Travelogue - A Trip to Wayanad - Part 3 - A Bilssful Day at the Beaches of Kerala

The Morning Walk

Did I not already mention that this Sura has the horrible habit of waking people up in early mornings? He did that again today and forced me and Daddu to come on a morning walk with him. Not that I didn't like it, but I was too lazy to go anywhere. Finally, I did get myself out of my bed and decided to take my camera to snap some nice misty images.

Out we went and the view was pretty cool. So, I took my cam, adjusted the ISO and centred on a beautiful long shot and clicked 'Snap' on my DSLR. And that image, I can't show you because, you need to 'Insert Memory Card' inside your cam to take a click. Bloody Kumar! He had transferred all the DSLR pics to his cam and left my memory card in the laptop! Grrrrrrrrr!

So I thought, well let that thing go; we'll better take some snaps from my mobile and took my mobile out, set a nice background and clicked and this is what I got:

Right out of some screensaver..

My mobile has a freaking 13 MP camera, for God's sake. Some moisture had gotten into my lens and all the images are now coming out blurred! What the...!

Misty lens capturing a misty morning..!

But Sura had a good 20 MP cam, so we did get some pretty pics:

The Sun Rise!

Long, Winding and Empty Road...

Finally there was some relief from the cold as we found a tea shop and I eagerly wanted to go and order a tea, which was when I realized that I had left my purse at the room! And nobody else had got their wallets either! Fffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...!!!!!!

After roaming around pointlessly for a few minutes carrying a camera bag that was suddenly weighing a lot heavier because, well, there was no use for the camera now for me and feeling irritated because I was well, hungry and on a pointless walk. And then when we returned back to the room, it was around 7 am and still most of them were fast asleep.

Pack Up

This time, though, we just decided to start packing because this was the last day of the tour and most of our day was going to be spent in the car than the room. We had time till 12 PM, but decided it was time to vacate since the place where we were going to was on the way to Kozhikode and returning back to the room from there made no sense.

So comes the most difficult part of a tour - packing up. I have been to many tours with many gangs, but the most annoying part of it is to pack up all that random stuff that you've thrown all around the place. The trouble gets bigger if we have either a big gang or if the tour itinerary is just very long. Here, we had a mix of both and my fear was leaving something out at a place where we would most certainly never return. So, I went sweep after sweep trying to clear out all the stuff and leave enough space in the bag for anything we might purchase.

After everybody's packing was over, there came this ominous task of cleaning up. There was just so much of stuff lying around (including the trash of the now infamous JD bottle) and all the other stuff that we had effortlessly thrown around these last couple of days. Finally, it took around 9 AM to finish that job. Once we were done with that, we came out to the smell of pooris with potato masala arriving.

Soft and Hot Pooris!!

The homestay owner aunty had brought us the hot pooris with the masala. There was enough for 4 pooris per person for the eight of us (including our driver) but the masala ended up lesser than required.

Hot and Yummy Potato Masala!

However, we guys adjusted with some sugar: I guess when you are hungry, everything tastes good. After paying for the homestay, we bid goodbye to the aunty and started off to Poolkot lake.

The Local Shopping

We had requested our driver to stop at some place selling local goods such as tea, spices, etc and our driver took us to a decent looking shop in Kalpetta. While I was content buying some Amla (Gooseberry) dipped in honey, the others took it as some serious shopping opportunity buying for probably the next monthly supply of everything from tea, soaps, bath scrubbers, spices, toys and what not. After half an hour of intense shopping, we headed to the Poolkot Lake.

Poolkot Lake

We reached the place at around 11 AM and it looked more like a local park from the outside than anything else.

The tickets cost INR 20 per person and cameras INR 25 each. The walk to the place of boating from the entrance was a small one, although it contained a lot of interesting views, including an aquarium, a mini-children's park and a magic mirrors section. But the main attraction was the boating anyway. We had opted for a raft with 7 people (which cost INR 350) for boating around the lake.

A View of the Lake..

We have had an earlier experience in Munnar where the Monk and a couple of other guys were too tired and had gone to sleep half way while boating. So, there were a little apprehensive when we did actually go for the boating. However, we had managed to convince them and our boat was scheduled to arrive in some 15 minutes.

The Mischievous Monkeys

Instead of waiting, we had decided to go eat come snacks. Just when we had bought a couple of ice creams, did some monkeys jump out of nowhere and grabbed the corn from the hands of one of the children ahead of us. Guess they had a cold or something, fortunately they weren't interested in our icecream.

The Mischief Monkeys

The entire monkey family had a peculiar hairstyle. Even Ravindra Jadeja wouldn't have dreamt of such hairstyles.

Look at that Family Hairstyle!

The Boat Ride

As explained earlier, boat rides are just not the thing for a lot of our boys. So, me and Arvind sat at a couple of corners and took out our cameras searching for some elusive wild elephant or some pretty birds. The view wasn't so great in the beginning, it was sunny, there was no/less breeze and it was virtually like going on a boating at Muttukadu. But once I had my viewfinder on, the place was looking totally different. There was this kingfisher in the far corner, perching on fishes, there were a few beautiful birds, and the small lily flowers in the waters were beautiful. Check out these sample images.

Sura managed to capture this duck preying on a fish right on time!

Twenty minutes into the ride, we started hearing a strange noise as if some bigger boat is approaching us from behind. We turned back to only realize that it was only the monk who was snoring again. This guy pays for boat rides to sleep on them.. Wow!

Some people were taking a quite walk around the lake as well...

