KodaiKanal- Closure

“The Gift of the Forest”! We decided to visit this place for three  significant reasons other than the perpetual reason of Bangalore-has-such-nice-weekend-destinations.

1. New Year

2. Piyadi’s Spinster trip

3. Our last trip together (for the next 2-3 years atleast)

So that’s that, plans were made, tickets were booked quite well in advance and we were ready to hit the roads again.

We started off on the 30^th, Friday night to be precise when entire Bangalore was leaving the town. Imagine the endless and ever so popular Bangalore traffic which of course made P reach JUST IN TIME and we, after like forever, HAD to eat at a place that looked like a posh slum from outside and modern dhaba from inside. With that and last moment washroom visits, started our trip on a bus that was pink and a fight that made us all sleep very quickly!
We woke up to a late arrival possibility, on a road that looked like Shimla, at a town that looked like Darjeeling. Also, to mention N’s special nature’s call which was over in less than half a minute, to the shock of all of us and the driver uncle.

Kodaikanal is this small little town, the smallness of which will occur to you only after the local tour guides have already fooled you with the ‘discounted’ packages (be wise!). You can almost walk the entire town and still have time to chill (if there is an extended weekend). The hotel was a surprise from R to all of us and we were majorly impressed with the location, the walkable BIG garden (which we ended up not visiting, but that comes later, if at all), the games, the people, the fire place and the VESPA! Yay! The room basically was a Honeymoon suite (R ka kamaal!) but we did not mind anyway. Just when we were settling in with all this, we realized that we will have to go commando (okay, inside joke I will not share).

We left off for the ever so popular lake and let me announce it to the world that riding double cycle is NOT easy. I could not for that matter and hence, R had to wait in turns with one of us while others whooooooped. Oh and okay, the tourists could be very VERY weird and ogle at your red dress and make you very uncomfortable so do not hesitate to give them dirty looks and run the cycle over them (serves them just right). The paddle boats on the lake is utter waste of time and please make sure you try it ONLY after the sun goes down.

Kodai is a town with most amazing food joint names. Every place you see will make you want to enter and EAT! Yes we should not judge places by the names but NONE of the places will disappoint you, especially the bakeries. We had to order cake and in that excuse, we tried bakeries with all the cake varieties and I probably had the best food on the last day of the year. Now comes the part that most people should know, Kodai has very few liquor shops (there is definitely one on the line of Domino’s near the ATM but zero variety) and if you even stand (forget buying) near it, you will have random strangers passing horrendous comments like “Madam this is not a bar, only men allowed”.  You may also be lucky to find few people from abroad asking for help with currency exchange at a liquor shop and they help you buy the liquor in return. However, such comments and “help” had pissed me big time and thank God I was busy earring shopping while all of this was actually happening.  

Our evening party was as epic as it can get, I would not even dare to explain or elaborate. 

The only glitch being, we missed the bonfire, all thanks to high uncles outside and unnecessary attention to our dress. With a big discussion over room heaters, nobody remembers when that night ended and the first day of the year kicked off with BIIIIIG spread of south Indian breakfast! This followed by side scene over pine forests (where monkeys take your bhutta), shooting spots (where boys will be heroes and try to ‘rescue' you), distant villages (which is perfect like picture postcard), historical hills (which I did not get), small church (some thankfulness on the Day 1 of the year, yeah), and of course SHOPPING (no not clothes, you get all masala and tea and aloevera and pain oils and what not!) We finished all by evening and us hungry kids, finally started off for lunch at 4 sharp on one of those MANY great food joints with epic names. Our first set of orders over, we asked, in full style “repeat” (also, we were all completely FULL), at 4:45. I don’t know which one of us had the sanity to check the tickets to realize, bus is at 5! Good Lord.

Madam P announced “arre 5ta bollei ki r 5ta, khai aage” :D
Then we called them and defying all Bangali norms they said, “Bus will leave at 5:10 max”
So now, N and R rushed to collect the luggage (which was inside the car and the driver was driving it somewhere else, because we told him not to disturb us before 6) and P and I stayed back, WHY????
To collect the food we ordered man. WHAT ELSE!!!

The aunty of the café got scared for us and packed all food quickly and we rushed towards the main road to find, our superman driver bhaiya has come. Somehow we managed to reach the bus stop at 5:13 to find the bus in ignition. Like an angry Principal, the conductor scolded us and we finally started off. But the overdose of nutella pan cakes, running for the bus and millions of hair pin loops made us all (when I say all, I mean ALL) extremely nauseous. Result? Nobody could eat dinner, forget about the food we stayed back and packed. We somehow wanted that night to end. Tip to anyone who visits Kodai, NEVER book anything but sleeper bus (DON’T go is the original suggestion). The beauty that you see is definitely not worth the pain you get (even if you are a pro) or, stay a little longer. I HAD to go to work an hour after I reach Bangalore but I had not felt so sickly in a long long time. P took a long time to recover and we were worried N will faint away as usual after reaching. Somehow somehow, with a fight with the Ola wala, we ended the trip, and I end this post abruptly here, just like THAT!.