Western Ghats Rainforest Drive - Trip travelogue (29th Oct - 1st Nov 2010)

After a long, long time, here was another long weekend we were blessed with - October 30th, 31st and November 1st (being Kannada Rajyotsava). After quite a few friends backed out at the last minute, we were left with 4 people for the trip but we decided to continue nevertheless. We decided we would apply leave on the 29th of October to extend the duration of our trip. I zeroed in on the Western Ghats rainforests as the destination, since this post-monsoon season is the best to experience the lush green rainforests, its spectacular wildlife and see the bio-diversity hotspot first-hand rather than watch it on the National Geographic Channel. Agumbe was one such place. Located 380 kms away from Bangalore on one of the highest points of the Western Ghats at around 3000 ft high, this hill station is also known as the capital of the infamous 'King Cobra', also the second most harsh rainforest in the world after the Amazon rainforests in South America. Agumbe is among the highest rainfall-receiving places in India, and in the world. It was in fact known as the 'Cheerapunjee of the south' (cheerapunjee was the then highest rainfall-receiving place in India). Agumbe is also the exclusive home to some of the rarest species of insects, snakes and plants, apart from regular wildlife. It is also famed for its treacherous, dense rainforests with a thick vegetation canopy making even sunlight impossible to penetrate in some places. Sounded exciting to a bunch of bored techies wanting to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life for a long weekend.

The plan was to visit Agumbe on 29th, stay there on 29th and 30th and cover all the important places there. But because the return journey would again become tiring to drive roughly 400 kms of distance at 1 shot, I decided to divide the itinerary to break the return distance of 380 kms as well as to include some variety of places. On 31st we would leave from Agumbe and move on to a coffee estate-cum-homestay resort at Chikmagalur (around 120kms distance). After spending 2 days in the scenic coffee estate at Chikmagalur and experiencing life on the estate, we would return to Bangalore on the 1st of November from Chikmagalur (around 250 kms). Travelling would be by my trusty old Hyundai Accent 1.6 GLS. After all the necessary precautions were taken to ensure we had a tank full of fuel, adequate pressure in all the tyres (including the stepney) and all the necessary documents in place, we set out by 5am, 29th of October (Friday). Here is how the trip unfolded -

The route map - plotted in Google maps - A- Bangalore, B - Tumkur (breakfast), C - Arsikere (midway break), D - Shimoga (Lunch), E - Kuppalli/Thirthahalli, F - Agumbe, G - Kundadri mountain, H - Sringeri, I - Hidden Valley resort Chikmagalur, J - Mullayanagiri peak, K - Chikmagalur city, L - Belur, M - Halebid, N - Hassan (Lunch), O - Back to Bangalore

Day 1 - Bangalore - Tumkur - Tiptur - Arsikere - Shimoga - Thirthahalli - Kuppalli - Agumbe

I had finished my packing pretty late on thursday night and I had barely slept for 6 hours when the alarm rang at 4am. I woke up, got ready hurriedly and loaded all the luggage and the snacks into the car's rear boot after cross checking the checklist to confirm that I hadn't missed anything. After picking up my 3 comrades one by one, we finally headed along the NICE ring road from Kanakapura road to Nelamangala by 6.30am. It was well worth the 65 Rs. of toll charges to cruise at 120 kmph on NICE road than being stuck behind a zillion trucks in the Yeshwantpur and Peenya industrial areas, what with the recent metro constructions taking up half of the road width there.

Much to our relief after a week of incessant rain, daybreak on friday saw the sunlight coming out and all clouds clearing up. By 7am we reached Kamat Upachar / Barista near Dobbaspete and had quite a heavy breakfast. The food was average in taste but the place was quite clean and hygienic. After breakfast we proceeded along Tiptur - Arsikere route. A slight mistake of mine in noticing the NH-206 turning at Tumkur lost us precious time while heading in the wrong direction, almost an hour to be precise. We got back on track soon and rejoined NH-206 with some help from Google Maps.

Breakfast stop at Kamat Upachar / Barista near Dobbaspete

Our next stop was on NH-206 near Arsikere. We had a few snacks and cool drinks from the loot one of my friends had packed from ButterSponge bakery. All of us enjoyed the cool breeze and the lush green agricultural fields to view while munching on the titbits. From Arsikere, the roads turned a little sour and potholes became more frequent, some even as deep as a foot! By around 1pm, We stopped at Shimoga city for lunch at a highway restaurant 'Meenakshi Bhavan'. The only thing available was the popular 'South Indian meals'. The day was turning out to be very hot and sunny. After having our fill of (decently tasting) lunch, we stopped at a petrol bunk for another tank-up since we weren't sure of petrol pumps in and around Agumbe, those regions being dense rainforests with very little population and very little interaction with civilization. We proceeded to Thirthahalli after lunch. Here is where the common NH-206/NH-13 road splits up at Shimoga. NH-13 proceeds southwest to Thirthahalli while NH-206 continues northwest from Shimoga. The scenery of the straight roads and the rich green fields soon started to change. The good thing was it turned into something more captivating. The roads started to twist and turn and soon I was left arm-wrestling with the steering and switching between 3rd and 4th gears as more curves started to unfold in front of me. Thirthahalli was the last town with modern facilities on our approach to Agumbe.

Stop for a short break near Arsikere

The lush green fields along the Shimoga route

A bright and sunny day on NH-206

Before proceeding to Agumbe, there was a place called Kuppalli which we stopped at by around 3pm. It was the birthplace and native town of the famous Kannada poet Kuvempu. Though we had no knowledge or interest in knowing more about him/his life, what really impressed us was the ancient, monolithic rock formation on a hilltop where he supposedly used to sit and compose many of his poems. This place is called 'Kavishyla'. It resembles 'StoneHenge', the famous prehistoric rock formation in UK. After half an hour on that hilltop and a bunch of photographs later, we visited his residence (now converted into a memorial/museum in memory of Kuvempu and his works) at the bottom of the hill.

The approach to Kavishyla

Kavishaila monolithic rock formation

Kuvempu's house now converted into a museum/memorial

The time was 4.30pm by the time we left Kuppalli. We had the last leg of the ghat section journey (Thirthahalli to Agumbe) left and I was quite anxious to complete the toughest, steepest part of the driving journey before dusk for obvious reasons. Indeed, the roads are quite steep in climb and are plagued by potholes in stretches. In some places the roads are equally smooth and feel like an expressway. Perhaps this partially good road is due to an ongoing road improvement activity by the government. There are around a dozen hairpin bends towards the last leg and they are quite steep. Each hairpin climbs around 20 feet in altitude and you are forced to come down to 1st gear many times, to ensure adequate torque carries you through the curve. At a couple of places we saw cars collapsed from the road and into the steep, hilly rainforest next to the road. An Alto in 1 spot and a Tata Sumo at another spot, both had tumbled off the road and fallen down the hilly jungle area, lying 20-30 ft down the highway. God save those travellers! I wonder what happened to them and if they were alive at all. Just goes to show what a stupid manouevre or a bit of overconfidence in the driver can lead to in a treacherous terrain like this.

