Happy New Year! The usual partying scene somehow was not appealing this year, having partied with friends in Mumbai just a couple of days back and a hectic social calendar in November and December. So, we decided to have a quiet New Year’s party with just each other for company.
We left on Dec 31st at 5am, having charted out the route to Sripuram, the place where the Golden Temple of Mahalakshmi is situated. The route was smooth and right up to the door step practically on NH7 and NH46. Cruising effortlessly at about 100k, we reached Sripuram in about 4 hours, after battling mist at Hosur for about half an hour or so and with a breakfast stop at A2B near Krishnagiri (opens for business only at 7am, so we twiddled thumbs for about 20min), some hot food and coffee later we were on our way to reach the temple by about 10am. The temple is awesome! Unlike most temples, which are crowded and filthy this one is spotlessly clean. I was a little apprehensive that walking long distances and waiting in long queues will be an issue due to my bad leg, but Rs.250/head tickets ensured a short cut entry which ambles through some lovely lawns and a lot of sculptures, and we reached the inner sanctum in about 15min after going around the temple as a pradakshanam, admiring the temple as we got a 360deg view of the entire gold edifice shimmering in the sunshine. Squatting in front of the deity, we were treated to lovely darshanam, and after the aarti, left the place with a book about the place and prasadam. The Rs.250/pp allows fabulous darshanam and everything is included. We were out in a total of about 45min. The only vexation, if you can call it that was the seer responsible for the temple gazes down at you perennially from every corner and occupies near equal importance to the goddess. He is literally omnipresent and you cannot buy even a photo without his face staring up at you. The other way of looking at it is that he was responsible for making this a reality and hence deserves the accolades, but anyway, we found it a little strange. However, this in no way takes away from the structure or its beauty.
Leaving Sripuram at 11am, we started our drive to Yelagiri, a half horse town, about 80kms from there. Yelagiri (Cardamom hills) is a grouping of a few villages and hamlets. The best part is the drive up, winding around 15kms of the 22 kms that we have to traverse after we turn left soon after Vaniyambadi – of these 15kms, 14 are covered through hairpin bends, which give a lovely feel to the climb up. The entire drive up is infested with monkeys and be careful, they can get aggressive.
We are members of both Sterling Resorts and Club Mahindra but have always enjoyed the five star luxury of Club Mahindra and have not used Sterling for the last 10 years or more. Since I got a letter from Sterling that I have so many accumulated days and I should try the new Sterling which is now a rejuvenated company blah blah … we thought since there is a Sterling at Yelagiri, why not?...well read on to find out why not…
We started disastrously, as what was to have been a quiet New Year's Eve spent together at this half horse town, where we expected nothing more than peace and quiet in a comfortable resort. What we got was a pig sty - Sterling Resorts, Yelagiri. Dirty rooms, with furnishings fit for a slum, NO VENTILATION other than through the main door to the room, dim lighting, dirty toilets, it was the pits. A small table in the corridor passed for the reception area and we actually walked into guests complaining of water flooding their rooms etc. We decided to leave immediately. We checked into Hotel Landmark which at Rs.2250 per night is pricey for a place like Yelagiri which has nothing to offer in terms of sightseeing, other than a small manmade lake and a couple of treks leading to tiny temples. The only notable thing is the 15kms ghat road with 14 hairpin bends. In this case, getting there was not half the fun, as is normally said but practically all the fun!
Go to Yelagiri if you wanna do nothing, see nothing and have a few thousands to dispense with -over nothing!
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