start with my first post..:)

 

 

 

 

First blog post

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