Treacherous hairpin curves on the approach to Agumbe

After reaching Agumbe by around 6pm, We decided to head directly to Sunset point (our next place in the itinerary) in the fervent hope that we could catch a clear view of the sunset in time. Unfortunately we missed the sunset by a few minutes and all we could catch was a glimpse of the soon-disappearing twilight. Vowing to get back the next day in time for sunset, we made our way to Agumbe's one and only main road where we had booked our lodging in a very, very basic lodge, the only lodge available at Agumbe - Mallya Residency. The rooms were full of weird insects hovering near the tubelights when we checked in. The hotel guy soon sent a boy to spray an insect repellent and the problem was partly solved. The owner of the lodge had a provision store below the lodge. Everything was very basic in Agumbe. There was just 1 grocery store, 1 lodge, 1 medical shop, 1 very small police station, 1 clinic (not even a hospital), 1 Syndicate bank branch and 1 temple! Talk about simplicity! :)

Agumbe sunset point- after sunset

We had heard of a house called 'Dodda Mane', the place where the famous TV serial 'Malgudi days' was filmed. There is a small 'Katte' (cement platform) in the front porch where people can sit and bask in the sun or engage in chit-chat, typical in village houses. It is owned and managed by the family of a famous person known as 'Kasturiakka'. She is a grandmotherly person (roughly around 70 years old) who is famous for her limitless hospitality towards tourists and visitors. She serves home-cooked, traditional malnad cuisine food on banana leaves to any and every visitor at her home, unlimited in quantity and unlimited in grandmotherly affection. All this and she never charges a penny for her food. Visitors can donate if they wish, but they are not compelled to. We met this grandmotherly lady and told her we were from Bangalore and would be there for another 2 days. She gladly agreed to serve us dinner even though we informed her in short notice.

The famous Kasturiakka at DoddaMane, Agumbe

We settled into our lodge and walked to Dodda Mane for dinner by around 8.30pm. She had 6-7 items prepared for dinner, all exotic malnad dishes but seemed like regular fare for her. She kept urging us to eat more and more saying "innu swalpa thogoli, yenu ishtge saku andre" (take some more, how can this much be enough), very much like how you would be treated at your grandmother's house ;) There is a large dining table where 6-7 guests can sit at one time, she takes center stage and serves everyone all the dishes from that central place. I really have to appreciate her patience. On enquiring if she had finished dinner, she remarked that she goes without dinner sometimes if there are too many guests! She said "If my guests go with a full stomach, it is an honour for me, that is enough!" Phew!

After a heavy dinner at Dodda Mane, we walked out literally clutching our stomachs. A short walk along the 200 metre stretch of Agumbe's main road solved the heaviness and we retired to our lodge to rest our aching bodies after covering close to 500 kms that day.


Day 2 - Kundadri hill - Sringeri - Agumbe Rainforest Research Station (ARRS) - Jogigundi Falls - Agumbe Sunset Point

We woke up at 5am, freshened up and left in pursuit of Kundadri to view the spectacular sunrise. We needed to be there by 6am to ensure we didn't miss the sunrise. Kundadri is located around 20 kms from Agumbe and lies between Agumbe and Thirthahalli, but is slightly in a different direction. Very minimal direction boards to guide tourists here made it a nightmare for us at forks where 2-3 roads would diverge. It was still too dark and we couldn't find any local villagers nearby to ask for directions. We finally decided to take a chance and proceed on the road which looked the steepest. Fortunately we were right and we managed to reach Kundadri in time for sunrise! the road up Kundadri peak is steep, much steeper than Thirthahalli - Agumbe, and is half the width of the highway. This directly meant only 1 car can pass on the road and there is no room for any second vehicle when one car is on the road. The climb is around 5km from bottom to top and is quite steep, however my Accent tackled it with equal ease sometimes even taking on hairpins effortlessly. So much for locals warning that the vehicle may not pull and the passengers may need to get out of the car to reduce weight during steep climbs!!

We spent close to an hour here viewing the sunrise and with the help of my tripod, I managed to take quite a few photos of the surrounding panoramic scenery, the ancient Jain temple at the summit (now abandoned and in ruins) and a small lake which supposedly never goes dry even in dry months, a puzzle for the villagers here who fail to find the source of that lake's water.

The ancient jain temple on the top of Kundadri peak

Sunrise at Kundadri peak

From atop Kundadri peak - a panoramic view

By around 7.30am, we decided to return. We started a careful descent down Kundadri. Thankfully we didn't encounter any vehicle in the opposite direction, that would have made life miserable for both drivers halfway on the hill! A delicious breakfast awaited us at DoddaMane - set dosas with sambar and chutney, and kashaya to make sure those things went down. We refused the kashaya thinking it would be like cough syrup, but Kasturiakka persisted saying there were 26 herbs as ingredients and it was very good for health. We then drank it after finding it didn't taste as bad as we thought it would!

Hanging out at Dodda Mane after our breakfast

We got back to our lodge, got ready in a hurry and left for Sringeri by 9.30am, around 25 kms from Agumbe. On the way we took a slight deviation to visit a popular waterfalls known as 'Sirimane Falls'. With much difficulty and with help from tons of passersby for directions, we finally managed to reach this place by around 10.30am. The tourism department really needs to put up proper signboards to tourist destinations if they want karnataka's tourism to develop well.

Sirimane Falls is a spectacular waterfall, ranging around 40-50 ft in height, not very high but quite good to watch. Steps have been laid out all the way down to the base of the falls, to make life easy for tourists. The flip side of this high tourist inflow is the litter of plastic and garbage in and around the falls area which is really depressing. There were quite a few guests around when we visited this place, although we thought we were the first tourists in the morning. There is also a viewpoint in one corner from where you can get an aerial view of the falls, roughly around the same height as that of the falls. I used the tripod on the concrete platform to get steady shots of the waterfalls in motion, thankfully without much interference from passing tourists.

Sirimane falls

A small waterfall on the approach road to Sirimane falls

The water flowing down from Sirimane falls

Sirimane falls - a view from the concrete viewing platform

After an hour here, we headed to Sringeri. On the way we managed to spot a Green Vine Snake crossing the highway. It is a small, harmless snake that is very common in this rainforest region and dots the greenery, trees and shrubs in these regions looking for insects and lizards as prey. We stopped the car and I managed to get quite a few close-ups while maintaining a safe distance from the snake (lest it chose to bite me for going too close for comfort). It is a semi-venomous snake and it can cause a painful bite at the most (never known to be fatal) Kudos to my 55-200 telephoto zoom lens for the splendid snapshots I was able to get from a safe distance! The villagers around were laughing at me for taking pictures of something that seemed so common to them! :)

A Green Vine Snake - very common in the rainforests of the western ghats

The roads were quite bad on the Agumbe-Sringeri stretch and I had to weave in and out of the left lane every few seconds to avoid the car getting bottomed in deep potholes. We finally reached Sringeri by 12pm. It was another hot and sunny day and we were sweating bullets. After visiting Sringeri temple and collecting the 'prasada', we moved to the lunch hall for the large-scale, free lunch that this temple is famous for. There were huge platforms around 100 metres in length, for people to sit and eat. In fact around 300 people could sit and eat simultaneously. Clean plates and glasses are given almost instantly as soon as you take your seat. Food is transported in giant trolleys manned by 2-3 members of temple staff who simultaneously serve both sides of seated people as the trolley is moved along the row of seated people. After lunch we departed for Agumbe by 1.30pm, after a brief stop for my friend who wanted to pick up a spike buster to enable his iPhone to be charged (he had a USA-style flat pin plug connector for his phone charger and those wouldn't work on the Indian round-pin plug points). On the way back from Sringeri, we managed to top the vehicle to the brim with petrol and proceeded on our way.

