i v [Music] m hello and welcome to a brand new episode of the musafir stories India's very on travel podcast where each week we share the Journey of Travelers in their own words and read live their experiences with you Al listeners hey guys welcome to a brand new episode of Thea stories hope you're all well and keeping safe on the podcast today we speak with Ana VZ a product manager at Google Maps and an aid traveler as she takes us to the queen of Hill stations as this place is popularly known so let's hop onto the episode and find out more so with that introduction we'd love to welcome Ana watz a product manager and a traveler to the mfer stories Ana thank you so much for being on the mfer stories and welcome to the podcast thank you so much I'm pretty excited to be here well thank you an thank you for reaching out and we're glad to host you on the podcast today uh but the intro I uh did earlier was uh pretty short and concise so why don't you speak a little bit more about yourself and your likes sure sure So currently I'm based in Bangalore it's been a couple of years here and I'm a product manager at Google Maps apart from that I love to read I do write do a couple of art forms also and of course I travel um actually pandemic has been uh quite a pivotal movement because I started doing a lot of long travels and solo Vacations so over the past four years I've been to uh around 20 Indian States I've traveled 18 countries and I managed the all the trips with a full-time job so there's a lot of sort of travel planning and researching that goes into it um yeah I think that's about me yeah wonderful and I'm sure uh your job also acts as a welcome distraction looking at maps all day you tend to get distracted I'm I'm just joking but uh I could help but bring up that you work at Google Maps so I always love just looking at maps and zooming in and zooming out of places uh trying to figure out where or what orientation uh some places are but yeah clearly you're very very multi-talented and I'm glad that um the silver lining of the pandemic which is a difficult time for all of us uh has been that you've been able to um focus a lot more on travel and discover new places and countries um you mentioned youve heard to the podcast before so you kind of know the drill uh right we basically focus on a place the experience of visiting there uh things to do see experience eat um meet right all of that so with that in mind where are you taking us and a listeners to today sure yeah so um I'm basically taking to a really really beautiful place near Bangalore it's famous for its flowers and greeneries and mountains we're going to kodai Canal it's clearly my favorite for a weekend trip from Bangalore uh like it's something which could be covered in a short number of days and then you kind of get the best of nature yeah absolutely I mean we used to boast about Bangalore having good weather but um I know these days uh Bangalore also gets pretty hot so yeah it's a perfect getaway for a weekend because K has usually good weather uh around the year or at least cooler weather around the year uh so I'm glad that you uh did get a chance to experience the health station all also refer to as the princess of Hills right uh can you tell a little bit more about how to get there and when is a good time to visit sure sure so uh the best time to go is obviously monsoons like everything is super green and you see like Mist on the roads it's quite dreamy uh and I think that's kind of applicable for whole South India but then it's also pretty nice in Winters I personally have missed twice uh once in May when it was very green and once in March when I would not recommend anyone to go like before monsoons because almost you know uh it's quite dry and you see half the beauty that K ganal has so uh I would say monsoons Autumn Winters would be the best time uh it's quite uh close to Bangalore as I mentioned so you can take like a overnight bus or you can even drive down takes around 8 to 9 hours um you can go on bike also if you know because the mountains are really nice um and uh apart from that there airports like madur katur nearby so in case you're coming from other places from there you can take a cab and today yeah brilliant firstly thank you for setting that um geographical orientation for us as well as um how and when to visit right that part of it um can you also shed some light just in terms of um this illust station how it came about um like the history talk to it sure sure so uh like a lot of Hill stations I think U is also one of them uh this was basically set up by britishers who were looking to you know escape to a more cooler place and at that time mostly myour was a center which was quite hot so kod Canal was established by britishers around 1800s and that is something that you can even see now in all the old buildings the architecture it's very Colonial in nature even the names of places like the famous uh you know spots in kod Canal have the whole uh you know uh Colonial uh nomenclature to it um it also kind of ensures that it's very well planned in the sense that it's quite green there lots of Gardens and flowers which is my favorite part of the goodai canal actually the sheer amount of flowers and colors that you see there yeah absolutely and uh in even in literal