Hogenekal ... Yercaud...... (and Bimbo) ...

Hogenekal Yercaud Travelogue
Place 1: Hogenekal Falls
Place 2: Yercaud
Some Pictures taken during the trip


Till Thursday :Bangalore:: Pawan sends pics of Hogenekal falls..
Says... how would you like to revisit scenes from Ashoka? or try for yourself the famous, river boat evening scene in "Dil hai Chhota sa - Roja" ..

Archan agrees... its worth a visit.. Mridul proposes greater grander things, Mudumalai, Ooty, etc. All Agree, Plan put in place, Relatives and friends informed, (BackPacks and Other Gear fixed )..

Friday 2300:Queen's Road:: Mridul rents a car from Irfan Rental, a Grey colored, swanky looking, Tata Indica Diesel, He said he had tried for less mean machines like Santro or Swift , but that was his lucky day.. Car has just a few artistic contours on its body, showing a pretty colorful past.. but then even the moon has spots, aint it? Spots a flat tyre on his way back home.
Saturday 0450:Near Airport Road:: Mridul starts from home to pick up Pawan and Archan. Flats another tyre. Drags it to MG road where he gets the first mechanic at 0530 hours .. Pawan and Archan reach there for "moral support".

Saturday 0700:MG Road.:: Car's Ready. We are Happy. Lighter too by 550 quid.
Saturday 0730:Mysore Road::.. We leave Bangalore finally.

Saturday 0740: On Mysore Road Highway:: Mridul hits a 75 kmph. Car starts to wobble. He hits 80. Car WOBBLES..SHAKES.. SCREAMS. Comparisons to Unmentionable things are made within the car premises.. Car is christened "Bimbo" by Mridul..

Realization dawns.. Car wheels and our trip both have to be realigned.

Mid - road discussion analyses the pros-and-cons.. Cancel trip and sleep in peace is the first choice. But a 1K diesel investment cant be left for zilch.
Pawan , fishes out the contingency plan. Good ol' Hogenekal... "Didnt I tell you before?" All agree..



Saturday 0900 hrs: On Hosur Road: Changed setting from Mysore Road to Hosur Road. (Dont know what transpired in between since I conveniently slept off) Roads are all the same... anyways... The POA? A) Mridul to drive like the tractor driver on the highway.. B) Reach Hogenekal and take it from there..


Saturday 1230 hrs: Lunch Had. Toll Given . Entrance Fee Given, Admission Fee Paid, Parking Charges given, Camera Charges Given, Bridge Crossing Charge Paid, Spot climbing charge levied. Pho....... What the heck... We ARE at Hogenekal..

Saturday 1300: Hogenekal Falls:: The Falls are nice. The weather is cool, We forget the past, just climb on rocks to pose for the photos.. then take a Roja Boat ride.. , its a portable boat.. fits easily over the boatman's head. a sleek invention I would say. No, trailer trucks or other gear required Its light , yet can be seen to accomodate 15 people.. Its perfectly circular, and boatmen do artistic manoeuvers , that can make an F-16 green (which it is in our neighboring country tho.. ), doesnt come with the warning of not to touch the edges, cos the black coat (yes yes, like the Columbia shuttle) can come off into whatever youre wearing.. Mridul finds out to his dismay.. and isnt much amused when the boat guy suggests that a petrol wash to his new t-shirt is the only way for such misadventures ..



We are all amused tho, by the Jumpies... The 4-5 year old cliff divers.. they would try to grab your attention from the cliff tops.. calling "Saarrrr Saaarrr" and waving their palms to show 5 bucks.. and the moment you approve.. dive down to the Kaveri waves below.. Both the Canon SLR and the Sony DSC-W5 greedily lap the action..

Saturday 1500: Hogenekal Falls:: Splash Time.. We find ourselves highly underprepared for this.. since the other boat thats at the section of the falls we selected has made it a community bath center. Every body is busy applying shampoo, soaps and whatevers onto themselves and others, the environment smells of LUX soap and frankly thats disgusting.. We let them go..

Pawan and Archan enter the main water fall section with the aid of Boat guy. Small fishes nibble at our ankles.. Its pretty scary at first but you get used to it.. I guess they only target the ankles to try get something from the disturbance created by our foot movements on the rock bed...

The water fall is overwhelming.. at the center you can breathe perfectly.. but still feel short of breath.. the water has a huge force and it feels as if it wants to push you.. down.... its cool.. its refreshing.. and its exciting.. but for the sight of the layer of Lux soap scum left by the community bath at the adjacent pool..

