R&R during Monsoons
Every time we have come back from a trip, I want to write about it and become so held up with other stuff that it gets relegated to the backend and slowly forgotten too. The other day, I was going through some draft posts and saw a half written post from 2005 about a trip to Mysore with in-laws. It brought back such delightful memories, so this time I decided that come what may I will finish this blog.
This trip was totally different from the trips that we usually have - where the focus is on getting the most out of the place that we are visiting. But this time there was only one thing on mind - I wanted to put my feet up and leave it there for the next 2 days while I am being fed food cooked by somebody else, without having to worry about cleaning the dishes or cleaning the house ... and we did get that sort of a vacation!!! And some bonus features too :)
After a round of debating on where to go, we dropped the pin on Chickmagaluru. Mr. jumped in to do his favourite activity of vetting out the hotels and landed on the most amazing homestay I have stayed in - Nirvana Kutira. Then when he floated the idea with a friend of his and at work, 2 colleagues of his agreed and thus the deal of the vacation was sealed.
As always, the Mr. proposed to start at sharp 5 and set up his alarm for 5:30 😆, while the sati-savitri in me woke up at 5, got ready and woke him up with a steaming cuppa coffee in bed.. I was so charged up for the vacation. We started at 6 with a light drizzle following us all through our initial journey. After a really awesome breakfast followed by deliciously bitter coffee at Swati delicacy , we got a brilliant brain wave of visiting the Hoysala temple at Halebidu, as it was just a short detour. En Route we stopped at our usual favourites - a swing on the banyan trees and photo shoot admist corn fields.
The temple in Halebeedu is maintained very neat and is very beautiful. I simply loved the architectural beauty of the walls and pillars - the intricate designs on the statues - all carved in stone ...Though I was puzzled why somebody would carve the roofs also - with so much painstaking effort when most people dont even lift up their heads and notice it.
We got some really lovely pictures taken here. Off we got on our way to our destination.
The homestay is a few minutes away from the Chickmagaluru town. Just after leaving the town, we crossed a lovely cafe called 'Siri's Cafe' where there was a beautiful woman's statue (lying on her hand) carved out of mud and stone I think. It is so tastefully done, that the entire woman's body is covered with different types of grass, thus giving different shades of clothing. The artist has even created accessories for her - two hanging pots form her ear rings and one pot of flowers acts as her ring. The expression on the lady's face is that of absolutely serenity.
Immediately after the left that takes you to Sithalayangiri and Mullayanagiri mountains, is the entrance road to Nirvana Kutira - which was indeed our "Nirvana" destination. It is a quaint little resort with just 4 cottages - one main building that hosts the dining hall, kitchen and two rooms on the top(which I never got a chance to inspect too). These living areas are separated by concrete pathways that are lined with the most beautiful flowering plants. One of the rooms has a small white picket fence bordering it and a tastefully planted bluebells creeper falling over it - the whole place was amazingly picturesque.
I dont know what to pick the best part of the homestay - its nature abundant ambience, the most awesome home cooked veg food, the courteous and helpful owners and staff or the just rightfully furnished rooms. And us par yeh mausam - hai hai - Kya baat thi!!
After having been on so many trips, one comes to realize that on a trip which is less adventurous and more relaxing , one of the most important ingredient is food. And this place beats the other places I have been to by aces in that department. While the variety is not spectacularly large, each and every dish is made with so much love that you find it difficult to even justify the small variety that they have - because your are confused - kis cheez ka tenth helping loo? and the best part is even if you over-eat, the next step your stomach is not going to complain - since there are no masala and oily stuff.
The first afternoon we spent inside the room, sleeping off the fatigue of our drive and snuggling into warm blankets befitting the cool rain fed weather outside.
