Fairy Penguins....

I lucky enough to grab a chance to visit one of the largest colonies of Little penguins recently. What a wonderful trip it was....! I still can not forget charm of little fairy penguins I saw at Phillip Island of Australia.

I took a ticket of day tour bus of Gray Line from Melbourne to visit Phillip Island. In too much of excitement of starting my first weekend trip in Australia I avoided wasting time in eating breakfast or lunch at home, decided to pack and have it in bus instead! I reached bus stop 30 minutes before time even though the pick up point is only at 2 minutes walking distance from my home in Melbourne! 

Before starting the journey, driver smartly announced that any kind of eatables are prohibited inside the bus :(. This ended up me waiting to eat food till the bus driver stopping bus somewhere and giving us chance to have food outside the bus! My Ghanchakkar experience always follow me wherever go!!

Driver stopped first at Churchill Island , its a pictorial small heritage island. I fell in love with the place the moment I stepped down from the bus! Again I forgot to eat till the time I boarded the bus again to continue our journey towards Phillip Island! It was around 4 pm and still I was deprived of food :(!! Its not at all good for my hard earned Fat :)

Our next stoppage was at Koala conservation center in Phillip Island. I determined that before I start journey again from there I will have my food! But same thing happened. I again got lost in the world of Koalas and Wallabies and missed the chance of taking my lunch ended up having only an apple before bus starts!

 I found one interesting information about Koalas there. Koalas sleep almost 20 hours a day! Now I feel I have some competition in this area :( :(!

Ultimately we reached penguin parade visitor center in Phillip island around 6.30 pm. At last I finally got chance to have some food intake so that I can be alive to witness penguin coming out of the sea!! The scene of cute penguins emerging out of sea every sunset and marching ahead towards their burrows was absolutely delight.

The cameras are prohibited inside the visitor gallery of Penguin Parade. They gave reason to us that camera flashes make penguins go blind. A blind penguin can not survive and dies soon! I am sharing few photos which I downloaded from net though. Hope they have taken these photos using night vision cameras without hampering cute penguin's life!

The Little Penguin is the world’s smallest penguin and found only in southern hemisphere of the world. One interesting fact I found related to these penguins which I unnoticed until I read about it. We all are aware popular operating system LINUX!! Have you noticed it's logo? Yes,it's little penguin!

It is said that Linus Torvalds, the original creator of Linux was once bitten by a Little Penguin while on holiday in Australia! This encouraged him to keep this little penguin as official logo of operating system he created!!

I would recommend this place for every tourist coming to visit Melbourne. Its worth to spend a day on Phillip Island and pack life long memories of these little fairies! If you are looking out for an economical but still comfortable trip then day tours operated from many tourist companies from Melbourne City are most convenient and good value for money. All in all it was a good start to my exploring mission in Australia!! Hope I get more such cherishing memories to share here!

Glimpse of Dravidian Politics...[God's Own Country-3]

State Assembly elections fever was in full swing when we were passing by tiny roads of Kerala. We could see big campaign posters of various political parties at almost each and every corner of roads. I could observe crowd hailing their local political super heroes during election rallies.

Above scene described was becoming very common once we left Munnar and Thekkady and were proceeding towards Alleppy, Kovalam and last but not the least Kanyakumari. All these 3 cities are located in plain areas and with moderate or dense population. Henceforth the luxury of soothing climate of Munnar and Thekkady was out of question here. Awkwardness of Extreme heat and humid climate was taking tall on all of us.

Frankly speaking I literally didn’t found any special thing in Alleppy for which so much hype is created in media. As we all know Alleppy is projected as one of prime tourist spot where one can relish back water in houseboats and get lost in god’s own country. But in reality I found Alleppy a stinky place where one has to spend entire day in stinking house boat and back water.

No matter how much ever luxurious house boat you book , the hell like stinking smell of stagnant back waters remain in your nostril throughout the day in Alleppy. This is not only my observation but all who had visited this place would agree to this experience to some extent. Even few local friends of mine who hail from Kerala they agreed to this reality of Alleppy.

If one really wants to cherish pleasure of backwater I would suggest using motor boat or shikara boat and spending entire day at Poovar rather than in Alleppy. Poovar is a small coastal town near Trivandrum district of Kerala and indeed far better place to relinquish beauty of Back waters here.

