Coorg – A Mystique Experience

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!

Moonlight!

Something Sweet...n Sassy...................................

Silver and bright sometimes creamy light,
A glance of it makes me feel alright!

Reminds me of fairly tales like Snow-White!
And comforts me to have a Good Night!

Sometimes it looks the light from the people I love,
Sometimes blessings from the God above!

It takes the darkness away from the night,
Plants hope in place of fear, and give the respite. :)

Agonies Of Being Lost!

Post to Pillars, Pillars to Post,
My mind wanders today, as if it’s Lost!
Nothing seems clear,
All thoughts are crisscrossed!

There’s Something Inside that’s so incomplete,
As if I have been victim of a deceit,
Life is again playing games …so secrete,
I am running away from it like an athlete!

The Brain is racing with a pool of questions-
Is the time come to seek salvation?
Is it the pain of being apart, that’s keeping the eyes dampen??
Is it the close friends, who left the heart so broken???

Houston.....Leaving on a Jet Plane!

Saturday 07th March 2009,

Got up at 3:30 am, the excitement and the anxiety was not letting me sleep. A memorable day was in its making! I was going to re-live my dream again!! A dream seen with open eyes!
Humming the tunes from John Denver “All my backs are packed I am ready to Go…….Leaving on a Jet Plane.” I switched off the lights, locked the doors and went to Deepa’s house. Both of us were ready and waiting for the Jet Plane (The 12-seater SUV we guys had hired for the trip). And at 5:47 there came our Plane, Captain Arnab was the Pilot in charge and Kish the Co-pilot. Vardu, Vaishnavi, Kish’s parents and Arnab’s mom were already on Board!
Deepa and Me sneaked our ways to the last seat and became the back benchers! The back bench since childhood days I must has been a total treat to sit!!
Our captain Arnab announced the departure and we all were set to go!!Very soon we kissed the Dallas Downtown goodbye and hit the I-45 S.

The sun rays were now starting to play hide n seek with the morning clouds and I guess they have some connection with our stomach, as all of us had started feeling hungry.
Thanks to Vardu and Vaishnavi for the Donuts, they did curbed our hunger a lil bit.
Many of us were now getting Nature’s Call ;) and then a few mins later, captain Arnab announced the Breakfast break!
The Breakfast menu consisted mainly of hash browns and Pancakes from McDonalds. We loaded our stomachs light in lieu of the wonderful lunch awaiting us in Meenakshi Temple’s Cafeteria.
Captain Arnab then did the honors of clicking the first pictures of the day and announced the change in sitting plan. We backbenchers moved forward and the parents got our seats!!!

Saturday 07 March, 11 AM
The time finally came when captain Arnab announced our arrival at the first destination: Swaminarayan Akshardhaam Temple in Stafford!
WOW, it is the first word that came to my mind after looking at the temple. Pious, Serene and blissful, the temple simply took our hearts away. It is made out of white marble imported in 33,000 pieces from India and yellow limestone imported from Turkey.(Vardu fetched us this information from one of the temple’s associates).
We were lucky enough to make it to the Aarti and felt the divine pleasure.
I am always amazed to look at two sections of people in any temple. First are the elderly people whose eyes glow at the very sight of temple, and second are the children, who simply love the empty space in the temples and keep on running here and there!
We took a few shots outside the temple trying to lure our co-pilot Kish for some matrimonial pictures.

The time had come to bid this temple farewell and head on to our next destination – Meenakshi temple. There was a change of duty and Captain Arnab handed over the charge to the new captain Kish and co-pilot Deepa.

Saturday 07 March, 1 PM
We reached Meenakshi temple and prayed to all the deities, I had visited this temple last year and had never known would get the privilege to be here again! But thank God and thanks to the group!

We all were now getting the lunch calls from the stomach and headed straight to the famous cafeteria in the Mennakshi Temple.
I didn’t know for sure though whether it was the hunger pangs from my stomach or the butterflies that were making me anxious. The only thought racing in my mind was very soon u’ll make it there and that the time has come! J

The lunch was an awesome platter of south-Indian delicacies like Pongal, Masala Dosa, Puri, Vegetable rice, Lemon Rice, Tamarind Rice, Curd Rice and Idlies. After eating to our content we started feeling sleepy and drank coffee to help us deal it.
Vidya and her husband had also come to visit us at the temple.

And now with the clock hitting 3 o’clock the decision was taken to march ahead! My mind was racing and heart was full of Joy. (Not attempting to define those emotions here as they could cover a separate blog all togetherJ)
There was a change of duty and Kish and Deepa exchanged roles. Captain Deepa announced the departure from Meenakshi temple and headed towards NASA.
There were some construction going on and so there were some road blocks. It’s always said that the last few minutes of reaching your aim are the toughest and I echoed the same feelings. The anxiety and the suspense were killing me!

Saturday 07 March, 4 PM

We finally reached NASA and the first question I had been asking in my previous blog was answered-- What would be my first sight tomorrow –the NASA logo, the US flag, a building etc? I saw a white building first and then the two shuttle planes marking NASA Johnson Space Centre’s entrance.

