The much Awaited marriage of Geetha and saravanan was planned to held at Salem ( Saravanan's Native Place ) on 1st of November 2009. Myself and my friends decided to attend the marriage and also planned to visit places in and around salem. On Surfing the internet i came to know that Yercaud, Kolli Hills and hogenakkal is in the reaching distance of Salem.
So after a long discussion with others we finally concluded to skip Kolli hills due to time constraint and decided to visit Yercaud and Hogenakkal since the former is the third largest hillstation in Tamil nadu and the later is somtimes called as Niagara of India.
We (Lokesh, Senthil, Lakshmi, Arun Gopi, Vijayendran, Satheesh, Tamilarasan, Pandi, Aravind, Bharani and myself) planned to start our trip from Egmore Station in chennai on friday the 30th October 2009 at 11.30 P.M via Salem Express along with bride Geetha and her family. Thanks to Geetha and saravanan who booked the ticket for us proactively which helped us to keep less tension at the end, otherwise we would have kept our fingers crossed for a Takkal ticket which will often gets filled up in an hour of opening.
30/Oct/2009 :
In the evening, Myself, Senthil and Vijayendran reached the Egmore Station by an Auto rickshaw at around 9.00 P.M. After having a small Dinner at Vasanta Bhavan which is outside the station, we entered the station and reached platform No 7 where we joined with the other two guys Lokesh and Satheesh. Later Around 11.00 P.M Lakshmi with her Husband Arun Gopi reached the station with the marriage gift and joined us.
Asusual myself, lokesh and Senthil had a look at the reservation chart and checked for any possibility of a good company inside the train which remembered me the songs of Ninjukkul Paeididum Vaan mazhai ( Vaaranam Aairam ) and Maanasa Sanchararae... ( Anniyan ). Hurray... I found a girl's ( Age 23 ) name in the chart which is next to me and mustafa ( Who canceled his trip at the last moment) i decided to settle myself in my place which is a VIP Seat for 3 of us.
At Around 11.15 P.M we all met Kalyana Ponnu Geetha and her parents with whom we are going to travel. She Introduce us to her Relative who was organising the entire trip. At around 11.25 the other guys Tamil, Pandi,Aravind and Bharani joined us in the journey.
Exactly at 11.30 P.M the Salem Express Departed itself from Egmore station to Salem.we had some Photo Session inside the train and we 3 of us was waiting for that passenger of that VIP Seat.. There comes a Bigger Shock To me ... Yes, It was a 23 year Old girl but only on the records.Actually She was Married and look like 35 years in her appearance who came along with her Husband. I was shocked so as the other and i hummed the "Maanasa Sanchararae song" in a sad note.
After this fun filled scenes that took place for around 30 minutes which was an ideal start of the journey. Arun, Lokesh and Lakshmi went to their Berths and Myself, Senthil, Vijay and Satheesh were chatting till early morning 2.30 sharing some of the memories which happened in the college and in the office and also playing mobile games via bluetooth. After that we too decided to have a nap keeping in mind that we need some energy to spend the next day.
31/Oct/2009 :
We reached Salem Junction at 5.30 A.M in the morning. Saravanan the hero of the event ( Mappillai) has arranged a car to reach the marriage hall. On reaching the marriage hall we were warmly welcomed by saravanan and his family. rooms were arranged for us to relax and prepare ourselves for the day's plan to visit Yercaud.
A Special mention has to be made for Jagadeesan my college mate who was with us throughout our stay in salem.
We had arranged a 15 seater mini bus for our visit to yercaud and Hogenakkal. The Bus arrived at around 8.45 a.m and we departed from marriage hall at around 9.00 A.M.to yercaud. Mr.Sasikumar who is the owner of the bus accompanied us both as the driver as well as guide. The mini bus had a T.V with DVD Player which kept us entertaining...
We reached yeacaud by passing through 20+ HairPin Bends and the sightseeing during the travel to yercaud was awesome and astonishing. The Driver explained us about various plants like coffee, pepper etc. which we saw on the way.
To begin with we went to Shervaroyan Temple which was on the top of shervaroyan Hills at about 5326 feet above sea level. It was a small temple which is inside a cave like architecture where we have to lean ourselves to see the god. After the dharshan and refreshment of masala tea and Varieties of Bajjis in a nearby shop we pushed ourselves to Pagoda Point.
Pagoda point is an excellent sightseeing place where we can view the entire salem city from the top. it is a must to see place in yercaud. but beware of monkeys which will hurt you if you are not careful. Next to pagoda point The driver took us to a house cum shop where they sell natural oil and perfumes which was home made. The person explained us about various plants and how they are manufacturing the oil and perfumes. It seems that Even Actor Ajith Had visited the place once to purchase some oils. The person was smart enough to market his product and made us to buy the oil for Rs. 250 which doesnt worth that much.
After the tiny shopping, we went to Ladies Seat,Gents Seat and children seat. These places are so called Suicide Points in Yercaud. We also went to the garden nearby which is good enough to treak. During our timespend at the garden it started raining.So we all ran to find a shelter in order to save ourselves from rain but all our effort were in vain. So while we reach our bus everyone were drenched.Later we marched towards a hotel to satisfy our hunger. The driver took us to a hotel where we had a small quarrel with the bearer. After the lunch we tried to visit Monford School but at that time the visitors are not allowed. since it was getting late and darker we decided to go to the Yercaud Lake.
The Yercaud Lake is a must visit place where you can spend some memorable time by taking a ride in the lake. We took a Rower and a boat and spend nearly 15 min in the lake. Since it was around 4.30 in the evening, it started getting darker and also the mist started clouding the path of the lake. It also had a Zoological Park which is next to the lake where we spend nearly 10 min to roam around and started moving towards salem to attend the Reception.
After that awesome visit to yercaud throughout the day we reached the marriage hall around 6.30 P.M. A Seperate lodge were arranged for the night stay. hence we vacated the temporary room in the marriage hall and shifted ourselves to the lodge. The lodge was big and good enough to spend the night. After a tiny refreshment we went for the reception.The Reception was arranged well in a big Marriage hall were many people gathered for the occasion. After spending some time there and presenting the gift to the couples we had our Reception dinner and moved ourselves to the room as we were all very tired due to the day long trip.
------ Day 2 Of the Trip to be continued
