Eradane dinada MaLLeyali ChaLLyali

A lazy day pulled all of us out of our beds very late. Another rainy day in Madikeri. Our cook Raju treated us with the most delicious cuisine of Madikeri, akki kadbu with Coconut chatni. I loaded my plate with akki kadboos as much as it could hold and with so much ease each of the kadboo slide down my food pipe. Hats off to the cook who offered us such awesome breakfast. 

Talking of whom I should not forget sharing this information which Suma gave us after we returned from our trip. 

Suma writes,

I wish to share wit u ppl one information that i got to know when i was just having a casual conversation  with "Govind Raju" urf Raju - the cook, 
who treated our taste buds with all delicious foods, amoung which "Akki kadbu" is one which i liked the most. 

Well, Raju is basically serving as a president of NACO branch in Kodagu district - an organization that provides leadership to HIV/AIDS control program 
in India. 
During weekdays he involves himself in this organizational work and spends his weekends serving here( in home stay ) as a part time cook. 
The money that he and his wife earns from this part time work is being donated to the organization - where in, its being used to pay the educational fees of kids 
in this organization. 
He returned on friday night attending a meeting in Mumbai and was there in Ganga Homestay by sat morning to serve us with his food and care as well.. 

I still was very curious to know about the way he made himself into this organization, but then i somehow found tat - it might be too personal so dint dare 
to ask him any more and the conversation about NACO ended up and we started with our breakfast. 

One good thing i gotta know and made me feel happy about was - ppl in that small place are also so concerned about their responsibilities towords the society. 
Nice ppl ah..:) 

Regards
Suma S

What a worth of his life. I feel very ashamed of myself for all the damn reasons I give myself for not doing anything other than office, eating, sleeping & shit. At the end everything I am doing is just shit.

The bus drove towards Bhagamandala to reach TalaKaveri. It was raining all the more this day. Few of them who were ready to get drenched got down the bus and visited the temple. Rest of us enjoyed photo shoot near an abandoned temple. And when the rain gave a break, we reached a roadside shop for hot bhajjis. The orders finally missed our count and suhas had to take help of his smart phone to keep the numbers. If I try to recollect we had hogged 30+ bhajjis, 15 chilly bhajji, 30+ pakodas, 3 avalakki, one serving of tea, 2 buttermilk.

We started towards Dubare forest elephant camp for Rafting. On our way we stopped near a shop to buy Honey. Madikeri is famous for its spices, honey, home made chocolates and the list is actually very big. We shopped for honey, chocolates and coffee powder. 

Bus journey was filled with noise and dancing all the way. It was around 4PM when we reached Rafting spot. 18 of us, 6 each in 3 rafts with our guides. Most of us were rafting for third time so we dint spend time for rules and quickly took positions on the raft. Our guide, Giri was a localite. He was fun to be with. I don’t remember a single moment that he shut his mouth. He spoke all south Indian language ofcourse koncham koncham(Little). And I met someone after a very long time with whom I could speak in my broken coorgi. He plucked Jamun fruit(Neeralle hannu) for us, taking the raft close to the bank where these trees were plenty. We saw mango trees on our way, as expected he played pranks on us and made us sip in those really soar mangoes. We dived into the water and spent some time floating and swimming. I was too lazy to row the raft hard and just rowed superficially on the water surface. Dani & Adi did a great job. The rapids were good, surfing only showed how heavy Adi was... hee hee. The best part was the non-stop bug-bug of Giri. Our raft was the last one to complete rafting.

It was dark when we completed rafting for more than an hour. After a quick changing we started towards Hassan to drop Su and Radhika. The bus journey was even more interesting, Namratha, Divya and Manja shared their views about the group. Few more interesting stories and announcements followed. Dinner at 12AM at a dhaba and we reached Bangalore early in the morning.

MaLLeyali ChaLLiyali ... Madikeri li...

Monsoon is a always a welcome change after a hot summer. Bangalore rains ditched us this time, forcing we freaks to chill out in Coorg. The plan was to visit the recently explored Mandalpatti which I would still call Mugilpete of Gallipata Movie. Suhas & Ajay came up with this plan and a casual mail from Suhas ended up crossing over 100+ mail exchanges and finally 19 of us were there loitering around Suhas's house before leaving. This was the higgest number till date in Travel freaks's history, like any other trips this time too we had 3 freshers. Cute lil cousins of Adi that was Namratha & Divya and Manu & Dani's roomie Manja!

