My Travel Backpack Photo Contest: You And Your Backpack, Somewhere Cool On The Planet
Been somewhere interesting with your trusty backpack?
Sure you have, but did you stop to take a photo of you, your backpack, and the interesting somewhere?
Yes? Then head on over to a new site called My Travel Backpack and enter the mytravelbackpack.com Photo Contest.
The prize: 3 books from Europe From a Backpack.
If, however, you haven’t got any snaps of “You and your backpack somewhere cool on the planet!â€?, you can always make yourself insanely jealous by browsing through the photos of those cooler and more fortunate than we.
Useful resources for backpackers:
Cheap Hostels – find and book cheap hostels all over the planet
eBags – get your own backpack and start finding cool places for narcissistic photo opportunities
Posted in Backpackers Bookmarks, Competitions & Giveaways, General Travel, Travel Community, Travel Gear
February 23, 2007 at 6:02 am
Thanks Pia for the article! ; )
Mathieu
http://www.radaron.com
http://www.mytravelbackpack.com
March 9, 2007 at 10:44 pm
We had heard lot about Wayanad, an unexplored place in south Kerala india and thought of spending time there. We planned our trip 10 days in advance to understand the places and culture of Kerala and Wayanad in particular. I and Nick packed our bags on February 15th 2007, all set to start our journey to gods own country. Nick had got me a canon digital camera with zoom in facility, we will be using this to capture the wild life and birds and all the unexpected and interesting things in the coming days.
We started from Bangalore around 9 am in our car. Wayanad is around 260 Km from Bangalore and is around 4 hours and 30 minutes drive. The roads were all magnificent till Wayanad, baring some patches here and there. On the way we crossed Mysore and we took a break around 12 noon at Gundlupet. I was a bit annoyed hearing the accommodation rates in and around Wayanad initially and had sent a mail to all my friends asking their thought about hotels and homestays in Wayanad. Generally it costs around 2000 Rs for a day there. Like most I too don’t like to spend so much on accommodation, when I am only spending the night in hotel. On the way when I was checking my mails using my laptop, I got a mail from my friend Annie saying that her friend has a second home in Wayanad and she can arrange that house on rent for 10 days and the cost was also nominal, through her I came to know that a company called HolidayHangouts.com are selling second homes in Wayanad and Annie’s friend had purchased a home from them and is now renting it for cheap. This mail made my day and set my mood for the rest of the journey.
Our journey started getting lively once we crossed Mysore, after Gundalpet the Bandipur forest starts, passing through the forest and we saw some wild animals like elephant and deer’s. A gang of elephants where crossing the road, I was so overwhelmed and frightened with the view that I could not even capture it.
We stopped at Joice restaurant for lunch and after a break we started back again. After gundalpet forest we entered Kerala forest sulthan batherry. Wayand was 1 hour from Gundlupet. Around 1 pm we crossed Kerala border and entered wayanad.
The HolidayHangouts home, the place where we had to stay was puzhamoola near Kalpetta on Ooty road and is around 8 km from chundale. The home stood magnificently overlooking Chembra peak, the highest peak in Wayanad.
The place was simply mesmerizing surrounded by tea gardens and road was good till the layout. The house was nice with 2 bedrooms and all the amenities including play area etc. huh I was satisfied. Journey was a little tiring and we decided to take some rest for the rest of the day in this lovely house and start site seeing from next day.
February 16th sharp 9 Am myself and nick where ready to hit our first tourist spot at Soochippara waterfalls. Soochipara is located in a small town named meppaddi. We reached there around 10 Am amidst tea gardens and mountains. We were accompanied by a guide and he told us how the name soochipara was derived on the way to our destination. In Malayalam soochi means needle and Para means mountain so a needle like mountain that’s what it referred to. But the edge of the needle was partially damaged by a thunder and lightning some years back. But the shape was intact and do reminded me of needle rock. I sat back on one of the rocks and was refreshing myself with some biscuits and wafers which I was carrying with me in my bag, thank god I had something to eat with me. Nick was busy getting ready to enjoy the waterfalls. The view of falls was amazing; water was falling from the height of 100 ft to 300 ft and flowing into Chaliyar River. I had a great time relaxing in the pool of waterfalls for around two hours. After that we went to a nearby hotel to have food, we had Kerala meals which tasted yummy. By the time we finished with soochipara and luncheon it was 1 pm. Then we hired a cab and started towards chembra peak. I had found in the net that chembra peak is the highest peak in Wayanad. This highest peak is also situated in meppady. Nicky and myself where very much excited because this place is best for trekking and mountaineering and we love it. We reached chembra peak by 2. Climate was peaceful it was little humid but as we started trekking towards the peak it was getting cooler and cooler. After trekking for a kilometer there was a small tower to rest and thank god it had bathrooms � we took a small break in the tower and started trekking again and finally we reached the peak and found the heart shaped lake which the folklore says was built by a foreigner. The place was simply mind boggling and the top view of Wayanad was simply awesome. We stayed there till the sun set and then start walking down. This place is most memorable in the whole of my trip to Wayanad. HolidayHangouts had arranged a campfire when we came back home. We enjoyed the fire over looking Chembra peak we just conquered. We were completely exhausted tired and went off to sleep in a jiffy.
