Tamarind Highway Day 2

Day 2

Morning dawned with the realisation that the day was getting to be very hot. We freshened up as the rest were still dozing. A couple of us who were up and about decided to go get some breakfast. We had not arranged with the resort to provide us with food. We found a joint very near the resort and had some tea and biscuits and some nice discussion with the Madras Bulls guys... Some of the madras bulls had already left Pondi in the night.

I guess it was a good ride to and back since it was not too far from Chennai. Since most of the guys were still sleeping when we were back, we decided to strike out to by ourselves to the town. We would not be coming back this side so we said our good byes to the Madras Bulls, Dodo, Brijesh, and all of them who were so cool to sponsor this stay in Pondi. We said our goodbyes to the rest of the guys and left for the main town. The sun was already beating down pretty harshly and it was not even 9:00 am.



We were familiar with the town so wanted to just "surf" the town, lets say !! We went down to the Beach Road where we had breakfast by the beach cafe and chilled out by the sea and then decided to cruise around the colonial area of Pondicherry and in that process did some shopping...

There is a good market for handmade goods which are pretty cheap and useful ... which become painfully expensive the moment they reach Bangalore...




Do not forget to rest a while by the shades of the big trees in the park near the Beach Raod. We relaxed for sometime there. of all places this is my favourite place to be in Pondicherry.. by the beach road in the evenings and walking through the park in the daytime.. the wonder of it was that while it was burning hot in the sun... the moment you stood under the trees, it was like you had reached natural airconditioning zone.

I have not experienced this difference in temperature in bangalore when in the shade....that makes you appreciate the summer all the more... Since it was a Sunday many had come down to spend the day in the park and all the sitting areas were full of kids and families just enjoying their Sunday... once side I could see two sisters playing hide and seek, on the other hand I could see a group of elderly people playing cards... and then some women sitting in a circle talking... I guess they were taking stock of the week's work ha ha !!

But this moment, seeing everybody busy being happy in their own relaxing without the hurrying made me appreciate the quality of life there... Yes I would like to do that someday .. live in that area and go to the ashram, sit by the sea or the park and then just reflect... and then go back... maybe to Auroville... ah yes time to reflect...

By this time we were having tiny hunger pangs and then mulled over where to go for lunch.. Of all the places Rendezvos was the nearest and the best. So decided to head there... I have become a die hard fan of this place by the way... LOL. By this time the rest of the group also flocked in. Praveen, Mahindra and JFK. Tiwana had decided to go via Chennai. Keerthi and Soup decided to stay back for one more day and enjoy the place...

We had another amazing lunch here and then headed out to the highway by 3:00 after the guys did some shopping for themselves... courtesy yours truly... I was the only woman in the group and urged them that if they did not take home such nice gifts for their family it would be a sin... hahaha !!!

Anyways, on and on we went. We had to reduce speed since Praveen and JFK's bikes were running in so we kept a steady but medium speed. We stopped after every hour or so and then carried on..



On reaching Gingee, we stopped again for some photographs... JFK did some cool and freaky posing ... and I obliged him by capturing the Alpha male moments .. with a profile and then both the man and the profile... and he was mighty thrilled with the portraits... of him and his new baby... ( he had just bought the STD 500 you see and had got it with him to Pondi for a spin) and you thought that women were narcissistic... LOLOL !!

Reached TV Malai at dusk and had some snacks at one of the hotels...

My ordeal started when it was dark.. firstly I could not see anything but the stars and then I was so inspired by the feeling of riding under the starry sky that I thought out a poem... well a sham of a poem which went like


Under the starry sky as we ride
without a care or a sigh
the cresent moon is shining shy
watching us head home cocooned in its soft light....

Well guys that was one of the rarest occasions when I could come out with something resembling a poem... I was feeling raelly romantic riding through the wilderness with only the mountains and the stars as witnessess... its a heady feeling...

Mahendra ( I just got that his name was Mahendra and not Mahindra ... sorry about that Mahendra !!! ) was riding pillion with JFK since he had packed his bike to bangalore. He then took turns in riding Praveen's and JFK's bike.

Now this guy had the tenacity not to doze off while riding. And I was amazed at that...since he said that no matter what he could never sleep while riding. JFK who was by this time very tired and sleepy just wanted to reach home. He also gave the bike up to Mahindra while he dozed as pillion.

Mahendra then started to play with him ... just when JFK would go off to sleep he would accelarate and JFK would hit his helmet ..* tak* on Mahendra's and wake up.. Mahendra continued this till JFK came up with a defense policy even in his sleep LOL... mahendra gleefully recounted the phase when we were taking a break... haha to the utmost consternation of JFK.

Now where yours truly was concerned, she was fighting a losing battle with the sandman and was trying her level best to keep her eyes wide open...but it was a constant struggle...

The whole time I would try to concentrate on the inky blackness and *tap* I would go off to sleep. And I was also * tak taking Rocks helmet with mine.. Once I almost

Believe you me !!!! Its no fun sitting pillion at night and the road being so smooth...

My endless struggle with my sandman and my dream catcher was making Rocks very edgy and he was shit scared that I would fall off and I was trying my best not to fall off.. Little did he know how I was trying to battle the onslaught of sleep...even though every time we would stop and I would wash my eyes with precious water.... nothing was working

Beat this... you are travelling on a smooth straight road in the inky darkness and the speed is some 50 to 60 kmph and add to it the constant thump of the machine...and cool breeze swhishing by..... even a crazed incomniac would have fallen asleep. And I am a person who appreciates sleep so it was touch and ZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZz for me !!



Anyway this time luck was on our side so we reached the end of the Tamarind Highway pretty fast. Here we took a break and the night and the hour inspired us to think about ghost stories.. JFK told us an almost-ghost story... well my imagination was fired up anyway.. so Mahendra ( the great strory teller ) tempted us with a tantalising ghost story which we were eager to listen .. we breaked for tea somewhere insignificant near the highway and Mahendra started his storytelling which turned out to be a welcome break from the sleepy ride and had us splitting in laughter.... By now I was wide awake... and we had reached the outskirts of Bangalore... soon after we reached home feeling fulfilled and exhausted... yet another journey finished and yet another day ends.... but with warm memories of percolating Pondicherry.....

Percolating Pondicherry ..Cruising the Tamarind Highway

Day 1, Arpril 24th 04

This trip write up was long due and was thinking when I would have the time to put it up .. anyway... this trip was being planned for a long time and we had just done our Coorg trip. We were thinking of giving it a miss. The trip was about Madras Bulls celebrating their annversary and they had invited us for a ride to Pondicherry. It would also be a ride when we would be also remembering Varun, our dear departed friend.

