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I had driven to Kannur and around a few times before - the first time when I came back to Bangalore from Kozhikode, via Thalassery - Iritty just for a change :) Later on, I drove through Kannur during a Kozhikode - Kannur - Mangalore - Kollur - Bangalore trip along with my parents. The recent one was with Pravin and Sunil for Rajesh's marriage. But, I never sat down to document any of these trips.
This time, the plan revolved around a week off we took for Vishu. My parents were here in Bangalore with us and we headed to Kozhikode on a monday. We took the usual Mandya - Mysore - Gundlupet - Sulthan Bathery - Kalpetta - Kozhikode route and reached Kozhikode post noon. After four days in Kozhikode, which included a memorable Vishu, me, Preethu and Manu headed to Kannur on the saturday morning.
Kannur town is in north Kerala, about 95kms north of Kozhikode. The two towns are connected via NH17, the west coast highway connecting Edappally near Ernakulam / Kochi to Panvel near Mumbai via Kozhikode, Kannur, Mangalore, Uduppi, Karwar, Panaji, Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri. NH17 is one of the most interesting drives in south India and I have managed to cover the entire stretch as part of different trips, out of which only three of them - the trips to Mumbai, Goa and Karwar - is documented. The others, a Bangalore - Jog falls - Honnavar - Mangalore - Bangalore trip, a Kozhikode - Ernakulam trip, the Kozhikode - Kannur - Mangalore - Kollur - Bangalore trip and a few other short ones are not documented.
We entered the NH17 by about 9. The trip did not start very well. I stopped at an ATM and while taking out, I almost hit a pedestrian! He did not take it very kindly and came up to give me a piece of his mind :( On entering back in to the highway I found myself right on the way of a long distance bus, coming at good speed. Somehow, I managed to get out of the way and get to the other lane.
A little later, we stopped at a petrol bunk. There, a lottery ticket dealer started insisting me to buy a ticket! With Manu noticing the colorful printed paper, he saw a chance and started insisting more. Finally, I had to tell him that if the ticket falls in the car, I will not pay him! He mumbled something about the ticket not costing much and then gave up.
We kept silent for some time, which was broken by Manu mumbling something which sounded like 'Manu ... Amma ... Acha ... Tata ...'! Preethu could not help interpreting this as his way of saying 'Manu, Amma and Acha are going for a trip'! Soon, the good mood and the smiles were back :)
Quickly, we were past Elathur and noted the deviation to Kappad beach to our left. Koyilandy (Quilandy) followed and then the two towns Thikkodi and Payyoli. Before 10, we were on Vadakara bypass and entered Mahe in another half an hour. Mahe is a former French colony and now part of the Pondicherry / Puducherry union territory. The roads are quite narrow here, lined with liquor shops on both side. Since, it is part of a union territory, price of liquor is low here, making it lucrative to buy liquor from here. Not only liquor, things like petrol and floor tiles
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 Flying lizard with a yellow throat patch |
