Re: Munnar the Paradise on Earth... A ride to Gods Own Holiday Home.. Mesmerizing!!!!!

Travelogue Approved

Waiting for the rest of the story

Re: Munnar the Paradise on Earth... A ride to Gods Own Holiday Home.. Mesmerizing!!!!!

Thank You for the approval.. Will try to get it done asap...

Re: Munnar the Paradise on Earth... A ride to Gods Own Holiday Home.. Mesmerizing!!!!!

The first pic is epic man, waiting for the log and more pics..

Re: Munnar the Paradise on Earth... A ride to Gods Own Holiday Home.. Mesmerizing!!!!!

Day 1 served brother.. [MENTION=38603]The Monk[/MENTION].. Day one uploaded.. Let me know if any suggestions or changes has to be made..

Re: Munnar the Paradise on Earth... A ride to Gods Own Holiday Home.. Mesmerizing!!!!!

Crosswind issue - relatable for me in leh! I was riding at an angle on a straight road..
It's a nightmare for faired bikes if it's a gush of heavy crosswind while you are riding fast and taking a corner.

Re: Munnar the Paradise on Earth... A ride to Gods Own Holiday Home.. Mesmerizing!!!!!

Day 2

Swiss County Resort - Munnar Town - Top Station - Mattupetty Dam - Carmelagiri Elephant Park - Cardamom Estate - Swiss County Resort 150kms Covered

So we wake up next morning and find this wonderful view from our balcony..






Day 2 we planned to visiting places nearby and mostly Sightseeing and I should mention our resort manager here who helped me with directions and places to visit.. One thing about Kerala is people are very nice spoken and kind there.. So we had our delicious breakfast served by the hotel Staff as a complementary package with our stay... Right before we start I took out my camera out of the bag to click some pictures of the wonderful scenery from our room just to find out that the memory card for the camera was missing. I was so irritated with myself.. How can I forget to keep the memory chip when I checked everything before the ride.. ....


So now the first and most important thing was to look for a shop to purchase memory card. And to my relief there was only one shop which had the big SD cards available at entire Munnar town.. So now everything is settled and we start for our first destination Top Station..


Off we roll....






Now the roads at Kerala are very very well maintained and awesome corners but only problem roads are very small in size.. Very Very Small indeed.... But a person like me who loves cornering won't be able to resist those wonderfully maintained corners.. And specially if you own a corner beast like RC390.. The Best thing about touring on an RC is cornering.... RC being a track bike is made in such a way that your will love to get your keens down automatically when u see a corner.. so as usual me in full track mode on hills, little did I knew about the road sense and reckless driving of bus drivers at Kerala.. The Only Con in Kerala would be Road sense of people there and reckless or very rash driving... I have heard about bus drivers of Kerala and how rash they drive but always thought how bad it can be if you stay at a City like Chennai, where the your have 2 buses connected together and the driver has no idea very the rear end of the bus is going.. TO my surprise after this trip I found Chennai drivers to be far better the Kerala Bus drivers.. (only disadvantage or threatening problem at Kerala).. So people riding to Kerala specially for the first time please be aware and attentive while riding along the State.. One mistake can cause a major and fatal mishap.. I faced one such situation, was doing proper cornering and also honing at each and suddenly I see a big KSTC bus in font if me in full speed without any kind of horns or indication.. I had no options, if I take right I would directly hit the front of the bus and left it was an open ghat and little bit of mistake would mean all 3 of us would have fallen on ghats.. This is where you shouldn't panic and put all your years experience to work and react in split of seconds.. And that's exactly what I did.. I used the pump braking technique and somehow managed to stop just a few inches from the ghats... This is why I love riding an RC,, one of the best ABS functionalities this bike has... I simply love the brakes and here it came to my rescue again... And guess what instead of me shouting at the bus driver, the driver and conductor started shouting as if I had done a big mistake coming in front of there bus.. I thought better not to ruin the mood and ignored them and carried now.. reached the Top station by 11:30.. Little did I know that Top Station was not a part of Kerala and it was a part of our very own....



Tamil Nadu....


Some clicks from the Top Station...


















Small Video from Top Stations By Go Pro...



Just when I was about to start back from Top Station, I find this great rider on bullet 500 classic wearing an A* jacket and I quote again "Alpine Star Jacket" however with no helmets on riding with a pillion and neither of them had helmets... I thought of stopping them an asking are the really riders if yes then where are the helmets, Do they belong to some group.. However thought to ignore them as these days everyone and anyone are becoming professional riders.. only if you have a riding jacket and a DSLR or a fake go pro you are a rider doesn't matter if you wear a helmet or not, as helmets are not a necessity for them.. I really feel pity on such people...


