Wayanad - Oct 2008

10 women set out to explore the wilderness of Wayanad. Even though the age group of the women varied from twenties to seventies, all of us were giggling like little school girls with the excitement soaring! We played the quintessential “antakshari”, dumb charades (with movie names like “Murde ki jaan khatre mein hai”!), and danced to “Beedi jalaile” on our drive.

There were deer in the hundreds and our cameras clicked away, taking in all the beauty of the Indian forests.

We stayed at a quaint little homestay just at the edge of Wayanad sanctuary. We loved the rooms and the hospitality. And the food was yummy! In the afternoon, we hired jeeps for the jungle safari. All cameras were rolling, ready to shoot, but unfortunately, the animals all eluded us L. We only got to see deer and more deer and then some more deer.

All the “bevdaas” drowned the sorrow (of not sighting the bigger animals) in beer. Meera had made sure that the booze kept flowing! The night was chilly and the nice and warm campfire was purrfect for some music and dance.

On the return, we stopped by at Dubbare elephant camp. And I being the adventurous, suggested we cross the river on foot instead of taking the boat. Sophia, Leah and Neelam also joined me and we had a whale of a time! We tied the shoes around our neck and started on our trek. The river bed was slippery and we held each others hand, but in the process tripped on each others toes too! I was in charge of helping Neelam the heavy one – now she fell down and took me with her! One by one, all of us had a dip in the Cauvery and cleansed away our sins! We also got some hunks to help us cross the “difficult” stretches of the river! The girls who did not join us were green with envy!

Our last stop was at the golden temple in Bylakuppe. We saw several monks chanting away and wondered which monk here sold his Ferrari J The atmosphere inside the temple was serene and peaceful. The smell of incense was diffused everywhere. The walls were painted with Buddhist motifs in bright hues and the huge statues in gold gave a royal feel to the place.

We couldn’t be in a Tibetan place and NOT have momos and thukpa. Having satiated our hunger, we did an about turn to return to 'Namma Bengaluru'. A fun trip that was!