We woke up to an awesome Tea/Coffee (i forgot how many cups of coffee i drank every time they served it) and a plate of hot hot mirchi bajji. While the kids were busy playing among themselves with some games we had brought along with us and the carrom - that was provided by the place, we adults started some ice breaking conversations. When we realized it was darkening, we asked them to light the bonfire and moved out to the outdoors and were entertained with some good performances of songs and dances by children and adults alike. When it started to drizzle, we moved indoors again. Before dinner, started the saga of pictionary - which was the highlight of the weekend. The adults game of pictionary became so loud and interesting that the kids could not resist and barged into our game, demanding to be a part the next night.
After a lovely dinner and rounds of pictionary and loads and loads of laughter we all were thrown out of the dinning area by the helpers in the homestay and we reluctantly retired to our cosy rooms, with a plan to trek to Mullayangiri the next morning.
The next morning dawned, dark and cloudy and pouring. Still nothing deterred the spirits of the brave trekkers who tucked in a super brilliant breakfast and drove over to Sithalayangiri mountain. The saddest part of India is just how much lobbying is done to not make attraction spots more reachable, clean and organized. The road leading to the mountain top is hardly a strip and it has two way traffic which often gets blocked because there is hardly place for two vehicles to pass. There are no railings on the side opening to the valley and it is very difficult for the driver to judge if you are going to plunge into the depths of death due to one small pass. The Mr. had to get out of the car many a times to guide me to ensure I dont kill us all but still maneuver the car safely on the road when we got blocked due to an oncoming vehicle.
When we reached the top, the chaos to park the vehicle, though anticipated, was so annoying. It feels like what the hell is the governance body doing ???? People spend so much money coming for a vacation and still everything has to be made a pain ? Luckily we 3 managed to snag some really good parking spots.
After much questioning folks on where the trekking path is - because all around us people were just scrambling about and we had no clue which direction we had to walk - or to be precise what is it that we were trekking towards or to be even more clear - what had to be done there .. we got some information from the hawkers selling grapefuit and bhutta on where to walk. We climbed over a mountain with nearly zero visibility to reach a top - from where we could see few folks climb down a steep path that was not even seen. Then we realized that is not something we can do with the kids and came down to figure out that there was an alternative route to trek - which was walking on the tarred roads. So, began the long walk to the highest peak in Karnataka. The roads are pretty nice -and I am sure so would be the views - had it not been pelting rain and fog all around us. As we reached the top nearly one and half hours later - must say that the kids did put up an awesome show of not even cribbing a single time - the wind was blowing at the maximum. I had to hold on to the girls for the fear that they would fly away.
It was a blessed sight to find two vehicles parked at the top selling tea and mirchi bajjis - what a balm it was to us wind-blown and rain soaked souls. Nothing like typical snacks to fuel the energy to climb the 410 odd steps upto the temple on top of the mountain. While kids munched on Soya sticks, we adults quickly disposed off the 2,3,4 (i stopped counting) packets of bajjis and gathered our forces again to do a steep climb on the steps to the temple. The steps were more in number, the wind terribly strong , the rain unrelenting and visibility not more than 10 steps ahead - but we still marched on encouraging and pulling each other to reach the top and what an exhilarating moment it was!! After taking the customary pictures we decided to skip the visit to the temple as we were beyond exhausted and drenched to even open our shoes and socks. The journey back needed more motivation than the way up because it was tough trying to make 4 exhausted little ones walk on their own.
When we arrived back at the homestay, boy! where we glad to be rid of all the wet clothes and shoes and sink into the comfy dining chairs and eat a hot and tasty meal. Then guess what came next ? Absolutely right - zzzzzzz..... ah! the monsoon and comfy beds ... what else does one need? Woke up to the most aromatic and tastiest coffee - we were hoping for bajjis too but were told that they were served only on the day that we arrived. And then settled down for Round #2 of gup-chup followed by pictionary and dumb-charades ... What a ruckus we created !! It was just as well that there were no other families staying over that night. Finally after dinner, the helpers cleaned up and they could no longer wait back and came and politely asked us to leave the place :) ....
I went back to bed with a big smile of having had a very very lovely weekend. It was really a R&R weekend - thanks to the good food, lovely homestay and the jovial company.
