Tag Archives: Honeymoon destination

Statewise Travel, Tamil Nadu

Things to do in Yercaud

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I chose Yercaud primarily because it is a hill station and ideal for a quick summer getaway from Bangalore. I was lured into it more because it is a coffee growing destination at the closest proximity to Bangalore (apart from my own hometown, Kodagu) Interestingly, Yercaud is a 100% Arabica coffee growing region, while it a Robusta major in Kodagu.

We were a bunch of friends who travelled from Bangalore to Salem by train and hired two-wheelers from Salem to Yercaud which we thought was the most convenient and fun way to explore a hill station for a good chilling scene in the peak of the summer season. Since it was sunset time by the time we started our ride from Salem towards Yercaud, darkness engulfed quickly. And even as we rode up the coffee hills via the 32 kms adventurous loop road, we were accompanied by strong winds, uprooted trees across the road, falling branches, a surprisingly heavy downpour and fearful thunderstorms. Despite being drenched to our bones and having a scary ride, we were still thankful that we could navigate the two-wheelers and not be stranded on a 4-wheeler for the rest of the night after being blocked by a fallen tree. The return ride during daylight was equally beautiful because our vacation coincided had with the Coffee blossom season and the entire valley looked and smelled amazing!

If you’re planning to make Yercaud your destination next weekend, here is a list of places you can visit. It is a small hill town, hence I highly recommend having your vehicle to explore as all places are quite a ride away from each other.

  1. Yercaud Lake: For a very laid-back day, you can spend it at the lake located in the heart of the town Boating and other water activities can be opted along with some coffee and local snacks by the lakeside.
  2. Lady’s seat, Gent’s seat, Children’s seat, Botanical Garden: Don’t go by the names of these spots like I did to find what the seats were about, they are just names for viewing towers that are built there. You can cover all these spots along a single stretch of a walking trail which offers good views of the surrounding hill ranges.
  3. Kiliyur waterfalls: You can have a rejuvenating day here by taking a dip in the waterfall here. However, keep the waterflow in check before deciding to venture into the waters depending on the season you visit there.
  4. Shevarayan hills: The hill gets its name from Shevarayan, the local deity who is worshipped inside a small cave at the top of the hill. The hilltop offers a flat area at the peak with great view of the surrounding hills and a favorite among the locals for short drives from the town. At then time of our visit, there was a small fair going on here with giant wheels, merry-go rounds etc, and a lot of small shacks selling snacks, chai and smoke.
  5. Karadiyur viewpoint: Thanks to the downpour from the previous night, our ride was hard, tricky and slippery through the muddy last stretch to get to the entrance of this place. But it was completely worth it, and it gets my highest recommendation to visit here for a sunset view. It was beautiful. Among all the viewpoints we had thus far explored in Yercaud, the entry here was ticketed but the view made complete justice to it. A short ride from here is the Sri Chakra Maha Meru temple. But we decided to skip this since we spent more time at the viewpoint rather that rushing to a more recently constructed temple before it got dark.
  6. Annamalaiyar temple: This place gets my second highest recommendation if I were allowed to rate places. We visited here in the afternoon and yet the 360 degrees view from here was just amazing. The temple itself was a small structure whose top can be accessed by a small ladder which serves as a watch tower also. Even at peak noon, the winds were so strong, the temperatures so cool and the vibe so peaceful.
  7. Pagoda viewpoint: A landmark usually marked on a touristy map of Yercaud, there is a watch tower which provides a good view but not as best as what I have seen at the above-mentioned less-frequented spots. There is also a telescope installed by the government for education purposes which can be accessed by any interested public. The access is free of charge, but it would be generous on your part to tip the person guiding you through when you handle the instrument by yourself.
Annamalaiyar temple
Annamalaiyar temple

We stayed at a luxury resort built within a 100+ acres coffee and spice plantation in Yercaud. We spent our vacation without packing too many things as the hills themselves are very laid back. Apart from spending time doing activities like plantation walks, birdwatching etc. at the resort, we explored the places listed above and feel that our time was aptly occupied. Depending on whether you want to extend your stay for another leisurely day or pack your day with few more spots, you can visit the places below.

