Wayanad, the northern district among hills in Kerala, was a place I wanted to visit for years. On a January afternoon while having lunch in our office pantry, I overheard one of my colleagues describing the trip he and his wife had to Wayanad that December. This rekindled my desire to go there and I shared the idea with my wife, Maya, on that night. She was thrilled and we decided to do it during the summer school vacation this time so that our daughters would also have a nice, relaxed vacation trip. We spread the word that we would be visiting Wayand in summer among our near and dear. My two sisters with their families and my brother-in-law with his family immediately jumped in to join us in our trip. My mother and my in-laws also agreed to come with us, thus making the total number to 18 !
We decided to start from Trivandrum on 8th April, 2009 and come back home by 13th April. We would be travelling by train to Calicut and would be hiring a van with driver for 4 days to see the beautiful Wayanad. Train tickets were booked 2 months in advance. Van was booked through a contact of Hari, my brother-in-law.
I researched through the Internet and made a list of must sees in Wayanad and also looked at various accommodation options. I gathered information from people who had been there. We decided to spent 2 nights at Kalpetta and one night at Thirunelly. Hotel Woodlands was booked for our stay at Kalpetta and the accommodation at Thirunelly was booked at the lodge run by Thirunelly temple. Then started a month long wait for the departure day to arrive !
April 8, 2009
Finally the day has arrived, 8th of April, 2009. My sisters and family arrived in the morning in my home. Kids started running around enthusiastically. There were questions and funny suggestions on how to escape from a wild elephant if one comes to attack us ! It is Wayanad, home to numerous wild elephants !
A mini bus was arranged to pick us up and drop us to the railway station which is 6 KM away. We started at 7.30 PM from my home and reached railway station by 7.45 PM through the city traffic. We boarded the Mangalore express which was on time. With a long whistle the train started chugging along at 8.15 PM and thus we started our long awaited journey to Wayanad !
We had packed our dinner from home and had it in train in a short while. Then we were ready to retire for the day but the kids with their natural energy reserves continued their plays for some more time and eventually everyone fell asleep dreaming of a wonderful trip to Wayanad !
Part-2 will follow shortly. Till then bye !
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