ok now i understood why the bull gave 20kmpl..... more over it was all ghats....
awesome pictures there buddy had been to munnar few times..... but ur pics make me feel to think "that have i ever been to this place??"


i have never seen so much of clouds in top station

where is that lake in the above picture??

Pranesh, One hell of a ride covering beautiful places. The pics are beautifully shot. The milky coulds are awesome. Did they permit you to camp at 'Top Station'? We spotted a snake when we visited.

The pic of miserable english is really funny. Thanks for sharing the pics. Awaiting more.

Wonderfull trip & beautifull piczz

Amazing trip, beautifull pics and awesome write up man!!!!


The glimpse of clouds is the best part of the entire log!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

amazing! :O
brilliant!

Thanks a lot Sanjay ... We were completely unreachable on 27th & 28th due to unavailability of signal...

Thanks a lot Mibhin... That's a great honour , probably you should go there once again during this time of the year

You'll find many lakes on the way to Top Station and this is one of them wherein we could take our bikes


Thanks a lot Ravi... They do permit camping @ Top Station and they charge Rs. 500/- per person, have mentioned the contact number in my detailed log earlier... Since this place is somewhat far from civilization, snakes are pretty normal i guess, though we didn't spot any...

Thanks a lot buddy...

Thanks a lot... Camping @ Top Station is undoubtedly the highlight of our trip


Thanks a lot Ranjith...

Biju's a great photographer too and he also deserves the complements, since we haven't met after the trip, the pics posted on the blog are 70% mine & 30% his... All the pics are straight from the camera, no post-processing done on any of these yet...

About the trip log, its entirely my creation, will be happy to take all the good / bad things out of it

Will publish Day 4 Trip Log at the earliest...

Day 4: Top Station to Munnar to Cochin

Day 4: Top Station to Munnar to Cochin

I suddenly woke up @ around 4 AM or so and peeped through the tent to check if it’s a clear day, obviously the dawn hadn’t broke and it was dark, added to it there was lotta fog around, tried sleeping, got up again 5 AM or so, but this time around, I came out of the tent, it was comparatively better than what it was an hour ago, some signs of improvement … I could see a few lights much below on TN side, I was just hoping / praying it’d be a clear day, again went inside the tent to see if I can get some more sleep… Got up again at 6 or so and came out of the tent and what a sight it was … I couldn’t stop myself screaming on top of my voice, waking everyone to come out & have a look… Every1 came out of their tents and this we what we had in store for us



The best part about this place was it’d change by every minute… At times the clouds would clear off paving way for the sunlight & it’d get so bright that we could hardly open our eyes completely and next few minutes it’d become foggy and visibility would drop by a few meters… We enjoyed every bit of it, took lotta pics and it was a full paisa vasool and was worth every pain we took in order to camp at this place… If we were to look back at our trip & choose the best moment, undoubtedly it has to be our camping @ Top Station…



Me micro-blogging so that I could write trip log as it happens




Thanks to these guys, there was no way both of us could sleep with all this


As the day got brighter:


View as seen from the tents… This is where I used to peep through to check if we could go out & get a glimpse…



Last Pic of Top Station… Hope to come back to this place sometime in the future…



We left the place by 10:30 AM or so and we were assured by the watchmen that this place is absolutely safe even when we come along with families and we whole heartedly agreed with what he said… Had our breakfast @ Daniel Restaurant (TripMeter: 614 Kms)… Since we’d already made Munnar – Top Station 3 times in the past 24 hours, we had a certain spots in mind where we’d stop by and take pics…

Here goes the spots:


When I was at one of the corners, I felt something wrong with my rear wheel and to my shock there was not much of air in the rear tyre… Checked if it were tampered by someone when we’d parked our bikes @ Top Station, but the nozzle cap was in tact, so the next priority was to find a place where we could fix this problem… After conversing with the locals, they instructed us to take a deviation from the high-way onto a nearby Tea Factory and check out there as there’s every possibility that they might have it (As they’ll have lotta heavy vehicles)… Sounded logically correct, but to our disappointment, there was no such arrangement at the Tea Factory … This is when we had to drive through the tea-estate workers’ houses and these are the same houses which we’d see from the high-way and think amongst ourselves what these people’s life-style would be, how they’d pass their times, what’s their day-to-day activities etc… It was good to see a Reliance BIG TV, DishTV, SUN Direct antennas at each of their houses … It was good to see that these people make a decent living and are happy with everything they have… Only because my rear tyre had less air pressure, we were forced to come & explore this place… There’s always a positive thing associated with everything … After traveling a few Kms, we came across a small shop where I got some air into my tyre (It’d come down to 15 )… The onlookers were quite curious about the bikes we drove and we found one more instance of English Language being brutally murdered



Reached Munnar by 12:45 PM or so, filled the tanks at Bharat Petroleum outlet (Trip Meter : 650 Kms)…