Sringeri temple

We headed to our lodge, had a wash and went to Agumbe Rainforest Research Station (ARRS), a popular research station around 1km from Agumbe. There are wildlife researchers who do all kinds of studies on the diverse wildlife that is native to this rainforest, such as the King Cobra and many other species. Many national geographic channel documentaries that you see on King Cobras and other rainforest species, were filmed right here in Agumbe's dense jungles by the knowledgeable researchers at ARRS. We had requested them for a small walk/visit into the forest to show us some of these unique creatures. Unfortunately they didn't have any tracker or guide free at that time to take us into the jungles. That being a long weekend, they already had some weekend research workshop going on for students and all the staff were caught up with that. After bidding goodbye to Mr. Gowrishankar, the lead researcher at ARRS we moved back to Agumbe.

Agumbe Rainforest Research Station

Forest ants busy at work in the ARRS campus

Our next stop was the famed Jogigundi Falls, around 3 kms from Agumbe. You have to park the car on the highway and walk around 1.5 kms into the dense jungle. This walk in the rainforest is a horrifying experience. After watching Amazon's rainforests and Western Ghats rainforests on TV on NGC, we got to experience it firsthand here. Trust me, if you have walked into jungles before in Bandipur, Nagarhole, Bhadra, Madumalai or Kerala's Thekkady sanctuaries, they are absolutely NOTHING compared to a rainforest. Rainforests are deadlier and spookier than those 'wannabe' jungles. Firstly the rainforests are dark. Hardly 10-20% of sunlight streams in through the trees. That is how thick the vegetation cover canopy is! There is also a perennial 6-7 inch layer of dead rotting leaves on the ground. Because of the high amount of rainfall, the whole forest floor is wet and there is a constant smell of decaying organic material. Varied forms of Spider webs hang from literally every plant and you would find it annoying to have a few sticking to your hair or face as you walk into the forest. You can find puddles with frogs scampering around as you move. Snakes slither away from the path into adjacent bushes. Various lizards and other eerie looking creatures dot the trees, watching your every move slyly. Eerie sounds can be heard from seemingly nowhere! There is not a single soul in sight for miles together! The last but not the least factor is the astounding amount of leeches. Thousands of leeches dot the rainforest floor and lie among the dead, rotting leaves. These heat sensing parasites will climb up your shoe and slowly crawl up your socks and up your leg. Some may choose to go into your socks! They are so blood-thirsty that they can bore a hole through your socks' fabric and start their feasting! If you stop for a minute to take a breather, you will have 15-20 leeches crawling up on either leg. If you lean on a tree, leeches will fall from overhanging leaves onto you! There really is no escape from these bloodsuckers. We sprinkled table salt all over our socks' fabric. While I didn't get bitten at all due to this salt layer, I removed around 5-10 of them while they were still climbing up my shoe searching for a place to begin the feasting.

For these reasons that I just mentioned, I really wouldn't recommend such locations for families with young children or old people. It is not worth the trouble for families/groups who are just looking for some relaxation. This location would be more appropriate for adventure-seeking groups of youngsters who don't mind a few leechbites and can hike through kilometers of harsh rainforests just for the sake of it ;)

Approach road to Jogigundi Falls through the dense rainforests of Agumbe

Beware of leeches! This path had a million leeches doting the ground

While I made my way down to the falls, 2 of them got onto my face when I brushed against a few leaves. Eerie? yuck! the terrain was very very slippery and we were having trouble getting down to the falls. Having shoes on didn't help much either. While quite a few shrubs and bushes dotted the pathway, holding onto them for support would only provide chances for more leeches to climb on to you through the leaves. After reaching the bottom of the falls, we were surprised by the beautiful and fantastic setting. The view of the rustic rainforest with the stream flowing through moss-covered rocks was breathtaking. This is something nature lovers will look forward to visit. It is a whole new experience that you cannot get from other destinations. This is as rustic as it can get.

A brilliant stream waterfall setting in the middle of the rainforest

Dense jungles, green murky waters

We quickly made our way up the falls and wanted to go further into the deep forest for a hike but the time was already 5 pm. Two of my friends suggested that we skip this idea since the sunset happens quite early in a rainforest and getting lost in the rainforest in the dark was not exactly a good idea ;) On the way back from Jogigundi falls to the car parking place, we saw what looked like a huge black worm lying motionless on the forest floor. On prodding it with a twig, it slowly lifted its head and moved. Lo and Behold! It was a baby King Cobra! Thank god it didn't turn back and bite. Perhaps too young for instincts to surface in it I guess. On doing a little more investigation, we found the King Cobra nest a few metres away. All eggs were broken and the young ones had got out, presumably. What a once-in-a-lifetime experience this trip was turning out to be!

Surprise, Surprise! Baby King Cobra!

We still had some time left in the day so we went to Sunset point which is around 1km away from Agumbe, albeit in another direction. This time we were early for the sunset since we reached the place by 5.30 pm. Loads of tourists thronged the place since this was another tourist-friendly place with steps to the viewpoint platform and space to park cars and buses next to the highway. While the sun wasn't directly visible due to the clouds, the sun rays streamed through them producing brilliant hues and colors. Bhelpuri, Churmuri and fruit vendors made hay even though the sun didn't shine! We managed to capture some spectacular snapshots with the setting sun producing hues of pink and orange in the sky during twilight. In my opinion, this place is definitely a must-visit for all nature lovers. The breathtaking sunset is the best I have seen in my life.

Agumbe sunset point

Another spectacular scenic view at Agumbe's famed Sunset Point at twilight

After the sunset had completely got over, we made our way back to the lodge. After going for a short walk and planning the next day's activities, we went to DoddaMane for another of Kasturiakka's elaborate dinner menus. This time around quite a few guests had come in, that day being a saturday and we had to await our turn to have dinner. On Friday night there were just 4 of us friends along with 3 more travellers. Just 7 travellers in the village. Coming back to saturday's dinner, 'Cucumber majjige Huli', 'beetroot kosambari', 'potato papads', unpolished rice, 'dhal', 'sambar' and 'rasam' awaited us on the plantain leaves. A refreshing glass of gingered butter-milk washed the meal down our throats. After thanking Kasturiakka for her delicious meals and taking a picture with her, we departed this place after leaving a small donation for her hospitality. She requested us to leave a testimonial for her in an opinions' diary and I did just that! A walk down Agumbe's main road resolved the heaviness just like the previous day. We were surprised to find that the town goes to sleep fairly early. By 9pm all lights were switched off in all the houses! We walked back to our lodge, told the provision stores owner (also the owner of the lodge) that we'd be vacating the rooms early next morning by 6am and settled the bill in advance, since he said he wouldn't be around so early. He looked like he was in his mid twenties, a pretty young chap like us. We ended up chatting with him for over an hour. He told us about the simple life that the people in Agumbe lead and how the cost of living is so cheap there. In addition to this, he enquired about where we stayed in Bangalore and also remarked that he had once visited Bangalore's Electronic City area and had experienced enough of traffic in just 1 day! Talk about Bangalore's infamous traffic. Even people staying as far as in this place know about it!

He told us a few more places that we could visit while in Agumbe the next time around. Entry at some places is now restricted by the police since it is believed to be a naxalite area. He proceeded to tell us that the naxalite menace in Agumbe was overhyped and was almost non-existent. Some naxals were caught in a tribal area some 50 miles from Agumbe 2 years ago and TV news channel coverage had further spoilt the reputation of this beautiful place. We then asked him for directions to Chikmagalur and took leave while he closed his shop and went home.

