The Fluid Trip -Wayanad, Kerala (4-5 sept’16)

(Disclaimer: This post doesn’t aim to provide you with an itinerary of Wayanad. This is vis-à-vis the flexibility of the trip and philosophical thoughts I jotted down sitting in a field of coconut trees)

I have always been partial to the idea of trekking, hiking, doing adventure sports or exploring while I am on a trip but because of a recent leg injury and laziness hanging on my shoulders, I decided to go for a ‘do-nothing’ road trip to Wayanad. Travelling, especially road trips with a minimal plan, zero expectations and lots of beautiful songs and melodies sound like a solution to the task-based existence of our lives. Because how can you expect your creative side, your carefree attitude, your crazy ideas to exist when there are deadlines, project dates, and appraisal worries breathing down your neck? 

Customarily we go on trips with our ‘seeker’ mode turned on. We are frequently peeking out of the window to spot deer, elephant or bison while we pass through the wildlife sanctuary, gazing out for best views, or building an appetite for every famous eating place. This time I didn’t make a plan for cultural entanglement, adventure activities, mind-expanding experiences or any other distractions. I didn’t divide the ‘Things to do in Wayanad’ page into two sections (it would have been one for each day). I lulled my mind to not research for places to eat or must visit pit stops on the way to Wayanad. That way I didn’t commit to one possibility and thus didn’t collapse all the other possibilities that I never even knew about. 

So many communications, sights and smells will compete for your attention but you can be effortless and let things happen naturally rather than going after them. Leave behind the state of mind that desires anything. 

Don’t be under pressure to answer questions (pertaining to the spots you visited, places you ate at or the number of pictures you clicked) herald at you when you show up in the office next day. People would play ‘i-pity-for-you’ or ‘oh-your-trip-was-waste’ games with your mind and you can shut up, smile and roll your eyes that silently tell -*bwah*. You don’t have to respond to the pressure of shouting out ‘been there and done that’ statement.

Me and my friends, we rode through lanes without much direction, walked as far as we could into the forest, stopped at random tea shops near marigold fields, laughed, and banned words like ‘too late, too early, come on fast, checklist’ for the duration of this trip.

My notable memory was from when I sat in the front seat of the car. I pulled the window down, let my hair loose, put my chin up, inhaled deeply and exhaled while I closed my eyes and let the cool breeze pass through my hair.

It was a road trip which made me say ‘I am alive and I shall be sane’, 

Our homestay in Wayanad

Picturesque! 

Wandering through the woods

On the way!

To The Doubtful Dreamers

We all have dreams. We decide their beginning; we decide their ending – better or worse. But why is it that whatever happens in between is left on situations, other people or the world to decide. Why can we not stop questioning our confidence to materialize our ideas or pursue our passion and start questioning what we can do or change to be closer to achieving our dreams?

We get so busy in our lives- struggling, meeting people’s expectations, drinking gallons of coffee on weekdays and pints of beer on weekends that we fail to realize that having a mind that can incubate an idea is something we need to pay attention to. Our mind has something that makes our body language positive, our voice sounds confident and our visions more clear.

You are going to fail but not expire, burn, or melt or die. You may have little or no money on some days but keep showing up. You will fail, learn, apologize, improvise, be up at 2 am in the night, not come home for 3 and half days, try to squeeze things into your calendar but you will not die. Nothing will kill you except the death of your dreams. Chase your dreams until you get so engrossed that one day while going out you have two different shoes in your feet, your t-shirt has a hole near the collar or the hair in your armpit is about to develop into an ecosystem in itself that you don’t care and it all seems superficial. Be that kind of crazy about it.

There is a war raging inside you, and its demons won't be silenced until you tackle the fact that you are addicted to converting draft to manuscript, design into development and practice to performance. To run away from this war, many times we drown ourselves in addictions or escapism but dreams don't have a half-life, they always stay young and make our eyes illuminate when we talk about them. Do not give a placebo to your dreams. Don't ask them to shut up and get lost because you are happy and ‘feel’ stable with your beautiful house, a job that helps you pay EMI, and expensive shoes that you could afford last week. This lifestyle might be transient but your ideas are not.



Strike a balance. Take the family in confidence and show them how your eyes shine a little brighter when you talk about your dream. Have a plan B for bad weather days. Whenever you have moments of clarity, write them down, record them and read or listen when you feel doubtful. Well, there are a lot of bullet points out there to help you manage better but one golden rule that I like to stick to is- break down the elephant. Break down things into parts which are comprehensible in one glance. Break down the tasks, the routine, the plan, and the finances and anything that bothers you. No more dealing with the elephants. It is easier dealing with cats and dogs (smaller tasks). Oh, analogy got a little bit too far here... No apologies but, I am just following my dream where I see myself writing what I like.

Getting back to the point, you might have to take a little rain check from the normal routine, going to pubs, socializing, sleeping at the right time but would it not pump your heart with happy blood and your brain with peace when you would see your creation getting transformed from intangible thoughts to something tangible.