terms the term kod canal in Tamil means the gift of the Forest right it Loosely translates to that so yeah it's very lush green and um as a part of the neir ranges so uh really really some beautiful and Scenic sites along with the good weather to experience while you're visiting here um now you didn't mention about the British connection so thank you for covering off that too so we know what to expect uh in terms of the itary itself um you did mention that it's a good weekend type of a getaway and even historically it's been like um I don't know from my from the times of times of my parents and that generation like a honeymoon destination right that's how it's been considered but uh in your case how long was your rary for yes so it was actually a little spontaneous uh I went for a long weekend which is 3 days with my friends um and we uh like went by bus and we were supposed to return on Monday but then I really liked the place and I had my laptop with me so I just extended my stay till Sunday um and I took a hostel and I stayed there my friends actually came back but uh since I had the remote work option uh I stretched my visit and like just stayed there um but I think Kai canal in general could be covered properly in 3 days um but then as they say you know if you really want to experience a place uh even a month is a short time to uh visit so you can stay for as long as you want yeah absolutely and God bless those companies that give that bit of freedom to work remotely so that um there is flexibility around planning our tours as well um wonderful so let's jump into to your itenary itself and um see the type of things and places um and experiences you had um where do you want to kick this off with just in terms of taking us around I'll start with the first 3-day uh trip which was well planned by me and my friends uh we actually stayed at a place called V Canal it's a couple of kilometers apart from the kai Canal main city and the main reason to choose Bak Canal was the greeny because you're kind of in the middle of the Hills uh it's again very accessible from the bus station you can just take an auto and reach it um and but Canal has this a really famous point which is called Dolphins Mo uh it's actually a short track of around 1 1 and a half hours each and um it's very pretty like as I said uh there's Greenery all around it's not that difficult so that is where we started so we reached uh around early morning we uh went to our stay we kept our bags and and then we went for the track straight away uh we had a lot of fun came back and there's this Cafe called alf's Cafe it's right at the start of the Dolphins nose uh very nice views great food so we just had a lunch there and then we went around and walked to explore some of the famous uh viewpoints and uh waterfalls so if you are uh you know new to the place there are a plenty of cap services available which cover a certain number of points uh it's one of the easiest way to explore the town because they would have like you know the village tour or the waterfall stores and all and you can actually uh discuss the places that you want to visit and they'll cover that in a day or half a day depending on how much time do you have so we did that but uh you can also do that by yourself like if you have your own car or bike uh you know you can take that and explore the places a lot of them are within a certain room so it could take like certain number of hours uh but yeah that that's like one of a good option that's available in Kai yeah for sure and um I'm assuming you took the the fmer right you basically hired a cap for uh the period is that is that what you did yes yes so uh for the first day we took a half a day tour so we took a cab driver and he basically uh showed us some waterfalls which were near the water canal so there was this silver Cascade waterfall and I think be schola waterfall uh we visited those waterfalls and then uh we came back because again it was the first day we just wanted to relax a little the second day we had a full uh Day Tour which covered the main uh manavur Lake The palom Village view points the Pine Forest uh so we basically um again we can spend as much time as we want at each place it's quite flexible so uh we ended up spending a lot of time in manav Lake it's it's one of my I would say favorite places in this uh town uh there's also like a corle boat right that you can go and you can just sit around the lake and just enjoy the peace I don't know if it was lack of tourist season but we had the lake almost to ourselves so it was quite a nice Sunset that we watched and we just chilled around the lake and then it was like a full day U cap thing that we took and then we came back to see okay yeah let's just uh touch on a couple of those points as well uh right the starting with the manover nor Lake that you mentioned um this seems to be a little bit away from the city right it's it's not necess um exactly in B right uh at least that's what I came across oh yes it's a little away from the main uh Center of Kai so that is why uh I uh basically talked about the cap service so what they do is the they basically do all the points which are close to each other together so manavur Lake also has another Lake in front which is called Kul Lake and they're all a couple of ours