Updated in 2010: I don’t know which is the right time to visit Valparai. I don’t have contact information of any travel agents there. Please do not comment here asking for any information about those.
Warning: This is quite a lengthy post. Read it when you find time. 🙂
I had been to Vaalpaarai and Topslip during the September 20th and 21st weekend with my team. This was a trip that I had been looking forward to for the past couple of months.
We left for Coimbatore from here by Nilagiri Express on Friday night. Reaching the ever-busy Central Station, meeting up with friends, choosing seats on the then empty train, thus began our tour.
No excursion/tour is complete without playing Dumb C or Antakshari in train. So Dumb C it was that we played till midnight. It was so much fun. Being someone who always sticks to guessing the movie names, for the first time, I too enacted the movie names. I will refrain from writing about how good my enacting was. 😛
The train reached Coimbatore at around 4:35 am. Vaalpaarai is 64 km away from Coimbatore. Tempo travelers had been arranged and we started for Vaalpaarai right away. A beautiful sunrise gave us company en route. 🙂 We stopped in between at Pollachi for breakfast. I was glad to see Pure Veg. written near the name of the hotel. 😉 (For all those new readers who are wondering why I was glad to see pure veg. written, check out this post)
Post breakfast, the journey continued and we were greeted by nature’s beauty in the form of Aliyar (Azhiyar) Dam at the foothills of Vaalpaarai. We didn’t visit the dam though.
Beautiful view! When clouds & hills caress? 😉 :
And from that moment on, the route became so scenic and it continued to be so till we reached the top of the hill! I just loved the place.
Our first stop was at Monkey Falls, where we were greeted by a lot of monkeys on both sides of the road. Here’s a shaken photo of the monkeys taken in a hurry: (With so many monkeys around, I was scared to take out my camera 😛 )
But the monkeys were there only on the roads and nowhere near the falls. One has to walk a few minutes from the road to reach the waterfalls. I like these kinds of places where you have no clue about what is in store for you 🙂 Wondering if there will be much water in the fall or not, how forceful the falling water will be, whether the water will be cold, etc., off I went with a firm grip on my bag lest the monkeys snatch it away. 😉
First glimpse of the waterfall:
It felt great going near the waterfall, feeling the cold water fall on my hands ;), walking down the rocks and standing barefoot in the water.
The path leading to the road from Monkey Falls and some temple near the entrance to the Monkey Falls from the road:
As we waited in the tempo traveler, the monkeys started jumping on top of the tempo traveler!
As we started from Monkey Falls, the view from up the hill was becoming more and more beautiful with each passing minute! I started taking photos, without caring the least about how good those might turn out to be. 😛
I just wished I could get down and walk on the road at a leisurely pace taking in the beautiful scenery all around. 😉 I wanted to at least get down and enjoy the scenery for a few moments. My wish soon came true when we stopped at Lomes View, a view point. The view from there was breathtaking!
The amazing view continued for some more time before the scenery around completely switched to endless tea plantations all around. The lush green of the tea plantations looked so beautiful!
There are 40 hairpin bends totally and I loved watching the scenery change with each passing bend. 🙂 Thank God climbing hills generally doesn’t affect me and hence I always get to enjoy nature’s beauty without any worries. 😉
It soon started raining and we stopped at some place for tea.
Foggy rains, beautiful greenery all around and me getting wet in the rain – I can’t tell you how happy the nature-lover in me felt. 😉 The only thing missing was the song ‘Barso Re’. 😛 Sipping a hot cup of tea while getting wet in the rain was bliss. 😉 Even though others were finding the weather to be quite cold, I didn’t feel so at all. I am someone who feels even Madras to be very cold during the months of November-February. But here I was in a hill station, not feeling cold at all. In fact, I was enjoying the pleasant weather. 🙂 I think something is really wrong with me. 😛
By the time we reached the hotel it was around 11:30 am. Hotel Treat was where we stayed. Once we reached the hotel, with stinking bath rooms and everything from the walls to the floor to the bed spreads and pillow covers being so unclean and few small cockroaches in the corner of our room, all we wanted was to leave the hotel right away. 😐 I just couldn’t stand the place. 😐 A hotel like this in a place where nature’s pristine beauty is all around – what a contrast! Those people didn’t even give us hot water saying it’s available only till 9 o’ clock or so in the morning.
