Hahaha… Well, After planning for about 5 years we went for a Trip to Coorg on 25th & 26th of May. This trip was with my college friends.
On Friday mid-night, After a one hour nap myself and Ashwin started from home at 2.30 AM; We were the only people at the street. Just when we entered a narrow street to pass-by, 5 dogs at the other end of street ran out and we were wondering that why is it scared about us, soon after that it bought 10-15 dogs at the other end! Somehow we managed to cross the street after pushing each of us back & forth in the street. Luck favored us by showing an auto, reached Bangalore cantonment at 2.47 AM. As expected we were the first at railway station and boarded Mysore express at 3:45 (delayed by 10 minutes as 3:35 is expected time of arrival).
Reached Mysore at 7.20 AM & our cab was ready to pick us from Mysore to Coorg. Had breakfast after 40 kms from Mysore and headed to Bhagamandala (A pilgrimage place in Kodagu district.). Road was good and weather was moderate. And now several bend, ups and down started! (If you are weak, keep a tamarind-flavored candy to stop vomiting!).
After 120 kms drive we’d reached Bhagamandala. It was very calm place and it wasn’t crowded. Played and took bath in the sacred river (At this place, the Kaveri is joined by two tributaries, the Kannike and the mythical Sujyoti river) & worshiped god at Bhagamandala temple. It was 1’o clock there and we had lunch at the temple itself. Annathanam at the temple was good.
As it was already 2’o clock we headed to the next place Talakaveri which is 7 kms from Bhagamandala. Talakaveri… 1,276m above sea level and it was very nice. Worshiped Goddess Kaveriamma, Agasthiswarar & Maha Ganapathi.
The legend goes that the Kaveri river was held in a Kamandalam (a container of sacred water) by Sage Agasthyar. Vinaayakar took the form of a crow and perched on the kamandalam of Agasthyar when Agasthyar was meditating. When Agasthyar realised this, he shooed away the crow. But the devine crow tipped the kamandalam and toppled it. Out poured Kaveri which started flowing. The crow disappeared and in its place stood a small boy. Agasthyar thought that the boy was playing some prank and clenching both his fists, went to pound the head of the small boy. But the boy escaped and Agasthyar gave chase. Finally the boy vanished and Vinayakar showed himself to Agasthyar. Agasthyar was aghast at the realisation that he had just tried to knock the head of Vinayakar himself. As atonement, he knocked his own head with both of his clenched fists. This is why we do it knocking on head at Vinayakar temple.
After our worship was over, the climate turned Wow! It was completely mist all around! Couldn’t leave the place for a while & spent some time there and moved from the place halfheartedly.
Next visit is to Raja’s Seat. A pleasant spectacle of greenery & chain of mountains. Moderately crowded and good time to be spent at the evening. We missed the artificial musical fountain as it was shutdown for maintenance. There is an attractive toy train for kids and grown kids as well 😛
Now, the plan is to reach our resort before 6 for some activities there. But time is already 6! meanwhile purchasing some snacks and Et cetera it started raining heavily. An attender from resort came to Coorg in his Jeep, to guide us with the route to our resort. Just when we started within 1 km the attender stopped his jeep and came out & spoke something to a car driver which was behind ours. (Probably he was asking them to follow us!).
It was 15 kms from Coorg and at some unimaginable height at western ghats. After one hour of travel in the hills at late 6 o clock, we were able to see a two floor house at a 300 mts distance and were prepared to get down. But the Jeep just kept going! Oh.. no.. that was not our resort. Now after 10 minutes a decent looking building was nearby, but wait… the Jeep just took a left there! Again… This is not our resort. Just looked out of the window and realized that we should be traveling approx 1300 mts.
Now the climate is Wow! Covered by mist (Tough time for driver!) and the Jeep stopped, but no house in the surrounding! Jeep driver was waiting for the 2nd car that was following ours! Ah…! Come fast… Shouted all of us, only among us! Yes, the 2nd car was visible for all of us and the jeep moved forward.
Finally the 15th kilometer came! yes, we’d reached our resort! Alpinia. It was 7.50 PM when we reached and all are hungry! As we’d already ordered for dinner the cook said he’ll bring it shortly. Meanwhile we took a look at the resort! The room was awesome. As the ladder lead to the loft had 10 beds and it looked awesome!
Reminded me Josh Hutcherson taking Dwayne Johnson to take the two different mysterious books from his Loft.
And now time for dinner! Dinner at the open space was an added taste to the food! A 5 minutes walk outside in the dark just 10 make call to home! And back at the resort for sleep!
Day 2 added more beauty to the place, in the sun light. Soon after finishing the breakfast & playing the adventurous games we headed to next place Dubbare. Reached Dubbare within 1 hour and way to Dubbare from our stay was splendid! Reminded those mid movies with estates.
We were ready to cross the Kaveri river. There was rafting and boating to cross the river as the water flow was less we chose to cross by walk. Now mission started! Holding hands of 8 of us each other started to cross the river bank. It was exiting.
Other bank of river was the Elephants camp. There was elephant ride. But it was not that exiting for us to go on. But we went nearby a Elephant that was left alone with chained on front legs. We’re so close to him and a small elephant (Probably it’s calf) followed by. All of a sudden without no ones expectation the first one moved it’s head and trunk towards us ‘Baaaah’, ‘Some claps (Our guys claps when they are scared!)’ etc… that was our reaction when it tried to scare us!
Moved from the spot planned to bath in the river. Amazing two hours spent at the river! Never wanted to come out of it to the mobilistic (I don’t think there is such word! But using it to describe the world where Mobile is everything!) world!
After wonderful bath at kaveri, We headed to Bylakuppe, Namdroling Monastry the Golden temple. It is a Tibetan colony. The temple was very nice and it was prayer time when we reached there. Spent half an hour there and started out from there to Mysore. Coorg and surrounding had missed us, yes the heavy rain on the way to Mysore signed it 🙂
Like our previous trip to Kodaikanal (Not written about it in this Blog) i-trav made our travel easy.
bhargavkesavan 