away from the city center so basically when you start from Kai Canal uh City Center and the City Center is very easy to understand there's a Kai Lake which is a star shaped Lake that's the center of the kodai canal so you start from there and then you move in a certain direction and there are points on the way so for us it was Kai Village Point which is basically a very colorful Village you see it from you can click pictures and all then we went to the lake Viewpoint uh Lake Viewpoint is another place at the top from there you can obviously see the lake but also the greenery all around and then we drove down to the lake itself uh after that there was the ker Lake which is a little ahead of the lake and then we returned back to Kai so these all the places and Fin forest was also on the way um so these are the places which were kind of clued together um and then if you want to visit the city there's like another toour because that's like in a different direction yeah um yeah but like you mentioned the manavan lake is uh very very uh picturesque and pristine and um glad that you one got do the coracle of the boat ride and um you also had it pretty much for yourself right given the time of the year you were visiting so that's great but I also read that there's other options in case somebody's interested in zip lining I don't if those are open around the year but uh there's definitely options around there and uh this other Lake right Kul Lake um again probably something that depends on uh when you're visiting but uh it has like a beautiful spread of water L across so that way that Lake too is probably a little more um offbeat compared to the manavur lake um but definitely something worthwhile and something you could visit um and the couple of other places you mentioned right um even the Pine Forest this is a very very popular um and I would say very touristy spot because pretty much everybody makes a spot here and it's been a part of a lot of the uh movie shooting movie locations as well right like a lot of movies do uh get to 10 uh or tend to be shot here so um very likely that you won't miss out on this and especially if you're taking one of these uh packages for a day like a cap taking you around for a day it's one of the spots that will definitely uh be on the on the itary uh so I'm glad that you got to enjoy all of these and uh given that it's also the right time of the year that everything is nice and green um I'm sure everything was just Amplified in terms of beauty um and um I just wanted to go back to the first point as well you mentioned uh where you started off your um your your trip with the dolphin sows right it's a little uh it's a small hike right uh if I'm not wrong Ana from like whatever the trail point of trail head you begin there's a little hike to reach to this um basically Hill uh top you could say that's in the shape of a dolphin's nose correct yes yes so it's around 1 1 and a half hours one side uh and we actually stayed very close to dolphin's nose so it's in but Canal only and our stay was like right across the road from where the track started uh so that's that is why it was the first thing we did and quite nice like uh you know you get a lot of uh again most of the hikes are nice because you know you're surrounded by trees and all sides um but it's also like in terms of well worth the you know amount of time you spend it's prettier in Peak monsoons uh that's what I heard but again even during May June it's very nice yeah absolutely uh and it's um not a very strenous trick yeah it's it's definitely doable yes yes it's definitely doable also there are a lot of Maggie and te points along the way so you can uh it's quite commercial it's not like a offbeat thing at all uh but that does not take away the beauty of the place Place uh so you can you know stop and have Maggie te so we because we just came uh like from a overnight bus we actually stop for breakfast like we had Maggie and tea on the way and then we moved ahead so you can definitely you know take pauses and even people with you know who are not very fit can actually do this track um it's not uh you know strenous at all okay yeah um wonderful glad that this is um very accessible and doable so great way to kick off your uh day and um also can you talk a little bit more about the waterfalls that you made stops at uh which ones for these again and uh like what type of were they like unique in their own sense or were they more uh similar to each other can you speak a little bit to those please yes so uh because it was not monsoons the waterfalls were actually not very full um so one was the beer schola waterfall which is basically uh so it was supposed to be a really really uh you know high volume waterfall but what we saw was kind of like a stream and the second one was silver Cascade as the name says it was basically a layered waterfall so uh it did look pretty uh but again I would recommend to uh keep waterfalls as a highlight if you visit in monsoons and otherwise there are other places that you can spend you know more time on so for us waterfalls was not the highlight of the trip um yeah apart from that I think there were other way prettier places but totally depends on the time that you visit okay and uh there's also this other I don't know if it's the silver Cascade