Kandy to Nuwra Eliya - The ever memorable mountain train journey

We had quite an early start that day (09 Jun 11) since we had to take the scenic train journey from Peredenia Railway Station. We were informed at the reception that there was a connection train from Kandy that departs at 0715 hrs. So we took a rickshaw to the railway station which was a 5 minutes drive from our hotel. Here in Sri Lanka people are very hospitable and always address tourists with a gentle smile. We reached the railway station well in advance, so we thought of roaming around. We gave a visit to the Station master’s office to have a word with him. He was so happy to hear that we were from India and took us around to show old pictures of trains during British times. The ticket counter normally opens only at 0700 hrs, but he took us inside the office and issued ticket straight away and showed us our train. People like him are the real brand ambassadors of Sri Lankan tourism and we have to learn a lot from them even though they are a small nation with an average economy. The station, trains etc. looked like the ones in India, yet they stand much high in terms of cleanliness and punctuality. We were the only passengers in our compartment and the journey was less than 15 minutes to Peredenia Station. On reaching there we saw a large number of tourists (foreign as well as domestic) eagerly waiting for the train from Colombo which goes to Badulla through the mountains, tea plantations, Eucalyptus woods, vegetable fields etc. We had already booked seats in Observatory class , which is a special compartment built out of wood and it has some 40 seats with large glass window which allows us to enjoy the stunning views of the valleys and mountains. The rest of the compartments are like the ones we see in Indian trains with large bench seats facing each other. This train journey can be called the high light of Sri Lanka tour and all credit goes to British engineering, foresight and determination to build something like this 100 years back, that too with limited technological support. The train departed at 0745 Hrs and it is about 5 hrs travel time to reach our destination- Nanu Oya, another hill station near the famous Old British Hill station- Neuwra Eliya. This is one of the best train journeys I have done in my life. So far, my favourite was the journey from Mettuppalayam- Ooty in the state of Tamil Nadu. This is more refreshing as we pass through unexploited, unpolluted pieces of land and rarely can we see housing lanes and rest of it is lush greenery and mist. We passed through endless plantations of tea and eucalyptus and the temperature during the day is below 15 C. Some of the stations en route still had the old English names like Great Western and we had garden fresh tea and snacks from some station. When it drizzled in between it was such a great sight to see the mountains and valleys fully covered with mist. I had a great time with my SLR and managed to get some decent snaps of the flora and fauna. We were late by 2 hrs due to some work on the track and we reached Nanu Oya by 1400 hrs. Our end destination for the day was 10 kms from Nanu Oya and we thought of hiring a rickshaw. But we were approached by a van driver who had come to drop some guest at station and he was going back alone to Neuwra Eliya. He agreed to take us for SL Rs. 300, which was a good deal. The driver gave us a short briefing about this place.
Nuwaraeliya is very famous for its climate; some identify it as ‘little England’. The lowest temperature of Sri Lanka is recorded every day at Nuwaraeliya. Nuwraeliya has very cool climate which some days drop to 1 - 2 degrees of Celsius. Mini snow falls also occur in February and the place is covered by mist all throughout the year. History says Nuwara Eliya was discovered by a hunting party led by Dr. John Davy in 1818. The British governor at the time, Sir Edward Barnes, was told about this and subsequently decided to take residence there, soon created a health resort which then became internationally renowned. Nuwara Eliya is decidedly English in some ways (houses, gardens and places names) and was actually planned to be an English village by a pioneering Englishman, Sir Samuel Baker in the mid 19th Century.The driver dropped us at Glendover Hotel, a 100 year old nice colonial bungalow with nice lawns and tall old trees around. Neuwra Eliya is a planned town developed by British with a massive lake in the middle, nice colonial bungalows, golf course, race course, clubs etc. Nowhere in the city limits can we see any tall new structures and its old glory has been maintained till date. People all over Sri Lanka are very conscious about keeping places clean and you won’t find any rubbish on either side of the roads. In every 100 metres the municipality have placed waste bins and people use them regularly. I felt ashamed of our much acclaimed hill stations like Ooty, Munnar etc which are overcrowded with buildings and heaps of waste everywhere. Even though there were many tourist sports like waterfalls, viewpoints nearby we thought of skipping all these and went for a 3 hr walk to the lake and had snacks along with Lion Beer, the famous Lankan beer. Later we went to see the bus station and enquired about bus service to our next destination-Tissamaharama. We were told that there was no direct bus to that place and we had to get down at Wirawalla bus stop and take the bus to Matara and get down at Tissamaharama. Altogether we had around 7 hrs of long journey on a local bus tomorrow and we were asked to be at the bus station by 0830 hrs, so that we could comfortably keep our luggage and occupy our seats. We returned to our hotel, had a hot shower in the chilling weather and we went for dinner at a nice Indian fine dining restaurant near to our hotel and the food was just awesome. Neuwra Eliya is my favourite destination in Sri Lanka and I wish to go there again as I’ve developed an affinity towards this place. Travellers from the UK will be particularly attracted by the architecture which is decidedly Victorian. Even modern buildings are built in the same fashion to preserve Nuwara Eliya's unique atmosphere.

