Coorg - Scotland of India
Click pictures for larger imagesCoorg - March 17-19, 2006
Sometimes the vacations that are planned at the last moment turn out to be the best. A good example of that would be the trip Asif and I made to Coorg. It was my second time to Coorg and as the website (www.travelcoorg.com) says once you visit Coorg, it will haunt you forever.
We started our journey on the Shatabdi to Mysore, from where we transferred to a bus that took us to Madikeri. Little did we know that by buying the ticket we were also in for a roller coaster ride (literally because about 70 of the 90 odd kilometers from Mysore to Madikeri were on some of the worst roads in Karnataka). Word of advice here would be to either hire an air conditioned Qualis or at least wait for a deluxe bus.
We reached Madikeri at around 5:30 p.m. And after a quick snack, we stocked up on some eau de vie and found a willing auto driver to take us to the Capitol Village Resort. Madikeri has a lot of lodges and hotels, but the best places to stay are at the various estates or at a resort a little of the town. We were quite pooped so after a simple but delicious dinner and a few drinks we hit the sack early.
The next day we had a new kind of breakfast –rice balls (like idlis but were in the shape of balls). We then called our auto driver (from the previous day), Hassan, who was our guide and driver for the day. We went to Abbey falls and had a relaxing swim in the falls and a shower under the falls.
The next stop was the Raja's tomb – an interesting paradoxical monument.
To start of the Raja (a Hindu) and his wife were 'buried' instead of being 'cremated'. To add to that the structure they were buried in was of Muslim architecture with minarets, domes and arched entrances. The two Nandi bulls atop each minaret was as out of place as a baby in a topless bar (siddhuism courtesy Navjot Singh Sidhu).
Hassan then convinced us that we had to go Cauvery Nisagardhana, a place we hadn't heard of. It is a small island in the middle of the Cauvery, about 34 km from Madikeri. There are some activities like boat riding, elephant ride and an enclosure of deer. The whole island is covered with Bamboo forests. We had lunch and went straight to do what we came for – to chill out in the stream. Asif insisted he did not want to get into the water becaus
e it was not deep enough (it was only waist high), though he can’t swim. He however succumbed to the charms of Cauvery and ended up getting wet with all his clothes on. We spent about 2-3 hours there before heading to the Harangini dam (the first point at which the Cauvery is prevented from flowing into Tamil Nadu, Hassan pointed out smugly). After a hike to the top of the dam, which made Asif and I realize the poor shape we were in, we headed back to Madikeri
.
We were in time to see a beautiful sunset at Raja's seat (which was literally where the Raja used to come to sit in the evening). The spectacular views brought out the photographer in me and I took quite a few photos.
We then called it a day and returned to the resort and sat up late into the night on our balcony enjoying the cool breeze and a drink (or two or three...).
The next morning I woke up early in time to catch the sunrise and went for a trek into the surrounding fields and coffee estates. The resort pro
vided me a map with directions to a cave temple called the Botlappa temple. I started of with the idea of reaching the temple but got waylaid and delayed photographing the wild flowers and beautiful views. I must say my first experiment with the 
Macro setting on my lens produced some interesting, colorful photos. I went back to the resort without seeing the temple but feeling refreshed and relaxed.
After a hearty breakfast and a power nap, we summoned Hassan who dropped us at the bus station. We took a bus to Kushalnagar, from where we took an auto ride to the Tibetan settlement at Bylakuppe. The settlement has about 30odd thousand Tibetan refugees, of which around 5500 are monks. The Namdroling Monastery housed these monks, be
autiful temples and prayer halls. The main temple is called the Golden Temple or the Padmasambhava Buddhist Vihara, and has three copper statues coated in Gold. The main one of Buddha is 60ft tall and the two flanking the Buddha are 58 ft each. The temple itself is a huge multi-storied structure with a gargantuan atrium. The walls are covered with murals depicting the life of Buddha and his disciples. The monks here follow Tantric Buddhism, so some of the murals depict the deities in wrathful form (gory at times) and even male and female deities in union.
Equally majestic is the Zandong Palri (New) temple and the eight s
tupas of Buddha depicting the activities of Buddha. We then sauntered around prying into the two other prayer halls where the monks were chanting and playing instruments like the giant gong and something that looked like a 10 feet long horn. After shamelessly and somewhat rudely taking pictures of the monks we went back to the entrance of the monastery. All around the monastery starting from the east gate are 1300 small and 19 big prayer wheels. The belief is that if one circumbulates and turns these prayer wheels, one will live a long life. We were a little too tired and unmotivated to hike around the vast compound.
We then took another auto (our preferred mode of transport) to the first camp where we bought some souvenirs to remember the trip from.
A short auto ride back to Kushalnagar, a bumpy bus ride back to Mysore, and an uneventful train ride back to Chennai, saw the end of a memorable trip.
