Auli Hills, Uttarkhand

View from AULI -2

Himalayan Rains

AULI

This is a view from AULI 14 kms from Joshimath.

Jabalpur Marble Rocks

Red Ant

Red Ants! I wish I had MACRO!!

Silent Valley- Kerala

Sairandhri Vanam, meaning the forest in the valley, as referred to in the Mahabharatha and the River Kunthi give a mythological dimension to the National Park. The Silent Valley is seldom silent but it has an inexplicably unique character about it, what with the dense forest, the music of the birds and its quitet majesty.With an area of close to 90 sq.kms, the park is situated in the north-eastern corner of the Palakkad district. It rises abruptly to the Nilgiri plateau in the north ......

It is a rain forest of wordly fame. You can read more of this on the links given below separately or as hyperlinks to the words/ sentences.

How to reach Silent Valley?
You can reach from Coimbatore or Palakkad District in Kerala of Kochi in Kerala by road.

Where to Stay at Silent Valley?
There are not many good places to stay here. I did not notice any except the Forest Deptt rest houses - two numbers only near the park. There may be a few resorts hidden away in the hills.  But after lots of research I found the one I stayed at Malleeshwaram lodge. It is in the Attapadi hills before Silent Valley.  This is the best if you want a taste of nature. Read about it here. Just be prepared to stay in huts with no electricity. You will constantly hear the singing and chirping of birds and may be lucky enough to see hornbills. I was not!!!! I missed!! Does not matter if Silent Valley is actually 45 mts away because there is no place to stay near Silent Valley exactly except for the rest houses of Forest Deptt.

The Govt Site is here

The Wildlife Warden, Silent Valley National Park, Mannarghat. P.O. Palakkad – 678 058
Phone: 04924 222056/ 04924 253225 / Email: mail@SilentValleyNationalPark.com

Here are some pictures of the Valley. For pictures of the Lodge where I stayed please wait for next post here.

Slideshow

View Larger Map

Coaker's WalK Kodaikanal

I stayed for 2 days at Kodaikanal after having reached on a Sunday evening.
Coaker's Walk was the best place in Kodaikanal to get lost in nature. Just sit on any of the seats on the path and watch the darkness slowly cast its cloak on the valley beyond. Do wear a warm clothing.. It does gets chilly due to wind. [I did not have any though].

Kodaikanal Trip: Day-4

Day-4: After leaving Kannyakumari at around 2.30 pm I drove straight to Kodaikanal, a distance of around 380 kms ..via NH-7 to just before Madurai where I took a bypass towards Vattalkundu via some state highway and reached Kodaikanal at around 830 pm. The hill drive is only 40 kms! Nothing to compare with Hill Stations in Himalayas!! The road is having all the reflectors to protect you from the sides!

I stayed at Hotel Carlton. It is one of the costliest hotels or probably the costliest. But no I did not pay much because I had an arrangement with my office. But if you stay at normal rates it will be Rs 8,000 per room per day. I paid much much much less!! A few pictures of the Hotel. Hotel Carlton Phone no- 04542 - 240056-240071 Fax- 04542-241170 Email: carlton@krahejahospitality.com

You can see the next post for the Kodaikanal Lake and other photos in subsequent posts.

Elagiri Hills, Vellore District, Tamilnadu, India [Also spelt Yelagiri]

I will keep saying that out of all metros Chennai is not the place to be in unless you are a Tamilian or understand/speak Tamil.

But the countryside of Tamilnadu is a different. When I see the villages of Tamilnadu or even the roads I think it gets more marks compared to many other parts of India as far as villages and state or major or minor Roads are concerned. Bihar and West Bengal are horrible [unless they have changed from 1980s when I used to drive in the different districts of West Bengal and Dhanbad District if Bihar-now in Jharkhand]. Hey! I am diverting.. my blog here is not on Tamilnadu villages but on Elagiri Hills.

Tamilnadu has its own share of Natural Beauty. All one needs is to get out of the standard mind set and just talk of Temples whenever one asks "where can I go for the weekend? Ohh? Why not try that temple..." Temples and their structural beauty notwithstanding, these type of suggestions from Local Chennaiites kept giving me a feeling that all TN has is Temples and temples and temples. But no! It has hill stations, wild life sanctuaries, Bird Sanctuaries, Sea beaches, Water Falls, bio preserve sites, forts and what not. All you require is some reasonable money because Tamilnadu is a cheap place money-wise -- you can either reach these places by bus or train or have your own car or mobike. And just take a camera.. lots of subjects to choose from!