We were eager to make it but then decided against it. I think both our consciences were not agreeing to that. So after a late party at a friend's place we decided inpromtu that no matter what we would make it and it was about 12:30 in the night and we had not done any packing.. so after rushing in with the packing we crashed at almost 2:00 and after 2 hours of sleep we were up and about putting the stuff in our bikes and off we went to meet the other bikers..

Mahindra
Tiwana
Sijan ( JFK)


JFK had brought in his bike with a towing rope fixed on his handle. I teased him about it and he was telling me that it was style... and later on this rope was the one which saved our day.. Kudos to JFK's sense of bike fashion.

In the meantime some of the riders had already gone ahead the previous day to Chennai and they would reach Pondicherry by the same day from Chennai.

We met up with the bikers at the Hosur flyover and continued on to Krishnagiri where had a cup of tea and continued on our way.



After a while, we took a left deviation to the road which connected to the highway leading us to Pondicherry. This is the best road to ride while riding from Bangalore to Pondicherry. This road is trimmed with tamarind trees on both sides and its a ride worth the while if you just want to cruise. On the other hand it could get somewhat boring.. for the rider and one had the risk of falling asleep if one was not used to riding long roads...

It was almost noon and we were tremendously hungry. I had got some sweets from home and some oranges. We munched on that. This highway is devoid of any dhabas. We were hoping to make good time and then have some breakfast somewhere but there was no scope of that. We were kind of getting real hungry.



Finally we spotted a small town where we had some dosas and then continued down the highway. The weather was getting warm but as long as we were on the road it was pretty cool . We took short stops and relaxed our behinds beneath Tamarind tree shades.

The highway is a cool one without the disturbing onslaughts of truck and bus drivers. Nice scenic view.. a little too nice for my tastes... a ride is not a ride without winding roads and some rough roads... :)



We went through Tiruvanamalai. TV Malai was a crowded town but moving traffic. This place is known for its temples and we crossed quite a few of them. Nestled at the foot of the mountains, this place was a buzz of activity and very soon we left the town behind. Then it was about 3:00 and we entered Gingee. This appreared to be a historical place with Rajgiri and krishnagiri fort on both sides.



It was a majestic climb and I could imagine how it was to have lived in those forts with a spectacular view of the state. We promised ourselves that we could explore the fort some other time but now our main objective was to reach Pondicherry which was hardly some 50 odd kilometres away.


Hardly had we ridden 20 kms, we saw Mahindra stopping by the side of the road. He was telling us that he was having engine problems. We could not figure out the problem since it was inside the engine and no one was stupid enough to open the engine in the middle of the highway. So I just prayed that somehow that baby would run.. We were just 40 kms from Pondicherry. We decided to let the engine cool down a bit and then start again.. So mahindra would ride some 2 to 3 kms and then it would stop... and doing this we were losing time and Mahindra was also getting pissed off. All of us tried to cheer him up... He is a guy who can make your journey very interesting. He has so many stories to tell. He was quiet and brooding since his baby was not functioning well.

Finally 20 kms away from Pondicherry, JFK decided that he would tow the bike. His stylish towing rope then came into use... the same rope about which we were teasing him. Mahindra was in two minds. Since he was not used to being towed, he did not take to the idea very well. But we including mahindra thought that he could give it a try. We were nearing the town now and it would be getting dark in few hours... so mahindra's bike was tied to JFK's bike and he led him. In the beginning it was like dicey with Mahindra getting pulled and trying to keep balance without his engine working .. Tiwana and our bike kept a close distance. After sometime both of them got used to the towing and they were moving quite fast, to the extent that they manged to overtake a bus in the town... and we were like GAWK with our mouth open.... and just hoping that both of them would make it..and they did quite triumphantly .. haha


The public in Pondi was looking at us wierdly.. imagine... us in the lead and then the two of them in the midle and Tiwana at the rear. That being the situation it did not stop the public from butting in trying to cross between the bikes despite the road but we reached the destination after sometime..Eden resorts ..where we were wecomed warmly by the Brijesh and Harish and others from the Madras Bulls. While Mahindra and JFK went to fix the bike we went ahead to have some foodsince we were starving and I had heard so much about Rendezvous that we decided to try our luck there... Rocks was by this time almost dying of hunger and so was I . Among the three of us , Tiwana, Rocks and Myself, we polished off I Omlette, Shrimp Cocktail, a plate of big chicken sausages, a plate of fish fingers, a plate of mixed grill steak, a plate of hamburger, Butter Chicken and Roti and two scoops of Icecream and the quantity was huge...



After hogging like pigs we went back and could not find the rest of the crowd. Seems that they had gone for dinner and would be returning in sometime. There was some miscommunication and we missed meeting them on the way.. anyways we crashed off in our shacks while waiting for them.. the resort was just next to the sea and our tired senses were lulled to the land of our dreams. As I was closing my eyes I could see the velvety sky of stars slowly fading.

Suddenly after midnight we get up to murmur of voices. It was a little after 12:00 and the crowd had returned. Part of the gang with Tiwana, Mahindra, Dodo, Solomon, JFK, us, Praveen, KJ and a cuople of others sat around a circle with the background of sea waves talked and talked... as usual we exchanged stories. We were too touchy to talk about Varun but we remembered him every moment and we knew he would have been there in spirit with us. Mahindra entertained us with stories of how it was like riding in Leh and Solo and Dodo ( Daniel) entertained us with their own stories. Solo is the only member of Madras Bulls who rode with 60 kph which was another bullet club and they have ridden to many a places. Dodo was telling us about his plans to do Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Solo was one of the members who had gone to the Pakistan peace ride from Chennai. Dodo never got enough of teasing Solo about his fascination with Fair and Lovely. LOLOL . It was pretty funny And with that note we all crashed off... I was thinking that though this was the most impulsive ride we had done.. it was worth it.. meeting everyone and how the Madras Bulls had arranged such a nice place for us...

Walking among clouds... and coming back to reality...

Day 3

This was our last day in Coorg and we decided to make most of it. Harini would be coming with us as a guide today and then we would head to Bangalore. That day we planned to visit Talacauvery and then Madekeri and then head back to Bangalore. We wanted to start early but we got slightly delayed since it took some time for Anjali and Mini to reach Harini?s estate. Harini again took them to Orange county for a brief visit since they missed it the first evening. After saying our goodbyes, made our way from Siddapur where we picked up some coffee for friends and family.

