"God's own district"

My first visit to “God’s own country” was to the Wayanad district. Wayanad is in the north eastern part of Kerala. The three major towns in the district are Sultan Bathery (where we stayed), Mananthavady, and Kalpetta (the district headquarters).

The journey through Mysore, Nanjangud, Gundulpet, and Bandipur was smooth. The road to Mysore was like a race track, and the picturesque roads through the Bandipur and Muthunga forest ranges were delightful. En route Bandipur, we saw a few elephants. Upon reaching Sultan Bathery, we settled in our rooms, and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

On the second day, we first went to the Edakkal Caves. The Caves themselves must have been nice, although I didn’t really get to enjoy them because there were far too many people there, especially school children. They must have come from at least twenty different schools! One had to jostle for space to even walk the narrow and steep paths. At one point, there seemed to be a real danger of a stampede!


The trek to the Meenmuty Falls was challenging, but rewarding when we finally reached there. The waterfall itself was huge and one can hear its sound from quite a distance! It was a relief that there were not too many people there. This trek takes one through tea plantations on one side and coffee plantation on the other side. You can see Sushant in the pic here trying to measure the vastness of the tea plantation.

Our third day began with a jungle safari at the Tholpetty Wildlife Sanctuary. There were not too many animals to be seen (just the usual deer, langur and bison), but what I really enjoyed about this safari was the long distance that it covered.

The Kuruva Island was serene. One has the choice to cross the shallow Kabini river by foot (in other words, weave through knee deep water) or by a boat. On our return journey, I rowed the boat. But our ‘boating’ was not yet over. Next, we went to the Banasura Sagar Dam (see pic), whose waters provided an excellent destination for a speed boat ride.

O
f course, any travel experience is incomplete without sampling the local cuisine. Needless to say, the food was delectable. The Malabari Biryani is a spicy version of the Hyderabadi Biriyani, with distinct flavor of Kerala spices. The beef fry and curry with Kerala parota was awesome. Even the buttermilk and pineapple dipped in sauce had their own taste.


Can't wait to see the other parts of Kerala.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

MF.
And great pictures...as always.
Specially the last one. Where are the others?
Your description of the food is making me hungry.

~ Deeps ~ said...

foooooooood........malabar biryani is really good.......i tried that in munnar too and it was just awesome.....

where r the other pics >?

i missed wayanad, when i was in chennai...maybe sometime

Subhadip said...

@Woodie
Thanks. The other pics are there... maybe I will post them somewhere.

@Deepak
Now I want to see the other parts of Kerala, especially Munnar and Allepei (backwaters).

Kanika said...

All I want to say is....BEAUTIFUL! Just too beautiful!

Anuradha said...

nice writeup and yes a trip to backwaters,munnar is a big YES. I had been there aeons back and it was really nice !

Subhadip said...

@Kanu
Thanks :)

@Anu
Will take your help in planning then :)

RB said...

Wow! All this sounds soooo nice. I mean, SOUNDS nice!! I can imagine how cool it must have been.

The pictures look great. Yes, I wanna see more of these too.

Aur mujhe bhi jaana hai Kerala!

Subhadip said...

@Richa
:-)

Flying Ace said...

By the end of ur stay in b'lore u probably will cover visiting the entire south of India. You just reminded me of our trip to thadiayandamul and the pork served there. Cant wait for our next trip together.....

R said...

My dear Dada
The first picture is awwwwwwesome.
I've always, always wanted to be in the middle of coffee plantations..wonder what it's like.
College guys are talking about Mysore for this year's trip. Now I'm excited.

Oh, and upload the pictures soon, okay?

Banvri said...

lovely post withbeautiful pics ..:)

~ ॐ ~ said...

sahi ja raha hai bete laal.... jo kar sakta hai karle fatafat !!!!

phir to north india :D

Subhadip said...

@Kailash
Yo bro.. same here. Whenever you are back in India.

@Rohit
Pics are there on flickr. Are you coming to Mysore?

@Chitrangada
Thanks.

@Prashant
Hmm... North India... Delhi... Chandigarh...

Unknown said...

oops..missed another journey... bahut hi masta trip lag raha hai bhai...next time Kerala trip mein main bhi judne ki koshish karunga

was in bangalore/mysore jab vo Kaveri wala lafda tha... was quite near to ur place in nandini restaurant but milna nahin hua...

maybe next time

Subhadip said...

@Aseem
Wah bhai! Bangalore / Mysore aake chale jaate ho... woh bhi ghar ke 3 km radius mein reh ke... hume pata bhi nehi chalta! Hum logon se koi galti ho gayi ho to bata do!