Sri Lanka Darshan

When I thought of my maiden trip abroad, the destinations that came to my mind were New Zealand, Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. Finally I short listed NZ and planned everything so that I can visit my bros during the month of June 2011. My parents too were there on a 2months visit and we all planned for a family get together sometime mid-June. My eldest brother couriered me the sponsorship letter and other supporting documents for applying for my visa. Few days later, in the early hours of the morning I decided to postpone the NZ trip as I can visit it anytime as my brothers are there anyways. Then I decided to go ahead with Thailand. My close friends Sam and Kiran were ready to join me in the planning stage itself since I changed the destination. But the flight fares worked out to be very expensive, as tourist traffic from India is in its zenith during the months of June/July. Luckily my friend Anoop had visited Sri Lanka a few weeks back and he had only great things to share about that place. He had so much to say about this small dot island with classy blue beaches, virgin forests, wild life, scenic train journey through tea plantations etc. Sam had been to Sri Lanka for a very short visit and he too insisted on going to this place again. So we three finally decided to go ahead with Lanka and booked flight tickets in a way that Kiran will fly from Chennai and Sam and I from Cochin. We planned to backpack the country as Anoop gave us a detailed briefing about the places to visit, the bus connectivity between places, must-see sights etc. We redefined the word backpacking a bit by booking hotels in advance. I have travelled a lot and I know the difficulties in finding out hotels on the spot, as we will be tired after the day’s journey or we will have an early start the next day. Sam did all research on accommodation and we booked nice decent accommodation at each place to avoid later inconvenience.
June 12 arrived and the wait was over. We both boarded the flight to Sri Lanka and it was a pleasant 1 hr journey to a foreign land- Sri Lanka. We had a not-so-good breakfast on board and landed at Colombo Airport safely. We didn’t have to take advance visa for Sri Lanka and visa (30 Days Permit) was stamped on arrival at the Immigrations counter at the airport. I believe the rule has changed now and now you have to apply for VISA online in advance. Kiran arrived early in the morning after a short search, we met him at the exit gate. We were told that there are buses operated by Airport Authority to the nearest bus station for free and we waited for 30+ minutes to get our bus to the nearest bus station which was less than a kilometre away.
The sight outside the airport was disappointing as everything looked exactly like Kerala or Tamil Nadu: from people to shops, buses to roads, buildings to terrain. We were dropped at the bus station and we checked the bus timings to our first destination Kandy. I was totally disappointed as I didn’t have a feeling that I was in a new country. After another not -so-good lunch from a local restaurant we boarded a local bus to Kandy. We were told that it would take 4-5 hrs to reach Kandy. After keeping our backpacks at the boot space we started our journey to Kandy. First 3 hours of the journey was so boring as we had the same feeling as we driving through country sides or midlands of Kerala with neat concrete houses, paddy, tapioca and rubber plantation with small towns in between. I even told Kiran and Sam that our decision was wrong and wondered what we were going to do in the next 8 days. Anyway, the last one hour stretch of the trip was interesting as we were climbing the Ghats to reach our destination. We reached Kandy Bus stand by around 04 30 pm and took a rick to reach the hotel. On reaching Kandy our paradigm about this country started changing slowly as it was a nice old British town with colonial buildings with a massive lake in the middle and well planned roads with proper pedestrian lanes. Kandy is a Buddhist town and everywhere we can see Buddhist monks walking around in their saffron dress. The hotel we booked was interesting with good views of swimming pool and valley. We unpacked our bags, had a shower and decided to go for an evening walk to the town centre from the hotel. We intentionally avoided the famous monument of Kandy “The Tooth Relic Monastery” as we had to be in queue for hours and we weren’t that religious. The main purpose of opting Kandy for the first night’s stay was the next day’s exciting 5 hr train journey through mountains and tea plantations from Peredenia to Neuwra Eliya. We did some light shopping from ODEL ( a famous retail chain in Sri Lanka ) and bought a few essentials for our evening ‘brainstorming’ session. After 2 shots and a satisfying dinner we went for a nice swim in the pretty large pool there and it was an awesome feeling to be in pool with the temperature below 20 C. We all went to bed early as we should have an early start to catch the train from Peredenia railway station which is 5 kms from Kandy. Our perception about this small wonderful country changed by the end of the first day itself and the coming days were more exciting which you will read about in my next blog….till then take care and a have a safe day.