The Aquarium

Sura and a couple of other guys were pretty interested to go the aquarium as soon as the boat ride was over. It had a INR 10 fee, so me and a couple of other guys weren't really interested. :P While we were eating some snacks, Sura and the other guys entered and returned the aquarium in less than 10 minutes. This is what Sura had to say: "Macha, the fish tank in my home would have more varities than what these people have. They have a few gold fishes, carps and cat fishes. Total waste of money."

We had a 'told-you-so' look on our faces. ;)

No Prizes for Guessing... Gold fish! :P

The Lunch

While it was 1 PM already by the time we exited the place, we had requested the driver to stop at some good hotel on the way to Kozhikode. We have no idea what he thought was a good hotel, but he drove us for one full hour and took us to a place that actually looked like a hotel for the first time since we had visited Wayanad for lunch in our trip.

They had allotted a separate room for us in the lunch since there was eight of us. Again, Daddu has his own style when it comes to lunch. While everyone had ordered meals and accompaniments, Daddu alone had ordered one and a biryani with fish fry. What that meant was everyone eating a mouthful of his biryani and so, obviously, his stomach was not full at the end of it. While all of us were about to leave, he ordered another half plate biryani. That's Daddu for you! ;)

So after another 10 minutes of waiting for Daddu, we left with a bill of 680 INR, out of which my part was only INR 35 since I had only Veg meals and Daddu's was INR 210. Two extremes!

The Kappad Beach

So, off we were to the last phase of the tour: the beautiful beaches of Kerala. The journey was quite bumpy and I was surprised that none of us had puked yet in the tour. There's something about the hot Kerala water and the food in general that they serve in all Kerala hotels. While we have been to all the states of south India, Kerala has been the one where we had fell sick the least, had the least problems digesting our food or getting used to the water. I still remember how person after person puked during our tours of Munnar and Coorg. Kerala had always been different. Any theories?

Coming back to the trips, the first of the two beaches that we would be visiting was the Kappad beach. Saying that it was beautiful would be an understatement. There was a small shoreline, interspersed by huge rocks - almost 40 metres in length. So once you climb on top of that, you can see the entire shoreline on either side of you and the view is simply breath taking. The shore itself was clean compared to the littered beaches that you find in Chennai. Marina would commit suicide if it were to ever catch a glimpse of the spotless shores of the Kappad beach!

The Pristine Kappad Beach!

There were a few pretty birds pecking on the shore, hunting snails and fishes. We got to snap a few of those in beautiful close ups and they just came out lovely!

A Stork Preying for Fish along the Kappad Shores..

Then, the main reason why the driver took us here. The beach has a bar nearby. By this time, he had assumed us to be a group of drunkards, I guess. I wouldn't blame him for that though, but he looked at me and told me that the beach has a bar. As if I was the biggest drunkard in the group :/

So, while the other guys left to the bar to chill out with some beer, myself, Kumar and Daddu had started a mini photo session with our phones and cameras, trying out different angles from below, in between and on top of the rocks.

The Long Shots..

After a while, my battery had died out and we had snapped enough pictures to keep as profile pictures for the next one year, and so, we stopped snapping and lied down on the warm rocks and stared at the sky. It was beautiful and heavenly.

The Rocky Shoreline..

The Kozhikode Beach

By 4 PM, we decided to leave the beach and go to the next attraction, the Kozhikode beach. After a travel of about half an hour we reached the beach. It was much different compared to the Kappad beach and quite comparable to the Elliot's beach in Chennai. It had paved pathways for walking and space for parking vehicles and well maintained and clean shore. It would probably be one kilometre long at the maximum.

Prabhu tempted everyone saying that they could find some fresh fried fishes there. But unlike Marina, there were no fish stalls in the beach. The only things being sold were fried snails, which a few of the guys ate. I have no idea how the taste was and neither do I wish to find!

Me and Sura had some crushed-ice-tutti-fruity-sugar-syrup mixed delicacy which tasted just brilliant. Even as we were tasting that, the skies started darkening and there was a slight drizzle, so the entire plan of watching a beautiful sun set just got spoiled!

The boys took cover to the drizzle by going to a shop nearby ordering Shawarmas and Faloodas. I had my stomach full already from the lunch and so didn't eat anything there. After some 45 minutes of eating out at the shop (I was really surprised at the appetite of my boys :P), we headed to the last phase of the tour: the shopping.

Chips and Halwa

You don't have to be an expert to know that similar to ladoos from tirupathi, you need to get chips and Halwa to people back home if you are returning from Kerala. For whatever reason, the other guys didn't seem too bothered. But that was not to deter me and Sura. Soru is always important. So, we were supposed to be taken to one final shop to a good snack serving shop in Kozhikode. The driver took us to a shop at some corner. It didn't seem too huge or active, but by the time we walked into the shop, we could smell that wonderful smell of coconut oil and freshly prepared chips, so we didn't question anymore.

Myself and Sura bought a kilo of chips and 2 kilograms of halwa and the entire thing came only to 400. Was that cheap or what! After finishing that up, we reached the station by 6:30 PM, well ahead of our schedule. For an hour and half, we just charged our mobiles and were chit-chatting, while Kumar was again busy transferring his pics from the DSLR to his mobile. Oh, for the love of God! :P

The Return

The return was quite a silent journey since most of the guys were tired and sleepy. While we didn't talk a lot. we had a hell lot of pictures, memories and stupid stories to share as we have done now in this three part series. Now you know, why we travel so frequently! :) Until next time, thanks for reading. Adios!