Coorg - A Cool Family Outing

It was a lovely break from this busy traffic jams, busy office schedules, running around ques to escape into a lush green cool breeze in this Summer.

We along with DH's cousin family decided atleast to go on a weekend to some place and we realised we made a right choice having gone to Coorg. For a change, DH,DD&myself packed our luggage and went on my two wheeler at night 11 to SS place where our Innova to drive to Coorg was waiting.... So, our fun started with two wheeler drive at late night.

SS family with two kids were waiting and thats it.... by the time we got into Innova, all 3 kids doze off to sleep... we adults tried to keep our eyes opened with 50%craze to watch out what we can spot on the way and 50% if the driver takes us safely. Thanks to our Driver's taste of music. He brought an excellent collection of 80's & 90's Hindi no.s in his pen drive..and nothing else caught us our attention listening to them...each of us were hanging on to our good olden memory lanes listening to Ashiqui, Border and other lovely Hindi no.s

As we reached Kushal Nagar, called up our Host of homestay and they guided us to their cottage. Just in few minutes we were into their villa gate with no little hassle. It just took 4 hrs of drive from Bangalore to Coorg. It was around 3.00 am and our host was so very warm in welcoming us and ensuring our comfort in the pyramid cottages...

Admiring the architecture of the pyramid cottage, the lovely arrangements of TV, chairs and the shelves; even before exploring much about tiles on the top and iron rods it is built on, we wrapped up cozily into the woolen bedsheets...(Yes... Woolen bedsheets in hot summer and that too without fan. forget about AC)

No Alarm, No office reminder, No cell pone rings. We all got up along with Sun rise. Thanks to Pyramid Construction again. The rays fall straight into the cottage and it makes us feel so fresh and energetic. As we opened the doors, we could hear the lovely co coos of birds and a lush green treat to our eyes. The mist is slowly forming into drops thru warm early morning sun rays....

We took a small walk around and quickly finished our morning chores to take our breakfast. This is one the best breakfasts we had so far....It is all Kerala delicacies and our host's aunty is too good at it. Full marks to Balaji Villa Homestay.

We started our trip with visit to Abby falls. Kids had so much fun in the water and convincing them to wrap up for next visit was little challenging... tried all our negotiation skills with these kiddos and finally caught them exciting about the next destination. On the way back, we had some local buttermilk from mud pot which was very very tasty. Not just done with it, after sometime had the bhel and cut mangoes.  We then reached one Park where we had a Toy Train ride around the park. We packed some fried groundnuts, cut amla and Soap Bubbles for kiddos to njoy on the ride. It was so much fun....

As we got down the train, we had a wonderful view of Coorg. Just before lunch, we had the glimpse of Omkareshwara temple as they were almost closing the doors. Such a Big temple.... It was very quiet and asusual, filled with lots of positive vibrations. The lovely part being its architechture style of islamic and hindu mix....

On finishing the lunch, drove to Talacauvery. As we were moving up, we realised we were around 3700 Ft above sea level and suddenly all the heat is vanished and we landed up in mist. It was as if we landed in some other world. It was heavenly. No doubt. The small river pond and the Cauvery temple having the idols of Agasthya rishi & Ganapathi, we spent some silent moments chanting verses we knew. Filled some bottles of Cauvery water and though not felt like leaving the place, we managed to move on for the next destination.

As we reached Bhagamandala, it was another different feel. We just got our feet into the triveni sangamam and tasted the local bananas which were so different from the regularly available ones at Bangalore. Relishing the sweetness of those bananas and tender coconuts, we reached our cottage for camp fire and dinner.

Fully tired of all the rides and fun, we skipped camp fire, had sumptous home made dinner by our host. Tried to gather some info on the recipes and again, it was a big attack on food by all of us. Just going thru some of the pix clicked by us, commenting etc etc.... dozed for that night.

The next day was even more exciting with Elephant Dubari and River water raftling. OMG! it was truely awesome. Kids were so much occupied at the simple sight of river water and Elephants on the other side. Just to see those happy faces itself is worth a visit to this place. We all went to the other side of the river in a boat, had a small round of elephant ride and on the return journey thoroughly njoyed the raftling. Ofcourse, it was still water and so, not very adventurous but still, we had fun. Our boat guide Appu made us raffle forward, backward and under the falling tree stems into the river where we had to bend ourselves, made circular raftles in between the lake and as we were occupied in doing this, he sprinkled lot of water saying no one should end the raftling without getting wet. Kids had so much fun disturbing us with their raftling skills, striking us with their trials, standing, dancing etc etc....

We requested for lunch to our hosts and though it was not in their package, they managed to do it for us. We had lunch nd relaxed ourselves that afternoon....After sometime, kiddos had lot of fun the swimming pool putting on their swim suites and tyres. They did some feats of forward leg splash, backward splash, sprinkling water on one another and scaring us by going into the middle of the pool bla bla bla...

Got them dressed and packed off back to Bangalore thanking our hosts for the wonderful comfort they ensured. On the way back, managed to pick up some coorg spices, honey, hairoils, this oil that oil and njoyed craved ourselves for those extra mugs of coffee....

Thats how we refreshed ourselves and now back to work with that extra energy.

Just before I wind up this, important things to carry if you are visiting coorg : Swim costumes and extra towels, since there are many many waterfalls around. Important things not to miss to carry back : Honey, spices, Amla juice (common everywhere) and any herb plants if you are interested in kitchen gardening. Mint, Tulasi, Coriander, Vanila & Pepper creepers are very common sight anywhere in coorg.