Lion Tailed Macaque- A Chance Encounter

It was in August 2008, I went on a recce tour to Valparai with Sinna and Mountain Kingdoms UK reps Linda and Marian to do a trial trip on the recently designed trek tour called ‘Tea & Spice trails of South India.’ The main objective was to let Linda & Marian to do all day treks as per the itinerary so that they can sell the new package better in UK market. As mentioned in my earlier blog about Valparai, we were fortunate to sight bisons, elephants, porcupines, hornbills etc during our three days trek & stay in Valparai. Third day, when we were about to leave for Madurai our local guide Chinnaswami phoned me with a great news that he had spotted a group of lion tailed macaques (short-tailed monkeys of rocky regions of Asia and Africa) in the Puthuthotam estate, which is about 2kms from Valparai Town towards Pollachi Route
Chinnaswami can be termed as an interesting feature of treks in Valparai. He is a special character, as you won’t find any such ‘species’ anywhere else. Being a retired watcher of Wood Briar estate in Valparai, he knows the place like the palm of his hands. During his tenure he used to guard the estate day and night preventing large mammals like elephants, bisons, wild bear etc from entering the plantation. He can predict the presence of animals in the vicinity by the smell and knows the physiology of almost all the animals found in Valparai. Even though he doesn’t know English at all, he somehow succeeds in explaining to the English speaking clients the interesting things that come across our treks like the birds, animals, pugmarks, animal droppings, tea picking, coffee cultivation etc. He will be happy at the end of the day if we offer some special drinks as energy boosters. I have done tremendous treks in this area with this guy and was always overwhelmed by his sincerity and dedication.

Back to the topic... four of us started to Puthuthotam estate without wasting much time.....It took about 20 mins to reach the place, where all got enough time to be ready with cameras. Chinnaswami joined us from the main road and we drove into the estate workers line. The sight was just awesome, we saw a large troop of monkeys scattered all over the place. Lion-tailed macaques are one of the rarest as well as the most endangered primates. Presently, their population is estimated to be around 2,500-3000. Out of it, the major population is found around Valparai or Anamalais and the rest in other parts of Western Ghats like Eravikulam, Periyar etc. Normally they are very shy and prefer to stay at a height of 100 ft above the ground. But the scene we found here was just the opposite.

They were hovering above the tea plantation workers’ quarters. After taking many snaps, Chinnaswami took us to the workers’ lines where we saw some LTMS sitting on the roof. They all looked like tamed monkeys. The people there came with some biscuits from the house and gave to monkeys. Sinna & Marian had some great time with their SLR’s by capturing from all possible angles. The workers there even gave a glass of tea to these monkeys, when one of them even came all the way down from tree grabbed the glass, drank fully and returned the glass like an obedient school boy. Then I felt confident and thought of trying my luck. I borrowed a couple of biscuits from Chinnaswami and offered it to the monkeys. It was a stunning experience that 2-3 monkeys came very close to me and grabbed it from me with out any hesitation. Their hands looked exactly like human hands with curved nails and with all palm prints.