I felt satisfied about staying at this simple place, although there were no frills. My opinion is that the really travel-enthusiastic tourists who visit scenic and culturally beautiful destinations should ditch their inhibitions and false prestige of staying at a "5-star" resort with Jacuzzi(s), private pools, 24-hour room service and blah blah... If you really want to experience the culture of a new place, eat the local cuisine, mingle with the local people and chat with them, stay at local estate homestays instead of the cliche'd, flashy star resorts. The high that you get from experiencing their life and culture defines real "tourism", at least in my opinion. The flashy resorts and their bathtubs, swimming pools and floating bars you can visit at pretty much any resort on the city's outskirts. By the way, most estate homestays can offer you all the facilities, luxuries and comforts of a star resort. So would you prefer to still have your holiday in a concrete building on a main road of the town or in the lap of nature? ;)


Day 3 - Agumbe - Chikmagalur coffee estate - Mullayanagiri peak - Chikmagalur City

We got ready and departed from Agumbe at around 6.30am. There was a slight drizzle in the early morning. We stopped along the way to buy half a dozen of bananas since there was no decent restaurant in sight for breakfast. The bakery snacks and the bananas would keep us from being hungry till we reached the estate for our late breakfast. We had booked our accomodation at a coffee estate homestay-cum-resort called 'The Hidden Valley', around 15 kms from Chikmagalur. From Agumbe, we would hit the resort near Aldur (on the way) even before we reached Chikmagalur city. The 4 hour, 130 km drive from Agumbe to Chikmagalur was the best drive I have ever done till date. The steep, winding rainforest roads soon turned into lower altitude, yet winding roads cutting across lush green coffee estates and tea estates. Vast expanses of coffee estates lay ahead of us. It looked like someone had painted the hills green. Apart from the first 5-10 kilometres of road starting from Agumbe, the entire stretch is almost pothole free and is a pleasure to drive on. Tons of small waterfalls (really ice-cold water) adorn the roadsides at many places. Though average speeds dropped in this Ghat section, no one was complaining. The increase in travel time was worth it, given the marvellous scenery we were passing through.

Delightful Ghat section roads through coffee estates on the Agumbe to Chikmagalur route

A cloudy day at the Hidden Valley coffee estate, Chikmagalur

After a few calls to our resort's manager Mr. Suraj Appaji at Hidden Velley resort Chikmagalur, we were able to reach the spot where the resort begins. We were just about to ask for directions again when Mr. Suraj himself escorted us on his bike into the resort. It is located around 2 kilometres away from the main road and this makeshift road only had pebbles and mud. Quite a dirty, bumpy ride but I had to slot my low-slung car into 1st gear and make sure she didn't bottom out on some of the nasty spots. We reached by 10.15am, checked in and freshened up. A simple, yet tasty breakfast of 'Malnad Kotte Kadubus' was served with chutney and sagu. We were in fact supposed to turn up at the resort for lunch but when we requested Mr. Suraj on the way for breakfast also to be prepared, he obliged very humbly. Any other resort would have turned down this request for preparing a meal with such a short notice.

The view from our balcony's dining table at Hidden Valley resort, Chikmagalur

The good old rough and tough Willy's Jeep, a must-have for every estate

After breakfast, we took a stroll in the estate. There is a small man-made lake where they cultivate edible fish for their own consumption. There is also a coracle in case we wanted to go boating in the lake. I could get some cool snaps of a flock of ducks swimming in the lake, apart from a few other macros of miscellaneous stuff in the estate, all thanks to the 55-200mm zoom lens ;)

A pair of ducks in the lake at Hidden Valley resort

Post the photography session, we went to the badminton court and had a 11 match doubles' challenge among the 4 of us. After around 1 and a half hours of badminton matches, we headed back to the resort for lunchtime. There were a couple of other families who had checked in as well by then and one of them had occupied the lunch table. To kill time till they finished their lunch, we had a go at Rifle shooting at a fake target. We did this for about another 45 minutes till all the bullets were exhausted. It was now time for lunch. We finished it in record time, took directions to Mullayanagiri peak from Mr. Suraj and left by 2.30pm.

Badminton time!

Rifle shooting exercise

The approach road was quite good till the entry to the route of Mullayangiri peak. This is the highest peak in South India, and is one of the highest motorable mountains in the world. It is part of the Bababudanagiri range of mountains which encompass Chikmagalur. After a forest department checkpost does a thorough check to make sure cars don't carry alcohol or any other consumables on board, tourists are allowed to resume the journey. Around 20 km of moderate ghat section roads later, we reach the base of Mullayanagiri peak. These 20 km of roads were amazingly smooth. Once you reach the actual base of the mountain, the climb becomes steep and the roads narrow down even more. This (challenging) actual mountain climb up the narrow and steep roads last for roughly 15 km to the summit. I would be lying if I said this stretch is easy. There is no parapet wall on the road sides. If you take a dip, you will hurtle 6000 feet downwards to your death! You have to stay off the sides of the road. 1 small mistake of going too close to the edge and the loose soil will crumble and give way. The road gets too narrow in some places, allowing only 1 vehicle at a time to pass. We encountered quite a few times on the way up, where we had to reverse to a wider road area to allow clearance for returning traffic to pass.

Halfway up Mullayanagiri peak, the scenery is breathtaking

As we ascended further into the clouds, visibility dropped to just a few feet ahead

Halfway through, I could still manage the climb in 2nd gear with 4 people on board, which is brilliant. We were starting to ascend into the clouds now. The air became heavy and moist. The scenery gave way to a huge white envelope of mist (from clouds). We could see water droplets condensing on our faces, on the windshield, on the car seats, basically everywhere. The visibility started to reduce to around 10 feet ahead of us. I was forced to switch on the headlights and foglamps in full power. The defogger had to be on in full blast. We had to stick to reduced speeds of 20 kmph. Any tricks here and you will reach heaven before you can say 'Jack Robinson'. The breathtaking scenery around us started to disappear as we gained more and more altitude. The last 2-3 kms of the drive had to be done in 1st gear. It is in fact too steep for some low-powered cars to climb. I couldn't find any 800s, Omni(s) and Alto(s) on the top. I don't think they could manage the full climb. There is a parking lot on the top. This has to be among the highest Car parking lots in the country! 6300 feet above the ground and above even the clouds. Doing this hillclimb in my Accent was one of my best ghat section drives till date! An experience to cherish for a lifetime. Bikes can do this easily and there is no challenge! If you would like to do this route in your vehicle sometime, try the car method. It is more thrilling and tests your car-driving abilities to the fullest.

At one of the highest car parking lots in India :)

From the car parking lot, there are 300-350 steps which lead to a temple on the top. Our cameras were rendered useless because we could hardly see 4-5 ft ahead of us in the mist, forget photographing things around us. We went all the way to the summit and came back to the car parking lot. By now, things had cleared up and there was improved visibility. Another traveller was saying this was because of passing clouds. Whenever a cloud intercepts the mountain there is that misty period. When there is a gap between the clouds, there is a 'clear' phase. This made sense somehow, anyway we were preparing to leave so we forgot all that and got ready for the descent.

