Week-long family vacation exploring Wayanad, Nileshwar, and Mysuru during Dussera - creating cherished memories with parents, Mona, and Ibhan.
Family & Friends
It was the start of Dussera vacation for Ibhan so we ended up taking a week-long vacation with parents exploring Wayanad, Nileshwar and a night stay over in Mysuru before returning to Bengaluru.
Wayanad
We stayed at a Dhangiri Home Stay in the Vythiri region. The home stay was cozy and the food was local and homely. We always looked forward to our breakfast, lunch and dinner at the home stay to try our local specialties. During our 3-night stay, we visited some scenic spots, Banasura Sagar Dam and Tusharagiri waterfalls. What surprised me the most in Wayanad was the adventure sports scene - we did ziplining around Vythiri, speedboat ride and kayaking at Banasura Sagar and I took a dip at the Tusharagiri waterfall.
Nileshwar
We couldn’t have missed the unique backwater experience that Kerala offers; so we added Nileshwar to our itinerary. At Nileshwar we stayed at River Lap Home Stay. This was literally in the lap of nature with a small pond right next to our stay while the backwater and beach both almost visible on either side, just a few minutes walk away. The home stay was family run and it felt like we were being taken care by our own relatives with home cooked fish meals and local delights for breakfast. One evening we hired a full houseboat for ourselves around sunset - where the captain allowed us take control of the ‘helm wheel’ (driving wheel of the boat); probably that’s where the term originated. It was surreal to be riding in the house boat around sunset in the backwaters with the light cool breeze and the sun setting on one side. We went past our home stay and enjoyed karaoke as a family - felt a very unique and luxurious experience. One of the afternoons we also drove to Bekal fort and spent time at the Bekal beach park around sunset. The park had a giant wheel which my mom is always fascinated about and Ibhan graciously accompanied her for it. Giant wheel is probably not much in fashion as it was just them for the entire ride.
Mysuru
Instead of doing a 8+ hour drive back to Bengaluru from Nileshwar we decided to do a stop over in Mysuru. This was the weekend before Dussera so we thought that it could probably be the right time to stop over. Little did we know that the roads get chaotic around Mysuru because of the Dussera festivities. We felt adventurous enough to plan to go to the Mysuru palace in the evening before dinner. I dropped parents, Mona and Ibhan at the gate and moved forward to find parking - and that’s when the full chaos started. We got separated with the mobile data and network getting completely jammed; with only SMS working. If you know how the iPhone’s work - they default to iMessages - so although Mona was receiving my SMS’s she was replying to them with iMessages which were not getting delivered to me. Thankfully they decided to skip going in the palace as they felt that it was probably a stampede or disaster about to happen; but they were not able to meet me. We somehow messaged and decided to meet at the dinner place. They took the rickshaw and reached in 50mins while it took me 95 minutes to reach. On one notable junction all of a sudden the traffic was stopped, road got barricaded and everyone was getting down from their cars. I also left the car and stood by the barricades. That’s when I saw loud noises coming from afar; it was the Dussera elephant procession coming from far towards us. In a few minutes the procession was right in front of us - the whole crowd cheering for the majestic elephants and their mahouts. It seemed like a trial round just before the Dussera procession. All my frustration with the traffic and Mysuru just melted while I started cheering for them.
A week-long vacation these days feels a bit tiring but I also feel grateful to create and cherish memories with my parents, Mona and Ibhan. It’s during these times you just feel life is nothing more but a few moments and memories which stay back.