Going back to the places to Visit now came Mattupetty Dam.. A very beautiful and scenic dam I must say. This is where Pooja wanted to go for boating.. Now all boats here are peddle boats so I had warned her before hand that it requires a lot of effort and energy to peddle these boats but Pooja as being her didn't listen.. One might say unlucky or fate that we got a boat which had a steering however it stopped working at the middle of the water and we were completely stuck. Before going for boating I spoke to this boatwala's and they informed me just last week there was an incident where a tourist fell from the boat while taking selfies.. And now here we were in the middle of the water with the boat not working and neither of us know how to swim.. Trust me a person who doesn't know to swim one of the scariest part.. Somehow we were towed to the shore by locals... And probably this would be her last peddle boat ride of life.. ....



Some pictures of the dam....




Mattupetty Dam














We started back towards Munnar and the time was around 2:30pm.. While on the way to Munnar we found an Elephant camp... To my knowledge I had heard that Elephant safari's were banned in India but here I was proved to be wrong.. There was a 15mins Elephant Safari available for tourist on this camps.. And guess what we went for it...


Some Pictures from the Elephant Camp and Safari.












She was so happy to eat.. Indeed was hungry..

Started back for Munnar. We reached the town by evening 4 and both of us were terribly hungry.. We reached a restaurant and asked for the Menu however the waiter said "sir 70% of the items on the Menu was not available"... So i asked him what all do you have available... the 1st thing came out of his mouth was Beef Biriyani ... Now please note here before coming to any kind of conclusions.. I don't have Beef its a personal choice and I don't force anyone not to have it as well, its a Democratic country and everyone has a freedom or right of there own and I am no one to stop that certainly means that I have the same right, so my only request here would be not to make this an issue here.. Only reason I mentioned this here is because there are many like me who doesn't have beef so for them only one suggestion at Munnar or Kerala before ordering food please make sure you check with the waiter if you are not comfortable with beef.. Nothing more than that I would say... So I had to come out of the restaurant.. Finally after a long hunt we found a Jain and punjabi food stall and had punjabi lunch and to my surprise it was delicious.. After having lunch we had one last destination to cover at Munnar that was the Tea Estates and Gardens.. So I had seen a Tea Garden while coming down on Day 1 and had that in mind... So reached the point and it was so beautiful and the view was mindbogglingly.


Some Pictures from the Tea Garden..




















Finally a Selfie with optimus


Family Time



We started for our Hotel back only to find this wonderful weather and clouds back.. Video uploaded below:-



Ending Day 2 with some Masala Chai and Pakora best food for this wonderful weather..





Day 3 and 4 On the way.....

Re: Munnar the Paradise on Earth... A ride to Gods Own Holiday Home.. Mesmerizing!!!!!

Day 3 -

Munnar to Athirappilly Water Falls - 126kms


Day three was more of a irritating day then a day to enjoy at first... Thanks to the BJP strike which was called a night before at 11pm.. Little did we knew about the strike and we started off to our next destination the beautiful Athirappilly waterfalls.. Yes the same place where the famous movie Bahubali was shot with actor Prabhas holding the Shiva Linga... We had a few stops for breakfast and small but beautiful waterfall...










Trying some cornering skills


So was super excited for this place had heard a lot about the same and saw some awestruck pictures of the same... Mind you we had no idea about the strike till we reached Athirappilly.. I wanted to refuel and stopped at a petrol bunk, then is when I come to know that today is a 12hrs BJP strike and I wont get petrol anywhere in Kerala till 6pm.. I was like what rubbish!!!! Normally at our places we get petrol at normal road side shops as well when there is a strike or something... However much to my surprise I had totally forgot that this is a different state and at Kerala people don't sell petrol at normal shops... So I checked the fuel indicator and it showed me 2points are still left.. Now here is the catch, people who have RC390 would know, the only worst thing about touring with and RC or as a matter of fact any track bike is the fuel tank capacity.. My Optimus only has a capacity of 8ltrs.. And this is always a pain for me and moreover I get an awesome mileage of 15kms per ltr......... So I knew where this was heading to and exactly I knew that the fuel indicator was a big lie... So I didn't want to inform Pooja about the same and scare her, instead went for the Athirappilly Falls...



Some Pictures from Athirappilly Falls...


























