It was a journey to the serene and beautiful green region in Karnataka to the city of Coorg.

The groups of 11 friends were to travel and explore the culture rich city. The whole trip was over a weekend with a night stay in Coorg organized by a friend’s mother.

Journey started on Saturday early morning with a breakfast stop after 3 hours at Maddur. All the group members knew each other well, the whole journey was fun filled. The vehicle was a tempo traveler which accommodated all the travelers and luggage comfortably.

Day1:

First stop of the journey was at a monastery located in Kushal Nagar. Inside the monastery were three huge and beautiful statues of Buddhist god. The entire area, people and their lifestyle was completely different in its outlook than surrounding areas and reminded me of monasteries and Pagodas found in Thailand, Myanmar. The monastery area was huge and it took us almost 2 hours to explore the entire area. A Tibetan market was adjacent this place for local made items.

We got some nice photos of the statues and the group. Walls of the building had beautiful paintings designed on them. A big bell at low level was installed for ringing it which made a really deep sound. At the exit of the monastery we had some tender coconut to quench our growing thirst.

Next destination was Nisarga Dham which has a river flowing through a forest reserve. It was a nice and peaceful area with raw natural beauty with little knowledge to tourists. It was also a good place to just sit and relax watching the river flow past you.

The breakfast we had was quite heavy so none of us was feeling very hungry and we decided to move on. When we reached close to Coorg, it started raining. We went in October which is the monsoon season in that region. To add to the rainfall our next destination was a waterfall called as Abbey falls. It was quite slippery in that area and we were advised by the local people not to be adventurous and go down near the falls. They recommended all the tourists to appreciate the falls from a distance. Right in front of the falls was a bridge which provided us a perfect place for clicking some photos. We were getting quite wet in the rain but it was adding to the fun of the place.

With three places covered in one day we were feeling tired by now. Also since we were wet, we wanted to head to place where we would be spending the night. The staying arrangement was inside a nice coffee plantation resort. A hot water bath helped us relax our muscles and also change into dry clothes.

The sun had set by now and it was a good idea to restrict our exploration in close vicinity. We could hear insects, small animals making all sort of unusual noises.

The buffet dinner was feasted upon with a long chat over the table. With little botheration of the dinner content we enjoyed each other’s company which was a nice experience.

After a long chat session we retreated to our rooms only to finally sit out in the gallery. We ordered for some coffee to have chat session number 2. This was just the beginning of us getting ready for a good late evening event. We debated on what to do and finally decided on playing dumb charades.

I think it was one of the best sessions of dumb charades I ever participated in enjoying till late morning. It was a final ultimatum call from our friend’s mother which made us go to sleep to cover the remaining place of our planned trip.

Day 2:

We got up well in time to start the second and final day of the trip. Morning was chilly and we needed warm water for bathing. I was among the first ones to get ready. It gave me the opportunity to look around the resort in day time and also click some photos.

The gallery where we played last night was overlooking a paddy field with coffee plants in between. The view of fields and flora in the area was simply breathtaking. Once the sun came out the landscape got covered in mist and fog. Other group members were getting ready one after the other and joining in my exploration.

Near our rooms were some more lush green paddy fields. We ventured in the fields to have a good photography session. By this time the breakfast was ready and we were waiting for it to be served. After having it we got on our vehicle and started the journey for the day.

Our first destination for the day was Raja seat. It was a place where a king used to sit for the valley and sunset views. Since it was a cloudy weather due to monsoon season we did not get a good view for the distant hills. But we managed to get a good view of clouds at a level lower than where we were standing which was also good. The temperature was increasing with the day progressing.

We then went to the source of river Cauvery. The place was called as Talacauvery and also a religious place. The actual place seemed surprising as it was just a small pond and imaging that as a source for such a huge river was difficult for me to digest. Near the source was a temple with a long queue waiting for their turn to offer prayers. We also got in the queue to have darshan. Once done we went further up to find out some more small temples in a compound. We had some photographs clicked at this place. Even further up was an elephant reserve but we skipped our visit to that place.

The last place of the day and the journey was a trip to Nagarhole Wildlife Reserve. It is known to house lion, tiger and other wild animals. But to our dismay we witnessed only deer, buffaloes, and peacock. The wild animals were nowhere to be seen. This place was not much appreciated by all of us as were hoping to catch a glimpse of the wild animals.

As it was the last place to visit we started our journey back home and reached by midnight. This was a totally different experience to me with more of green beauty to be seen in the area and also the first time I was seeing it in this region.

Coorg was a green and healthy experience for me!

Ratings and Recommendations: People with following interests will have a good time at the peaceful, green place of Coorg.

• Nature
• Green environment
• Culture
• Valley views
• Tea/Coffee plantations
• Hamlet/Jungle stay

Rating: 7/10

Hampi is a place situated in the state of Karnataka in India. Visitor to this place can explore the heritage site of Vijayanagar empire which was ruled over by 4 dynasties.

It is a UNESCO protected world heritage site and is a must visit place for traveler. The sites are still intact with the intricate carvings visible and the perfectionism in the craftsmanship of those times.

I went there for a weekend and plan to visit there again to cover some of the remaining places. We were not able to see the sites in the city of Kishkinda. It is a place where you will find tourists more and local people less. The city encroachment has been kept away from these heritage sites.

The road marking are very well done and a person new to the place can easily traverse his/her path. I have written a travelogue about my journey and experiences to this place. You can find it by clicking on the image below. It is a PDF document of about 450 Kb in size.

I am a traveler and cannot resist the temptation to go explore and place and add it to my list of visited places. I also like to drain my camera batteries which is also evident from the site where I have highlighted my portfolio photos, album photos and theme based photos.

I have been lazy in not writing much about the past trips I have taken. It is probably because I get tired after sitting in front of the computer so long that I don’t feel like doing much work on it as home. But this is no excuse for not sharing the wonderful experiences I have had in my past travel journeys.

I try to make my travelogues as a guide to someone else reading them. They might seem like a trip report but I just enjoy writing them. My past journeys have taken me from India to UAE. In India the direction of places has been limited to Jammu & Kashmir to southern most tip of India, Kanyakumari. There has been no trip to eastern location and the western side has been purely professional.

The trip to UAE, mainly dubai and the other 4 emirates are worth sharing with the folks who would like to visit that country. I will be sharing that soon. I must admit with the kind of diversity that is present in India that I sometimes feel that is just impossible for a human to explore this beautiful country in entirety in one’s lifetime.

That being said I will highlight some of the places in my subsequent posts like Pondicherry, Ooty, Kodaikanal, Shimla, Hampi, Mysore, Karnataka heritage sites, Jammu and other places.

Wayanad is a small place in northern part of Kerala. It is a perfect weekend getaway as you just refresh yourself in the beautiful surroundings of ‘God’s own country’.

The trip was planned on a extended weekend for 3 days. It was an exciting one as it was the first completely unplanned trip. I was quite excited about this journey and we had a good time.

I have attached a pdf document which talks about all the journey details like transportation, stay, areas of interest and other small details.VIEW/DOWNLOAD travelogue here. It is around 320Kb so just be a little patient.

Have a fun time reading this document and make sure you plan one trip to this place. soon! I am quite confident that this document can be treated as a guide map for a traveler to Wayanad and they will have a fun time. Feel free to point out areas of improvement which I will start incorporating in my other travelogues.

A tourist map of Wayanad can be found here

I have posted a set of images from my trip to Wayanad. You can view the complete gallery HERE.

A map showing the route and distance within the city can be found at my other blog post which can be viewed HERE.