We had a small chat with the workers there and they said this group of highly endangered monkeys pay visits to their quarters every Sunday. It is easy to find LTMs in Puthothtam area due to the presence of workers’ lines, number of fig and jack fruit trees. We spend around 2 hours there with out realising that the whole day’s schedule was messed up by that time.Nevertheless, this unplanned meeting with this rare species at close quarters was a welcome interruption...a memorable chance encounter.

Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary.....Mysore

I am sure that you all have been to one of the most beautiful and historically richest cities in South India -Mysore at least once or twice in your life...It is such a charming city and is my all time favourite...The city itself is well planned with wide roads, old heritage buildings which has lot of old British raj stories to say. I come to Mysore 3-4 times a year with tourist groups from UK as part of my job. Every time I visit Mysore, I come across new & interesting things like, restaurants, new tourist spots, old buildings, daily markets etc. Mysore has still that old world charm which has not given way to modern amenities. During the Maharaja rule, there was a law prevailing that no buildings should go beyond the height of the Mysore Palace. That is why you will not find any big apartments or sky scrapers like in any other cities in India. I hope you all have visited Mysore Palace, Chamundi Hill, Nandi Bull, Tippus Summer Palace at Srirangapattanam and Vrindavan garden during your stay in Mysore.

I’d like to share about another not-so-famous spot in the out skirts of Mysore which falls on the Mysore- Bangalore highway[ 14 Kms from Mysore] - “Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary”. It is a bird Sanctuary located on the banks of river Kaveri. The isolated islets and the abundance of aquatic insects round the year make this place an abode for migratory birds. The sanctuary was declared a bird sanctuary in 1940, when the noted ornithologist Dr Salim Ali, while surveying the birds of the area, put emphasis on declaring Ranganathittu a bird sanctuary. Since then this sanctuary is a paradise for wildlife enthusiast, nature lovers, photographers and bird watchers. The climate is pleasant through the year except during the south west monsoon which results in water logging n floods. No where else in South India can you see migratory birds at such a close distance. Major bird sighting includes Spoonbills, Open billed Storks, Painted Storks, Herons, Stone Ploughers, White Ibis, Cormorants, darters etc. These migratory birds lay eggs on the small islets in the river. Birds start coming by December and they fly back by Mid August. Local inhabitants include 5-6 types of kingfishers, peacocks, Myna birds, parakeets etc. The park authorities and bird watching experts have traced the origin of some birds as far as to Siberia, North America and Australia. Another highlight is the number of marsh crocodiles in the river. Sometimes you will see crocodiles taking a sun bath on the rock with mouth open or even chasing your boat. So far nothing has been reported on the attack of crocodiles on humans. They don’t bother humans as they get neck full of birds throughout their life span.

The sanctuary is managed by Karnataka Forest Department and it is well looked after. They have landscaped the area, planted more trees, kept many boards all over the park with descriptions of birds found in that area and even started a small refreshment bar .Boats are available at the sanctuary to take you for rides [ 30/45 mins] along the river and the islands where you can witness trees and islands filled with birds. You will be accompanied by a forest guard cum oarsman who helps you spot birds better. The entry charge for the bird sanctuary is Rs. 25/person, another 25/camera and Rs.50/seat on boat basis. By paying Rs.500 you can hire an exclusive boat with a maximum in take of 5 people. It is best to reach there early as it tends to get busy later with school groups.

Wish to see more photos or to know more about this place?... Drop a mail to .................fenjacob@gmail.com.

The Woodhouse Mansion, Valparai.........

Gone are the days of using horse carts, bullock carts and the ropeway to reach Valparai. Today we have an excellent ghat road, which comprises of 40 hairpin bends starting from the Aliyar Dam. On the way up, one gets a breathtaking view of not only the dam but also of Pollachi and Coimbatore. Another picturesque approach to the Anamalais is via Chalakudi from Kerala where one passes Athirapally falls, also known as mini Niagara.

Valparai is an upcoming tourist destination ( thanks to the overcrowded Munnar) famous for its natural beauty and wild life. Valparai is located 3800 feet above sea level on the Annamalai Hills, a mountain range on the Western Ghats, which can be reached from Coimbatore via Pollachi and from Chalakudi via Athirapally-Malakkappara . A small plantation town, the people of Valparai are mainly plantation workers who live within the tea, coffee and cinchona plantations that make up the area. 80% of Valparai is tea cultivation which is owned by big companies like Wood Briar, TATA, BPTC, Parry Agro etc.

