The drunken monk is back with a bang (???his word for a whimper, may be). Resurrected from the ravages of time( got 2 more years in terms of age:( :( ....). still wandering the beaches of kalpakkam.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Thursday, September 29, 2011
தொலைநோக்கியை நோக்கி ....kalpakkam 2 kavalur
Hello world,
Welcome once again to the world of hakuna mataata. Here there are no worries, only trek, travel and enjoyment.
This blog would take you on a journey to one of asia's largest telescopes- The Vainu Bappu telescope.
Welcome once again to the world of hakuna mataata. Here there are no worries, only trek, travel and enjoyment.
This blog would take you on a journey to one of asia's largest telescopes- The Vainu Bappu telescope.
The telescope is situated on the picturesque javadi hills of north tamil nadu. Our journey started at our present home right at the land's end -The beach side enclaves of kalpakkam atomic energy township. Though the day of the visit was chosen to be the weekend, the preparation for it started a week before. we (I,Nandha,and Kalyan) had invited many of our fellow researchers for the trip and we had also asked for special permission from one Mr. muthumaariappan of the observatory for a full night sky watching session. But finally none turned up, so only we three decided to enjoy the exotic experience.
we started from our enclave at around 4:30 early in the morning. We had planned to catch the train from chennai central to bangalore -the bangalore express via vaniyampadi to reach kavalur but right from the start we started tweaking our plans for good. once we began to realise that time was running out and the possibility of reaching chennai central by 7 a.m. was converting itself into a probability, we changed our plan and decided to board the kalpakkam to vellore bus which was already tempting us, groaning in the take off mode. so finally we were into the bus.
it was a long travel from kalpakkam to vellore- around 4 hours of gruelling bus ride. Our sleep kept us busy upto some distance but when we reached chengalpet we started to come out from our deep slumber and started to think of what would lie ahead. Throughout this leg of the journey the river palar accompanied us with its dry river bed forming the main part of our discussions. even at this point nandha was fully involved in his sleep.
By the time we reached vellore, the city was fully active. the time was 9:30. as we got out of the bus our hungry stomachs demanded breakfast. There was a hotel aaryas classic right in front of us so we immediately got inside and got energized. The food was satisfactory. Our next destination was alangayam. both government buses and private ones ply from vellore to vaniyampadi. We had to get into a private bus as it was about to start at that time. This time it took around one and a half hours to reach vaniyampadi. from there we had to take a bus to alangayam which is the nearest town to kavalur. actually we had planned to have our lunch in alangayam but when we reached alangayam at 12:40 we came to know that the observatory will be opened to the public only after 15:30, so we decide not to waste our time having lunch and hanging around alangayam, instead we decided to head to the heart of the javadi hills-The village called jamunamarathur.
we started from our enclave at around 4:30 early in the morning. We had planned to catch the train from chennai central to bangalore -the bangalore express via vaniyampadi to reach kavalur but right from the start we started tweaking our plans for good. once we began to realise that time was running out and the possibility of reaching chennai central by 7 a.m. was converting itself into a probability, we changed our plan and decided to board the kalpakkam to vellore bus which was already tempting us, groaning in the take off mode. so finally we were into the bus.
it was a long travel from kalpakkam to vellore- around 4 hours of gruelling bus ride. Our sleep kept us busy upto some distance but when we reached chengalpet we started to come out from our deep slumber and started to think of what would lie ahead. Throughout this leg of the journey the river palar accompanied us with its dry river bed forming the main part of our discussions. even at this point nandha was fully involved in his sleep.
By the time we reached vellore, the city was fully active. the time was 9:30. as we got out of the bus our hungry stomachs demanded breakfast. There was a hotel aaryas classic right in front of us so we immediately got inside and got energized. The food was satisfactory. Our next destination was alangayam. both government buses and private ones ply from vellore to vaniyampadi. We had to get into a private bus as it was about to start at that time. This time it took around one and a half hours to reach vaniyampadi. from there we had to take a bus to alangayam which is the nearest town to kavalur. actually we had planned to have our lunch in alangayam but when we reached alangayam at 12:40 we came to know that the observatory will be opened to the public only after 15:30, so we decide not to waste our time having lunch and hanging around alangayam, instead we decided to head to the heart of the javadi hills-The village called jamunamarathur.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
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