Part 3: Journey from Mysuru to Wayanad- Day 2 of the trip

Journey from Mysuru to Wayanad

A night of undisturbed sleep had done us good. We were feeling refreshed and ready for the next leg of our adventure. This time, we found out the best route and decided to stick to it. We had also decided to enjoy the journey itself as much as we could. This resulted in various unscheduled stops for photos and increased the journey time.
The drive towards our resort in Wayanad

Before leaving Mysuru, we just HAD to buy Mysore-pak. Mysore-pak was invented by the royal chef of the Mysore dynasty. It is a sweet made out of gram flour, ghee and sugar and is extremely delicious. We had also forgotten to get the memory card for our camera. The short drive from our friends' place to our 'shopping' destinations brought forth a wonderful fact about Mysuru- the people are selflessly friendly! Be it the people who politely pointed out the fact that we have entered a no-entry zone, or the auto-rickshaw drivers who offered to escort us to the sweet shop free of charge, or the traffic policeman who politely informed us that we had parked in no-parking zone and even helped us in reversing the vehicle by stopping the (minimal!) traffic flow, it was an absolute delight! Such a wonderful change from the short-tempered people who honk non-stop when the signal turns red to green or the glares that we are usually used to while reversing the car during peak traffic hours. The store-keeper where we bought the Mysore-pak from enthusiastically told us about the different varieties of sweets they prepared and also advised us as to what we should be buying, considering the fact that we would be reaching home only seven days later. 
Having completed our minimal shopping, we asked directions for Wayanad. Here again, there were several enthusiastic auto-rickshaw drivers who offered to escort us to till the highway. We genuinely regretted not spending enough time in Mysuru.
Just outside of Mysuru, we came across this beautiful lake


 
A couple of kingfishers and a stork, just outside of Mysuru
We set out towards Wayanad via Mananthawadi, after downloading the map on our phone. The drive was extremely scenic and the road was good for most part. Huge trees on either sides of the road resulted in the drive being extremely pleasant, even though we had set out quite late in the day. As we were nearing Wayanad, we drove through the Muthanga wildlife sanctuary. We kept our eyes open for wildlife, but no luck! 
The resort/home-stay we had booked, is situated in Chundel, Kalpetta. Since the resort is located in the interiors, the host was kind enough to send an escort who directed us to the resort.  We reached here at approximately 3 pm. This was quite good, considering the number of stops we had made to click pictures! He was also kind enough to direct us over the phone multiple times. We had phoned-in earlier that we would be arriving for lunch. Accordingly, a traditional Kerala-style vegetarian meal was prepared for us. 
The Little Home resort is located in an extremely beautiful location. The room we had booked was called Bird's view (or something similar, I forget the exact name). This name was given to the room as it located a height and offers an excellent view of multiple species of birds. True to it's name, the view from the balcony was beyond compare. We could spot at least ten different species of birds within a span of half an hour! What I wouldn't have given, even for the most basic knowledge of Ornithology! The balcony also offered a superb view of Wayanad's tallest peak, the Chembra peak. We were totally awed by the natural beauty surrounding us and our eyes feasted on the greenery around. The mist surrounding the peak would lift occasionally and we could see hints of red in the different shades of green. 