Next is the turn of Mridul, We scare him off with the talk of the fish bites.. and he howls upon his first contact under water.. he comes out of the water.. and vows not to enter it again.. not even with the help of Boat guy. All the fish are disappointed.
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Saturday 1500: Hogenekal Falls:: V for Vigilance Archan SHOOTs a Vigilance officer, fishing at a totally public place in between a scenery. The Vigilant Vigilante promises to unleash a vendetta on Archan using his contacts , with "Do eu naauu .. yu yi yam?" "Yi yam Vigilance Obizzerrr. Youre naaaa sapo to take peeeks.. "
Pawan and Mridul argue to on the morality of applying the Hutch ad motto to a public tourist place.

Anyways.. 2 hours at boat rental seem a comfortable time to view the beauties of the site , especially when not much water frolicking and soap scrubbing is involved.

The other thing which the natives swear by here, is the Tel-maalish or the Oil Massage .. I had a look at one of them... Enter bear hairy, pitch black, long moustached, lungi adorned , Tamil swearing, pachydermic humaniod.. French Masseur with the lavender touch? Eh.. Not quite.. Navratna Lal Tel on the Pehelwan ka haath? A bit more like it..



Its fun tho to see people close their eyes while the massage fellows operate. , 30 people atop the rocks.. some one sleeping, some one just standing, some one dancing his belly.. some one with a new weird posture..

We dont try the massage, maybe thats why the Lux Soap and the Sunsilk Shampoo isnt much required. What we also dont try is to have a bite back at the fishes.... Loads of fisherwomen at every trail selling fried fish, just caught on the banks, natives actually feast on the fish, and you might be tempted , cos I belive they sell in huge numbers and are fresh.. but you put a step or two back when you see the masala , the dressing and the oil on the pans.

Its past lunch time and the only thing we try there.. is Good ol' melons. We three manage just over half a melon, as the size is pretty pretty huge.. and at that stage, I guess any form of kand-mool,lakkad, patthar, (vegetarian of course) is welcome..

Pawan and Archan are a bit wet from the inside, due to loads of water frolicking ofcourse.. its a bit uncomfortable and annoying as any experienced waterfall campaigner without the required toiletery equipment (read large enough towel to cover thy ass), expecting a changing room in an Indian tourist setting would know..

Saturday 1600: Hogenekal Falls:: 1st destination Done and Dusted.. Where to now? Somewhere during all this, Mridul develops a liking for Bimbo, and even begins to term the ride as a "pleasurable - experience" .. Seeing this confidence , also somewhere during all this, Archan browsing and tearing simulataneously the Bible travelogue, Outlook's 52 weekends out of Bangalore , chances his eye on Yercaud, which ,so they say has earned the sobriquet , the poor man's Ooty, and reads out the particulars verbatim to the audience...

The Audience is excited, Mridul has a vested interest in that his school, Montfort's branch is located there.. and has been pretty well documented in the travel catalogue as a must visit place as well..

130 odd kilometers dont deter the trio , and they yank Bimbo, to start chugging towards the hills.. Its decided, No return to Bangalore for the night. Instead, we tent-up at a plush resort when we reach, and chillax the blues away.

Saturday 1840: Omalur, Salem:: ::
Mridul really drives this like a tractor.. and he is good at it.. we enter the city.. cos thats the only way for the climb to the hill station.. and its past twilight.. so were a bit worried about reaching the hill station on the climb..
Pawan does his math calculations.. 4.5K Feet.. from about 800 to 1000 odd feet.. thats pretty steep..

Saturday 2100: Omalur, Salem:: ::
Steep it was.. . as the MSL signs on the steep slopes say... its pretty dark on the climb.. and Bimbo has reduced from a tractor to tortoise (whatever could be even slower in vehicular terms) .. Hurtling trucks on the way downhill dont help the cause.. and its pretty worrying since we all know that the tyres arent in John Abraham health.. and sing huge opera sreeches at every turn..

Mridul steadily climbs up and up.. It gets cooler and cooler.. the lights get visible from below. and spur us on.. 1.5 hours for a 25 km climb is not that bad, is it?

We reach Yeracud and find it exactly like how all South India Hill stations look like.. a Lake, a few shops.. a few estates and tall tree covered roads.. Pawan and Mridul liken it to Kodaikanal...

A couple of enquiries and a wrong way later.. , we reach the properties of Grange resorts , a pretty green , small Estate.. that was suggested... the receptionist, knows we're more or less decided on staying there so charges a premium, tho far cheaper by the other hill station standards...

