Trip to Ponmudi

The vacation has passed of quite quickly. Lots of plans...but none materialised except for some gaming. More on that later(?)...Now it is time for serious studies and our project...Has to call ousr sir today to remind him of the Red Hat guys. We friends had never had a new year bash and badly wanted it... But it was not to be :-(. Now that this is the last semester this will be unfulfilled. Heres a cheers to our virtual party! The glass contains Royal Stag XV (in a virtual party you can imagine anything ;-)
But I had the fortune of having two memorable trips. One with the class guys and a reunion of sorts with guys from the school days.
Prelude
I have never visited Ponmudi inspite of being in Trivandrum for the entire life. This was my first time. We decided to go at early morning to avoid the rush towards noon and to enjoy the morning cold.
We decided to leave at 6 A.M. SO I had to lie at my home that we had a cricket tournament and it would start at 6 and go on till afternoon. My parents readily agreed as they thought I needed a break from computers. Can't tell the truth people:
1: Ponmudi! No way! There is nothing to see and people go there to booze. Now you don't want to do that!
2. In bike till Ponmudi!!! After 10 years son...
These would probably be my parents reaction.
The Start
Woke up early and had a hurried bath. Hid my wet hair under a cap. Anand came to pick me up at 6 and we left for Kirans house. Panackal was late as usual so we were delayed and could start only at 6:40. Am I glad that we started then! It was fucking cold people! The ideal condition to do some wind in the hair motoring indeed! THe roads were barren and we reached Anad very quickly. (Our college is at Anad). From Anad it is some distance to Ponmudi.
The Ride
We were six. Anand and me on his Splendour, Sreenath and Panackal on Sree's DIscover and Kiran and his friend Unni in Unni's Karizma. By the way I hitched up in Karizma when the hirange came as Splendour would be dead after pulling my weight :-D
The hirange riding! Words can't express it dudes( and dames)! 22 hairpins and most of the time the roads are really narrow and bad. The dangerous bit is exhilarating to say the least. We reached the place near Meenmutti falls to have our breakfast. We resumed our ride. It was really cold with a few sunbeams offering respite at long intervals. There was some dense fog too. Hats off to the KSRTC drivers who ride rickety buses here...
The place
The road is built in the middle of the forest and you can experience a thrill of being in the forest. We reached the top. Nothing here to see except some spectacular views of lands below us. Very windy though. Me and Kiran heard a gush of water and we decide to climb down a hill to find the source. A small trek to the bottom brought us to a tiny creek with very little water. We wallked towards the interior. A real feeling of being in the forest. But some bastards have come here to booze and broke the bottles. Why do they have to harm other people? SOmeone had crushed a bottle with so much spite that the remnants were glass splinters. Took some photographs and rested there. We decide to head back after an hour. To my horror I found the climb to be little too steep and longer than I had thought. We once went to Agasthyarkoodam and had to Trek bigger hills in large numbers. I decided to climb and halfway through I was panting like a dog. All of us crashed out by the time we reached the top. One more trip to Agasthyarkooda? No thanks!
To beer or not to beer
After a much needed rest we thought of our plans. We decided to go to the KTDC hotel to just loiter around. After going their the evil yang came out, tempting us to have a beer. 5 beer drinkers. And 2 of them riders. Dangerous! The guys said to take 2 beers or no beers. Garfield and Hogan went inside the hotel to ask the price. 80 bucks for something that costs around 40! They were tempted by the looks and came back and begged to take one beer. Overruled as it was deemed too expensive much to the chagrin of Hogan and Garfield.
Golden Valley
We decided to go to the golden valley a place on the way back where we could bathe at ease in the stream. I had already decided to give it a pass I had a hintof fever. So i had no towel or spare underwear with me. I really wanted to get into the bloody cold water after being there! But it was not to be. Many families were there. And 3 couples probably in honeymoon. SOme school guys were there making nuisance to all around them. They were drinking some Patta (illicit liquor) and was showing off to some girls with their antics. We left Golden valle around noon to the restaurant to have food.
Eat all you want?!
We got in the restaurant was greeted by the workers their and one told us to have our food in merry. And we had some merry by taking 3 servings and earning a disrepute. I was stuffed like a doll but Kiran, Anand and Unni seemed to be good for atleast 3 more battles. Anyway we left the place and returned home.En route we saw the guys from EC(electronics & communication) in Anoop's car going to Ponmudi.

A really wonderful experience and must do if you are a responsible biker. Speeding is a strict no no in the highrange. You'll escape only if you are lucky. And choose early morning, it is the best time!