As always Suhas had a plan, Bhavana & Adi assisted him arranging for stay & travel resp. The bus journey troubled few of us by sending jerks at few places but nothing could disturb my sleep. I was still sleeping when we reached the homestay and I just grabbed few more hours of nap after reaching my bed. And when I woke up to look around I could feel I was trembling in that freezing cold. It was raining outside. A perfect day to sip in some nice hot coffee reading a novel lying crawled on your bed watching the rain outside. Another lazy trip by this crazy bunch of people. I loved the Homestay - Ganga. It was like cozy, private and amidst so much greenery. Great choice Bhavana.

A hot water bath gave a much needed warmth. Idly and Sambhar along with kesari bath for breakfast. Around 10:30AM our jeeps were ready to drive us to Madalpatti. All the way at every turn Manu, dani & Manja recollected their bike ride to this place a year before. They had a story behind every hump ditch, every paddy field, every mountain & every water stream that came our way. And no doubt I envied them like any other time they talk about it. Every turn jeep took, Manu would say "Che Bike irbekithu Kaili" (I wish my bike was with me) and Dani, Manja would turn back to give him a admitting smile.

It was an extremely cloudy day. Forget the view of mountains around we could hardly see things 10mts ahead. It was a disappointment but we refused to stop enjoying what was in offer for us. We climbed up the view point and enjoyed the breeze for a while. We walked up another mountain and posed for pictures jumping in air, feeling the drizzle dancing on our face and decorting our face with those tiny dews. It was already lunch time and we had animals howling for food inside our stomach. Chapathi-kurma & yumm Veg bath with raitha was stuffed in quickly near a small hotel. Sipping a hot tea in that drizzling rain on those wet roads surrounded by cloudy mountains... can any combination be better than this. I loved it totally!!!

Madikeri is a place I never get bored inspite of those n number of visits. It charms me with its great beauty and makes me one with nature so naturally.

Abbey falls, another beautiful place to visit in Madikeri. The grandeur of the falls was far below than usual due to ccanty rains. But still was a treat to enjoy watching the falls dropping down on the rocks and flow down the bridge you are standing on. Little fishes seemed dancing with the water falls. I kept watching the falls waiting and enjoying those fishes performing for us. Dani sent tremors on the bridge while dancing like those fishes. He was imitating our bollywood couples running in slow motions with the waterfalls in background.

The next few places was Gaddige. I found the below details from Internet about this place – “Gadduge is a place with tombs of Kodava royalty, court dignitaries, royal priest and the royal bulls. It is situated on a hillock with a good view of the city. The monuments are built in Indo-Sarcenic style with domes in the center and turrets at the edges. The central tomb is of Doddaveerarajendra and his queen. To the right is the tomb of Lingarajendra, built by his son Chikkaveerarajendra in A.D. 1820. To the left is the tomb of the royal priest Rudrappa, built in A.D. 1834. Nearby are buried two royal officials, Biddanda Bopu who died fighting Tipu Sultan, and his son Biddanda Somaiah.”


Omkareshwara temple which I remember this temple for its huge fish tank right in the entrance. Internet says – “In 1820 a significant building built by Lingarajendra was Omkareshwara temple. This has both Islamic and Gothic style of architecture. There is a tank in front of the temple. There is a footpath leading to a small "Mantap".  The walls of temple are decorated with intriguing paintings, including Sai Baba and Raghvendra Swamy. A huge tank situated opposite the temple is populated largely by fishes; devotees are allowed to feed them. According to the legends, the Shiva Lingam worshipped in the temple has been imported from Varanasi.”


Madikeri fort is a huge wall constructed around the meuseum, Mahathma Gandhi public library and the mercara palace. Two elephant like looking structures also take their share of place inside the fort. You can walk along this wall till the other end. The monsoon rains made this fort look grey and greens covered on those wet walls.


Raja Seat – where kings spent their evenings relaxing and enjoying a spectacular view of their kingdom. A beautiful garden treats every one making those cozy to enjoy a beautiful sunset. Rains dint let us say bye to sun, it was extremely foggy. A toy train takes you around the place giving you a better view of the city around. In a pleasant weather, it is lovely place to take a stroll in the garden enjoying the lights following the sunset.

The fun was not over, it had just started on reaching our home stay. Guys dint waste much time and settled down with their favorite drinks. Endless number of dishes decorated our dinner carpet and we almost hogged in every thing offered as soon as it was served. Dinner was late as there were bluff masters bluffing around for a long time. One after the other said good night and moved to their respective rooms to catch a nice sleep inside their warm blankets.