 
View from the balcony of our room
 
Hints of red amongst different shades of green

We thoroughly enjoyed this view as we waited for the lunch to arrive. When it finally did, our eyes popped out! There was a huge mound of rice, three or four different types of curries, papads, pickles, the works! This quantity could have easily fed six people. I love eating rice, but same cannot be said for the husband. We tried our best to finish as much as we could. I could tell that the husband was not enjoying this meal much. He was trying to be a good sport about it though! I quite liked the coconut and curd based curry called avial. This reminded me of tambli, which is a dish unique to Uttar Kannada, and is also made out of coconut and curd. The other curries were overtly spicy, with chunks of ginger and lots of pepper. This first meal provided us a glimpse of what we could expect during our meal times. We tried our best to eat as much as we could and decided to have a quick nap. 
After a light and refreshing nap, we met our host Mr. Jerry, who offered to take us for a walk around the resort and we gladly agreed. Again, we were impressed by the beauty of the surroundings, which reminded me of home. There were several small tea plantations, which added to the whole appeal. Tiny yellow flowers dotted the lush green grass on either sides of the road. Jerry entertained us with tales of wild elephants and wild boars that were known to wreck havoc upon the surrounding farms.
The tea-plantations surrounding the resort..my original artwork
It was time for dinner and we requested for phulkas and dal, as we wanted something simple, to recover from the huge lunch. Though the phulkas were quite decent, dal again had lots of ginger and pepper. As a result, we did not enjoy our meal much. I was eager to do a bit of star-gazing from this remote location. However, the clouds played a spoiler and we decided to retire early. We planned to explore the surrounding areas the next day, but there were no concrete plans. After all, if you don't wing it, is it even a vacation? :) 
(For the next part, click on the link below
 http://experiencelifeontheroad.blogspot.in/2016/09/how-road-trip-covering-2120-km-gave-me.html)
(For the previous part, click on the link below
 http://experiencelifeontheroad.blogspot.in/2016/08/part-3-journey-from-mysuru-to-wayanad.html)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bhutan - The fulfilment of a long-held dream!

Image
Day 1 of the journey: Pune-Delhi-Bagdogra-Phuentsholing “Look guys! We are crossing over to the other side!” I exclaimed.   I could not keep the sadness out of my voice as we crossed the Bhutan Gate and ended our week-long sojourn with Bhutan. The sense of loss and longing only intensified just after travelling a few metres into Jaigaon, India   from Phuentsholing, Bhutan. On the Indian side of the gate, there were crowds, incessant honking, heaps of dirt, no respect for traffic rules. On the Bhutan side of the gate, there was a sense of calm, peace, quiet, clean streets, non-fictional zebra crossings, no litter, and respect for traffic rules. It seemed extremely hard to believe that these countries that share a border can be so drastically different. “It’s all due to the population,” our driver had informed us on the first day. “The population of whole of Bhutan is around 6-7 lakhs, but in India, even a small district will have a much larger population.” There was definite
Read more

How a road trip covering 2120 km gave me the courage to quit a job I hated- Final part

Image
Mangalore, Udupi and finally back to Pune! We had informed Jerry that we would be checking out a day earlier than planned, and we were eagerly looking forward to the prospect of visiting Mangalore. Since we were experiencing coast-withdrawal symptoms, we decided to cut short our stay in Mangalore by one day and go to Udupi instead. We booked a beach resort called Paradise Isle beach resort, and were eagerly looking forward to spending some time, albeit short, on the beach. After a quick breakfast, we hit the road around 8.30 am. The distance from Wayanad to Mangalore is approximately 260 kilometers and according to our calculations, we would be able to cover this distance in approximately five hours. Upon inquiring, Jerry and Mr. Joseph were of the opinion that we should climb down the ghat and take the coastal route, which was easier of the two, and hence less chances of us getting lost on unknown roads. Having ignored sage advice once on the way to Mysuru, we decided to take the
Read more

Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib- 1

Image
Though strictly not a road trip, the unique travel experience bears sharing! Socially awkward, shy or even reticent.. all these are the words I would use to describe myself. I painted this water-colour of VoF from a picture off the internet.. and it made me want to see the valley for myself! Yet I chose 'realistic' (with a little help from the bestie) as a prefix for my name; as the word that describes me the best in a game our trek leader made us play after the first day's trek was done. The game was an ice-breaker and designed to familiarize ourselves with our trek-mates. Each of us was supposed to prefix our name with an adjective, preferably starting with the same letter as our first name and recall all the adjectives along with the names repeated. After walking 12 kilometers (all uphill) and having gained an elevation of just over 5000 ft, my muscles were screaming as we sat crossed legged on the corridor of the guest-house in Ghangria, from where we
Read more