Now the climb to Athirappilly was very very tiring and we both were totally exhausted and adding to the cream on the cake it started raining.. By the time we came out of the falls it was already 12 noon.. So now the biggest challenge is to find petrol.. So I had to make a bit of change on the plan.. Checked the gmaps and found that Valparai was around 80kms from Athirappilly and it was on Tamil Nadu and I was pretty sure in between I can manage some fuel from normal road side shops.. However I was entirely wrong, just after around 15km the low fuel indicator started to glow and we were in dense forest and nothing nearby... This is when you need to decide and tell you Pillion. Now one thing is for sure, my wife gives very good suggestions.. So we decided to head back to Athirappilly, look for some lodge and stay there for the night.. This made me very irritated and disgusted as I had planned to stay at Masinagudi for the day... With no other options left somehow we reached back. Thanks to make my trip that we got a very good resort (Riverok Villas).. Now this resort was just beside the river and a perfect view...


Frankly speaking this changed my entire mood from irritated I became the happiest the very moment I saw the river... I knew what I wanted and exactly I had got the same.. Yes its time for Optimus to have a much needed bath..... And guess what even I had a wonderful bath after a long time at a hilly river.. water was as cold as ice...



Optimus getting a much needed bath.




Finally a Selfie with Optiimus


Ice cool water!!!



This is where we end day 3 a short day with nothing much other than the waterfalls and river bath...






Stay Tuned for day 4 with some serious wildlife journey!!!!

Re: Munnar the Paradise on Earth... A ride to Gods Own Holiday Home.. Mesmerizing!!!!!

I'm reading your vlog from afternoon and i see you updating so quickly. I really love your commitment. Pics have come out well. And Prime is looking awesome 😇

Re: Munnar the Paradise on Earth... A ride to Gods Own Holiday Home.. Mesmerizing!!!!!

Thank you brother.. Trying my best to get it completed and share the experiences and pictures...

Re: Munnar the Paradise on Earth... A ride to Gods Own Holiday Home.. Mesmerizing!!!!!

Such a good trip log to read.
Special mention to Pictures and Gorgeous Optimus Sir ji

Re: Munnar the Paradise on Earth... A ride to Gods Own Holiday Home.. Mesmerizing!!!!!

Thank You so much... happy that you liked the trip log till now and hope you would love the 4th day as well.. Stay tuned!!!

Re: Munnar the Paradise on Earth... A ride to Gods Own Holiday Home.. Mesmerizing!!!!!

Day 4

This is the best day of the trip... A ride into the wild..

Athirappilly to Masinagudi - 291kms


We get up late, thanks to the river bath had a wonderful sleep the previous night.. Started from Athirappilly only by 9am.. And yes I forgot in the previous posts A very special thanks to Kumar HV Sir the founder of HVK, he is a gem of a person and a great person to get information about road conditions all over the country... He has had a major part on all my long rides till date.. Feels great to have him as a guidance... one can join his facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/groups/hvkumar/... Coming back to the ride, roads as always wonderfully maintained.. Now this day was pretty much challenging small roads, too much of traffic and horrible road sense of cab's and bus drivers made it worst... We reached Kerala and Tamil Nadu border by 2pm... Biding a good bye to the God's Own Country with a promise to come back soon we leave Kerala... Stopped for lunch...



Bye Bye Kerala see you very very soon


Now we can call this trip a Pure veg trip, as we never got to had any Non Veg food on the entire ride.. I being a pure Lord Shiva disciple dont have Non Veg on Monday's so that made it worst... Mind you both of us are very much foody people.. Along with riding to different places we love to taste and try out the crusine and diversified food of different states as well... So this was one part we missed out this ride.. Coming back to the ride we crossed Gudalur and things started changing drastically.. From full of crowd, rash driving and traffic here comes the best part Ride Into the Wild... Complete change of environment.. So much close to nature and Wildlife as soon as we entered Mudumalai National Park we were in complete dense forest. This was not the 1st time for us on Mudumalai or Bandipur.. But yes there was an year gap for this visit... This is where I love riding the most.. Speed is not what thrills me however riding on this awesome Stretch of Mudumalai to Bandipur @25kmph thrills me the most.. I really do love forest a lot.. Coming from a place like Siliguri where its surrounded by dense forest on all 4 directions Only I can understand the pain of residing on a city... So enjoying the awesome weather, view and environment we proceed on these dense forest roads.. On my last visit to Bandipur I was lucky enough to see this Price of Jungle...


Spotted this Price last year at Bandipur


Just when I was praying to spot something similar to God and we were around 2kms from the checkpost/gate of Mudumalai, this is Gigantic King is what we were greeted by....






