Been a while since I had written something in my blog. Anyways I'm back to let you guys know as to how I had spent my vacation in Kodaikannal this time from 26th Dec 08 to 30th Dec 2008. Me & Dev(my school friend) had plans of driving down in his car to kodai on the last week of Dec after Christmas to spend few days in his house in Kodai. Plans were all up as Ramanathan (another school pal) had also told us that he would join, who was actually driving down his Tata Indigo from Mysore to Chennai.
As usual I had to rush up with my official work and make sure things are settled before I go for my vacation. I got an approval from my heads and my plans were all set and geared to visit kodai for the first time in my life. Rama calls me at 2.30 am sharp on 26th Dec early morning and asks "Dude, I am ready what abt you?", I said " I am ready bro, lets start". As Rama's house is quite close to mine he picked me up within 10 mins and we left to Dev's place where the great chap was cleaning his car (Premier 118 NE). After all the cleaning and chit chats we prepare to leave from Dev's place where I and Rama took the Indigo and Dev and his dog (Kruger) in his 118 NE.
We start at 3.30 am sharp and plan to leave chennai outskirts by 4. The planned route was to take NH45( Chennai – Tindivanam – Villupuram – Ulundurpet - Perambalur – Trichy – Dindigul – Vatlagundu - Kodaikanal). As I dint have much sleep the previous night and thankfully I wasn't driving this time, I managed to take a good nap in Rama's car. Peaceful roads had helped us to reach the outskirts of chennai by 4.00 am. We also had a problem. You know usually we always have when we ride... Dev's 118 NE doesn't go above 80 kmph. (Wow!! what a maintenance I say).. Nonsense !!! So we had no other option than following Dev's car.
As usual we had few stops for tea and nature's calls and managed to reach Villupuram by 8.30 am. The comedy begins out here. We managed to find out a place where we could stop for tea and also take the dog for a walk. The shop was managed by a local female out there and I said to here to give 4 cups of Milk (which Dev had actually told me to do so), and to my surprise the 4 cups for the dog it seemed. Then after a few exchange of words I had ordered 3 cups of tea and few biscuits. I do not know how the female took it as she had actually had asked another person to buy 4 packets of milk and come and we had tea already served for us. Me , Dev and Rama were puzzled as we had only asked for 4 cups of milk and why is she sending out a person for 4 packets of Milk !@#$. Anyways after a looong wait she gives a bowl of milk which is piping hot. We asked her to serve warm for the dog but she seemed to be a very brainy female in serving it piping hot. We waited for some time and the dog managed to take few sips and then we had to leave. This time I sat with Dev in his 118 NE and since he dint have a music set and I kept myself busy by taking few snaps and videos.
We stopped at places were it would be good for the dog to take a stroll and have our breakfast and lunch with ease. After a good lunch I managed to take a nap in Rama's car and when I woke up there was confusion. Dev stops at places where he has been asking people for the route to Vatalagundu, and unfortunately we had taken the Palani route which leads us to 15 kms more in reaching the destination. So as we ride and with doubts in our mind as to which route are we going in we managed to figure out the correct route to Kodai and reached his House at 7.00 pm (26th Dec).
Climate was awesome, I would not say it was cool it was freezing when we got down from our cars. The first thing that came out of my mouth after seeing his house was WOW!! caman the fun I say. This house is built by Dev's great Grandfather Judge Devadoss. His family members after the dimissal of the Judge used to visit this house twice a year for retreats. The house was built at the top of a hill and the area was called as Observatory. The judge had actually owned the entire hill wherein after he expired his kids had sold out few pieces of land as there were in need of money. As the years went by the house was used to be visited by Dev's family once in 4 to 5 mnths and he used to spend few bucks in repairing things. I would say it is actually hard to maintain such a place.
Ok, we landed up and there was a care taker who has been living in the outdoors for about 50 yrs who had helped us to light up the fire at the fire place and set up the bed and quilts for us. Dev and Rama said that they would go down hill to grab some food and told me to stay up with the dog until they come. At the starting I dint feel scary at all as I was busy looking around the house. After say about 45 mins there gushed a silence, It was shit scary I would say. I tried sitting near the fire place and managed to gaze at the entrance waiting as to when these guys would arrive. As I got too scared I started calling Dev's mobile about 5 to 6 times asking as to where are you. And the answer was that " We are on the way". Time passed and it was close to about 2 hrs these guys dint turn up. I was stuck to one place without much of movements and finally they come. The moment I saw them , I started blasting them as to what the F@#$ where have you been you Idiots it is shit scary out here and the two laugh to their glory. Gulped few drinks and had a good dinner and with the amount of tiredness we just dozzed off.
The next day morning, Dev gets up before me and Rama and takes his dog for a walk and in order to wake us up he rolls on us. Amma.. Appa and with a lot of shouting we get up brush our teeth's and I managed to prepare few cups of tea and Dev's walks me up to the different places in and around the house. I personally wanted to spend a vacation peacefully after a lot of work and this was the right place I would say. No pollution, less noise and chill breeze passing by and the amount of silence is the one which would be expected by a person like me. Awesome place as this was my first visit to Kodai, I enjoyed each and every moment of it. The only problem which I had was that I dint take my creams to beat the chill which resulted in drieness of my lips. The only plan for that particular day was to roam around the house and ride down to the town and get some stuff for dinner and next days breakfast. As we started chatting all day long about the history of the house, we finally came to the end of the day were we sat next to the fire place with whiskey and wine with us. I had played some light music from my Mp3 player and we happily enjoyed the night by making fun of each other.
The next day Dev had to go to the town to pay the taxes for the house along with the caretaker .Me and Rama prepared breakfast and tea and had it. For lunch we went downhill to have some good Tibetian food. On the way back managed to take some snaps and pick up few drinks to settle for the night. 2 to 3 days just went on by visiting the reservoirs next to Dev's place and the other places like Coakers Walk, Pillar rocks, Guna Caves, Suicide point etc. We kept our nights busy by engaging ourselves with whiskeys and Wines. Good fun we had where Rama as usual trying some stunts of pouring the hot Tomato soup over himself and his usual fundas of scolding the dog (Kruger). All Fun and enjoyment 100%.
On 29th Night we had packed our bags to leave on 30th early morning. We had left at about 5.30 am on the 30th morning and reached chennai by 7.30 pm the same day. Great Ride and Great fun all the way. Waiting for the next trip.
