Pandi curry, coffee and endless green: The magic of Coorg

It was a lazy January Sunday afternoon. After an especially heavy lunch, just at the onset of a luxurious slumber, Mohit perked up: “Let’s go to Coorg next week!”

Six days later, at 5.30am on Saturday morning, four of us — my wife Shikha, her friend Anuya, Mohit (Anuya’s husband) and I — made ourselves comfortable in our Ford Figo, set up the GPS and roared off into the night.

We were on our way.

After an hour’s drive we stopped at that clichéd road trip breakfast joint — the Kamat on Mysore Road.

After tucking into just-fried vadas, onion uthappams, and dosas, we gulped down the famous Kamat filter coffee, and resumed our journey, but not before sampling a bit of heaven on a plate.

Well fed, and an open stretch of road ahead, I gunned the Figo to life. We reached and crossed Mysore in no time. And then hit a particularly long stretch of bad road, which went on for about 10km in various stages of disrepair.

At the end of this stretch, though, we had our first encounter with ‘wildlife’. An elephant, which had escaped captivity, was crossing the road — broken chain in tow.

Excited, we powered on. However, that elephant turned out to be the only animal spotting opportunity on the way.

A few stops later — for photographs, swapping drivers, coffee and a faulty GPS which wrongly took us to the hot and busy Virajpet — we were in Madikeri, the headquarters of the Coorg region (officially called Kodagu).

Sprawling coffee estates flank the roads leading up to the quaint hill town. Elegant bungalows and cozy homestays coexist in harmony along its gentle slopes.

However, admiring the natural beauty of Madikeri would have to wait. We were famished! Shikha fished out her smartphone and was soon looking up restaurants on TripAdvisor. We settled on Taste of Coorg.

It was 2.30pm by the time we got there. A little too familiar with the fuss Bangalore restaurants make when customers walk in close to the afternoon closing time, we were apprehensive as we stepped into the tiny, empty, six-table eatery.

However, those apprehensions were put to rest in little less than 10 minutes — the time it took for our food to arrive.

I ordered the ‘Black Beauty’ plate — spicy pork curry with rice. Little bits of bones aside, the food was exceptional. Mohit and Anuya tried out a chicken curry, which, too, was lip-smacking. Shikha, the vegetarian, ordered a thaali, which came with delicious akki rotis.

Meal for four: Rs 600.

Hunger pangs taken care of, we made our way to the Parijatha Homestay, our base camp for the next two days.

Our host, Krupa, suggested we visit Rajah’s Seat, one kilometre away, to soak in the sunset.

We arrived at the Rajah’s Garden with some time still left before sunset. And what better way to pass time than to take a trip on a toy train!

We bought tickets for the Baba Saheb Express (inaugurated on 11.07.1991 by H Basker, IAS, Deputy Commissioner, Kodagu), for a 10-minute ride around the park.

Ticket for one toy train ride: Rs 5
One packet of bhel to munch on: Rs 10
Capturing the sense of wonder on a child’s face: Priceless

Train ride over, we made our way to watch the star attraction of Rajah’s Seat — the sunset.

Hundreds of people, armed with selfie sticks, mobile phones, expensive DSLRs and GoPro cameras soon joined us.

We waited more than an hour for the sun to set. Mohit started a bet on when it would actually go down. (I said 6.10pm, Shikha and Anuya predicted 6.20pm, Mohit put his chips on 6.30pm — he won).

Just before the sun disappeared behind the hills, I managed this shot:

The next day, we made an early start to visit the ‘birthplace of the Cauvery River’. Talakavery is a little over 40km from Madikeri and well up in the hills.

However, despite the many u-turns, the drive is quite straightforward. Two hours in, we reached the Bhagamandala Temple, famous for its Kerala-style architecture and home to many a god.

Tip: Men wearing shorts, expect to pay Rs 10 for a lungi to cover up your offensive legs. Ladies, anything goes.

Our next stop was the sprawling Talakaveri temple complex built at the top of the Brahmagiri hill. The shorts rule applies here, too.

Having indulged in enough idle worship for the day, and with the sharp sun not helping at all, we decided to call it a day and head home.

On the way, after cooling down sufficiently (Figo AC: best in class!), we stopped at a coffee plantation we had passed earlier.

The owner, a fourth-generation planter, showed us his estate. On either side of the road were 40-year-old and 100-year-old plantations.

Interestingly, coffee estates don’t just grow coffee. We saw lemon trees, guava trees, pepper plants, and a host of other fruits.

At the end of the ‘tour’, we asked to sample their coffee.

The cost: Rs 80, for the four cups of coffee. The cost of the tour: Free!

Back in Madikeri, we decided to check out TripAdvisor’s No.1 ranked restaurant, Raintree.

Big mistake.

At first, there were no tables available. Then, to the restaurant’s credit, the waiters arranged four chairs in a corner. However, that was the only remotely pleasant experience at the hotel. The food arrived an hour after placing the order, and wasn’t quite up to the mark set by the impeccable Taste of Coorg.

Nearly faint with hunger, we gobbled the food down and left as fast as possible.

Meal for four: Rs 1,400

The disappointment of the lunch, however, was made up for by Krupa, our host, who whipped up some delicious pandi curry, chicken curry and a spicy potato concoction. And all was well with the world again.

The next morning, we packed up, checked out, and started our journey back to Bangalore — but with a couple of detours on the way.

First stop: Dubare elephant camp.

Dubare was a bitter-sweet experience. On one hand, getting up close and personal with these majestic beasts was a surreal experience. On the other hand, most of the tuskers were chained, and the mahouts would often use spikes to make them bend to their will.

Next, we drove to Nisargadhama, an island formed on the river Cauveri near Kushalnagar.

Karnataka tourism has turned this 64-acre island into an animal park of sorts, with a rabbit enclosure, a couple of raccoons, and an elephant ride enclosure. There’s even a deer park, where visitors can feed cucumbers to the animals.

Deer-feeding over, we made our way to the final stop before the long road back to Bangalore.

Hidden away, and accessible only by a narrow road off Kushalnagar, is the Namdroling Monastery, popularly called the Golden Temple, the largest teaching centre of the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism in the world.

We were told the canteen at the monastery serves authentic Tibetan food. We were hoping we could eat some awesome momos. But, alas, the canteen was closed the day we went.

And that was that. It was time to head home after an exciting two and a half days in Coorg.

On the way back, we were stuck for more than an hour at an impossibly long traffic jam that spanned the entire town of Mandya.

Tip for future reference: There’s a narrow road that bypasses Mandya.

Just before Mysore, we stopped at a nice jungle-themed restaurant. We ate typically north Indian food — naan and chicken tikka and shahi paneer.

We then drove to the other clichéd road trip pit stop on Mysore Road — the Cafe Coffee Day — before heading home after what was a truly memorable holiday.

Check out more photos from our trip:

Our routes:
Going: Bangalore-Ramanagara-Channapatna-Mandya-Mysore-Hunsur-Virajpet-Madikeri
Return: Madikeri-Dubare-Kushalnagar-Hunsur-Mysore-Mandya-Channapatna-Ramanagara-Bangalore

Round trip distance:
680km, including driving around Coorg

Cameras used
Nikon D90, with 18-105mm, 50mm and 55-300mm lenses
Samsung Galaxy Note2 camera