Topic Approved.

woooowwwwwwwwwwwww man.... really superb pics..

really really nice picturesque surrounding...Really liked the pics a lot ...

Keep up your good photography...


and ya really liked the English words used...( GOPI FRY.. and the BOORY.. hehe ) ..

Wanna go there

The top of the hill station view + camping site looks like heaven on earth.....We recently did a Mysore-ooty-wayanad- Mysore trip and I have to say ,looking at those curves,hills reminded me of our trip....Great pics by the way

A good way to end 2009. Bring on the detailed trip log.

Thats one long ride covering some beautiful places. More pics please
btw its Athirapally

Day 2 : 26th Dec, Udhmalaipet to Munnar

@Rocky: Thanks a lot... Corrected

Day2: 26th Dec 2009

Checked out from the hotel @ 6:30 AM or so and with just about 100 kms to cover till lunch time, we had time to monkey around all the way through



Had our breakfast @ Chinnar at about 8:00 AM or so (TripMeter: 410 Kms)… We were told by the Canteen folks that there are options to stay @ Log house, tree house etc… and it would be a great experience, only to get disappointed at a later point that everything is booked



As we went for about 2 kms or so, we saw a dirt track that went deep into the woods… We saw people coming from that direction, we stopped at that point, a nod at each other and we took the dirt track to find river cutting across the quarries…



Spent some time listening to chirping of the birds and off we went back to the road… After moving a certain distance we reached Alampetty TTEDC (lesser version of Chinnar) @ 10:00 AM or so… They were offering trekking to Thovanam Falls (3 Kms, Moderate Trek of about an hour or so) & also had options of staying at a log house near the falls… Having seen the beauty of Chinnar, we were not so excited about this and moreover we had to carry our baggage all by ourselves, so dropped the idea of camping at the log house and promised myself to make it to Chinnar & Thovanam Falls sometime in the future

We stopped by at many places to have a glimpse of the waterfalls / valley beneath and we could feel within ourselves that the best is yet to come and we were not disappointed by any means…

There were plenty of waterfalls in this particular stretch and everywhere now & then we’d spot of stream between the rocks… We stopped by at a small tea stall at around 11:00 AM or so and were really surprised to find a beautiful falls behind the stall (or rather the chai wala has setup his stall right in front of the falls )… TripMeter: 424 Kms…

Just when we were about to leave, Biju checks his fuel level and gives a shocker… Dude, there’s not much fuel da , this monster hardly runs 20 odd kms for a liter of petrol and Munnar is at least 40 kms away … Upon conversing with locals we gotta know that there’s a petrol pump @ Marayoor… The BULL started showing all kinda nakras and we were just praying we’d somehow make it to Marayoor… Was delighted to spot an IBP petrol pump here @ 12 PM or so…

Fuel Details:
Me : 4.2 Liters for Rs. 200/-
Biju : 12.4 Liters for Rs. 590/-

This is when we started going through picturesque tea estates and not to mention the waterfalls from the top of the rocky mountains…

The ride (BULL) now happy after a heavy meal


From here on we stop by once at least every 500 meters or so the feeling of driving through the tea estates was matchless



We found this interesting thing on our way, was a bit curious what the hell is this For God’s sake we’re in “God’s Own Country!!!, not somewhere in T*l#b$n !!!”



We got to know about it on Day 6 of our trip @ Valparai… For now will let everyone do the guessing

Photographer shot


Once Again:


What does this mean anyway ???


We reached Munnar by 1:30 PM or so (TripMeter : 467 Kms) and it was one hell of a ride to say the least … The next big task was to hunt for an accommodation and we were approached by few of the agents there and they tried all their tricks to offer us a shabby room for 1300 bucks … He had one more room which he was prepared to let out for 600 bucks by evening once the college kids vacate… Since we wanted to check the room before finalizing onto anything, the owner promptly opened the room … The room had all the baggage that belong to those college kids and we were hell scared at these guys… How could we trust these guys, who carry a duplicate keys all the while and can loot you at any point in time ??? Worse, they knew what all gadgets we had with us… Somehow, we were not convinced with it and we wanted to search at few other places before finalizing on this… I somehow gave up the hopes and was telling myself if we have to travel further to get an accommodation, if nothing works out, we’d get our own lock rather than trusting these guys… Biju was determined and we stopped in front of Kanan Devan Office and I had to play the role of a watchmen guarding our bikes / baggage and Biju would hunt for the accommodation... At about 2:40 PM or so, we were still on the streets , and later the Good News, we were lucky to find a very good room @ Hotel Dhanyasree for Rs. 850/- and should say, it was just too good

