Weekend Trip to Madikeri

The trip to Coorg just happened out of the blue. Its two months since I had bought the beast (Quartz black Safari with gold trimmings) and my wife was always reminding me how under utilized the car was. The office trips to ITPL just 4 km from my house was like humiliating the off road powers of an SUV. However, the problem was that we were not ready to travel with my family because of our daughter who is only 10 months old and more importantly because of the news concerning the dreaded H1N1 virus. So, I told my wife that I am planning for a trip with my friends and she welcomed the suggestion. This was on the 10^th of August 2009. I called up fmy riend Ajith (who had also succumbed to the fatal noose of matrimony) the very next day and he was also game for the trip. Next, I called up my brother-in-law, Senthil (Pappu) and surprisingly he also agreed to come for the trip. The last person to join for the trip was my next door neighbor, Anish an engineering college student. So, the trip was finalized in a record two days and Ajith made the reservation at a home stay in Madikeri called the “The Nest”.

We were all set to travel on August 15^th. We had planned to start from my house at 5:00 a.m. There were some unexpected delays and we were able to start by 5:40 a.m from our residence at Kristal Citrine located near Hoodi. We had to pick Ajith from his residence at Kasturi Nagar. We picked him around 6:00 a.m and decided to go to Mysore Road via Old Madras Road, Corporation circle and then using the fly over. The traffic was not bad and we were on our way to Mysore by 6:45 a.m. We stopped at Kamat Lokaruchi around 8:00 a.m for our breakfast. The breakfast buffet was very good and you get an assortment of dosas Mangalore idlis, pongal, uppuma etc. The buffet at Rs. 70 was a steal but our thoughts were very far from making the best use of those seventy bucks.

Pappu, Ajith and Anish posing in front of Kamat Lokaruchi

Anyway, after the refreshing breakfast, we moved on and whizzed through Chanapatna, Mandya and Maddur. We took the bypass after Srirangapatna (The same road which goes to Ranganathittu) and stopped in between for a bio break. The bypass touches the SH 88 towards Madikeri at a place called Yelawal. The SH88 is maintained in excellent condition till Kushal Nagara. After, Kushal Nagara, we took the left turn towards the Namdroling Tibetan Monastery and golden temple at Byle Kuppe. The 7 km journey towards the temple was a unique experience for all of us. We saw the complete topography change in front of our eyes. We could only see Tibetan people and Tibetean house construction. All the banners were written in Chinese (Mandarin or whatever; pardon my ignorance). We felt that we had crossed the border and was in Tibet. The towers of the golden temple were visible couple of kilometers before the temple.

Namdroling Tibetan Monastery and golden temple at Byle Kuppe

Padmasambhava, Lord Buddha and Buddha Amitayus

The markings for the temple were given at all intersections and we reached the first place marked in our list around 12:00 p.m. The temple has 60 ft (approx) of Budhha, Buddha Amitayus and Padmasambhava. The grandiose of the temple will take your breath away. We had very hot momos from the restaurant nearby. We were all ravished but did not want to take lunch at 12:30 p.m. Hence we ordered momos and three plates of momos for four people ensured that we did not need any lunch. My friends gave me the lion’s share of momos as I was the driver. We left the temple at 1:15 p.m. Madikeri was only 40 km from the temple but the roads were very bad and pot holed for the rest of the journey. It took us one and half to travel those 40 km and we reached chain gate junction where we had to take a right turn at around 2:45 p.m.

The 1ast house in that road was “The Nest” and the care taker Mr. Ganesh came out immediately and showed us our room. We told him we need an extra bed as Anish had joined us at the last minute. He promised us he will give the extra bed. The room was very comfortable and we thought it was a good deal for Rs. 1250. Ganesh told us to visit Abbi falls first and reach Raja’s seat situated in the middle of the town around 6:45 p.m when the musical fountain starts.

