Memories of last year's vacations in Mysore and Coorg

Every few months, I feel like taking a break from regular office routine and go for some nice, cool holidays. I remember my school days (a boarding school in Nainital), when the school organised trips during the 3 month long winter vacations. I enjoyed all those trips to hills of Kumaon, Garhwal and the desert-like beauty of Gujarat (Jamnagar), the ever-busy life in Mumbai (yes, it is difficult to believe that people can actually go to Mumbai to enjoy their vacations).

Last year, after almost 6-7 years, I got two short holidays (1-2 days each). After marriage, I insisted on staying at home rather than go on a honeymoon trip (though I had taken a long leave from office). MY mother passed away in the same year as I got married, and I thought that it would be better to stay home for a few days after marriage (just to be with the rest of the family). My wife always complained that we never had any honeymoon (despite all my efforts to assure her that life with me would be honeymoon forever for her).

So, last year, we took 2 short breaks. A 2 days trip to Mysore (which is about 140 kms from Bangalore). It was a sudden trip, with no planning and we were extremely lucky to find a good hotel at a reasonable price. The first day of our trip was really busy because just 1 hour after checking into the hotel, the hotel manager asked us if we would like to take a half day tour of Mysore. We just hpped into the bus and took the tour. At the end of the day, when we were visiting Brindavan Gardens, we were so tired that we felt like sleeping in the garden. However, we later found out that we were lucky as compared to other people, who were touring the city right from the morning (they were dead tired). It is never a good idea to tour a whole city in one day, half day trips are better. The very next day, we visited Chamundi temple over the Chamundi hills. We were really lucky because we could have the darshan in just half an hour (it takes minimum 3-4 hours on festival days). We also visited the zoo (which is unique because of several Giraffes). We returned to Bangalore the same day evening after a tiring but good experience.

Barely 2 weeks after the Mysore trip, we again got adventurous when we heard about a 4 days continuous holidays. This time, our destination was Coorg or Ooty (we had not decided that untill we reached Mysore). I call it a really adventurous trip because we didn't bother to book hotels in advance, nor did we bother to find out the best way to reach the place. We just started from Bangalore to reach Mysore by afternoon. When we reached Mysore, we got some idea of what laid ahead of us. The place was full of cars and people (just like I had seen in Nainital when I studied there). People warned us that going to Coorg and Ooty would be a bad idea because all those people in Mysore (basically Bangaloreans, who love to crowd the tourist places during any holiday season) were heading towards these places. We decided to take a chance and go to Coorg (madikeri).

When we reached Mysore bus stand, we found out that only the red "janata" buses were available from Mysore to go to Coorg. These buses are extremely tiresome because they don't have enough cushioning in seats and give you a "earthquaky" feel while travelling. After 4 hours of shaky journey, we reached Coorg (madikeri). The real pleasure of coorg lies not in Madikeri, but while travelling on the way to the small city. There is greenary everywhere and the hill slopes with coffee estates make it really pleasant view. Once we reached Madikeri, we found out that there are no hotels available. The city looked like Mysore that we saw a few hours back - full of cars and people. We were very tired and it was around 7 in the evening. I bribed an autorickshaw driver and asked him to find a hotel for us to spend the night. Fortunately, the autorickshaw driver found a hotel for us.

At 800 rupees a day, the hotel was really a costly one (I mean, the same hotel costs 200 rupees in normal season). It wasn't a decent hotel but we had to spend a night there and we thought let's do it somehow. Next morning, we started sight-seeing. The first place was Abbey falls. It is a few kilometers from Madikeri town and autorickshaw drivers can oblige you for 100 rupees or so. THat was a really beautiful place (with a big waterfall). Once we came back from there, we proceeded towards Madikeri fort. It must have been grand at some point of time but now hosts a small museum and government houses and offices. We decided to use the time till night to visit Kushalnagar (which is on way to Mysore). A few kilometers from Kushalnagar, is the "Golden Temple", which is basically a buddhist monestry. It stands out like a lotus in muddy waters. Very beautiful, very buddhist.

After visiting these places, we returned to our hotel in Madikeri. We took the last bus to Bangalore at around 11 in the night and reached Bangalore at 6 AM in the morning. It was a tiring but adventurous trip. However, it also gave us one valuable lesson - don't go to any tourist destination (especially during holiday season) without advance hotel bookings etc. We somehow managed to enjoy but we could have suffered also.