Holiday in Coorg

Months of slogging at work, three days of holidays coming up and we just couldn't stand being in Bangalore for one more weekend.... one day of preparation and we took off.... me and Mella, in a little yellow canary, we shot off from Bangalore on Friday morning down the open roads heading to the hills :)

For those not in the know... the little yellow canary is in fact my little yellow Alto

Getting out of Bangalore was i must say the toughest part of the drive... But once out of Bangalore and cruising on Mysore road, it was aaall gooood... smooth roads, no traffic.... we just zoomed down the road as fast as my little canary could take us...

The plan to get to Coorg -
The route we planned to take was from Bangalore through SH-17 to Mandya. From there we were to proceed till we reached Mysore (about 150 Kms from Bangalore). We were to then take a diversion at Mysore to Hunsur (about 45 Kms from Mysore) and then on to Gonikoppal (another 45 Kms from Hunsur).

Things as they happened -

As almost everyody who heads down Mysore road does, we dropped off at Kamat Lokaruchi on Mysore road for breakfast. It was really crowded but we managed after waiting for a bit, to find a table out in the open and get loaded up with idlis, masala dosa and nice decoction coffee. They also apparently have a breakfast buffet, but we weren't that hungry!! We then took off and reached Mysore. In order to reach Coorg before evening, we were planning to avoid entering Mysore... But, as fate would have it, we missed the one major junction where we were supposed to turn to avoid entering Mysore city. So we entered Mysore and we got lost! ...We asked our way around a number of times, and each time, we ended up being told to drive straight down roads, which invariably had T junctions just a few hundred meters down!!!??? What did they mean... "Drive straight onnn" !!!????

Me trying my monkey skills on a tree after Hunsur while taking a break from driving

Anyways, we finally found a traffic policeman, and he showed us which way to head, to get back on track to our destination. Once back on the highway, we made our way to Gonikoppal through

Hunsur. The last stretch to Gonikoppal was a little dicey... had to zigzag all over the road to avoid the potholes in the road and oncoming trucks, but we managed...

We were all set of stay at the plantation called "Coorg Dreams" (http://coorgdreams.com/places.html)... a nice home stay... the food was splendid (excellent Pandi curry and Kadumbuttu)... The plantation had a lot of place to walk about with a beautiful Lilly pond and a stone quarry. The entire trip took us about 5 hours.... and we made it to the place just in time for lunch. Another really nice place to stay is "The Nest" (http://coorgthenest.com/index.html)

Beautiful little pond... especially during sunset

The golf course where we intruded.....

We were given a nice big bedroom

with a balcony on the first floor of the house. Once we had settled down, I called up my friend, Divya who was home at Coorg for the holidays and convinced her to give us a tour of Coorg. We were too tired that day to to drive too far so settled down in the evening at the Tata Coffee golf course in Pollibetta (around 11 Kms from Gonikoppal) which we managed to sneak into that evening... peaceful place to loaf around as long as nobody catches ya!!

Divya... the saintly guide meditating at Irrupu falls.... :D

Next day, after a nice breakfast which consisted of Otti (rice rotis) with Jam and some curry, we visited Irrpu falls, which was a little disappointing. It was just a little trickle with a lot of "local" tourists busy bathing themselves under the falls... So, assuming that the rains were to blame, we skipped Abbey falls as well... However, having been to the falls before in August, I strongly recommend going there around August or September as the falls are spectacular when there is a lot of water!

Mella contemplating taking a bath too!!!?? .... just kidding!!

From there we went on to the Buddhist monastery which was beeaaauutifulll.... Very very nice place... though little weird to find Buddhist monks on 250cc Honda bikes drinking Coke :) Not quite what you'd expect of a monk!!

One of the many golden statues at the temple

Of course, we all got pretty hungry by then but unfortunately couldn't really find any nice place nearby to have lunch. Had to make do with a so-so thali lunch at a little place near the Tibetian settlement. By the time we were done with the monastry it was evening and we just headed back to Polibetta where we dropped off Divya and she got us some fresh Tea from the Tata Coffee store there.

After getting back to the plantation, we then spent the rest of the evening just walking around the plantation and played some basket ball too till it got too dark. We met a nice couple who was also staying at Coorg Dreams and spent the night chatting with them in general.

The view from our room at Coorg Dreams

Next day we were all set to ...sigh! .... head back to Bangalore and get back to work. Started off in the morning around 9:30 and had a sleepy drive till Maddur where we stopped over for a light snack at Cafe Coffee Day. Finally made it back to Bangalore by around 2PM.

Mella's mom of course had a fabulous Chicken Biriyani waiting for us by the time we got home :)

And that... was the end of the trip....

Plan to go there again sometime... maybe in the rainy season... Ideal for sitting on the veranda and sipping a hot cup of coffee while staring out over the plantation :)

Photo taken at the Lilly pond the last evening at "Coorg Dreams"

Man, what a life... to live on a plantation!! ...