Experience At Coorg

As said in the earlier post and as planned we visited coorg last weekend. It was an amazing trip if I could say. We (me, my husband, my son and the honey couple my BIL and my co-sister) started early on Saturday morning. We planned such a way that we touched almost all the important places we could visit on the way. We packed our breakfast (nice idlis with molgai podi on it) and started from home by 5.00 am. (me and my husabnd didnt sleep the last night as we were really excited and kept planning). We picked up BIL and Co-sis on the way from mym MIL's place and left teh city around 5.30 am. As it was early morning, no traffic. So we reached Mysore road and Mathur by 7.00 am. We had our share of morning cup of hot beaming coffee at Mathur Tiffany ( which is our usual stop whenever we head towards Mysore or via Mysore). No one felt hungry. My BIL driving, me and my hub and the back seat had a nice nap. But the rain was also showing its face to us every now and then. The cliamte was so nice (but little worried as we felt the rain may upset our trip).

We first reached Bylakuppe at about 10.00 am and visited the Golden Buddha temple and did a little shopping for the exotic Nepali things available there. What a nice place. Then on we reached the Dubbare Elephant camp. We took a ride in the boat and touched the other side of the river and came back. They said that we cannot see the elephants as it was just 12.30 pm and we can have a look only after 4.00 pm. So we decided to leave the place and reach Madikere so that we can have lunch and take some rest and then move off to our evening site seeing. As our care taker at the cotage informed us over phoen to have lunch and come we decided to have lunch on the way. We had our lunch on the way in Kushal Nagar as we all didnt have our breakfast properly. Then we reached our Cottage "Pompei Valley" by 1.30 pm (the route, contact details and the rates will be given at the end). The place is really exotic and very simple. The Couple Ms. Saritha and her husaband MrTom are really hospitable people. Ms.Saritha Showed us the cottage. It was very simple with two double bed rooms and one bathroom and toilet attached and a sit out provied with chairs. The rooms are really clean and you get hot water in the morning as well as in the evening. If you want in between you can ask them and they will switch it on. The place is situated in about 50 acres and these people have almost all the farm animals in their farm and a big pond behind with tortoise and fish. It was raining every now and then and the site of the clouds and rain dripping was really amazing and soothing to our eyes.


Then as we all felt tired we wanted a cup of coffee( after all its coorg the place where coffee plantation is done. And how could any coffee lover miss it). So we ordered for it and Ms.Saritha provided it. It was really aromatic. Then we all had a wash and were chatting for a while, while my son was asleep. As planned we left the cottage for our evening sight seeing by 5.00 pm. If you want dinner you can order with Ms.Saritha. They have a very simple menu with both Veg and Non-veg (but little costly). We decided to pack our dinner or have it outside. So we went to Raja's seat. It was covered fully with clouds. There is also a park and there is a toy train over there. It is said that in Olden days the King used to come here everyday and enjoy the view of teh whole city. Yes and actually you may see the whole city if the view id clear. But we couldnt see as it was raining , not so heavily. Then we had a cup of coffee again outside and a bowl of bhel which tasted really nice. My husband had got the tickets for us all to enjoy the toy train ride along with my son. We went and stood in the huge queue. They charge about Rs.10 per person and take us 3 rounds around the park. We enjoyed it and decided to pack dinner and go back and have rest as it was already 7.30pm. We packed some dinner (make sure the food items are very costly) and something to drink(as we wouldnt be anyhow sleeping as we had planned).

We went back and it was already 9.00pm. Then I fed my son and made him sleep and we all watched some Hindi movie and chatted and went off to sleep. The next day as planned we went started early by 8.00 am. We planned to Thala Kaveri and back to "pompei Valley" as it was in the middle to Thala Kaveri and Madikere. Thale Kaveri is about 45kms away from Madikere. You may see a lot of boards as it is one of the most visited and important place in the whole of coorg. On the way we had our breakfast at Bagamandala. It was a small Vegetarian Restaurant but the food was very nice and very affordable. If you are really religious you can visit the temple at Bagamandala. It is quiet big and nice. Then we heeded towards Thala Kaveri. It is an amazing place and such a huge and big river comes out from a small hole. Such is the miracle of nature and no one till date can never predict where the water comes from. This is a very holy place and they do pooja here. If you want you may take a bath here in the pond. They also do a lot of special pooja for the last rites of the people who passed away in the family.My Co-sis took a bath.(I didnt as I have done it in my earlier visit and the climate was also not good).

