My first trip with Visteon guys, mostly my last trip as a bachelor, was to Vagamon in God's own country. We were planning to go on a trip right from my last stint, two years ago, it didn't materialize at all. And, even this time we were just planning to go to Pondy, with a lot of changes in the dates we finally fixed Vagamon. I have never heard about it and I was initially reluctant to travel 12 hours in train followed by 3 hours bus journey and all, but oh boy, it was worth it. And, finally an actual enjoyable "camp-fire" happened.
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| On top of the world, touching the clouds.. |
The first day was mostly spent travelling and getting to our Himaharsham home-stay in Vagamon. Chennai to Kottayam in Train, and with our limited Malayalam language we tried to catch the bus to Vagamon, but we missed it. Then, we have to catch two busses to reach our Vagamon, but that's not it. We have a booked home-stay so far away from the town, so we needed another ride in a Jeep to reach there. We were already travelling off-road to reach there. Once we were there, it was as if we were all alone in a mountain with rooms build just for us. It was so far away we couldn't even hear any sounds other than birds and insects chirping. It was so far away that our first day's activity was to go and have a tea. We had to walk nearly 2 kms to see some people and stores. When we had tea and came back, it was already dinnertime. The weather was very interesting as well, it rains heavily for a minute and stop for 10 minutes. It was nice catching up with it.
The second day was just great. Our first stop was at a sightseeing spot named "Palozhugum Parai", where the waterfalls looked like milk flowing, most of the waterfalls looks like that though. It was just for viewing, then the next stop was Meadows, it was wonderful. Lush green mountains after mountains where we can just climb and enjoy the greenery. And, we located another mountain far away covered with clouds, and we decided to go there. And, on the way we stopped at Pine forests, but we have seen enough in other trips so we left that place early.
The next stop Thangalpara, where we actually climbed the mountains. Most of the time we always wondered, what will be like to go to the top of the mountain? Here, we actually did that and that spot is "Thangalpara", my favourite spot among those we have visited so far that day. We were at the top of the world, with clouds passing through us. We decided to stay a little longer cause you never know whether we will get another chance like this. But, it started raining heavily, drenching every one of us and making the return even more adventurous. It was little risky walking down the slippery mountain, but it was a lifetime experience. After getting drenched, it was freezing outside so we came back to room.
And, then it happened, "campfire", even though rain threatened to end it every now and then, we finally had a blast there. With songs and dance, oh boy it was fantastic campfire, the one I always wanted in my every trip to a hill station. Followed by playing cards, while teaching "Ass Game" to few people, all went to sleep which was one of the best days of my life.
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| Happy Birthday Aadhi.. just posing, we didn't hit him :D |
The final day, we had time to visit only two places, once again rain threatened to cut short that as well. But, it stopped in time for us to enjoy a bath in a river inside the forest. That was another isolated location where we enjoyed much for a long time where the water was flowing in a full force with a little waterfalls. Then, went on to our next location inside the forest, a sightseeing spot, where we had to climb a small mountain again. Oh boy that was the best spot of this trip. Once we were at the top, it was green 360 degrees, you can just sit there all alone and get lost in nature. That was a fantastic last stop in Vagamon.
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| Saved the best spot for the last.. |
Since we luckily got a straight bus Kottayam we were about to reach a lot early early for our train at 10 pm, so we decided to visit a temple on the way, where we had no clue about the procedures followed. And, just when we thought everything was looking good, a small twist happened. We all thought our return train was at 10 pm, but it was actually at 8:20 pm. We accidentally saw it right in time and we were able to make it and catch the train and thankfully it was delayed as well. It was little thrilling for a while though, but all is well that's end well.
This is a trip which kept getting better and better, where each and every location was a treat and most importantly unlike any other hill stations, we were able to enjoy it in peace without any disturbances. We got enough time all alone in each spots even on weekends. And, we were able to travel only in Jeep to any spot and most of the time we were travelling off-road and some roads were scary as well.
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| And, that's how we were :) |
We may have missed a few spots, but this was by far the most satisfying trip I've ever had. We all went in without much expectation and Vagamon, The Scotland of Asia, satisfied us and surprised us. So Vagamon becomes my favourite hill-station. Thanks for choosing this place and thank you guys for all the wonderful memories and especially that "camp-fire".