There was a mess called Sri Lakshmi Chettinadu mess and that was where we went for lunch. As expected, the place had both vegetarian and non-vegetarian and so I opened my bread packet and had a few slices of bread. From what my friends told me, the food served in that mess tasted quite ok. But the place didn’t look that clean though.
Post lunch, we left for Nallamudi Valley. We had to climb further up the hill to reach the place (or so I remember it was) and there were again tea plantations all through the route.
Tea plantations en route:
It took us a little more than half an hour to reach Nallamudi Valley. With endless tea plantations stretching to the horizon, the place looked so beautiful!
We had to walk through this path amidst tea plantations to reach the Nallamudi Valley view point:
This is my favourite pic, my current wallpaper 🙂 :
Pacchai nirame pacchai nirame 😉 Tea plantations on both side of the path:
The view from the view point:
Mist soon started spreading and within minutes nothing at all was visible from there:
There was a path leading to the other side and after a few minutes of walking through that path, there were some idols of God. I wonder if that was the temple that was referred to in the board in the photo above. Not sure though. The guide said that bisons come there sometime. He also showed us a few tribal houses on the other side of the valley.
Sholayar Dam was where we went to next. The place was very nice. We were not allowed beyond that gate in the photo below.
It had already started raining by then. So the photos haven’t come out well since the light wasn’t that good either. 🙁
We had to travel for some more distance from the dam to reach the bridge from where we could see the other side of the dam where the water was pouring down. It was very dark and it was raining too when we went there.
After visiting Sholayar Dam, it was time for dinner. We went to Hotel Green Hills, supposedly the only other hotel apart from Hotel Treat in Vaalpaarai where one can stay. The moment we stepped out of the comfort of the tempo traveler, we realized how cold it was outside. Oh yeah I too was finding the weather to be cold. 😉 From outside, this hotel did look much better than Hotel Treat. No idea how the rooms there will be though. I again turned to my bread & biscuit packets since this too was not a pure vegetarian restaurant. Bread and biscuits were what I had for breakfast, lunch and dinner the next day too.
I was dreading going back to our rooms and wished we could go somewhere else too after dinner since I couldn’t stand the very thought of having to go back to that room of ours. 😐 But we anyway had to go back to our rooms after dinner. Glass of some of the windows of our room was broken too and I didn’t feel safe enough to have a good sleep at all that unclean place. 😐 With net browsing enabled in my mobile now, I was looking forward to doing some live blogging from there but since there was no signal at all at Vaalpaarai, I couldn’t even turn to that to keep me occupied. Talking about mobile signal, guess BSNL was the only one that had signal there.
The next morning, we started from Vaalpaarai at around 9. The plan was to reach Topslip as early as possible since there was a restriction on the number of vehicles allowed inside Topslip. But we ended up reaching there only by 2 o’ clock, thanks to the frequent breaks in between.
The first place where we thought we had just stopped for a break actually turned out to be a place with a nice view and a canal called Contour Canal.
We finally got the signal in our mobile at this place. But by then, my mobile had very less charge. 🙁
We again stopped for tea at a place called Kottur, from where one has to take the road on the left to go to Topslip or go straight to go to Pollachi. Many Govt. buses to Pollachi passed by that place. The next break was at Anaimalai, where they got food parceled for lunch, since we were told that nothing would be available at Topslip.
By the time we finally started for Topslip, I started wondering if we would get to see anything at all. The entire day seemed to have gone waste in breaks and travelling. Besides, the weather wasn’t that great either on that day. In fact, the weather was bad. It was so hot!
Topslip had just 10 hairpin bends but those bends seemed to be steeper than the ones in Vaalpaarai. Unlike Vaalpaarai where the roads were amidst tea plantations and beautiful scenery all around, Topslip roads were through forest with thick cover of trees everywhere. We saw a spotted deer on the way. 🙂
We finally reached Topslip and saw two elephants on which one can go for ride.
