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Back from a short break (or on second thoughts - long break, as we rarely have 5 continuous days off). It was one of the most unplanned and unexpectedly hectic breaks ever, I guess. I did not know what I'd be doing till I did what I did...oops. Okay. Despite the weather and the bad health, we decided to venture into the hills. All because I wanted to not let the holidays slip by. It's one thing to enjoy the holidays you get and another to steal it from office. The second might sound very tempting and satisfying, but the work that awaits one when one takes such a holiday can be enormous as the rest of the office is at work.

Anyways, we went off to Thekkady and Munnar for nothing more than 2 days. Thekkady and Munnar undoubtedly deserve a minimum of 5 times the time that I got to spend there. But things don't happen the way you want them to. The trip to Thekkady went off without any major incidents except some of the amazing views that I had at the window. As the bus whizzed past Bangalore and into Hosur, I saw some awesome Diwali fireworks through the (surprisingly) clean glass window. It was almost like I was being welcomed into Tamil Nadu with the works. 4 AM and we were nearing the guest house where we were to camp. The bus left us looking into an unnervingly silent and pitch-black road. Luckily for us, the night-watchman was awake and alert and guided us to the guest-house. We slept for a while and were up by 7 AM to drive to Thekkady. (The breakfast was quite heavy at my Dad's friend's place; Idly, Dosa, Sambaar, Chutney, Milk Sweets, Vada and Coffee. Though I appreciated their hospitality, I began to wonder why they even imagined we could eat so much! :) )

We were in Thekkady by 11.15 AM. And it started drizzling a little. While I ran around trying to drink the nature in, I kept hoping that it wouldn't rain heavily. Dad bought the boating tickets for 2 PM and we went off to have a not-so-interesting lunch in what seemed to be but was obviously not a good hotel. Anyways, that didn't seem to matter so much. After the quick lunch, we drove back to the central tourist spot and lined up for the boat ride. The boat ride summed up Thekkady. It was a phenomenal ride! I simply loved the view....sailing on crystal clear water, with forests all around, deers grazing in some spots, huge and bare but cut tree trunks jutting out of the water, birds settling down cosily in the nests that they had made for themselves on the tree trunks, cool breeze caressing the face and comfortably chill weather! It was a nice long ride that lasted about a hour and a half. The only disappointment was the scarcity of animal-friends. We managed to catch 2 huge elephants almost at the end of the ride and another lone and sober baby elephant just a few minutes before landing. (Thank God for at least those). The ride was like a dream. A treat of magnificent proportions for nature-lovers. I recommend it strongly. I would have loved to try out the guided tour to see the birdies had I had the time...!

I'll stop here and come back when I have more time to explain the rest of the trip...including the one to the paradise called Munnar.. :)