Coorg – A Mystique Experience
I wasn’t sure, I was going to write this one- but our trip to Coorg was truly the one to revitalize our body mind and soul. So here it goes a travel tale – Bangalore to Mystique Coorg.
Being in IT industry, it’s rare to get long leaves and we wanted to make optimum use of this one.
We packed our bags, carried essential condiments, fueled our car tank and “On our marks”, started for the journey from Bangalore on a fine Friday morning.
[Some details here, since we live on the BG Road, we took the NICE Toll Road from BG Road to Mysore Expressway. Believe me guys, though you need to subtract Rs 29(for the toll) from your pocket, but it’s truly worth it and avoids the whole city traffic. Our route was to continue on the Mysore Highway till Sri RangaPatnam and then take a Right Diversion to Coorg.]
Just then my husband turned on the stereo and selected the first song of the day -There’s a She Wolf in the Closet, Open up and Set it Free by Shakira. He then looked at me and smiled, I bought the clue, He wanted me to be free of all the tensions and stress in life and be myself and live every moment of this trip! (Jezz he still knows how to win my heart…giggles)
After listening and giving sound effects to a couple of songs, our stomach started howling for breakfast. And thus our first stop was Kamat Restaurant! They offer a Delicious Breakfast buffet in a traditional Karnataka Style. There’s Idli packed in a leaf, Pongal, Masala Dosa, Khara Bath, Kesari Bath, Raita, Fruit of the Season, Grape Juice etc. OMG I feel hungry again thinking of it (chuckles)!
After fueling our stomach and attending to nature’s call, we hit the road again with a new zeal. Mysore road has always been fun to drive on and my husband enjoys driving! We crossed our fav. CCD’s the ones that are open 24 X 7! To our surprise those CCD’s have also started offering Idli Sambhar and South Indian Breakfast! Wow the competition is soaring (hmmmm!)
Now we had reached the diversion from Sri RangaPatnam. This diversion avoids traffic in the Mysore City and connects to road to KushalNagar. The diversion road is a little Humpty Dumpty but the road to KushalNagar is an ice-cream smooth road! (Yummy).
Day 1 Destination Bylakupee
After a few minutes we reached our first destination for the day – Bylakupee. The first thing that caught my eye after reaching this town was a gang of four girls wearing short skirts and chit chatting alongside the road, and then I saw some more! Now don’t take me wrong, I was a lil surprised and my husband started giving me those funny smiles (… ahhhhhh grrr…LOL) Anyways since in Bylakupee is located the famous Tibetan Monastery- The Golden Temple, the majority of the population in this town is Tibetan!
We took the service road and reached the famous Monastery. I was awed to see such a beautiful and big Monastery so down in South India, which is geographically a little far from its roots. So I was curious to know the history behind this. Then my husband educated me that this land was allocated by our former PM Indira Gandhi to the Tibetan people who fled from Tibet due to some political reasons. (Impressed by him again J)
We were just discussing this history, geography when we entered the main hall of the temple. I was stunned and speechless as it was the most beautiful Monastery I have ever seen. The Statues of Budha were huge and hypnotizing. It was so serene; we sat there for some time to cherish the peaceful silence!
After taking a few photo shots we made our way to take a stroll in the adjoining market and thought of giving a treat to our taste buds with the delicious Momos served with the Hot chutney!! (surrrrr….spicy)
Day 1 Destination Harangi Dam
Time to move on and we got all set to embark the rest of our journey. After driving for couple of minutes we approached our next stop – The Harangi Dam. Oops what a failure, the place was not even worth getting out of the car. One reason being it was hot and second there was nothing to see. There were three small streams (stream is an over statement may be brooks) of water running down the reservoir of the dam. All in all a disappointment! ( L exhausted)
Day 1 Destination Nisargadhama
We decided that our next stop should be a place which is airy and restful, and ‘click’ we got an idea to go to Nisargadhama, although we had planned to cover it the next day. We parked our car and climbed the hanging rope bridge to the island. After seeing our last spot, our new destination looked like an Oasis in the Desert, simply very good!
[Time for facts: Nisargadhama is a small island enclosed by river Kaveri; it’s green and plush and offers a variety of activities like camping, Deer Park, Rabbit Park, Elephant Safari etc]
We explored the island in our own way clicking pictures and climbing the tree houses they had made!
Close by I could hear the river flowing gently and we made our way to the river bank. The moment we dipped our tired feet in the water oooooooooo we felt a wave of freshness exhilarating our bodies!
We sat there for some time playing with the water and the branches of the trees and got reminded of our childhood days – so sumptuous and carefree! ( J happy)
Day 1 Destination Madikeri
Time fled by and we had to make a move to Madikeri, the most inhabited and commercial town in Coorg. After coming from such a serene atmosphere, my mind was repelling the traffic and pollution on the road.
We had heard a lot about home stays in Coorg, and thought of experiencing the same this time.
We reached the home stay, which was kind of ok, we were too tired to think about, appreciate or criticize anything. We went to the city market for dinner and slept off early! One good think about home stays is most of them do provide breakfast! ( J)
We got up early next day morning and chalked out the plan for the day! We decided to cover the popular tourist places around Madikeri today. We had good homemade breakfast and kick started our adventure!