Somehow good experience at Kovalam and Kanyakumari compensated my grief of Alleppy though later. The peaceful Triveni sangam and Meditation hall at Vivekananda rock memorial of KanyaKumari took away all agony and anxiety. Colourful and amazing sunset and sunrise at Kovalam brought sunshine back in life and that was how I forgot one exceptional place Alleppy which I didn’t enjoy much in Kerala.

I had very interesting conversation with my driver on last day of our trip.

Driver: Madam what super Kerala or Tamilnadu?

Me: I liked Kerala much..And apart from Kanyakumari I have not seen Tamilnadu much so can’t decide though!

Driver: Me Tamilnadu super Madam...In Kerala rice 20 rupees, in Tamilnadu rice 2 rupees Kg!!

I was stunned by his observation. In only one sentence he clearly gave picture of political gamut and difference in two states. Mr.Karunanidhi and Jayalalitha definitely rock amongst common men with their election freebie bandwagon tactics!!!!

I found one uncanny similiarity between him and me. I was also lured by media hype about Alleppy, took special care that I do not miss out this place from my itinerary. Clearly media hype can sometime mislead and misguide your likings, two live examples...I did like Alleppy before visiting it and my driver liked Tamilnadu over Kerala!

Obviously our poor driver was unaware of how this freebie tactics is killing Tamilnadu’s economy. Who will make him understand that this is nothing but corrupt electoral malpractice? Need of one more Anna Hazare revolution may be required to open up eyes of common men in South India. Concluding with the interesting write-up on Dravidian Politics found it on Rediff.com. Thought provoking indeed.



Munnar Anytime.....Every time! [God's Own Country-2]

Munnar Anytime.....Every time! This line I found somewhere on net when I was trying to collect as much as information on tourist places in Kerala before my planned visit in January 2011. What a place it is! After visiting Munnar really I found this line truest to its meaning.

Munnar, a small hill station located at altitude of 6000 ft in Idukki district of Kerala; merely 4-5 hours drive from Cochin Airport. Once you have visited this place you simply cannot forget its breathtaking ever expanding tea estates, various hydra projects’ tourism spots and sanctuaries. A fresh air filled with aroma of Spice to add up in to the list. In short a gateway to relaxing and rejuvenating destination.

This is the place where first time I saw a cardamom plant ever in my life! As we all know Cardamom is termed as Queen of Spices! Our driver took special interest and tried to explain us entire process of how cardamom is dried up and sold in market once it is harvested from plant. But to our irony of understanding his kind of Malayalam English we hardly understood a bit of it.

So after coming back from the trip I had to Google about the same. I must say it is quite long a process this queen of spices undertakes before getting into shape! Whoever is interested can find initial information from links as follows:

http://cardamomindia.blogspot.com/

http://www.plantcultures.org/plants/cardamom_production__trade.html

Following is few bits and pieces of information of the places or facts which I liked the most here.

Eravikulam National Park

The Western Ghats, Anamalai Sub-Cluster, including all of Eravikulam National Park, is under consideration by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee for selection as a World Heritage Site.

26 species of mammals have been recorded in the park including the largest surviving population of Nilgiri Tahr (mountain goat), estimated at about 750 in number. IF you are lucky enough then you will be able to see one of them. I must confess luck was not in favor of mine so I couldn’t see any of them! You can also view Anamudi mountain peak which is the highest point in India outside the Himalaya-Karakoram mountain range from this national park.

Six mini-buses are operated by park staff as part of the visitor-management program as well as a pollution-control measure. Private vehicles are not allowed within the park. INR 35 is charged per head as an entry fee for Indian nationals. Foreign nationals are charged INR 200 per head.

Tea Plantations:

‘Taza Ho le.....’ yes you guessed it right, this is the tag line of TATA Tea advertisements on TV now a days! How apt it is...your inner self will be full of renewed and refreshing energy when you are passing by these breathtaking tea plantations in Munnar. I would suggest it is better to hire a two wheeler bike from local vendors in Munnar town to visit these plantations. Generally at rent of Rs. 300 per day bikes are available. The feel will be entirely different and more enjoyable if you roam around in Munnar in a two wheeler rather than a Car.

