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Gosh!! My blog is almost becoming a travel blog. This is my third continuous post wherein I’m blogging about some sort of travel again. I think I should use some specialized travel blog site, instead of WordPress. Wot say guys?
Now coming straight down to the point, Let me tell you, KP stands for Kumar Parvat, the highest peak in Karnataka, in the Western Ghats. Just wanted some kind of trek before the monsoon sets in. This time three relatively inexperienced trekkers, including me, started planning for the KP trek. We’d no idea about the weather condition there. As usual Chirag started collecting all possible information, including stuffs about leeches. From the beginning itself we started having lots of issues. We didn’t have raincoats. Just had enough food for and sports drink and one jacket each.
Our plan was something like this. We’d travel from Bangalore to a place called “Gundya” which is on the way to Mangalore. From Gundya we’d planned to take a bus to Kukke from where the trail of the trek starts. We stuck to our plan. Had a tough time finding a bus from Bangalore to Gundya. The ones we found were already packed, as it was a Friday night. Finally found a private bus. A congested one and not so comfortable one. 380 Km journey. No push back seats. Nothing! Reached gundya 6.00 AM in next morning. Saturday. It was raining there and we’re fucked up. Gundya is nothing but a small place with one police check post and two shops. We discovered that we’re even more fucked up, when we started asking around for direction to Kukke. The road that connected Gundya to Kukke was closed for some kind of construction work. No heavy vehicles were allowed except for auto rickshaws. Found an auto rickshaw almost at around 8.00 AM, who agreed to take us to Kukke 22 KMs from there for a sum of 300 bucks. We reached the place we wanted to. Small, clean and nice village. The famous Kukke Subramanium Swamy temple is there. Hard to believe but food is free there. We’d breakfast at a nice looking restaurant there. Finished our chores. Rahul and Chirag went ahead to visit the Subranium Swamy temple. Being an atheist to the core, waited for them outside the temple.
We started our trek at 9.00 AM. The rain had stopped, but it was muddy all around. We could see the majestic Kumar Parvet from the village street. Lush green dense forest from the bottom to the top. On the top, it looked like some kind of golf course. We couldn’t stop ourselves. Clicked pictures like maniacs. Now it was time for us to get started on our mission. We walked almost more than 2 KMs on a muddy track to reach the trail. The entrance to the trail looked scary. It was dense forest, drenched with rainwater. The trail was looking muddy. We could found something written on a board there in Kannada, which of course non of us could read; later found out that it was warning for bears inside the forest from two other guys from Hyderabad. We started trekking. We found scorpions of virtually all colors. After a while we started spotting leeches. By the time we’d already trekked 1.5 KMs we started to find more and more leeches. I also noticed some crawling up my shoe. We stopped immediately and wound scotch tapes over the bottom of our pants. But nothing could stop the leeches. Fucking blood suckerz. After walking a bit more into the woods I could feel those ugly fucking creatures entering my skin. And I was correct actually. I found almost 7 to 10 leeches on each of my feet. Same was the case with Rahul and Chirag. We started removing them. But, by the time we could remove one; two more were crawling up on us. The situation was completely uncontrollable. The decision of abandoning the trek had to be taken. Finally I gave up and told them that I was going back. They’re bit shocked but started climbing down with me as they also didn’t have much choice. It’d also started raining by then. We just rushed down the hill collecting even more leeches. We reached the bottom; the only thing that was there on all of our minds was to remove those blood suckerz. We almost got naked under a tree. A couple of leeches were entering my skin making a hole in my socks. The rest were just crawling on my socks and shoes. It was a horrible condition. All of us were busy removing them. After we’re done we came back to the village to book a guesthouse and our return ticket to Bangalore on the same day. Actually we’d received wrong information about the place. We’re told that it would be almost barren land till 30% to the top. We’re also told that there would be no leeches till the peak of monsoon. But what we saw was completely the opposite. We’d just increased the attrition rate of that particular trek, but were happy that we didn’t have any more leeches. Fuck man!! I’d a long shower in the bathroom while Rahul was busy cleaning his wounds from the leeches. He was bleeding profusely but somehow the bleeding stopped after some time. We’d our MTR packets and bread for lunch.
We still had the entire afternoon and evening to spend there. We started off to see the river Kumardhara. Not a very famous river. Not worth visiting, but had nothing much to do. Chirag was almost stoned and started dancing in the river. Had good time there. Shot some videos and snaps of him doing all sorts of crazy things. Came back into the village. Strolled along the streets. Clicked some snaps, which are being listed by some of the most interesting snaps from KP by Flickr. Feels good to hear it. Hahahehehehee.. Checked out some of the shops around, but found nothing worthy of buying. It was drizzling a bit. Had evening snacks cum dinner. Went back into the hotel room. Got freshen up a bit and started packing things up. Had to catch the bus at 9.00 PM in the night. Checked out from the Hotel at 8.15 PM. Reached bus stop. It was still drizzling and I could still feel those leeches crawling up my skin!! Not a very good experience indeed. The bus started cruising through dense forest. All three of us slept off. When we woke up it was 6.00 AM, Sunday, in Bangalore. Got back home, safely!!
