Coorg - The Coffee Land

As we landed in Benagaluru, first and foremost thing that I did was to have Bengaluru Coffee!! I just love this decoction coffee since the time I spent an year in Bengaluru (then was called Bangalore) about 15 years back! Obviously this was accompanied with Dosa and Kara Bath (also known as Upama). 

On way to Coorg

Once breakfast was done, we started our journey towards Coorg - our first stop in this trip. Weather was beautiful. Even though it was mid-may, the cloudy weather made the travel very enjoyable. Our vehicle driver, who was hired through South Tourism, seemed to have no clue about way to Coorg. Later he told that it was his first trip in Karnataka and he had usually been Kerala circuit, rather than Karnataka. Although we were digressed for about 20 KM, we were enjoying the journey. Mrunmay and I played our favorite word game i.e. Related Words. It is a very simple game, it helps one to think a word related to the word said by other player. At times, it gives good insight into what kids think. In our last trip to Bandipur, I started playing this game with Mrunmay, that's about year back. On one occasion, I said "Doctor" and he immediately said "waiting". This was because, we usually have to wait at our Doctor's clinic and that's what struck Mrunmay at the first instance of word "Doctor". 

By the time, we recovered from the lost path and got onto right road, it was about time for lunch. And we saw Kamat!! Hoping to have good Dosa / Uttappam, we stopped their, only to realize that these items are really not meal items in South. They are breakfast and Snack items and usually you need have Thali or North Indian food for the meals. Given Mrunmay's hesitation to try new food items, we had to settle down on North Indian restaurant nearby. But we resolved to have as much as South Indian food as possible during the trip. 

Farmers working in their farm

Beauty of Coconut and Supari Tree

With some drizzle on the way, we reached Coorg district around 3 PM and entered the beautiful estate of Amanavana Spa. This is a beautiful place with facilities such as playing ground, indoor games, amphitheater, swimming pool and yeah - mini-golf too. As soon as we noticed the mini-golf, how could we stop ourselves. This "elite" game had to be tried, even if it was just mini-golf.

Nothing was planned for site-seeing on that day, so we spent time relaxing and finding out what all is available around. It looked like the resort had facility for bird watching guided tour, Coffee Plantation Tour and a trek across Kauveri River etc. We hoped that our tour operator had accounted for these items in our site seeing, but alas! There simply was no homework done by our tour operators team and we realized it all through the trip. 

Open to Sky Bathroom at Amanavana

Next day morning we headed towards "Dubare Elephant Camp" which was close to our resort. But our driver did it again! He just took us almost 10 KM farther from the diversion to be taken for Dubare Elephant Camp. We should have reached the camp at about 10 and ended up reaching their by 11:15 AM. 

Dubare Elephant Camp is on the other side of River Kaveri and one needs to cross the river using the rowing boats. Once you cross the river, you can see Elephant bathing, Elephant feeding, can have an Elephant Ride. Given the delay in reaching there and huge crowd waiting for the ride, we had to cancel the Coffee Plantation Tour and after having the Elephant ride, we simply returned to the resort. Other sight seeing points in Coorg were pretty far off from the resort and it didn't make sense to drive with a driver who didn't know the place. So ended up spending rest of the evening in enjoying the quiet surroundings. 

Some Snaps from Amanavana

Next day we were to head to Waynad - the ultimate Honeymoon Destination!!