And last of all; don’t try to climb to people's expectations of you. Don't be confined in the idea of 'nice' that this society has fed us-a ‘nice’ (to be read as big fat) wedding, a ‘nice’ car, a ‘nice’ patio. Nice almost sounds like an assault on your dreams when you alter your plans so that you can acquire these things instead of nurturing your ideas.

Still not convinced? Well, let me disappoint you then -your ideas and dreams were just a momentary high in the timeline of your whole life and now your hangover is over and you are ready to go to the office tomorrow. Yeah, go back to diplomatic mails. Shoo!

I have a philosophy I like to call ‘Fishing in the sixties’ which is something I recall whenever in doubt. I will tell you sometime later about it.

Why haven't you visited Kodaikanal?

Do not answer the rhetorical question in the tile with your homemade joke. The only thing you will get is a big ‘HUH’. Keep calm and read on!

Some of the boring ‘building-the-background’ details of the trip:

I visited Kodaikanal in Nov 2015. I started on Friday night at 10pm from Madiwala, Bangalore and reached Kodaikanal at 7am in the morning. Due to last minute booking plans, I had no option but to book SRS travels but trust me Greenline travels or KPN travels provide better and professional service compared to SRS. Well, no gain cribbing now. So, Kodaikanal is at an elevation of 2133 m from sea level and the journey on the mountain roads from the plains’ roads takes approx. 2 hours. Why I am telling this is because those of you who get nauseated in winding roads will feel like swearing never to come back but take my word for it – all of this is worth! Keep calm… just keep calm!

Almost all the buses reaching Kodai will drop you at a location near the shopping arcade where you can see Dominos and CCD outlets. The area is called Golden Park Inn Complex, Anna Salai, Seven Road Junctions, Kodaikanal. When you get down from the bus and discover the taxi rates to go to your hotel you will start assuming that either they are going to drop you in a limousine with complimentary wine and Beatles playing the background or that you are still light years away from your hotel. Yes, rates are awfully high for tourists. So what I did was call up the hotel desk and asked for directions. It gives me a sense of confidence and satisfaction from the achievement of my own actions when I can walk on the streets and figure out ways myself in a city which I am visiting for the first time.

Let us go to the interesting stories and token moments.

My first token moment happened while getting down from the bus. I saw a small girl of 8-9 years and a boy of 6-7 years carefully collecting their baggage from their seats, wrapping mufflers around their neck and confidently getting down from the bus to wait for their mother to also get down. It was an Irish family. No, I didn’t ask the lady or the kids but accidentally spotted the flag of Ireland keychain on the lady’s bag. The point of amazement is that a single lady was travelling to another country with her small kids! How many Indians ever think of travelling after having kids?! Let alone take kids with them. (No, taking your kids to a resort and spending the weekend there doesn’t count). On this note, writing these letters a lot ahead of time:

Dear mom,

 When I get married and have kids, you cannot expect your grandchildren to come and stay with you the whole time of their summer vacation; they would be travelling with me. J

Dear future husband,

 You can either join us or choose not to interrupt while we ignore you for a few days on our trip to some distant land. *sigh*

Dear dadi of my kids,

 It would make my life a little easier if you could record some bedtime stories for my kids which they can listen to while we are travelling. And, no your grandchildren will not be starved :p

Back to my trip details! After freshening up I headed out for breakfast and voila! Like any normal south Indian city, I found idli-vada-coffee being prepared on the roadside stalls. I had a good breakfast and then headed for a shop that I had spotted while walking from the bus stop to my hotel.

It is a handicrafts shop near to the post office and goes by the name –‘Danish Display’. This is probably one of the few handicraft shops that are run by the owner himself. Otherwise, most of the exotic shops here are owned by people staying abroad but managed by some locally employed person. It has a good collection of wooden items, masks, wooden wind chimes and interesting dream catcher designs.

This made me explore the whole market and I discovered and an Irish linen shop. ( yes, Irish again. This time it was clearly written on the shop). This shop had all the interesting linen I ever dreamed of – cartoon themed, floral-themed, available in all fabric, cheap and lots of variety. I bought an interesting Christmas themed tablecloth for just rs.50!

One advantage of visiting some local shop and buying something from there before you start to explore the city is that you can ask the shop people about how to get around and where to go. So, people at the Danish Display told me about the group tours being organized by Raja Travels and their office was near Dominos outlet. I went there and booked myself a seat for the city tour for rs.300! Later I got to know that you can book the seat from the hotel where you are staying. They have a connection with all the hotels in Kodaikanal.

