Wayanad.. The dream continued.. :)

All of them woke up. I was the last one to get up. All of them were looking at me with absolute curiosity. I woke up.. good mood.. started talking to all of them, including Silly. It was peaceful. after a while, Barath and Sukanya started.. the way you both behaved last night we thought this would continue and were really upset and look at the 2 of you, you’re so nice to each other now. We both smiled. We got hot water to shower, we started getting ready, Sukanya went first, Barath next, then Silly and then me. I got out, got read and the girls were getting ready like they were going to walk the ramp or somethin'. they got ready, we had a breakfast appam and Puttu! I liked it and the others didn’t.

Mr. Sunny gave us a tourist booklet and suggested that we go to Pookote lake, Soojipaara falls and Kuruva Island, We started, we headed to Pookote lake, Pookote lake was the mallu version of our Ulsoor lake. It was amidst hills and forests, people were boating.. looked commercial. Not my kinda place, I prefer nature, primitive and raw areas.. All of a sudden my expectation from The God’s own country dropped, I was sure that the waterfalls would be something similar and I was kinda disappointed, the best part; I never express all this, it was too sunny, so we didn’t go boating (thankfully), there was this aquarium, I was very curious to see the fish, went in to see freakin Gold fish, Angels, Tiger fishes! I was mindforked by now! Lol.. After the so-called aquarium, we started to Soochipaara falls.

This place was 35-40 kms. We reached the place with no pit-stops, entered and parked, were asked to carry water as it was 1km walk from where we parked, I was like 1km I can easily do it, no water thanks.. We started walking and look on my right it was a deep valley and on my left was the mountain (Soochipaara hill, I suppose). It was kind of downhill, so I reached there first, since I’m slim, I did this almost effortlessly, the girls were panting for breath and Barath escorted the girls like a pure gentleman. All of reached the falls and I must admit that I LOVED IT! It was the raw, crude, primitive country side water fall, no commercial element, it was a lil crowded as there were some college/school students. Barath and I stripped shamelessly, went and drenched ourselves in the water, I was a lil scared as it was rocky and slippery, so If I slipped, I’d have a bad fall. The scare lead to a shitty feeling! (Literally!!!) We were in water for a few minutes… and then the girls wanted to go back. We started walking, now it’s uphill, we were tired!! And the shitty feeling! I was helpless! There was another waterfall, Barath and I saw it and returned immediately. We had to walk up, they were selling butter milk and lemon juice, I can’t drink or eat nothing! For obvious reasons, I kept asking every vendor if there was loo.

We reached the place where we started, there was nice lunch place, we decided to have lunch and I can’t handle an upload coz I had no bandwidth, I needed to download first! So I asked people, all of them directed me towards the entry where there was cop sitting, this was a mallu cop, so I wasn’t allergic, asked him where the loo was and he smiled and directed me to another guy, now I was freaking upset, I’d download anytime! I walked up to this man, asked him for the loo, he said the most horrifying thing that I’ve heard this year, “the download is supposed to be inside the forest, in the open” I haven’t done this in ages! Having said, he gave me a mug of water and said go deep side but beware of snakes! I was…. Inexplicable feeling! I went slightly deep, could hear weird noises, download Complete.

Now I was relieved and hungry. Had lunch, we set off to Kuruva, it was a good 2 hr drive from Soochipaara. I enjoyed the drive; we drove thru a lot of nice scenic places!! Then saw a nice cashew tree, nice fragrance! And we kept asking people how far Kuruva is and everyone gave us consistent responses, the response was 1KM! I drove a total of 9, 1KM! and then we reached Kuruva, we saw some interesting foreigners and then it started raining.. The 3 darlings went out to get wet in the rain. I sat in. I didn’t want to catch a cold and end up with a fever, so I stayed in.

We waited for a while, looked like it wouldn’t stop, so we were heading back!! It was 6 already and we had 60 kms to cover and I wasn’t very happy about driving in the dark but what the heck, I did. We had a nice dinner!! Delicious fried rice, KP (Kerala Parota), chicken Manchurian! People loved it, I didn’t like it much coz It lacked nativity; I’d have preferred nada choru, some gravy, avail and pradhaman! :) But no complaints, the dinner was good, Barath wanted "the refreshments" yet again, others weren’t keen.. Since Barath didn’t have majority, we did away with "refreshments". We reached home, Mr. Sunny Menon wanted to know how it was, we had a nice chat and I felt nice talking to him.