At the summit of Mullayanagiri

The temple at the top of Mullayanagiri peak

It was 5 pm by the time we left the summit of Mullayanagiri. The descent took us around an hour to the base of the hills. Mind-blowing scenery is visible as soon as you come out of the 'cloud zone'. Since I was driving the car and needed to concentrate on the road, I left my friends to do the photography. It was evening and there was very little upward traffic so we didn't intercept any opposite side traffic and the descent was quite smooth without jams. We stopped at a couple of places to take photographs of the panoramic view. From the base of the hills we took around half an hour to reach Chikmagalur city. We parked the car at MG Road, Chikmagalur and walked around the road casually. We stopped at a roadside gaadi for panipuri and masala puri. After this round of chaats, we proceeded to return to our resort by 7.30pm. We reached Hidden Valley by 8.30, had dinner by our lakeside view balcony and retired for the day. Post dinner, I took an extra hour off to play with Blackie, a friendly 7 month old German Shepherd at the estate and after that, I had him following me non-stop throughout our stay at this estate. My other friends weren't too fond of dogs so they didn't bother much ;)

Puppy moments - Blackie the playful German Shepherd pup at the estate

Day 4 - Chikmagalur Coffee estate - Belur - Halebid - Hassan - Bangalore

We woke up to the cheerful chirping of birds in the estate, and a couple of roosters crowing nineteen to the dozen at dawn. After a wash, we headed to the front porch of the resort where Mr. Suraj was waiting for us to take us on a 2-3 km walk through the 50 acre cofee and pepper plantations in the estate. So was Blackie, the german shepherd, who would escort the group. It had rained the previous night and the plants and the ground were wet. We were shown cardamom plantations, Robusta coffee and Arabica coffee plants and he explained about the process of curing the coffee and how it is manufactured on a large scale. Scores of spider webs adorn the coffee plants. They perhaps have some kind of affinity to coffee plants. We covered almost the entire estate in the 2 hour walk/hike. Post the walk I looked down and to my horror, I saw 20 leeches crawling up on both my feet. I had been extra careful the previous day in Agumbe and I had totally forgotten to take precautions in Chikmagalur. 2 leeches had managed to penetrate a thick woolen sock and bite into the skin. After dusting off the irritating creatures and bathing the non-stop-bleeding wounds with dettol (leeches inject a kind of thinning agent which prevents blood from clotting immediately in the wounds), we freshened up and got ready to have breakfast. Hot idlis, Vadas, chutney and sambar were consumed within minutes of serving, much to the surprise of Pappu, the estate cook and helper.

Chikmagalur coffee estate plantation walk/hike

Berries from these Arabica coffee bushes comprise 70-80% of the total produce in the estate

Blackie in a playful mood with me

Post breakfast, we thanked Pappu and Mr. Suraj for the throughly enjoyable stay here at Hidden Valley Resort. Mr. Suraj, the estate manager was extremely helpful and friendly. He managed our stay at Hidden Valley to perfection. He even offered us a few oranges to munch on, and coffee powder produced from the estate to take back home. After bidding goodbye to them and to Blackie, the friendly German shepherd, we left by 9 am towards Belur.

The road from Chikmagalur to Belur comprised of moderate ghat sections and as we descend from the Western Ghats, the altitude reduces gradually to turn into completely flat roads from Belur. The road quality is not that great in this stretch. We reached Belur by 10.30am, had a look around the temple and left the place by 11.30am. Since we still had some time to kill, we decided to visit another place 'Halebid' - this was another temple similar to Belur but it was not operational anymore. The mughals had looted the idols and destroyed part of the temple. The ruins are now preserved by the Archeological survey of India. There is even an adjoining museum to hold the damaged artifacts and explain their significance. In both these places, I found a large number of foreigners thronging the place, also a whole lot of tourists in general, owing to the public holiday on Kannada Rajyotsava (November 1st).

At the Halebid temple ruins

Intricate sculptures mark the walls of this spectacular piece of 12th century architecture

From Halebid, we took a direct road to Hassan city where we stopped for lunch. Once we enter the national highway from Halebid to Hassan, the road turns into a 4 lane expressway and the car can maintain decent speeds of 100-120 kmph. One of my friends knows Hassan in and out since his relatives stay there. He took us to Hotel Gokul, a branch of the famous Hotel Gokul at DVG Road, Gandhi Bazaar, Bangalore (most people know that one). After a heavy lunch and some Gadbad ice cream for dessert , we resumed our journey to Bangalore.

From Hassan to Bangalore, the road is good in patches in the beginning. There is a kind of expressway being constructed but it is still in progress. Tons of detours and deviations mark the entire stretch. Petrol Tankers are a huge nuisance to car drivers who have to take ages to negotiate an overtaking manouevre with just 1 single lane for all the vehicles to drive on. When we were still left with a 100-odd kms to cover, heavy rain lashed the place and reduced visibility, forcing us to slow down and drive with caution. We took the NICE road deviation at Nelamangala and avoided the Yeshwantpur traffic again. After around 20 kms of driving on the NICE road in the rain, we finally managed to reach Bangalore city by around 8 pm. The total drive from Hassan to Bangalore took roughly 3.5 hours. We were all glad to be back home from the adventurous 4 days that we spent in the western ghats. My tripmeter recorded a total distance of 1384 km in 4 days. We had covered almost 350 km every day and I had done close to 90% of the driving. I hit the sack instantly after dropping the others and reaching home. One of my most enjoyable trips till date, undoubtedly!

Cheers,
Karthik

Random musings

It was a fine September early morning. I'd crashed into the bed very early the previous night and so couldn't keep myself awake past 5 am.. I usually schedule my daily gym workout for 5am and then return and take my dog for an hour's walk at 6.15 am till 7.15 am. Just for today, I decided to swap those 2 schedules for a change, to explore a different walking route too; and so I departed on my early morning walk with my trusted canine companion right behind, wondering what on earth was wrong with me to step into the darkness when she could curl up and sleep for some more time like regular days! It had rained heavily the previous night. As I got out of the house and walked steadily up along the crossroad, the monsoon fog gripping me with its jaws, I ignored the chilly feeling and my thoughts wandered to what errands were supposed to be done that day. Hardly 100 meters from my house and a sudden doubt crept into my mind- whether I had locked the main door or not. Quickly reassuring myself that nothing much could happen even if I hadn't (given the density of houses in my residential area), I continued. As I passed Jayadeva flyover and crossed over into what is called 'Mini Forest' (a cluster of parks with roads running through them), pedestrian traffic grew denser, predominantly morning walkers and joggers.

I decided I would just do a leisurely morning walk near the greenery-enriched parks to enjoy the after-shower aromas . That would be a refreshing change. I was taken aback by the large turnout of fellow walkers and joggers, considering that it was a chilly Saturday morning. I thought others would have been more sensible than me, and would have preferred to snuggle into their blankets and stay cozy for a few more hours.

Old men in their 60s, dressed in shorts and jerseys walking like soldiers were a common sight. Most of them seemed to walk with a purpose and do it in a hurry. I thought they would have liked to be more relaxed in their retired days. Young dog walkers with ill-behaved labradors and german shepherds were a common sight, with the dogs taking the owners for a walk rather than the other way round, dragging them while the hapless owners had no option but to stumble along behind their 'pets'! High school kids and college kids scrambled illegally on their parents' mopeds and scooters with heavy bags, presumably on their way to the oh-so-common tuition classes for board exams I guessed. I had passed 1km from my house. The fog was beginning to thin now. The darkness was still lingering around, forcing me to watch my step lest i put my foot into a muddy puddle leftover after the heavy downpour. Scores of milkmen whizzed by busily on their mopeds, honking nineteen to the dozen at anyone who dared delay their delivery schedule. I marveled at the talented, young newspaper boys on their bicycles who could roll-up and throw that seemingly shapeless morning newspaper to fall accurately at any door on multi-storey buildings.

