Chikmagalur beckons

Mostly famous for its coffee (for the uninitiated, Cafe Coffee day, the famous and ubiquitous chain of coffee bars all over India is from Chikmagalur) and the Bhadra wildlife reserve, Chikmagalur (260 kms from Bangalore) was our destination for 6,7,8 and 9th of this month. I had heard of  a resort nearby (which we figured later that it was not so nearby afterall) which had a couple of treehouses for its guests. Wow! I’ve always wanted to stay in one. So off we went. Nice long drive with a lot of scenic places on the way. This place is about 50 kms from Chikmagalur and it has bad roads leading to it. So we took a good 1.5 hours from Chikmagalur to reach the destination. But it was quite worth it! The place was in the middle of nowhere…surrounded by the forests (Muthodi and Bhadra). It was actually a coffee estate amidst which they have built a huge resort. Thankfully it’s not very commercial and still retains an old world charm. The best part was when we landed there we were the only guests in the resort! Not that it would have mattered since the tree house was a little away from the cottages and I’d doubt anyone would have even heard us there (and vice versa) had we been screaming for help!!

God’s own country

Always brings to mind a houseboat ambling along in pristine backwaters. But wait, there is more to Kerala than only backwaters. There’s Wayanad. One of the most gifted districts of Kerala. Beautiful mountains, green tea estates and nice weather. We were in Wayanad for 3 nights during the Diwali festival last month. The big difference this time was that we did not have any bookings. It’s a 3 hour journey from Mysore (about 2.5 hrs form Blore to Mysore). We left rather late that morning (we got up late ‘coz we’d slept late and had to pack in the monrning!) and took some leisurely breaks on the way. That’s the best part, enjoying the journey as much as the destination. What’s the point of driving when you don’t stop to spot birds on the way, take some pictures of the lush green paddy fields, drink tender coconut from the roadside seller…

 We finally reached Wayanad (Muthunga wild life santuary, which is an extension of Bandipur). Stopped at Sultan Bathery to check on some hotels, no availability. Then we went to Kalpetta (the district hq of Wayanad) and looked around…most hotels booked…which was actually good fo rus, ‘coz we were not too interested in staying at an ordinary hotel. We asked around for home stays, check out a few and didn’t like them, they were just an extension of a hotel. Wayanad is filled with homestays. In fact every house turns into a homestay if required. It’s not an exclusive home-in-an-estate concept anymore. Houses on bustling main roads are homestays!! Thankfully for us, a friend with us knew Malayalam and he spoke to a couple of guys we me and found a decent homestay for the night. We’d pretty much neared the end of the day by then and we all just wanted to crash out. The place was quite reasonable, clean and food was good. This was further from Kalpetta in a town called Meppady.