We were scheduled to leave early next morning (by 6), Our timekeeper Barath kept an alarm for 4:30, Sukanya and Barath retired to bed, Silly and I were arguing for some time and then I went to bed, I wasn’t sleepy; I woke up Sukanya and asked her if she was sleeping (Cheeky.. Cheeky ME)

Barath was fast asleep, Sukanya and I started talking and she started telling about her family- her mom, I was inspired after I heard the about her mom, I intend to write about it after I meet Sukanya’s mom. While Sukanya was telling us about her mom, she sat up, so my first victim lost her sleep.. We spoke for some more time while Sukanya wanted to check what sil was doing, Sil was sitting in the other room listening to music, so I got up to check what our lady Sil is upto. Silly was snoring away to glory; I woke her up and asked her to come on sleep on her bed.. Sil came in and sukanya complained about how I woke her up.. Sil laughed and we started talkin about.. Sil also joined the conversation, as soon as Sil came in Barath also woke up (my 2nd victim.. yay!)

We all started talking.. discussed all our stories. spoke about the good, bad and ugly (ugly took precedence)!

Shared my perspective about a lot of things, Sukanya was amazed, her total outlook towards something was changing (for good). ..Spoke a lot, saw the time, it was 3! So I asked Barath to please switch off his alarm since we knew that we could get up in 3 hours and I can’t drive with just 3 hours of sleep. Off went the alarm.. We all SLEPT end of Day 2.. :)

Wacky Wayanad..

Work done, we set off… by now it’s already 11, I was thinking we’d be crossing Mysore by 11. Being the control freak that I’m, I was losing it but I’m trying to be nice!! We were reaching Mysore and Sil started grumbling that I wasn’t letting her drive. So I gave her the car and went to the rear to flirt with the other girl (lol..)

On seeing Sil drive, I couldn’t be bothered about who is sitting next to me even if it was Eva Mendez (wow) I thought I was only one until I saw Barath’s hand, he was already holding the handbrake, just in case.. We let Sil be behind the steering for less than 3 kms until I lost it and took over! Sil was obviously upset about the comments we passed and with me since I didn’t let her drive, but I couldn’t be bothered. It was a matter of life and death! (Aww.. she wasn’t so bad, I’m just exaggerating) Barath, hasn’t had his breakfast, wanted to have a heavy lunch; suggested that we go to RRR restaurant as they made delicious biryanis! We started looking for the place and we looked for over 20 mins and I lost it (again..)I said can we please have lunch at the nearest restaurant rather than roaming around endlessly?, all of them nodded (they didn’t have another choice anyway..) and then we went to this roadside restaurant, veg meals it was! I didn’t have anything since I’d feel sleepy if I have a heavy meal.. Yes, am used to sleeping in the afternoon after my meal, so it’s RISKY!! I had a really cold mausambi juice and 2 butter milks!!

Lunch over, we set out again.. oops, I forgot something.. After our stop at the puncture shop which was after kengeri, our darlings wanted me to stop at Coffee day – Maddur. I just didn’t even pay attention to what they were saying (This was the reaction to anything Sil said.. by the way. She’d ask… Manoj can you stop here? Nice scenery, Manoj Manoj.. Can I drive.. Manoj You need rest.. everything had the same reaction which was nothing.. Complete silence! Lol..)

After Mysore I was behind the steering, Barath was navigating, Sil and Sukanya were behind. I asked Sukanya if she had some tamil songs and she said she had some really old songs, I asked her to play them and she said, they are really old, I insisted, The first song for a beautiful Illayaraja song from the movie Vedham Pudidhu, I was like “Wow, this is not old, this is a beautiful 80’s number” Sukanya was kicked already.

I was enjoying the music and my dear friend Barath was dozing off. I looked around to realize Sil was also off to her dream world, I usually brake suddenly to wake them up but since Sil had worked last night, I thought I’d let her rest, so I stopped, asked Barath to go to the rear and asked Sukanya to sit next to me. There was a place where I was supposed to take right to go to Kozhikode via Bandipur, I missed that right effortlessly with absolutely no idea how much of a damage it would cause later..

We entered Bandipur, beautiful forest area. Silent, green and picturesque, I asked Sukanya to be ready with the cam so that we can click... click animal if and when we spot them. Both the darlings behind woke up (thanks to the bad roads) and there was this Tamil Nadu check post, I’m a lil allergic to Tamil Nadu Police, so I stopped a little ahead and asked our great driver Sil to take over, she was so happy.. Scared but happy! We stopped by at the check post; the cops were like madam,

where you are going madam?

Where are you coming from madam? And all..

I looked at the cop and asked him how to go to Wayanad and the cop gave me the directions and said it’s another 70-90 kms. I raised by eyebrow, cursed the cop that he didn’t know anything. We went a little ahead, driver change, and then, we headed to Cudaloore from there to Vythri.