After that we drove on to Talacauvery. The drive to this place is also very scenic through the winding roads of the ghats. The jeep ambled along pretty sturdily without giving us any hassles. Our ears started popping as we climbed higher and higher and finally we reached the place.
We took a brief stop at Bhagamandala where the three rivers Kanike, Kauvery and Sujyothi met and carried on to Talacauvery. This is the place where the Cauvery river originated. We went higher up climbing some 360 steps to the top of the mountain where the actual source of the river was. Imagine having the source of the river at the source of the mountain. Harini told me that no one knew what path it took to reach the tank where the water actually bubbled up.



17th October is an auspicious day when the Cauvery river bubbles up at this place. The top of the mountain is left bare and nothing has been constructed since they were afraid to disrupt the flow of the water which was quite mysterious. The steps that led to the mountain was also very carefully constructed so as to not disturb the flow of water in any way. According to a myth the little pool of water at the top of the mountain should not overflow or else the river would dry up so whenever there was excessive rain? and there was overflowing of water, the people would be going there and lessen the water flow by taking out the excess water by buckets?



The top of the mountain is beautiful viewpoint and on a clear day one can see the Arabian sea on the other side of the mountain range. When we went it was somewhat cold and there was a little mist but as a whole we had good weather. The clouds were floating by and we felt like we were in movie... where there is a song and dance is going and there is smoke around the actors... he he !! jokes apart it was nice to be standing there and just observing.



As we came down the ghats, we stopped to buy honey. It is advisable to buy your honey from these little shops which are located in strategic points as you come down the ghats. If you know Kannada you can also bargain to give you a good price. You will get processed and non processed honey. Processed honey will be bottled by Honey Society while the non processed ones will be in normal bottles.



After you come down the ghats you will get flat land where you will see some guys selling some cucumbers. Harini made us stop and have those cucumbers which were really out of this world. They were fresh and succulent and if you are a cucumber freak do not forget to stop by and check it out.

Well we were quite hungry by that time given the amount of climbing up and down we had to do and we were keen on having Pandi Curry (Coorgi pork curry) and rice.



It was almost 3:00 and we were running late. Harini guided us to Madekeri and then to Hotel East End which was famous for Pandi Curry. Unfortunately, it was late and we were informed that they no longer made that and suggested that we try Hotel West End. By now we were all famished but we thought that it would be an insult to leave Coorg and not have Pandi Curry. We were quite hungry and decided we would go anywhere to taste the food which coorg was famous for.

So we drove down to West End Bar and Restaurant and had a late lunch there along with pork fry, pandi curry rice and vegetarians had some roti and alu mutter. We also sipped a few beers to go with the delicious lunch. Well friends, as far as this place goes, it was ok but I would not advise you to try this if you are a bunch of girls or if you are with family. If you are a sizeable group who is not fussy about the ambience you can try this place. Despite its shabby look and feel, the food served to us was good. Hotel East End is a decent hotel to try in Madekeri and they also provide lodging along with good food.

That day was a Sunday and another thing to remember when you are driving around Coorg on a Sunday is to drive carefully since Sunday is shandy day, a day when most of the estate workers after getting their come out to town to make merry with lots of liquor and they walk all over the road . So small town or big Sunday is a day when you have to drive carefully to avoid hitting any drunken person going about his way. The crowd is aggressive and in a mood to party and be wild.

On finishing a sumptuous lunch we started our drive to Bangalore. It was 4:45 pm. We took a different route via Kushalnagar, Hunsur, Yelave ( take a left there) to Srirangapatna and then Bangalore, thereby avoiding Bangalore. It was a scenic route where the roads were flanked by banyan and eucalyptus trees. The road was good with and we did a good speed.

After taking a break at Shivali Restaurant somewhere in the highway to Bangalore, Harini decided to ride pillion on the bullet too and before we could say anything, Ambar was off assuming that we were behind them as usual. Just at Hunsur junction, we took a ride and as we were chit chatting, I realized that the bike was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly we doubted that the bike went some other way and we would be lost? because our guide Harini knew the way and we resigned ourselves to the fact that we would be going via Mysore. Just when we thought that the drive was going so well, we all fell silent hoping that we would meet up with Ambar and Harini. We were supposed to take a deviation at Yelave junction to Srirangapatna? iI was praying hard that we see them because one, it was dark and two Harini did not have a helmet. And surprise of surprise we were on the right road and they were waiting for us. Seems that they speeded down the smooth road at more than 100kmph with Harini praying for her life but not getting scared at all (thats what she says). Anyway we all heaved a sigh of relief as we met them and continued on our way. And the conversation was back at full speed... ha ha !!

Lesson learnt : If driving in a group please wait at all the major turns for the rest of the drivers/riders. We thought we missed our group since we did not see them turn at the junction and that almost made the end of the trip somewhat uncomfortable. But I guess lady luck with us that day. From the cool mountains, we were back to the familiar highway and we all were very exhausted cutlets by and wanted to just crash off..

Reached Bangalore by 10:00 and then after dropping everybody off (which included Mini not being to find her home at night and us driving round and round and then losing the bullets .. but now we were in familar ground so we did not bother much and decided to meet the bike at a common point) we reached home at 12:00pm and crashed off taking with us very fun memories of this beautiful place filled with nature and very kind people.

We could not thank Harini enough for being such a lovely and informative guide about her place and also Anjali, Mini, Gokul, Ambar for being such a great and cool company. They kept the group entertained and made the trip a memorable trip. Learnt a lot from the travellers and on the whole it was a very interesting trip.

Tip: Its good if you are travelling with native friends but if you are a first timer... you could go though

Travel Coorg
You can book your lodging through this site which is very efficient

Karnataka Tourism

And if you google you will find lots of links to Coorg.

Now it is back to banging on the keyboard and going nuts !!! he he !!

Us all "Enthu Cutlets" exploring the diversity of nature that is Coorg and Kerela

Day 2

The term enthu cutlets was coined by Anjali who along with Mini and Harini who kept us all entertained with their witty and humorous chatter. And I thought that this term defined us to the T and had a good ring to it and thus added it to the title...

Day 2 started very early since we had plans to visit a lot of places which included a forest Safari at Wayanad Forest, Irppu falls, Dubare Elephant training camp and Valnoor Fishing camp. We were originally planning for Nagerhole but we were informed that Nagerhole recently fell prey to a forest fire and the forest was closed to outsiders. But their was hope since we were told that we could visit The Wayanad forest in Kerela. The drive to Wayanad was amazing through the winding roads and lots and lots of coffee plantation and lots of colourful flowers.

