A journey to Kovai :travelogue

A journey to Kovai

It's been a very wonderful vacation with a lot many chance to see places, and feel them, coming up.

My journey began from the business heart, the commercial capital of Kerala, The Queen of Arabian Sea. A single day journey with a specific purpose to Kovai (Coimbatore) was planned.

The road was good, too good. But the driver being lazy didn't pull up even to 100kmph.Bright sun, good road, and low traffic, what more could be asked for? The Inside of the city had traffic congestion as usual although it was after-office hours.

Kovai was far away, considering the speed at which the vehicle moved. So, it was decided to put on movies and glue our thoughts to the LCD screen. With enough toffees and chips at hand, the film turned nice refreshment. There was a halt at the Indian Coffee House, the place which you can trust for good food, anytime, anywhere. Had biriyani, for lunch, and replenished ourselves with choco bars and still more chips and other edibles.
Movie continued.........


Entering Palakkad, one of the dry lands of Kerala, the heat began to build up. Fortunately there were enough trees on the road side for most part of it. Palakkad clearly distinguishes itself from Kerala landscape Palm trees grew more abundantly than coconut tree in this region. The palm resembled a chick trying to get out of its egg while the coconut tree reminds me of a hatched chick getting ready to wander here-and-there with its tiny happy little wings.

Entering the Tamil Nadu border-The Walayar check post.

The vehicles passing through the post needed a permit of Rs. 300/ for LCV and people passing through the post in the vehicles were to be named in two sheets of white paper. There was a pettikkada selling white papers opposite to the Walayar post. The story of film 'Runway' starring Dileep and Kavya came to my mind while the driver went to buy the required paper.

The guy at the post gave a permit (a coloured paper).We moved on. At the physical check post the permit had to be shown, we entered TN.

Now this is very strange. When we get a license it says we have permit to drive anywhere in the Indian union. We pay road tax and it goes to the Government too. We buy the vehicle and pay all sorts of formalities, the insurance, registration, pollution control etc.

Why then should we again give some money at some check post? Anyway things are weird in every part of the world. Somehow we manage to live with it without much indifference.

Not too far, in fact Kovai was very close we reached there in apparently no time. Lot many of people and many vehicles on the road. But the roads were quite nice, no bumps, no unwanted humps, nice smooth and safe road. For a person from Kerala it was too good to drive the vehicle on it. Chances come seldom, when it comes grab with both your arms, so did the driver enjoying every second he drove on road, with reverence and cheerful face. We had a stop near Gandhipuram junction .Entered some of the too many textile shops there and had flying colours thrown in to our eyes every now and then. Some things were purchased, it was getting dark. Out of the showroom the streets were fully lit by the neon and other sorts of lamps and lights. We headed, to fill our tummy lightly, to Anandabhavan, famous for everything they serve.

Our dear driver was very font of parrots. It was learned that the birds and other pets were available at the Ukkadam market, which was 65% open even in the dark. We went into the only shop which was open for sale of pets at that time. They had love birds, finches, parrot, geese, sparrows, pigeon and white mice and rabbits. After shifting three parrots to their new prison (a cardboard box with holes), we continued our journey.

Our hearts were light, our tummy full, and eyelids heavy, the driver took us to home sweet home .Nothing can be better than the place we call hometown. Nothing, however developed can match its comforts. We reached home at very early morning; somehow we managed to get on the bed and pull over our bed sheets, hoping for a very sweet dreamless sleep of tranquillity. When we woke up everything seemed to be a distant dream, the bag of purchased clothing and sweets from Anandabhavan reminded us of the reality.