One has to pay 100 bucks for going on an elephant ride. Just as we were about to pay, we were told that it was lunch time for them – no idea if it was lunch time for the elephants or for the mahout. 😉 A little disappointed at not being able to go for elephant ride, we started for Parambikulam Dam.
Travelling through Topslip, you will soon reach the Kerala border. Parambikulam Dam is on the other side of the border, i.e., in Kerala.
We crossed the border and first had our lunch there.
The pit dug to prevent the elephants from crossing over:
The water on the other side of the pit:
When we started for Dam after lunch, the officials there didn’t allow us giving the reason that visitors were allowed only till 3. Total disappointment 🙁 We seemed to have gone all way to Kerala just to have lunch. 😛
We crossed over the border again and then came the best part of the day – trekking through the forest of Topslip for about an hour. 🙂 Before starting the trekking, we saw a pig. We started wondering if a pig was all that we were going to see there. 😉
We started our trekking through this path:
Some small temple that was there in the beginning of the trekking path:
The pathway and the bamboos and trees on both sides of the path:
One of the many pits that were there in the edge of the pathway:
These were supposedly dug by the British to trap the elephants.
Soon the many trees and bamboos on both sides started becoming dense and it started raining heavily too. That was when we left the comfort of this path and started walking through a path with even more dense covers of trees all around, giving us a feel of walking through the real forest. And that’s when the leeches made a grand appearance! There were leeches everywhere, many were bitten by leeches and some were getting scared of it. But surprisingly, I didn’t get scared at all! Maybe I would have, had it bitten me too.
The guide told us that there are all animals except lions in that forest and often kept asking us to maintain silence saying he could hear some animal nearby. We too kept saying sssshhhhhh to everyone who was talking. We walked each step eagerly hoping to see some animal, only to see no animals at all. 😐 Despite that, it was an amazing experience walking through the forest. 🙂 To be very frank, though a part of me wished to see some wild animal, another part of me did get a bit scared at the thought of some wild animal making a sudden appearance right in front of me. 😛
I was enjoying walking through the forest in heavy rain when the path suddenly had some slippery rocks. Despite keeping each step carefully, I slipped and fell not once, but twice! I fell the first time and got up immediately. And again fell right away! 😐 That got me a little scared and I started walking more slowly. The path soon became devoid of slippery rocks and I forgot all my fear. 🙂 And our trekking too came to an end soon.
End of trekking & back to the road:
Our vans came to pick us up from there and we came back to the place from where we started our trekking. We saw a monkey there and also an elephant, with a mahout but, on the way. Some compensation for not having seen any animal while trekking. 😉
There are some guest houses inside the forest. The guide said that there are good chances of seeing animals during the night if one stays there. I guess staying there must be exciting. The forest, the guest house right amidst the forest surrounded by trees reminded me of the place shown in Mr. & Mrs. Iyer, one of my favourite movies. 🙂
Almost everybody who came for trekking except me had been bitten by leeches by then. A couple of leeches were found in the vans as we started our downhill journey too. 😐 I was happy that I was not bitten by leech only to find the mark of a leech bite on my leg next morning after reaching home!
The journey down the hill had all of us talking about the leeches, the trekking experience and of course, about our not seeing any animals while trekking. But the return journey had a surprise for us in the form of two bisons that we saw. 🙂 It was a bit dark by then and at first, we couldn’t even see where amidst the trees the bisons were. Besides, we didn’t even get down from our vans. We finally managed to see those. See if you are able to spot the bison in the photo: 😛 (This was the best that I could manage!)
Since you surely would not be able to spot it, this might be of some help:
The return journey to Pollachi had me admiring a beautiful evening sky during sunset. 🙂
After a very short break at Pollachi, we reached Coimbatore station some 45 minutes before the departure time of our train. Boarding Nilagiri Express, the same train again, getting into our berths soon after dinner, a good night’s sleep after the disturbed sleep at the hotel room the previous night, reaching Chennai on Monday morning, thus ended a great, fun-filled and one of my most memorable weekends in the recent times. 🙂
P.S.: Click on the photos for larger size image. Entire set of photos here.