Karadiyur viewpoint- Yercaud
Karadiyur viewpoint- Yercaud
  1. Montfort School: Located in the heart of the town, it came as a recommendation on google for places to visit. However, when we arrived at the school gates, we were denied entry into the premises. Not sure of the reason, maybe because it was still school time.
  2. Sangalathudi viewpoint: We skipped this since we had done few viewpoints already.
  3. Manjakuttai viewpoint: This was a high recommendation on google for a sunrise view. We decided to give this a miss considering the distance from our accommodation and the laziness to wake up so early on a leisurely weekend trip.
  4. Tippery viewpoint: Located on the southernmost point of Yercaud, it is another good place to see the hills.
  5. Norton bungalow: This used to be a British bungalow, now owned by a private entity on the way to Shevarayan temple. So, it requires prior permission to enter the premises. We tried to locate it on google, but could not get the right directions and leads for the required permits.
  6. Bear’s cave: This is a google landmark located inside a private estate near the Norton bungalow. But we had to skip it since we couldn’t locate it.
  7. Nallur waterfalls: We skipped this since we had already added Kiliyur waterfalls to our visit and Nallur was quite far away from our accommodation.
Pagoda viewpoint

Food:

We mostly ate our breakfast and dinner at the resort itself since they had good buffet and ala-carte menu. Apart from that, they also made good woodfired pizza served in an outdoor seating adding to the ambience. But we tried lunch at Sweet Rascal restaurant based on high user ratings. They serve Sri Lankan cuisine with a limited menu to choose from that menu changes every day. Since all the ingredients are freshly bought in limited quantities daily, it is highly recommended you make a prior reservation of a table. The food was good and the ambience even better. They have indoor and outdoor seating with lot of greenery and various kinds of pet animals around. But what makes your visit even more exciting is the collection of hearty anecdotes and funny quotes pasted and painted all around the property.

I hope this post is useful to plan your next weekend getaway from Bangalore. Let me know in comments if you have any questions or feedback.

Gujarat

Land of dinosaurs, ghost lights and human civilization- Dholavira

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How does it feel to wake up one day and find yourself to be walking in the pages of history? Having studied all my life about how great a country we live in, where every grain of soil is soaked in rich history- To me, it seemed like I was driving out there in fantasy land. Among the many theories associated with ‘How my country got its name’, it is likely that the place I was heading too has its tales related distantly. India, the land in which the Indus river flows. This region is where the largest recorded human civilization took place in the face of the earth, over 5000 years ago- the Indus valley civilization. With over 1800 sites of Bronze age identified worldwide, I was going to Dholavira, the grandest of all the sites. As if it wasn’t reason enough for me to get excited, this region is an island formed by one of the largest salt marshes in the world, the Rann of Kutch! In the midst of it, exists a fossil site that dates back to the age of dinosaurs!

Just a whiz after Rapat village on the mainland, the ‘Khadir Bet’ island appears rather suddenly! I’m quite sure that anyone who is going there for the first time, cannot proceed without stopping here to just sync the coordination between their eyes and the brain! All you see will be a home straight black road, piercing right through the horizon, flanked by an endless stretch of white that confuses the mind to figure out how the blue sky and the brown land disappeared! As in our case, it was noon and the blazing sun was right atop making it difficult for us to open our eyes to see while the glistening white sand looked same as the colour of the sky. I’m not exaggerating when I say that my sight and thoughts had lost coordination for a few minutes before I spotted some puddles of coloured water here and there, in an otherwise clear white desert of salt. These puddles are nothing but salt water from this inland sea marsh that is yet to evaporate and the colouration is due to factors like the effect of temperature and the concentration of the mineral content in them. My friend and I sat there in thoughtlessness for a while until it struck us that we had a long day ahead!