We started from that place and reached back the cottage by 12.oo pm. (Actually 12.00 is the check out). But Ms.Saritha was very nice so she gave us more time. We had already packed everything in the morning. So all we had to do was to freshnup and change. We vacated by 12.30pm. We didnt go to Abbey falls as it was raining and the place would be slippery and we also had to reach back Bangalore that night as my BIL had office the next day. So we planned our trip through Nagarhole wildlife Sanctury which we missed out last time. We reached Nagarhole at about 3.00 pm. If we had been a little late we cannot go through as they close the gates by 4.00pm. It was very nice, but we could only spot deers, antelopes and wild dogs. To our disappointment the safari ride was cancelled due to heavy rains. The forest department authorities told that it will be open only after the monsoon. But if we had gone we could have seen Tigers, cheetas, wild boars, elephants, tuskers and many more and it would have really been fun.



We drove back through Mysore road and had our dinner at about 8.30pm in Adigas at Mathur.(But be careful you carry cash as they dont accept card. otherwise you need to travel 2kms into Mathur to draw cash). The food was really tasty. Then we left Adigas at about 9.15pm and reached home by 11.30pm ( we drove very slowly as we were all very tired). It was a nice experience and a little disappointment as we missed out a lot of places like Abbey Falls, Omkareshwara Temple, Irrupu Falls, etc. due to monsoon and lack of time.

Coorg and Madikere : Is about 255kms to be precise from Bangalore. There is no railway connection or airway connection. The only way to reach is through road. It is better to arrange your own vehicle as you need soem vehicle to go from place to place after you reach Madikere. Nearest Railway station is Mysore and Mangalore. Nearest Airport is Bangalore and Mangalore. Hill station and perfect Honeymooner's paradise.

Pompei Valley: Ms. Saritha- 08272222909. They charge about Rs.1500 for the whole two bedroom cottage (with breakfast if you are a couple.) If two couple are sharing one cottage you will not be provided with breakfast or you need to pay for it. Coffee and tea is really good. After reaching Madikere, you need to take Mangalore route and exactly at 2.5kms you will find a junction where you have to take the turn towards Thala Kaveri route and at about 200mts you may find this place. There are two petti shops in the junction where you can enquire for Mr.Tom's place and they will guide you. Better you call the above number and confirm for a place.

Have a nice and pleasant journey!

