10 Things To Do In Coorg - Reason 7

Slicing plantain & Shooting Coconut

A gun without license or a well stocked bar without permission at a wedding ceremony are things that you won't find anywhere in India but in Coorg. Now that is not the only reason for heading towards the coffee country. The Kodava land is rich in tradition and there is no dearth of celebration be it the hockey festival or a Kodava wedding. The life of a Kodava has to be experienced at least once in a lifetime by being part of their festivities.

At Kodava weddings, thick plantain stems are chopped with the Kodava sword to show the strength and swiftness of the eligible groom. During the harvest of rice, Kodavas celebrate with Pandi Curry and Kadumbuttu after a shooting competition where men and women try they hands at shooting coconut tied high up on the tree. The festival of harvest on the full moon is celebrated all over Coorg with good food, music, drinks and dance. The best part of the Coorg wedding for me is the drinks and the amazing food in the company of tales from Coorg.

Apart from these, there are many games, sports, customs and traditions filled with fun and interesting stories associated with them to force you to come back and experience Coorg.

Lets Celebrate Coorg..

To Be Continued...

10 Things To Do In Coorg - Reason 6

Good Night at a Coorg Bungalow

If you love to sleep, then you should have a nap in a century old Coorg bungalow. The Mangalore tiled roof, wooden works, the red oxide flooring, silence all around, a huge cozy bed with a thick blanket blends together with the chilled climate of Coorg like heaven. All this makes way for a sound sleep experience which you so badly crave for in the hustle bustle of city life.

 
I sometimes go there just to cuddle up inside the blanket on a soft bed and sleep without unwanted thoughts crossing my mind, to sleep with the ever flowing cool breeze passing through the window, to sleep with the sound of the rain drops and smell of the moist earth, to sleep like I have never slept for years and only to wake up in the morning to the sound of birds and a hot cup of coffee.

But don't just sleep, the antiques and artifacts inside and around the bungalow are worth a look and may give you interesting ideas for setting up your home. Also don't forget to hear the stories about the bungalow from the ever cheerful hosts. Its a great way to spend time in front of the bungalow with a glass of single malt and the warmth of the camp fire under the starry night.

A Travelers Nightmare

I believe travel is man’s best teacher. The different ways of life and the experiences you gain through travel are lessons that no teacher or institute can impart. Travel has taught me how to face the world by overcoming my weaknesses; it has taught me that nothing can stop you from doing something you are truly passionate about. If you are wondering what I am talking about, then here is a confession in the form of a short story,

I was scared and tensed and the sleep that everyone was enjoying at this hour had eluded me. I woke up and walked down to the fridge to drink some cold water. After drinking some water I splashed some on my face as I was sweating profusely. Walking back to the bed I had only one thought at the back of my mind, ‘The dreadful tomorrow should never see sunlight’. 

Once I was back on my bed, my eyes fell on the wall clock and with every passing minute my

Heart started beating faster. I was lost in time when my father called out "Abhi... Abhi... Wake up get ready". All hell broke loose and I started questioning myself, should I say I have a headache? Should I start crying? Should I lock myself in the bathroom? What do I do now?

When I entered the bathroom, locked it and sat down below the shower thinking what to do next, a gush of cold water from the shower above jostled out of my mind the terrible thoughts I had in there. All of a sudden I started feeling good, the image of the crystal clear water flowing down from the huge rocks and hitting me with all its force floated across my mind. Chirping of the numerous birds echoed in my ears, the images of a thousand colorful butterflies flying around passed in front of my eyes, the joy of walking through the cool damp green wood excited me, a drink of chilled water from the crystal clear streams quenched my thirst and the satisfying nap under the large tree in the cool breeze relaxed me. 

With these beautiful frames in mind I ran out of the bathroom straight to my father and said "Papa, I will go for the school trip".

He gave a confused look and said "What?", then continued in his normal tone "Of course you are going. Who said you are not going? And why do you think I woke you up so early in the morning? To play in water with those clothes on and dirty the whole house?”

I looked down to find myself fully drenched, then looked up and smiled sheepishly, I ran to the bathroom to get ready.

Under the new found excitement of going for the school trip to a nearby waterfall the fear that was haunting me the last night started creeping in again. But I decided not to let that fear of 'Motion sickness' get in my way now. I had to face my classmates in case of any embarrassing situation of nausea and vomiting due to motion sickness, but I made up my mind to go out and enjoy and never let myself fall motion sick.        

