Travelogue - A Trip to Wayanad - Day 1 - Banasuragar Dam and the Misadventure with a JD Bottle

Who We Are?

A trip to a hill station can mean different things to different people: for me, it was the prospect of going back to God's own country - Kerala again, which I have grown fond of, over the years. For Daddu, whose relative had just passed away - meaning that he can neither eat non-vegetarian food nor drink for the next one month - the trip was already doomed (think Kerala- think beef and fish curry), but he agreed to be on board, just to give us company. For Prabhu, who had returned from abroad after almost three years, the trip was a get-together we had all wanted. Not only did Prabhu return from abroad, but he had also bought a bottle of Jack Daniels - 1.5 ltr - with him, which was supposed to be opened only during the tour. Everyone other than me and Daddu was looking forward eagerly to the bottle of JD.

It was a trip with seven members, all college friends. We are not revealing the names of all the seven for privacy. Lets give them some pet names. First is the gang leader, Sura. He is the guy who takes care of all the planning for all the trips that we go in. He books the tickets, resort and cab and bears the headache of collecting money from everyone at the end of the trip. That is why he is the gang leader.

Second, there is the Monk. The Monk is the man who had introduced most of the gang to the habit of drinking. He can have a full bottle all by himself and still stand tall without a quiver in his voice or a shiver in his stance. Now you know why he is the Monk. Senthil is from a company in Guindy and Kumar works at a private bank. The rest of the gang include Prabhu and Daddu, who are introduced already.


I was probably the odd man out - I am vegetarian and also a teetotaller, but I had gotten used to being around with people getting drunk around me, so it didn't matter. I was just happy to go onto some place to relax for a couple of days and to learn to use a new DSLR that I had bought a few weeks before.

Why Wayanad?

When the question of which place to visit was in our mind, we had been considering many options including Valparai or Alapuzha or Wayanad, Few friends had already visited Valparai and Alapuzha and we had to settle on Wayanad. Therein began our journey: we had a few places marked out to visit including the Soochipara Falls, the Chembra Peak, the Edakkal Caves and Kurudaweep falls. Also on our hit list was the haunted Chain Tree, where there was supposed to be a native's spirit roaming, that troubles the passers by.

How to Reach Wayanad?

Wayanad is located in the town of Kalpetta and the town itself is not directly connected to any major airport or station. The best way to reach through air would be to fly to the Calicut airport located around 140 kms from Kalpetta and take a cab.

Those inclined to travel by train can travel to either Mysore (140 kms away) or Calicut alias Kozhikode (75 kms away). By road, there are numerous connections to Kalpetta from all the south Indian states, mainly via Trivandrum, Bangalore, Mysore and Ooty.

And Thus Began The Journey..

Since we were from Chennai, our route was to travel to Calicut by train and have a cab pick us from there. And off we went, leaving on Thursday the fifth of March in the Mangalore Express. Our train was to reach Kozhikode by Friday morning. The journey was good; we had played some Uno cards for some time, had a lot of snacks and then had some decent sleep. We were also mocking the gang leader Sura for getting jerkins and raincoats as if it were going to rain during March! It took twelve hours for the train to reach the station.

Our driver was promptly available on time at the station and took us to a nearby place for breakfast. Around 9 am, we had puttus and dosas with Kadala Curry, Egg Curry and Chicken Gravy.

That Kerala Water

Yummy Kozha Puttu

Dosa and Idli with Onion Chutney and Sambar

Even the bill was only around 300, which seemed quite reasonable for 8 people (we and the driver included). After filling our tummies, we started around 9:30 to Wayanad and stopped only once on the way to a viewpoint. It was not breathtaking, but it was quite a view.

Good View, eh?

Another click from the view point..

After the selfies and group pictures were over, we headed off to our place of stay, which was proved to be a little difficult to find.

Our Place of Stay..

We overran the distance and had to trace our way back thanks to Google Maps. Finally, we did find our home stay - the Sunrise Valley Homestay located on Kalpetta By Pass Road, quite near the main town by around noon. The rooms were spacious and we had ordered only two rooms and since they had no other bookings, they were generous enough to offer us three. And we were generous enough to offer it to our driver. In addition to the three rooms, they also had a big balcony with a very good view and a hall with space for a sofa and a desk.

View from Room

Another View..

Our initial plan was to spend the major part of the afternoon, watching the India vs West Indies match that was currently on air and then go to some location like the Soochipara falls. The biggest heart break of the day for us was when the lady managing the home-stay informed us that the cables have got cut and so the TVs were not working. With heavy hearts, we had left for lunch by around 2 PM (even boys take time to get ready when hot water shower is available, I guess!) and reached a small home-style hotel.

The Lunch at the Mess..

Maybe it's just me, but I have seen that the smallest restaurants in Kerala offer some of the delicious food. That is, if you can bear the perennially hated rice of Kerala, you know, those fat and semi-oval shaped rice particles that you have to chew twice or thrice before you swallow!! Yes, we non-Keralite south Indians hate that rice and we don't hide that!

That Kerala Rice :/

But when it is topped with some delicious curries, it can become edible, as we found out on lunch that day. The place where we had visited looked like an old house, remodelled like a restaurant with plastic dining tables, plantain leaf and most importantly - a TV where the match was being relayed. Thankfully, the hall was empty and we took no time to occupy the seven seats in the room and waited where our lunch arrived.

