Sunset in Muzhappilangad Drive-in-beach, Kerala

All technical details about Muzhappilangad beach can be obtained from wikipedia!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzhappilangad

Let me not go into those details.

Let me share some interesting thigs about this place we visited in December 2007. We left from Bangalore on a Tempo Traveller (which looks very much like it's namesake from Mercedes-Benz, but I assume, with my limited knowledge on automobiles, that there should be some serious differences between the two) close to midnight and reached Calicut, now officially known as Kozhikode (I really sympathize with the Britishers' who changed the original name to Calicut and thus relieving us for more than a century from tongue-acrobatics) by the next morning. Our final destination was a place called Muzhappilangad, some 60KM north of Calicut, and very close to the nearest town Talichery.

Muzhappilangad is supposedly the longest Drive-in-beach in India. I'm not sure about the claim(because I don't think there's anyone who has enough time to go around each and every drive-in beach with a measuring tape, neither Survey of India would find it something worth to record in their books). But undoubtedly this was something that I hadn't seen in the past. The beach is a few KMs long and have almost a very straight stretch which is better and wider than most good roads in India. The first thing that struck me was that, this is perhaps the only beach in world where the chance of drowing is remotely less than that of being hit by a car or bike speeding at 120kmph because by sunset the entire stretch turns into a racing track for all kinds of vehicles ranging from a three wheelers to posh cars. We also tried our luck with our Tempo Traveller. I'd taken a resolution to come back to this place with my Tavera sometime and do a speed-test.

I think Vijay Mallya should have a look at this place and promote an indigenous form of F1 racing!!

This beach also gives a pretty cool view of sunset on the Arabian Sea. Most west coast lines in India have a dominance of green & blue. The greenery of the coconut trees along the beaches or the lush green Western Ghats and the blue of the sky and water make a very simplistic combination of a fabulous artistry. This beach is also not deprived of this.

Muzhappilangad Drive-in beach, Kerala

I've already written about the Muzhappilangad drive-in beach in Kerala. Here is a snap taken before the indigenous F1 race starts on the beach!!

Did you take a note of the name of the beach - Muzhappilangad? For non Mallus and Tams (Malayalams and Tamils) it's really a feat to pronounce the 'zh' in the name. It's the closest transliteration of something pronounced like 'RRH'. Such a transliteration is very common in Mallu and Tam names. Centuries back the Britishers were just awed by such names and simplified them from Kozhikode to Calicut. I believe they got tired when they might have come to Muzhappilangad and forgot to simplify!!

Wayanad District, Kerala - on the way to Calicut

I'd bought a Sony Ericsson K850i mobile set with an inbuilt 5mega pixel CyberShot camera in December 2007. You would know that CyberShot is the camera for the most dumb photographers in the world. I believe many professional photographers using sophisticated SLRs with lenses like long tapering cylinders and zillions of manual settings can get some competition from laymen, like me, who uses the default settings of a CyberShot camera. I was getting some sort of self satisfaction for the 21K, I'd paid a few days back for the K850i, with the above snaps which I took with my phone-camera from the road to Calicut just after crossing the Vythri village on the Gundulpet-Calicut state highway.

I like the Wayanad district in Kerala because it has the perfect combination of nature and luxury. You get posh luxury resorts amidst lush green forests, ample options for treks - ranging from simple to very hard, pretty decent waterfalls and offcourse the right ambience to chill out for a few days.

Wayanad is very well documented. There are plenty of sites about almost all details about Wayanad. Some of the ones that I found good are

http://wayanad.nic.in/

http://www.wayanad.com/

http://www.wyd.kerala.gov.in/

http://www.wayanad.net/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayanad_district

http://www.wayanad.org/

Some of the 'cool' places to go in Wayanad are Chembra Peak (day long trek, some stretch is quite tough), Meenmutty Falls (good trek), Edakkal Caves (most part is simple trek) & Banasura Sagar Dam (awesome scenery and quite a decent boat-ride).

Just awesome : Wayanad District, Kerala

Some more snaps with my Sony Ericsson K850i phone-camera!! I did do quite well compared to my friend who had brought a hefty camera!!

Wayanad is just 6-7 hours drive from Bangalore. From Mysore take the NH 212 till Gundulpet and then turn right towards Calicut. This stretch of the road passes through the Bandipur and Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuaries. Most parts of the road are good and you can peacefully take your car.