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The colourful puddles of salt water

After stopping by for a Kutchi meal with ‘Bajra ki Rotla’ (Millet roti) with gud (Jaggery) and side dishes that were local delicacies, we passed through several small hamlets to reach our first destination. We were bereaved the luxury of time so that we could explore these individual hamlets. Each one of these settlements represent a different tribal group with their own identity of food, culture, costume, art and even the way their Bhungas (Huts) are designed. I would have loved to spend time walking through them all and learning some bits of techniques to sew the famed Kutchi embroidery too. Anyway, let us talk about the nicer things we did with whatever time we had. So, one-and-half-hour was indeed scarce, to walk through history when a guide took us around the site of Dholavira explaining us about the early, mature and the late Harappas. It can run into pages if I write about the details and hence, I cut a long post short at the end of my walk at the north gate. That’s where a 10-letter signboard is mysteriously laid. These are the only letters discovered from the inscriptions of that era and are still beyond the ability of modern man to be deciphered.

Above: One of the remains of a bronze age Bhunga at Dholavira; Bottom: an wooden board marked with the 10mystic letters at the North gate

It was a 10kms drive further towards the Indo-Pak border area to walk in to yet another era. It was a jump back in time from the bronze age to the era when dinosaurs walked around on this planet. The trees of the time can be found here which resemble huge boulders now in their fossilized form. A short walk down from there lead us to the salt desert and that’s when a sense of massiveness of this earth hit me. A tiny dot on the planet that I am, I felt surrounded by an endless stretch of white. Only at a farther end appeared a small hill, ‘Kala Dungar’- the highest point in the Rann.

We had contacted a private resort in the region who had arranged for an off-road drive, into the Banni grasslands. A 45minutes bumpy drive on the dusty road cutting through the desert was an experience in itself, while being driven to a place that is known to be the only surviving habitat of the Cheetah in India. We were lucky to see a lot of native residents of this reserved forest including herds of Asiatic Wild Ass, Chinkara, blackbucks, Nilghais, wild boars and even a desert fox. Short grass and bushy trees were a different feature in a landscape that was surrounded by barrenness of the salt flats. These grasslands are also famed for the mysterious phenomenon of light called as the ‘Chir Batti’ or the ghost lights. These moving lights occur at night and are believed to misguide people into the vast marshland if they are followed. Although still a mystery, these lights could be components of methane in combination with other colouring elements, easily flammable in the presence of small amounts of heat and oxygen, if needs a scientific approach to answer.

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A herd of Asiatic Wild Ass grazing at the Banni grassland

With the setting sun, came down the temperature as well. With ourselves being covered in white dry dust from head to toe and no thermals with us, the return was a chilling cold drive sitting in the open back of the four-wheeler. But that was the last thing that bothered us, as we watched the golden sun melt into molten red lava merging with white desert before being engulfed into the darkness of the night. Needless to say, watching the setting sun there was ethereal!

Staying back in Dholavira and watching the night pass over the desert and break into dawn is highly recommended. However, we were short of time and had to return to Bhuj the same night. The night’s drive back through the causeway was no less than amazing. We were just 2 days away from the full moon’s night and the moon was almost full (:P). While the rising moon reflected on the salt crystals infront of me, the clear dark sky away from the moon made way for the twinkling stars. So, that was an experience of a lifetime to watch the glittering salt below me on one side of the road and the glittering stars above me on the other side of the road. As our mouths began to chatter with the cold of the night, it was a silent good bye to this mysterious island of Khadir Bhet!

Summary: It is beyond my abilities to put together ‘one word’ to describe a place that has pieces of everything from all ages of evolution of not just humans, but this planet itself. It is a place that has the power to gives you a sense of emptiness of your existence and teach the magnitude of life. Go there, experience it!