or something close by the pumber waterfalls or the literal Falls like they refer to right it became really popular after U little shot one of their um ads featuring the models uh and the famous little theme song right uh or the I guess this the jingle or whatever that is called uh they shot that and since then it's been very popular so it's likely that um if you're visiting and especially if you're taking these cab rides they'll take you to those depending on the time of the year uh but yeah given the hills and how Scenic these Western CS are waterfalls are definitely uh part of of the uh overall places that you do come across and there's so many of them that are unnamed as well I'm sure sure but some of the popular ones um and already mentioned here you could definitely make sure to uh cover those off as well given the time of the year you're visiting right some of them are very beautiful and cascading so uh make sure to visit here as well but yeah it looks like a pretty packed start to theary you start off with the hike to the uh to the to the Dolphins nose which in itself is U I think it'll take a little bit of time right if it's especially an hour and a half each way um and you also covered off other places like the manavur lake uh the ca Lake U and what was the village Viewpoint was that the sorry Village Viewpoint or the lake Viewpoint that you mentioned yeah it's the pom Village Viewpoint so pom is a colorful Village so the basically houses are of different color and when you look from Top it looks really beautiful because it's surrounded by all the greenery and then you have those little colorful Villages uh now they also have a really nice zostel in the with the Palm Village Viewpoint so I would definitely want to kind of you know revisit the place but what we did was we basically stopped at the Viewpoint and we clicked pictures uh it's it's a really nice place to just you know stop for a while and look okay I did see that this is one of the upcoming places to like and not for somebody not preferring to be in the midst of um the city itself like it can be pretty crowded and especially if it's a touristy season can be uh like a lot of people visiting uh so pbra or pombra even I'm not very um familiar with the pronunciation but uh this is a village that has um a few good options to stay and also is a little cut off so that way you don't necessarily see the the same sort of uh tourist and flow although it's becoming more and more popular uh and yeah like Ania mentioned uh the view of the village is what uh is one of the big takeaways here uh it's a beautiful view especially from up top from that Viewpoint that an is mentioning if you look at it it's a lot of uh old um sloped tile houses right uh so colorful houses and uh you could get a good view of that surrounded by a lot of these Patty or Patty fields or whatever the uh farming uh is done around so it's it's really a brilliant view to um just look into appreciate um and I understand even I don't know if you had a chance to go into the Village um ana or was it more around the Viewpoint that you spent time at we just saw the Viewpoint uh I think so Village was basically not the part of the package but it is possible to go to the Village um I don't think they have stay options uh might have changed in like the last year or so but you can still like visit the village if you want there were also some temples on the way which our cab driver told us about so that's also like one option that could be explored so com Village Point is basically on the way from Kai Canal City to the manavan lake so you would kind of have that on the way itself yeah absolutely uh so if it's of interest you can definitely uh make a stop over or if you buy traveling by yourself you could perhaps Venture a little bit into the village as well here it's probably the same Temple that you made reference to It's called The Kant vapar Temple it's apparently very popular in the region and um very reviewed and then um I also hear the garlic from this Village is very very popular so yeah something you're looking to pick up as well when you're visiting uh that might be one of the things um but yeah overall uh just the view of the village itself is the main takeaway and uh especially if you're traveling onto manavur Lake make sure to take a quick Pet Stop here um awesome so given that almost like this part of this circuit right you have covered and was this in the first day and a half or first couple of days or was it mostly the first day first two days first two days right so the first day it was the Dolphins nose and the waterfalls and second day we did the Viewpoint and the lake okay brilliant um so we're next to Ana once you've covered off like this circuit which is mostly to the West I believe from the city uh but yeah once you've covered the circuit uh where are you head it to uh the third day we actually wanted to take it a little light um so we mostly explored the city itself um there's this really beautiful walkway which is called coker's walk uh it is a little crowded but it's still very pretty uh so you can you know go either early morning or in the evening during sunset and coca's walk is constructed like so there's basically a path and on the other side it's just Hills so there's obviously a railing so that nobody