Our wanderings and perceptions

Next day saw us checking out after breakfast and leaving willows. Today the driver was replaced and his duty for only half a day. He had to take us to Edakkal caves and drop us at the borders of wayanad. We had to go beyond Kalpetta town to reach Edakkal caves. These are natural caves and requires more than 3km trekking and steep steps climb to view it. People of all age groups climb this with so much enthusiasm even though its a difficult task. One gets totally exhausted by the time you come out of this site. Wi th this we had to wind up and start our journe y back. On the return we decided to drive t hroug h Ban galore having heard so much about the changes in this city since our visit a decade ago. Crossed Bandipur fore st and reached Gundlupet aro und 3 PM and had good lunch in the hotel. Have to say all re st aurants su r prised us this trip. Got down at one of the marigold fields to take snaps. At t he end, the owner of the field ca...

Wayand offers a fantastic weather in a green background.    On reaching Willows, after steep drives we were escorted to our cottage after paying an advance as part of the check-in. Our cottage had a room which could act as a spa, followed by the rest room, bed room, a kitchenette and a small balcony. Having got a discount for the off season visit, this was a good stay. After having ordered our lunch, started unpacking to settle down. An Assamese temporary cook fixed us good phulka – gravy and no so good biryani (beaming yellow with lot of turmeric). It started raining lightly making walk to the near by dam with umbrella. Very next to the dam with a good view was another cottage with a dining hall, swimming pool and lot of other amenities and unfortunately with no rooms available after 2 days. The path back to Willows had small houses and lot of trees, this is a residential area leaning towards the commercial side due to increas...

Decided to make another Kerala visit this August as monsoon seem to be in full swing in the western ghats. Warned of rains we still made our move the monsoon rains have significantly come down in the coastal area. Wayanad located towards the northern part of the state of Kerala was our place of visit. So we had to reach there from Chennai via Bangalore. A three state travel! Having heard about Chennai – Bangalore highway, wanted to drive through this NH ever since we got the car. Planned to stop over at Mysore then reach Wayanad. Started from Chennai by 7am, took NH48 and NH275 route via Vellore, Hosur, Electronics city to Mysore. After having breakfast at Kanchipuram and filling the fuel tank of our car, the journey kick-started. Being a week day we had great difficulty with traffic (mainly due to engineering college buses) till Kanchipuram. Marvelous infrastructure – road was worth the tolls charged. Had paid Rs.500 as toll to reach Mysore. Booking.com came to our res...

ஓங்கி உலகளந்த உத்தமன் பேர்பாடி நாங்கள் நம் பாவைக்குச் சாற்றிநீர் ஆடினால், தீங்கின்றி நாடெல்லாம் திங்கள்மும் மாரிபெய்து ஓங்கு பெருஞ்செந்நெ லூடு கயல் உகளப் பூங்குவளைப் போதில் பொறிவண்டு கண்படுப்ப, தேங்காதே புக்கிருந்து சீர்த்த முலைபற்றி வாங்கக் குடம் நிறைக்கும் வள்ளல் பெரும்பசுக்கள் நீங்காத செல்வம் நிறைந்தேலோ ரெம்பாவாய். -Andal Thiruppavai Here is another po st on Th irumala as we our second trip to Perumal since th e existence of this blog. This time we went aroun d three places near the templ e so will see them in detail. Secured our darshan tickets for a S aturday through https://www.ttdsevaonline.com/. Si nce it was for 6PM, left from Chennai in the morning at 7 AM vi a Thiruvallore, Thiruthani, Thiruchanoor rout e.      Reached T irupati by 10 AM after taking a break at Poonamalee for breakfast. On reaching went to Alamel Mangapuram temple to get the Goddess's b lessin g before going to Tiruma laiyan's darshan This temple was flocked by devotees. Too ...