Pallangi, Kodaikanal - Why It Become My Favorite Destination Near Madurai

Friday, August 9, 2019

Pallangi, situated 10 km northwest of the Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, is a place full of scenic beauties. It lies in the valley covered by the mountains from all the sides and beautiful waterfalls!

Pallangi, Tamil Nadu

Things To Do At Pallangi

• Camping
• Trekking
• Hiking
• Bonfire
• Site Seeing - visit many viewpoints
• Palani Temple Jewel Box View

Best Season To Visit Pallangi

Every year, October to March is the best season to visit this place. You can also plan to visit between April to July if you can handle the higher temperature during the day time. Avoid visiting there in Rainy season as most of the roads will be broken and you will be stuck in your tents due to heavy rain. 

How To Arrange Camping at Pallangi And How Much It Cost

There are few owners in the area with the camping facilities - Tent, Three Times Food, Trekking and Site Seeing. You can contact Mr. Hakkim - +91-9965848086 to arrange camping and other activities in Pallangi. It costs approx. INR 3000 per person per night for all these activities including food. 

My Trip To Pallangi

I got a chance to visit this place as a part of my office trip! Initially, we planned to visit Gavi, Kerala but due to heavy rainfall, the Periyar National Park area was flooded and we had to cancel that plan. We had only four hours to decide if we wanted to cancel our tour or to go somewhere else. Everyone in the office was ready with their bags and did not plan to go back home without making a trip! We made few calls here and there to find out the places with no or less rain and straightaway decided to visit Pallangi for the night camping!

It was 3 am in the morning when we started from Madurai. By the time we began climbing the hills, it was already dawn and the sky became light blue with the first ray of the light. We stopped at a few places like Silver Falls and other small Tea shops before reaching our final destination.

Pallangi

We had reached Pallangi at 9 am in the morning and it was already drizzling. It was hard for our bus driver to cross all muddy roads and prevent slipping on the steep slants! Our camping stay was booked. We trekked for 1 km through the Pears garden to reach our tents set by our provider. As we reached the top of the hill, my eyes were stunned! The view of the valley from the hills was astonishing! We never thought of this. Soon, everyone sat down on the side of the hill to embrace the scenic moment that was so clear with a visibility of at least fifty Kilometers. We could see the famous Palani Temple in the North very clearly from the point and rest of the valley full of small mountains, beautiful and colorful houses, and waterfalls! We started to discuss with one of the helpers about the trek to the Palani temple. He told us that it was possible to reach the temple

There was no electricity connection at the camp but we got the Cellular reception.

Camp Site, Pallangi

Camp Site, Pallangi

The Palani temple view from the Pallangi hills is very famous and can also be enjoyed at the night time with thousands of lights twinkling - so-called - The Jewel Box View.

Pear Garden

The trek and our camp area were situated on a hill full of Pear Trees. In the meantime, since everyone was traveling for a while now and was a little hungry, we grabbed the fresh Pears from the trees as a part of the breakfast. The little Pears were very sweet and delicious. We could feel the freshness in the taste of the fruit.

Pear Garden, Pallangi

Pear Garden, Pallangi

Our tents were set up and each of us was provided a sleeping bag to bear the cold at night.  While we waited for the proper breakfast, we were served hot tea to keep warm and enjoy the weather. After a little photoshoot of the view, the actual breakfast was served - Idli Sambar and delicious Pongal! 

Trekking at Pallangi

After breakfast, everyone changed and rested for a while. After taking some rest, we started trekking to the Southside of the mountain. We started our trek from the tents and kept following the boundary made by the pile of rocks set up on the campsite. The trek was rough and a little slippery. There was a deep trench on our right side. We kept moving by the trench for one km and crossed the rocks. Now it was time for hiking to another mountain. We started finding a path in the woods to reach the top of the mountain which was all covered in tall grasses and pointy bushes. Luckily I had changed my shorts to trekking suit which kept me away from getting wounded! We hiked for another one km and reached the top of the mountain. We stayed at the top for another one hour enjoying the view, weather and long talks. While coming back we lost in the bushes and forgot the actual way back to the camp. We went on various routes finding out the path. It took us a little while for us but finally, we were able to find the right path and kept following the traces. We came back at around 2 pm in the afternoon for lunch. We had a nice Mutton Briyani for lunch. 

Campsite view from the top of another mountain

Pallangi View Point #2

Our host had planned to take us to another viewpoint which was around 5 km away from our campsite. They arranged one Jeep and took us near the viewpoint by road. After the road, we trekked down the mountain for the next 200 meters to reach the next amazing viewpoint. After crossing a small hill farm, we reached the viewpoint. The place was very beautiful and unexpected. From the left side, I could see a small waterfall coming down from the hills creating a musical tune from the water drop! As I moved my neck to the little right, I could see that we were above the clouds. The while smokey clouds were moving left and right in both the directions over the valley bringing the place to the life! 

Check out the 360 degrees video below of the viewpoint telling about the real beauty of the place! 

Team Photo, Pallangi

We recorded the view in our memories for another one hour and came back to our camp! The sun had started coming down and we could see the twinkling of Palani temple lights now! Indeed, it was like a Jewel box kept open in which diamonds and other precious gems were shining out of it! 

Bonfire 

It was the time of dark now and we started setting up a Bonfire in the cold weather. It was still drizzling a little but we were able to arrange some dry woods and pour some extra petrol to get the fire "lit up" in the rain!! As soon as the Bonfire started, the ambiance was totally changed! I could feel the warmth and at the same time, I was enjoying the raindrops! Everyone started enjoying the fire and started dancing around it singing famous Tamil songs! My Tamil is bad so I could not understand much but I was too enjoying the music and the fire! We played a game making everyone act like others in different situations. I was very bad in this too as I started acting like myself!! Funny! 😛

Night Bonfire, Pallangi

After enjoying the moment for a couple of hours, the dinner was served. This time it was - Chicken Curry and Warm Chapatis! All three meals were very delicious! We stayed there for a while, danced a little more and then went to our tents for the good night's sleep.

Everyone woke up very fresh the next morning! We wore our office T-shirts for the day and did a lot of photoshoots! Both - solo and team photos! We had Pears in the morning before breakfast to keep our sugar in level and energies high!

Team Photo, Pallangi

Next, we headed back to Kodaikanal where we did a lot of fun stuff - Bike Riding, Shooting, Horse Riding, lots of Shopping too!

Well! In the end, I can say that this place is a full package for camping and doing lots of activities peacefully in the absence of advanced life with less crowd makes it my favorite hidden destination to visit.

Let me know how did you like this blog and share your experiences in comments!

Thanks for reading :)