Trip to coorg...

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Coorg is on the Western Ghats. Set amidst verdant valleys, imposing mountains and teak wood forests, this is one of the most beautiful hill stations you can visit. Misty hills, lush forest, acres and acres of tea and coffee plantation, orange groves, undulating streets and breathtaking views are what makes Coorg memorable.

Coorgi cuisine is famous and unique, especially for non-vegetarians as it is based on game meats, pork and other delicious ingredients. Popular dishes are pandhi (pork), koli (chicken) and yarchi (lamb) spiced with pepper, kokum, bamboo shoot, red chilly, bembla curry, kadumbuttu, noolputu, voti and excellent coffee.

After slogging our ass off in office feeling trapped in the corporate world.Coorg was a welcome change. We had to catch a bus from Pune to Bangalore on 3rd April, took us 16 hours to get there, it wasn’t tiring thou. I slept most of the time if not sleeping Pallavi n I kept chatting (my roommate, both of us share the same name).

Felt amazing when I set my foot in Bangalore. Felt great to be back home and among good old friends. First thing I did was hit mojos…love the beer there, remimded me of old days. Then went to corner house had Cake fudge...its jus amazing.

We were supposed to leave early the next day for Coorg. Auri was supposed to get to Bangalore by 7:00 am n we had planned to leave by 8:00am.Uthappa showed up at 10:00...we finally managed to set out by 11:00.

It’s best if I don talk about Bangalore traffic. It seems to be getting worse day by day without any hopes of improving. Anyways we finally hit the Bangalore Mysore high way. It’s a wonderful drive. We stopped on our way at café coffee day had lunch. The sandwiches were horrible which was weird cos café coffee day generally has good stuff.

We reached Tibetan monastery at 5:00pm. I loved this place the monks were really sweet and they sat with us and explained the history of Buddhism. The prayer wheels left me with a peaceful feeling. We had to hurry as it was getting late and our hosts were waiting for us since morning as I had told then that I would be there by 11:00.

We got to the home stay at 9:00pm. Our rooms were clean and authentic Coorgi food was waiting for us. As the lunch was a disaster the dinner looked inviting. All of us freshened up and ate to our hearts content. I must say that for a vegetarian there is nothing much to eat. The non-vegetarian on the other hand had a rocking time. The house was on top of a hill we were right in middle of a coffee plantation. It was dreadfully dark kinda scary to venture out. I was happy sitting in portico and talking. Later during the night we went for a walk the mosquitoes din let us go too far. We stayed up all night talking. Finally we went to bed at 4:30 in the morning as we had to get up early and go trekking.

I was the first one to wake up at 9:00. Everyone else was dreaming. I quickly took a shower and went for an estate walk. You have to walk a bit to get to the paddy fields. I was surrounded by hills and rite in the center of it was a small pond, water from which is used to irrigate the fields. There was a swing there reminded me of my childhood days I sat there for a long time later Auri joined me. We took a few pictures and went back as I was hungry. Break fast was a typical south Indian food. We quickly finished our breakfast and went to see the Abbey falls. Before that we stopped at the palace which is now a government office. Wasn’t all that great but I liked the well which was used to hang convicts in those days was kinda spooky.

We then drove to Abbey falls. The walk to abbey falls is again through a coffee estate I had been here before and din like the place much as it is crowded with tourists. Anyways we took a few pictures and head towards Thadiyandamol. Thadiyandamol is the highest peak in Coorg at an elevation of 1750 meters.

We were already late and didn’t have lunch either. We were totally unprepared for the trek. The trek which is meant to be done in one whole day, we planned to cover it in few hours which was obviously impossible nevertheless we set out. It was a gradual slope and weather was nice. The path was lush green with water spots every now and then. Well everything went on smoothly till the climb started. We all slowed down once the climb started. The climb was not very steep though, but needless to say the path was extremely beautiful and soon we could site the lush green misty mountain top. There was a small water falls near by we decided to see it. After walking for a while we could not find it but heard the water, only to realize that we were standing right above the water falls the dense forest was hiding the falls from us. As we went ahead the scenery was getting better. We made couple of stops in between, enjoyed the beauty of the mountain ranges, took a few pictures and slowly climbed on.

Leeches were having a great time sucking our blood. Strangely neither Pallavi nor I had any leeches on us but the guys had a touch time getting ride of them was good fun watching the guys frenetically trying to remove the leeches. My legs gave up after a while we decided to take a break but jus then I got this energy in me to walk ahead and I started climbing. It was getting steeper now; Auri and I climbed and managed to scale one peak. It was a magnificent view. Rest of them stayed down. We decided against scaling the highest peak as it was getting dark and we were ill-equipped. We then sat down on a rock; we were surrounded by peaks covered with clouds and mist. It was incredible. We sat there for a long time.

It was time for us to descend. We started walking back it was really dark we had just one torch and some how managed to find our way back. The little streams that you come across and the sound of the water falls is really mesmerizing. We finally made it to the car and drove back. On our way we stopped at a small bakery bought a few cookies and hogged them. We bought liquor on our way back. We then drove back to our home stay. The dinner was a special request, Auri wanted to try Handi (pork) curry as it’s a must try for anyone who goes to Coorg and one should not eat at any restaurant rather home made. They are supposed to have the authentic taste. I had to survive on basic veg food while everyone else feasted on Handi curry. Pallavi is scared of insects big time. you show her a lil harmless insect she'll go screaming all over the place, there was this huge insect dead in the room, we grabbed the moment picked up the insect next thing i know it was on pallavi and as expected she went nuts! Uthappa and i kept this going for a lil while till we got bored of picking on her, shes always the scape goat 😊. Any ways as all of us were tired after the trekking, we decided against drinking and hit the bed relatively early. We settled the bills as we were leaving early the next day as Auri had to catch a bus back to Pune.

Again I was the first one to wake up. I woke up everyone else. We got dressed quickly and took last few pics and left. On our drive back we stopped at the Elephant training camp. There were two baby elephants playing. They looked really cute. We took few pictures spoke to the trainer and were back on the road. We decided to drink on our way, we were a lil scared of getting caught by cops nevertheless’ we went ahead. Anyways how drunk can you get with just one pint of beer?

We reached Bangalore at 3:00pm and Auri made it to his bus just in time. It was an amazing trip. We will get back to Coorg and finish the trek and this time we will be fully equipped.

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Photos

With the monk
he was really sweet and loved posing for the ic

When auri n i went for a morning walk
can u imagine this is where they live..isnt it lovely

Comments

[Ari]

Hmmmm
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