As I completed half my planned distance, I came across the more crowded parks among the cluster. Dozens of aged women with their trademark henna-dyed-hair adorned the benches and seats, discussions varying from that day's breakfast menu to bragging about their grandchild's first rank at school, to topics even as weird as cribbing about their daughters-in-law, straight out of a hindi saas bahu serial. The walkway and jogging track had a lot more variety. Middle aged women chattering non-stop with their 'walking friends', fat young children struggling to balance the iPod earphones falling out and doing a namesake jog reluctantly, as though just to please their parents. They seemed more preoccupied with their iPods than walking! Middle aged (perhaps rich) men with pot bellies walked in groups, loudly talking about each one's club memberships, investment methods or about the current real estate prices, occasionally also bragging about their latest property acquisitions. A few solitary men and women took up the space between the pathways and exercised religiously, while some slim and pretty women jogged like there was no tomorrow, all in the name of fitness!

Perhaps the most amusing thing I saw next was this large group of senior citizens with a banner tied amongst the trees proudly proclaiming "Mini-Forest Laughter Club (morning batch only)". They were all huddled together. One of them said something I couldn't perceive, and all the rest made a loud "hoo-haa-hoo-haa" sound. They went on to repeat that ritual a few more times. The scene vaguely reminded me of the feasting rituals of native tribes in the Amazon rain-forest, straight out of a National Geographic channel documentary. As they went on to make more funny fake laughing sounds, my bewildered golden retriever stared at them alertly and wondered if these were some kind of crazy aliens. I decided to make a beeline for the main road again, just in case she decided to bark at them. The last thing I wanted was to create a scene there :)

Roadside hawkers sold 'Masala Tea' made from different flavours, even customized for the visitors with an extra tinge of any chosen spice. Tender coconut sellers made hay even before the sun shone, as thirsty walkers stopped by for a drink. I settled for one too. Vegetable vendors, fruit vendors and flower vendors adorned the pavements outside the parks. Relieved aunties and uncles purchased things for their daily pooja and cooking, remarking to their friends about how conveniently located everything was at mini-forest so they wouldn't need to go to any store again that day.

It was almost an hour now since I had started from home, the sun had started to rise and the rays beamed down directly. Already feeling quite warm and uncomfortable, I preferred to return home by another shorter route. The traffic had increased four fold, and I quickened my pace. Within an hour I was back to the safe confines of my home, gulping cold water glass after glass. The visuals of the past hour were still fresh in my mind, that of a different Bangalore to what we usually see during the day. This was a picture of modern Bangalore waking up to a morning and getting on with the day's activities. I still go along that route sometimes, and it is still the same as what I saw the first time. The same aunties and pot-bellied uncles grace those pathways, the same iPod brandishing young and (still) obese kids, the same cheerful grandmas and grandpas gossiping, and yes the laughter clubs seem to have grown in size every time I visit there. Maybe they haven't managed to lose their weight. Maybe their fitness level didn't improve as much as they would have thought. But that one hour of entertainment, interaction and gossip for them is perhaps what motivates them to come there everyday with the rest of their mates. I keep changing my dog-walk route frequently and among the ones that I use, this mini-forest one has to be the best one undoubtedly. Unlimited masala and entertainment for me as an observer? You bet!

Cheers
Karthik

Coorg trip travelogue (02/04/10 to 04/04/10)

It's been quite a while now since I last wrote. Blame an overdose of work at office for my lack of posts on blogger for the past 5 months. A vacation was long overdue for quite a while now. Our gang wanted to go for an ad-hoc trip over the long weekend on April 2nd (being Good friday), 3rd and 4th. This time we thought we must avoid the regular lodges and resorts and try something different and better. What better than a traditional coorgi (not sure if its supposed to be spelt as coorgie or coorgy ;-) ) homestay? This was an ancient house called Ashok Bhavan located in madikeri town, about a furlong away from the famous viewpoint, 'Raja Seat'. It was the only place we could manage to find accomodation in, after a previous booking at an estate was goofed up the homestay owner and allotted to someone else. The plan was to go by 1 of our own cars, owing to the convenience and the opportunity to experience the challenging ghat-section driving that the area is so famous for. However what was supposed to be 5 participants became 6. That outnumbered the seats in our cars; we were forced to hire a Toyota Innova since that would guarantee an extra degree of comfort as opposed to other cabs, not to forget the same comfort and luxury as any of our private cars that we initially planned to take (hyundai accent/honda city).

Day 1 - Kushalnagar Buddhist monastery / Dubare elephant camp / Abbey Falls / Omkareshwara temple / Raja Seat / Madikeri town visit

We were supposed to start pretty early from Bangalore on friday. The plan was for all of us to get picked up one-by-one at our respective homes, fill the car fuel tank up with diesel and leave bangalore by 4am. However that was not to be. The cabbie whom we had hired was foolish enough not to inform us about the depleting diesel levels in the tank and to our horror, we found the car stuttering to a standstill just outside my friend's house (after picking up everyone else, that is). Then there was a half-hour drama with 2 of us having to rush to the nearest petrol pump with a 10 litre can and trying to wake up irritated pump workers to get them to help us. Finally the fuel was brought, filled and we were off on Mysore road after this early morning fiasco. The driver more than made up for his folly by maintaining a constant 100-110kmph on the Bangalore-Mysore expressway. We crossed Maddur at 6 and reached Mysore at roughly 7.30am. We stopped at Indra's for breakfast. The only flip side was having to wait for half an hour till 8am for the restaurant to begin operations!

A view from the Bangalore-Mysore expressway at sunrise

A short break on Mysore road

Breakfast time at Mysore - Waiting for the restaurant to open

After breakfast, the next route was to take the Mysore-Hunsur-Kushalnagar highway. After roughly 90km, we came to our first itinerary location - the buddhist monastery at Kushalnagar. There was some kind of Tibetan refugee camp over here. The Buddhist monastery is okay for a half an hour stop, not more than that in my opinion. There is nothing spectacular about it, except for the brief glimpses of buddhist culture and architecture that you get to view here. There were a few geese and turkeys being reared in a garden outside the monastery and that was about it.

At the buddhist monastery

The idols inside the monastery

The time was almost 11am. Our next target was Dubare elephant camp, especially after one of our friends who had been there earlier kept hurrying up scaring us that the place would close down by noon! This place required us to take a deviation from the main highway for about 15-20km. It is a small, man-made island located around 200 metres from the mainland, which can be reached by wading through the 3-4 feet of shallow water. Not that any of us bothered to take the trouble though. There were motorboats ferrying tourists to and fro for a nominal sum. We preferred this over the former method. At the island there is nothing much to do, except for watching a huge board which displays all kinds of trivia you would ever want to know about the elephants they rear and domesticate in Dubare, from the elephants' ages to their heights and weights. There were elephant rides being organized, from an elevated platform to alight / board the elephants. We went for an elephant ride, only 4 adults allowed at a time on 1 elephant. Not really worth the amount that they loot you there for a 50 metre-long ride and back.

View from the island at Dubare

One of the elephants being bathed in the afternoon heat

The next stop was at the homestay itself. We had some trouble locating the place and the friendly caretaker (resident at the homestay) was kind enough to come to Raja seat (which is pretty close to the homestay) and escort us from there. The house in itself was very rustic and traditional. The furniture was pretty bare-bones, the flooring was old fashioned red-oxide and the doors were all made of solid wood. However there was an old television set in this place, fitted with Tata Sky connection. That was all we needed at nights, quite obvious with this IPL fever at its peak in April. After checking in and freshening up, we were served a simple yet sumptuous coorgi-style lunch by the caretaker, Mr. Ravi. It was homely and devoid of any artificial substances. All vegetables were home-grown organically. Needless to ask, after the tiring travel ordeal and the sumptuous lunch we all settled in for a brief nap till early evening.