So I pushed off to Elagiri Hills on 1st Oct .. it is easy to reach. Do not follow any map given on the web. The ones I saw speak of different touch points.. no need. Just take the Bangalore Road from Chennai which is called Poonamalee High Road and go on the toll road only. Do not turn right or left but travel on the well asphalted wide road - very easy to distinguish.. and cross Hyundai, Samsung, Nokia etc factories and Sri Perumbudur and continue on this road only.

At a place called Ranipet. This will be the 2nd toll gate (one is before Sri Perumbudur). After the toll gate the NH-4 bends rightwards under the Flyover to go towards Bangalore via the Hoskote road (do not worry about these names). Just go straight without turning right. On the right side the flyover will be above you- the traffic is one way towards Chennai on this.

Now you will be on NH-46- this is the Toll road that continues to Krishnagiri then turns right to Hosur and Bangalore. Continue straight till you reach Vellore. Do not go left or right till then, just move over the flyovers wherever you see them. After Vellore there is a place called Palikondaj.. There was a place to eat on the left side.. big place.. lot of cars in the parking place.. seemed to be a good joint.. You can stop there for eating.. Lunch or Brunch whatever..

After Vellore- Ambur then Vanyambadi. Here you will see Sign Board (all signs have English too) which will tell you to take the left side road and not go on the flyover. Here YOU WILL LEAVE THE Main road and not take the flyover-- [But remember before this you were travelling only straight!].. then turn left till you reach Ponneri. The picture of this crossing is shown in my blog. Turn left here. A TN Tourism Board [ letters not visible] welcomes you.
From here it is 14 kms to the top.

View of the plains from the hills.



Elagiri Hill is actually a Plateau. You take 14 hair pin (wide ones) to rise 1020 mtrs above sea level and then at the top it is flat and not like Darjeeling or Sikkim or Oooty etc.. where you will find steep roads and so on. This place recently hosted an international Paragliding festival under the aegis of Yelagiri Adventure Sports Association. http://www.jimandaz.com/8/tourists_can_now_experience_paragliding_yelagiri_hills.htm

Do not go for sight seeing. Go if you like to RELAX.. and have quality time for yourself or with family. A manmade lake - small one is there for boating... and a small nature park where you have Musical Fountain at 7 pm ...You probably have seen larger lakes and parks like Nehru Park at Mumbai or musical fountains at Brindacan Gardens etc. So as I said this place is not for sightseeing. But if you love nature then plenty here for those who get tired of Chennai or Bangalore.


For youngsters- it can be for some trekking-- walking in the woods.
For old- some healthy air and walks
For families- Some laughter and time spent together.
For singles- Enjoying the silence and the chirping of birds.
For not so newly marrieds- recall the honeymoon days without spending much.

You do not get drinks here. Resorts do not encourage, but you know how to circumvent this. Zeenath Taj resorts is among the best I feel. Try it out. Rs 1200 plus service tax.

Mt Abu, India and the Brahmakumaris

It will be a foggy dawn,

& one day I will be gone,

My seat will be empty;

[I tried my hand in a bit of poetry - the photo is actually from Mt Abu one foggy dawn in fact.]

Anyway the photos of Brahmakumaris' campus at Mt Abu are in one slide and the other is of the road from Ahmedabad to Mt Abu  & back.

It was raining so heavily all the time causing darkness, and I am yet to find out some people take wonderful rain photos without damaging their equipment!!!

You can find more about them here http://brahmakumaris.com/index.html
What an organisation! Very much into education of Rajyoga... and very much organised!! I have been introduced to Yoga and all these Indian ways of life and Spiritual Attainment when I was at the age of 6. Let me confess that I do not practise Yoga or lead an ideal life. (Hey! Wait wait! It is not that I lead a sinful life either! Do not get any wrong ideas into your minds!!). But what I meant is that though I do not practice Yoga and all, I know the benefits of the same. When we talk of yoga that we usually talk about is it is a Physical exercise- external and internal both. Yes most yogic exercise that we talk about help us in in our physical well being - both external (muscles, suppleness, etc) and internal (liver/ kidney/backbones etc). But Rajayoga is something like Transcendental Meditation (by Maharshi Mahesh Yogi) -- it is an exercise of the Mind. Among all the groups that we have here in India, I found (with my limited knowledge but I am willing to bet on myself) Brahmakumaris is the only organised body that devotes its time to teaching Rajayoga.

Ahmedabad to Mt Abu.