Saturday morning, we had breakfast on the houseboat and
docked around 9am back where we had started. We immediately took an auto-rickshaw
to Alleppey’s main bus station so we could go to Vagamon hill station as fast
as possible – it was a location the houseboat owner had suggested to us as an
alternative to Munnar, which would be too far from Kochi. At the bus station, a
handicapped guy who spoke really good English wanted to help us find our way,
and even walked me over to a station manager to find out where we had to
connect buses. The guy needed a crutch for one of his legs, and made a meager living
from selling lottery tickets to people. My past experiences made me vary of
seeking help from him at first, but after we had figured out our destination,
he just… said a friendly goodbye and walked away.
We took a bus to Erattupetta, which took about 2.5 hours.
Erattupetta is just outside the ghats
mountain range, so in the near distance you could make out a single peak above
the trees. Barely 10 minutes out of town however, the road soon started
twisting and turning between mountains that rose ever higher and higher.
Spectral beauty, deep nature, and the feeling of home – it was the most amazing
bus ride of my life! Even though Vagamon is only about 30 Kilometers away, the
trip took one-and-a-quarter hour; time that flew by as if they were mere
minutes – Tall and beautiful mountains, with views that got better and more
spectacular at every turn of the road (once the cloud cover had lifted that is).
It was the most spectacular road trip imaginable, comparable to driving through
the Nyungwe Mountain Rainforest in Rwanda. The mountains reminded me strongly
of Western Rwanda, perhaps Gisenyi province, and I realized that my 7 years
spent there have given me a deep-seeded feeling of attachment to mountains. Now
more than ever do I know that one day, when I grow old, I want to retire
somewhere in the middle of nowhere surrounded by steep mountains.
From the time we arrived in Vagamon till we left it seemed
to never stop raining. It’d either be downpouring, drizzling, or at the very
least really misty and foggy. After finding a cheap hotel room (Rs. 600), we
started walking towards something called the Vagamon Meadows. I have to admit
that I had no idea what it was at the time but I figured we should just go to
the nearest attraction – still gonna be mountains, right?! It was farther away
than we expected, and it rained on and off the entire time. Every once in a
while, a carpet of misty clouds would cover the road or an enclave by the side
of it. Every once in a while, the occupants of a car or motorbike would wave
and cheer at us as they drove by.
 |
| The view from our hotel room in Vagamon |
The Meadows are, officially, an area with gently rolling
hills that are all bright green from grass and almost completely bare of trees.
We paid something like 5 Rupees each to enter, and walked around for about an
hour. Several Indian families came while we were there. At first it was
impossible to see anything beyond the hill we were standing on because of the
thick layer of clouds that covered everything. After they mists dissolved, we
could see all of the half-a-dozen or so hills that made up the meadows. It was
quite idyllic to just walk around, up and down the hills and back again.
When we walked back out the gate I pointed to the tallest
mountain in the vicinity, and said “we should totally climb up there, it’s not
that high up”. There was quite a lot of objection from Phu, who I think was
tired from walking around so much. But I guess I just slowly nudged us all in
the direction of the mountain with my argumentation. It barely took ten minutes
to get there anyway. There was a car parked near the top, and we politely said
hello to the group of people standing around it (and chilling). It was one of
them that later told me that everything surrounding us was called Vagamon
Meadows. Up at the top, we saw boulders strewn at random that gave it a harsh
and barren look in a beautiful sort of way. The view was amazing! We could see
several kilometers in all direction, and each and every line of sight presented
a unique mountainous view to gaze upon. This was one of the occasions when I
just went absolutely nuts taking photographs instead of drinking in the
beautiful sights with my own eyes. I always say that one sees the world
differently through a camera lens, somehow more clearly; but I wish I had taken
some more meditative time up there.
Parisa Ahmadi
Yours truly
On the way down, we talked to the group of men by the car.
Several of them were involved with a travel & tours agency, which is what I
think was their main motivation to talk to us. They were kind enough to offer
us a drink though, so I tried some Indian-produced agave tequila for the first
time. We walked all the way back to Vagamon (about 5km), had a mediocre chicken
biryani for dinner, and went to bed after watching another episode of Game of
Thrones. We had to get up early the next day.
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