Musafir

After too much booze, we all got up late on the second day. But yes, we were excited and looking forward for the day’s trip. We started off, had nice breakfast. There is a nice tea estate nearby where we can purchase different flavours of tea. Some of our guys went over to purchase while the rest relaxed on the empty road. The morning view of the hills is an amazing view. And as is rains frequently over there, its always cold and cloudy. 

We then started off to the Eravikulam National Park, part of the Western Ghats. Private vehicles are not allowed over there. The Forest Department runs shuttle services which take us to one location after which we need to trek up the mountain. The one thing that we see at this pickup point is rows of vendors selling fresh carrots. Then we all took this bus and went over the mountain. This mountain is  1500 mts Above Sea Level and is always cold. And it was almost about to rain when we reached the drop point. The visibility is probably 200 meters with mist all around. It is a wonderful place to have a walk among the clouds. We started walking up the mountain and something happened mid way.

It started pouring. All the excitement vanished and we were looking for a place to hide. But alas.. there was none.. We got drenched in rain inside out. After we got wet some of us decided to walk in the rain up. That was a one of its kind experience walking uphill when its raining heavily and worth trying. We went up the hill and came back. We were so wet that after coming down, we had to change our  clothes right from the inner wear.

It took more than an hour for everyone to change. We then decided to start our return journey. We took many pictures on our way back. We were kind of disappointed that we could not see many places. But we did not know then that the return journey would be so memorable for years to come. I will not mention all that story just not to make this post boring to others. Otherwise, that was a very funny memory to all of us and i still laugh at what happened on the return journey. 

Finally, we all got back to Bangalore thinking about the forthcoming day to work and also hoping about a next trip soon. Although there were hurdles during this journey, this will always have a special place in my trips.

This is my first trip to the Gods own country - Kerala. Also it the first trip with my colleagues after joining TCS. 19 of us planned the trip and there are was  nice weekend ahead of us. We hired a bus from Bangalore for the next two days. The  condition inside the bus was pathetic. The seats were enough space for us to properly sit. We had to sit in a particular position and that was the worst part of the trip.

We started at 8 PM. Soon the excitement started. We started singing, dancing and what not. People were really charged up and raring to enjoy the trip. We stopped to have dinner at 11 PM and moved on. After dinner, it was kind of calm and quiet. Everyone was tired with the day’s work and we all slept or relaxed in calm. We were supposed to reach Munnar by 8 AM in the morning at 6 AM, we were still almost 200 kilometres  behind.

At 6 AM, we reached the state of Kerala and stopped to have some early morning Tea. The area around was beautiful and calm. It was a little cloudy and cold. The distant hills among the clouds are a nice view. We stretched our legs for some time and moved on. People were again fresh and the excitement started for the day.  All along the way, we came across forests, fields, hilly areas, monkeys.

The best sceneries that i liked was the long empty road with big trees on either  side and a waterfall in the hills at a distance and clouds hovering over on top. Then i understood why Kerala is called the God’s own country. This state is truly made by God for himself to enjoy. Then there is one scene that you see everywhere and that are the miles and miles of tea estates as if the entire tea of the world is grown here. It is indeed a great experience. We just see tea estates and hills covered with trees for almost an hour It was 12 Noon by the time we reached our place of stay. We were left with just 7 hours of time for sight seeing. We rushed to our rooms, had a bath and were ready again for the day’s tour.

Our first destination is a very famous lake in Munnar. This is one of the most visited spots. There are hills on both sides of the lake and we can see the clouds covering the top of the hills. We spent a long time over there admiring the beauty, taking pictures of each other and just relaxing.

Our next visit was to the highest point in South India, called the Top Station. This point is in the middle of a rainforest and it rains heavily and frequently over there all through the year. There are many places which will serve as view points. There is a small piece of land which is the tip of the hill and from there the view in front is  awesome. One interesting and funny thing is that we see a board over there saying that the land is for sale. We spent an hour at that place and it started raining while we were on our way back.

We actually though rain would play spoilsport for the further planned activity for the day, but it did not. We arranged a bonfire and sang and danced around it. We had dinner and then the fun started. We pushed all the ladies to their rooms and our boozing session started. It was total fun and we knew many things about our team and people in a single night which we did not know in a year. We boozed till 3 AM in the morning and by the time we all woke and got ready, it was 10 AM. We then packed our bags, and set off to our trip for the second day.

To be continued…