A snippet from history............ In 1864, Karnatic Coffee Company and some other people asked the Madras Government to provide some land for cultivation in the Anamalais. Government accepted the proposal and sold the waste land for Rs. 5.00 per acre. In the initial stages, Planters cultivated coffee. But they were not able to get the desired yield of coffee, which had a huge market. So the Karnatic Coffee Company sold some parts of the land to some people. Now one part of the area is called Waverly Estate and another part is called Water Falls Estate. MR. Carwer Marsh, a great planter from Essex, UK, is considered the father of Valparai. He surveyed the whole land and made a feasibility study of growing tea in this region and stood as a backbone for the poor and needy. We can see his statue sent by his wife from UK, standing majestically in Kavarakkal Estate on Valparai- Pollachi Road.




Woodhouse Mansion at the Puthuthotam estate. Puthuthotam is one of the oldest tea estates in this region. Earlier they cultivated coffee but later switched to tea. Still will can see a few old coffee bushes in front of the bungalow. The whole bungalow is built of wood; you won’t find any traces of other building materials in the main structure than wood. It is believed that Lord Rippon (1850’s) & Lord Mountbatten ( 1930’s) stayed in this bungalow during their visit to this hill station. Now it is with the Wood Briar group who owns the majority of the area. This bungalow is used as their company official guest house. They have let some 50 acres around this bungalow to grow wild as natural forest, which attracts bisons & much endangered lion-tailed macaques to hover around this bungalow.



Tourism Aspect………Knowing the scope of tourism in this area, Wood Briar group is promoting 3 of their bungalows for tourists- Stanmore Bungalow( Restored Directors Bungalow , 03 Massive Bedroom), Monica Bungalow & Villa Fair Winds Bungalow( both restored managers Bungalow with 3 bedrooms each). Location wise Stanmore and Monica are nice… far from the madding crowd. As Stanmore was director’s bungalow, it has got massive lawns where they arrange bonfire and barbeque at night. Another highlight is chef Ranga who makes wonderful dishes, mainly desserts. The way he takes care of the guests is some thing very special. He keeps moving between these 3 bungalows, so make sure that you stay in the. . A Villa Fair wind is also a nice bungalow but bungalow here is close to the town which might get noisy.




Wildlife……………It’s a real feast to eyes …spotting bison is something we can guarantee 100%. I have sighted herds of elephants during my day treks, then lion tailed monkeys( got the opportunity to feed them once, which is very very rare because they always prefer to be at a height of 100 ft from ground, hornbills, wild boars, barking deer, King Cobra and the VIP…..Leopards as Valparai is bordering the Indira Gandhi national Park.





Apart from wildlife, Valparai also provides scope for treks, camping and picnics with its mountainous landscape and gurgling streams all around. For tourists from Kerala, the drive from Chalakudi to Valparai is breath taking as we have to travel through dense forest for more than 40 Kms.
Wish to know more about this place….? Mail to fenjacob@gmail.com


Have a good day ahead!!!!!!

Pachakkanam Bungalow........the only private estate bungalow in Periyar Tiger Reserve

Downtown Pachakkanam Estate is the one and only private property in the Periyar Tiger Reserve. Periyar tiger reserve is one of the largest wild life parks in South India which is spread over 777 sq km. The reserve is very famous for Elephants, Tigers, Sambar deer, Sloth Bear, Leopards, Wild dogs etc. The famous tourist spot Thekkady comes under this reserve. Pachakkanam by road is 35 kms south of Thekkady and very close ( 6 Kms) to the upcoming eco tourism destination Gavi. Pachakkanam estate is spread across in 600 acres of cardamom plantation and it’s the only private owned estate in the sanctuary.

History.............................This estate is now owned by a planter family from the midlands of Kerala- Kanjirapally called Karimpanal. They bought the estate from an Irish Planter [forgot his name] in 1947, when he left for Ireland. There is an 80 year old bungalow in the estate where this Irish planter and his sister stayed happily for many years. Glad to see that that bungalow is maintained and kept well till date. But I stayed in another bungalow called Periyar Reserve Bungalow which overlooks a stream which separates the estate and the forest.