Next day plan was to go to pakshipathalam
Pakshipathalam is home for a wide variety of birds. We had to take special permission from forest department to enter the groove of birds. We traveled around 17 kms in the dense forest and reached Pakshipathalam. Jeep is the best mode of transport which can be hired from there itself. We saw exotic birds in dense forest. The place was quite and little scary because hardly there was any other human apart from me, Nick and the guide. I and nick had a great time exploring different kind of birds and capturing them in our cam. Whole day went off with birds on this isolated island.
Third day in wayanad we went to Thusaragiri Waterfalls. This place is out of wayanad district. We reached thusharagiri around 10 a.m. by jeep. This place welcomes you with a refreshment area and a small hut hotel. Me and nick had tea over there and started trekking in the company of a guide. The place was full steep and muddy. We could hear the roar of water falls on the way. The place was cool in temperature. Guide said that this place had three waterfalls and going to top most waterfalls needed good experience in trekking as the way to the topmost falls was very slippery and steep because previous night there was a mild rainfall, which made the place more slippery. We reached first waterfall which was small and we washed our faces from there and started walking towards the second one. On the way I was filling my stomach with biscuits and Nicky was busy capturing the lovely sceneries surrounding us. Finally after trekking for 2 kms we reached second waterfalls. The scene was amazing the water was falling from 100 to 200 feet heights and the view of land and water was lovely. I took few pics of the falls and we started in no time trekking for the third one. The way looked scary. We took a stick in hands to clear our way and for a support. On the way I heard different sounds of insect murmuring in the forest. Me and nick where praising the beauty of the place and I just missed a step and fell down in the slippery area. That was a good hit on my butt by nature heheh. We took five minutes break relaxed and then again started and finally after lots of slippery trekking, we reached the falls. Wow it was so cool. We were on a high and when looked down from there, were wondering how I reached climbing so far but all was worth at last. We spent the whole noon on top of the waterfalls enjoying the beauty. Lunch was cooked and packed by HolidayHangouts people and we had carried it with us and had a whale of a time there. By 4pm we started coming down the falls and on the way back we had a great time swimming and relaxing in lovely water pools. The whole day went off in Thusharagiri, which is one of the best waterfalls in wayanand.
Back home around 6 we were just roaming around the house and we found that it was like a colony and the houses were built and sold or rented by holiday hangouts. I started realizing why buying a piece of land in Wayanad or a home in Wayanad makes sense both spiritually and financially. I started thinking about the idea of buying a house and renting it out, while I am not using it. Most of the families used these houses as their second home for weekends. Me and nick found this interesting and we just thought it would be nice investment if we also buy a house and use as second home or rent as Annie’s friend did, because wayanad was a place you could come again and again and it never becomes old. It’s as fresh as first time, every time you visit.
Next was historical journey to Edakkal caves. This place was around 45 kms from where we stayed. We reached there by 10.am. We got into a local bus and got down at edakkal and after trekking for 1 km we reached caves. There were also jeeps which you could hire for 3 min uphill climb but me and nick preferred trekking on feet because that would make our journey more adventurous. It was mesmerizing view. Guide said that the cave was formed by large crack in the huge rock. We entered the cave and food items were not allowed inside the cave so I kept everything out. The cave has three chambers. The writings and carvings on the cave was amazing, I ve never seen such a carving in my life. I figured out the drawings on the caves had knifes, sword, stones etc which was all historical. I and nick had a great time we clicked lots of pictures of this historical cave. Trip to wayanad was become more fascinating and more memorable day by day
5th day we started our day with a visit of chain tree. I was very much excited about this tree. I had heard that a spirit of adivasi was harassing the passer by travelers and the priest had captured him under the long chain on this old fig tree. The story was like a British engineer was accompanied by a tribal adivasi to conquer the hills and find the way to waynad. This British engineer killed him to take all the credit of the discovery and buried his body under a fig tree. And after that his soul was wandering and harassing the passer by travelers. As we reached chain tree I was not very much happy I was expecting something more but it was just a huge tree bounded by chain that’s it. Bit disappointment �.