Wayanad forest was a 20 kms stretch and it was part of the same forest but the name and the state was different. We started at 6:30 and met Ambar and Gokul on their bikes. We rode on through Gonnikoppai, Ponnampet, Hudekeri, and then reached High Falls Holiday Homes where Anjali and Mini had made reservations. This place is a beautiful place to stay. A night there costs about 800 for three beds and food is extra, veg plate is 70/- while non veg plates are 125/- each. Irppu falls is very near to this place and you can do a short trek there from this guest house. It?s a home stay again which is typical of Coorg and you will get home cooked food and home treatment too. The people are generally very friendly. If you are interested you could be taken around a tour of the estate. They also have a basketball court where you can amuse yourself with when you are not trekking around that area.

Wayanad forest is just ten odd minutes from here and once you reach the forest, you have the option of taking your own jeep along with a guide which is economical and cost you some 150/- bucks or go in a rented jeep which will cost you 450/-. Mini took up this opportunity to ride on the bullet. We wanted to let the girls feel what it was like riding through natural beauty... its addictive.. Bikes are not allowed inside the forest so we took Ambar and Gokul along with the guide and as we drove deep in to the forest we enjoyed the sights and sounds of the wild. Everytime we would comment on something or the other, the guide would shhh.. at us and suddenly we would stop and he would show us the animals . It is a definite advantage if you know Malayalam. Gokul was a Malayali and he would translate what we would be informed by the guide.



Anjali had this dream of meeting with her favourite reptile, the crocodile and the whole time she was hoping against hope that we would come across this beautiful creature and when she was informed that there were no crocs anywhere she was very disappointed but that did not stop her from craving for a crocodile. Everybody whom we came across knew about her fascination for crocodiles and did not hesitate to tease her but she was vehemently for crocs and I was having thought bubbles with the pic of Anjali spending the rest of her life with her fav crocs and that was not a pretty picture though that Australian guy makes crocs look so sweet. BRRRRR again.. I personally have no dislike against this reptile but I certainly have a heavy dose of respect for creatures-who-can-snap-your-bone-just-like-that-however-friendly-you-are, no matter what... but as I believe opinions and likes differ from person to person and I respect that too....

The guide told us some stories about how an elephant almost destroyed one jeep and how there was one jeep full of Python babies and showed us a dead bison which the tiger had killed but could not drag it due to its size. As we went deeper and deeper into the forest about 17 kms into the forest we saw a broken down Aiyappan Temple and I was wondering to myself who would take the trouble of coming so deep into the forest and build a temple where it was fraught with danger from wild animals? We stopped at a watering hole took some pics and then continued on round the forest and came out to the main road. The whole drive was an experience but if you really want to see wild animals you have to reach there really early in the morning like say 6:00 am or stay there till dusk when the tigers come out. The guide told us that spotting wild animals is better on weekdays since there are few jeeps moving around and weekends are not a good idea since there are lots of people coming in and going out and the animals stay in their own safe place and do not venture out much because of so much noise. My advice is to stay somewhere near by for a night do the safari and then carry on to other parts of Coorg. You can book yourself into Nagerhole Resort if you wish or a High Falls Holiday Homes where you can get a cab arranged for yourself to take you to the forest.

As we came back from Wayanad, we stopped at Irrupu Falls which was flanked on both sides by the Brahmagiri range in the Western Ghats. One can also go for an hour trek to this range if one is interested in trekking. The falls is a nice one but when we went the water was moderate but yet there was a good amount of crowd flowing in to take bath at the base of the falls. That motivated our specially Anjali and Ambar to go and stand and take a shower despite the fact that they would be dripping wet. Though Rocky was dying to dive in, he was cooly enjoying the view as he forgot his get-wet-in-the-falls shorts... as for me ... i was content splashing around in the cool water at a much more sedate part of the falls...

Mini struck a conversation with a toddler as we were leaving as to what was that thing floating near on of the stones in the water where we were all enjoying the cool stream of water passing over our feet. Mini very maturely pondered that it could be a spider but then pat came the answer from the toddler that according to the books spiders have 8 legs and this creature had 6 legs... and that set Mini thinking on what could the creature be..... maybe some alien or maybe a spider who lost two legs ... LOLOL..



While returning from the falls, Anjali decided to bike it out with Ambar. Both of them were wet and they thought that the open air would dry them up. We decided to go to Kutta to have lunch since that was the nearest town on the way back from Nagarhole and Wayanad. While coming down from Kutta, we bought a quarter bottle of gin and mixed it with half a litre of mountain dew and six of us freaked out with that for the heck of it by the side of the forest. We dropped the girls at their guest houses and I am sure they enjoyed their rides through the cool route. As for Ambar he was one content man for reasons only a man-who-got-the-chance-to-give-a-ride-to-babe(s) knows. LOLOL. ( Our biker friends were very envious of Ambar when they got to know about this ha hah a !! ) Anyways, the gals decided to stay back since the guest house was out of the way from where we were going.

We carried on to Dubare Elephant Training Camp. We had to cross the river by the boat to reach the camp. From afar as we were softly being rowed across the river, I saw elephants enjoying their bath in the river with the mahouts scrubbing them to glory... what bliss... one wonders !!! I was tremendously thrilled to see that we could enjoy elephant rides after all and guess what !! we were just in time for the ride. It was going to be my first ride and I was very excited. The last riding session lasted from 4:00 to 5:00pm and when we reached it was exactly 4:00 pm.



We met Dr Shivaram ( member of the Coorg Wildlife Society), the manager of this camp, who explained to us a few facts about elephants as I enquired about this and that. He was kind enough to talk to us and we got to know that this place was the oldest training camp and now they had some 6 elephants along with two baby elephants that they were training. The life span of the elephants in captivity is longer and lasts to 80 years rather than the life span of the wild elephants who lived approximately to 60 years. An elephant?s molars are very important in contributing to its life span. As soon as the molars break, the life span of the animal comes down since it cannot eat much. If you are there in the morning by 8:45 for the ride, you will get a detailed information about elephants from this knowledgable man. Its a part of the morning ride.

It was time for our ride and we paid 50/- for the tickets and sat on Vijaya who would be taking us around. In Dubare, there was this guest house which was 107 years old and it is now rented out to visitors. You need to bring your own food if you want to stay at Dubare but the whole ambience of staying in such an old cottage must be cool.