Looks beautiful … must’ve been a really welcome respite la? 😉
WOW nice pics.. u were so enjoyin the patchai niramae tat u din even knew that a leech bit u. 🙂
Woooow….mind blowing sceneries…glad to see that you enjoyed every bit of it..
Hi ,
There are some tea bungalows in Valparai which you could have made use of . They are
very well maintained and are availabe at nominal rates . They themselves arrange for
transport(picking and dropping) , trekking and serve food there itself .
That could have made ur trip more comfortable . The photos are damn good . We went
during summer , so we could not get to see “The Pachai Niram” u have mentioned .
woha!!! now this is wat u call a “lengthy” post!!! 😛 Really lucky to have seen these places!!! It would have been really cold out thr!! the hills the clouds!!!! lucky u 🙂
have any idea when Yuvraajz gonna release ???i mean the songs obvi!!!:P
Wow !!
You should have had a wonderful time , I should mark this place for my next trip and be there sometime next year for sure.. 🙂
lovely pictures.. even i’m going to parambikulam this december… really looking fwd to it! 🙂
Teal,
You bet it was! 😉
Aravind,
Thank you. LOL! So you read the post fully? 😉
Girish,
🙂
Kalyan,
Welcome to my blog!
Oh. I wish we had known about the tea bungalows earlier. Thank you.
Madhusudhanan,
🙂 It wasn’t that cold at all.
Yuvraj is releasing sometime this month. Not sure about the date
Vishnu,
🙂 Do visit it sometime
Mathangi,
Thank you.
Oh 🙂 Do blog about it 🙂
cant c the pics frm work!!! will chk it out frm home!!!! but i guess u had a great time!!!! this is the place for my next trip :DDDD
PS : me jus bak frm trekkin and raftin in k’nataka :DDD
So loonng post, just like a Vaal in Vaalpaarai. Vaalpaarai?? Hmm, looks like you strived a bit to get the sound right.
Pics of green tea were better than the ones of blue sky. 😉
The pic with that pig is kinda LOL. The signboard seems to be well placed to welcome the right crowd. 🙂
Then I cudn’t digest the fact that you cannot eat food in a mixed-veg (non) hotel. When you eat a cup of curd rice, you know how much of bacteria is slaughtered? You cant ignore its death cry of bacteria saying that you can’t hear them. Partiality is perungkuttram. 🙂
You were disappointed with not being able to ride an elephant? Elephants aren’t evolved to carry weights on its back. It can with its trunk, but not certainly on its back. So when you force yourself on it, don’t you think you cause immense pain? 😛 Heights of cruelty!
And let me hear that gain? Disappointed? Look what you hav said it here:
http://aparna-a.com/2007/07/09/naan-vegetarian/#comment-1304 😀
You can eat better food than bread & biscuts. 🙂 Cheers.
Prasad,
Hope you checked the pics from home!!! (I wonder why you use so many exclamations & smileys always 😉 )
Trekking & rafting? Wow! Hope you had a great time 🙂
Ranjhith,
I somehow didn’t like spelling it as Valparai.
>Pics of green tea were better than the ones of blue sky.
😛
>Then I cudn’t digest the fact that you cannot eat food in a mixed-veg (non) hotel.
I don’t care about whether you are able to digest the fact or not 😛 I am least interested in giving any explanations to anybody.
>Look what you hav said it here:
Haven’t I said that it is more out of fear? 🙂 For once, I thought I will try to forget my fear and go on an an elephant ride. But that didn’t happen anyway.
ok. Fair enough. But don’t be compelled to answer questions that weren’t asked. 😛 Also frm now on, please be overly concerned abt eating pizzas. Becos, both non-veg & veg are made on same pans & in the same kitchen. :)ll
Ranjhith,
You quoted my reply to comments for that post but forgot the content of the post itself? 🙂
Here you go:
Going by the tone, I nvr thought I wud get any reply. Thanks for your “interest” in “explaining”. I understood that “anybody” wud be “somebody” & not actually me. 😀
Good night.