Then we went to Pookot Lake. This place is a paradise on earth. I was so happy to see the lovely lake in the lap of mountains and valleys. We took a ticket to enter and had to pay 50 rupees for the camera. The place welcomes with a children park and traditional handicraft shop. I had a good time shopping there and bought many spices and lots of handicraft like bamboo pens, ship, spoons etc. Then we moved towards the lake. The view was amazing; it looked as if the lake relaxed in the lap of mountains. Nick had gone to get the tickets for boating, we opted for rowing boat because the fall from thusharagiri was still painful and I dint want to do peddling. We still had to wait 10 minutes for our turn to enjoy boating. So we went to coffee shop which looked very traditional and had coffee from there and then went for boating. The guide said that the shape of the lake is like the map of India, which was very surprising. The lotus in the lake looked as if they were welcoming us. This place is awesome I had a great time enjoying the beauty the nature and I saw a snake coming towards our boat I roared in fear, the guide said snake is water snake it’s harmless and non venomous. But whatever it was a snake and snakes scares me to the core. Couple of hours of boating in this beautiful lake was serene.
After boating there is aquarium which has a variety of fishes including star fish and tortoise. And then we took a long walk of almost 4 km around the lake. The sounds of insects and birds were murmuring and the place became more beautiful when rain started drizzling and then by 5 we left Pookot Lake and went back to Holidayhangouts.com villas and relaxed till the next day.
On sixth day our plan was for Kuruvadweep. I was not in my full strength today was feeling health wise bit low. Anyways I took a saridon and started for kuruvadweep. This place was around 25 kms from where we stayed. We took a local bus to mysore and got down at karthikulam and from there saw a deviation and then hired a jeep to reach kuruvadweep which was around 5 kms from the deviation. By 11 we reached kuruwadweep. Dweep refers to island in Malayalam and kuruvadweep is group of three islands. It looked very adventurous. Our guide told us that this place had three islands and it’s a stretch of 950 acres land bounded with Kabini River. This place looked ideal for picnic spot and so myself and nick decided to spend the whole day there. We started from First Island. I saw lots of wild birds, rare orchids and vegetation. Then we came across the river and took a boat to cross the river and came on the next island. This island had two small water lakes. We were exploring the island walking on feet and the beauty of the island vanished my headache. � The silence of the island was broken by murmuring of birds. The whole of kurvadweep had a unique eco system. Time was going fast and it was 4.45 pm and the island was accessible only from 9.am to 5. Pm so it was time to leave. Back to home. This holiday hangout villas was great relief it made as feel at home only and took away all the tiredness.
Next morning we started little late as nick was enjoying his holiday by sleeping so we started around 11 for meenmutty waterfalls and around 12.30 we reached meenmutty. According to my research these waterfalls are the second largest waterfalls in kerala. We got down at ooty kalpetta road and started trekking and on the way saw many adivasi tribal women carrying woods and captured few pics with them. The road side was nourished with tea plantations and tribal people picking tea leaves made the view more beautiful I felt as if am in heaven. Trekking into the dense of forest has always been a adventure. And by the time we reached edge of the forest hearing the roar of waterfalls it was a great adventure. The water was falling from 300 meters height and the view was amazing the water falling on the rocks and splashing on us. We had packed food from a small hotel and me and nick were hogging from meenmutty after lunch we relaxed on rocks and went into the pool. Around 3 hours we were relaxing in the pool. And when we came out we saw a strange thing on our legs sucking our blood. Guide said it was blood sucking animal leech. It looked scary but nick had good time capturing the scary animal pic. We thought to campaign there over night in a camp provided by kerala tourist department.
Next day went back to villa and freshened up and we saw gang of children’s playing basket ball in the play ground. I and nick are mad about basket ball so we decided to stay back and had a great time playing basket ball and in the evening there was small party organized by holidayhangouts and wayanad weekend homes so the day went off like that in playing eating and dancing.
Now just 1 day was remaining in the beautiful valley of wayand I was feeling sad to go back in the polluted city back home leaving the beautiful villa. we had to start back journey in the night. Well I convinced nick to take me once again to chembra peak because that was the place I loved in wayanad the view from the peak amazed me. So last day we went back to chembra peak and splendid the day in arms of tea plantation and hills till the sun set down.
And then came back at home packed my bags and started back to Bangalore and nick were very much satisfied with the holiday. It was a great break from busy schedule and the stay at wayanad weekend villas made our holiday more memorable. One should visit wayanad at least once. Reached back home and thanked Annie for recommending holiday home.