As we ambled along with Vijaya we were lead by a baby elephant who was 6 years old and very frisky. His name was Ganesha. Ganesha, a cute little thing, was more interested in grazing and playing with the other big elephants but he had a job to learn and came with us reluctantly leading Vijaya. He was also being trained to give visitors a ride you see. The elephant ride was the highlight of my trip. They are such gentle animals and so mistreated sometimes.

Dr Shivaraman told us that it was difficult to capture elephants nowadays and they would capture it only to leave them in the wild. It was too much of an effort to train them and I got to know from Harini that elephants roamed that area of Coorg quite liberally not being scared of humans. Harini?s estate was also raided by elephants and they are attracted highly by jackfruits so the estate owners do away with this tree if there is a risk of visiting elephants.

Anyway as we finished our ride, we got introduced to this elephant who was taking her bath when we came in. She was all clean and was going back to her place. As she came up the river bank, DR Shivaraman stopped her and told us to take a photograph with her. Her name was Durgaparmeshwari. She was a 55 years old and in advanced state of pregnancy. She was very friendly and raised her trunk when the camera went CLICK?

We also met Mr Geoffrey Muthanna who was a member of the Coorg Wildlife Society and he oversaw the Valnoor Fishing Camp. We had anyway planned to go there and it was good to meet the manager in person. He was again a friendly man who invited us to his house. We crossed the river with the help of the old boatman who rowed the boat with a long stick and made our way to Valnoor.But not before taking some nice pics as we watched the sun making its descent down the horizon.



Valnoor is very near Dubare. Ideal fishing time is from morning to 11am. You must get your own fishing gear but Mr Muthanna provides you with a pair of fishing equipments if you have not gone prepared. We met him and his family who were very hospitable. They arranged for a guy to take us to the river where we saw a family angling and trying to get a fresh catch. It seems they were fishing for the whole day without much luck.

We watched the sunset from Valnoor over the Kaveri river and headed back to Siddapur where we crashed off early after having dinner at Harini?s house. One more day to go and I was dreaming of Talacauvery and Madekeri and Pandi Curry... yum yum yum... SNOREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ......

Us "enthu cutlets" were conserving energy for day 3 which we were hoping would be fun...

For more Photos you can click here. Have updated my photo blog with a couple of the snaps.

Among Coffee beans and The Western Ghats

Day 1

A long weekend and it was time to plan another trip. This time we had a choice between riding to our destination or driving there. We opted for driving. This would be our first driving trip. We were more familiar with riding across the country. I wanted to visit Kodagu better known as Coorg since I had heard so much about this place and I was dying to see this place famous for beautiful people and coffee estates.

I read up Outlook traveler journals and did a lot of research on the net and finally decided that we would do Coorg no matter what. Luckily we had my husband?s colleagues coming along with us, one of whom belonged to this beautiful place. We had two guys on a Machismo. They decided to ride with us all the way. So we were seven of us , Myself , Rakesh (my hubby), Ambar, Gokul, Anjali , Mrinalini a.k.a Mini and Harini.

Harini was a native from Siddapur and she was also coming along for the weekend to visit her place and she very kindly invited us to stay with her. We were glad to have her with us since it would be easier traveling around this place with her guiding us around some part of the trip.

We started at 7:00 from Bangalore and went via Chanrayapatna, Hassan and then took a deviation from Gorur to Kushalnagar. This route is easy to follow but you must look out for the Gorur sign board towards your left to take the deviation. We almost missed it but we were back on track as soon as we realized that.

There are a couple of junctions which might confuse you while you are driving but its easy if you ask the native people the way to Kushalnagar. While driving through Gorur, we passed by the Gorur Dam which also boasted of a lake blue as the sky. It was a scenic drive as soon as we entered Kushalnagar. The temperature was quite warm and Harini told us that Kushalnagar can get very hot since it was near Mysore.

Anyways, driving past Kushalnagar, we came upon Bylekuppe where we went to visit the Namdroling monastery. It was noon by this time. This place was famous for Tibetian settlements and all you could see were monks dressed in their maroon and yellow garbs going about their daily business as usual.

The monastery is an experience by itself. The whole of the place was a kaleidescope of bright colours, warm and welcoming. It is very peaceful and I felt like sitting there and just contemplating. There were three Buddha statues made of Copper plated with gold. Inside the statues there were some holy inscriptions and other religious things pertaining to Buddhism. The main statue of Buddha was about 50ft and it was flanked by two other statues 48 ft of gurus who attained Buddhahood.

It was pretty crowded with visitors mostly from Bangalore that day since many were off on a holiday trip to Coorg. There was a new monastery being built in the compound and whole monastery was surrounded by the hostels for young monks. It was a pleasure seeing young kids in their monk's garbs running around.

The whole place was full of colourful paintings which talked about their culture and their way of life. We would have liked it better if there was someone to explain to us the meaning of the paintings. It would have given the visitors a better insight to their culture but I guess they were a closed community and were not interested in spreading the good word unless you were a Tibetian.

Anyway as we came out of the monastery we realized that we were very hungry and I was keen on having Tibetian food specially momo. We looked around and spied a small lazy restaurant known as Dhege Restaurant run by Tsiring ( meaning long life) . The day was hot and the place was not that hygenic... we literally had to wake the owner up to cook us food... LOLOL... . She was good enough to cook us some delicious beef curry and rice and momos. For the vegetarian she had some nice noodles for them. In this pic you see a group full of a good meal LOLOL. Sitting there having our food, one could not help admire the scenery outside...

Not satisfied with the food, Anjali decided to buy some chocolates and gorge on them .. she was obviously a chocoholic and the three girls went ga ga and chomp chomp on the chocs..

After having our fill we made our way to Nisargadhama where we crossed the hanging bridge and explored the forest area. This place is not very well maintained but it's a nice place for picnic . You have the option to stay at the cottages in this place too but I guess you have to book in advance. We tried our luck but could not find anything available.


You can go boating too through the meandering river. The forest was full of bamboo groves and it was a pleasure walking through them. We suddenly spotted a tree house and all seven of us decided to climb on it and it was nice to sit there and have a looky at what was going on below. I was not comfortable with the swaying house and was relieved to have come down to rest my feet at solid ground. Getting up was easy but coming down the steps was pretty scary and scared the shit out of me.. I just had to bite and smile as if I was doing the most natural thing climbing down stairs with gaping holes from so many feet above ground level.. BRRRRRR..



Then I saw kids and families alike taking elephant rides which costed some 10/- but we saw that it was a very short ride and though I was very keen on riding the elephant, I was not encouraged by Rocks and we were running out of time too. I made my way with a long face and on we continued to Siddapur passing through Harangi Reservoir and Veerabhoomi village. If you are in that area you must stay there for a night to experience the rich cultural heritage of Karnataka. We decided to try this the next time we visit this place. Harangi reservoir also is a beautiful place to visit when there is enough water.

