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Blogs from Coorg, Karnataka, India, Asia
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January 13th 2013
13 January 2013 Our final day in Kushalnagar and it starts early in my home, with loud music, as it is Sunday, the traditional day of worship. I enjoy a traditional Kerala dish for breakfast, rice with green bean curry and then rice with banana and sugar. The bananas here are delicious. It is followed by a dosa and coconut milk chutney. Enjoying this food a lot! Jeny is at mass this morning so I don’t get a chance to say goodbye and Preeth is ill unfortunately. We are taken to visit two of the towns 18 Buddhist temples. The Tibetans were gifted some land here after their escape in 1959 and they have a community of around 30,000, including 10,500 monks. The temples are beautiful and even though they are a tourist attraction, they are ... read more
January 12th 2013
12 January 2013 Our first and only full day in Kushalnagar and we have a busy schedule. First stop is the Dubare Elephant Camp. The twenty elephants here are owned by the Karnataka Forestry Department and used to help move wood in the forest. After the initial excitement of seeing a forty year old daddy elephant and a two year old baby (too cute!), we are a bit shocked to see that they are chained together and struggle to walk far. Their eyes are also watering which makes them look so sad. They each seem to be assigned a handler; some are just young boys with sticks which have a metal hook on one end. They use these to drive the elephants and move them down towards the river. Some sit on the back of the ... read more
January 11th 2013
11 January 2013 Apparently I have an amazing knack for falling asleep almost anywhere! I slept for most of the ten hour flight from Heathrow to Bangalore, I got a good hour or so at the airport with my head in my lap, I catch 40 winks after lunchtime most days when we are travelling from place to place and today I have managed to curl up like a cat on the bus and have a couple of hours sleep on our long and bumpy (Indian roads are amazing!) journey from Mangalore to Kushalnagar. I had a few tears again while saying goodbye to the Banker family in Mangalore. I managed to join Punit’s mum and dad for breakfast and they gave me a beautiful gift to send me on my way. Everybody is just so ... read more
May 17th 2012
So far I was pretty happy that my tour was going as per my plan. However I was rather confused to opt from the 4 spots which were not in my schedule. Irpu Falls, Kabini WLS, Nagarhole NP and Shivanasamudram waterfalls. I had previous appointments to attend in Kochi so I would be heading for Kerala, this was the thought. I finally voted for Irpu Falls as the place was not known to the tourists. After saying ‘virtual’ good bye to rest of the three places I went to bed as I had to wake up early next day. I woke up at 6am and hit the road in next 15 minutes. I had to take care of my personal hygiene. I walked in to the bus stand in Mysore and from my research I knew ... read more
May 6th 2012
Coorg is an awesome place to stay and enjoy the climate. We stayed in a resort which was beyond our expectations. We started from Coimbatore @ 8 AM in the morning and reached Coorg in the evening. Stayed there for 3 days and the experience was awesome. The place is also called Medikeri. Nearby airport is Mysore. We visited the Golden temple and artificial park.... read more
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June 20th 2011
The river near coota in coorg is perfect for river rafting . Well you have to know how to swim and be a certain age to do it. I had gone with family friends and it was so much of fun!The instructor said that the earlier batch many people had fallen of (dont worry they wore life jackets) .Well suprisingly no one fell of !anyway to get on with it there are three level rapids .And the best season is the rainymonsson season where the water is rushhhhhing......They take you for a few trials then they tell you about saftey issues and then were of...when i went they had named all the levels the last level's name was daredevil or witch's curse cuse it was deeeeeep.So before that came up they put me right in the ... read more
March 27th 2011
I ended up going to Coorg twice in under 5 weeks; once with my parents visiting from the UK and the second time on a school trip with around 25 M1s (11-12 year olds)..so I’ll cover both trips! Coorg is around 6 hours’ drive from my current home in Bangalore. Through a travel agent I used for Sri Lanka, I booked a small Tata taxi and luckily my parents, our luggage and I managed to all fit in. I’d looked in my Lonely Planet previously and booked us to stay 3 nights, 4 days at Golden Mist Plantations in Coorg, a Dutch-owned plantation. The road to Coorg wasn’t bad until we got to Madikeri area; up til then the road was pretty smooth with lots of Café Coffee Days dotted along the road every few miles, ... read more
June 16th 2009
We stayed there at Coorg Planter's Camp.. Glad the place is not spoiled with concrete structure ,electricity & loud music. Excellent hospitality .Planter's Camp team made sure everything was attended on time. their courteous nature was commendable. thanks overall. Made the trouble of reaching here WORTH IT!!... read more
March 29th 2009
After a brief lunch in Virajpet, and eating at a very local place for pittance, Ronny tried to bargain for a cab to the next junction as the next bus was a 3 hour wait, the problem was there was only 1 cabbie and he was not moving from his spot, unless he got the price he wanted. 5 mins later we were all in his cab! Reached our destination at a little junction which had 3 shops/ houses, called up the homestay(Honey Valley) and he came to collect us, for the 20min (3km) uphill ride on some very rocky road(if you can call it that). Reached our destination which was this homestay which contained no more than 20 rooms spread over 3 buildings, and then we were surrounded by hills, mountains, trees, and clean smelling ... read more
March 10th 2009
What a fabulous little Garden of Eden that we found ourselves in. Oh boy. We surely enjoyed our time spent at the Honey Valley Estate. Not the easiest place to get to, but definately not the hardest either. Just a few bus transfers, a bit of waiting around in random small towns and then finally waiting at the junction at the bottom of the hill for the Honey Vally jeep to pick us up. Once we got there we knew that it was all most definately worth it. The owners, husband and wife team, are the most welcoming hosts you could imagine and made us feel very comfortable very quickly. The surrounding area is covered in coffee plantations soread out over large, green, rolling hills. The amount of greenery in the area is completely astounding coming ... read more
