March 2016
It had been 2 years since we took a proper holiday break. The last we headed to hills of Munnar was in summer of 2014 so we decided to make good use of weekend and planned a short trip to Coorg, also known as ‘The Scotland of India’, as it is filled with misty landscape, amazing weather and abounding natural beauty. Coorg is a district in Karnataka with Madikeri as its main city. Its situated apprx 140 KM from Mangalore on Mangalore-Mysore Highway. It’s famous for its coffee plantations. We had explored tea plantations in munnar and Ooty but coffey plantations were new to us so we decided to stay in a resort near to plantations and after with the help of Google guru found Natura Vista suiting our requirement. The tarrif was also pocket friendly so quickly finished with the bookings.
We left Madgao at 10:30 PM and reached Mangalore Junction in morning at 5:00.Mangalore junction is situated some distance from main city so to catch the bus for Madikeri we hired an Ola and reached KSRTC Busstand in Mangalore. The 4.30 Hr bus journey was a boring one at start due to ongoing road construction work but once the hills start it become scenic. Finally we reached medikeri bus stand at 10:30 am and called our hotel if we can checked in early but to our disappoint we got a reply that we can’t checked in before 1:00. The hotel was situated at 10 km from Madikeri so there was no question of dropping the luggage there and go for sightseeing. Finally we found a solution, we deposited our luggage in lockers available on busstand, got freshen up and hired a cab for sightseeing.
Day 1:
I believe in well prepared travel i.e. confirmed bookings and well prepared itinerary, so we followed our itinerary and directly headed to Abbey fall.
The Abbey fall is situated 6km from bus stand. The half KM scenic walk from parking to fall is through coffee plantation. The sound of falling water can be heard from a distance. The fall is surrounded by lush green trees. The entry in water is restricted and one can only view it from a small bridge still it feels quiet relaxing in lap of nature.
Next we went to visit Raja’s Tomb. It’s a historical place having 2 tombs of earstwhile King of Madikeri. It also has poorly maintained garden and park. Avani enjoyed on her own as there were few playing instruments while we explored the place.
We had our lunch at Atithi Restaurant which is typical south Indian restaurant serving exclusively south Indian dishes on banana leaf. The food is tasty and must be visited by south Indian food lovers.
We reached our resort at 2:30 PM. Owner Mr. Nikesh was there ready to welcome us. The resort is a situated amidst 50 acre coffee plantation owned by Mr. Nikesh. To our surprise it has only 2 beautiful bungalow cum cottages situated side by side surrounded from all sides by coffee plants. The cottages are typical South Indian style with a verandah, well equipped living room (with bed and bean bag to relax) and bedroom with balcony and attached bathroom. Mr. Nikesh lives in same plantation apprx 500 mtr away from cottages. The courtyard is well maintained with a small lawn, flower and a swing to relax. We spent rest of our day exploring the place. Breakfast is served complementary. Homemade dinner is available @ 400Rs per head but lunch is not available. The refrigerator is kept equipped with snacks, bread and butter in case you felt hungry. As the cottage is situated few mtrs descend from main road so most of the time mobile don’t have coverage.
If the place is so calm in day except for chirping of birds one can imagine how it can feel at night. On top of that the adjacent cottage was empty so we were only souls in the 500 Mtr periphery. Despite it I was relaxed and slept like a Log but at night some bird sat on roof and making some sound so Avani and Sheetal could not slept well out of fear.
Day 2
After waking up we went on a walk upto highway which is 1 KM from the resort and had excellent coffee at roadside coffee stall .The aroma and taste of that 10 Rs coffee was uncomparable to starbucks or CCD. I can’t forget taste which still lingers on taste buds.
We planned to spend the day in exploring places of interest around Madikeri. We hired a cab for full day and chose to visit Dubare Elephant Camp first.
Dubare Elephant Camp- It’s an elephant training camp open for visitors in morning and evening only for one hour. It’s a beautiful place you reach by crossing the river. The water in river was less so we crossed it on our own otherwise boats are required. You can touch the elephants, feed them and can bath them. It was exciting and we enjoyed a lot.
The next place we visited was Nisargadham. It’s a small island in Cauvery connected to mainland with a hanging bridge. Nothing much interesting except few deers and rabbits inside cage and a play area for children which again is poorly maintained. The place is good to relax thanks to big trees and bamboo forest. We took a walk inside found nothing interesting and went for boating.
Other thing of interest is the market at the entrance. There are lot of varieties of local items that are available at reasonable price.
We had our lunch at “Shanthi Bites” in Kusalnagar and headed towards Nomdroling Monastery.
The Nomdroling Monastery is a complex of Buddhist temples and schools of Tibetan people. All the buildings have beautiful architecture and are adorned with colourful wall paintings. It’s an excellent place and must be visited while in Coorg. When we visited there were some prayers being hold. A kind of positive vibes created due to spiritual environment can be felt. The calm and quiet spiritual atmosphere certainly takes you to another world.
We returned before sunset and spent some good time sitting in the verandah watching the sun set and listening to the tunes of birds returning to their abode.
For the second night the adjacent cottage was occupied by some family from Banglaore so Sheetal and Avani were quiet relaxed and so were able to sleep quietly.
Day 3-
We had our train from Mangalore at night so we decided to visit some more places on first half, do some shopping and leave for Mangalore in the evening.
We checked out from the resort in morning. Mr. Nikesh and his wife dropped us to Sunthikoppa from where we boarded a bus to Medikeri.
After shopping some souveniours, spices and coffey we went to visit the famous Omkareshwar temple but to our disappointment it was closed.
Our Next stop was Raja’s seat. It’s a viewpoint overlooking valley below and must be providing mesmerising view of sunset. There is a platform from where the King of Madikeri used to view the sunset. The place also have beautifully maintained garden. Toy train ride is also available which we enjoyed a lot.
Next we visited Madikeri fort. Situated few meters away from busstand the fort houses nothing much interesting except a chapel which houses a small museam and 2 huge elephant statues. There are some government offices still operating inside fort.
We left for mangalore in evening and with few hiccups and delay due to flattened tyre of bus finally reached at 9:30 PM. Though we had couple of hours in our hand we thought it better to reach the station and so reached well before our train time. Mangalore Junction is quiet a boring station partly because it is situated out of the city limits. The station also didn’t have any decent eatery. Finally the train arrived and when we woke up in the morning we were back to our sweet Goa.