Greetings Lord Ganesha

Spotted a few more Deer's and Peacock but no sign of the Prince till now.. It was almost 3:45 till we reached the Mudumalai Safari office.. And still around 12 kms was our resort... And the last Safari was done by 4:30.... So we had to hurry up reach the resort get checked in and them come back again 12 kms more and get the Safari booked.. But as I said you before your can't ride fast on these Jungle areas even if the speed limit of 40kmph is not there You yourself will feel to ride slow.. Atleast that is how I am.. I have done 167kmph with Pooja with my optimus but even that can't beat this 25kmph feel. So we reached the resort only by 4:15pm. The name of the resort is Casa Deep Woods Masinagudi, this one was recommended by one of my good friend and I had booked it only by 11pm lastnight.. The specialty for this resort was it was completely made of woods, the rooms the bed , all inhouse materials everything of wood and yes most importantly it was absolutely at dense forest and was surrounded with forest on all ways.. There is even a sign board inside the resort stating "This is a Wildlife Crossing Corridor, please don't come out of room after 10pm till 6am... Now this made me more excited.. Now we had to hurry up, kept the saddles didn't even freshen up just removed our riding gears and left for Mudumalai Safari.. Just while we were starting the manager took down the food order for the night as we had to order before hand due to the resort being at such remote area and he also reminded to be back by 7pm before the sunsets as we were in motorcycle and after dark forest is not at all safe.. But you know I being myself a witty dumb and always looking for some adventure thrill packed wanderer just had the right plan in my mind... You will come to know about it in sometime now...

One the way to Mudumalai Safari office we spotted a few more wild beauties.




Chital aka Spotted Deer


This one really had guts..


Beauty is this


Another Beautiful Peacock


So we reached Mudumalai Safari office and it was already 5:35 just to find that the safari timings were over for the day and all bus and jeeps left.. Then I had to make some calls to get the arrangements done.. To my surprise within a few mins after the call there was a Jeep infront of the Safari office waiting for us... .... Now everything set, We start for the Safari.. and here are a few wild fabulous animal's we spotted....







Family Of Elephants...


Langoor (Jai Bajrangbali)


Golden Eagle












Full Family of Chital's


Bison ran away very quick


Never Saw so many of them together at a time...

I was too much excited this time around and was so sure to spot the Price of the Jungle however still didn't get any luck.. We had got a very good driver and he tried a lot for the a Tiger but all hopes of us were going into vain.. He took us to a wonderful place where we got a very good view of a forest river and waterfall..


Pics from the waterfall...












Driver Bhaiya


With all hopes for a Tiger going off we were almost at the end of our safari just then we were greeted by these wonderful creatures..
















Check this video and see how close the Elephants were


After completing our action packed dramatic safari we reached the Safari office.. It was already 6:45 and just when we were about to start for our resort in comes Indra Devta ka vardan. Yes it started raining heavily.. So we had to wait at the safari office for sometime as we had our camera's and if of course the DSLR was not water resistant.. This is where Go Pro comes handy.. Rain Sun Snow, nothing to worry for Go pro..


While it was raining we got to spot another herd of Deer's infront of the Safari office....






Optimus getting a rain bath...

As soon as we found some plastic carry bags for the camera and the rain was a bit less we started off for the resort, and now if you remember properly it was around 12kms from the Safari office to our resort through dense forest and the manager had warned us strictly to be back before 7.. Guess what!!! it was already 7 and we were starting from the Safari office.. This is exactly what I planned for, a ride through a dense forest at evening time and adding to the cake was some rain as chocolates.. This is exactly what I dreamed off.. This moment of my life will never come back.. Though to be very frank I was a bit scared however the thrill level was far more then the scare level.. I only had one thing in mind this part of life will never come back a ride with your wife(love marriage) and with your love(optimus) at dark between dense forest!!!! That feeling!! Only I know how it feels.. Trust me when I am trying this its taking me back to that moment between fear, excitement and love.. Can't explain this feeling..


A small video of the moment I have mentioned above hope you people like it.


So till we reached the resort the manager had already called me 5 times and he was tensed as well. After seeing us in one piece he was a bit relieved and he just said one thing, "Sir aap logo mein dam hai" (You guys have gut's)".. Finally we reach our rooms take bath and wonderful cooked dinner was ready.. We had dinner with the owner of the resort.. Now this guy was an amazing architect and he was the one who had designed the entire resort.. A very creative man almost at my Father's age. We had meet him while we were checking in at the resort stay just beside the resort.. An Avid animal lover and we somehow shared the same mindset... He was very interested to know about our travel stories and promised that we will have dinner together.. So here we were me sharing our riding stories all over the country... He was amazed knowing both us touring on a motorcycle at these many places however now we are used to these amusements.... I was more interested on the Jungle Stories... Like he said till sometime back they used to do day and night trekking at dense forest however there was an incident there 2 foreigners were killed on Elephant attack and also some tiger attack stories. I asked him about the sign boards inside the resort if its true or not.. Then came the golden words from his mouth, "Sagar even last night an Elephant visited the resort". This is exactly what I wanted to hear from him.. The disappointment of not spotting a Tiger went off within seconds... This resort had bamboo trees inside of it and there was no boundaries as such, so the Elephants come to break and play with these bamboo trees.. More than having dinner we were having these kind of conversations..