Snaps : http://www.flickr.com/photos/vegdevil/tags/kumarparvat/
Watched the movie “A Walk To Remember” for the 6th time. And as I’m writing this blog, I’m listening to “I Wanna Be You” by Mandy Moore. I really don’t know whats going on. But thats not the point anyway. Writing this post after a long time. So much to blog about, so little time. Or may be bad time management!! Hey I’m getting carried away by something unusual. Many good things have happened to me over a period of last two months. April and May to be specific. Finally shifted to a rented apartment after a long depressing stay at a PG (Paying Guest) accommodation on 1st April. Learned to how to peel a potato and chop an onion. I’m cooking my own breakfast, sometimes lunch and dinner also. Okay okay. I must confess instant food. But that has to be cooked. Right? Phew!! We’ve got a big 29” TV to watch, maid does all the cleaning stuff. Happy life. I’ve no intention to recollect what Tyler Durden said in Fight Club. But the best things that have happened are a trip to Hyderbad and my first organized trek. Must tell u about these two things.
The trip to Hyderabad will be hard to forget for a time to come. I mean, after leaving college I’d never thought that I would meet the same group of friends whom I used to hang out with. Our Handigada gang. I and another friend from the same old gang, we headed out from Bangalore to visit this old city on one Friday evening. We reached there around 7 Am in the morning. Amrit had come to welcome us as if we’re sultans of some kind, up from his deep slumber. Eyes still red, he couldn’t recognize me at first glance. What the #$#*. What’s this. This is what his reaction was, after seeing my long locks which I don’t have anymore. After a nice breakfast cooked by him, we headed out to visit Birla temple. It’s a beautiful temple, though I still maintain that I’m an atheist. Had enough time in hand so went off to visit the Imax theater. We actually had no intention to watch any movie. But somehow the idea of watching a movie stuck our minds and set out to watch the most violent movie ever, that too in Imax. Violence so horrific, so real u feel like its being done to u. What a movie that was. Apcalypto. By Mel Gibson. From there on a pearl quest we started thinking what to do. Had a very good lunch. And here for your information waiters, shopkeepers and auto-rickshaw drivers in Hyderabad are much courteous than their Bangalorean counterparts, who have a very damn care attitude. One friendly chat with a auto rickshaw wallah can actually reveal a lot of inner information!! At least I got to know what HUDA means. Hyderabad Urban Development Authority!! And its actually is a developed city. Almost every where one can see those green boards saying “Toilet, just 5 mins away”! The Hyderabad Central, what I felt is just a clone of the Forum in Bangalore. Same stores with big brand names. A baby PVR cinema hall is also there. No movie this time!! Sarangi, rode a Video game bike and we clicked snaps of him. It was all like becoming kids again. And that evening, the walk along the Hussein Sagar lake was simply the best part of the day, though I was very much tired. We had ice creams at Eat Street, and literally speaking we ate like pigs. Saw some couples kissing there, very unusual in India but quite usual for us Hollywood movie buffs. Hehehehee. Dinner was cooked by the biggest Handigadaa, our good old Munna Bhai. Well, thats what we call Jyoti. Next morning what was about to come is the most exhilarating part of Hyderabad. Ramoji Film City. Without which the Hyderabad trip would have been incomplete. Its hard to describe it in words. U have to go there and see, whats in it, though I’ve forgotten the physical dimensions of it can faintly recollect the guide saying that it’s been created with an huge investment of Rs. 4500 Cr. Mr. Ramoji is the god in there. They showed us how movies are actually made. The stunt show was simply great. Food was also good. The best part was Eureka, the guided 45 minutes tour of the entire film city. The guide was speaking fluently with very good sense humor. Showed us how a single building can be used as Airport, Jail, Hospital and a Railway station. Yes, thats true. There were a lot of fun rides too. All free except for the food. After the guided tour we didn’t have much energy to explore more of it. We headed out. It was almost time to part again. Get back to work again. Was time to come back to Bangalore again. But anyway u can’t just have fun always. Had to depart from the Handigadaa gang again. Again Amrit, the skinhead friend of mine came to see us off. He actually did much more that just seeing us off. As someone has said, no need to be thankful to real friends. Well, only looking forward to their visit to Bangalore.