Didn’t waste much time, had a quick lunch and we decided to cover Devikulam… Since we wanted to take Video of the route, we decided to take only 1 bike & let the BULL rest at the hotel… When we were climbing the hill, I saw a black pulsar overtaking me with a KA-05 Registration and to my surprise, it had xBhp written on the rear mud-guard, I was more than happy to find a fellow biker from Bangalore…

Roadblock on the way to Devikulam


We saw a road-block from far far away and decided to stop by to take pics and the guy on black pulsar also stopped by and came walking towards us and to my shock he addressed me by my full name ‘Mr. Pranesh Vittal’… I was more than shocked, how on earth does this guy know my full name , I don’t even have my pic as display image in any of the forums, instead I have this image in most of them … At the same time I was equally embarrassed that I didn’t knew who this guy is ??? He introduced himself as Blackbird on xBhp (Sanjay) & we had a healthy discussion about the routes taken by us and exchanged lotta info about our plans… He had read in one of my posts about my Munnar plan and my blue Uni as my display image + KA-05 registration, he was spot-on in recognizing me … Coincidentally, he also had plans of making it to Cochin, Alleppey etc… and we thought of driving together, but somehow it didn’t click

By then, the road-block had cleared off and we decided to go further... With Devikulam, 1 km to go, we somehow lost the direction and started going towards Thekkady road and went all the way till some place, had a great ride and returned back, was good to find Sanjay again



It was getting darker and we decided to head back to Munnar as driving on this narrow Highway (at times due to land-slides) that cuts through the rocks at few places with my poorly lit Unicorn head-light was not a safe option…

Tea Estates as it got darker:


Inspired by Auro


Finally we reached the hotel at about 7 PM or so (TripMeter : 507 Kms)… Watched Pink Panther 2 on Star Movies, relaxed a bit… Went out for dinner at around 9 PM or so, only to find bee-line of tourists waiting for their turn at all the hotels… Finally, decided to eat at one of the mobile stall and it was pretty good and that’s when we spotted “Gopi Fry ” and decided to take a pic of it the next day… We had plans of making it to Top Station the next day & the best is yet to come… Stay Tuned !!!

Day 3 : 27th Dec 2009 : Munnar to Top Station to Munnar to Top Station http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/1...tml#post358499

beautifully done !

nice pictures !!!!!!!!!!!

hey you guys had a amazing trip ...and nice photographs

Very interested and quick tour. Good photography.

wat a long trip of the gods own country......
i would love to do trip like this....

nice pictures and a well written log there pranesh.....

the bull was returning just 20kmpl???

waiting for the top station camping series.....

Day 3: Munnar to Top Station to Munnar to Top Station

@anants_220, @drvmtm, @NaughtyVaIsH, @lenin : Thanks a lot... Glad that you guys liked it

Mibhin: Its a 500cc Machismo, added to it Biju has a custom-made silencer for the thump (Goldie or something, i don't remember exactly), plus he's got it tuned for more power... Everything results in bringing down the fuel efficiency, it runs anywhere from 22-25 kms for a liter of petrol and it might go down in ghats...

Day 3: Munnar to Top Station to Munnar to Top Station

Top Station is just about 32 kms from Munnar and we left our hotel @ 6:45 AM against 6:00 AM (Late by 45 mins as per our plan )… Since it was somewhat early in the morning, we hardly came across any vehicles in either directions and we ruled the roads for all the distance… Stopped by at many a places to take pics and it was an awesome ride through the curvy roads… The road was just too good except the last 1 km or so…

Mattupetty dam


Nice / Smooth Curvy roads all through the way


Picturesque View all through the way


Probably this cow had never seen someone in such an attire , was staring at us all the while