Our Trip to Murnad, Madikere and the surrounding places

We(me and my husband), usually try to make a long trip to some place once in every three months. This time as it was a long weekend and we planned an outing. We started thinking the previous night itself, i.e. on 9th April, Thursday. We wanted to visit a place which we have not explored earlier at least me. We also wanted a place not too expensive and don’t cut our pockets much. We first planned to go to Kotilingeshwara at Kolar on Friday and back to Bangalore and to Dodda Aalamaraa in Mysore the next day. But I didn’t like the plan of shunting back and forth and it was also very hot and I wanted to visit some hill station. So my dear husband suggested Madikere which he had already visited and he knows a person who has a resort there, so that we needn’t worry about our stay. He also suggested that it would come under our budgets (which we had in mind been about 3,000 to 4,000 rupees). And I have also heard from few people that it’s a lovely place to visit. So, we finally came to a conclusion at about 11.30 in the night that we would start to Madikere early in the morning.
But in the morning the next day on 10th of April, Sai Sharan unfortunately had some stomach upset and we cancelled the plan. But after some medications he became fine after 11 in the morning and we also were not ready to leave a good opportunity. So we decided by 12’O clock that we take our car and my husband invited one of his friend called Komesh to join us for the trip. So we started packing and around 3’O clock we left Bangalore. Madikere is about 250 kms. From Bangalore which takes about 51/2 hours to 6 hours. We had a slow journey and took nearly 7 hours to reach. We reached about 10’O clock in the night. The whole town was asleep and we couldn’t find one vegetarian restaurant. Finally after searching for about 10 mins. We found one and had our dinner. The food was hot but not so good. As it was late night we had to adjust. Then we had to go to our resort called “Happy Holiday Homes” in a small place called Moornad which is about 2kms. away from Madikere.
It’s a nice and calm place run by a couple called Kashi Aiyappa and Swathi. The people were very hospitable and even when we reached late at about 11.30 they invited us in and gave us a room which was little small. As it was holiday season we couldn’t get rooms. But he somehow adjusted and gave us a room. We were really thankful to him and as I asked some milk for the baby Swathi his wife immediately boiled and gave it for him. We went off to sleep.
If you want to stay at Madikere you can blindly go ahead to this place but with prior bookings. You can contact Mr.Kashi Aiyappa in 093421 47137/0827 147137 for a stay @ Happy Homes.
The next day morning 11th of April, Komesh and my Husband Bala, woke up at 5.30 and went for a walk to the nearby river. As the baby was sleeping I couldn’t go with them. So I stayed in the room and there was hot water gushing in the bathroom. So I took a nice bath and had nice steaming hot coffee prepared by Swathi. Then I started discovering the place around. It was not so cold but the weather was chill and nice to be there during the hot summer away from Bangalore city life. I was so surprised and thrilled to see a lot of variety of plants and Mr.Aiyappa was explaining about the places there. He has his own coffee plantations behind in about 20 acres. Komesh and Bala returned soon and they also started getting ready and Mr.Aiyappa offered us breakfast which Swathi was preparing. We waited for Sai Sharan to wake up. I and Bala were really surprised to see Sai Sharan Still sleeping till 8.30 as he would get by 7.30 maximum everyday here at Bangalore.
In the mean time we met a couple of people who were also from Bangalore. We became happier when we came to meet a person named George who also works for the same company Bala does, Intel. He introduced his wife named Gene who is School Principal here at Bangalore. She informed us that she had read my husbands blog while browsing for Madikere and places of stay and came to know about Mr. Aiyappa’s cottage. What a coincidence it was!
Then Swathi served us with a hot breakfast, a very special dish called Papputtu with nice hot Sambar. It was yummy. But we didn’t take to our fill as we were little afraid of the curvy roads there at Madikere. After breakfast we immediately started to Thala Kaveri, a place where the river Kaveri Originates. It is about 45kms from Moornad. But it took us nearly 1 ½ hours to reach there because of the roads. In between we also stopped in a few places to look at the scenic beauty around. Lovely place! Then Komesh was excited seeing a tree full of otton seeds bursting out and I was also very happy seeing coffee plantation everywhere as I am a coffee freak by nature. So I collected some coffee beans and few coffee leaves as samples. We reached Thala Kaveri by 11.30. the place was not crowded and we could have a nice dharshan and I took a dip in the holy water and prayed well for the welfare of our family.
Then we started from there at about 12.30 and reached Madikere by 1.30. It was lunch time and we enquired for good vegetarian Hotel and one of my husband’s friend recommended the place called Shri Krishna Bhavan. It was a small place but the lunch was good. Then I did a little shopping for some spices and Coffee powder. Then we proceeded a place called Raja’s Seat. There was toy train and my son started jumping seeing the train. So we all took a round in the train. I had gone to my childhood days where we used to travel at parks. Then we went to see the Raja’s Seat. There was a beautiful garden with lovely flowers and from Raja’s Seat we could see the view of the whole of Coorg district. I got so much infatuated seeing the place. We took some photos and left to Dhubare.
We reached Dhubare at about 5’O clock in the evening, a place where they train wild elephants. The river Kaveri was flowing and we have cross a small distance in the river to reach the other side to see the elephants. There are boats available. But we decided to walk through the water. I was little frightened to cross as the stones were very slippery but it was a very great experience. Sai Sharan was very happy seeing the water and Bala made him sit in the water and played. He was not ready to come out of the water at all and started jumping every now and then. When we reached the other side it was feeding time for the elephants and there was a female elephant which was tamed and trained already with its small calf. The sight was so exciting. Sai Sharan loves elephants and he wanted to go near them and play with them. But I was little frightened as it were not fully trained. The Mahaout who was with the elephant named the female as Mythili and the Baby Calf as Mandara. Then we went to see other elephants which were not trained and were very ferocious. So they were kept in huge open cages made of wood. We can see them but they cannot get out. Bala got me a hair of the elephant which is considered as a good thing to have to ward off from evil according to the Indian belief. Then we saw two elephants bathing in the river. What an exciting sight to see them bath and play! Then Bala sent me and Sai Sharan in the boat as I got myself hurt in a sharp stone in the leg. Bala and Komesh walked in the water with quick steps and reached in five minutes. It was already 6.30 and it was getting dark. Then we finally visited a place called Bylakuppe, a few minutes drive from Dhubare. We reached there by 6.45. It was a Tibetan Refugee Camp and there was a big Buddhist Monastery and was called as the Golden temple. The tomb of Buddha was so huge and there were beautiful lightings everywhere as we heard that there was some festival going on. There were nearly about 5000 monks doing pooja. The golden Buddha statue was so huge and gave a peace of mind as we saw him. As it was already late and we had to reach Bangalore that night itself. There were a lot of shops were Tibetan goods were sold. We did a little bit window shopping as our trip was a budget trip. Then we started at about 8’O clock. Komesh started driving the car and we all went of to sleep. And at about 10 in the night after reaching Mandya we had a nice dinner at a roadside Dhabha. The food was cool. Then we started driving back to Bangalore. We reached at about 1’ O clock in the night.Another thing that happened is that we had a small pooja at the temple of our family Goddess near Mettur Dam which is 200kms away from Bangalore on 12th April. This pooja is compulsory for all the gents of the family to attend. The ladies cannot go there. So as we reached Bangalore Bala immediately took Komesh along with him, had a bath and left for the temple pooja. I and Sai Sharan went off to sleep after a very tired travel.