Wayanad's wiles - 3

To Alaska or bust

Alaska tourist home is the place we decide to halt fr the night at Mananthavady and we experience super hospitality.. sexy double bedrooms for 100 bucks and 40 Rs. for an extra bed.. the rooms are cheap as the bathrooms are common.. but to our joy we find out that the bathrooms are common but they have locks that ensure that one bathroom is allocated with a separate bathroom.. in other words our rooms have bathrooms but they are not attached.. worth the money trust me.

Lovely settings but a 'small' temple

Kerala for all its communism is small in its outlook.. a case in point seen at the Thirunelly temple (32 kms from Mananthavady and 27.50 Rs. bus ticket, time 07:00 on 11th morning when we start).. the temple is set in pristine surroundings with hills surrounding it and a river running besides it..but non hindus are not allowed.. Ja, inspite of me insisting him to come, decides not to enter...being the principled man that he is, I am not surprised...Dil is upset that he has to remove his t-shirt cos he has put extra powder in his armpits..fortunately for him and unfortunately for the rest of us..there are no traces of the powder.. the temple is a small one and has nothing particularly appealing in an architecture point of view but for its location...definite must see just for its settings..
After breakfast, we head for Tholpetty Forest range.. 7 kms from Thirunelly...bus journey costs a total of 13 bucks

I have been going to forests for 34 years and I am yet to spot a tiger

Thats what Mr. Narayanan says..56 year old guy sitting next to me in the bus... he is heading towards Nagarhole sanctuary but decides to join us and come to Tholpetty.. he warns us that the chances of spotting wildlife are very low.. 50 % are the chances is what the forester at Tholpetty warns us.. are you sure you wanna go in ? Well, we have come all the way from Chennai, so even if we dont get to spot any animals, the forest is reason enough for us to go in...jeep costs 300 Rs, guide costs 100 Rs and entrance fee of 80 Rs.... Ideal time to spot animals is in the mornings and the evenings.. the forest range is closed in the afternoons.. the written entries show that most of the tiger spottings are between 17:00 hrs to 18:30 hrs.. we got to go in the afternoon...thanks to influence..ahem ahem.

We get to spot a few deers and langurs but no tigers or elephants or bears... the forests at Tholpetty are definitely more denser than the ones at Muthanga... Lovely watch tower besides a watering hole too..which is sure to guarantee sightings...sure hope to stay overnight here next time around... But Narayan insists that Goa is the place where youngsters like us should be headed.

Wow, these are islands ?

We stop of at Kattikulam for lunch and regret every minute of it.. After lunch we take an auto to Kuruva Dweep ( 17 kms from Mananthavady and 8 kms from Kattikulam).. the auto guy charges us 50 Rs.. which we realise is a really meagre amount.. as the 8 kms are made up of roads which are sure suspension killers...
The autos are have more value for money than the buses.. the government buses have fancy ass technology for ticket delivery with the conductors equipped with electronic ticket machines...the machines are two years old..but the buses seem like they are thirty years old.. absolute torture.. we try to talk our auto guy into waiting.. but he tells us with a smiling face that there is a lot to see in Kuruva Dweep so it will take us time
Entrance fee to Kuruva Dweep is 25 Rs per head and is well worth the money... One can easily spend a day here...Its an uninhabited island and you have to take 2 ferries across. most steps and seats and benches are made of bamboo.. lovely they are.. sexy lakes surround the islands.. really a sight to see

Bye Bye Mananthavady

Night bus to Kannur starts from 01:00 hs from the Gandhi Park bus stand is the info we get when we call up Bathery bus stand (Ph - 04936 - 220217) The bus starts from Ooty and comes via Bathery to Mananathavady..
We get enough time to vist Pazhassi Raja's tomb... which is in Manathavady itself.. a nice 15 minute stroll from Alaska Tourist home.. nice little place nestled on a table top hill.. giving a nice view of the surroundings.. as the tomb is being spruced up we dont get much in the kind of information on Pazhassi Raja apart from him being a king who fought against the Brits and got killed in battle

Pack our bags after dinner at Garden Restaurant ( 180 Rs.. after carefully interrogating the waiter and extracting the information that the cheapest ice cream is 10 Rs, which is a 50 ml cup of Vanilla..Sreeps decides to order a Casatta ice cream...which the rest of us promptly gorge on) and say bye to the friendly reception attendant at Alaska...

Board the bus to Kannur... 56 Rs. for a very uncomfortable journey.. reack Kannur at 04:30 hrs.. bus to Kasargod starts at 05:00 hrs...