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Warning : The call of the wild is a cry that should not be ignored . It can cause you sleepless nights You will be woken up in the night by howling wolves and you will start seeing sillhouttes of elephants next to you in the dark ! A snake will slither down your feet as an invisible insect will screech into your ears .. So, when the cry started echoing in our ears , we decided to pack our bags and drive down to the forests .

Our destination was Masinagudi , a secluded quaint town, lost to the wilderness . Nestled at the foothills of the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, I was told that historically this border town was the capital of the erstwhile kingdom of Wynad .. It derives its name from the Goddess Masaniamma . Abutting the wildlife sanctuaries of Bandipur in Karnataka and Mudhumalai in Tamil nadu, Masinagudi can be best described in one word - WILD !

We left Bangalore in the wee hours of the morning and drove towards Mysore. The forests presented themselves as we reached Bandipur. The cool breeze brushed past our cheek ; a slight drizzle lent some freshness to the air. A carpet of greens veiled our eyes .The sun filtered through the canopy of bamboos that were scattered around . We crossed the Karnataka border and drove in almost silent reverence across the Mudhumalai sanctuary A deer darted through the bush . A peacock raised its head . The silence was only punctuated by the sharp cries of the babblers who probably announced our arrival .

Masingaudi today is a cluster of hamlets like Theppakadu, Bokkapuram which are dotted with resorts and home stays that offer a jungli experience . We found some interesting resorts during our three visits . The first one was Casa Deep Woods - we had been there some five years, and it has a stream running adjacent to our wild habitat ,
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It was a long drive and we were dreading that it would get very grumpy in the end. Like my other road reviews, where more moments were spent (on the review) trying to understand the in-between places and peculiarities, here I am spending few more pennies to build the story for it was as many as 782 KMs and that too in a single day. I have never done that long a trip. As a rule, we never drive in night so it has to end by evening or a little late evening, if it stretches in the night then we are just fooling ourselves. The good part was that none of my co-passengers have clocked those many miles as well so with four adults and two kids, I knew what I was getting into. The saner part of mine kept hunting for a good hotel in Bikaner but I never did. Somehow I was thinking that we would make it time. Our avg in previous trips has been close to 50 KM an hour since a 6 odd hour drive has at least one break so even if you are doing good it takes you 6 odd hours to finish a 300 KM thing. For 800 odd, it would be 16 hours and with every extra hour the average should rather go down then going up. We have not seen the last 500 Km of the road and have been only till Mandawa couple of times so even though we had some idea of what we were getting into, we simply were oblivious to what lay ahead. Someone said, Ignorance is bliss and then someone said that serendipity is the way to go so we went.

Delhi - Jaisalmer Road can be divided into following sections.

1. Delhi - Loharu (different routes to do this depending on where you live in Delhi/NCR) - 160-170 KM
2. Loharu - Fatehpur (100 KM)
3. Fatehpur - Bikaner (170 KM)
4. Bikaner - Jaisalmer (328 KM)
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This is part 2 of my previous blog on the same place. You can read that by clicking here : Sin City and More

This is how it looks with those neon signs and a happening night life.

Other than gambling, Vegas is famous for alcoholic beverages. Yes- beer, whiskey, rum, gin are easily available at shops. It is comparatively cheaper than other places and you will see people walking down the street with a mug of foaming beer in their hands.
Vegas is also a smoker’s haven. All the casinos and hotels are open to smoke, so you can smoke while you play. People buy a glass of beer take one ash tray and sits on the slot machine smoking and drinking and loosing and winning money. A cigarette pack will cost you around $5 from a shop and a beer in casino is around $5 a glass inside a casino.

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6^th April 2007 - A three-day weekend was coming - perfect opportunity to give fresh air to our lungs. We thought of visiting Jim Corbett National Park and felt that with kid it would be best if we could get a booking in Dhikala. I faxed and, almost daily, called and tracked my request at forest office in RamNagar. My fax was treated with the General algorithm (and not the VIP one) – Fax received -> throw it in the dustbin. This information came very late. We could not get reservation to Kathgodam that is nearest railhead for Naukuchiyatal and were forced to travel to RamNagar.

From RamNagar we wanted to travel to Nainital in State Roadways bus. But in the morning the only option was a private local bus. The state bus transport services of Uttaranchal are in very poor condition. I am not writing that it was non-existent because I believe in GOD. I have not seen GOD still I believe in it – Ditto for Uttaranchal bus transport services.

We reached Nainital in around 3-4 hours. Last time when we visited “Nainital” we did a Lake tour from Nainital & felt that the Lakes of “Sattal” and “Naukuchiyatal” were better than the Lake “Naini”. The plan was not to waste time in Nainital and so we immediately hired a cab and in around 45 mins we were at KMVN guesthouse in Naukuchiyatal.

The KMVN/TDC hotels have best locations, but rooms with taps leaking, plaster coming off the walls and in general give a damp and decrepit look. Inside room it was clear that they were still searching for the spider-man to get all mess done by him cleaned The cost of the room was very reasonable Rs 350 on ground floor and Rs 550 on first floor. In front of the room there was a beautiful small garden and after that there was Naukuchiyatal. As soon as we opened the door, the Lake was visible, as if it was our private Lake. Even with the shortcomings mentioned above, its location and price made it a value for money. We relaxed for a while in the small garden. A few kids were swimming in the Lake, jumping from a small platform and throwing & chasing a tire tube in the water. This fascinated Rachit.

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