Ashok Bhavan - the homestay

We left the homestay after 4pm for a close-by sightseeing place, Abbey Falls. This being a popular tourist spot, it was no surprise that we were greeted by hundreds of similar fellow tourists on the same mission. The waterfall had almost dried up in this sweltering summer heat and there were only a few trickling streams of water to give it the presence of a 'waterfall'. The area has been cordoned off by the authorities to prevent tourists from getting into the water there, supposedly due to surprise water currents causing a few calamities last year. After a few moments of exploration with our newly purchased DSLR cameras and a few photos later, we decided to head towards another landmark in Madikeri, Omkareshwara temple. Not that any of us are religiously or spritually inclined at our young age, but the temple is supposed to be hundreds of years old and is known for its architecture. Originally not in our itinerary, we visited this place at the insistence of our homestay's host. A few minutes was all we spent over here. It was already dusk and we decided to proceed to other places on our itinerary.

Abbey Falls dried up during summer?

The prehistoric Omkareshwara temple

The next landmark was Raja seat. This is a hyped-up location. It is just a viewpoint from which you can have a breathtaking glimpse of the entire Brahmagiri hill range which encompasses the Coorg region, but nothing more. Of course, there are the usual signs of commercialization- the entry tickets, well maintained lawns and flower gardens, musical fountains and the like. The Musical fountains started at 7pm and we were forced to wait till then. Time to take out our the SLR cameras again and fire away to glory. Some of the fountain shows were spectacular, albeit repetitive. It was getting close to 8pm after all the fountain shows concluded so we decided to have dinner at Madikeri town, which was just a few minutes away. We had our dinner at Hotel Athithi Veg. which looked like the only decent place on the street. The waiter took our order, came back 10 minutes later and said those dishes weren't available! We chose alternate dishes and 10 minutes later he again came back with the same reply! After a lot of fretting and arguing with the waiter we finally got to eat disastrously sour curd-rice, half-cooked fried-rice and gobi manchurian which was so artificially red in color, it looked like it had been garnished with Asian Paints royale finish! A visit to a neighbouring juice shop brought down the thirst and the flying tempers. We were soon on on our way back to the homestay, and settled down to watch IPL on TV. This brought an end to Day 1 of our trip.

Musical fountains at Raja Seat

More musical fountains

Day 2 - Bhagamandala / Talakaveri / Cheluvara falls

On day 2, three of us woke up early and decided to head out to Raja Seat at daybreak, assuming we could get a clear sunrise view to photograph. My friend and I even took along our cameras' tripods to get the setup right and capture as much of the sunrise as was viewable. To our dismay, it was cloudy and the sun wasn't visible in the horizon. After around an hour of taking in the fresh early morning breeze and a brief stroll in the adjoining park, we headed back to join the others who were still asleep!

The view from Raja Seat at dawn (sadly it was cloudy that day)

Raja Seat gardens

Some more flora at Raja Seat

After a lip-smacking breakfast at the homestay it was time to head out to our next destination - Bhagamandala. This place, called 'Triveni Sangama' is significant for the fact that 3 rivers meet here and then head down towards tamilnadu as the river Cauvery. From Madikeri, it was around 45-50 kms of ghat section roads so we took close to an hour and a half to reach this place by 10am. Apart from a few eateries and a prehistoric temple there was nothing here of scenic interest, to our disappointment.

Bhagamandala - the base of the hills

From there, we headed towards Talakaveri, the birth place of the river Cauvery. It originates in a natural spring on a hill. The spring has now been commercialized and converted into a temple, as you would expect. There are stairs from the temple to the summit of the hill which you could climb if you feel really adventurous. We walked barefoot to the hill-top on the scorching concrete steps and were literally sprinting to avoid our feet getting burnt! It was a really hot day and we were all sweating bullets by the time we walked back to the air-conditioned confines of our Innova in the parking lot. We stopped on the way back from the hill at a shop named 'Coorg Spices' selling obviously spices, honey, honey jam, home-made chikki and similar things. After a ton of shopping at this place, we resumed our descent back to Bhagamandala. Lunch was completed at one of the eateries. The food was the regular south indian meals, you can't expect too much in these areas ;) A couple of my friends who had upset stomachs after the previous night's dinner at the infamous hotel Athithi, decided to settle for tender coconut instead of eating something again!

Talakaveri, the birth place of river Cauvery

After lunch and a few enquiries for directions with other cab drivers who had stopped in the place, we proceeded to Cheluvara falls which was located around 30km from Bhagamandala. Bad roads and sudden, unexpected heavy rain caused some delay, but we weren't complaining. The wet roads with the greenery-filled coffee and pepper estates on either side made Coorg look more beautiful after the showers than ever. After rain stopped, we took a break and stopped to take photographs of the superb location. We managed to reach Cheluvara falls by 5pm after quite a tough time of searching around. There were very few signboards directing us here. There are no steps leading to this waterfall. You have to trek roughly around 200-300 metres down to this place. The just-concluded rainfall had made the terrain extremely slippery and I had quite a time getting down here, what with that mammoth SLR camera bag to lug around. There were a few tourists here, mostly techies from Bangalore ;) We managed to spot a rare water snake near the bank area. There was also an adventure camp on the top of the falls, with enthusiasts doing a backward rope-climbing down the falls. I am not sure what that is called, perhaps 'Rappelling'. After spending an hour here, we headed back to Madikeri town.

Rain drenched roads along the way to Cheluvara falls

The plants receive a much-needed shower in the summer

Cheluvara falls

A close up of the waterfall in motion

One of my friends had fallen sick with acidity and an upset stomach and we dropped him at the homestay before heading to a restaurant near Raja Seat, this place was called 'Raj Darshini'. It was a decent place with better ambience than Hotel Athithi. It resembled the service-sections of namma Bengaluru's umpteen 'Shanthi Sagar'(s). We ordered a full course meal and the food was quite satisfactory, the only bad thing being the very late service, which was no surprise considering that the place was choc-a-bloc with tourists. After dinner, we had to pay a visit to the doctor with our sick friend for his treatment. Another tiring and eventful day came to an end with some more IPL action on TV before we finally retired to bed.


Day 3 - Virajpet / Irupu Falls / Nagarhole wildlife sanctuary / Mysore / back to Bangalore :)

Day 3 was already here. One of my friends and I had a lot of fun waking up the others in the morning with sadistic methods, including playing the irritating IPL tune next to their ears, to smacking them with the morning newspaper roll to sprinkling cold water on their faces ;) After getting ready, what awaited us was a delicious coorgi breakfast of Kadubus and Sagu. Post-breakfast, we left the homestay at around 10am after settling the dues and over-tipping the hospitable host Mr. Ravi for organizing everything well. After a short break at Virajpet, we proceeded along the Virajpet -> Nagarhole -> Mysore route. The roads were disgusting. Cars with low-ground clearance will take a mammoth beating if they ever venture on this stretch. I could imagine what could have happened to our cars had we actually gone ahead with our previous plan of bringing along our road-hugging, ultra low-stance sedans, a.k.a the accent/city ;-)

Wanting to stop at Irupu falls required us to take a de-tour from the main highway and re-join it at some place later on. Irupu falls was probably the best maintained place in my opinion, with ample parking space, pay & use restrooms, an eatery, a restaurant and adequate signboards directing you to the place. After paying the entry fee, we had to take a 700 metre pathway through the forest to reach the falls. The path is made up of concrete steps with lots of benches to sit down and take rest along the way, lest you feel tired. A small stream runs through the forest along the path making the whole walk very picturesque. Making this place more accessible obviously means it would be crowded. There is a platform where tourists can take bath below the falls. I thought this should have been avoided; the water in that area was frothing due to the soap/shampoo usage and the entire area was littered with plastic bottles and biscuit packets, etc. It was sad to see human interference plaguing this otherwise beautiful place. We were done with this visit by around 1pm. We resumed our journey to Nagarhole forest.