Safari.............................Baby, the caretaker will be ready with the open air jeep with special search light connected to the jeep battery. Some times they take the main road to Vandiperiyar or drive through the estate for wildlife sighting. You have to be bold to do this safari as you might come across all sorts of animals on road. I have done more than 8/9 safaris and have sighted almost all animals like elephants, bisons, sloth bear, Sambar deer, wild boar etc, unfortunately[ or fortunately] no tigers or wild cats have been sighted till date. But our caretaker has sighted tigers and leopards many times. May be I am unlucky .The place is excellent for walks and you will see only cardamom everywhere and the people there will be very happy to take you around the estate and the cardamom curing store. This place comes under the core zone of the reserve, which means wild animals are found in plenty. This place is also famous for spotting famous Great Pied Hornbill, Malabar Grey Hornbill, fly catchers etc.
To stay in this property you have be spend some cash, as they charge around 8000/room for 2 pax on all meal basis. For foreign nationals they charge around 11000/room. Pachakkanam is 20 Kms from Vandiperiyar which is on the famous Kottayam-Kumily Road. As this is a restricted game sanctuary, the forest officials won’t allow any one beyond Vallakkadavu Check post. If you wish to stay at Pachakkanam Bungalow then the caretaker will meet you in Vandiperiyar town and he will clear all the formalities at the check post. Wish to see more photos or to know more about this place?... Drop a mail to .................fenjacob@gmail.com.

Camping at Chinnar Wildlife Sancturay

On 8/5/2010 Ajish & I left for Chinnar from Cochin.We started at 0600hrs, Sam joined us on the way from Kolenchery. We stopped at Unnukal for our breakfast. Chinnar is 210 kms from Cochin [ Cochin-Muvattupuzha-Kothamangalam-Adimali-Munnar-Talayar-Marayoory-Chinnar]. Chinnar is totally different from the rest of the forest vegetation in Kerala.The reserve comes under dry decideous forest category and is almost dry through out the year. It gets very little rain during the months of Nov- Dec. Wildlife sighting is not as great compared to Periyar, Parambikulam, Muthanga etc. But the location of our camping hut compensated for all these shortcomings.

From Munnar it took almost 2 hrs to reach Chinnar[ 60 kms].We had booked a tree house with the Forest Dept. There are different staying options that the forest dept offers for adventure & wildlife viewing crowds.They have 2 tree houses, 3 Log huts and a forest lodge for guests. The rate for tree house is Rs 1000 /person+ 250 for extra pax[ included stay & dinner], log hut is Rs 1500 /person+ 250 for extra person and 2500 for 2 for the lodge. We reached Chinnar at 1430 hrs. After filling the declaration form , we started our trek to the tree house, which is 2-3 kms inside the forest. We reached the place in 30 min, but was not very happy with the present condition of the tree house. It is very very basic with walls n roofs made with tin sheets, with a little space inside, which could accommodate only 2 ppl max. Since we went to the park wrong time of the year , it felt very humid inside the tree house.

Luckily, the guide was happy to offer us an upgrade to Log hut in Pambar Division which was another km walk from the tree house.We were pleasantly surprised to see the hut… location was excellent , on the banks of ever flowing Pamba river. Even though there was no electricity, no water , the location was superb.....we spent the whole day swimming and fishing in the river. By evening, some tribals came for fishing… it was real fun going with them for the fishing. The only drawback was the humidity throughout the night ;we couldn't sleep a bit till mid night.

Next day we went for an early morning walk when we saw 10/12 bisons, deer etc. Sad that no elephants were around as the forest is dry at the moment..no water can be found anywhere in the reserve except the river. We also saw the other log hut, but that didn’t come anywhere near the one we stayed. So ask specially for Pambar Log hut if u wish to visit this place. Your stay can be made more memorable by carrying stuff like chicken, eggs, meat, some masalas & fruits. The guide will be happy to cook these for dinner.I would suggest this place for bachelors....who love the nature without harming it.
Wish to know more about this place?.......mail to fenjacob@gmail.com