May 12, 2010 09:56 AM
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Yelagiri is a small hill station on the chennai-bangalore route, about 250kms from chennai by road. We made a 1 night trip to Yelagiri this may to escape from the searing chennai heat. The journey by road is very pleasant and takes about 5 hours on the super smooth Chennai-BLR national highway. For Yelagiri, you have to take a left at Vaniyambadi, and then take another left at Ponneri which leads up to the Ghat road.
The Ghat road is smooth, but narrow with spectacular views of vaniyambadi/jolarpettai en route. There are total of 14 hairpin bends, all numbered. As we moved up the hill, there was a perceptible difference in temperature. From nearly 40deg in the plains, I think it was near-about 30deg on the hill.
We first checked out Taj Zeenath Garden at Athanavur (which is the main town on yelagiri hills). Found the resort very nice, with clean rooms nice mango orchard around. Seemed ok for 1500/- tarriff they asked for. However, we wished to check out a couple of other hotels also that we had shortlisted. So we went to hotel landmark, which quoted 2000/- bucks min for a double bed room, and was most un-resort like, with lot of sun and not much shade. Next we checked out Hotel o Nila, which though boasted of a swimming pool, gym, had poor rooms which definitely did not deserve the price of 1500/- per night.
So we headed back to Taj gardens and checked in at 10:30am in the morning. (we had left chennai at 5:00AM). The resort offers brkfst at INR 100 and other meals at INR150 per person. They prove tea/coffee in the room, but meals are to be had in the dining place. The quantity/ quality of food served was very good, and contributed majorly to a ncie experience at the hotel. Also, the rooms are very clean, spacious. TV/24hrs water are there. Also the resort had generator backup which is an absolute MUST over here since during our stay, the power remained cut for more than 8-10 hours.
As far a sight seeing goes, there is not really much to do in yelagiri. There is a small lake, a nature park, childrens' park, and the usual couple of temples. However the weather was wuite nice, and resort organised for a 20 mins trek for me and my wife in the evening to a sunset point nearby. We had a nice view of the sunset, the ghat road, nearby vaniyambadi and jolarpettai. however, we saw rain clouds approaching fast, and so quickly trekked back to the resort.
Sure enough it rained heavily in the evening for an hour or so, and we really enjoyed the breeze/rain from our room. In the morning we made a trip to the lake. Boating starts at 10am, but we went much beefore at around 8AM. The lake itself is a small one, much smaller than say ooty/yercaud. For breakfast, we went to hotel yelagiri, which has a small restaurant. Had some idlis/ tea/coffee. Decent food and very cheap. breakfast for 2 in about 50/-
Next we went to the government silk farm, which is about 5 kms away in another town (forgotten the name now). Fortunately, there was a very nice gentleman available at the centre who patiently gave us a small lecture on the silk farm operations - about the silk worms, how they breed and how silk is made. They also had specimens of silk worms in various life-stages. It was an amazing experience and helped us appreciate the amount of work that goes into preparation of silk. Would strongly recommend that visitors make a trip down to the silk farm and try your luck.
Next we returned to the resort, and checked out their mango orchard. There were hundreds of mangoes hanging on the trees, but unripe. It felt really nice to take a stroll down the orchard in the pleasant weather. We bought fresh honey from one of the boys at the resort - Settu - who claimed to have collected it himself from the bee-hives at the resort.
Finally checked out of the hotel at around 1:30 pm. Though our stay exceeded 24hrs by 2-3 hours, the resort staff didnt mind. We found the service at the resort very good. Only disadvantage was that the rooms did not have phone/intercom. Reliance network in yelagiri is non-existent. Only bsnl works I guess there. So, for all those looking for a small break away from chennai, would definitely recommend Yelagiri and Taj Zeenath gardens at yelagiri.
Cheers!
