Yercaud

Friday was declared holiday at the school and Saturday hobby classes were called off, which meant kids had a weekend free. A last minute decision and a quick weekend trip to Yercaud with mother-in-law and kids got planned.

We booked ourselves at the beautiful Shevaroys. Rs.6000/- for 2 rooms. Had booked the Rose rooms, but since the rooms weren’t vacated on our arrival we were upgraded to better rooms at no extra cost :-)

Plantation in Shevaroys Hotel

After crossing 20 hair pin bends we reached Yercaud…it was a neat 4hrs drive with all our breaks. Upon reaching there we saw that all the sign boards were only in Tamil. Mixing up Tamil, kannada, hindi & English we asked for Hotel Shevaroys and the localites guided us through all the paths. Thoughout our drive we saw people selling Jackfruits, Jamun & Mangoes. Temptation…temptation…I wanted to eat Jamun. So we picked it on the way…real small ones, unlike the large ones that we get in the city. A packet full of small jamuns with salt and chilly powder costed me Rs.10/-(Rs.50/- for Qtr kg in city). Kids normally refuse to eat it but this time they were asking for more. I must say these were small but tastier than the big ones that we get in the cities. After about 8kms drive we reached a gate, which didn’t really look like Shevaroy Hotel. A lady came over to us asking us to pay Rs.10/- for parking and that’s when got to know that we had reached Shevaroyan temple instead :-D So much for asking for directions.

Shevaroyan Temple is one of the most important sight seeing spots of Yercaud. It also happens to be the highest point of the hill station. The temple is a cave having the God Shevoroyan and the Goddess Kaveri inside, which are believed as the deities of the Shevaroy Hills and Cauvery River. Cool breeze blowing and the need of the hour was a hot cup of tea. Tempation….temptation….all of us wanted Bajji’s. Chilly Bajji & Onion bajji for us and Raw banana bajji for the kids. Hot and tasty. Rs.5/- a piece. Bajji done, tea done. Time for the view from highest point. Cold wind, silence & valley view is what we experienced.

With chillies outside Shevaroyan Temple

After spending about an hour at the temple, we decided to start back our search for Hotel Shevaroys and back we came to Yercaud town..where the Yercaud lake is situated. The hotel was hardly 10min walk from the lake. We checked-in into the hotel and had our lunch there. After about an hours rest, we had planned to take the kids out to boating at the lake. Around 5pm we reached the lake but since the weather was cloudy they had stopped issuing tickets. Note, the Boating, lake close by 5.00PM and the Deer park closes by 5.30PM. Boating got postponed to Day 2. So…what do we do to keep the kids happy. They got to take a horse ride. Rs.130/- (Rs.60+Rs.70). And in the rain they went :-) Son was happy that his demand for a horse ride was met, but was not too happy about getting wet in the rain and daughter was very happy about getting wet in the rain and not too happy about discomfort she had sitting on the horse.

View from Pagoda Point

We then left for Pagoda Point, another viewpoint at the hill station. Heavy rains followed us and all we could do was enjoy the scenic beauty from inside of our car. Kids got to have the ‘local’ sweet corn there- Rs.20/- for a small cup. And then the drive down back to the hotel was quick. The rains spoilt our plans to visit a few more places so we had to settle with sticking to our room and watching TV. Dinner was again at the hotel. Hit the bed early. Next morning we had the complementary buffet breakfast at the hotel. Nice & fresh platter. Had our stomach full and headed back to freshen up before we could check-out from the hotel. Post checking out, we went back to the lake and went boating. Luckily for us, we got another family who had picked up ticket for Motor Boat (8 people- 10mins- Rs.350). What should be a 10min ride got over in less than 5 mins. The guy who was driving the motor boat offered to take us for another larger round if we were willing to pay him extra. After spending so much for a 2 min drive, neither of the families wanted to pay more. So we returned back. The lady at the boathouse counter informed us that every tourist spot in Yercaud closes by 5.00PM.

Next was Killiyur Falls. After we drove down another KA registered vehicle passed by and informed us not to go further as there was no water in the falls and it was a long walk down to the falls. 

View from Ladies Seat

Not worth the effort is what we were told. So, saving our time and energy took a reverse turn and headed out to see Lady’s Seat. In Yercaud we have the Lady’s seat, Gent’s seat & childrens seat. All in different direction. With curiosity we decided to see Lady’s seat first. What we got to see what another view point. Cool breeze and loads of tourists.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention…how a KA registered vehicle can get cheated in Tamilnadu. You end up paying road entry fees at every point. The boat house road also leads to Gents seat. When we decided to take that route we were stopped by a guy who wanted us to pay Rs.20/-. We tried to tell him that just a day before we had driven on that road and no one was collecting any money. And this time we weren’t even going to the boathouse, we just wanted to take the road to Gents seat. This guy told us to pay Rs.20/- to cross or turn around. We tried talking to the cops who were standing there. One cop asked this guy to allow us to pass and not collect money and the other cop told us to pay up. And in front of us they let 2 other TN registered vehicle pass through without any entry fees. This discrimination within India..between two south Indian states can be so bad, I am not surprised at the discrimination that takes place elsewhere. Wonder how much the cop collects from this collection guy at the end of the day.

We decided not to pay these cheats and took another route to Gents seat and ended up going to Ladies Seat instead. After visiting this, we chose to skip Gents seat & Childrens seat and decided to have lunch and head back towards Bangalore. Had our lunch at Elite Saravana Bhavan which is near the lake junction. Tasty & hot quality Veg food.

Just before we could reach Salem, at a small village we saw a Sunday ‘sante’ market. My mother-in-law & I picked up a bag full of fresh vegetables & fruits at half the price of what we pay in the city. Upon reaching Salem, through a friend we got to buy variety of mangoes (picked up almost 10kgs of different varieties). A hot cup of tea and we started back to Bangalore at 6PM. Reached Bangalore by 9.30PM. Dinner on demand was at Dominos and by 10.30PM we were back home cozily sleeping in our beds.