Too late to comment here. Photos are awesome ! and explanations too. Valparai is great. Roja vellai malai tunes suits it perfectly 🙂
Sami,
Thank you 🙂 I remember your post 😉
The pics are really awesome [;)] … When you wanna share so many photos try putting up a slide show.. Else your page tends to get heavy… Cheers!!!
Venkat,
Thank you 🙂 For a post like this, slide show won’t serve the purpose 😉
Hi Aparna,
landed on your blog while searching for info about trichy… happened to notice this post… wonderful….. i have heard a lot about top slip and have wanted to visit for a long time… hopefully shall do that sometime….
your photos, esp those of the rain, fog and waterfalls reminds me of a recent trip to munnar, when i experienced fog for the first time… i even wrote about it on my blog.. check it out at
http://anushankarn.blogspot.com/search/label/munnar
loved your blog…. shall add it to my blogroll..
Anu
Anu,
Welcome to my blog! Thank you 🙂 Will surely check out your post soon.
Hi,
Thats a real nice post. If you can, please tell me how much did you spend for the van from Coimbatore to Vaalparai. Is it a drop only or you returned on the same van to Coimbatore?
We planned to arrange a trip to Vaal Paarai. So we would like to know how much does it cost from Coimbatore to Vaal Paarai by Van. Any “travels” details would be appreciated.
Hariprasad,
Welcome to my blog! I don’t have any idea about all those!
hi Aparna
where did you get the details for travelling to Vaalparai? Is there any info center where one can get all that is needed to know abt this?
Chakru,
Welcome to my blog. I don’t have any details
hai
we are arranging a beautifull stay in british bungalow in valparai
contact : +919962014699 krishnan
NICE….thanks for ur post…..
Hey Aparna,
Just Brizked through the page…its fabulous. I will recommend you to visit Ooty via Sulthan Bathery – Naduvattam- Devarsholai – Ooty.. the road is filled with same sceneries…!!! a lot similar and heavenly as seen photos here!!!
Regards
Ram
Ram Prakash,
Welcome to my blog!
Nice Blog… will be of great use to us as we are taking a trip to vaalparai on coming weekend
Hi Aparna,
Really nice post. I lived in Valparai for nearly 21 years and enjoyed a lot and there are no words to express the experienes I had all throughout my stay in Valparai(Mudis). A very nice place to live. Had been to Toplip thrice.
Since you have been to Topslip, you could have gone to the elephant camp, where you could have enjoyed a lot.
Regards,
Ramanan T K
Hi Aparna,
I could not see the pictures since I am browing from the office. Will check it at home. I do have lot of photos taken in Valparai and surrounding places, and I can guess how the photos will be..
Regards,
Ramanan T K
Mohan & Ramanan,
Welcome to my blog! Thanks!
Thank you xcellant fotos nice narration keep it up
Hi
Nice blog…will surely make many others to visit valpaarai…nice pics too…
.. would’ve been very useful if more details were provided on the travels operator (if you feel they are good), the pure veg hotel etc …nevertheless, a very nice blog.
Keep travelling….
Arivu & Mahesh,
Welcome to my blog! Thanks. I don’t have any idea about who the travel operator was
Hi Aparna,
Similar to your intrest i also do hav… i am die hard fan of ARR & Chennai….
I was just doing google to take my team for a team outing and I found ur blog…. I should definitely say it is an awesome write-up… It really made me like virtually being there… THANKS A LOT… I enjoyed very much! in a week or two i may tend to travel over there… and will share u my experience
Thanks,
Pearlin Churchill
Just stumbled upon this blog as I was searching for info on Top-slip.
A very good write-up complemented by amazing pics! Reminds me of an earlier trip to Valparai which I did with my friends right after our graduation. Getting nostalgic!
And yes, even I always personally feel that one should enjoy the sounds and scenery of the nature while in the forests rather than having the sole aim of spotting some wildlife.
Again, a well-written and a very useful log 🙂 Pls keep up the good work!
Pearlin & Sharan,
Welcome to my blog! Thank you!
Thanks for sharing. Both places and location looks amazing.Even i have planned Trip to Top Slip and Valparai during January end. Is it right time to visit and also can you suggest me some places for trekking along with guide? Looking forward for your feedback.