Saturday 2230: Yercaud:: ::
Dinner's done.. and its pretty good.. we wonder how all we order gets ready in a jiffy even when the restaurant was closed but just opened for us..

There is a cat at one of the tables as we set to dine that livens up things...

Everyone tries to relax.. a warm bath.. a Couple of calls here and there.. watch some news

Battle the mosquitoes and Sleep Sleep Sleep........

Sunday 0830: Yercaud:: ::
Wake up, get Ready and break your fast.. Archan goes for a small trail inside the resort tho with not much to see..



The first destination ofcourse is the Montfort school, its the typical old English Catholic with the Victorian architecture buildings offices and otherwise, but augmented with 4-5 basket ball courts, 8 tennis courts, 3 football fields in one, 2 cricket grounds.. etc.. atleast thats what appears first to the visitor...
We spend a good amount of time looking at the school.. Mridul has his fill of pictures..

F1 news trickles in and Alonso has won again.. with Kimi second..

We then amble to all the "Points" in Yercaud.. like any typical Hill Station. .they are the viewing places.. They are funnily called "Seats" here..
we Visit the Ladies Seat, which offers a lovely view of winding road ascending the hill and of the plains below..
Then the Gents Seat, which is higher than the ladies and Pawan remarks that it was made so that the Gents could have a look down on all the Ladies assembled.. their own as well as the others' ... We nod our heads in approval.. ;-) .. Children's Seat and Rose Garden are kicked out of the schedule..

The Botanical Garden is closed which is a big disappointment..
We visit an Ayurvedic Research center though.. and buy aroma herbal perfumes, medicinal oils and even hair gels.. .They all seem , look and smell great..

Next is a visit to a cave temple, its the Town diety, we pay our obeisance. This is also the highest point of the hill station which also has a huge plateau.. Yercaud also has bauxite mines.. and there are some open mines that can be seen as well..

All this stuff makes it afternoon time and we head back to the town side..And we have done far better things on Saturday to go for a stupid boat ride on the lake.. so we trash that from the agenda...

Sunday 1505: Yercaud Descent:: ::
We begin our descent hoping to reach Bangalore by 9 ..
Talks veer from Rang De Basanti songs.. to Business Opportuniites in Rural India .. The Laptop has kept us entertained off and on during the trip. We keep it shut during the descent.

Sunday 1700: Crossed Salem and Towards Bangalore:: ::

Late lunch at a road side dhaba.. Gobi ki Sabji , Dal , Roti and Dahi.. with Pepsi.. Personalized TV Services too.. Not Bad..

Sunday 1800: Highway:: Car Stalls::
Sunday 1830: Highway:: Car Stalls!!:: Right in front of petrol pump.. Enginner Yanks and Pushes some buttons and says it should be good to go..
Sunday 1840: Dharmagiri:: Car Stalls:: Again in front of some truck garage or something.. we call up the mechanic , but there is no sign of him for minutes.. the car just restarts.. and we get on the road again..
Sunday 1900: Outside Dharmagiri::Car Stalls ::
We have had it.. We arrange a road shop to bring an engineer.. he arrives in 10 minutes.. We push the car to his garage.. He says the Filter is filled with dust or something.. We joke and resign ourselves to fate... Mridul takes pics of us in the garage..

Mechanic fills 5 litres of diesel and somehow gets it started..
By this time.. all of us have started treating Bimbo with respect ...

Sunday 2015: Mechanic Shed:: We start again for Bangalore

Sunday 2100: Over Toll Tax Maintained Highway Stretch:: Car tyre bursts apart at 80 kmph ... 3rd time in 2 days..
We fix the tyre...

Sunday 2300: Somewhere 30 kms out of Bangalore:: Road side Dhaba dinner ..

Monday 0020: Mridul' Place:: Reach ..Bangalore.. Get to bed by 2.... Time to get back to the Garage was 2300 hrs. Mridul's ID card and Passport is with them.. but we arent prepared to shell much xtra money... we decide to give the car the next day..

Monday 0920: Bangalore::
We travel to our homes and get ready... Mridul drops me to my office in the same car..

Monday 1000: Bangalore::
Car stalls again with Mridul alone this time.. Didnt go even 4 kms (the max distance of Queens road from my office)
Mridul is no mood to talk.. You dont want to mess with him now..


Tuesday 1200: Bangalore:: Mridul has done our accounts and the hisaab kitaab... We are relieved .. Life is back to normal...




Currently on the Juke Box - "Huzur is Kadar Bhii Na ... - Masoom"