Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The Motorcycle Diaries

Movie Review : The Motor Cycle Diaries :

Photobucket

When you look back the history of the world and try to pick a group of revolutionaires the world has produced, I am sure that Che Guevara would figure in that list.

Those who are not familiar with Che till now, should read the wikipedia entry on him.

Che Guevara

Though many would be happy to label Che as a Terrorist or a Guerilla, the truth is it depends on which side you are.

To say it in short,

Sidharthan,a prince, travelled wide, and became The Buddha, The Enlightened.
Ernesto,a well off doctor, travelled wide, and became "Che" Guevara, The Revolutionary.

What interests me in the above is the "travel" side to it and the Travels of Che Guevara have been made into a movie.

The Motorcycle Diaries

Anyone, who is even remotely interested in travelling should see this movie. You get to see the South America at its best and worst.

The gist of the movie is simple.

Che and his friend decide on a 6-month bike trip across the south american continent, do social work in a leper colony and settle down by 30.
At the end of the trip, one of them settles down but the other sets about changing the world.

This trip shapes the views and perspectives of Che and at the end of it as the movie poetically depicts, che decides that he will take the side of the underdog.

Temples in Chennai - 3 - Sekkizhar Kovil

Place : Sekkizhar Kovil
Date : 12/1/2008
People: Mega & Senthilbabu

Temples in Chennai - 3

This is the third part in the series, Temples in Chennai. If you missed out the previous posts, please checkout

Thiruvalluvar Kovil

Singa Perumal Kovil

And this time, its again a peculiar temple, NoT a temple in the truest sense.

Without any further ado let me say that I had the chance to visit a temple dedicated to Sekkizhar, One of the greatest saivite saints of India.

The wikipedia article on Sekkizhar does not give much details, but anyway you can have a look.

Sekkizhar

To add to that,

1. Sekkizhar was born in Kundrathoor, now a suburb of Chennai.
2. He constructed a Sivan temple, Thirunaageswaram in Kundrathoor, which is still a big temple.

The Thorana vaayil on the entrance to the street.

Photobucket

The Temple:

Photobucket

Some of the wordings inside the temple.

Photobucket

Photobucket


Photobucket

Ofcourse, I visited the Kundrathoor Murugan temple and some others also, but they would be another post another time.

How To Go :

This place is on the right side before Kundrathoor Murugan temple and is in walkable distance from it. Any bus going to Kundrathoor Murugan temple, would do .


Thanks to my friend senthilbabu for showing this little unknown place.

18 Stunning bridges from around the world

Have a look at the bridges from around the world

18 Stunning Bridges From Around The World - Frikoo



Powered by ScribeFire.

The Top 10 Deadliest Mountains

Here is a brief account of the Top 10 Deadliest mountains in the world.

Top 10 Deadliest mountains

Trip to Tada Falls

Date : 1/12/2007
People : Mega,Satish,Ravi,Shashidhar,Bhadri,Himanshu,Raman
Vehicle : 3 Pulsars and 1 Splendour
Distance : 85 Kms

As a person travelling in and around chennai, I have been wishing to go to TADA falls for a long time and it has taken so much time to materialise. Now the trip was made possible with me getting a new Pulsar for myself. Hnece the plan was hatched to go to TADA falls in bikes from Chennai.

After starting from Chennai at 6.30 AM, we reached Periyapalayam and had our breakfast.

At Breakfast :

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

To reach Tada falls you had to take the road that goes west before the TADA town.
And ask for the village Varadayya palem. From here the falls would be nearly 5 kms.
On the road from NH5 to Varadayyapalem is the below temple. I heard that it is Kalki Oneness Temple.

Kalki Oneness Temple :

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Me with my bike :

My new Pulsar featured in many of the photographs and I am sure that it looked good in all of them.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Base Camp 1 :

This is the place till where the share autos come and drop you by. From here the falls would be some 3 Kms. 2 kms of a pebble road and 1kms of a oneway path.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Base Camp 2 :

This is the last place till where we can take any vehicle. After this its only Walk.
When we went, apart from our vehicles, we had a couple of other bikes and a scorpio to accompany us.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Base Camp 3 :

After walking for sometime from the previous point we will reach this Sivan temple.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Rest in the middle.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

The Small Waterfalls :

This is a small waterfalls and for many who are not able to go beyond this point, its good to spend time here.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Butterfly :

For some reason this butterfly was very much interested in us and did not leave us for a long time.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

The Final Destination :

This is the final destination in this trek. And the place looks just gorgeous. This place has a waterfalls tucked inside and hidden from outside world.