Nice blog, nice naration.. u can write novels.. nice pics.. u can become a good cinematographer..
Keep going..
Sakthi,
Welcome to my blog! I don’t know if it’s the right time to visit. You can go for trekking in Topslip.
Kirubakar,
Welcome to my blog!
Hi Aparna,
Nice description.
Actually planning to go to the same trip as u went on 26th, every1 wants to stay in valparai (3 boys + 4 Brave girls), but from my point I said it is not safe.. whats ur suggestion about that. is there is any other good hotel there.
but heard that some camp is going on in topslip, so visitors are not allowed for this week.
Let we try our luck !!
Nice blog. i missed the chance to go to these places last month. btw, i wanted to know whether ur name is Aparna Saravanakumar?
Hi ,
There are some tea bungalows in Valparai which you could have made use of . They are
very well maintained and are availabe at nominal rates . They themselves arrange for
transport(picking and dropping) , trekking and serve food there itself .
That could have made ur trip more comfortable .
Is there any address or Phone number which you can provide
Viswanathan,
Welcome to my blog!
Aparna,
Just we are planning to move on 2nd week of April 2010.
It’s very amazing to read your Valparai Experince and it given me a cooling feel while reading, keep it up !!!
Rgds / Maheswaran
Useful Post… Keep writing abt ur trips… Its a kinda invitation for people 2 visit:)
This weekend poitu vandhu soldrom…
Hi
Its was a superb one. I had forest guard and tourist guide in contact. if any body wants i can share his number.
Great exp. for guys.
@Suresh,
we are planning to visit valparai in August first week.. Please provide us the contact number.. and charges..
Thank you.
Sai
really superb topslip is my most preferable place in south…
also i need more nd more peoples to visit there to merge and feel
the nature’s sense
Hi
Happened to read ur blog … beautiful pics … i think u missed out on the most serene accomodation on the way to topslip u should have stayed there and made a day trip to valparai . Its called the dense near the topslip check post. Try it next time ur there..
Terrence,
Welcome to my blog! Thanks.
Valparai is a nice place to visit. but u have wasted ur tour. there are many places to see at valparai, which u need atleast three days stay. Regarding the Hotels, there is only green hill, which is better. There is a cottage named Deepikas at Sholayar. If u want the best, u can book at tea estate bunglows, where u can all kinds of services.
I can only feel sorry for missing the nice places at Valparai. There are monampally, Grass hills, which u cannot miss during ur life time. For this u have to get permissions from forest department
i have been to Valparai for three times and i am going again next week i.e on October 9, 2010 to Valparai
Hi….
This is Jayashankar..recently we went to Topslip n valparai..i would like to share my thirlling and njoying experience in thick n dense forest..tis may be uselful to you ppls by tis you can know bout the real experience of topslip..
We all started our journey from salem to topslip thru tempo traveller on friday(17.12.10)..we consist of 15members n went for a family trip with youngsters n then old aged ppls n kids..we started our journey at 10pm in salem and we reached topslip checkpost at 5am on sat(18.12.10)..one of the checkpost guard (magara theeban)said the gate ll be opened at 7am only..so we waited until 7am there n then only he opened the gate n we started to enter the topslip hills until tht we wait down in the hills.He warned tht while travelling in hills dnt get down coz many elepahants and bison ll be crossing the road..we started our journey with thrills..
Its really very nice to c the nature with pleasant breeze..the climate is fantastic there is no rain thts plus for us to njou lot..we reached topslip at 8am..after reaching there is no any shops except govt society and govt canteen remaning there is no any shops..we went to the reception and we get the cottage key from the forest officer(sridhar)..he arranged one security guy(ramesh) really he takes care well until we get down from the hills..
We get a very nice cottage n we took rest for smetime n our cookers started to cook NV dishes for mrg bfast..we brought everyting for cooking from our place itself..so we cant find any difficulties in cooking n eating..To be frank in topslip there is no places to visit..just we can njoy the dense forest with ful of greenish nature..we can eat well n we can njoy the nature only tis we can do in topslip..one day is more enough to stay there..near to topslip there is a place called parambikulam 5kms from topslip..there we can go to wildlife safari for tht cost is 140rs..the ending time is only upto 2pm..before tht we shld go there..In topslip itself govt arranged one hr safari trip we can go in tht by their van only.it cost arrounf 30rs for one head.
