“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments and places that take our breath away”
Keerthana M S pens down unforgettable moments of her trip towards and at Kodaikanal.
“Do you even realize your exams are on right now?”, everyone who knew that I was on a trip to Kodaikanal said, rather out of evil-eyed jealousy. Certainly, an explorer doesn’t need excuses to travel. Well, stepping into 10th grade makes me explore only the theorems of mathematics is the sad truth right now, so forgetting that for sometime until I pen this down gives me immense pleasure, supreme bliss and a goddamn glee on my face.
Anything that makes you smile is always memorable. Kodai, is that in my case. Climbing the hill all the way from Coimbatore was literally thrilling and magical. Where did all these greenery go away in the cities? Right, all decayed and eternal for the buildings with a never usable helipad we built.
Stopping by with delicious food and some cooling down for the turbo of our Nexon, we reached our destination by 6 hours or so. As the Silver Falls came on our way, we stood by for some breeze and selfies. The place we stayed was named The Kodai International. This property was another sightsee for our vision. For the place’s
climate sending chills down our spines being 12 degree celsius, the campfire of the resort caught my attention. The complimentary breakfast and tea concept and setting makes me wish I had my home right there. There were bunnies to feed carrots, a rocket photo booth, a lawn for kids to play, a tower to see the whole property and their falls as well.
Many kids and couples photo booths with flowers in the sides were also found. The Coakers Walk was our first outing spot. Since the COVID-19 Pandemic made me severely idle, as soon as I spelled walk, I was like “Mummmmyyyyyy nooooo!!!”. With great difficulty and a vast amount of advice I was made to walk upto some extreme wherein my parents’ “I’m getting old” dialogue peeped in and we returned. But I swear, that heavenly beauty of what explains the creativity of God, was written in each millimetre of all that I witnessed.
And yes, when it comes to tourism there’s no way one’s strapped for shopping. Wherein my turn I observed that each business I found was only out of self hard work. We purchased handloom jewelry from there and returned. Deciding to have lunch at our resort, I enjoyed my Egg Chowmein very well.
The night was spent in our double bedroom suite fighting for a single heater because the reception refused for another since it’ll burn the circuit. A half slept night started on a morning towards a row boating in the Lake. It was a natural one out of a spring which gave drinking water to the town of Palani and therefore had no motor boats allowed. It was around 6 or 7 kms long and our boatman was one among the friendliest strangers I’ve ever met who explained all these with no
reluctance. Soon after finishing our ride rather before the given time and taking the refund, we left towards Bryant Park. I felt so useless of my presence right there and so I had my seat into a selfie spot. While me and my mother had our own clicks of various poses,my father and sister did their rituals of walking around the place with lines of description in astonishment.
A little while ago, my father burnt all six senses of mine by having a trip to Kodai with his friends by himself, out of which he found me a ‘your-kinda-tastebuds’ cafe from one of his friends not namingly that, it was called “The Cloud Street” in the Sunday Market Road, opp to the tourist office. We had potato corn cheese balls and chili cheese pizza, for that fabulous it was which made me mention it right here as well after flexing to at least fourteen friends of mine.
Another very excelling place for a chill out evening at Kodai is the ‘Daily Bread Pastry Corner’ located at the Bazaar Rd. The fresh butter they make from which their dishes are made describes how people rush near their entry as if flies smelt them out. Chocolate and Butterscotch Pastries are highly recommended from my side.
In a family of foodies, me and my mother have the same taste in entertainment and food as well(even though she loves to have homely food), whereas my father is a great foodie but a homie. He chose to have lunch at ‘Aromas of Kodai’ (not in Cloud with us). After a good quota of food, we left towards the ‘Indian Institute of Astrophysics’ aka Solar Observatory of Kodaikanal. Learning a lot of never known things about the Solar System I also saw the large dome from where the findings of the Sun is observed and got an opportunity
to view a public vision solar image captured in a telescope. Parallel to that was the Rose Garden again for my sister and father, so my mother and I sat on top of the whole landmass to speak about totally irrelevant topics of ours with some random people in the selfie spot (hut) (LoL ;p). The next day was again meant for some pedal boating, with two badly afraid people, my mother and sister.
We tried shooting some balloons alongside the lake, and it continued for four or five rounds, alternating turns of my sister and mine. Around the lake were a lot of shops and we chose one to buy a lot of accessories. After two hours of shopping, my only close to heart thing was a customized keychain, saying ‘Kodaikanal’ and ‘Keerthana M S’ on its sides.
One of the funniest parts of that time was seeing my parents worry for the parents of people who did tattoos on their bodies, like SERIOUSLY?;P. Street food culture of Kodaikanal is one of the most important topics to speak about. The main business running throughout the place is tourism, food and street vendors. Bread Omelette and Maggie filled our tummies for the days we stayed there.
We also bought some Chilli Fritters, Masala Puffed Rice, Yippee and Potato Twisters alongside. Each vendor has a secret masala and taste in their foods. Well, swear a thank you to God and the one Swiss guy who gave Maggie its kick, the chill and me gobbling it on the busy street sides- that feeling is so soothing!!! The Kurinji Andavar Temple of Kodaikanal is one of the most well known worship places of Tamilnadu. It portrays the idol of Lord Murugan. I also bought my sunglasses outside the temple, as costly as it could be and
without it the sun was burning our eyes, was how we trolled its price, it cost a 100 INR, for anything that I picked. Besides doing some mini vlogs and short videos, I also realized I have to improve my video recording skills :/. We had our dinner for that day at ‘Hotel Astoria Veg’.
Pretty decent food and a spine chilling Hot Chocolate, or rather a spine heating one, coz it was freeeeeeeezzzzinnnnggg!. We took some chocolates, banana cake and a piece of butterscotch pastry from Meltiez, which again describes the Madrasi feeling of taking sweet confectionery from hill stations. Being a psychopath of judging momos from every stall possible, the best authentic one I’ve ever had, a delicacy it was, momos from the Royal Tibet(J S Heritage Complex, 1st floor), Poet Tyagaraja Road of Kodaikanal. It was made of transparent sheets of maida and a yummy stuffing alongside some upper lip-burning chutney.
The dialogues that we gave in the first day morning were like “What!? This is it? Ooty is colder, duh!” Went “Ughhh! I want the heaterrrr!” At night. It’s far better if one takes a two coated sweater or hoodie, whatever season it might be. Our return towards Coimbatore was in a completely different route. The Google maps led us out of the city and connected us towards the town of Palani through the Western Ghats.
Yes! You heard me right! THE WESTERN GHATS! The roads of each range made us travel in them for a couple of hours. Seeing myself on such a high and thin road was scary as hell, but the beauty made each cell of my body yell out of excitement. It isn’t that exaggerating but traveling on such thin roads in great height with distracting beauty was a new experience and is
unforgettable for a young South Indian born who has grown seeing these ranges from far away as well as in geography textbooks.
Having my feelings as a ride through of this memorable trip gives me a lot of happiness as it is a part of flipping back some beautiful pages of my life.
By: Keerthana M S
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