This place is a natural swimming pool and the depth was unimaginable. The water here is the clearest you can find anywhere though.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

The Main waterfalls:

The Last Waterfalls which is unreachable for most of the people. This place is reachable only by swimming, and it was a tough task taking the camera in the water.Thanks to Shashidhar who did the impossible task of carrying the camera above water in one hand and swimming in another hand.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

A Photo From Deep inside the Main waterfalls.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

After spending a lot of time at this place it was time to return back.

This is the terrain that you will be crossing to reach the falls.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

View of the stream from the Top:

A view of the stream that is formed because of the waterfalls.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Flora in TADA:

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

The Lone Tree:

On the way to NH5 from Varadayyapalem the scenery was good.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

After visiting TADA Falls, I would like to mention that TADA is like a Computer game with 7 Levels. Only the fittest can complete all the levels. :-)

Level 1 : Reaching TADA
Level 2 : Reaching the Mud Road
Level 3 : Reaching the Stream where we have to park our vehicles.
Level 4 : Reaching the Sivan Temple
Level 5 : Reaching the point from where there is no specified path and we have to trek only on rocks.
Level 6 : Reaching the small waterfalls.
Level 7 : Reaching the Final Destination.

Like in all games, the difficulty increases as each level progresses :-)

Out of 7, 5 of us including me reached the Final Destination, and 2 opted to stay back at the previous level, the Small waterfalls. There is a bonus level in which you can swim to the Main waterfalls. Though Satish, Ravi and Shashidhar attempted it and reached the half point, I am not sure whether they fully completed it. :-)

So, If you plan to go to TADA , try to complete all the above levels and you will have a feeling of a great accomplishment.

The 5 Smallest Countries in the world

The 5 Smallest countries in the world are

1. Vatican City
2. Monaco
3. Nauru
4. Tuvalu
5. San Marino

My Interesting Files: 5 Smallest Countries

Have a look at the above post. A Good one with the current status of the countries.


Powered by ScribeFire.

The World's Most Dangerous Sports

Forebes has an interesting article on the Most Dangerous Sports in the world. Have a look.

Forbes.com - Magazine Article

BASE Jumping
Heli-Skiing
Diving
Cave Diving
Bull Riding
Big-Wave Surfing
Street Luging
Mountain Climbing
BMX
White-Water Rafting







Powered by ScribeFire.

10 Most Incredible Things to Do Before You Die


10 Most Incredible Things to Do Before You Die


GO SKYDIVING

DOCK WITH THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

EDGE OF SPACE SUPERSONIC JET RIDE

TAKE A RIDE ON A RUSSIAN MIG-FIGHTER JET

DIVE TO THE TITANIC ON-BOARD A SUBMARINE

CLIMB THE GREAT PYRAMID OF EGYPT


VISIT THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

COVERT OPS


DIVING WITH SHARKS

TAKE AN AFRICAN SAFARI


Powered by ScribeFire.

Kolli Malai Trip

People : Mega, Muthu,Babu,Shivanand,Sarpalan,Vijay,Prateek and Arun
Place : Namakkal and Kollimalai
Date : 8 and 9 , Sep 2007

When the time for a Quarterly Team outing grew near, Sarpalan was quick to invite all of us over to his hometown Namakkal and hence thereby visiting Kollimalai also.
So the Team outing was arranged to be Kollimalai.

Places we had visited :

1. Namakkal Anjaneyar Kovil
2. Arapaleeswarar Kovil
3. Kollimalai Waterfalls
4. Kolli Paavai Kovil or Ettu Kai Amman Kovil

Namakkal Anjaneyar Kovil

Though I had previously crossed this temple during my college days, I hwas not able to visit it that time.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

A Candid Photo of myself inside the temple taken by my friend Shivanand.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

After finishing with the Namakkal Anjaneyar Temple our next stop was Kollimalai.

Places to be seen at Kollimalai :

These are the places to be seen at Kollimalai. I would say this is an exhaustive list. Make sure that you visit atleast a couple of these place when you are in kollimalai.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Trip Upward :

The trip to the bottom of the Kolli malai was scenic and straight out of a bharathiraja movie.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

The climb up the hill was a trip into nature full of awesome sceneries.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Video of a Hairpin bend

Kollimalai boasts of having 70 hairpin bends and in one of them many of Large vehicles have no option but to take Reverse gear to turn. See yourself in the below video.



http://youtube.com/watch?v=7UrpUCIxKx4

Seeku Paarai or Suicide Point :

This is one of the Viewpoints that we had time to visit and a good place to enjoy nature.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Semmedu :

This, I believe is the biggest village in Kollimalai and this is where we stayed for the night.

