Colourful Palakkad!
Coimbatore and Palakkad are ideal candidates for twin cities (or twin towns), if not for the State boundary that separates tham (and more importantly that Walayar check post). Palakkad is just about 45 KM from Coimbatore.
It seems some twin cities merge together to form a single city – The example of Buda and Pest expanding and forming a single city (Budapest, capital of Hungary) is given in Wikipedia – but that cannot happen here as these two cities are in two different states.
The road that joins Palakkad and Coimbatore is flat (and does not run on hills) as this gap is the only small portion of land that is not occupied by the Nilgiri hill ranges. So, its quite easy to go from Coimbatore to Palakkad – I went in my two wheeler. It seems this gap is responsible for the relatively cool weather that Coimbatore enjoys as cold air flows from Kerala, and is also responsible for hot summers in Palakkad as hot air flows from TN!
There are a lot of Malayalees in Coimbatore and lot of Tamilians in Palakkad. So, when I spoke to people in Tamil, they were easily able to understand, and a couple of people actually spoke to me back in Tamil! It seems there is a large population of Tamil people from Tanjavur, who migrated a few centuries ago.
But like how Coimbatore looks like a typical town in TN, Palakkad looks like a typical town in Kerala!, in spite of being so close and having a lot in common. One of the differences that I noticed is how the people of Palakkad have breathed life in the colour of paints they select for their houses.
I could have come up with a similar post with houses from Coimbatore as well. But it would have taken me 4 hours. But in Palakkad, clicking all these photos just took me one hour! More houses, have taken to bright and vibrant colours in Palakkad in contrast to the dull white/ yellow/ beige and other ‘lighter’ colours in Coimbatore.
The ‘ad’ hoardings (board display on roads) were quite huge, in Palakkad! Mostly they advertised clothing or jewelery with giant photos of actors and actresses – I saw Mohanlal, Prithviraj, Shreya Saran more prominently all along the way!
Most of these pictures were taken on the sub-urban areas of Palakkad. If you are not used to driving in Kerala, it can be quite difficult as the roads are well maintained but quite narrow without dividers (at least on the highways) – And busses there fly on the highways!
Of course, people do tend to think why someone is taking photos of their houses! One person was very curious, but I was very fast! In a couple of houses, the owners were right next to the gate and hence I was not able to click!
Looks like even dogs do not like someone photographing their owners house! But since they were locked inside the gate, I was fast again 🙂
So, if you do come across your house in this post, please do not worry, as I wanted to showcase the brighter colours that I found fascinating with some Palakkad houses. But in spite of that if you want the photo removed, do comment below, or use the contact form (above) to let me know, and I will do it. BTW, this is no Google Street View 😛
Destination Infinity
Very colourful.There is one song of kamal hassan “Palakkad madhavan……”
In oman it is difficult to recognize a house as all the houses are in same height and colour (only light cream colour)
Not sure about the Kamal Hassan song, but there is a famous movie with Bhagyaraj doing the lead as Palakkad Madhavan in ‘Andha Yezhu Natkal’, that I remember.
I see that Oman trend catching up slightly in Coimbatore, but here they make sure that each house has a different colour!
Destination Infinity
I love both Coimbatore and Palakkad 🙂 My grandparents are from Ottapalam….so my travel to Coimbatore airport through the highway is quite often 🙂
That highway is beautiful… I wanted to post a couple of photos I took there – maybe in some other post, I will try to. Looks like you are traveling across India – maybe you can do a post about photos taken in various airports across India!
Destination Infinity
ME too enjoyed those clolorful houses when I traveled through Palakkad for Wayanad… quite interesting 🙂
I am just able to touch the border town of Kerala, don’t know when I can tour inside….
Destination Infinity
really colorful houses.. and lol at the disclaimer at the end of the post 😛
I was concerned because one person was very curious about why I was taking a photo of his house…. You can’t really take permissions and take photos after that!
Destination Infinity
Lovely colorful houses Rajesh!! Nice candid shots of the houses 🙂
And lol at how cool weather enters cbe and hot humid air enters palakkad!!
That’s what was written somewhere I read…. but the western ghats should have some effect on Cbe i guess 🙂
Destination Infinity