My Visit to Coorg : Last part

The Golden Temple: Our next destination was Bylakuppe. It is the location of Tibetan refugee settlements. The main attraction here is Namdroling monastery, famously known as the Golden temple. It is just half an hour drive from Kushalnagar [around 220 Km away from Bangalore]. As you approach, you can feel the change of environment, like Buddhist monks moving around in groups or road side eatery bearing name Lhasa restaurant etc. When we reached the monastery it was almost dark. The entrance led us to a small piazza, surrounded by the residential complex of the monastery. Baby lamas were frolicking around [no occult game...only the ordinary games

games I used to play in my childhood :o) ]. We had to cross another gate to reach the temple complex. The main temple is surrounded by couple of small ones. The temple hall is big, with colourful images of gods and goddesses in the side walls and ceiling and three huge golden idols at one end. Some sort of Tibetan music was playing at the background. What was my feeling ? In single word, ECSTATIC. Moreover, the place is a photographer's paradise. No camera fee, no restrictions and plenty of subjects around. We strolled around the complex and the nearby [just outside] Tibetan market for an hour or so and relished momos [mouth watering] and thukpas [Tibetan name of noodles]. Exhausted, we decided to call it a day and headed to Kushalnagar. It was time for “Nidrang (sleep) sharanang gacchami”.

Talacauvery : Day two began very early and by 6.30 we were heading towards our next destination, Talacauvery [located in Brahmagiri range of western ghats, 1,276 m. above sea level and 48 Km away from the district head quarter of Coorg, Madikeri, 1525 m from sea level and 250 Km away from Bangalore], the origin of the holy river Cauvery. The road passes mostly through coffee plantations and forests, with small half awoke localities here and there. The weather was gloomy; clouded sky, nagging drizzle and misty surroundings. Half an hour past Kushalnagar, the road started climbing, occasionally turning or bending sharply and in another half an hour we were at the doorsteps of Madikeri. Another hour of non-stop drive took us to Bagamandala [7Kms away form Talacauvery], the “Triveni Sangama” of Cauvery, Kannike and Sujyothi. The holy [and bitterly debated] river originates from a small spring at Talacauvery and disappears almost immediately, resurfacing again at Nagatirtha near Bagamandala, where the sangama takes place. The Bhangandeshwara Temple is situated on the bank of the river. The next stop was Talacauvery. The car parking is 100 – 200 m away and you have to traverse the stony path barefoot to reach the holy pond, where you can take a devout dip in the shallow water [though we were content with sprinkling the holy water over our head]. Vigored by the divine water, we decided to climb the steep steps [sometimes it is painful barefoot] to reach the summit of Brahmagiri hill. You get a breathtaking view of the variety of greens in the surrounding hills and the valley down. But thanks to the mist cover [may be divine intervention as we did not take the holy dip :o( ], we missed most of it.

Abbi Falls : This remarkably beautiful place, surrounded by coffee plantations, is situated just 7 Km away form Madikeri town. A huge stream roaring down on the stony bed, creating mist in the process and flowing away in a great hurry for the rendezvous with Cauvery [that's the best (or rather worst) I can describe the scenic beauty :o( We could afford to spend very little time as we were also in a great hurry to return to Mysore. It's time to say adieu to Coorg. Unfortunately we missed two places, Raja's seat and the Fort at Madikeri.

My Visit to Coorg

People have the fascination of comparing Indian tourist spots with foreign ones by giving names like “X of India”. I remember long back when I visited Uttaranchal, our guide mentioned Kausani as “Switzerland of India”.This time I was searching for a destination around Bangalore to spend the weekend and discovered “Scotland of India”, Coorg. It is just 5 hours drive from Bangalore. The best place to stay is at Madikeri, a nice hill station and the capital of Coorg district.

One nice morning we (my parents, sister and uncle's family) set out for Coorg from Bangalore by a hired car. Early morning, thin traffic and in no time we reached Bangalore-Mysore highway, the beautiful four (six in some place) laned road connecting the two most famous cities of Karnataka. In general I appreciate the beauty of the nature and hate to see it getting spoiled by ever exapnding claw of the civilization. But I was clean bowled. If I had a car, I surely would have fell in love with this road. The speedometer rarely touched the sub-eighty region, as we adored the smoothness of the journey. In less than two hours we were at the door of Mysore, the capital of Tipu Sultan. From here we took a right turn and headed straight towards Madikeri, around 130 Kms away. Unfortunately the love with the road was lost and at places it turned out to be really hostile. After some bumpy ride we reached Kushalnagar , 30 Kms away from Madikeri and it was time to take lunch break. We were informed that it is a stupidity to go to Madikeri in the weekend (that too extended by Dasara holiday) without advanced booking. So we decided to halt at Kushalnagar and visit the places around and next morning move to Madikeri. That means, we do not have the opportunity to stay at Madikeri. Well, next morning I rued the decision. Why we did not prefer to take some risk (after all no risk no gain)? Picturesque Madikeri was class apart form dingy Kushalnagar. Anyway, let's leave aside the disappointing part and focus on the achievements. There are a few places worth visiting near Kushalnagar. First we went to Cauvery Nisargadhama. It is nothing but a family picnic spot and I found the place quite uninteresting. The only interesting thing, namely elephant ride was not available, because all the elephants moved to Mysore for Dasara celebration. No luck in Dubare elephant training centre too. Maharaja of Mysore used to train elephants here for Dasara festival and the tradition continues till date.

To continue .........

An evening in Park Street

Recently I visited my home. For a change of taste, one nice evening three of us, my mother, sister and myself decided to go out for a dinner. Very soon we were wandering in the pavements of Park Street looking for a suitable resturant (my mother has strong reservations against consumption of alcohol). We kept on walking and rejecting since all of them are BARS. We were running out of options. Frustrated, I decided to enter whatever comes into our sight first. After some time we found ourselves infront of a posh resturant (some complicated French name I do not remember). Gathering some courage took some more time and at last we decided to venture into it. Well ...... we were the odd group out. My mother was shocked to see that even teen agers were drinking happily with their parents (and I was happily shocked by their mindblowing fashion). Then sarted the live music. My mother grew more tense. Me and my sister kept on telling her to be relaxed, but to no avail. What was wrong with the music ? In the mean time, we had our food served and focussed on it ( not an easy task in that ambient, with so many beautiful distractions). Anyway, we managed to finish, were out of the resturant and I was happy to see sigh of relief from my mother.

"What made you so tensed ?"
"Oh, no ... they started playing the live music."
"So what ?"
"Oh ......... I thought they will start cabaret dence next. Thank god, it did not happen."
Well ...... so that was it. I was little disappointed .... I missed something.