On the road

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

Day 3- Around Wayanad: Edakkal caves This is what we had started dreaming of! The next day brought with it the prospect of Kerala ishtyle breakfast again, much to our dismay. We had requested for dosas to be prepared and had kept our hopes quite low. As it turned out, the dosas couldn't be prepared as they were short of one ingredient and we had flat appams with vegetable stew. This too is one of the dishes I love, but the stew had the same spice combination that we had been eating during all our meals. Eating lunch at the resort was out of question and the view from the balcony that had totally impressed us on Day 1, wasn't doing much. (We were like yeah, birds, hills, big deal! Give us some food!!!!) Were we being too fussy? After all, there are millions who cannot even afford one square meal a day, and here we were, turning up our noses at supposedly good Kerala-style food. Though this thought shamed us, it was also true that the food being offered was making me il

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 s