- Ford Figo : Atul and his family (wife, 6 years old daughter and 11 months old son), Abhishek and his wife.
- Honda Amaze (ZoomCar) : Nayan (me) and my wife, Amit and his family (wife, 6 years old daughter, 2 years son)
Story behind the trip :-
Atul has moved to Bangalore in December, 2014. He is quite a traveler. Once he settled down in the Bangalore with the family, he started looking out to explore Southern India. In February we (my family, Atul’s family and Abhishek’s family) went to Udupi and Murudeshwar. We did that trip by train and hired taxi. Neither me nor Atul is big fan using any other mean of transport except our own vehicle. I prefer bike and Atul prefers car. And our travelling story goes long back. I, Atul and Abhishek has done Leh using cars (Hyundai Accent and Maruti Alto) in 2009. Coming back to the point, while coming back from Udupi Atul said now next trip we will do using self drive vehicles. Abhishek, who is always in favor of using Bus or Train, was a bit skeptical about it, still he said okay. I casually said why not Kodaikanal, as none of us had been there. And destination was finalized.
Next was to decide the time. We decided that it would be some time in summer. After sometime in the office I heard someone making plans for 1st May. Then I realized it is a long weekend and can be utilized well. So I pinged Atul and Abhishek to check, and as expected they were ready. Till now Amit was no where in the picture. We started planning for the trip. I proposed to take my bike (Pulsar 220 Dtsi) and Atul’s car (Ford Figo). Atul will drive the car with three ladies in the back seat and Abhishek will be in the front as navigator. And whenever he feel like he can switch to my bike as pillion. I had already started searching for accommodation (that is always my job, to find out route, finalize the accommodation). While all these things were being planned, Amit (he is my friend since graduation days) had a major dis-agreement with his boss, so he had resigned from the job without any offer in his hands. So he was staying quite tense. I asked him come to Kodaikanal with us, it would be a good change for you and his family. He thought it over for few days and then agreed to it.
Accommodation and Cars :-
Now once all the people had been finalized, next step was to arrange for mode of transportation. We needed two cars and if possible at least a sedan so that we can have our luggage in the boot. We checked in our circle but since it was a long weekend everybody has some plans. We (at least I) were not comfortable with chauffeur driven cabs, as it changes the meaning of travelling completely. In one of the travelogue I had read about the ZoomCar. But I also remembered that people who hired the car had some issues at the Kerala border. Still I visited the site of ZoomCar to check if they have made some arrangements to handle such scenario. And I must say that they had done a wonderful job. We decided to take Honda Amaze, as it was the most affordable sedan available and also I had already driven my friend’s Amaze. So we booked the Amaze for 4.5 days (lots of calculations involved to decide why 4.5 days when our trip was of 3 days. PM me if anybody needs details).
Once the transport was finalized, I started exploring TripAdvisor for accommodation in Kodaikanal. And it was very easy to settle down for Hotel Villa Retreat. Here comes the twist. It does not have four identical rooms for all of us. They have two more properties, Villa Orchard (2 BR Cottage) and Vila Lakeside (3 BR Cottage). So we decided to take the entire Villa Lakeside and one Deluxe Room at Villa Retreat, which will be required only to sleep.
Journey to the land of Magic Mushrooms (I missed Magic Mushrooms though) :-
Schedule was to leave 4 am on 1st May from my house at Bannerghatta Road. But thanks to the IT industry I reached home at 10 pm on 30th April. I woke up at 4 am when everybody reached my home. 
We started around 5 am from my place. Route I had figured out to take : Bangalore – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Dharmapuri – Salem – Namakkal _ Dindigul – Kodaikanal. First thing that needed to be done was to pay the state tax for the ZoomCar vehicle. And it needs to be done at the first RTO Office in Tamilnadu, which is just after the Hosure toll booth. Somehow I missed/forgotten it. ](https://i0.wp.com/www.bcmtouring.com/forums/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall ](*,)")
I realized that after covering almost 30 kms. I asked Atul to stop and wait there and I will go back and pay the state tax and meet him, then we will proceed. This entire thing ate up almost an hour. After that the drive was pretty smooth. NH7 is quite fun and boring at the same time due to perfectly laid tar. We were thoroughly cruising at 100 – 110 kmph. After crossing Hosur we took our first break around 8 am. Had tea and fresh idli. After a break of 30 mins we started ahead.
Next break we took was to fuel up, I don’t remember the place (I am very bad at remembering names). We tanked up both cars and moved ahead. Next stop was just before Namakkal Toll booth. There is a huge board of Raja Bakery, behind that a restaurant is there (never stop on this one). We tried Plain Dosa and Masala Dosa, and it was just not edible. It was 1 pm. We reached Dindigul around 2pm, and from there took a right to Kodai Ghat road. Next stop was Silver Cascade Falls.
After a quick break we moved ahead as that place was fully crowded. Soon we reached the checkpost for Kodaikanal entrance. One good thing that I must mention. Just before the checkpost there were some volunteers who were stopping vehicles and giving the cloth sack in exchange of polythene bags. That is quite a nice way to keep the entire surrounding plastic free.
