Hoganekal Falls

Last weekend we decided to go on a drive towards the Mettur dam. When we were driving back from Coimbatore to Bangalore, Sree had taken this route. I was sleeping in the car all through, Arun was giving him company on the drive. So, Sree recommended that we go on a drive in that route, since I had missed it.

Aditi, Didi, jeeju and even mom accompanied. And we planned to go to Hoganekal falls. The drive was, of course very pleasant and beautiful. We stopped for lunch at Hosur and then for tea in Palacode.

We had started late, almost at 12 in the noon and with no plans to hit any destinations, we had taken relaxing four hours drive. By the time we reached Hoganekal falls, it was close to 5. We seemed to be the last of the lot to be entering into the water while everyone were walking out.

The Coracle ride was very good. And it was a pleasant weather and time (after 4) to go on a coracle ride. The guy explained that there will be lot of falls formed once it rains. He took us close to one of the falls and circled the coracle under. The water splash wet all of us :) Aditi was excited about it.
There is also a beach formed with the river water on two sides with a pience of land in between. It was a beautiful view. An interesting business model seen was the snacks and drinks sold on coracles :)

We could see people getting massages on the rocky banks of the river. The short trip to the falls was very pleasant. Jeeju drove most of the time and seemed to enjoy. We stopped at Palacode for omelets and egg poach. We couldn't stop ordering for more.

Bangkok - The welcome

The arrival at Bangkok was an unpleasant experience. We had to wait for few of our colleagues to get the on-arrival visa and the counter looked chaotic. It took close to 2 hours waiting to get the visas. And the immigration clearance counters were not operational even though almost all the counters had a queue of more than 50 people in each. The officer arrived to the counter early, however, the clearing out began only when he could make himself comfortable for may be half hour. Also, he seemed least bothered to listen to this grief and was directing us to the feedback counter to provide feedback. The scene was such as if he knew there can be no improvement imposed. This might have been the situation only for the early morning landings. I didnt hear about this from our colleagues who were there the previous evening.

Since few of us waited for the on-arrival visa, we missed the warm welcome that was arranged for us. Rest of them who made it out of the airport in time, were welcomed with garlands.

The traffic did not let us miss Bangalore even for a day. In fact, Bangalore traffic seemed better than that of Bangkok. Besides, the taxi drivers drive very rashly. We had to hang on to the cars whenever we took a taxi to go out of the hotel. The signals within the city roads can last upto 15 minutes each!

All the taxis are Corollas and they remind you of the gems chocolate colours - pink, blue, green, orange, red, yelllow, etc. Tuk Tuk drivers demand heavy money for transportation, almost 2 times higher than the taxis.

The city looks crowded always. Explaining destinations to taxi drivers is an adventure. They hardly understand English and the pronunciations matter a lot. Every word has to be broken down to sounds :) A miscommunication caused my lady colleagues to end up in a brothel!

Bangkok

Last year Sree had a lay over at Bangkok and HongKong. These were the two destinations he wanted us to travel together. We could not make it together, however, I got a chance to make an official trip to Bangkok, beginning of this year.

Before we even made it to the place, I had a chance to research some history of the place, to help our MD prepare a welcome presentation for the event.

Bangkok was instituted as the new capital in 1782 by king Chakri. By 1860 many European countries and North America had trade treaties with Bangkok. Vietnam War marked a major period of change in the history of Bangkok as money poured into the country from abroad and improvements were made to the city’s infrastructure. The great reform occurred in the reign of King Rama V (1868-1910) who brought the nation into modernization in various aspects, including administration, education, justice, communications and public health. In just over 200 years, Bangkok has grown from a small collection of villages scattered among canals and rice paddies alongside the Chao Phraya River to an enormous sprawl of a capital.

Our stay was arranged at Hilton Millennium which is also alongside the Chao Phraya river. There are many hotels, restaurants, floating markets and night markets alongside. The river is a major transportation artery for many water taxis and ferries. Mobility between restaurants and hotels are by the ferries.

Night markets, floating markets and the shopping malls are the-things-to-do in Bangkok, apart from of course, the various other things the place is known for.