KG's Encounter: Photogenic Kerala

DAY 1

Booked were our tickets a day in advance, for a journey that would take us seven hours to reach our first destination. This is how it proceeded on “THE DAY”.

The TRIO...[courtesy Driver]

In order to catch our age old Kerala Express that departs at 1115 hrs (everyday) we had decided the previous night; to leave college campus latest by 0830 hrs. This decision was related to next day’s lunch as we never wanted to eat another of those dreadful Kerala Express’ meals, when a better option namely ‘Sharma Dhaba’ was available whose ‘aloo paranthas’ are definitely worth consuming any other day. Hence the plan was set. But as lethargy had set in after lying useless for about a month it wasn’t easy to get on track that easily and thus an inevitable delay (right in the beginning of the trip…).

Luckily to our rescue came our college transport as one vehicle was going to the city (Yes! You read it correctly…the city, my college is located in the lush green abode of western ghats and as far as twenty kms from the city…a subtle way of saying it’s an isolated place). Coming back to the topic at hand, this vehicle saved us nearly half an hour which had been compromised due to lethargy…(which now seems was totally worth it) and we got to chat about our trip to our driver who was a helpful and considerate keralite (a usual trait I have witnessed over the years). It was only because of this guy that we got to have the paranthas we so dearly longed for. Thus, we got them packed went back to the station and waited for the train to arrive.

Our train departed fifteen minutes after the scheduled time (considering the fact that Trivandrum central is the station this train starts from) and hence the journey began. Did I mention where we were going to, till now… (To eliminate the suspense, keep reading, ;))

Tar-less Silent Valley Forest Road

First target of this trip was an evergreen rainforest which is popularly known as Silent valley National Park but isn’t quite popular and that is what makes it a perfect getaway. It is a peaceful, serene and quiet place with almost no human habitation (how an ideal forest must be…). For more information about this place refer- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Valley_National_Park.

After spending a few hours in the train watching evergreen and picturesque Kerala we did get bored and wished to reach our destination Palakkad ASAP. Thankfully, even after a 15 min. delayed departure we arrived at our destined destination (Palakkad/palghat) just five minutes late, wherefrom we had to take to bus to reach a small town namely Mukkali. Forest department is located here and it issues tickets, transport (cannot take your own vehicle,:P) and permission to visit the park (And Yes! You need to book your visit in advance via phone and e-mail, which we did a couple of days ago). Here is the official website in case you are planning as well- http://silentvalley.gov.in/dayvisit.html . But let me get back to this later.

A cloudy Day-2

As of now, we three were standing at a bus-stop after a little snack which we had at a local shop (there are a lot of snack shops, up and running near the railway station, and I must admit their local namkeen items that we tried were pretty delicious). Getting back to the journey… we had inquired through internet and confirmed with the locals that first we had to take a bus (either private or KSRTC, as both ply) to Mannarkad (30 kms from palakkad) and then another one to mukkali (another 20 kms). After waiting for some time one bus finally showed up, frequency of which as per the localites is around fifteen minutes, but in the evening time I suppose it could well be 25-30 mins., catching which we finally reached our intermediate spot.

What no one told us was that buses don’t ply to mukkali from mannarkad after 8 p.m., since it’s a hilly road with many hair-pin curves and therefore a bit risky. We had booked our accommodation with the forest department too, but due to lack of this information we had to cancel that booking and find lodging in mannarkad itself, which was a tiresome activity. Two to three hotels and a couple of eating joints more or less exhaust this place (although even that seems a big number for the kind of place it was). To our surprise chinese and north Indian dishes were available at the restaurant where we had our dinner but unfortunately one curry we ordered had dominant taste of coconut and therefore was difficult to process. Nevertheless hungry as we were, we consumed and went straight to bed after checking in a hotel, the only decent available option given the circumstances (with primary consideration of a clean toilet with a working flush system).

A piece of advice to every traveler, when you are going to isolated places…before checking into a hotel kindly check the entire room-electrical fittings, definitely the bathroom and don’t forget the flush, cause you never know.

This is how eventful/less first day of our trip was.