Nice weekend

Although two was the target for May, I was able to plan out one weekend trip at last. Two trips would still have been made possible, if only my neck didn't get sprained from my third swimming class. For more than a week, I could hardly move my neck and as a result, I had to pause my swimming lessons. Hopefully I can get back to the pool soon and learn to float in water.

When I was looking out for short weekend trips from Bangalore, there are many places that popped out on the web. Out of the many, Yelagiri grabbed my attention. I love the hills and mountains and one of my life time goals is to visit all the hill stations in India. I'm almost done with most of them in the South and hopefully can cover a few in the East pretty soon ;-)

Hubby and I left for Yelagiri around 2 PM after packing some munchies for the road trip. Although not really a hill station, Yelagiri is on top of a hillock with 14 hairpin bends leading the way. The roads were just superb after one crosses Hosur. We stopped for a late lunch at Adyar Ananda Bhavan near Krishnagiri. As planned, we reached our resort (Taj Gardens) at 6 PM. It's a nice place with lots of trees, especially mangoes, guavas and jackfruits. We decided to take a walk immediately after we checked in. One of the employees of the resort suggested we could go to Nature Park and watch the musical fountain. The weather was pleasant and the chirping birds were a music to the ears. By the time we reached Nature Park, it became dark and we headed straight to the fountains. It was a 30 minute fountain show and if you had already seen the one in Brindavan Gardens at Mysore, then there is nothing new to see. It was a spooky walk back since it was pitch dark and there wasn't a single soul on the road at 8:00 PM. It's amazing that this place is so quiet with very few commercial establishments. The flip side is that one needs to rely on the resort for all meals. Thankfully, the food provided at Taj Gardens was palatable. The staff was courteous and it was good to see many families in the resort.

After a good night's sleep, we had a quick breakfast and walked towards the lake. We went for boating and took a long walk to a nearby Murugan temple. The sight of a small temple amidst forests and hills is so beautiful. After lunch, it was time to pack our bags and return home. It was a good and relaxing trip with music giving us great company. The irony is that the last song my iPod decided to play before we reached home was "Yunhi chala" from Swades. Kitni aseen hain yeh duniya!!!

Once again, I enjoyed being the travel planner, reading reviews from travel sites, looking at maps for the routes and calling up hotels for enquiries. I hope to plan more such weekend trips in the near future.