Yelagiri- The Tryst! Is It Worth?
My ‘father and sister’- in- law came for the first
time after I moved to Chennai nearly 22 months back. I was planning for a good
trip, either to Pondicherry or Yelagiri and perched on the later due to the aestival
days. We embarked on to our tourney to Yelagiri in the dog days of summer, May;
scorching heat and sun billowing fire.
We, totally 5 people(I, my wife, 20 months daughter
and ‘father and sister’ – in- law) started at 640hrs on dot in my ‘Chevrolet
Beat’ from Chennai on May 19’12. I am not acquainted with Chennai roads and
took help of GPS (Wise pilot), which was always a saviour to me; I have taken
the Kanchipuram- Vellore route. We reached at 830hrs to Hotel Woodlands that is
on the left side after passing Kanchipuram. We had good breakfast, little expensive,
but worth it. We reached at 1130hrs to Yelagiri. If a hamlet residing on hill
is defined as hill station—then Yelagiri is hill station. It has 16 hair pin
bends and sultry weather.
I booked “Hotel Yelagiri Holiday Home, Athanavoor”
in advance. We checked-in to the hotel by 1220hrs after initially mis-judging
with similarly-named “Hotel Yelagiri”. After checking-in the owner, Bhoopathy,
came and told us to leave with scoff and resentment as he doesn’t have any
intimation from Stayzilla (through them I have booked the hotel). I immediately
called Stayzilla and they helped me speaking with this so-called Bhoopathy. He still
claimed that they didn’t inform him and now all the rooms have been reserved.
He navigated us for nearly 4 km to a cottage (R S COTTAGE). He said it charges
Rs. 4000 but since it was not our mistake, he gave that cottage for that night.
It is really beautiful cottage with tall jack fruit trees and it was like as if we
were in the middle of small forest.
Yelagiri’s weather was dull, bland and the sun was
just little less bright than that was in Chennai. We had our lunch at Hotel
Surabhi (we are vegetarians and meal charged Rs 55/person). The word horrible
was next to the lunch. We went to the boat house, Rs 10/person, again simply
horrendously clean and charges Rs 50/person for the boat. I completely eschewed
as there was rectilinear line and didn’t want to wait to rush out of the park. When
inquired for the water falls (Jagadambara), they claimed that they are dried. So
disappointed, really, slowly rode down to the cottage, but since the road was
impeccable, I drove further and then found serene park in Nilavoor, about 5 Km
from Athanavoor. It is an artificial lake and we spent about an hour,
considering the fact that the musical fountain starts at 1900hrs in Nature Park,
the only place that is really worth watching in Yelagiri. The musical fountain was
better than that we saw in Brindavanam, Mysore.
I never had coffee in the last 25 years and since
there was no tea available in the Nature Park, I reluctantly, hesitantly,
inevitably had to have coffee. It was really nice coffee; probably the reason
is I haven’t tasted it for long. The musical fountain kept everyone enticed for
the first 3 songs, later it was a yawn. We came out of the park by 2015 hrs and
planned to have dinner at Hotel Yelagir Hills, as suggested by Mr. Bhoopathy.
He claimed it to be very good. When we went inside, all the tables were
occupied and they were waiting for their orders to be arrived. After much
scouting for hotel, on the way to cottage at Hotel O’Nila, they suggested to go
to Hotel Landmark, which is at proxy to Lord Murugan temple.
It was buffet, charged Rs 250/person (no other
option at 915hrs in the night). The food was lip-smacking, sumptuous, and
delectable and indeed, had gorgeous finger-licking dinner that night. In fact,
that was the only best thing we did the entire day after a nice 4 and ½ hrs drive
on the flawless tarmac from Chennai to Yelagiri.
I drove to the cottage and reached at 1020hrs, it
was little scary 3km drive; no lights, pitch-dark and completely silent with no
other organism visible. We had good sleep and woke up at 700hrs in the morning.
I planned to drive down to Vellore early to visit Golden temple after breakfast.
We had breakfast near to Hotel Yelagiri, again disdain with the quality and the
cleanliness.
Now, this is the addition to my woes—I was
punching on my phone for directions to reach Golden temple with arms akimbo at
my car with door opened and keys dangled inside. Unexpectedly, the door slammed
and car locked. Whoosh..., not expected, but started to surmise.
I didn’t think much and immediately called “mytvs”,
break down service (paid 1250/year- Gold member). They said it will take 2
hours; luckily we were very near to the only best place in Yelagiri, Nature Park,
and went inside. After 45 minutes they called me and said that the technician
was on his way. The technician arrived after 60 minutes, unlocked my door in
nearly 5 minutes (didn’t charge a single penny), though I offered them Rs 50
(not bribe), how many people come on time and do their work properly in India.
We set to Golden temple at 1240hrs and reached by
1410hrs to Vellore after gormandizing lunch at Hotel Lakshmi. We embarked at
1800hrs at Vellore for the return trip and suddenly, within no time, the rain
god exploded, caused detriment and wreaked havoc with hailstorms for almost 40
minutes. We stranded on the road after the ice cubes smacked my car glass. We
reached Chennai at 2100hrs after packing dinner at a hotel.
Finally, we were in Chennai. Yelagiri, I spent
nearly Rs 6000 including the petrol cost and it is not at all worth it, if we
had missed the Golden temple. Yelagiri is famous for jack fruit and honey. You get
them every nook and corner.
Is it a hill station?
