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Sunday, June 20, 2010

A Monsoon Tale in Tadiyandamol - Part 2

As rain ceased, the guys wouldn’t come out and Babu had already started on his usual chit chats with guys inside the tent. Apparently the luxury of warm tents had gotten to them. After "persuading" them to shovel their bums out of the tents, we quickly weighed options of staying here tonight.



Felicitation on the ROCK !

The monsoons were hitting with full fury, but it was the cold which bothered me. So when the Watchman of the forest dept came along later and said the camp was unsafe because of elephant activity, we really had to rethink now.



Bottling the pellucid stream water !

The watchman's offer of inviting to his cozy mansion and arranging a campfire eventually turned out to be too much to refuse as we repacked our tents and descended on to his abode. His place was around a Kilometer below the peak and was a rather picturesque house complete with his own backyard and gardens.

 
The descent to his House below was quick and uneventful, but by now the clouds were amongst us and it had started to drizzle profusely.





Walk in the Mungaru Male !





As we reached Thammanna's house, we quickly put away our gear and tents as the man himself got busy preparing us "Tea" out of his rather smoky kitchen. Apparently he had large stash of firewood in his backyard as fuel.



Having drunk our tea, we got down to a more "refined" task of setting up campfire, not a easy task considering the light drizzle then on. However, we eventually got one fire up and quickly gathered around it.



We started off with our usual doses of SOMA and it was then when ALL HELL broke loose. We opened up and coughed up our pathetic stories of love, retribution and failures. There was a highly vociferous debate as to whether true love existed with some amongst us comparing love to pure chemistry. Naturally, it turned out to idiotic cacophony interspersed by unmentionable expletives. We then tried our hand at singing song, which sadly is the unfortunate side effect of such gatherings. Realizing the futility of this painful exercise, however, we quickly gave it up.



We then sent a message to Deepak's love who was already engaged to someone else, asking for her forgiveness and acceptance failing which he was to, on our "Suggestion", commit suicide. Luckily the pathetic signal reception there made sure the message didn’t reach the poor lass. Karthik meanwhile had to be dug out of the little depression in kitchen in which he fell into, apparently in an inebriated state. I knocked my head on one of the nastily low doors in the house. Sunil kept harping about potential snakes in the room while Deepak just couldn't recover from his tragic love story. It was a scene right out of "Hangover" movie.



Night passed in Tammanna the Forest guard's house rather uneventfully and only thing we remembered next day was the frigid cold the night before.




As Dawn broke, the teetotalers amongst us woke up early and ventured around to explore Thammanna's fabulous outhouses and gardens in which he had reared everything from pigs to acre nuts.




















When senses came upon the rest of us, we quickly gathered for Ajith's Entertainment Event. Apparently it was decided that he would entertain us with his yoga antics, something which invited sniggers as well as admiration from our gang. As Ajith wiggled and twisted onto his numerous poses, discussions raged as to how it enhanced "Performance" amidst counter claims of it leading to impotency.



Then, it was time for another tea, before and we quickly had breakfast out of our MRE's. After that, we quickly buckled up and got cracking on our gear, for it was time to head back. After a generous "Tip" to Thammanna, we left, rather reluctantly, his guesthouse and headed back down.



Within a short time we reached the Nalknad palace, which now open, provided us ample opportunities for our exploration. We found a guide in its curator and we happily clicked away pictures of everything from the king's bedrooms to a secret torture chamber below.



After finishing palace detour, we all descended quickly to the cross section where buses to our next destination would show up. A pair of cute Coorgi girls at bus stop invited glares and profound speculations about their "availability" from some among us, while others washed their faces under a nearby tap. From there, as the bus came, we headed out to a discreet place called Chey-und-ane. It was from there we embarked on a 4 km Road trek to a rather disappointing dry water falls called Chelavara. However, such as it was, it offers a refreshing bath to our weary bodies. The road trek was naturally a bit too much for us so we opted for an Auto ride back to the Point where the bus dropped us.






An old lady in the bus shelter !

As we waited then for the next bus to take us to Virajpet from where we were to head to Bangalore, we gorged ourselves onto the snacks offered by the nearby Bakery. So when the next bus came, we readily barged into it. A delectable gal next to our seat offered plenty of excitement to me and the boys as we reached the destination in about 30 minutes.



On the streets of Virajpet en route to the Green Bar & Restaurant for some authentic Coorgi Pandi Cuisine.







From there, we were to spend rest of our time in Bus station witnessing a horrific skirmish of local Kodagu landlord and his fellow Laborers leaving the town. We imagine they were treated badly whilst they worked for him.





Tyre punctured on the way to Mysore

Eventually, we got on to a bus to Mysore and finally bid Adieu to a wonderful journey to Coorg that was....

1 Opinions:

Unknown said...

Very well composed - Looks like a scripted execution. KUDOS to you guys.

The read through this, I'm certain will take the reader virtually to the fantastic and energetic trip we had.

Waiting for another one like this