We all stayed in our cottage and we played sme games..time went very soon.at 4.30 pm security guy said to us from our cottage if we travelled for 10 kms in forest mns there is a place where sme tribal ppls are giving training to elephants.we went there at 5pm in eve n there we saw nearly 25 elephants in a same place where elephants trainers are feeding with raagi cubes..we was surprised by seeing nearly 25 elephants in a single place..in my life time i never saw like tis..exaclty at 6pm they ll start to feed the elephant..we njoyed a lot with all elephants..even we also feed all those elephants..
After tht we started to go to our cottage on the way we saw gropu of deers n bison in the roads..it ll be around 7pm the security guy said tis is the time where elephants,deers,bison and cheetah ll cme near to our cottage..we got shocked n we stayed inside the cottage itself..but unfortunately we saw only deers and elephants..After having the supper we again started to play sme games n we have a deep slp…
The next day mrg on sunday(19.12.10) we started our journey to valparai before the we settled for cottage rent of 2000rs for 15members tht to for a day..but cottage is really gud..we had mrg bfast there itself n we started our journey to valparai at 10am..from topslip to valparai its 56kms..its having 40 hairpin bends its very nice to see the sceneries of aliyar dam and monkey falls.we stopped our vechile in aliyar dam n we started cooking in road side for our lunch n we had gud lunch n we started to go to valparai hills.on the way we saw monkey falls frm there hair pin bends starts..after reaching sme 30th hair pin bends the hills are covered with full of tea estates it looks superb n very natural..we tuk photos by standing in tea estates n we moved..we reached valparai at 4pm.
We dnt have more time to c all the places in valparai..nearly sme 8 places are there but we saw only 2 places one is balaji temple its near to valparai (10kms) and we saw sholaiyar dam (24kms from valparai) then we returned to pollachi at 12pm night..really valparai is gud n we njoued lot there..at least we reach salem at 3pm..
things to remember:
1. way from salem to topslip is salem->tiruppur->pollachi->anamalai->sethumadai->topslip(total distance is nearly 185kms approx)
2.way from topslip to valparai is topslip->sethumadai->anamalai->aaliyar dam->monkey falls->valparai(total distance is 64kms)
3.Accomadation in topslip is very difficult to get the cottage..15 days before we have to book the cottage else if u ppl knows any district forest officer mns u can have red carpet facilities in topslip cottages..we went like tht only..so take sme care in booking the cottages else its very difficult to stay
4.tis is very imp to say in forest area n number of leeches are there.tis leeches byted us so many times..its just like small worms.we cant know when it bytes n when it gets down from our body..but lot of bloods came out for my cousins and for kids..so plz be careful wile gng in forest n check everytime in ur body.
5.If u tink tht u want to eat well mns the only way is u want to go with the cook with having all equipments and grocery items..coz you cant find even a single tea shop in topslip..If u like to have NV mns u want to inform to any securit guys before 3 or 4 hrs then only he ll arrange for tht..
6.If u planned to go for both topslip n valparai mns plz dnt stay in topslip no use of staying there better u go n stay in valparai..Its my kind request to you all..then only u can see many places in valparai..
7.Another one imp point in both topslip n valparai u cant get cell phone towers even a single point also..except bsnl u wnt get any towers..for any emergency plz tuk one bsnl sim with you it ll be useful for you
I hope tis ll be very useful to go..hmm…k happy journey in the thick n dense forest by having thrills and adventure..
If u had any quries plz buzz me..I ll help u..my num +918088222801
yours loving frnd,
Jay
hi … a v nice blog…nicely written with lots of lovely pix… pls tel me…did u stay overnite??? if u did pls tel me the name of the hotel and rate ? rgrds…vinod
@ viswanathan… hi ..can u pls give names, locations, rates of bungalows in top slip/valparai…would b much appreciated…kind rgrds…vinod