Morning walk :

Couple of us decided to an impromptu morning walk and the result was these awesome clicks.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Pepper plant.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Boating :

Kollimalai now boasts of an artificial Boating place and the boating was pleasant with nobody to disturb us.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Arapaleeswarar Kovil:

The Arapaleeswarar Kovil is a old temple situated near the waterfalls.
It is a "Paadal Petra Sthalam" also.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

The temple has a good number of Tamil inscriptions. I am not sure whether someone has taken the effort to decipher these inscriptions.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Kolli malai Waterfalls :

The Waterfalls is the highlight of Kollimalai and you wont regret it after the steep climbdown of some 1000 odd steps.

At The Beginning of the Path to Waterfalls

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

The main Waterfalls

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Video of the waterfalls



http://youtube.com/watch?v=dC2PbRiNWq8

The climb up to the starting point after the bath in the waterfalls is on the extreme side of trekking and can be quite daunting for anyone who is not a frequent trekker.

Resting halfway during the climb up of the waterfalls.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Kolli Paavai Kovil :

The Kolli Paavai Kovil is the most famous temple, haviing a Pazhamozhi to its fame.
The saying goes that "Kolli Paavai sirithe Kolvaal",roughly translating to (kolliPaavai will kill by tempting with her laughter)

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

The Temple:

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Thanks to Sarpalan for his efforts in organising this trip and his family for their great hospitality.

Cheers
Megarajan

7 amazing holes around the world

If you would like to see some of the worlds biggest holes , click on ...

7 amazing holes « deputydog

Powered by ScribeFire.

Kannur and Thalaserry Trip

Kannur and Thalaserry Trip:

Date: 18,19 August 2007
People : Mega,Satish,Ravi and Shashidhar

The plan was to attend my friend Jathin's Sisters marriage and hence see around Kannur.

All websites about Kannur boasted of many beaches and forts in the place and I was waiting to see them.

Places we had visited finally were

1. Thalasery fort
2. Muzhapilangad Beach
3. Kannur Fort
4. Payyambalam Beach Walkway
5. Payyambalam Beach
6. Kannur Lighthouse

Marriage

The Marriage happened peacefully without any fire ceremonies.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

As you can guess yourself, The guy in the Coat is Jathin, our host.
And he played the "Perfect Host" part perfectly. He had arranged a Tavera with a driver for us. That was too good to believe. :-)

Guesthouse

Our stay was at the Government Guest House, Kannur. The Guest House was constructed just next to the sea and had an amazing view of the sea.The sound of the waves were our company during the nights.

The Guesthouse had a fantastic view of the sea as you can see below. :-)

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Thalaserry fort

The Thalaserry Fort is at a distance of 20 km from Kannur and is a very small one.:-(

The Entrance to the fort:

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

The tree inside the fort. The fort had nothing to show off except this big tree. :-(

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

On top of the Rear Gate

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

The Walls of the fort.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Muzhupilangad Beach

The Muzhupilangad Beach is the most coolest beach I have ever visited. No soul in sight for kms and the beach is all for yours.

You can go the beach shore in your vehicle and drive in the beach for some 2 kms. Think of the scene in Alaipayuthey where Madhavan will shout "ava enna paathu sirichitta ..." in the beach . :-)

Our Driver with our vehicle in the beach.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Also worth seeing here are the stange sight of the rocks in the middle of the sea.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Kannur Lighthouse

The Kannur Lighthouse is a small very small lighthouse in the next compound to our guesthouse.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Due to the very narrow time, that visitors are allowed (3.00 -5.00 PM) we didnt go inside the Light house.

Payyambalam Beach walkway

The walkway along the beach is a cool place to spend the evening.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Kannur St.Angelo Fort

The St.Angelo Fort is the fort that is present in Kannur itself. It had a nice view of the sea.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Inside the fort

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

I have seen the below place in many films.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

The Beachview from the Fort at its best.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Another view of the beach :-)

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Payyambalam Beach

This is a nice little beach to spend some time in the evenings.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

A big Thanks to Jathin for the stay, To Ravi for booking the tickets in time and himself sleeping uncomfortably in Side Upper Berth and to Satish for bringing a damn good Camcorder.

Cheers
Megarajan

Blog Archive