A stream that runs beisde the path, all along the way to Irupu falls

Picturesque setting with a stream in the middle of the forest

Irupu Falls in all its glory

We failed to find any restaurant along the way from Irupu falls to Nagarhole. This meant having to skip lunch and settling for some junk food, snacks and leftovers we still had in our car. If you plan to visit this place, be sure to carry your food along or else don't plan this place during mealtimes. There is no restaurant in sight for the entire stretch, and the ones that exist only serve pork :-( We entered Nagarhole forest after checking in the vehicle details at the forest department checkpost. The rule here is to not get down from the vehicle at any point inside the forest for safety reasons. The authorities have setup cameras all along the stretch and you will eventually be penalised heavily at the exit checkpost. We managed to spot lots of deer and langurs but nothing more than that.

Making our way through Nagarhole wildlife sanctuary

We stopped at the sanctuary office to find out if we could get jeep safari rides into the forest but there were only Safari buses available (akin to the ones at Bannrghatta national park) and those have mesh windows and coverings so it was impossible to get good snapshots of wildlife with the obtrusive mesh. Meanwhile, a stag had strayed into the parking lot and was enjoying the attention it was receiving from all the tourists ;-) It was 2.30pm in the afternoon. After deciding to skip the bus safari ride and continue the journey instead, we completed the close-to 80km ride through Nagarhole forest and stopped again at the exit checkpost. Much to our amusement, what looked like a bunch of drunk, spoilt college kids/brats were held up there for stopping their cars and getting down in the forest ;-)

Guess whom we met in the Nagarhole forest department parking lot ;-)

The road less frequently travelled

A bison who didn't like being disturbed at lunchtime

We took the Nagarhole - Hunsur connecting road and this stretch was very well maintained. Our innova kept up the pace with constant speeds of 100-110kmph. Within no time we crossed Hunsur and headed towards Mysore city. After a suggestion from one of us, we decided to stop at Hotel Siddhartha, Mysore at around 4.30pm for a late afternoon lunch or early evening supper, whatever you could call it. After stuffing ourselves with idlis, dosas, gulab jamuns and bajji-bondas, we entered the last leg of our trip journey- the Mysore to Bangalore drive. There were no more breaks after that and we covered the 130km distance in close to 3 hours, despite Mysore road being fully crowded. It actully resembled my Home-office commute along outer ring road than a highway!

We reached Bangalore via the NICE road - Kanakapura road connection and it was time for everyone to say goodbye and alight at their respective homes. A long weekend and a fantastic holiday had come to a close and it was back to our concrete jungles, the 3-walled cubicles and routine techie life once again :-)


KK

Relio Quick Auto Mall: A damp squib!

I was a little surprised to see an advertisement in the newspaper some time last week, about a new automobile exhibition 'Relio Quick Auto Mall' in Bangalore between the 13th - 15th, to be held in palace grounds. After all, Bangalorean auto buffs aren't really lucky in this department. All we get is a painfully boring 'Vaahan Yatra' every year.

I have been visiting Vaahan Yatra ever since its conception way back in 2002, hoping that every year it would get better with more attractions for us enthusiasts but it is always the same old stall layout. The location would either be at palace grounds or KTPO, Whitefield. To begin with, there will usually be a few local car dealerships who set up shop- Maruti, Tata, Toyota, Hyundai and Honda showcasing their already-on-sale-in-the-market cars. If you are really lucky you may find a couple of german carmakers strutting their stuff- BMW, Volkswagen, Audi and Mercedes.. but mind you, NOT ALL of them will be there! The tata guys would have hired some MC to keep blabbering something on his mic regarding some contest and he would keep giving away prizes to whoever answers his questions about some tata car's specifications (dumb publicity!). A car customization + modification company would have displayed a bunch of hot modded cars with hot looking babes to match ;) (perhaps the only decent stall). ICE equipment (In-Car Entertainment) and alloy wheel manufacturers' stalls aren't uncommon. In the 2 wheeler department, the standard companies would be there. The japanese bike makers would have displayed their superbikes - the Hayabusa by Suzuki and the YZF-R1 by Yamaha. People hound these stalls and try to get pictures of themselves sitting on the bike or their children seated on the fuel tank, either way it is annoying for people who want to get a decent look or photo of the bike (alone!). Towards the end of the row of stalls, a few would have on offer car/bike polishes, shampoos and lubricants. Not to forget, a few stalls who sell 20-30 Rs. keychains and stickers of any reputed company you want. Harley Davidson, Porsche, Ferrari, Yamaha, BMW, Suzuki, Audi... You name it, they have it! Well. that summarizes it all I guess, about the 'exhibition'.

The Eye of the Beamer (BMW 5 series)

I never expected anything apart from the usual layout but wanted to have a look anyway. So I dragged 2 of my friends along to this place on a rather gloomy sunday afternoon. We went there at around 2.30pm. While the usual car manufacturers' stalls were there, there were no modified cars, no ICE stalls, no aftermarket accessories except a stall which sold Motul lubricants! What was different this time was a small display of Vintage beauties. There was a huge array of vintage VW Beetles. There was also a cute current generation Beetle on display.

A current generation Volkswagen Beetle


The row of vintage VW Beetles on display

No Yamaha this time, just Suzuki displaying their trademark power monsters - the GSX-R1300 Hayabusa superbike to complement the M1800 Intruder and the Boulevard cruisers. The layout in itself was quite small- indicating a lack of participation by most companies.

A Suzuki Hayabusa on display.. the big daddy of superbikes

Suzuki Boulevard - a Mammoth 1800cc Cruiser


One of the many vintage beauties displayed

There was a stunt show outside. RJ Prithvi (popular RJ from Radio One) was compering the event here. They had placed a small concrete road of perhaps 50 metres length. Hundreds of people thronged the place to get a view of the stuntmen and their crazy antics on their machines. What I was surprised to see was a bewildering lack of safety measures. None of the stuntmen wore any kind of protective riding gear while performing. All of them were dressed in loose T-shirts and 3/4ths! What audacity to perform bike stunts in public without even wearing protective gear. Some of them weren't even wearing helmets! Added to this was the lack of any kind of barricade separating the crowd and the bikes. Had any stunt guy lost control and fallen, the bike would be catapulted straight into the crowd! I call it sheer stupidity. I wonder how the organizers allowed such risk without taking any precautionary measures. That said, most bikes were refurbished Yamaha RX100s and the stunts were limited to Wheelies on the RX 100s. After a while it started to get boring. All they did was wheelie the RX100s to and fro across the stretch. I expected much better stunts, perhaps Rolling stoppies, burnouts, 360- burnouts, human compasses, etc much like what we see on TV in the bike advertisements.

Adjacent to this was a book exhibition which was much, much more crowded than the auto mall. There were some really good titles on display and great discount prices (announced right from the billboards kept outside) which ensured that a huge number of people were drawn inside. After making our way through 350-odd stalls in the book expo and coming out of the stampede, we headed home in the evening after a brief stop at Malleshwaram to munch on some chaats. That's about all that happened this sunday. I hope that one day, we Bangaloreans get to see something like the massive Delhi Auto Expo that happens every year.

KK