falls off but you can see clouds floating by and it's a beautiful view it's around a kilometer or so uh the stretch and on the other side they have shops so the shops could be you know selling uh jewelry or little soft toys or even some food stalls uh so those shops are usually by localized they have their own timings but the walk itself is very pretty I actually went for ca's walk tce so I went for the first time with my friends and then when I extended I went like for two more times just showing people around and like it's really peaceful and really nice in the mornings so we did that um after that we did uh the Byron f it's a park in the middle of the city it's very uh wellmaintained there's a lot of local people in the park who are just you know walking around there were also kids who were just playing or practicing some you know different gymnastics and stuff it was quite interesting um and a good place to just you know be in the nature and like read or something so we spend uh some part of the afternoon there then we went to uh Guna caves so Guna caves is something which is recently it's kind of come again into like news there's this movie which got released uh which is called majal voice and I actually went to watch it because you know gak caves were featured in the movie uh so they have this uh you know cavity or basically a hole which is called Devil's Kitchen and nobody knows the bottom of the Hole uh so majal boys is inspired by a real story of a couple of uh you know malali boys going on a trip and then one of them actually falls in the Devil's Kitchen hole and how they rescue him which was almost impossible mission so although tourists are not allowed to go and see that uh we can go till a certain point of the caves so that's what we did and uh then there's this another Viewpoint which is called Pillar Rock which we saw so the last day of our trip uh or suppose so last day uh we basically covered these view viewpoints and we explored some of the food places and was a more on the lighter side yeah yeah uh mjal boys right like you mentioned it was uh released very recently a 2024 movie and Malayala movie so if somebody's looking to catch up on it definitely uh you'll get a good sense of uh because a lot of the shooting locations are in kod Canal uh and it's based off of a two story I don't know if you just mentioned that but uh this happened I don't know sometime in um the early 2000s I think where a group of friends went there and one of of them actually fell into that uh yeah hole or a natural cave formation in um and this this basically the Guna caves or the Devil's Kitchen that you're mentioning right this is the space or the natural cave formation between these pillar rocks that you're mentioning right uh the Viewpoint and those by the way are also just absolutely stunning right it uh feels like it's one of from one of those um Hollywood movies locations where I don't know Avatar or whatever you shoot right it really lock uh like cylindrical pillar type formations and U like a space between them kind of goes down Natural Care formation is formed and uh the name also the original name given to it by the britishers I understand was like Devil's Kitchen and then a movie called as Guna was shot there in 1991 featuring Kamal Hassan and then uh they became popular as Guna caves and now mimal boys basically uh is another movie shot at the same location covering a like a real life event that happen where group of friends go there one of them falls down and then there's a rescue operation that happens and it's it's a really nice movie I've seen the movie too it's uh I think edge of your seat Thriller type of a movie so if you if you haven't checked it out it's another way of getting a glimpse of not just gak caves but also of uh some spots in k Canal um right so I'm glad that you got to visit these spots as well overall yeah it's just um good space to visit and even Guna caves right you don't even have to go too deep into the caves like just the approach to it like those trees and their uh really interlocking root system or whatever that is right Tanya I don't know if you came across all of those points um it's it's pretty interesting um to visi and just beyond the caves yes yes for sure it's it's beautiful and even the Pillar Rock Viewpoint which is quite uh nearby it's also really pretty uh like you can just stop and stare at that for a while uh so I didn't obviously see the movie at that that time but uh yeah it was quite an experience and I loveed the movie um it was quite thrilling and also just you know having been in those places made it even more special for me yeah yeah I'm sure uh so I'm glad that you got a uh visit and enjoy some of these experiences as well um and the other couple of places you mentioned right the coko work and the Briant Park both of them have been basically named after some of the British officers who uh basically led the way and either setting them up or um establishing them uh the cus work especially from a Viewpoint perspective it's brilliant I mean obviously you have the full length of the place to walk about which is like almost a kilometer that you mentioned but uh even just some of the views you get from there um it's just uh absolutely breathtaking uh right and uh uh that's something I would