As we were traveling to Siddapur, we were passing by the river Cauvery every now and then and the river appeared to be flowing well but the water level was low inspite of daily rains in that area. Two of our travel mates had made reservations in High Falls Holiday Home near Irupu Falls and we had to put them in a cab. Siddapur being a small town, Harini and her family was well known. At Siddapur she found a known cabbie and we bid our friends Anjali and Mini goodbye promising to meet them up the next day. Meanwhile we went back to Harini's house where we got to know her family and refreshed ourselves. It was 5:00 in the evening and there was still light. Harini wanted to take us to Orange County which was just two minutes away from her estate.

Harini knew the estate managers well since one couple were staying in their house. One of them was the General Manager and the lady was the Accounts Manager. They welcomed us with their kind hospitality greeting. The resort was 100 percent booked for Easter. We were really impressed with the resort. The place was very well maintained. We enjoyed the green surrounding us and the Tudor styled cottages were out of the world.

We visited the Antharium garden where they had the largest number of Anthariums growing there in that green house. Anthariums had export value and it was doing great business there. Just as we came out of the garden we came face to face with a flock of white geese who loved all the great attention given to them by the guests.

A few distances away we saw a preening turkey. Well I do not know what else to call the proud turkey spreading its wings and standing there as if it was the king of the world. The whole place was a coffee estate shared by seven brothers from Kerela. The Ramapuram Holiday Resorts Ltd, are traditional estate owners, who are originally from a small town called Palai in Kottayam district of Kerala. The Ramapuram family, after establishing itself in plantations, has now diversified into leisure services. The whole estate was made into a resort. Most of the coffee stems and buds which were uprooted to make way for building the layout of Orange County was used for furniture inside the cottages. That way they have utilized their crop in a very economic way.

We also visited the Ayurveda Village inside the County where the staff showed us around the different methods of workings of the Vaidyashala. The entrance was very grand and influence of Kerela Architecture. I guess its worth all the money that people pay for to spend time at this place. It?s a good place to distress yourself the expensive way. A night there in the cottages would cost you from 6500/- and above.

Made friends with the dogs which was there in Harini's home and it was a pleasure connecting with them. Knowing myself I could have spent hours and hours with Ricky and Sonu. Had a nice homely dinner which Harini's mom so kindly prepared and crashed off.

Day 1 ended with dreams of Buddha and the beautiful monastery.

Pune.... A stranger in a not so strange world....

Wednesday and Thursday , December 24th/25th 2003,

It was 4'o clock in the evening and we were on the first rows of the Volvo us all rearing to go. The driver looked smart and we had a great view of the front the volvo being such a classy bus. Anyways, here I was really excited about the trip and all and we were scheduled to reach Pune at 8:00 in the morning and well I thought after breaking our fast we would roam around the town for Christmas. I was imagining an enjoyable Christmas and the bus rolled to Chitradurg for a break after about 4 hours from Bangalore. The road was smooth and we were all caught up in the movie Vertical Limit in the bus. As it was about 9:30 or so I felt the bus stop half way from Chitradurg... and just when I was thinking that it would be a stop for some leak or something, the driver said something about a puncture... well i was thinking that should be ok since these guys are expert in fixing flats.

But lady luck had also taken a holiday so the spare had also a falt, the drivers took off for an hour to get another tyre which was not exactly a volvo tyre but would work for sometime and after an hours break off we went and I was thanking god that things were going on smoothly... a few kilometres ahead, we again had another puncture which took some hours to fix... I was still thinking that well trouble comes in threes but hopefully it stops here. It was in Hubli that we fixed the flat the second time and well right at 3:00 ish in the morning the tyre gave away again... now the passengers were losing it one by one but they were very patient since they could not do anything about it. I was like .... YEESHHHH i just hope we reach pune in the afternoon but because of the delay we had to face the worst of the traffic on the highway which was still being built and so all the vehicles were doing single lane and it was difficult to manouvre the bus fast. Then the handy man put on another movie for entertainment and guess what it was Khiladi.... ha ha ha As if I did not have enough to think about than seeing Ayesha Jhulka's poodle face and Akshay Kumar doing his female act.... EGADDDDD... I think some corner my luck was holding when the TV suddenly fused out.... i was thankng the powers that be gratefully...


We reached Belgaum at 7:00 in the morning and well all were really exhausted by the rough ride and just wanted to go home. The folks were getting cranky and started taking the driver's trip. One of them a marathi guy started hassling the driver for a 200/- refund for the delay and well made a big commotion which was unnecessary I felt and delayed us for some more minutes... god I was by this time just praying for whatever patience I had left.... Ha ha oh yes, since the TV of the bus was also fused out this freaked out the already frayed travellers.... then it was time for some dhinchak music which they put off after all started complaining...

Believe me stress can do a lot to your sanity... :)

I was just praying that a fight should not start right then ..... people were complaining their heads silly... I was praying for deliverance from this situation... had a small tiff with hubby too so I was fuming silently and hungrily.... since rocky did not let me have more food... man i was so pissed... i think the whole situation was getting to us... he he !!

Anyway we had smooth roads from Satara to Pune and then the Pune Highway Traffic started. By the way my dream of going through the expressway did not realise since we enter Pune before the express way....

Because of the frustation on the highway our driver let out some of his anger on a truck driver who was not giving way by making the handyman open the door and flung an empty bisleri bottle while overtaking aggressively and cursing all at the same time... I was stunned at the behaivour and the bottle hit the truck driver &%&&&^%$#^@#%#$@Q$#@ right at his face and it was an expression worth observing... LOLOLOL

Well it was Christmas that day and it all seemed that my plans of enjoying the town would go down the drain. All I could hope for was to reach our friend's place safely.

At last after doing two tunnels and winding road in midst of the traffice I could see Pune nestled the lap of the mountains.. it looked to me like that from where we were entering Pune and well my first impression was well its just like Bangalore... just a wee bit more polluted and a WHOLE lot of two wheelers, especially Bajaj M80 and M50. This contraption was supposed to be the best thing in Pune and was used by majority of the locals....

Well after meeting friends Ranjan and Leena we had a scrumptious after lunch of chicken and rotis and I was starving... we chilled and just took in the breath that was of Pune's.
In the evening after all the excitement settled in we went to dinner at The Bounty's in Kalyani Nagar and this place seems to serve the best of the sizzlers and i was not disappointed. YUM YUM is not enough to explain it...

