Just wanted to share the recent trip to Coorg with few of my friends as I wanted to relive the moments we had all thru the trip. Let me first introduce the gang that made it to the trip. Padmanabhan aka Paddu, Satish Kumar aka Saty, Aparna Avala aka Aparna, Vanka Sivaram Prasad aka Shiv, Annapoorna (Aparna's Sis) aka Anu aka Mrs Shiv, Gajendran (Paddu's friend) aka Gaja, Anuradha (my wife) aka Anu, Aditi Anjay (our daughter) aka Aditi and of course me :)
Thanks to Paddu for mooting the idea of going for a trip and after the trip, all of us felt it gave us an opportunity to relax which we dont do normally. And the plan was discussed for over 2 months (since last week of Feb 2009 I think) among atleast 12 of us (excluding Gaja, Mr & Mrs Shiv) and you know who all made it to the trip :)
After lots and lots of discussion on the mode of travel and the lodging aspects in Coorg, we finalized on A/c tempo Traveller and Homestay named "Orchid Valley Retreat". This was taken over by Anu & I and hope we did our best - kudos to us :) Having finalized this, we thought of meeting on thursday night, 30th Apr, so that all can start early from one place on 1st May. Yes... your guess is right, as plans are always plans, and due to some unavoidable reasons we could not start from Bangalore before 10.30 in the morning as we went to pick up guys near Koramangala. Then we started the much awaited trip to Coorg.
Its needless to say that we had fun as soon as we stepped into the cab. First we planned to goto Mysore and see the Palace before Coorg. The trip was good except for the heat in spite of the A/c cab we arranged. The driver stopped in a good hotel in Mysore around 2.30pm but to our dismay we found that it was overflowing. We went inside to see if we can find some place and came out like a ball punched on a wall. The driver then drove us to a hotel which made me think like this "Is Mysore wary of good hotels?". Man, one should not comment on the food we eat, but I dint have a choice after having it there after such a tiring travel. Having entered we ordered the items that we liked (atleast that option was there) irrespective of how good or bad is that item. After that, we went to Palace. For some of us it was the first time. We spent some good time there by roaming and viewing the Palace from outside. We got some memorabalia there and had coffee and refreshed and started off to Coorg. It was around 6pm in the evening. We were told, it is 2 to 2.30 hrs drive from Mysore to Coorg.
After lots and lots of calls to the homestay owner Mr.X and checking with the guys on our way, we came to the place at last around 9.30 pm. Ooof...there was no power when we reached but the dinner was ready. What a luck! Power came soon. We got settled quickly and finised the dinner and took rest. The homestay was situated inside the coffee estate and we felt like we were in a jungle. It was a different experience for each one of us.
The next morning we had Kadampittu (a variety of puttu), aval uppuma for breakfast. Then visited these places - Nalknad Palace, Ikuthappa Temple, Bhagmandala - Triveni Sangam, Tala Cauvery and Raja's Seat in Madikeri. During the travel, we played some games and chatted. Thanks to Saty for the pain he had taken for conducting such interesting games all thru the tour.
That night, we had bonfire after dinner. All of us sang and Aparna danced and the pair Mr & Mrs Shiv remained quiet watching the happenings. Saty had a game for that night too, wow :) Later we started playing cards for sometime till 4 am (hihihihiii) and slept. Shiv was the winner of the game.
See, we are sincere guys and we woke up and got ready not that late. Today for breakfast we had Naputtu and aval uppuma for breakfast, settled the balance amount for the homestay and thanked the couple who took care of us with great food for dinner and breakfast. Took a snap with them before we left. They gave us some flowers, plants (we have this in our flat balcony now) and fruits.
Last day of our trip. Mr and Mrs Shiv had to catch the bus in Bangalore @ 11.45 pm. Time crunch...ehhh. No issues, we covered, Dubare - Elephant Sanctuary, Nisargadama and Golden Temple - all 3 places around Kushal Nagar. We had nice time in all the places except for the heat again. We started from Golden Temple around 6.15pm and the driver did a good job that the couple dint miss the bus to Chennai. Then we dropped Saty, Paddu and Gaja on the way as they had to goto Majestic. Later dropped Aparna in her apartment and reached home around 1 mid night.
What a trip, right? We really had fun in playing the games conducted by Saty. In addition to these games and visiting places, another interesting thing for all of us was the presence of Aditi. All of us had a nice time with her and her statement "moonu naalu" meaning "more than one" was taken by almost all as all of us were refering to that word quite often even after the trip :)
Altogether it was a memorable trip for all of us for sure and hope it was a memorable (though a bit long) trip for you also!!!