Huh. Now is the time for the second best thing that has happened this Month. The trek to Gokarna, in the search of the Arabian sea and its virgin beaches. This time it was my Mallu tech lead Vishnu, his friend from Delhi and good old Sarangi. We started from Majestic bus stop from Bangalore on a Friday night. No reservations made. Fortunately found the four seats on the last row. With all those bad patches of road and shock enhancers fitted in the bus, the journey was not a very pleasant one but we were warned of it by Vishnu before. And of course it was a trek so no complains here. A little bit pain is actually good. It teaches a lot of things. So we reached our destination Gokarna at around 9.20 AM. And just for sake of the ignorant, Gokarna is located on the north west of Karnataka only 150 Kms away from Goa and 480 Kms from Bangalore. We started our trek right away from the bus stop, though we’re offered a ride by an auto-rickshaw wallah, of course for money! The nearest accessible beach to humans is 9 Kms away from Gokarna bust stop by road. We took the road. But in the mid way this idea of taking a different shortcut path stuck to our one of ours mind. We started walking off road on patches of rocks and bushes only to get lost, then again had to return to the same road which we had left. We just walked. Talked a lot pf crap. And Delhi guy, Shantanu finally got a name for us. FLA. I don’t want to expand it here. Drop me a line if u really care to know. And finally the moment came, the sight of the Arabian sea. Green, clear water. The first beach that is visible is the Kudle beach. A private but beautiful beach. One can take a right turn there to Kudle beach or left turn to the most famous Om beach. We headed towards Om beach. Restaurants can be found there and a lot of Firangis too. Particularly on that day it was pretty crowded as the entire channel V crew had come down to shoot some kind crappy videos. No need to mention here that the VJs from channel V are the ugliest. We found KFs there. Good thing thing to cool us off. We had our breakfast there in a semi-Indian restaurant. The hard part was just about to come. 4 hills to cross. 1 of them was really big. You can check in the snaps. The sea shore was looking awesome from top of the mountain. No human being around. After crossing all 4 of them and some small unnamed beaches in between we reached the Paradise beach. A small and not so beautiful beach. We found an Indian Family and Italian man living there. No idea how they live there. Its so remote. All of them were very nice to us. We’d run out of water but filled in from their well. Dirty, but we finally found water to drink. One thing for sure, I learnt the value of water. Its precious. Clean water is a luxury. We had our lunch there. Nothing but some bread and processed food packets. Just filled our tummies. Sarangi had a nice sun bath and rest three of us rested for the afternoon. Our next target Kagal beach. To reach that place the only way out is a motor boat. You have to cross the sea. And that was the basis of its appeal. Riding the motor boat was a unique experience. The sea was a little violent almost throwing the motor boat into the air. But somehow we reached our target of the day. Kagal beach. 7 Kms long crescent shaped beach form one end to the other. We started walking again. We walked. Clicked some weird snaps. Almost looking like some kind of wallpapers from some websites. Vishnu was busy testing his photography skills. Sepia tone! Grey scale. Phew! He calls it creative photography. Ask him about it. And finally when we’d reached almost some where middle of the beach, the sun was just about to set. So no more walking. We stopped there. Had our dinner; A bit early though. All 3 of them went for a skinny dip. I didn’t. In fact the entire day I didn’t go into the sea. Got no idea about swimming. But it had to come. I had to go in at some point of time. We had whiskey there, except for Sarangi who is a tetotaller. Talked about the whole day trek. And that night is the most memorable night of my life. We slept on the sea beach. Pure sand from the beach beneath us. On one hand forest and hills. And on the other the Arabian sea. I couldn’t get much sleep. But thats the best night ever. Next day morning we took off for a village nearby from where we’d get bus. So two more hills. One tough, the other not that tough. Found a dead dolphin towards the end of Kagal beach. Clicked snaps of it like maniacs. Had our breakfast on top of the last hill. The village was visible from there. Now the was for bath again. This time I didn’t wanna miss it. I went in, not much inside, but I had a good bath. Still not sure what was the name of that village, neither the sea beach there! Got a bus from there to another village (A bit advanced one with a proper bus stop), named Kumta. What a name. But anyway, what’s in a name? Had South Indian meals there and boarded a bus to Simoga. Another place. Reached Simoga somewhere around 8.30 PM. Again had south Indian meals for dinner. Boarded a govt bus to Bangalore, which eventually got a flat tire at a ghostly hour of 1 AM in the morning. But fortunately found another bus on the road to Bangalore and reached Bangalore at 4.30 in the Morning. And just for the sake of a little bit more adventure took a BMTC town bus to BTM Layout. Huh. Finally home! Tired. Soar muscles. Got only 3 hrs of sleep and it was time for office again.
Two months. More than 2000 Kms of travel. Many means of travel. Many good experiences. But already a bloated post. So don’t want to add to its size. Besides I’ve got some plans for this weekend. Thats for the next post.
Check out some snaps here.