First glimpse of clouds


Reached Top Station @ 9:00 AM (TripMeter: 542 Kms)… Had our breakfast (Kerala Paratha) @ Daniel Restaurant and it was very tasty and went towards the View Point which was just about 200 metres from the restaurant… One interesting thing about this place is we had to park our bikes in Kerala and walk through and enter TN and this being a private property owned by a person called “Sudha Ramaswamy”, there’s an entry ticket of Rs. 15/ per person…

The view from this place was mind-blowing and we were way above the clouds, it was a bright and sunny day as the time progressed and somehow it clicked in our minds “What if we camp @ this place ????”… We checked out with the watchmen (09786842435) & he offered to set-up tents, camp-fire at the view points for about Rs. 500/- per person and since we had cameras and other gadgets with us, the watchmen assured us about the safety of the place and there’ll be a couple of people with us who’ll take care of us…

We’re way above the clouds


We gotta know that boating has been stopped @ Thekkady ever since the tragic accident, so we thought of spending one more day @ Munnar… The check out time @ hotel was @ 12 PM, we had the choice of spending more time @ Top Station and on the way back thereby extending our stay @ Hotel Dhanyasree and see more places around Munnar or check out from the hotel before 12 PM, come back to Top Station with our baggage, camp at this place… A person need not be a genius to guess what did we opt …

Left Top Station @ 10:15 AM or so and drove non-stop to Munnar and we could the hotel by 11:00 AM, we had good 1 hour to pack our bags and checkout, got some cotton / cough drops etc… to prepare ourselves for a chilly night @ Top Station … Left Munnar @ 12:15 PM (TripMeter : 578 Kms)… This is when I took the pic of “Gopi Fry” … As the traffic had picked up compared to our morning ride, we had to be more careful at the curves…

We came across a beautiful lake and couldn’t resist ourselves to take our steeds to the water, time for some pics…



When the Top Station was just about 5 kms or so, it started getting foggy and visibility had dropped to just about a few meters or so… All the vehicles had a real tough time finding their way… Since we’d driven on this route just about a few hours ago, we had a very good idea about the route, curves and the white divider paint on the road was the only reference to drive on this stretch… We’d go past all the vehicles that were moving at snail speed, few drivers were even splashing water onto the wind-shield as wiper doesn’t clear the fog… It was so foggy that a couple of vehicles even turned back…



Given the current visibility conditions, it was an utter waste of time to visit Top Station as nothing was visible… It was very disappointing for everyone… We had our lunch @ the same restaurant where we had our b’fast in the morning & reached the View Point by about 4:00 PM… It was getting crowded every minute and the disappointment among the tourists could be seen … We desperately waited for the fog to clear up and with time it was getting worse… The watchman started putting up the tents from 6 PM onwards and we were just hoping the fog to clear… This is when the place is closed for tourists & Biju went to the hotel to get our dinner around the same time without taking umbrella / torch and I was to guard our baggage and from 6:30 PM it started drizzling and after a while it started raining heavily… I could see our tents getting drenched in rain, and it was very disappointing… I didn’t had any signal on my cell and there was no way I could find out where the hell is Biju, I had no other choice but to wait at that place … At around 8 PM or so, it stopped raining & slowly the visibility started getting slightly better… Biju came back by then we had our dinner and in another 1 hour or so, it was completely clear… This is when we lit up the camp-fire… There were 4 more guys from Chennai (Balaji, Arvind, Dr.Hari & Prabu) who were camping along with us… They were a good company and we had a great time… All our clothes were drenched to a good extent and the camp-fire played a good role in drying up the clothes … There were 2 tents (6 member & 2 member) and since our baggage would take up lotta space, the Chennai guys were very kind enough to let me sleep in their tents and Biju would sleep in the smaller tent along with all the baggage… We called the day at 12:30 AM or so, hoping that the we’ll be able to get a good view the next day… The early morning view of Top Station on Day 4 was not disappointing in anyway, Stay Tuned !!!

Day 4 : 28th Dec 2009 : Top Station to Munnar to Cochin http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/1...tml#post359447

Brilliant write-up there Pranesh! Excellent Pics too! I did go through the part where u have mentioned about our unexpected meeting.
Waiting for the rest of the log.