Day 2 Destination Omkeshawara Temple
We started our day by visiting the Omkeshwara temple in the heart of Madekeri. It’s an ancient Shiva Temple and has a large pond full of wishes. We offered our prayers in the temple and then bought some grains to feed the fishes! ( J Blessed)
Day 2 Destination Abbi Falls
The second destination of the day was Abbi falls. These waterfalls are seasonal and a good time to visit is after the rains or monsoon season. After parking the car, there is a small trek to the Waterfall. Alongside the trek there were a few vendors selling local oranges which looked very tempting. We decided to snack on them on the way back from the falls. We were climbing down when suddenly Wossh !! like cold wind the waterfalls braced us!; we were delighted to see the waterfalls in full form!!. There’s a small Bridge where the tiny sprinklers from the falls kiss your face like rain drops! We were absolutely smitten by the experience!! ( J J Splendid)
We posed here and there, clicked a few shots and decided to move further. On our way back, yes we did pawn on the oranges and they were really good! The drive from the Waterfalls back to Madikeri offers splendid views. One such spot crossed our eyes and we stopped to admire the beauty!
It was time for Lunch and we headed to a restaurant in Madikeri. Afternoons always feel lazy and we decided to go back to the homestay for a quick nap.
Day 2 Destination Raja’s Seat
After flexing our muscles in the evening we got ready for our next destination – Raja’s Seat which offers a good Sunset view. Though these spots offer good views but they are often too crowded and we faced the same thing. Being a Saturday there was a hustle- jostle around the place with so many school trips.
We climbed down the Raja’s seat to get a better view of the sunset and tried to capture it in our cameras. After the sunset, the Musical Fountain is played in the park around Raja’s Seat. We enjoyed the music for some time after which it grew too dark and crowded to stay.
We had been reading the sign boards of a multi cuisine restaurant at Coorg International and thought of giving it a try for Dinner! It was again an okish experience! ( :O Bored)
Coorg is often described as Scotland of India but with my first day experience at Coorg, I could not agree to it at all, so I started teasing my husband about his plan of visiting Scotland and he simply smiled he asked me to wait for tomorrow.
Day 3 Destination Tal Cauvery
We packed our bags next day, bid farewell to Madekeri and made our way to Tal Cauvery. Tal Cauvery hosts a pond from which it is believed that the great Cauvery River originates. The pond is enclosed in a temple at the bottom of a hill. After paying our respect to the pond we climbed the stair cases to the up-hill and what we saw there, left us dumbstruck. For as far and wide we could see there were lush green hills and valleys. We ourselves were on a hill top and that provided a splendid view of the Scotland of India. We trekked across hills and found a good rock to sit and admire the true bliss. We almost felt we could touch the clouds! We sat there for quite some time capturing as much as we could in our cameras and then made her way down the hill.
Day 3 Destination Honey Valley
Our Plan from here was to reach the “Honey Valley” Home stay near Kakkabe and we had to drive quite a bit. The Honey Valley Home Stay is nestled in an enourmous coffee estate owned by Mrs and Mr Chengappa. We had to park our car 3 kms before our actual destination and this is because the terrain to the Honey valley is rough and unfit for cars, only big jeeps could make it through them. We boarded the Jeep provided by the Honey Valley folks and made our journey uphill. We were left aghast to see Waterfalls, Coffee, Cardamom and Pepper plants along with wild trees making it a perfect Rain Forest. It started getting darker and darker as we moved in and then finally after lots of body shakes and sounds, we reached our destination the Honey Valley home stay. We were given a Tranquil Hut to stay, and Mr Chengappa showed us around and educated us about the place.
[Some facts here: The Honey Valley Home Stay is totally secluded from the main roads. There are no other means to reach there, except the vehicles provided by them or by trekking in the estate. There are no shops close by and Meals are provided by the kitchen run by Mrs and Mr Chengappa. The Honey Valley offers a variety of activities like trekking to peak, the highest peak in Karnataka; guided plantation tours, bird watching, nature walks, campfire etc. Also a good collection of books are available that can be borrowed free of cost for reading]
Our first reaction after seeing the place was “Yeh kahan aa gaye hum” in a happy tone. There was absolute silence and serenity interrupted only by the chirping of birds and flowing of water in the falls close by. (J Wonderful)
We took some rest in our little hut before going to the mess for dinner, to our surprise there was no TV in the hut. In the mess we met Mrs Chengappa who was really friendly and spent a couple of minutes with us sharing her experience about the place. The Dinner was homemade food at its best, we ate more than any other day and then borrowed some books and came back to her sweet hut. Woods were lovely dark and deep, and we had promised to keep but it was time now for sleep J
Day 4 Peace and absolute Tranquility @ Honey Valley
I got up early next day morning and starting reading the book hurriedly (before my husband wakes up shhhhhhh!) I had borrowed last night. To my amazement he was peacefully sleeping longer than usual and somehow I couldn’t stand it and woke him up (hahaha) We took a morning stroll in the forest before heading up for the breakfast. After eating mouthful we decided to take a tour around the plantation. We saw coffee plants bearing red color fruit, cardamom plants and some wild orchids. I was walking double carefully to avoid any leeches (grrrr I hate them), just then my husband felt something crawling on his leg and yes it was the bloody leech. Thankfully it had just stuck and so was easy to get rid of! We were half way through when it started pouring all of sudden and we ran back to our hut.
It rained for a long time and gave us an opportunity to admire the lush green forest even more than before. There was nothing to worry about no office, no buses to catch, no clothes to wash, no maids to attend, no TV, no noise, no pollution just nature at its best. My eyes started feeling heavy and I slept like never before! In the evening we met other guests in the homestay, went for another round of strolls and packed our bags after a good filing dinner.
Day 5 Back L
Somehow don’t feel like writing this but everything has an end and so was our short rendezvous with nature, but nevertheless it had filled our hearts, revitalized our body, mind and soul and given us tons of memories to cherish. We headed for Bangalore saying good bye to this awe-inspiring place!
