KOLLI HILLS

27th oct 2008

20:00

Travellers : Me and Da Souza

Yesterday sometime early in the morning rossi came home from his place near hosur. Went picked him up from sona college bus stop. from the very start it was evident that both of us had a lot to talk bout and tell each other...... bout our carrier options, how ppl perceive our not so normal behaviour and so on.... it was so much fun.... both of were transferred to the viwa days.... laughing at jokes only a viwarian cud understand.... we sent the better part of the morning catching up...then went out for a late breakfast and hogged wat ever was dumped on our banana leaves... came back and chatted some more.... till we realized both of us have not slept the previous night and might not for the next as well... time to catch some sleep... that rossi did I opted to play NFS sometimes I wonder why I do that..... It beats me. After a short nap rossi was up and ready. And thus began our journey to this place called kolli hills or kollimalai as the locals prefer to call it. With all our phone calls and byes and be careful messages from parents we were off to namakkal at bout 1545 which is around 50 km from Salem. The bus journey was ok.... rossi started bitching bout his not so ok new roommate (so wats new.... lol) we reached namakkal an hour later. Now we were really confused... we knew the name of the mountain... kolli hills but there are around 245 villages on top of kolli hills. We didn’t how to get there and which village to go to so that we can reach the waterfalls and the river. After lotta running around we found out that there is a bus at 1745 from namakkal to semmodu a village bout 10 km from our destination..... I was of the idea that the total time of journey wud be around 3 hrs max. it turned out to be otherwise.... rossi was so god-damn pissed. it was fun watching him grumble bout the long journey, even though I tried telling myself it was kinda sadistic, it’s ok it rossi after all.... the bus stops at the base of kolli hills. The driver wanted to take a break before the gruelling climb starts a total of 78 hairpin bends..... Man there are only bends on this road.... I get down and buy some dinner just in case and the dinner is the usual stuff dosa and parottas (yup that’s the spelling)

now comes the series of unexpected events in our trip.... we were going to this place to stay overnight without knowing if there was a place to stay.... but then it was me it had to be that way... and then the bus gets punctured in a village some 5 km from semmadu... so me and rossi were off the bus went hunting for bananas.... for some strange reason rossi Luvs then.... actually obsessed with them.... after eating as much as we can and buying more for the rest of the long journey ahead.... while waiting for the tyre to be changed we see another bus approaching and one of the fellow passengers whom we had troubled by askin n number of questions regarding the place suggested that we take this bus and go to the temple near the water fall and spend the night there. Ok so we had some where to crash for the night...rossi and I hopped into the bus. that bus was packed to the brim and all I cud think off was rossi saying if there is place in your heart then there is place in the cart.... while on the bus I remembered that there was a youth hostel few kilometres before the temple and asked for the directions. the bus conductor was not really forth coming with an answer... finally the bus did stop in front of the youth hostel and dumped us there and vanished into the night.... ok this was our situation then middle of nowhere, on a dark road... in front of a building in the middle of a forest which has lotta wild animals . The good part was that the building had a single light on. I asked rossi to wait outside jumped the gate and go in and knock the door. I heard some voices inside... was appy looking forward to a good night’s sleep. And that’s they way it was. Shared the room with 4 other tribal kids from the nearby villages. Those guys gave a lotta useful information unlike the ones I got from googling kolli. Had dinner the stuff a got from the base of kolli hills good I did that...

The next day we got up at round 0545 and went bout packing our stuff, figured out that the temple is not so far away... and can be reached by walking. Then rossi had to crap for the day and he was appy he got the crappy feeling. I spent the next 45 mins talkin to the guys wonderin why rossi took 45+ mins even after his crappy feeling something I guess shud be left like that and rossi wud be more that appy wid that... hehehe..

We walked up to the temple had chai befriended a huge dog... found the way to the falls. The entrance ticket costed 2 bucks each. The walk down to the falls was ok not as difficult as lotta ppl in Salem made me believe.

I don’t really thing I can do justice by describing the falls. I wud tell you how I felt... this feeling when you come against something immensely powerful and something as old as time itself... I cud feel the forest I was humbled by it only to realize that it was a part of me as much as I was a part of it... I had this sense of belongingness to that place... it was more than just another place to me...I felt at home there... wat an experience... I luved every bit of it... I am appy rite now even to think of how I feel bout kolli hills. Ppl are rite the place is powerful, not without reason that there is so much of myth surrounding the hills. After this clicked some snaps on Rossi’s phone. And rossi posed in his lungi which we picked up in namakkal while waiting for the bus. It was rossi who was posing for the pics need I say any further...

we climbed back up, looked for a place to eat breakfast, found a shop which sold some soup made of this strange lookin tuber had that. Then went on to hunt for breakfast. Didn’t find any took a bus to the next village most of the food tapris we closed for diwali... managed to find one open had to wait for a really long time for them to make the idlis and sambar and chutney. In the mean time had the leftovers from the dinner and a few bananas. Rossi found the chicken shop outside the tapri too repulsive to eat food. He passed it.

Then we went on to explore the place found a path which lead to the river. Took a dip and went on to explore the river bed. I was back in my elements. Was there for bout an hour wallowing in the river. Realized was getting late for the bus... got up from the river dressed and left for the temple. While waiting for the bus had some more of the soup and bought the tuber used in the soup. And rossi had to buy some more bananas. Think he spent 45rs on bananas.... which when come to think of it is a lot for bananas. But then it was rossi... how else can it be. Then we boarded the bus came to namakkal and took another bus to Salem. We reached Salem at 1712. Rossi decided to take a bus to b'lore so came home from new bus stand transferred the pics back to my laptop... which rossi has christened appy lappi I liked the name so I let it be. Packed up the bags then dropped rossi in the bus stand. Had our appy drinks. Said our byes and off he was to b'lore thinking the journey wud take him bout 3.5 hrs didn’t wanna tell him that he wud have to spend another 2 more hrs on bus.... actual journey time was 5.5 hrs....

Hahaha.... so much fun.... ciao rossi...

Appy as always

Praveen