This weekend, I went to Honey Valley Estate. Spent 3 nights and 4 days there. Good place. I do want to write about this trip but at the same time, I lack the time to put down everything. But something is better than nothing and nothing is better than nonsense, here are some random musings that is less than the full thing but more than the nonsense.

  1. I came to know about this place from Anand. He told about this place around a year back and then around a week back. The way he described was ‘you can’t go all the way there by your car. You’ll have to park your car at some distance and they’ll come and pick you up by their jeep. It’s in the middle of a forest/mountains. It’s a good place’. Ok. So, I didn’t take much notice around a year back but this time around, I was looking for some place where I could take my wife (well, lately she has been angry with me because I do most of my travelling without her ;). So we went there.

  2. Even after booking at honey valley, we (me and my wife) were reconsidering our decision to go there and were actually planning to go to Kodaikanal instead. Now, that would have been one of the most stupidest thing to do ever. Of course, we realized it only after going to Honey Valley. Anyday, it beats the hell out of a place like Kodaikanal or Ooty. Note: This statement is not applicable for all. It is mind-bogglingly foresty and mountainish. There is no Mal Road, no boating, no Pizza, nobody selling mineral water and carrots at points overlooking a valley. It is as good as pitching tent in deep forests on a mountain; only better.

  3. It has overtaken Anandgiri (at Ooty) on my list of nicest places to laze around.

  4. No photographs this time. The batteries in my camera went dead withougt shooting a single photograph. I just refuse to learn some things. This is probably the 10th time when I couldn’t shoot because either I had no batteries or I had no film. Though, if you want to see how the place looks in Monsoon, check out the nice stuff Ashwin has written about that place.

  5. I was planning to stay there for 2 days followed by a day at Talcauvery. But I extended my stay there and didn’t go to Talcauvery. Reason? Oh well, I didn’t feel like leaving that place.

  6. In California, you get to see a bigger ratio of Indians/Others than at Honey Valley.

  7. It was amusing to see how we felt about the place on different days. On the first day, we were excited and were talking about how fantastic it was. The valley view is so beautiful. The forest is so deep and green. The weather is so pleasent. It would be so great in the rains. Etc etc. On the second day, we stopped talking about it but we were very conciously taking notice of our surroundings and were getting bemused by them. On the third day, all the beauty around us was just there. We were not conciously looking at it, or praising it. It was just there for us and we were idling/reading/talking.

It is very difficult to say why I liked that place. It is similar to how I felt at Udupi when I biked down there from Bangalore. And it was similar to how I felt at Anandgiri in Ooty. The first thought that crosses the mind on arrival is: ‘Ah, this is good; let’s unpack and laze’.