I kept driving.. And driving.. Looked endless, I was carrying a print out from google maps which said, I only had to travel 220 kms, when we started I thought we’d reach by 2. It was 4:30 and I was seeing milestones that said Vythri 40 kms, I was seeing stars.. And then I increased speed, ( it was a hilly area so our speed dropped from 100’s to 50’s and 60’s.) I was zipping at 90s, the darlings in the car had no idea about the sudden increase in speed, I was very keen in reaching our destination before it turned dark. At last by 5 we reached the place that the cop told, he was exactly right. It was close to 90 kms and it had some nice resorts and home stays.

On reaching Vythri, we asked the jeep drivers if there are any Home stays and they directed us towards a left turn. And I drove 50 mts ahead, there was a right turn and there was home stay advertisement, I asked Sil to call that number; Sil called, the genius who picked the call was asking us to call the other number, upon trying that number it was a different response, confused us and then I looked at the main road to see another eco friendly resort advertisement hoarding and I said, this is it, let’s go there don’t waste money. It was an uphill (slightly) We drove up, parked the car asked someone where this homestay was, a nice mallu man showed us the way and walked into the homestay, a nice lady walked out, looked at me, asked me for how many days will we need the place, and I said 2-3 days, she said, sorry it’s booked (Thank God).

When I walked back, I realized that she was a cop’s wife and I was happy that we didn’t get the place. Then I looked at that guy who guided and told him it’s occupied, asked him if he knows of another home stay, he smiled and answered positively. He took me to meet Sunny Menon of Tall Hill Home stay! Sometime I get a hunch about people and places, I got it here, I felt at home here…this place was very creatively & colorfully done, I can’t explain it, see the pics! I walked back to the car, asked my darlings to check out the place, the darlings weren’t convinced they wanted us to go to that guy who we called, it was called Lake View home stay.

I was tired, annoyed and almost-dead. I still drove, by now I was missing gears, and clutching badly, we reached Lake View, it was a yellow building, looked like a Bangalore house, I wasn’t convinced, the room he showed us was small and wouldn’t accommodate 4 of us. The guys immediately said, let’s go back to Tall Hill home stay, I smiled.

On our way back, we got lost, this was almost normal now.. on reaching the main road, we thought it would be better to pick up our “refreshments” and dinner coz I was sure that I wouldn’t drive after this. So we asked the people for the “refreshment” shop and guided we were.. J

On reaching the refreshment stop, we realized that we had to stand in a queue. Stood, didn’t get what we wanted. Reminded us of our old school proverb “if you don’t get wanted, be happy with what you get” (or something…)

Went to the shop next, picked up sprite, peanuts and mixture. Dinner? We called our host Sunny Menon to check about the restaurants around, the man said he will arrange everything and we could come home in peace and we did!

Got home, I was TIRED! Freshened up! The refreshments were inviting us and the girls were delaying (this will be repeated over and over and over again coz they did it all the time.. ahh Sil and Sukanya..)

At last we started.. came chicken kebab, and we continued.. I was thinking that I’d be tired and sleepy but I was in complete form. Top class leg pulling, Silly was getting harassed! Sukanya was married to her phone! (oh this is the first time I’m talking about it? So sorry!... Can we roll a tortoise coil and go back to Bangalore? Important point missed!! Sukanya was on the phone so many times before we got out of Bangalore and this was pissing Sil, so Sukanya was ordered to put her phone off, she was saying, hey no.. official call ya and all that, later we caught her getting up close and personal on the phone and I immediately said, oh… Official call ah? Very nice!! And she smiled.. no blushed!! I said “Caught you” and we all laughed! Later Sukanya was kind enough to put off the phone until we reached Vythri.

Flash back ends!!

Now and then Sukanya took breaks to talk to that someone.. Barath and I were busy pulling so many fast ones on Silly! We had one too many “refreshments” and Sil was warming up. Since I was in top form and was getting better, Silly was getting annoyed and the “refreshment” was making her argumentative. I went on… I was “refreshed too right!” We kept arguing and I was making some smart-ass-statements and then made a foot-in-the-mouth statement, Sil lost her cool, walked out on me. Started call her friend, I had no idea why she was upset (none of us know what I said, it was something so miniscule) We ran out of “refreshments”, Sukanya walked in got some super attitude from Silly, followed by Barath. I was sitting peacefully in one room. Barath and Sukanya were trying to make peace but Silly wouldn’t care! Sukanya and Barath were extremely sweet, they wanted us to make peace had have dinner, I tried talking to Silly but she was too pissed! I thought “Wish I know what I said, I’d do it again!”

They all had dinner “I guess” we all slept..

End of Day 1... :)