Neelakurinji Flowers

Neelakurinji a flower which paints the hills in blue colour once in twelve years in month of August to December. The Neelakurinji, was blossomed last in 2006. Yes I missed it that time but again next year i.e. 2012 I have a chance to see them blooming. I am not fool enough to miss that one so Kerala this Ghanchakkar will come again in 2012 be prepared!!!!

Apart from above there are places like Mattupetty dam, Top station, Echo point which you can visit and get lost in serenity of Munnar! Hope I can visit this place anytime and everytime I visit Kerala!!!

God's Own Country-1

Recently I got chance to visit Kerala. What a trip it was...! A break much needed for all of us. I have so many things to share from my Kerala trip. I will narrate in parts this time and try to bring some unique flavours of Kerala god’s own country!

Glimpse of beautiful Kerala started as soon as we arrived at Cochin Airport. Airport is having traditional Kerala architecture outlook. Most prominent feature in Kerala’s architecture is its gabled roofs. The moment I arrived in parking area south Indian scene was totally set. Men wearing Mundus [White dhoti...Traditional Kerala attire for men]..... Ladies with lots of flowers in their hair.....ahhhh south Indian flavour everywhere setting mood of the trip!

I had hired cab from http://www.savaari.com/ which was going to be with us for our entire Kerala trip. One of the biggest worry which was occupying my mind while I was planning for the trip was concern to have cab driver who can speak either Hindi or English to avoid any communication hassles. Still my Chile trip and my adventure with Spanish language during those trips were totally fresh in my mind! I never wanted to go through same situation again. I had given call and reminded the tour operator minimum 10 times for arranging a Hindi / English speaking driver for our trip; still I was not confident that I would get the driver perfect!

As they say what we think same we get! Same thing happened to me also. My doubt came into reality and our cab driver named Saiju hardly knew any English words :). Hindi language was totally out of scope for him!!That was the First puncture in my so called over excited wagon wheel of the Kerala trip. In my own country also I was in same situation which I faced in Chile! Why Why Why me always! :(. Again I would have to depend on sign language more rather than spoken language in order to communicate with this fellow. I never wanted to experiment on sign language again due to backlog of my horrifying experiences in Chile for the same.

Here comes my mother’s first instruction for me before entering the car: “Hetal order driver, not to play any south Indian songs!” I couldn’t stop laughing as our Madurai trip resurfaced in my memory lane! Hmmm...Mothers can never forget you know! Somehow I managed driver to agree my mother’s terms and condition. Finally our journey started from Cochin to Munnar.

Munnar is a hill station located around 135 kms from Cochin. It takes 4-5 hours drive by road to reach Munnar from Cochin. After almost 2 hours drive my mother triggered a funny conversation.

My Mother:”How big this Cochin City is Hetal? See we have started from airport for last 2 hours and still continuously on both sides of road we are seeing residential buildings. Ask driver when we will reach highway and when this city will end? “

I tried my level best to make Saiju the driver understand query of my mother! And you know this time I succeeded in that. Yuppie....I also do learn and improve upon my weakness!

Here is Saiju’s answer: “Madam, this no Cochin, 4 cities over. This national highway. Kerala chota road, chota city, near city!

In short he wanted to tell that Cochin city got over long back. After Cochin City we had crossed another 3 cities and now we are going through 4th city! We never realised it! In Kerala all cities or towns are very much connected to each other, hardly we could find out that now one city is over and another city/town has started. We are used to seeing a huge empty plain land and farms between two cities which clearly demarks the boundaries. But here we found almost all towns or villages in Kerala are totally inter connected with hardly any demarcation between them! Wish our international borders also become like this one day!

The road which my mother was naming as city’s internal small road actually turned out to be a National Highway! We couldn’t believe that for a while and thought that this driver is joking! But after some time I saw a sign board of national highway which proved that Saiju was correct. We were indeed on National Highway which was hardly 8-9 feet wide! In spite of such narrow highways or roads, we never observed any traffic chaos or accidents anywhere in our 9 days road trip. Simply Smooth and silky journey! One of the reasons to make me fall in eternal love with this god’s own country!