After getting down I don’t know what happened to me, those few steps from our Jet Plane to the Johnson space center were so difficult and heavy. All my childhood memories, dreams and ambitions were just revisiting my brain. The heart was echoing “I wish…………………”
And then the reality struck me and I went in! The second question I had been asking myself : Would the area inside the Space Centre have changed? I did find a lil bit change but not that much!
The entire gang went for the tram tour but I had opted to stay back and spend some time alone with Me, Myself and NASA J.
I gifted myself with the opportunity of getting lost in my day dreams! And then went off for the Blast Off theater. It was such an amazing experience and I give it 5 on a scale of 5! (As I already said my personal encounter with NASA cannot fit in here so will write it in separate blog and post it soon! J)

I came out of the Blast Off Theatre and the group had returned from the Tram tour and we got reunited to explore more in NASA.
I shopped quite a bit at the Space Trader shop and we guys clicked couple of shots here and there. The NASA photo studio was the next game!! Arnab, Deepa, Kish and me clicked an Astronaut pic together. So now I had three of them as my fellow astronauts!
It feels enthralling to see myself in the Space suit and it is till date the most attractive uniform I would have ever seen!!

( A note of thanks here to Arnab and his mom, Deepa, Kish and his parents, Vardu, and Vaishnavi : Thanks a lots guys: I don’t want to say you made my day , but you made my year J! God Bless you all!)

Saturday 07 March, 7 PM

After spending three hours at my dream destination, it was time now to head back to Dallas. The Captain in charge was Vardu and Co-pilot Vaishnavi.
I must confess this was the time in the day that I felt very very down. It felt as if I am getting separated from an important part of myself.
Luckily for me, everyone decided to play the memory game and I lost track of what I was thinking. But first we decided to get coffee from SB before heading on your journey to Dallas. So we went to a drive thru where in we forgot to order and went straight down to collect the order J Yup That’s us!!!

After coffee, we all were charged to play the memory game.
Oh My Gosh! It still is one of the amazing games and goes wild away from Coffee to Blue Sea from Gandhi to Teresa from Cricket to football, from MTV to u know what.
Not to miss from Lost to “Found” and Chillis to Californication!. We guys had real fun exercising our brains with this game!

Two rounds of this game had us out of our heads and we all decided to play Dumb C next! Woooo what movies to guess from ‘Alice in Wonderland’ that made Deepa exclaim ‘Frantic’ to ‘Everybody says I am fine’. From ‘My name is nobody’ that drove Kish crazy to ‘Armageddon’ and ‘Honey I shrunk the kids’ the simple ones!!

At last we all were exhausted and decided to search for the next IHOP for dinner.
Found one on exit 251(that’s what I remember) and we guys had our dinner!

Sunday 08 March, 12:25 AM

We came out of IHOP and got in for the last lap. There was again a slight change of duty – Pilot Kish and co-pilot myself were struggling our best to stay awake amongst the sleeping gang!! We did trust on a number of our fav songs to help us do that!! Finally we reached back to Dallas and hit the same road names Preston, Campbell, StoneHollow and there it came: Frankford, 4900 Rancho Palisades!

Sunday 08 March, 01:20 AM

Thinking about the adventures of the day, I slept off!!!!!

Yet again here I go…….

Yet again here I go…….

We’ve planned to go to NASA Johnson Space Centre Houston tomorrow.
This is the second time I would be going to NASA but even today the word NASA itself gives me a thrill. What would be my first sight tomorrow –the NASA logo, the US flag, a building etc? Would the area inside the Space Centre have changed? How many people will be there? What new to see? What old to re-collect?

NASA a dream, a passion, the grandeur!
How many times would I have recited its name when I was a kid? How many times I just wanted to see something associated with it? How many times I still Google it out? How many day dreams I see of being there?
Yet going there the second time is again making me so nervous, my stomach is full of butterflies and the heart beat is high.
Feels like going on a first date ;) The anxiety and the innocence a combination so rare!
All of a sudden I am only seeing goodness in life, how blessed I feel to accomplish something I had dreamt of since I was a kid.

There’s this voice coming from deep inside, Hey I am going to NASA, Hey I am going to NASA, Hey I am going to NASA, yippee!

All the Best!

Dedicating a few lines for my sister 'Sarah'
************************************************************************************
Its an important Test,
So give it your Best,
Forget everything about the Rest,
Don't be Upset,
And make bad thoughts Arrest .

I know it feels a whole lot Distressed,
But stay focused and not Stressed,
All your problems will be Addressed,
And this is what I have to Suggest.

So my Dear Sis- who's so Blessed,
Wish you all the very Best,
For your Board exams Conquest!

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"It" asks me

“It” ask me, “It” asks you,
Do you think it’s really true!

“It” answers me; “It” answers you,
When in trouble “It” guides us through!

It’s in you and it’s in me,
It’s someone we know so closely!

It’s a friend when you need,
It’s the guidance unforeseen!

The answer “It” gives is always right!
Ignoring which, troubles we invite!

It’s your best friend
But sometimes it’s our enemy we pretend (“It’)!

We treat “It” with so much contempt!
Though “It” has powers we’d never dreamt!

We doubt its existence all the time,
And think to ask “It” anything is a crime!

Yet “It” never leaves us in life,
Be it Happy times or Pain and Strife!

This “It” is our "Conscience" that awakens us always,
“It” burns in all of us like a Blaze!