After driving on the beautiful ghat roads we reached Hotel Villa Retreat around 3:30 pm. Entire city is has been divided into narrow lanes by making most of roads one way. It was very difficult for any first timer like me to wander around in the city, that too in a car (I missed my bike during the entire way, but once I reached Kodaikanal and saw the traffic and roads, I missed it most). As I mentioned earlier, we had one room booked there. Even for the Villa Lakeside these people do all formalities. We completed the check in formalities, had our welcome drink. Then we asked for the directions for Villa Lakeside, they got us two Indicas as escort vehicles 
(one for each car, but at extra cost though ). The cab which escorted Atul’s car took them proper way (as care taker of Villa Lakeside, Subbu was with them). But the cab which was escorting my car took us in a one way around Kodai Lake as it was a shorter route. What a jerk. It lead to chaos on the road as it was fully packed with tourists and their vehicles. We got stuck there. And to cover 1.5 kms it took us almost an hour.
Sitout area at Villa Retreat
But when we reached Villa Lakeside all frustration tiredness just faded away. It was a neatly maintained old style Villa just the way I wanted. 
It had a fire place in the lawn, and another one in the living area. We kept our luggage inside, and that’s when we realized everyone was damn hungry. But nothing was readily available (of course it was a Villa not some hotel, they cook what you will ask and that takes time). We asked Subbu for options and guess what, Dominos to the rescue. We ordered pizzas and other stuffs which was delivered in 15 mins and finished in 5 mins. I am not a pizza lover, but anything would have tasted best at that moment.
Once everyone got refreshed, we took a walk to Kodai Lake which was around 100 mtrs from the Villa. We thought to roam around for sometime and then will go for dinner somewhere near by. We were not in a mood to take out the car. The journey from the entrance of Kodai City to the Villa Lakeside had made us damn tired and also traffic has increased near the lake. One good thing was temperature had dipped to 13 C, so for us it was pleasant (there were people wearing sweaters and jackets though 
). We took stroll around the lake (nothing much to see) and around 7:30 pm decided to go for dinner. Now the real question came how we will go as we had to go to city center which was almost 5 kms away. Ladies refused to walk and Atul refused to take out the car. So I said lets take one car which I will drive and get a cab, and reach Villa Retreat which is near to the city center and will park my car there. Cab came after half an hour. By the time we reached Hotel it was already 8:30 pm. Atul’s son was quite irritated by that time so they decided to have dinner at Hotel itself. Rest all of us left in the hunt for food (very bad decision). Soon we reached Hilltop Inn. First they said they can’t give a single table for such a big crowd (6 people) and more than that there is a waiting for half an hour for one table. We kept going here and there but not a decent hotel to have a proper non-veg dinner
. At 10 pm we reached back to hotel and had dinner there. From there we came back to Villa Retreat around 11 pm. Every one was tired so they went to the bed. And we opened the bottle of Chivas Regal which we carried from Bangalore. 
After a couple of pegs, I went to wake up my wife as it was our anniversary. Amit had got a cake arranged. We cut the cake and around 12:30 me and my left for Villa Retreat to sleep.
Miles long of traffic jam. It appeared as if everyone came to Kodaikanal for the long weekend. Patiently I waited in the queue to get the jam cleared. Atul was just behind me in the other car. We were just waiting for almost half an hour at one place. After that traffic started crawling. In the first one hour we covered 1 km on that road. I waved Atul and asked shall we turn back. He said lets see for sometime and if situation remains same we will turn back. Outside temperature had crossed 30 C. It was an uphill road so car was also running in 1st and 2nd gear. After sometime I got the opportunity and I zoomed pass almost 10 to 15 vehicles in my ZoomCar. But another bummer. I could not see Atul in my rear view mirror. I asked Amit to call them up and VIOLA we were out of network coverage. So I started moving ahead slowly as we had already entered on one way road (Road is two way only till Observatory, so if you have to turn back, do it before that). We skipped Observatory as it was fully packed with tourists, no place to park the car. Like any other place, wiser drivers had parked their car on the road itself and went into the Observatory.
We stopped there and try to look for an option to park the car. I get a place to park my car almost 500 mtrs from the view point (it is not a point but now Pine Forests are fenced and there is an opening to get down into the forest). It was hot outside and everyone refused to walk till the view point. So finally we said bye bye to Pine Forest and moved ahead. I thought I will somewhere on the way and wait for Atul. But the road were pretty narrow, and there was a long queue of vehicles both ahead and behind me. So I had to keep moving ahead. I had kept my camera in the boot so was not able to click any snap of all the population explosion happened in Kodaikanal that weekend. Still we thought better we should stop here and wait for Atul’s car. I was irritated to the core due to all this traffic and legal obstacles. I mean for Brijam Lake I can understand but what made government to decide that permit is required for Moir Point. It was nothing but a watch tower 50 mtrs from the road. Some of government laws are completely beyond my understanding.
Pillar Rocks
We asked him to go to Vila Lakeside and come back once it is done. He went and soon the last boat was ready to go. Till 6:55 pm we convinced him to wait. After that he said either we should go now or come back next morning at 8 am and take the ride. Next morning we had the plan to leave. I called up Amit and he said it will take time so better we should take the ride. It was just about the sunset.
Bonfire at Villa Lakeside
). We crossed half of the ghat section and at one of turns I saw a watch tower. We thought at least once we can see the Nilgiris in peace.
nayannilank 