The next morning, we packed our stuff in the car and stopped by at Souza Bakery to take a part of chikmagalur in the form of the tasty bread and plum cakes .. Stopped at Swati Delicacies for a lovely lunch on the way back and said our byes to come back to "Home Sweet Home"....
This trip was totally different from the trips that we usually have - where the focus is on getting the most out of the place that we are visiting. But this time there was only one thing on mind - I wanted to put my feet up and leave it there for the next 2 days while I am being fed food cooked by somebody else, without having to worry about cleaning the dishes or cleaning the house ... and we did get that sort of a vacation!!! And some bonus features too :)
After a round of debating on where to go, we dropped the pin on Chickmagaluru. Mr. jumped in to do his favourite activity of vetting out the hotels and landed on the most amazing homestay I have stayed in - Nirvana Kutira. Then when he floated the idea with a friend of his and at work, 2 colleagues of his agreed and thus the deal of the vacation was sealed.
As always, the Mr. proposed to start at sharp 5 and set up his alarm for 5:30 😆, while the sati-savitri in me woke up at 5, got ready and woke him up with a steaming cuppa coffee in bed.. I was so charged up for the vacation. We started at 6 with a light drizzle following us all through our initial journey. After a really awesome breakfast followed by deliciously bitter coffee at Swati delicacy , we got a brilliant brain wave of visiting the Hoysala temple at Halebidu, as it was just a short detour. En Route we stopped at our usual favourites - a swing on the banyan trees and photo shoot admist corn fields.
The temple in Halebeedu is maintained very neat and is very beautiful. I simply loved the architectural beauty of the walls and pillars - the intricate designs on the statues - all carved in stone ...Though I was puzzled why somebody would carve the roofs also - with so much painstaking effort when most people dont even lift up their heads and notice it.
We got some really lovely pictures taken here. Off we got on our way to our destination.
The homestay is a few minutes away from the Chickmagaluru town. Just after leaving the town, we crossed a lovely cafe called 'Siri's Cafe' where there was a beautiful woman's statue (lying on her hand) carved out of mud and stone I think. It is so tastefully done, that the entire woman's body is covered with different types of grass, thus giving different shades of clothing. The artist has even created accessories for her - two hanging pots form her ear rings and one pot of flowers acts as her ring. The expression on the lady's face is that of absolutely serenity.
Immediately after the left that takes you to Sithalayangiri and Mullayanagiri mountains, is the entrance road to Nirvana Kutira - which was indeed our "Nirvana" destination. It is a quaint little resort with just 4 cottages - one main building that hosts the dining hall, kitchen and two rooms on the top(which I never got a chance to inspect too). These living areas are separated by concrete pathways that are lined with the most beautiful flowering plants. One of the rooms has a small white picket fence bordering it and a tastefully planted bluebells creeper falling over it - the whole place was amazingly picturesque.
I dont know what to pick the best part of the homestay - its nature abundant ambience, the most awesome home cooked veg food, the courteous and helpful owners and staff or the just rightfully furnished rooms. And us par yeh mausam - hai hai - Kya baat thi!!
After having been on so many trips, one comes to realize that on a trip which is less adventurous and more relaxing , one of the most important ingredient is food. And this place beats the other places I have been to by aces in that department. While the variety is not spectacularly large, each and every dish is made with so much love that you find it difficult to even justify the small variety that they have - because your are confused - kis cheez ka tenth helping loo? and the best part is even if you over-eat, the next step your stomach is not going to complain - since there are no masala and oily stuff.
The first afternoon we spent inside the room, sleeping off the fatigue of our drive and snuggling into warm blankets befitting the cool rain fed weather outside.
We woke up to an awesome Tea/Coffee (i forgot how many cups of coffee i drank every time they served it) and a plate of hot hot mirchi bajji. While the kids were busy playing among themselves with some games we had brought along with us and the carrom - that was provided by the place, we adults started some ice breaking conversations. When we realized it was darkening, we asked them to light the bonfire and moved out to the outdoors and were entertained with some good performances of songs and dances by children and adults alike. When it started to drizzle, we moved indoors again. Before dinner, started the saga of pictionary - which was the highlight of the weekend. The adults game of pictionary became so loud and interesting that the kids could not resist and barged into our game, demanding to be a part the next night.