Sometimes the vacations that are planned at the last moment turn out to be the best. A good example of that would be the trip Asif and I made to Coorg. It was my second time to Coorg and as the website (www.travelcoorg.com) says once you visit Coorg, it will haunt you forever.
We started our journey on the Shatabdi to Mysore, from where we transferred to a bus that took us to Madikeri. Little did we know that by buying the ticket we were also in for a roller coaster ride (literally because about 70 of the 90 odd kilometers from Mysore to Madikeri were on some of the worst roads in Karnataka). Word of advice here would be to either hire an air conditioned Qualis or at least wait for a deluxe bus.
We reached Madikeri at around 5:30 p.m. And after a quick snack, we stocked up on some eau de vie and found a willing auto driver to take us to the Capitol Village Resort. Madikeri has a lot of lodges and hotels, but the best places to stay are at the various estates or at a resort a little of the town. We were quite pooped so after a simple but delicious dinner and a few drinks we hit the sack early.
The next day we had a new kind of breakfast –rice balls (like idlis but were in the shape of balls). We then called our auto driver (from the previous day), Hassan, who was our guide and driver for the day. We went to Abbey falls and had a relaxing swim in the falls and a shower under the falls.
The next stop was the Raja's tomb – an interesting paradoxical monument.
To start of the Raja (a Hindu) and his wife were 'buried' instead of being 'cremated'. To add to that the structure they were buried in was of Muslim architecture with minarets, domes and arched entrances. The two Nandi bulls atop each minaret was as out of place as a baby in a topless bar (siddhuism courtesy Navjot Singh Sidhu).Hassan then convinced us that we had to go Cauvery Nisagardhana, a place we hadn't heard of. It is a small island in the middle of the Cauvery, about 34 km from Madikeri. There are some activities like boat riding, elephant ride and an enclosure of deer. The whole island is covered with Bamboo forests. We had lunch and went straight to do what we came for – to chill out in the stream. Asif insisted he did not want to get into the water becaus
e it was not deep enough (it was only waist high), though he can’t swim. He however succumbed to the charms of Cauvery and ended up getting wet with all his clothes on. We spent about 2-3 hours there before heading to the Harangini dam (the first point at which the Cauvery is prevented from flowing into Tamil Nadu, Hassan pointed out smugly). After a hike to the top of the dam, which made Asif and I realize the poor shape we were in, we headed back to Madikeri
.We were in time to see a beautiful sunset at Raja's seat (which was literally where the Raja used to come to sit in the evening). The spectacular views brought out the photographer in me and I took quite a few photos.
We then called it a day and returned to the resort and sat up late into the night on our balcony enjoying the cool breeze and a drink (or two or three...).
The next morning I woke up early in time to catch the sunrise and went for a trek into the surrounding fields and coffee estates. The resort pro
vided me a map with directions to a cave temple called the Botlappa temple. I started of with the idea of reaching the temple but got waylaid and delayed photographing the wild flowers and beautiful views. I must say my first experiment with the 
Macro setting on my lens produced some interesting, colorful photos. I went back to the resort without seeing the temple but feeling refreshed and relaxed.After a hearty breakfast and a power nap, we summoned Hassan who dropped us at the bus station. We took a bus to Kushalnagar, from where we took an auto ride to the Tibetan settlement at Bylakuppe. The settlement has about 30odd thousand Tibetan refugees, of which around 5500 are monks. The Namdroling Monastery housed these monks, be
autiful temples and prayer halls. The main temple is called the Golden Temple or the Padmasambhava Buddhist Vihara, and has three copper statues coated in Gold. The main one of Buddha is 60ft tall and the two flanking the Buddha are 58 ft each. The temple itself is a huge multi-storied structure with a gargantuan atrium. The walls are covered with murals depicting the life of Buddha and his disciples. The monks here follow Tantric Buddhism, so some of the murals depict the deities in wrathful form (gory at times) and even male and female deities in union.Equally majestic is the Zandong Palri (New) temple and the eight s
tupas of Buddha depicting the activities of Buddha. We then sauntered around prying into the two other prayer halls where the monks were chanting and playing instruments like the giant gong and something that looked like a 10 feet long horn. After shamelessly and somewhat rudely taking pictures of the monks we went back to the entrance of the monastery. All around the monastery starting from the east gate are 1300 small and 19 big prayer wheels. The belief is that if one circumbulates and turns these prayer wheels, one will live a long life. We were a little too tired and unmotivated to hike around the vast compound.We then took another auto (our preferred mode of transport) to the first camp where we bought some souvenirs to remember the trip from.
A short auto ride back to Kushalnagar, a bumpy bus ride back to Mysore, and an uneventful train ride back to Chennai, saw the end of a memorable trip.
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posted by Prathap @ 3:24 PM
2 Comments:
Your pictures are stunning.
I will be going with a group of 15 persons to Madekeri in Sept and I am keen to know about your experience at Capitol Village Resort. Regards Doreen
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