My Coorg Trip in Jan 2010

We (Myself, Suchi and Arjun) were out this week on a vacation trip, to Coorg. Last year, it was a trip to Singapore. This year, it was Coorg. We like to make sure, every year, we go to various places.

In fact, we planned to go to Mumbai, with Raju's family. But for some reasons, we had to cancel the trip to Mumbai and I had to make sure, I use the leave to go somewhere. We had few options like Ooty, Yercaud and Coorg. Finally, we chose this place and planned quickly. Thanks TSK for your suggestions.

5th January 2010

We started on Tuesday 5th Jun, at about 6:45 am.

Had breakfast at KAMAT on mysore road

Immediately after Srirengapatna, had to take a deviation to Madikeri/Coorg. That road was no way comparable(very poor) to Mysore road. But then, after about 15 km, we again hit the road that leads to Madikeri which was 4 lanes for some part and then it was two lane. Though, it was only two lane, road condition was excellent and it was wide too.

Based on Seeni's suggetions, we started looking out for Bylakuppe Buddha Golden Temple. We reached there at about 12:30 pm. It was a nice place to be. We slowly started feeling hungry for lunch. From there about 2km, we reached Kushal Nagar town. We had lunch in a hotel called ATHITHI. This was supposed to be one of the hotel which provides food taste of tamilnadu quality !!!

From there, we drove about 2 km to reach another spot called Nisargadhama. This place is kind of a picnic spot, full of bamboo trees and surrounded by cauveri water. We were hanging out there for an hour or so. Arjun had a great time, running around.

After that, we started driving to Madikeri. Unexpectedly, the road condition was pathetic from nisargadhama to Madikeri, about 40 km. Reached our hotel at about 5 pm. Hotel was too good, with green nature surrounded all around the hotel. One note for real estate freeks - 1 acre of land costs only 10 lakhs there !!! Those who are looking to do hotel business in Madikeri, may buy land NOW !!! B'se the hotel owner was telling me, the land cost is going to go up soon. Not sure, based on what background.

We refreshed ourselves and thought of going somewhere nearby. We decided to go to a temple called Omkareshwara. The thing is, to reach madikeri town from our hotel, have to drive about 4 km in the dark, lonely, hilly road.. It was little fearful and interesting, but then, we got used to those drives over time.

6th January 2010

Next day, we got up and started driving towards Bhagamandala and TalaCauvery. Bhagamandala is a place where three rivers are joining. Cauvery, Sujothi and kanika. There is also a temple there. From there, about 8 km, we have TalaCauvery, where the river Cauvery originates. That is located on a hill called Bramhagiri.

By the time, we returned to room, it was around 4:30 pm. We took some rest and headed to a spot called "Raja's seat". This is the place where the kings used to spend their evening, looking at the sunset. There was a temple nearby this place, we also visited that.

Then, we were roaming in the madikeri town, came across ISKCON temple. It was a very small one. As soon as we entered, the priest there, invited us with warmth and told us many things about ISKCON and gave us a CD finally which is called "Bhagavath Githa in 7 days". He also asked us to visit the bangalore to listen this "BG in 7 days" in speeches.

We had dinner in a hotel called "Udupi Woodlands". There are only two good veg hotels around. One is this and another one is Hotel Guruprasad, where we took our breakfast on the return day.

7th January 2010

Next day, we went to Abby Falls which was close to Madikeri, around 7 km drive. Somehow, water was very less in the falls, which looked very different from what we had seen in the pictures….

Started driving to Somwarpet. Actually, Kodagu/Coorg District is made of 3 main cities - Madikeri, Somwarpet and Virajpet. We basically wanted to go to Mallalli Falls which is close to Somwarpet. It was a scenic, nice drive from Madikeri to Somwarpet. Immediately after reaching Somwarpet, we had to take a deviation to Mallalli Falls. Totally, it was abt 51 km mentioned in the map from madikeri to mallalli falls, but as we drove, we found it was around 65 km. Anyway, the drive from Somwarpet to Mallalli was too lonely and scary, still the road condition was ultimate and the scenery around can not be described in words. I was like stopping the car in every corner to enjoy the moments. Finally, we reached a point, from where it was about 2.5km to mallalli falls. There was a home stay at that junction. A person namely Nitin came out and told us, you may drive the car further for 2 km and walk for .5 km to see the falls. We were little scared to proceed as we were already feeling lonely and it was very quite area, with no tourists around(it seems many tourists show up in the weekends to see this falls, the govt has sanctioned money to put good road for this 2.5 km stretch in the next one year). But then, for our fortunate timing, Nitin said, he can accompany us to the falls. Great guy and thanks a lot to him. He almost carried Arjun all along to the falls.

I heard from him, the Mungaru Male movie is shot in this falls.

We were very happy to see the falls beauty. And as were returning from the falls, nitin asked us, if I want to take bath in the falls water and since I was not well, I said No and so we started returning from that spot.

We then reached Somwarpet town and had snacks/tea. Started driving back to Madikeri as it was getting late.

After reaching madikeri, we directly went to see Raja's Fort which is in the center of the town. They have made that fort as a government office now.

After that, we again went to Raja's seat, to see the water fountain show which we had missed in our earlier day visit to Raja's seat.

After that, we returned to hotel.

8th January 2010

Next day, we got up, went to Omkareshwara temple again, as we had not been there in the day time. Had breakfast in guruprasad hotel. Came back to hotel, packed stuff and it was sad to leave the place. We started driving back. Before reaching KushalNagar, there was another spot called Harangi Dam, very huge dam. For some safety reasons, they did not allow us to go in. So, we captured few photos of the same and reached Kushal nagar for lunch. After lunch, we starting driving back and reached home at 8:30 pm.

Few highlights of the whole trip

- Drive inside Coorg is ultimate and one should go there with own car. The entire road journey from bangalore to Coorg is also too good. We drove totally around 860 km and still, with no backpain for me and no tiredness from both Suchi and Arjun. We all enjoyed.

- TalaCauvery was an amazing spot (I had been to Smokey Mountains in US. After that place, this was the best mountain spot that I had been)

- Overall, good food availability was not there.

- The hotel we stayed at, was too good with good views

- We were disconnected for 4 days from TV