Gathering all the courage I went out for the trip and I puked too, but I enjoyed the trip thoroughly. None of my friends made fun of me as I had initially assumed, but rather they helped me get over it. Believe it or not I was not alone I had a lot of (motion sick) company, mostly small ones and some big ones too.

After this experience, I got over the problem of motion sickness from which I severely suffered. I have been on many trips after that with friends, family, strangers and sometimes alone but I have never thrown up since the last 18 years and believe me that is quite an achievement for people suffering from Kinetosis.             

 

This article may seem silly to many, but the ones who suffer from it and have been through the fear of facing such embarrassing situation in their childhood will understand the pain of the spoilsport called 'Travel sickness', more commonly known as Motion Sickness.

For your information, especially those who are more technically inclined this happens due to a disagreement between visually perceived movement and the vestibular system's sense of movement. I am not here to analyze or dissect the cause of motion sickness but just to suggest some ways to overcome this problem which hampers one of the most beautiful parts of our existence on Earth 'Travel'.

The following points are based on my personal experiences and that is what travel teaches you at every turn you take,

1. The advantage of being motion sick is you get the window seat, but don't miss the opportunity of gazing out of the window in the direction of motion which helps in avoiding the nausea.  

2. Always sit facing the direction of travel.

3. Keep chewing a gum, saunf (fennel), cardamom, clove or dried ginger.

4. Sometimes the smell of diesel/engine/perfume increases the feeling of nausea. Smelling a lime occasionally or getting some fresh air (not switching on AC) really helps.

5. Keep yourself busy with activities like some interesting discussion, games like Antakshari or dumb charades. This helps in diverting your mind from the feeling of motion sickness. However, my personal favorite is to take a good nap.

6. This point is for others who do not suffer from motion sickness but have the privilege of traveling with the ones who have a better functional vestibular system. Do not disturb us and please cooperate by sacrificing the window seat. Let us do what we wish to do without interference.

7. Do not try to read books, operate laptop or browse through mobile phones it will only aggravate the problem.

8. Lastly, before following the above listed points, it is very essential to believe in oneself and be mentally strong to overcome this problem by ignoring the thought of it at the sub-conscious level. Only when you don’t let the thought of motion sickness creep into your mind on boarding the vehicle the above listed suggestions will work.

 

Remember, it is all in our minds and it is left to us how we tackle this problem to enjoy what we always love to do... 'Travel'

Note: This is an Eco-friendly solution for motion sickness as it reduces the usage of plastic bags.

Go Green Go Places...     

10 Things To Do In Coorg - Reason 5

5. Seven Beans

CCD, Barista, Java city, Gloria Jeans, Starbuck, Strong, Filter, Drip, Chicory, Meter - do these words trigger your olfactory senses?

Yes, the refreshing smell of Coffee indeed.

Just imagine, waking up early on a cold morning, walking down the misty trails of a coffee estate filled with bird calls, the morning dew still fresh on those ripe coffee beans and suddenly lit by the golden rays of the rising sun.

After the long walk, a hot cup of coffee, an unfinished book and a view of the dense fog flowing across the lush green hills is all that is needed to fall in love with the place.

You can take a coffee estate tour to know what is Arabica, Robusta and what percentage of it with Chicory makes a good coffee and also know about the spices grown there. You may also come across the world's most expensive coffee, Kopu Luwak or bump into its manufacturer the civet cat.

Filter coffee is also known as drip coffee which is prepared from the decoction obtained by slow dripping/filtering of freshly ground coffee beans. Meter coffee is named so because of the way the coffee is poured into the glass from almost a meter high to mix it well.

To be continued...

10 Things To Do In Coorg - Reason 4

4. Morning Coffee with the Big Bang

Passing through the coffee estates, enjoying the lush green paddy fields, we entered the mysterious green estates in the company of a continuous drizzle and the scattered streaks of sunlight which lit the raindrops like precious glittering stones embedded on a beautiful green handicraft with splashes of bright red, orange, and yellow colors of the freshly blossomed flowers.


Walking down a few hundred meters all tired we were refreshed by the sight of cold water and the feeling of entering into it with the adventure that was to follow.