Fuel Details:
Me : 6.28 Liters for Rs. 300
Biju : 3.14 Liters for Rs. 150

Since it’s been more than 2 days that we were away from electricity, our cell phones had died by then and we were forced to use the PCO (Don’t remember when was the last time I used a PCO to make a phone call, my guess its easily been more than 6+ Yrs or so)… At around 1:30 PM or so, it started raining @ Munnar and the trip log book, cell phones, cameras etc… went safely into polythene covers and subsequently into the saddlebags …

We left Munnar @ 2 PM or so and from here on, whenever there was a light drizzle, we kept ignoring it and decided that we’d stop only if it rains cats & dogs… We could see thick dark clouds ahead of us and got ourselves prepared mentally to drive most of part of the journey in rain …

Reached Adimalai by around 4 PM or so, stopped by at a hotel where there was plenty of parking space, had a quick lunch (Kerala Paratha ), out came all the polythene sheets and the baggage was covered, out came the rain-gear and we set off @ 4:30 towards Kochi… The destination was a good 90 Kms away and we just had about few hours to catch up with the daylight … We’ve not even crossed the town-limits, it started raining elephants & hippos (Against our expectation of cats & dogs) and it rained continuously for next 4 hours till we actually got into a hotel @ Kakkanad, Cochin (TripMeter: 780 Kms)… The stretch from Adimalai to Perambavoor was one of the beautiful stretches I’ve ever driven… You never know when you’d come across a waterfalls out of nowhere & to be honest we even lost the count of number of water falls on this stretch … The rain was so intense that at times we’d feel as if someone above us is splashing buckets of water at us with pin-point accuracy … Looking at our state, few hotels even refused giving us a room thinking we’ll dirty their rooms … Finally, we got into a very decent accommodation @ Kakkanad… The next plan was to catch up with an old friend of Biju and he’ll be our local guide for the next day to Alleppey… Caught up with him, roamed around in the city, had dinner and called it a day @ 12:30 AM after a very tiring day… The next day was Kerala bundh from dawn to dusk (6 AM to 6 PM), so had to make sure that we leave our hotel by 4:30 AM and reach Kumarakam Jetty by 6 AM before the bundh even commences… My long-time desire of making it to the back-waters of Alleppey was just about a few more hours to go & the feeling itself was so exciting… Here ends the most exciting day of the trip which included First ray of Sunlight @ Top Station, Tea Estates, driving through the rain, plenty of water falls, freaking out in the city inspite of being dead-tired etc… Stay Tuned for more action !!!

Day 5 : 29th Dec 2009 : Cochin to Kumarakam to Cochin http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/1...tml#post360619

again really good pictures there... i liked the idea of capturing everything moment by moment in a personal log book.... may be i can also give a try to it next time...

is it Kakkad@cochin or kakkanad@cochin where u stayed?? just curios,, coz never heard of a place called kakkad

National festival of kerala is HARTAL(Bandh) ... waiting for the logs of Bandh day and pictures.......

Thanks a lot Mibhin ... In fact, this was the first time i captured all the moments in a small diary and trust me it works... I could note every minute thing about the trip... As when & when there was something worth capturing, i'd just scribble into it and once done it easily fits into the pocket / saddle-bag, wherever you want ...

U r right... Its Kakkanad, corrected it... Thanks for bringing it up ... Will surely get the remaining trip logs @ the earlest...

Cheers,
Pranesh

amazing snaps pranesh and really a well written log
enjoyed every bit of it..

Again beautifull picz.

We are waiting for your next...

Day 5: Cochin to Kumarakam to Cochin

Thanks a lot everyone for the interest... This is truly inspiring ...

Day 5: Cochin to Kumarakam to Cochin

We got up @ 3:30 AM and left the hotel for Kumarakam by about 4:30 AM or so… Biju’s BULL started showing its nakhras … It refused to electric-start and he had to push it onto a slope and started it in a typical old fiat style and we set-off (TripMeter: 791 Kms)… Stopped by @ IOCL petrol pump as the BULL was hungry (TripMeter: 815 Kms)…

Fuel Details:
Me: None
Biju: 5.32 Litres for Rs. 250

From then on we drove @ consistent 60 kmph and we managed to reach Kumarakam @ around 6:15 AM or so (TripMeter: 860 Kms)… The first target of reaching the place before the bundh commences was achieved, there was hardly any activity when we reached… Relaxed a bit till we could get onto the actual activiies…



Had our break-fast at a small hotel… No surprises as to what it’d be ... (Its Kerala Paratha )

The National Festival (Bundh) as termed by Mibhin had not affected much in this part of Kerala and the business was as usual… Lucky us