After a lovely dinner and rounds of pictionary and loads and loads of laughter we all were thrown out of the dinning area by the helpers in the homestay and we reluctantly retired to our cosy rooms, with a plan to trek to Mullayangiri the next morning.
The next morning dawned, dark and cloudy and pouring. Still nothing deterred the spirits of the brave trekkers who tucked in a super brilliant breakfast and drove over to Sithalayangiri mountain. The saddest part of India is just how much lobbying is done to not make attraction spots more reachable, clean and organized. The road leading to the mountain top is hardly a strip and it has two way traffic which often gets blocked because there is hardly place for two vehicles to pass. There are no railings on the side opening to the valley and it is very difficult for the driver to judge if you are going to plunge into the depths of death due to one small pass. The Mr. had to get out of the car many a times to guide me to ensure I dont kill us all but still maneuver the car safely on the road when we got blocked due to an oncoming vehicle.
When we reached the top, the chaos to park the vehicle, though anticipated, was so annoying. It feels like what the hell is the governance body doing ???? People spend so much money coming for a vacation and still everything has to be made a pain ? Luckily we 3 managed to snag some really good parking spots.
After much questioning folks on where the trekking path is - because all around us people were just scrambling about and we had no clue which direction we had to walk - or to be precise what is it that we were trekking towards or to be even more clear - what had to be done there .. we got some information from the hawkers selling grapefuit and bhutta on where to walk. We climbed over a mountain with nearly zero visibility to reach a top - from where we could see few folks climb down a steep path that was not even seen. Then we realized that is not something we can do with the kids and came down to figure out that there was an alternative route to trek - which was walking on the tarred roads. So, began the long walk to the highest peak in Karnataka. The roads are pretty nice -and I am sure so would be the views - had it not been pelting rain and fog all around us. As we reached the top nearly one and half hours later - must say that the kids did put up an awesome show of not even cribbing a single time - the wind was blowing at the maximum. I had to hold on to the girls for the fear that they would fly away.
It was a blessed sight to find two vehicles parked at the top selling tea and mirchi bajjis - what a balm it was to us wind-blown and rain soaked souls. Nothing like typical snacks to fuel the energy to climb the 410 odd steps upto the temple on top of the mountain. While kids munched on Soya sticks, we adults quickly disposed off the 2,3,4 (i stopped counting) packets of bajjis and gathered our forces again to do a steep climb on the steps to the temple. The steps were more in number, the wind terribly strong , the rain unrelenting and visibility not more than 10 steps ahead - but we still marched on encouraging and pulling each other to reach the top and what an exhilarating moment it was!! After taking the customary pictures we decided to skip the visit to the temple as we were beyond exhausted and drenched to even open our shoes and socks. The journey back needed more motivation than the way up because it was tough trying to make 4 exhausted little ones walk on their own.
When we arrived back at the homestay, boy! where we glad to be rid of all the wet clothes and shoes and sink into the comfy dining chairs and eat a hot and tasty meal. Then guess what came next ? Absolutely right - zzzzzzz..... ah! the monsoon and comfy beds ... what else does one need? Woke up to the most aromatic and tastiest coffee - we were hoping for bajjis too but were told that they were served only on the day that we arrived. And then settled down for Round #2 of gup-chup followed by pictionary and dumb-charades ... What a ruckus we created !! It was just as well that there were no other families staying over that night. Finally after dinner, the helpers cleaned up and they could no longer wait back and came and politely asked us to leave the place :) ....
I went back to bed with a big smile of having had a very very lovely weekend. It was really a R&R weekend - thanks to the good food, lovely homestay and the jovial company.
The next morning, we packed our stuff in the car and stopped by at Souza Bakery to take a part of chikmagalur in the form of the tasty bread and plum cakes .. Stopped at Swati Delicacies for a lovely lunch on the way back and said our byes to come back to "Home Sweet Home"....
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