definitely encourage you to visit as well um given given the wonderful works and uh on a good day you can catch a lot of the places like dolphin snows and some of the other close by uh viewpoints from from this from um this place from the Cocos work so something to uh definitely try out and uh your um Bryant Park is more on the lines of um if you visited UT right the Botanical Gardens and stuff like that it's very similar to that but a lot of uh species or varieties of uh trees and flowers and plants so uh that's also another just relaxing experience for um if if you're just looking to get around and explore the the trees and the plants of the place um I think you have covered a bunch of things uh did you also want to touch upon uh again this is still your original plan dinary right anything else did that you did touch upon during this time you want to cover off now Ana uh we did go shopping and that was towards the end so basically my friends then took a bus and went and I moved on to another hostel uh but yeah I think Kai itself has a really um you know famous spices and chocolates and the chocolates are really nice so you can just go and like try a bunch of chocolates uh they're also very cheap uh for the you know quality and the taste so we basically roamed around the market uh the market was mainly around Kai lake so Kai lake is nice not as I would say you know green and isolated as the lakes that I mentioned um but uh it's still like good for voting and all around the lake I think two sides of the lake there's this huge Market that you can just walk around uh their shop selling all sorts of things but the town is mainly famous for its spices and chocolates so we got a bunch of that and then I uh basically you know um my friend I bit fairell to my friends who took the bus uh and then I moved to another place um the city also although it's quite crowded and there's a lot of say traffic jam around it it also has a bunch of nice uh cafes and restaurants so we explored some of those um and you would definitely kind of find good food and in kod and like even if so I'm a vegetarian even for vegetarians there plenty of good options um it is uh like usually you know smaller towns there's a issue of you know getting good places so konal does not have that issue there are plenty of options for whatever you want to do so there's like aby's Cafe which has Burgers and Shakes um there was this near streets that we went to um then for South Indian we went to this place uh it's called Estoria it's a huge uh sort of uh place where you know you get those sff style meems and uh it was quite tasty so we explored a bunch of those I actually came from because I was staying for like four five more days I came down to Kai again to just try some of these places again and have food yeah absolutely no of options for especially from a food perspective um and even the cafe you mentioned earlier right that's by Dolphins snse um alf's Cafe right also yeah very very popular especially for your uh Mediterranean Cuisine and burgers and falafal and gik and sandwiches um I mean while looking up uh for this episode I came across like it also has a very interesting uh background of the owner right who set it up he basically uh was a chap from shimoga in Karnataka and he um like left home at a very early age and he came across these Israeli tourists right a lot of Israeli tourists visit India every year and he ran into them and he traveled a bunch of places with them in the North in Himel and all of that and finally he decided to settle back down closer to home and set up a cafe so a lot of the offerings are the the Mediterranean or falafal type of offerings are basically inspired by those travels so uh pretty interesting um and yeah like a um very popular Cafe right if you're in that region or V Canal you are very likely going to visit or um run into this or have somebody recommend you Al's Cafe so make sure you visit there as well but yeah the bottom line is in terms of food options is definitely uh quite a popular Hub so there's no dir of uh types of food um or Cuisine available um so you could certainly rest assured not worry too much about the food options um and yeah tell us a little bit more about um the extended itar now right beyond the let's say the touristic circuit most most people do cover of this right the some of the points you mentioned earlier plus the points in and around the city like the k k Canal Lake Etc um where did you move to from here and uh also please share with us what kind of um experiences you had here sure sure so uh Kai canal in general has a bunch of hostels and also like good home stays Airbnb and my recommendation in general is to stay a little far from the city center uh especially in places like UTI Kai which was like constructed thinking a very small sort of you know area in mind so um I stayed around 4 5 km away from the city center in a hostel uh it was at top of a hill so the views were really nice and because I was staying alone so like I prefer hostels because you get to meet other people uh although I did not travel that much in the Extended Stay uh it was mainly walks around the hostel in the evening and then I had office work from morning till evening so uh mostly I was working and you know uh having conversations with people so I met