Friday, August 7, 2015

Hurtling Hogenekkal

3:09 PM By Unknown No comments

"The point is that when I see a sunset or a waterfall or something, for a split second it's so great, because for a little bit I'm out of my brain, and it's got nothing to do with me. I'm not trying to figure it out, you know what I mean? And I wonder if I can somehow find a way to maintain that mind stillness." ~ Chris Evans

Since the travel bug has bitten me, I keep joining for some trip or the other whenever possible. After Pondicherry and Makalidurga, I have also been to Thattekere lake and Chunchi falls but before I got time to document my experience there, I went to Hogenekkal Falls which is a waterfall in the river of Kaveri.

The trip started around 4:15 in the morning and we were all to assemble at the common point by 4:30 but when it is a group of 28 people going on a trip, you always expect some delays and that's what happened. While waiting for everyone to join in till 5 am, we introduced each other as there were some new faces in the group this time.

Finally we started at 5 am ... 5 cars, 28 people and one destination which was around 170 kms away from the city. On the way to the falls, we took 2-3 breaks for tea/kappi and a halt for breakfast where we savoured idli, vada and egg dosa from a roadside shop and of course each time we all got down from the cars, we would take some group photos and selfies as well.

It is truly said that you don't wait for the destination when the path itself is beautiful and as it wasn't very sunny that day, we could actually enjoy the breathtaking view once we had crossed the main city. With mountains and trees on both sides of the road, it brought us all closer to nature and we enjoyed the view which has now become rare in the cities. Talking to our car-mates, we got to know them more. There were some old Hindi melodies playing in the car and were were all having fun.

By the time we were getting near our destination, it was around 10:30 already and we were all getting impatient and hungry so we decided we needed one more break and got down to get some chips, cold drinks and had some fresh coconut water before continuing with the journey. Finally by the time we reached there it was almost 11:15 or so. Some of us changed clothes as we had plans to get into the water and then went to see the waterfall. On reaching there, we found that there is a bridge on which we can stand and see the main falls for 5 mins and get down and that part was not accessible for people to go enjoy.

After paying an entry fee of Rs 5/- per head, we enjoyed the breathtaking view of the main falls, clicked a few pics and got down wondering what to do next. By that time, we were constantly asked by the vendors there for oil massage to which we said no initially (Later a few of us experienced that as well). Next was the haggling for the prices of boat rides (we paid 1500/- per boat) as they quoted pretty high charges compared to what we heard from others but we finally gave up and agreed coz we were not willing to miss the boat ride after coming this far.

Meanwhile two people went to place order for food where some 5 kg of fish was ordered for 21 people (rest were vegetarians) and some egg bhurji and omelettes were ordered for the eggetarians. Then began the main fun when all of us headed for boating with 4-5 person in each boat and we reached a more secluded area where there was hardly anyone apart from us. As soon as the boat ride begin, some of us already started the water fight with others shouting and screaming and trying to escape the water.

So the first thing I did was put my cam back in it's case and joined the fun. Whoever was a little dry after the boat ride also couldn't escape for one guy (he had viral fever already) as we dragged everyone into the water and attacked them with water splashes. By the time it was around 2:30 we were getting hungry but there was no sign of our food so most of us continued playing in water while a few went for oil massage.

The ones who were in water tried to learn floating in the water, a few of them did well. I too tried but was scared so gave up too quickly and continued splashing water on others. Around 4 or so, I decided to finally step out of the water when I saw one of the girls getting head massage and got tempted to try that well (I kinda repented it later though ;) :P )

I went and sat on the ground and the guy giving massage poured what seemed like half a bottle of sesame oil and started tugging and pulling my hairs and massaging my head. I immediately repented my decision coz I knew there was no way I would be able to wash my hairs properly before leaving hence will have to travel all the way back with oily sticky hairs. While I was having all these thoughts, he kept pouring more and more oil and whole of my head and hairs was covered with the oil. Then he said something which I didn't understand but nodded my head anyway so he asked me to close my eyes. and then he poured some oil over my eyes and kinda massaged my eyes and then told I can open my eyes. The moment I opened my eyes, some oil got inside and started burning like hell and the worst part was that as my hands were already covered with oil (due to touching my hair and face) I could not even clean my own eyes.

As soon as the massage was over, I ran back to the water to wash my eyes first. There were already some people in the water trying to get rid of the sticky oil using lifebuoy soap and Meera herbal powder but as expected, they were of no use. By then it was around 5 and we got a call saying that the food was finally ready so we all headed back to the boat and went back to the same spot where we started from.

After playing around so much in the water, we were very tired and the food brought us a sense of relief. We had fish fry and fish curry with rice for the non vegetarians while egg bhurji, sambar and rice for the vegetarians/eggetarians. Although 5 kg fish was ordered for around 21 people, we still somehow fell short of fish (guess too many foodies or we were too hungry). The food was nice and simple and after the lunch at 5:30 pm, we had another photo session and finally headed back to Bangalore.

By the time we reached back, my throat was already sore from screaming and I also caught some cold. I realized that I will probably fall sick so has some coffee immediately after reaching back the city for some relief, had a crocin and slept peacefully. The next day I was too lazy and a little sick to go to office so took 'work from home', took some more rest and was much better by evening. A fun filled trip overall with lots of memories to cherish

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