Coorg

It has been so long since I have updated my blog, n reason being I am reading 3 books simultaneously & no where close to finishing any of them. Meanwhile I thought I will write about few of my travel experiences. So starting with my latest trip, this was to Coorg.

Coorg is a hill station located in Karnataka and is famous for its spices & coffee plantation. Off course from tourism point of view, it is quite green & laid back with no city hustle bustle. We happened to plan this trip out of the blue. My hubby Sayu and me were planning on taking couple of days off on our second anniversary & the “nearby place” to visit in our list was Goa. But then I was trying to find a place which we both had not visited earlier & is also not too far, as we had just 4 days to roam around with us. So stumbling on Coorg, I scouted the internet and finalized on the itinerary. I was so happy on this chance plan & Sayu, off course agreed with it.


So having done our bookings, we left for Mangalore, on the 6th evening [6th Feb 09] via KSRTC bus. Reaching Mangalore on 7th early morning we took a local bus to Madikeri, Coorg. This bus journey took us through scenic winding roads & we were either admiring the beauty or dozing throughout the journey. By the time we reached Madikeri we were dead tired, & just hit the sack after a heavy lunch. In the evening we planned on watching the sunset from the "Raja's Seat", one of the local attractions. We also visited the "Omkareshwara Temple" and the "Madikeri Fort". This fort was a disappointment though, it was hardly a fort. In fact we were wondering if we have reached the right place :D

Pic 1: Sunset at Raja's Seat

Next day, we had booked our selves with a guide for the "Thadiyandamol" trek. So we [5 of us, along with guide & a couple of more fellow travellers] started off early in a bus to Kakabe, from where we took a jeep to reach the foothills. From here we started our climb of the highest mountain of Coorg. It has a height of 1750 meters & a varied landscape. We crossed some plantations, some thick jungle growth, some plains & then finally steep climb with sparse grass growth. Even though sun was a little spoil sport, we really enjoyed the climb & clicked a lot of pictures. Our fellow travellers were foreigners who had taken a sabbatical & were using it to roam around different places, starting with India.

Pic 2: The higher peak is Thadiyandamol

On reaching the peak, we ate upma n sheera which our guide had packed for us and after a brief halt we started our climb downhill. There was this portion of the hill which was steep and slippery with no strong foothold. No idea how the other 3 managed to go down so soon, but I n Sayu were going at snails pace concentrating to balance ourselves with every step. And then it so happened that I could no longer maintain a steady foot hold, n with building momentum I literally started running down. In other words, my breaks were no longer working :D Thankfully the other 3 people managed to break my run. Phew!! We braced ourselves to catch hold of Sayu in case he also came tumbling down, but he managed to come in a slooow n steady pace. The remaining journey was comparatively uneventful.

Pic 3: View from the top

En route we saw lot of plantations & also the Nalknad Palace. Within the palace there was a dark room [window less room in the underground section] worth mentioning. Believe me it sure was dark in there, could see absolutely nothing! This time we didn't have to walk just till the foothills, but till the Kakabe bus stand. Fortunately we didn't have to wait long for the bus, timing of the guide being perfect & once back to our room we spent the remaining day relaxing.

Next day we had booked with the same guide for a plantation walk. This time it was just the 3 of us. We walked for some 5-6 hours, this time no or hardly any climb, and saw various plantations - coffee, pepper, cardamom etc. The walk at some places was quite dicey, as there wasn't any road. It was quite scenic n peaceful & overall a nice different experience :) In the evening we again roamed around in Madikeri & tried some local cuisine, which Sayu being a keralite found an absolute delight. I actually cant pen down his expressions on having that "eedi upam" and very very spicey pepper chicken :D

Pic 4: Pepper Plantation

Finally on the fourth day morning, we took a bus to Bangalore. Contrary to our expectations, it took that bus a very long time & it was evening by the time we reached our frens place. We were hoping of having lunch at her place, but instead we had to contend ourselves with some south Indian version of Punjabi samosa in some road side eating joint. Once in bangalore time flew by with frens n before we knew, we were waiting in the airport for our return flight the next morning, which by the way got delayed because of some air show. Anyway we got back to Pune, back to office to be precise :D but were beaming after a wonderful trip & memorable experience :)