Saturday, December 31, 2011

Yelagiri - Chennai's Ooty

Yelagiri popularly known as "Chennai's Ooty" is an ideal drive-down hill station from both Chennai and Bengaluru rendering to the hi-tech people of both these metros looking to get a break from stress. Located is Vellore district of Tamil Nadu, 21 kms from Jolarpettai railway station. It is part of the Western Ghats range. Though the number of picnic spots to be seen are few, it  provides a calm, pollution-free environment.

Enroute to Yelagiri
The place is dotted with resorts providing in-house food and holiday activity facilities. I stayed at Sterling holidays which provides tasty food (comes at a price though :P) and the structure of the building is like a palace. Places you can visit are the usual lot of Lake view points, boat houses, gardens and such. One place that is sure to redefine the tourist pull to this place is the new 8-month old Perumal temple. This temple follows most of the traditions of Tirupati Venkateshwara temple.

Food:
Tasty, homely food at a much lower rate compared to the resorts is available at Hotel Yelagiri. Crisp non-oily 'Masala vada' is available en-route to Heritage village at Re.1 each . Pure honey can be bought from near the YMCA Camp House.


Baskets used for food storage in the village
Sterling Resort at night

Enroute to Yelagiri from Chennai you can drop by at Kanchipuram to visit some of the architectural marvels of the erstwhile kings showcased through the series of temples. Also Kanchi Math of Sankaracharya is close to the highway. Rathnagiri Murugun temple closer to Vellore is perhaps the only South Indian temple which provides a Ghat Road to reach the top to bypass the 100 odd steps (even Gods are providing easy accessibility unlike the politicians :P).
Ratnagiri Murugun temple

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