Fish Curry (Left) and Veg Curry

The non-veg boys were ordering beef and fish fry and chicken and me along with the recently vegetarianized Daddu were left with only few items to eat.

Rice with Fish Fry 

Beef Masala (in two plates)

Then, the funniest thing happened. Daddu asked the waiter if there was any Rasam. The waiter politely informed that there is buttermilk instead. Daddu - who is a big time foodie - had had enough. He said, in one swift move, 'Get me one fish fry'. All the heads turned.

We reminded him in not so polite terms that his dead chithappa would not be happy, but he was already half way into the fried fish. There was no stopping him, as he had already ordered a beef fry soon after that.  Again, I became the only vegetarian in the gang. The bill came upto 990 bucks and the funniest part was that the meals had cost only 40 bucks each and all the accompaniments had cost three or four time.

The Shock..

And then we had decided to go to the Soochipara falls to beat the heat - oh did I even start about the heat! The place was in the early 30 degrees Celsius when we visited it. Almost the same as Chennai at the same time. While we knew that it was off-season time, we didn't think that it would be so hot. We had a jolly good time making fun of Sura again.

And then the bad news arrived: Soochipara falls and the National Park have been closed for visitors. Damn! Those were high on our list of must visit places. Then, we short-listed Banasuragar Dam from the remaining places, since it was closer to our present location.

The Dam..

Once we entered the dam premises (which has an entry fee of INR 20 per person and 20 per camera), there was a long and winding pathway for about 2 kilometres, which lead us to the dam.

The Banasuragar Ticket Counter

There were some really good views along the way good enough for us to attempt some selfies and long shots.

That Beautiful View Of Sun From Dam

The view of the dam was good, but not breath taking. Again, maybe we should have not expected too much going there on March.

Not So Much of Water..

We took a few snaps, did a mini stone-throwing competition, which Prabhu won, hands down. The weather had by then gone from sunny to cloudy and by the time we we walking half way across the Dam, it was already starting to drizzle. While everyone was rushing to get back to the car, the one to have some jab at us now was Sura, who had bought a jerkin. Meh. :/

As we got into the car, the rain started lashing out for a good half an hour and we slowly made our way back to the main city in Kalpetta since it was 5:30 PM already then. The problem with Wayanad is that, tourist spots are scattered in different directions and you can only go to one or two spots on the same route and then you would have to come back to the main city and then go to the next route for the next spot. It's kinda tricky and so, we decided to give the day a rest.

And Shopping for Side-Dishes:

The boys were more interested to buy the side-dishes for their main dishes and we went shopping to fruits market, fish market and what not. Finally, we bought a few fruits, some snacks and soft drinks and reached our room by 6:30 PM. Since we wanted to buy some dinner, we left around 7 pm again, ordered some chapathis and parottas along with chicken, egg, fish and one mushroom gravy (for me of course).

Again, the food cost around 800 bucks, was reasonable, we further bought some more fruits, had some tea and got back to the room around 8 PM.

The JD Bottle:

As everyone gathered around in the biggest room, where our luggage was thrown all over, we decided to clear it out so that we can start eating and boozing. The guys got excited then, after all, the prospect of drinking foreign saraku was tempting enough, I guess. So, out of nowhere, Senthil, all of a sudden, took Sura's bag to the other end of the room. He moved barely a few metres when the smashing sound of glass made all of us look back.

Clang! Yes, the bottle of JD, that Prabhu had so carefully bought from abroad and that, Sura had so carefully preserved till then, in a moment of stupid excitement, just fell from the partly open bag that Senthil wanted to move to the corner. For a second, nobody moved. Senthil just realized what had happened and I guess he was too stunned to move. Kumar cracked up and everyone else had only shock on their faces. As nobody moved, I just wore my slippers and started cleaning along with Senthil, who had come to his senses by then.

Unfortunately, a part of Sura's baggage, including his blankets, vests and briefs had got partly immersed in the alcohol and most of the floor near the place where the bottle had fell, emanated a strong smell. We slowly picked up the pieces and wiped off the smaller glasses using a towel. After what seemed like an hour of sweeping and mopping and cleaning, the smell had gone. But there was sadness everywhere. Nobody wanted to blame Senthil, but he had gone into a state of depression. Sura had confined himself to the other room and was almost in tears. The others were dumbstruck and didn't even talk for some time.

Last seen pic of the 1.5L Jack Daniels :( 

Dinner, At Last:

Calm returned at around 10 pm, mostly because everyone had gotten hungry. As we opened the pack of chapatis and parotas, unfortunately most of the others had got drunk with something else and forgotten all about the dinner and had gone to sleep. So, just four of us had to eat as much as possible from the pack of around 20 chapatis and 10 parotas.

Chapati and Fish Curry

Beef Curry

Egg Gravy

Yummy Parottas

Needless to say, a lot was leftover. And as we went off to sleep, most of the guys were clouded over sadness that the bottle had broken and only a few were looking forward to the next day, where we would be going to some really good places including the highlight of the journey, the Edakkal Caves. But those are for the next post!