a bunch of really interesting people so could I can that's when I came to know that it's famous among the bikers because there were like biking groups who were coming there and staying for like one night two nights and uh those conversations were really interesting um during the next weekend so I was supposed to come back by a bus but because I met so many friends in the hostel itself I actually you know uh came back with those people in their car so we drove back to Bangalore uh and um I would uh so I did come to the town twice during my stay there uh it was only possible twice because I had like office work and again I just wanted to relax and not like explore the places so as I mentioned I did coker's walk again uh the first time we went we went in the evening so it was quite a busy time with like all the shops open the second time I uh did like a morning uh walk with the the shops were still to open so it was very peaceful and again like prettier uh I also did Byron Park basically uh when I came to the town and mainly explored the food scenes and the shopping scenes so it's also famous for its wood work so we got some bunch of small you know sers which were for our home or you know friends and there was this place called Cloud street uh I don't know if it's still open uh so it was famous for its Sizzlers and we tried Sizzlers um again like a bunch of friends which were just newly made so we we just kept on exploring random things and it I came back on the Sunday basically okay yeah so guys remote work is actually real work also it doesn't mean that just because you're working remotely you can spend the whole day uh going around and then pretend that you're still online um but yeah I'm glad that uh s at least this gave you an opportunity to also meet new people and then revisit some of the places too right that you liked and um also explore some of these food places and uh uh yeah if you're looking to pick something up back I mean usually with um a lot of these Hill stations you do have I know they call them homemade chocolate but yeah whatever that is but um it is usually uh a selling point of these places that they have a lot of uh really delicious chocolate on sale so make sure you grab some of them and and spices as well like um I I mentioned earlier um overall does seem like a very relaxing um trip right and uh even in terms of experiences there's everything from if you're looking at uh something more uh adventurous like you're hiking or boating or other things like zip lining Etc you have those options uh other options primarily around nature right your waterfalls your legs uh your viewpoints and everything um and if you want to uh just spend time doing nothing and just uh take it easy uh the best would be to like move uh someplace a little bit cut off or offbeat or far away from the city center uh and like choose to stay at a hostel or someplace like that and you could almost turn this into a work aent of uh experience right so all of those different um options are available while you're uh visiting K Canal another thing I I don't know probably shouldn't mention but I'll mention it anyway it's also Infamous for uh or used to be Infamous for uh shrooms or mushrooms as they were refer to I won't get into the specifics because I don't want to get into trouble but uh I hear a lot of um fake uh like sellers show up that uh pretend to sell these to you as well it's best to stay off of those things as well because uh really you don't need things like these to enjoy kak canal in the first place uh but yeah overall uh definitely a lot of options for one to export I anything else that we did not touch upon or um things you'd like to mention that people could consider yeah so I think um during the stay that Extended Stay basically uh my highlight was just the walks that I took uh you know just wandering around the nature looking at the fls and all and in general uh because Kai Canal is also like played by over tourism like a lot of cities a lot of small towns um but what I really liked about the place uh was the overall U awareness about the environment that was there um so basically you know there's this newspaper called couldi chronic uh it's widely circulated which brings uh for the issues that the town is facing they have a really good uh you know uh garbage maintenance policy so you know you don't get those small water bottles or the one lit bottles you have to buy either a 5 L bottle or you carry your own like you know uh water bottles so I think in general they are doing a lot and that's commendable because I've not seen that happening in North so I've also traveled to other Hill stations and you know I really like that but there's also a lot more to be done so at the time I was traveling there was this talks of you know uh construction on kodai lake and the citizens are so aware they're protesting against that and the newsletter that I just mentioned had you know interviews and actual you know campaigns against it so um it didn't actually happen as far as I know but uh it was quite interesting aspect and I think because I stayed for longer period of time I got to see those side of things and you know talk to a lot of localites that how much they appreciate you know the nature around them and how the construction should be more mindful