Mr. Ganesh, Caretaker at "The Nest" and his son Gagan

We took a shower and started our journey to Abbi falls around 4:30 p.m. The road was quite treacherous. After 10 km we reached a place where all cars were parked. However, some cars were going further along the road beyond the check points. The people manning the check point told us if we pay Rs.15 we can go ahead and park close to the falls. Otherwise, we have to park there and walk the last one kilometer. We paid the money and went inside. We parked our car near the falls and had to walk only around 200 metres down to reach the falls. The falls were breathtaking and spectacular and we all thought it was worth the effort to come to view it. Standing on the hanging bridge and the cold water spraying on your face in the middle of nowhere; you do feel a calmness within you. However, reality strikes you immediately when someone pushes you from your vantage point.

Abbi Falls

We started from Abbi falls at 6:30 p.m and proceeded towards Raja’s seat situated in the middle of Madikeri town. We paid the entrance fee of Rs. 2/ head and entered the garden around 7:00 p.m. The musical fountain was in full swing with foot tapping Kannada, English and Hindi numbers. Some patriotic somgs like Vande Mataram was also played as it was Independence Day.

Raja's Seat

We reached our “Home away from Home” around 9:30 p.m. and were ravenously hungry. I thought the simple dinner of chapathis and Kurma was one of the best dinners I had ever eaten. However, Aji was of the opinion that the salt was on the higher side and even came up with the ingenious explanation that in Kodagu; people use more salt as they have the warrior blood running in their body. Senthil and Anish, the “Kochu Pillers” (small kids) of the group did not have any comment. The drunken debauchery followed and Senthil showed Aji a lesson or two on how a small kid can beat you at your own game. Being, the sole driver in group, I excused myself and retired to bed early (at around 11:30 p.m).

We went to Bhagamandala temple first situated en route to Tala Cauveri. The entire architecture of the temple reminded us of temples in Kerala. Ajith gave the priest a dskshina of Rs. 50 and from that point onwards he was treated like a royalty. He was given half a coconut, bananas and the other prasadam in the form of a powder. The best thing was that he had given neither coconut nor bananas for any pooja.

Bhagamandala Temple

We started from Bhagamandala and started the 10 k.m journey through the ghat section roads to Tala cauveri. It is said that Tala Cauveri is the origin of three rivers; Cauveri, Kannika and the mythical Sujyothi. The river Sujyothi is supposed to flow through Pathala or the underworld. We reached Tala Cauveri at around 9: 00 a.m. The place was like a hill station and completely covered in fog. The temperature also had come down considerably. We offered our prayers at the temple and started climbing the 200 odd steps to the top of the hill. However, we were deprived of a scenic view as the entire place was covered in dense fog.

The Scenic Tala Cauveri

We started back to our base at 10:30 a.m and reached there by 11:30 a.m. We had a breakfast of traditional Akki Roti. We filled gas in the car and started from Madikeri town for our return journey at 12:00 p.m. One of the places we had missed during our onward journey was Nisargadhama and we stopped there on the way back. We spent an hour there hopping between the rocks strewn at the river bank and the tree houses. This time, we had decided to get a proper lunch even though we had eaten our breakfast at 11:30 a.m. However, there were no hotels nearby and we thought of having our lunch at Kushal Nagara. The journey back was uneventful till we reached Mandya. From there onwards, it was like going in outer ring road (ORR) on a weekday morning. Somehow, we crossed Maddur and Channapatna. However, there was a really big traffic jam at Ramanagara. The traffic police came and asked us to take a detour via a village road which will again rejoin the highway outside Ramanagara. The villagers not accustomed to seeing so many vehicles pass through their Kucha roads promptly put up a barricade and start collecting toll of Rs. 10 from the vehicles. Their reason for collecting the money was for the forthcoming Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations. We palmed off a Rs. 5 note and they let us go through. We touched the highway and it was really dark and driving the last 50 km was really an ordeal for me. We decided to go through the NICE road and touch Hosur road. Only after the Bannarghetta road toll booth we found that, the NICE road connection to Hosur road was not completed. We went through the village roads and finally touched Electronic City second phase. From there we took the Kudulu road and touched Sarjapur road and then ORR. We dropped Aji at his residence at Kasthuri Nagar and reached our residence at 9:30 p.m. It was a wonderful trip but we were all dead tired and ready to drop in to our beds.......