"Quiet escape to Coorg" - Infosys, Mysore Diaries - #BlogChatterA2Z

 After successful completion of the “POJO” module, we were all getting ready to leave the classroom when Arjun signaled Myra and me to stay back. We were curious to know why. 

After everybody left the classroom, Arjun said to us, “The next module starts on Monday and we have this weekend off. Let’s plan something for the weekend? We can do some research here, book tickets, and then leave for the day. Don’t want too many people joining us in case we don’t get tickets.”

“Good idea. How about we visit a tourist location nearby? “, I said immediately.

“Let’s check for some places nearby”, Myra said and switched on her computer. In about a minute, we had a list on the internet and one of the places suggested was Coorg. I’d heard a lot about this place through my grandfather and I was excited to visit this place. Myra and Arjun were okay with Coorg and we started reading more about this place. 

Suddenly Anusha entered our classroom and I shouted without thinking, “We are going to Coorg”. 

Arjun looked furious. He had a thing about going on trips with too many girls and all the chatter.

“Oh really. Can I join?”, Anusha said. 

“Sure”, Myra replied ignoring Arjun.

She joined us and we started looking at tickets, hotel, travel, etc. We were lucky to find tickets at the last minute. But it was just for 5 people. 

“Should we book?”, I asked them.

“Can we ask Swati? I always hang out with her.”, Anusha asked. 

“Okay, but please don’t tell anybody else. We don’t have tickets and it’ll be rude to deny.”, I said. 

We booked the tickets and made all the reservations. That afternoon during lunch, when college friends were discussing plans for the weekend, we stayed mum. We had booked a mini-van and were to leave that evening. 

At about 6PM, we were in the mini-van having spent the entire afternoon dodging people, calls, and questions. 

Finally, when the car left the campus, all the girls shrieked in relief. Arjun, who sat beside the driver, hushed us and seemed extremely irritated. 

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In about 3 hours or so, we reached a hotel in Madikeri, a place in Coorg, and halted for the night.

The next morning, we woke up early to visit a place called “Raja’s Seat”, which was predominantly a garden with beautiful flowering plants but also had a breathtaking view. This garden was supposedly the favorite place to relax and rejuvenate for the Kings who ruled Coorg. 

Watching the sunrise from this place was so special and we all enjoyed the peace and calm of the place. 

After a quick breakfast on the way, we visited the Madikeri Fort which was built in the seventeenth century by a local ruler and later captured and restructured by Tipu Sultan. The fort had an old-world charm to it and we all admired the simplicity of the place.

We then had a hurried lunch and started to a place called Namdroling Monastery (also known as the golden temple), located about an hour away. We were most interested in visiting this place because of its popular Tibetan Buddhist architecture. 

On entering the huge entrance that had Dalai Lama’s portrait on it, there was a lot of open space and greenery around. A huge temple stood in front of us. 

We saw monks in traditional attire, entering the temple. We followed them, entered the large temple, and were surprised by the high ceilings and huge Buddha statues. The Buddha statues were gold in color and the artwork was very detailed. The whole place was glowing because of all the colors. 

We stayed a few minutes within the temple and headed out. We sat for a few minutes outside the temple, the whole place had serene vibes to it and we were awestruck by the architecture of the place. 

We left the place in some time and went back to our hotel. After a good night’s rest, the next day morning, we visited Talakaveri. This place was the source of the Kaveri river and a small tank had been erected at the origin. The place also had a famous temple dedicated to Goddess Kaveramma. 

After checking out the tank and visiting the temple, we quickly visited the coffee plantations of Coorg. The place had acres and acres of green meadows full of coffee, tea, and spice plantations.  We had Coorg special coffee there which was amazing and also took many pictures in the meadows. 

It was almost 3 PM, we had a late lunch and started back to the campus. 

This was a hurried trip but it was definitely a success with such last-minute planning. We sure had big smiles on our way back. 

-- To be continued

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.