Friday December 26th 2003

Osho' Ashram and MG Road was on my itenary and well we took off in the morning on Ranjan's Pulsar. After sitting on bullets, pulsar was a bit on the uncomfortable side. But hey who is complaining as long as it takes me to places... LOL.

Well Osho's Ashram.... one word MAROONand SPACED OUT.

Traveller's Tip: if you going to Pune please avoid wearing maroon since the locals look at you ina wierd manner which you may not like. Maroon is exclusively for the Oshoites, a friend informed me !!

The guides were tired and had a very serious on the verge of rude expression in their faces and well we were told to keep silent for the 15 minute walk inside the ashram. I went through a couple of osho magazines and bought two just to have a feel about what this thing was all about. Got a pink I am on Tour label to stick on my dress and well was called for, "we want only pink labels coming in please".. had me wanting to burst out laughing.. but what the heck....

After a short video clip on Osho and his talks, we went around the campus. I noticed that the campus was very well designed and aesthetically pleasant. And there were people flowing in maroon robes inand out and with their own purpose... as I was walking with the group i saw a beautiful lady in maroon dancing wildly in her own way in the concrete floor which i think is a playground or something....

The funny part was that even though we were asked to keep silent, there was a huge commotion of converstaion all around.... I did not see the purpose... Auroville in Pondicherry also asks the people to keep silent but the surrounding is so silent that one would not like to talk too and there are always some genre of people who cannot stop conversing.... But silence in Osho was not a big deal as everybody was talking normally leading a normal life albeit in maroon.

Anyway, saw the auditorium from afar and it looked very imposing.. it was in the shape of a pyramid and it reminded me of the glass pyramid of Le Louvre in France.

So maroon was the highlight of the visit. Otherwise the people there are very helpful more so when you are a foreigner. They thought i was one and the moment I started talking in shudh Hindi they came to their normal pattern of conversation which was " I am not interested either way" Maybe if i would have behaved otherwise I would have got more info ... LOLOL.


Went to the German Bakery from there and had the famous Apfel Stroodle and Kase Kuchen but the quality sucked. I think the german cafe in Bangalore can boast of better quality food any day. Heard so much about it but my husband says that it is the hangout place for many and well majority were the hippy kind with large tatoos smoking dope and speaking a foreign tongue... In the process I saw some cool modified Bullets in the parking lot and made my day.

That afternoon we were off to Girivan.... where we had an amazing time for three days and 2 nights meeting friends and generally having a ball of a time with bonfires and stories from college. The reunion was about the "animal farm" my husband's Symbi classmates getting together after ten years... and what a reunion it was... Lot of chaos, authentic Maharashtrian food comprising of Bhaakhri, Pitla, Thetsa, Chicken curry,puranpoli,Kadi, etc, great service, exhange of humourous stories round the bonfire.... the works... I had a gala time clicking snaps.... finished off 5 reels...he he !!! Have to write a detailed account on that ...

Saturday, December 27th 2003

Long morning walks around the mountainous pathways, lemongrass tea, cricket match. exploration of the place and then a heavy lunch after which we went to Pawna Lake and could see the Tikkona fort from afar... was to exhausted to stay awake that night...

Sunday, 28th December, 2003.

After heavy goodbyes and promise of returning to meet up sooner than the usual ten years, we made our way to Pune and on the way my friend Leena ( Ranjan's wife) took me to the Osho Teerth park ... you can visit the park as a visitor from 3 to 6 in the morning and from 9 to 11 in the morning I think. The rest of the time is for the Oshoites. Well the park is a creative wonder... they have transformed a drain into a park... amazing. I was impressed with the work that they had put into this project.And it was worth the visit. Could not click any snaps... this park was an ideal place for couples who wanted to get away... and could see a lot of them huddles and doing whatnot hanky panky LOLOLOLOL !!! but heck thats life !!!

Boarded the bus At 7:00 pm and then reached Bangalore at 11am in the morning this time without any mishaps with the sound of Pyar to hona hi taaaaaaaaa ( Remo sings ta instead of "tha"), and Kuch kuch kota hai ringing in my ears.... Finally reached familiar ground namma Bangaluuru and man I was glad to be back home under blue skies and fresh air...

SIGH it was a good break !!! Am gearing for more in Jan.... to Goa we go on our bikes.... hopefully my bike is ok before that it is still being operated on in the garage... LOL...

Wishing all my friends a very happy new year !!

Due to some error I have deleted my last post... boo hoo... (

The Land of Happiness and Peace

Mysore ....

Pros
A cool place to chill out in India.

Cons
none as far as I am conecerned.

The Bottom Line
A nice place to just relax and have a historical journey.

Mysore - the land of happiness and peace and history....

This place has got an old world charm. This review is from the tourist's point of view. I have been to Mysore a number of times. It so happens that Mysore is just three and some odd hours from Bangalore and whenever my friends and relatives come by for a visit to Bangalore we end up going to Mysore as that is the nearest place which we can finish visiting within a day and come back.

Mysore has a lots of places which you can visit.

The first stop is the Mysore Palace . Its an amazing architecture and this palace reminds us of the culture and tradition. The whole palace is very well maintained.

One of the most interesting things about this palace are the painting in the walls. Its painted in such a way that from whichever angle you see the painting seems to be looking at you.

The ceilings have been painted beautifully. Its intricate handiwork leaves with you a feeling of awe.This artwork can be seen only here and this has been replicated in Bangalore's Vidhana Soudha (Parliament) to some extent.

There are several doors in the palace. Whats interesting about the doors is that each door is carved in a different manner and some doors have been made of silver and bronze with intricate carvings on it.

The whole tour of the palace is an interesting experience. There are guides taking you through the palace and you can also buy stuff which is typically from Mysore like Sandalwood carving in the shops placed inside the palace. The guides change their accents according to the tourists they get from abroad. I found that pretty interesting :).I had friends coming down from Germany and Japan and the accent of the guide helped them a lot to understand the tour. Well good for all !!:)

The next destination is Chamundeswari temple . This temple is situated on the top of a hill. The journey to the top of the hill is fascinating. The view as you travel up the hill is amazing. You can see almost the whole of Mysore from the top. The roads are good and its a smooth ride up. Once you reach on top, you will get to see a colorful array of shops selling flowers and stuff which can be taken back as souvenirs of Mysore.

My friends from abroad are always fascinated by the monkeys and the shopkeepers who sell flowers. They look very colorful :).

The temple is very well built and its typical of South Indian Structure. Besides the temple, the view from this place is awesome.