The equation was very simple… Get onto any of the boats, explore the back-waters of Kumarakam & take plenty of pics… Since it was a holiday season, there was no way we’d get onto any of the house boats as all of them were booked, we’d to settle with a normal boat (Motor Boat Charges: Rs. 350/- for a 1 hour trip, Motor-less err Manual Boat Charges: Rs. 200/- per hour)… We decided to first go in a motorboat towards the Birds Sanctuary area, once that’s done, we explore the other side through the manual boat…

The Fishermen had a great catch & were very happy about it


Woodland, The Leather that Weathers: Due to heavy rain the previous evening, the shoes were fully wet, my highest priority task to make sure that it dries up really fast and it didn’t disappoint me … Added to it the humidity factor, it worked



Few of the house-boats we saw… They range anywhere from Rs. 10,000 to an astronomical Rs. 25,000 per day… The figures may look exorbitant… In fact, I also thought the same way before going to Kumarakam… But only after seeing them, the amount of cost involved to prepare a house-boat, the maintenance charges etc…, it looked quite genuine… These boats are so aesthetically built that it would even put a architects to shame, their cost actually runs into a few lakhs & for some even upto a crore, and the amount of hard-work which these guys put to beautify them, give a great holiday experience to the customers is just too much (In terms of Air Conditioners, Plasma TV with 5.1 Channel Surround System, Food / Beverages, Attendants at your service to pamper with anything you’d ask for)… In one of them I even saw one of the attendant with a fishing rod and other guy was actually working on one of the fish they caught on the barbeque grill… Ek dum fresh (Btw, am a Veggie , this mouth-watering experience is for all those who love Fish )… Not to forget, these houseboats will be in motion for a good 8 hours at least… I’d definitely wish to experience holiday on a houseboat someday with my family members and after seeing all this am sure I won’t regret a bit paying this much




Double-Decker Houseboat for a better view


There was one bird on each of these bamboo shoots…


Attaining Nirvana:


Relaxing:


Can’t stop thinking of biking


Coconut Lagoon Resort, charges Rs. 30,000/- per day for a suite



She caught it !!!


Kwack Kwack: The only thing that could be heard when we were boating:



Kids playing Cricket… Next Mitali Raj in the making:


Foreign Tourists having a great holiday…


Water lily


Venice of India… There were houses on both side of the banks:


The bridge that connects two-sides


Tender Coconut served on the boats


Biju putting on his Creative cap


Just when we were getting down from the boat, we saw a firang family (Man around 50s with teenage son / daughter) gazing at the BULL… They were very excited to see this monster and were circling around it … We gotta know that they’re from UK & they’ve come to Kerala for a holiday… No wonder, they’ll be aware of RE & its legacy & hence attention to detail…

Overall, it was a pretty relaxed day on the boats exploring the back-waters of Kumarakam & taking lotta pics… For sure, my first trip to the backwaters of Aleppey will be there in my memories for the rest of my life … It was very calm & quite and to say the least it was “Soul-Refreshing” day … It costed us about 350/- for a 1 hour ride on motor boat & about Rs. 500/- for 3 hour ride on the motorless boat

Biju’s friend made some calls to find out if its safe to drive back and we gotta know that all the shops are closed & there’s no risk of driving on the roads… Had our lunch and drove back from Kumakaram @ 1:45 PM… Not having proper sleep for the past 2 days, the drive back was very sleepy and since none of the shops were opened, there’s no way we could beat the sleep … Managed to reach our hotel @ Kakkanad by 3:00 PM (TripMeter : 920 Kms)… Since we were very tired, slept once we reached the room… Had a nice sleep there, got up @ 8 PM… Bundh had been lifted by then and it was life as usual… Since Biju’s Compact Flash card was almost getting full, walked into a Photo Studio, got all the pics burnt onto a DVD… Had dinner @ a Chinese Restaurant & the best part was the Chapathis served here … The food served was v.v.tasty … After having Kerala Paratha as b’fast, lunch & dinner for the past 3 days, it was a very pleasant change

Came back to the room & called it a day by 10 PM (TripMeter: 925 Kms)… Overall, it was a day with some bit of driving (About 135 Kms or so) & plenty of time to relax on the boat… Its from here, we’ll be travelling back to Bangalore & the next day we had plans of making it to Valparai via Chalakudy with good amount of distance through the forests… Had read it one of the blogs that this route is infested with man-eating leopards and they claim lives of few villagers every year … We were just hoping / praying that our steeds don’t give up and in spite of a major hiccup they didn’t give up & lived up to it and we had a lucky escape … Stay Tuned for Day 6 action !!!

Day 6 : 30th Dec 2009 : Cochin to Valparai http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/1...tml#post360877

Really enjoyed reading this thread and amazing pics covered.
Hope you guys had one of the most unforgettable year end trip Kudos

Whoa man...... Am speechless.... simply out standing photographs..didn't have time to go through the write up, will do that later. But the pics are just amazing..the Top station, scenic roads and the back waters.. Certainly God's own country...! Keep it up man and congrats for the wonderful ride.