Finally Completed the dinner and went off to sleep not before I informed the manager of the resort. "Bhaiya agar Hati ya sher aye toh call me even if its middle of the night"(If an Elephant of Tiger comes please knock me even if its middle of the night.... Laughing at this we said sure sir will do.. Somewhere down the line I had a gut feeling that something good is going to happen if not a Tiger an elephant again at least.. I was awake till 1 am and trust me that wild animal sounds at night time in the middle of the forest gives you such feeling that can't be explained in words, one has to live it to feel it.. 1:05 said my watch went on bed much to my disappointment, just said myself "Sagar All is Well, you saw so many Elephants today and other wild animal so be happy". I felt yes that's true and got my mood to settle and went of to sleep...

6:15am in the morning, someone knocks at the door.. When I open it I find our manager bhai there.. He just said" Sir come with me and bring your camera"... That's when I realize that my wish has been granted.. Next thing woke pooja up took the camera and ran off behind the manager. And yes you are right there was this big giant baby in our resort___________________






Gigantic elephant infront of our room..


Might be this Gigantic beauty came to bid us good bye as I knew its time for this trip to come to an end.. Yes a trip which was through awesome highways, gigantic mountains, mesmerizing Tea valleys, Wild dense forest and the beauty of Kerala coming to an end.... A dream of Munnar coming to an end.. Finally after 3 cancelled trips made it to Munnar... A visit to Athirappilly Falls.. Everything coming to an end.. A dream well lived by us.. And who better to live it with then your life partner...

We Started for Chennai from Bandipur at around 11am. Roads were as usual wonderful.. Reached Hosur by around 5:30pm.. Took a break at Krisnagiri.... By 9pm we reached home(Chennai) and we were fully drained with water, After Vellore till Chennai we had continuous rainfall... But as usual we reached safe and unscratched..












Fully Soaked in rain we reach home..



This time I was not unhappy to go back home.. I was happy that only after we go back home can we plan another wonderful adventure another trip to a new place with my Wife and optimus... By this we come to the end of this awestruck trip.. A leaf added to my book of memories for years to come...

A Special thanks to Pooja for being such an amazing and supportive wife.. I know how painful sitting behind an RC is however you came to my world as a part of it and not against it like many other wife's do.. Thank You So much for everything..

And last but not the least XBHP, all this started only because of this community, I wont have been here today if it wasn't of this community, have learnt a lot from people with much more experience than I have.. Thank You XBHPian's

Hope You like the experiences I shared and hope to ride a lot more places and share a lot more of them...

Thank You For Reading


THE END

Re: Munnar the Paradise on Earth... A ride to Gods Own Holiday Home.. Mesmerizing!!!!!

Great log for a so called newbie on the keyboard!

Lessons we all learnt:
1. Double check batteries, chargers, cards, power banks before any trip.
2. Ride slow at night (even on empty roads). Though I ride a much less powerful bike with poorer brakes, I rarely cross 80-85 in the dark.
3. Don't even think of doing triple digits in the villages and ghats are NOT race tracks. Especially in KL.
4. Finally some redemption for me - once a Bengali made me walk for 4 km saying 500 meters (between Camac St. and Park St., in Kolkata). Revenge best served to you.
5. Crosswinds make you look like Malinga's hair being sucked in like Maggi.
6. Sagar is Saaa-roook Khan. He he.
7. RC fuel tank is 1.5 liters. No reserve, yet manages to take you to Bahubali's shoot locales.
8. Makemytrip isn't all that bad.
9. Sagar and Optimus took bath in the same river. Means Sagar's joints now are lubed with the same stuff as his Transformer.
10. There's so much more to safari than just chasing the cat. Please enjoy nature.
11. Sagar aur Pooja mein dum hai!
12. Tuskers personally visit them to bid adieu.

Enjoyed the t-log a lot. Keep serving more!

Re: Munnar the Paradise on Earth... A ride to Gods Own Holiday Home.. Mesmerizing!!!!!

Thank you bhai for such lovely comments..

4th wala point mast hai... 6th wala toh aapke liye hi post kiya hai..

And yes make my trip sometimes gives proper review... and yes 10th wala point i fully agree indeed there is.. [emoji120]🏻[emoji120]🏻[emoji120]🏻[emoji120]🏻