Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Homestay in Wayanad - Maple Oak

Me and Rubert recently went on a ride to Wayanad - which is a district in Kerala. I've gone there previously with Abhilash and Tom and even once on a ride with my Bullet Club - the Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club - RTMC for short. On the RTMC ride, we'd stayed at some nameless resort, which, though was quite decent, wasn't very friendly.

On this short ride, we decided to stay at the Maple Oak homestay in Chundale, Wayanad. We made some inquiries and found that there were vacancies and the pricing was great. We were planning to go for a friend's daughter's christening in Wayanad and this homestay was quite close to where he lives.

The ride was awesome. Rubert, in charge of the route, planned to take this route - Bangalore -> Mysore -> Gundlupet -> Gudalur -> Wayanad. Though I was a little put off with the increase in distance of the ride, I was fine to go ahead with it since Rubert loves making em chappathis on the roads. Hehe, that is slang for riding in the twisties! And love it we did - the route from Gundlupet to Gudalur is simply spectacular! There is very little traffic and the roads are neat and clean and lots of twisties. Not the hair-pin bend kind but the good kind with nice sweeping curves and corners!

We reached Gudalur and then only did we know that we'll have to go to Sultan Bathery and then only towards Chundale. Anyways, it was a great ride and we reached in the evening.

The best part was the warm welcome we received at the homestay. Our friend was waiting for us there with the boss of the homestay - Franklin who showed us the cottage we were to stay at. Wow, I should say - very nice accomodation. The gallery speaks for itself - we'd stayed in Opal which can easily house 5 or 6 people. After a quick shower and a small nap, we settled down for a lazy drink and a late dinner.

The next day, we had the christening to attend - a nice family function. Breakfast was complimentary and we should really appreciate the D'Cruz family for a lovely breakfast. They are wonderful hosts who are not pushy and allow you to take in Wayanad as you like - fast and hectic or slow and steady. We chose slow and steady and decided to do a lazy ride around the district in the evening and we did. Riding around tea gardens and the lake etc.

We started back early the next morning but weren't allowed to leave until the family served us breakfast and sent us off on a full stomach. All in all, a nice ride - made all the better because of the lovely homestay. We were treated like family. The cottage is neat, clean - with all amenities in place. Hot water, showers, a small kitchenette where you can even prepare some food.

If you do make a visit to Wayanad - do stay at the Maple Oak homestay - you'll not regret it!

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Blogging

When I started blogging (as soon as I said that, I feel old!) - it was the in thing to do. People would religiously update their blogs everyday - including me! And it was fun to see so many interactions on the blog. Then in dropped Facebook and people wanted real time updates and "likes" on stuff that they wrote about. In a way, this started to drive the knife into blogging and started bleeding it.

But the real killer for me has been Twitter. 140 character limit doesn't actually spoil it for you. It makes it more interesting. And you try and put as much as possible into that 140 limit! And to say that I get the latest news faster on Twitter than anywhere else has much to say.

Maybe blogging still lives on - I am not aware of it. Let me see how many comments I get on this post. Btw, guess this is my 9th year of blogging!