Our trip to Mougli’s forest: Pench

It’s been playing in our mind for a long time to visit a national reserve forest after our innumerable vacation at the sea and the hills.

Last Diwali (Oct 2011) we as a family, managed our first proper vacation in the forest. Our destination was Pench, the forest which is the original setting for Rudyard Kipling's much reclaimed work, “Jungle Book”. Pench is about 70 km from the city of Nagpur. Spread over an area of 275 sq kms 90% is in the state of Madhya Pradesh rest 10% in Maharashtra. We took an overnight train ride (Nagpur-Mumbai Duronto express) and reached Nagpur early in the morning around 7:00 AM. The car form the hotel did a timely pick up, but we had to struggle to find a decent restaurant in the city of Nagpur, for breakfast that early. Alas, we had to do with biscuits, bananas and “bhaijiyas” from a local shop.

Pench was relatively an unheard place for us, even friends from MP could not throw much light, and hence we had apprehensions while making the plan. However the moment we reached our resort “Pench Jungle Camp”, we were convinced with our choice of destination.

Pench Jungle Camp is a decent resort and the tent we stayed in was comfortable. It overlooked a small lake. Our little girl was thrilled with the different variety of butterflies and birds she could see in the resort and her peak of excitement was her horse ride that the resort provided. The tent was spacious with good quality furnishing and linen. Bathroom is the tent was large and tastefully done. The tent AC came handy in the afternoon; however the nights were much cooler and pleasant. As per food is concern, though variety was limited the quality and taste was never compromised.

We took 2 Safari’s arranged by the resort. They took good care to even pack us a scrumptious breakfast for the early morning safari. Luck was not in our favour and we missed sporting the tiger by 10 mins. The Jeep ahead of us spotted the Tiger from very close quarter and we had to be satisfied by witnessing the Tiger’s Poop. In both our safari we sported many samba deer, baboons, Jackal and many varieties of bird. It’s a beautiful natural forest and the safari trip in itself was thoroughly enjoyable. My daughter was aghast to see the huge size handmade bread used as a fodder for safari elephants.

We also made a visit to the nearby pottery town, where our little K along with her father tried their hand in the potter’s wheel.
The resort naturalist took us through a nature walking trail around the outskirt of the jungle. We managed to spot many birds including Kingfisher and several trees including Indian ghost tree, Teak wood tree etc

Over all it was a pleasant 4 days 3 nights trip and given a chance would like to go back here again.

Review of Mission Impossible 4 – The Ghost Protocol

As many from my generation (late 70 born), I have grown up watching TOP GUN, RAIN MAKER and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE’s sought after agent Ethan Hunt aka Tom Cruise and needless to say he was an all time favorite.

As any of the MI series this is a well shot, chic, on the edge action adventure movie which keeps you engaged as you unmindfully finish packs of popcorn. The ageing Cruise looked attractive with his long locks. 

The adventure here has a twist as the IMF get disbanded after been implicated in the bombing of Kremlin. The task is more difficult for Ethan and his team as they have to save the world form a potential nuclear war without any assistance from the US government.

The movie has a pace as it’s constantly moves form Budapest to Moscow to Dubai and finally to Mumbai. And the pace of the movie is complemented with well crafted action adventure. Worth mentioning here is the scene where Cruise seen spidering up and then dangling outside the world's tallest building — the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The climax scene in an automobile workshop has few moments but you have seen too many of those in Hollywood movies before.

Ethan Hunt has a hunger to excel and Cruise depicts the character of a super skilled agent who also has an emotional self flawlessly. The other worth mentioning factor was the comic timing of the movie. Simon Pegg  as a comic relief lab geek was thoroughly entertaining.

Oh I have missed out mentioning our own Anil Kapoor. Well it’s a brief role and somehow the kind of intense acting and role that Kapoor has been associated with in Indian cinema somehow makes this role as a millionaire Indian brainless tycoon very demeaning. It’s not about he did well or not it’s just these types are not worthy enough for his talent.

