Yercaud - a weekend of relaxation

I usually opt to travel to some tourist place on my birthday... honestly so that I don't have to do anything other than pampering myself :-) !!! Well this year was no different. We went to this small hill station, some 230 Km away from Bangalore. Since, this was our first trip after coming to India, I was pretty excited.......

A little foreword about Yercaud, before I start my travelogue here. It is a very small and sleepy town which is only good for a weekend. You should choose to go here only if you want to run away from your nagging boss and relax and unwind in the abode of nature. Don't worry your boss will never find you as your cell phone will be out of network :-D

So we started from Bangalore on Saturday morning around 7 and reached Yercaud at around 12. Drive was pretty ok, highway was good, except a little stretch of Salem town which you need to cross before you start climbing for Yercaud. Thankfully the road was good but the steep turns around the hills were little scary, and cars coming down in high speed made it no better. I always wonder how can people in India drive so aggressively no matter what the place is :-S.... well.....never mind coz the view made up for all that pain!!! 

So, finally after that strenuous drive, here we were at another foothill, on top of which was our hotel "The Grand Palace"; standing tall between the valley clouds, it gave me a promise of wonderful weekend. But the minute we took the turn towards the hotel road  we saw a steep and unbelievably horrible road. This was the only bad thing about the hotel. Well there is one more.. they don't have a good bar :-( . Nevertheless, the hotel had a good reception, cordial staff, big room (with a balcony) and a breath taking balcony view.

We could see the lush green valley with low lying clouds hovering here and there. It was so serene, so pure and so green!! Our complete tiredness from the drive was instantly gone. all i wanted to do was just sit there and bask in the beauty of nature.
We started for sightseeing after having lunch. Food at this hotel is not that great, but since this town is too small for restaurants this was our best option. Yercaud has some 5-6 attractions which you can find listed on any internet site, but the one's worth seeing are : Lady's Seat and Montford School.
Former for the breath taking view of Valley overlooking Salem Town. Twinkling lights in Salem at twilight is offers you a rare visual treat.Latter, however, is an unlikely place for tourist attraction, yet beautiful. This school was set-up in 1917 and has historical architecture. We were lucky that at that point of time all the hostelers had went home otherwise it would have been pretty awkward moving inside with kids staring at you.
We did go to places like pagoda point, shevaroy temple, the grange, etc. but we didn't like them that much.

We did try to find out the coffee estate which is quite talked about on internet but could not find it.
Also, killiyur falls were also close from our hotel but we were too tired by then to try them out.

Rest of our weekend was spent in the hotel only.
They had a small game room, where we played TT. Best part was the spa, where we had the massage. 1.5 hours of sheer bliss.

All in all it was a weekend to remember. In a way, the fact that Yercaud didn't have much to offer in terms of sightseeing came as a boon because then we really spent time relaxing. Else, you always spend time running around to cover as much tourist spots as possible. But then it is very necessary, that you stay in a good hotel there.
If you just want to read a book with a steaming cup of coffee, a breath of fresh air, with a view which is treat for your eyes and leave all your worries behind, then Yercaud is your destination.