so they're taking concrete steps to kind of make sure that's the case I think that is also a big takeaway from my kod Canal visit that we should be very mindful as Travelers and uh you know we should not litter the place we should not damage it and if possible leave it better than you know when we came to that place yeah yeah absolutely because it is U unfortunately a reality right over tourism will happen given people have more and more uh disposable income dispensable income dispensible I guess but uh yeah either way people will travel more and more and uh it's hard to stop that but probably what's more achievable is uh spreading awareness and being conscious of the choices you make when traveling to such places right and uh thank you for calling that point out as well because uh places like these are definitely at the um mercy of tourists uh doing their own bit and given that how many of them are visiting it's definitely not something that can be um solely taken up by locals or governments or whoever is in charge it has to uh come from the tourist themselves too so uh glad that you made that call out and it's important for for us to uh save and preserve places like these for future generations and that can only happen um if we spreading awareness about these things and I'm glad that uh even local um initiatives and papers like the or um yeah I think it's more digital or I don't know if they do a print as well but uh yeah K Chronicle is one of them and it has uh variety of uh such interviews and topics it covers about Kai Canal uh definely check that out too if you're uh looking into some of the histories and Back stories of the place uh thank you so much for uh covering off all of these beautiful things a couple of other interesting points I came across too when I was doing my research and um I don't know if you came across them uh one of them was um this place called as the konal um me get the right name for it uh it was called as the Kodak Canal solar Observatory um right so that was also believed to be like a 13year old uh solar Observatory that was set up to uh basically do a lot more research around the um sun and its implications on the climate and other events happening and um even it was set up uh after the events of I think sometime in the 1800s there was like a Great Famine that happened in the region and um as a reaction to that um like initiative was taken up to uh research more into what can we find out based off of the activity on the on the on the sun and uh there's a bunch of things especially for somebody who's interested in astronomy astrophysics those types of things you could visit there's a museum as well I believe um so that's something I found interesting that uh one could definely if you have time and uh space on your rary you could certainly cover something off like that too uh but yeah I think Ana did a brilliant job of actually giving us a good holistic view of um what an experience in Kodak Canal can be like u in terms of um keeping up with your travels and um other activities uh is there someplace you uh log all of these onia that people could follow your work on it's not very structured because there's always other things getting in the way uh but I have a newsletter which is essentially uh about my travel you know Explorations about different things um so it's on substack by the name of amling Annie um and uh I do share stuff on my Instagram also uh like especially like you know my travel pictures and like experiences around that um but mainly I'm currently kind of focusing on writing a book it's a travel Mo and that's where I'm kind of you know spending most of my time I do hope it would be out uh next year but let's see because you know the whole process is a longer process I'm currently uh mainly writing that okay wishing you all the best for your book and um yeah hopefully we do get to share that with um listeners as well so please keep us posted uh so we can tag that to the show notes but we'll make sure to include your uh newsletter as well as your Instagram profile so that uh people can certainly follow your work and uh reach out to you if they have any questions about um planning uh K Canal iary right so uh thank you for sharing that information but um any final thoughts on Anya before we wrap up the episode sure sure thank you for having me I had a lot of fun talking to you about that yeah know absolutely abolutely the pleasure was all and thank you so much for taking us to the this um queen of queen of heals and uh the gift of the Forest right like we refer to K canal and showing us all the sites and the um sites and scenes and I'm sure if you go there sounds as well uh we had a great time just exploring K canal with you and also got a sense of how an extended for karal can be planned thank you so much Ana and we look forward to your work in the future too sure thank you so [Music] much that was just another great episode on the mfer stories make sure to show us some love by sharing the podcast with your friends and family here on Instagram and Twitter at musafer stories if you like this podcast don't forget to check out other interesting podcasts on the IVM Network you can listen to us on the IVM podcast app or the website follow us on our social media we are at IVM podcast on Twitter and Instagram