Tuesday, 13 May 2014

Ladies Day Out - 3



Day 3: March 9

We reached Ernakulam. Thats in the south of India. It was pitch dark and we couldn't travel anywhere. We waited at ladies restroom till 6am. It was quite a strange feeling in the unknown land. We half slept there and taking a pre-paid auto went to the bus stand. From there we took our bus to 'Munnar', our destinated place. Munnar is a place of tea plantations on hills and spice gardens and lakes and all the scenic views one can imagine in a green land! 

It was a long journey of 5 hrs. We were again half sleepy BUT when the tea plantation scenery arrived, we came back to out senses. We were thrilled to experience the view. The bus went round and round around the mountains giving us a visual treat of the place.

There with a local tour operator we booked a hotel for a night and arranged sight seeing. We were scared to trust somebody but we just had to take the risk. We quickly got ready and were off in our cab for sightseeing tour. The place is amazingly beautiful. Very peaceful and soothing. We had a nice time roaming, checking on the places the tour guide showed us, had snacks in between and enjoyed ourselves a lot! Rest let the pictures speak! A new place; new experiences! The kind of freedom one feels when you know you are at a place where no one knows you, no one's going to bother you and you are not going to witness all those regular life's routines but a fresh start, a good feeling, a different air to smell and experience all those as never before.



The bus ride towards our destination ...
The view caught our eyes!

  
The paradise ... <3


Our cab ride and sweet little homes on the way


A garden visit
strange plants


Heart warming view !
In love with the nature there :-)
Pretty yellows


Some spiced up mangoes for snacks? yum
Towards 'View Point' the highest point in the Munnar hills.
Lot of stairs to cover. Men in traditional lungi everywhere!
That's the point where we couldn't cover. Too high and scary!
Ahh... we were at such a height! It was getting chilly there.
Some signboards
Kind off lunch there! Maggie
Cardamom Tea... slurp!
Local things to buy, strange little fruits and herb oils!
I tried a chilli-tomato kinda fruit too. One had to suck the insides only. It was good :-)

And my friend tried some :-)

You get horses for local rides !
That's one gorgeous Indian Coral tree!
And an Oriental White-Eye bird on it. Love love

The snake roads all around the hills !
The most serene view! .... Echo-point.
The land of greens!
We had some fresh little carrots! Felt like a rabbit :-P
More fruits :-)
Me :-)
:-)
Some movie shooting was going on!
Posed with the amazing Munnar tea-plantations! :-)
The day ends and we slept like a log :-)

To be continued..

Love
Tanuja

Friday, 4 April 2014

ladies day out - 2




our various mood

Me and Archana
A hungry Liza



Appam!

it was yummy! 

the place


Day 2: March 8

At Chennai we had to drop few of my sister's bags for her forthcoming textile exhibition. Also it involved meeting the 4th friend here. So finally we reached the place and my sister's friend greeted us, helped us with the luggage and was kind enough to offer his place for us to freshen up. We had to catch another train same day to reach our final place. In between we had 4 hours. We thought to see a beach which was an hour away but somehow we messed up in communicating with the auto-wallah and finally met my school friend Archana at the nearest mall. [Archana is a very old and dear friend of mine from school. We were friends in standard 5th and she went off in transfer. There was a long gap and later we got connected from facebook and since then I had waited to meet her] 

From there we went for a Kerala lunch of Appam. Appam is traditional Kerala food made from  fermented rice batter and coconut milk. It was Yum! Meeting Archana afer ages was strange and a nice feeling.  We talked all kind of nonsense and old days. We were kids then still memories were good fresh. :-) it was a very short meet and I promised her to meet again in Chennai when I'm back. Suddenly I see my watch and damn we were late to catch our train. We got back to room took our bags and were off to Railways Station. We ran and got the train in last min. Phew! 

Till now we have only been travelling and running .. ! 

Tomorrow morning we'd reach Ernakulam at 3.00 am!


to be continued ...