As you come down hill you can enter and check out another temple which is known as the Bull temple. There is a huge bull residing on this place. This bull is supposed to be the second or the third largest bull in the world. Anyway its a good place to just sit there and chill out. The structure of the bull is worth seeing. Its carved out of a single stone.

After you have finished this tour the next place to go is the Brindavan Gardens Or Krishnasagar Dam . This garden has been built on one side of a dam. This is an amazing place and its a great place to stay overnight. This place is usually kept for last if you are traveling in a package tour. You have to walk for quite sometime as vehicles are not allowed inside the entrance of the garden. This is a huge garden which is very well maintained and it has not lost its charm. The only thing that I did not like about this was that it was too crowded in the evenings. This is because the garden looks awesome in the evenings. Its good a musical fountain show and the whole garden is artistically lit up when dusk falls.

There are facilities to stay in the garden but I suggest you make the reservations in advance. I recommend that you end your trip in the gardens and stay over for the night and go out of Mysore the next morning.

For that matter the Mysore Palace is worth seeing when its all lit up in the evenings.

There are lots of other stuff to see in Mysore. For example, the Philomena Church which reminds me of the Great Dome in Germany. Its built in similar lines. Its a huge church and a tourist attractions.

The Mysore Zoo is a treat for the kids. This is one of the well maintained zoos and you easily while away your kids time... My nieces and nephews went crazy when they saw this zoo.

Mysore is a good place to buy antiques and work or art. Just opposite the Mysore Zoo you will see a couple of shops where you can check out stuff which you can take home or give a gift to your friends.

Mysore is famous for its silk too. You can check out the sarees or silk scarves in an Emporium where you are sure to be given a good price. Its expensive no doubt but its worth the price.

Mysore is very famous for its sweet dish. Mysore Pak.
Make sure you have a taste of this sweet.

If you want to stay back here, Hotel Das Prakash is a very good place to stay. Hotel Ramanashree is also another hotel where you can stay.

On your journey to Mysore, I recommend that you make a detour to Shrirangapatna which has Tipu Sultan's summer palace and his mausoleum. The whole palace is made of wood and it has huge lawns which have been maintained well. Tipu's life and achievements have been placed here inside this palace. This whole palace is very picturesque.

I would recommend that you go on a package tour to Mysore but if you have friends its all the more better to move around with them independently. As far as price is concerned Mysore is reasonable unless you are buying stuff like silks and antiques.

You can check this place out if you want to take a short break. You can also stop by this place when you are going to Ooty from Bangalore. Usually its best to travel by bus. If you are traveling independently you can take a taxi and take tour of the city. It will cost you about 300 to 400 rupees.

This place is also accessible by train. You can board the Satapdi express from Chennai. Its one of the best trains in India in terms of facilities and the speed.

Well I hope I could provide enough information regarding this place.

If you want more information you can check the following websites

www.mysore-hotels.com
http://www.mysore.nic.in/
http://www.karnataka.com/tourism/mysore/

Whenever you decide to visit India, make sure this place is in your calendar.

Recommended
Yes

Best Suited For: Friends
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime

Ooty-- Wellington here we come

Sniff sniff cough cough i go and i think i am feeling like going and getting cozy in a quilt with a book. Have a heavy head and SIGH !!!

This is the result of a extended weekend in Wellington and walking in the clouds and then coming back to Bangalore and sitting in the AC i think. But whatever the case might be, the weekend trip was a well deserved break. Myself along with my visiting relatives decided to visit Wellington some 15 kms from Ooty. We have a relative who is in the defense and he was staying in the Defense Staff Services College. We started from Bangalore in a Qualis. We were 6 of us and we fitted well into a qualis with all the luggage. I was having mixed feelings since it was Puja time and well i wanted to celebrate the Puja like a true Bengali but well the option of going up to the hills was irreristible and so off we went. After reaching the outskirts of Bangalore we had breakfast in Kamat Lokruchi which is famous for its food. After having our fill of dosas and sugarcane juice we went on ahead via Mysore and then to Bandipur. Bandipur was pretty dry but the moment we started to drive through the Mudhumalai section it was raining cats and dogs. But after a few kilometres we had dry weather again which was very pleasant.

Got to see some lovely deers and peacocks and as we speeded up Masinagudi we saw ahead of us the ghats which we were going to climb and which had about 36 hairpin bends. Our qualis was easily lumbering up the ghats and at the top we stopped to take a few pictures.

I am a picture freak so i do not let any opportunity go by when i see some nice landscape.

Anyway this route was pretty good and not many were travelling through this route so it was kind of okay. We saved upon the kilometres because of this ghats. the other route is kind of longer. Our driver knew his routes well. I was impressed. We reached Ooty and then Coonor and then Wellington at 6:00 in the evening.

The next day we came down to Ooty and did some leather shopping there. Leather is cheap there specially if you have some DSSC guy with you. You get upto 40 percent discount.

The thread garden of Ooty is another thing which was kind of nice to see. I was dying to see some nice landscapes and waited till we could go to Dodabetta peak. It was raining for sometime and i thought that this would put a damper but hey what the heck the peak was all the more beautiful because of the peak. you can see Kerela, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu from this place.

The Nilgiri hills is so blue and beautiful. Anyway, we clicked a lot of snaps walked in the clouds and had some hot pakoras and coffee.

As we were having coffee suddenly the clouds cleared and we had a maginificent view there. more snaps followed. You know it was truly like walking in the clouds in the dodabetta peak !!

The next day we visited Beulah's farm where we would buy some wines and some jams. His homemade wines are famous in Bangalore. So we went and sampled all his stuff and it was a heady hour i must say that we spent. The wine was tasty and as I was tasting the wine I wanted to buy everything but I had to be satisfied with 4 bottles of wine and 2 bottles of Jams. I must say that if one goes that side one must visit this place if one likes to have wines.

As we were roaming about the hills in our car i was hard pressed not to stop the car and start walking. Such a place is made for walking. Fresh mountain air, pine forests all around you with birds chirping about and a nice winding path, the weather being sometimes rainy and sometimes sunny. I was also thinking that it would be wonderful biking it up here.

Anyway after a very scenic trip we made our way back to bangalore. And back to the daily routine of work and french grammar but i must say it was a well deserved break and I hope we can do this soon. In fact I am praying that we take off for the Diwali weekend in our bike. Some are saying Pondicherry, some are saying Kodai... anyplace is good for me !!

So here i am eager to travel again !! I can never tire of travelling.. Love seeing new places and making new friends !!