Munnar- Thekkady: A trip to God’s Own country Kerala

It was a long awaited trip: a trip planned with the family around the month of August 2011. We were a diversified group of two senior citizens, one child (4yrs) and four adults.

Looking at our group size and the luggage, we opted for a tempo traveler for our entire trip. Our first destination was the hilly town of Munnar which is about 135 kms away from Cochin. Driving up to Munnar was really adventurous considering the glimpses of lush green tea plantation and natural forest you get to see as you climb up the narrow hilly roads. With few breaks for food and to enjoy the lovely Cheeyappara Waterfalls we took close to 6 hours to reach our resort “Club Mahindra Lake View Munnar”. Must mention here the raw mango sprinkled with salt available at Cheeyappara Waterfalls, that had helped both me and my sis to control our queasy feelings,after the journey through the curvy, twisty hilly road.

Munnar is a heavenly place, which can take your breath away with its abundance of natural beauty and the peace and tranquility surrounding it. No wonder it was the favoured summer resort for the British. Munnar has a mesmerizing feeling with unending expanse of tea plantation, immaculate mountains and exotic spice plantation. Kerala government really deserves praise here for the excellent upkeep of the place. Unlike other Indian tourist destination you will not find a single piece of trash anywhere. The purity of the place probably prevents even the most boisterous tourist form littering.

The air was so pure and fresh that my 4 year olds nagging cold just disappeared the moment we reached Munnar. This was in spite the chill in the air and the need of warm clothes throughout the day. Must say Club Mahindra’s room heater came very handy in having a cozy night sleep.

We have been to many Club Mahindra resort by now, however by far as I am concern, I can rate this one as the best. The property is on a hill overlooking the lake. We opted for 3 studio cottages and the rooms were very tastefully done with nice furnishing. The buffet meal was quite elaborate especially the breakfast. Staffs were well groomed.

My daughter really enjoyed the tea museum factory visit; where they took trouble to individually let her to do all the steps of processing tea leaves while we indulged in purchasing various kind of tea. From the tea museum we went on to visit the Eravikulam (Rajamalai) National Park. We were lucky to spot the mountain goat fairly quickly just before the rain god became kind. One can actually debate if going to the high peak just to see some goats is worth all the effort or not. However, the view it offers is just mind blowing. It ought to be a paradise for poet who wants inspiration from nature.To beat the rain and the cold we had indulged in some hot Maggi noodles and lots of tea.

The other interesting point in Munnar is the Mattupetti Dam and Echo Point. We enjoyed some fun speed boat ride in the drizzle and then warmed ourselves at echo point with some shopping of eucalyptus oil, local handicraft and spicy chilli fries.

Compare to Munnar, Thekaddy is a sleepy town. You will like it if you love wildlife travel.Since we went in the Monsoon we had to skip the forest visit. Club Mahindra resort in Thekaddy “Tuskers Trails” was an erstwhile Taj Property. The resort is undergoing renovation and I should mention here that the old rooms are very shabby. After a lot of request we managed to get two of our rooms changed to the newly renovated rooms, which definitely are of Club Mahindra Standard. The resort is smaller than all the other Club Mahindra Properties. Though there are limitations on what you can do in the resort the staff at the activity room kept the guest entertained in the evening with innovative fun activities. I must say the food spread here was average and nothing compare to the spread we had seen in Munnar The Spa experience was quite nice though.

We had opted for an elephant ride, which was bit adventurous where the elephant treks on a muddy uneven roads but the elephant bathing option especially in monsoon is a waste of money. In monsoon the elephant tends to feel the chill and hence you cannot be an inhuman by wanting to give them a bath. Instead as an option the elephant with its trunk full of water gives you a good shower. We alsoopted for an hour boat trip on the Periyar lake, and sported some elephants, bisons, deers on the shores, drinking water. The boat condition was pathetic and the moment the authorities force you to wear some dirty-filthy life jackets, half of the pleasure of the ride just goes missing.


We came back to Cochin airport after three years and I must admit that much has changed from then. It’s much larger now with a moderate size shopping arcade. I managed to pick up my long pending traditional Kerala sari from the airport shopping arcade before embarking our journey back home.