First of all I wish to thank my colleagues who were a part of the trip and made it a success. This is the second trip I organised in my life after the one during my B.E days. I had planned a trip to Coorg during my M.Tech with my classmates but couldn't go because few were not cooperative. But when I suggested about a trip to Coorg to my colleagues they all gave thumbs up at the beginning but later we had a twist which made us to visit Kodai.
It was Bala who was not willing to see Coorg because he had seen it thrice already. He was so adamant that he wouldn't come to Coorg with us. Two days before the trip we changed all our plans and finally planned a trip to Kodai. We were 10 and 9 of us work together at Capgemini. One was Murali's friend who also showed interest in the trip and joined us Friday evening.
We left from Chennai on Friday evening. Five of us boarded at Perungalthur where I am put up and remaining 5 boarded at Guduvanchery. Around 7 in the group are used to drinking so they had planned to drink in the cab right away from the beginning of the trip. They had purchased some bottles of beer in Perungalathur and after everyone boarded the cab in Guduvanhery they started drinking beer and dancing to the tunes of songs. On the way we had some stops to have tea and dinner. Next day morning around 9.30 we reached Kodai. Murali was the one who had booked the accommodation and it was cheap too because it was not the right season for the tourists. Though it was cheap he (Murali) felt we could get a cheaper one and went to take a look at a cottage which our driver wanted to show us. We were actually wasting time in search of cheaper accommodation and walked nearly two kilometers in vain. Then we decided to get back to the same place and got ready to see places.
We all had bath and got ready. On the way we stopped near a hotel to have breakfast. There were only two women to cook for 10+1(driver). We ordered and waited. Everyone was so hungry. First we ate all the idlis available and then waited for dosas and puris. Since only two were there their cooking speed and our eating speed din't match. Seeing the situation few of us first started serving the dish. Few started going to kitchen to get the food. Sujai and I went a step ahead and got into kitchen. I then started cooking. I made two puris and one dosa as much as I remember. We ate to an extent that there was nothing left to eat. We desperately wanted something to eat. We found some pear trees outside the hotel with lot of pears in it. We reached out to it to pluck some pears and most of us had one pear each.
Then we started to explore the places in Kodai. Since the driver knew Kodai very well he took us in a circular path so that we could visit most of the places in the hill station. Pine forest, pillar rocks, governor stone, suicide points, Guna cave are some of the places that we visited on Saturday. Some of us broke through the fence to get down to the Guna cave (Devil's kitchen) and clicked some pictures there. Its named as Guna cave because one of Kamal's movies called Guna has a popular song shot there after which it has become a famous tourist spot. We visited most of the suicide points in Kodai and took photos of beautiful sceneries. The hill station was spectacular from different views. We ended the day with a little shopping near pillar rock where I bought only a key chain.
We went back to our rooms and took rest for sometime before some of us stepped out for dinner and also to buy drinks. Bala, Anbu, Prem and I ate dinner there and got parcel for others. Four of us din't take hot drinks that night but the rest drank and slept late. Next morning I got up and woke everyone up to get ready fast. After getting ready we all had breakfast in a small hotel near by. To our surprise every item was costly. One idli costs 10 rupees. Believe me food is too costly at Kodai.
On Sunday we visited the famous Kurunji Aandavar temple first and then Chettiaar park before we left to Berijam lake. We reached Berijam at around 2.30pm. But before we reached there we stopped in between to see many interesting places and took snaps. There was nothing but the lake to see in Berijam. We winded up soon and got back to Kodai in the evening. At Kodai we went for boating in the main lake for around an hour. While we went for boating, all of us had ice creams from the stalls that were near the fence of the lake. Then we went into Brayant park which is near by and clicked some of the beautiful flowers that were there. We spent around one hour there and then shopped near the lake. Most of us bought home made chocolates, eucaluptus oil and tea dust. It was almost 6.45pm when we started our return journey after visiting most of the places in Kodaikanal. There were horse riding and cycling too but none of us were interested in those activities.
On the way back we stopped below the hills near Thalapakatti. Each of us had heavy non-veg food there. Then again we resumed our journey back home. It was 6 on Monday morning when few guys got down at Guduvanchery. I settled the amount to the driver for the cab and got down at Perungalathur. I was happy to have organised a successful trip again after a long gap.
We have already started discussing about our next trip. Most of them are saying me that they want a longer trip to some distant place. If everything goes well I will go for another trip with these guys before 2012 ends.
Think +