In a small bus of 15-18 people, we went around watching majestic mountains, tall trees, waterfalls taking their last breaths and some still struggling to survive. Here are some of the pictures:

Remembering Old Pine (Ben Howard)
We stood
Steady as the stars in the woods
So happy-hearted
And the warmth rang true inside these bones
As the old pine fell we sang

Spooky Guna Caves

A waterfall near Pillar rocks

Love for wind chimes

Recent obsession with masks

The weather was cold and I had mushroom soup from a roadside stall and it seemed to evoke all my senses with its aroma of spices and herbs and authentic mushroom taste. Must have when you visit to Kodai!

After the tour was over at around 4pm in the evening, I went to the Kodai Lake and rented a bicycle for rs.20 for half an hour. While cycling around the lake I found another interesting place- ‘Tredis Tea Room’ and thought of coming back after one round of cycling around the lake to have dinner here. The interesting part of cycling around the lake was that there is no traffic in that area as people park their vehicles away from the lake and secondly, the perimeter of the lake is large enough that it takes 20-25 min of cycling at a normal speed. The genuine calmness from the leisure of cycling around the lake was fantastic.

Kodaikanal Lake

Surprisingly, when I returned my bicycle and went on to find Tredis Tea Room, I could not find it where I thought it would be. Every junction on the road around the lake looked similar. Without thinking much, I started looking for a dinner plan- B. While researching I had read somewhere that a café by the name-‘Potluck’ is worth a visit. I had their address so I headed straight up but again got disappointed after knowing that the owner had gone for vacation! Still, determined to have a good dinner, I started walking on the same street as Potluck and found- ‘Aby’s café ’. They have amazing falafel and ginger lemon tea! It’s a small place but filled with enthusiastic people serving fresh food. Some pictures of the place:

Aby's Cafe... praise for the cafe on the sideboard.

Food, doodling, Gulzar poems at Aby's Cafe

*snap snap… I wish I could keep the post short but this trip has so many stories. Yes, day two is still left*

Day two started with the sunrays playing peek-a-boo and teasing me to get up and talk a walk along the Coaker’s walk. I had only heard that it is some kind of a path from you can see the city. I checked out of the hotel, kept my luggage at the counter and headed for Coaker’s walk. When I reached there, I was overwhelmed by the graceful beauty of the city as witnessed from the top. The context of your mind and experiences by being at the right time and place will tickle your inner state and stimulate your soul. You will feel gratitude and get nourishment for your hopes. While travelling through the Swiss countryside Jason Silva once said that our cells are the means of turning experiences into biology. So, put yourself in the right place at the right time. These words made sense at that moment and place.

Coaker's Walk

After the ecstatic impact, I headed for the group tour again. Today, I planned for a forest walk group tour. And here the things got more interesting when I met another solo traveler- Vivien Gift. And as she put it, the day later was dedicated to -Calvin's demand for euphoria, love for seats up front, trying to lose the noisy travellers, a charm that found me magic, shoukeen log, the umpteen topics we spoke about. She inspired me to never lose the urge to travel and to write a blog. And here I am thanking her, and my stars for the amazing trip. We shared jokes, our inhibitions, our life comedies and tragedies. I have never made such a good friend in such a short time.

Some pictures from the forest walk:

White Demators are entering the valley :D

No roads diverge here

Valley and clouds

Solo lotus blooming in Berijam Lake

                                   

After the forest walk, we went on to hunt for Tredis Tea Room. When we found it we were both in the awe of the place for being on the lakeside, well maintained, having open space sitting and good food. The evening and our trip ended there and it was time to catch the bus for both of us! 

Tredis Tea Room

Why should you travel?

Internet, books and people's stories are full of reasons to travel while you can but I will also throw in my two cents on that.

You should travel...

• For token moments. Token moments are something which are expressions of something more than what meets the eyes. For example, I met an old and poor but enthusiastic, positive and cheerful tea shop owner in Kodaikanal which made me smile genuinely after a very long time.
• To realize that world is a big place and you and your ego are insignificant in front of the unending sea, the huge mountains, the majestic structures and a variety of people you do not even know about.
• To make friends from all parts of the world. People you meet on solo trips are the ones who would listen to your stories without being judgmental, without any preconceptions and will sometimes become a keeper of your secrets.
• To Learn how to trust your gut feelings! (So, keep your gut always healthy! )
• Oh! gut reminds me of the varied styles of cooking, cuisines and exotic flavours which you won't get if you don't move your lazy bum from one place to the other.
• Because if you wish to know someone better, take a short trip with them. Maybe a weekend getaway. That will give you a clear idea of how the person would behave when something unexpected happens. You will know if he/she is compromising and patient. What is their perspective to things they have not seen before and how they form an opinion on such a thing. 
• Because surely you were not born just to pay bills and die. 
• And THE most important reason, If the world is ever divided into two kinds of people- one who love the sea, and the other who love the mountains; you would know which side to take rather than just picking the side on the basis of inki-minki-ponki.

Let me know why you love to travel and explore.

Why should you tell me? - Because the count of points listed down is 8 and 8 seems like a confused, lazy number, I want to make the count as 10 and I have run out of reasons. So, I would like you to loan me some ideas.