After some safety precautions and fun lessons we were ready to go, geared up with the life jacket (swimming not mandatory), head gear and the oar, we faced our first rapid Morning Coffee (level-2) which was not strong enough compared to the expectations prior to our lessons. Then came the Grasshopper (level-3), Ramba Samba (level-2), the Wicked Witch (level-3), finally the Big Bang(level-4) which made up an experience of Coorg much more exciting.

At the end of the flow on Barpole from morning coffee to big bang, we enjoyed the ride all throughout with the amazing Coorg climate, light drizzle, greenery and the rapids. 

Apart from sipping coffee and lazing around, go ahead and experience the flow through the estates..

To be continued...

10 Things To Do In Coorg - Reason 3

3. The Winged Beauties

She passed by and he followed, she returned back and he followed, both sat close to each other, and he whistled naughtily to which she responded with a shrill cry as if to alarm the whole world. When these hill mynas were busy creating quite a ruckus high up the canopy a flock of rose ringed parakeets flew above my head and landed on a nearby chickoo tree. As I moved silently towards the chickoo tree the rose ringed green beauties flew away, when I was sitting below the tree disappointed at not getting a closer look, I heard someone knocking and looked around only to find a flame backed woodpecker making hole in a silver wood tree looking for a meal. Disturbed by a noisy family of jungle babblers the flame back went in search of a quite place and as I tried to follow it in vain I heard someone whistling beautifully. Totally carried away by the melodious tone and curious about who is passing his time whistling in a wooded unkempt area of the estate I walked towards the source of the whistle. Finding nobody around I turned to trace back my path he whistled again, I turned around and found a amazingly beautiful striking blue (sorry the color cannot be described in words) bird, the malabar whistling thrush was the culprit.

Bird watching tops my list of reasons for heading towards Coorg. It needs patience, eyes all around, ears wide open and many a times a lot of perseverance to sit at one place motionless for hours.

Its much more exciting and interesting than the commercial street type of birdwatching, believe me and try it out folks.

To be continued...

10 Things To Do In Coorg - Reason 2

 2. The Creatures of the Snake's Stream
 
As we crossed the check post at around 10.30 AM, we asked our driver to drive slowly inside the park and we started looking around for the creatures of the jungle. On reaching the Murkal Elephant Camp Gouri asked the driver to stop for sometime as she wanted to click a few images of the camp elephants. I think the frustration of not even finding a single chital on the way made her do so. After clicking a few images of the camp elephants we moved ahead when Chimpu sitting next to the driver turns around and asked, "Are there any tigers in this jungle?".
As soon as I replied saying "Yes, there are a few remaining but there is no chance of spotting one at this hour", Karthik sitting at the back, moved forward, pointed his finger outside and said "Hey tiger, hey a tiger!!!".
We asked our driver to stop and he took some time to react and stopped the vehicle a little further than expected. All of us started looking out of the window in search of the stripes when I confidently said, "It must be a spotted deer, it happens many a times when we keep thinking of a tiger, everything we see, looks like a tiger". My words of wisdom fell on deaf ear when Gouri said "Look the tiger is sitting right there".
We asked the driver to go back a few meters to which he replied "Beda saar, huli bandu parchuthe" ("No sir, the tiger will attack"). On listening to the driver's words especially after that intellectual remarks of mine some time back, the excited crowd inside the vehicle got so angry that they started screaming at the driver to go back. Amidst all this commotion, we see the innocent pair of twinkling eyes rise up slowly, stare at us and decides to disappear in the thick lantana cover.
It all happened so fast, that none of us could believe our eyes, a tiger cub was sitting by the roadside at 11 AM with hundreds of vehicles passing by. The jungle surprises you when you least expect it and in my case it also made a fool of me by doing the exact opposite of what ever I said.

Nagarahole which literally means "Snake's Stream" named so because of its winding flow through the jungle infusing life into its denizens the chital, sambar, munjtac, mongoose, wild boar, gaur, elephant, leopard, tiger and many other creatures creeping, crawling, running or flying along with it. The denizens will surely keep you excited about their sudden sighting at the most unpredictable curve.

Kabini backwaters in Nagarhole is the best place in the world to witness the largest congregation of Asiatic Elephants. This place is also known for its regular sightings of the spotted beauty, the leopard.

Remember, on entering the jungle - drive slow, maintain silence, do not litter, do not feed, no music, do not get off the vehicle and respect wildlife, the Creatures of the Snake's Stream will never disappoint you.

To be continued...