Our 5th Marriage Anniversary - Vacation - Part I

Inscribed by Hariharan

Again a long pending post ... (Please do click on the photos to get better view)

The month of July brings in the regular Birthday / Anniversary Vacation that we always make time for every year (except last year when i was in Joburg). This year it was more special as we completed 5 years of our marriage. We decided to take a much-deserved, long break.With 5 days leave, we got a 9 day vacation. We decided to visit the beautiful Coorg and Chickamagalur in Karnataka.

We had planned for 2.5 days in Coorg, 2.5 days in Chickamagalur, travel by train caused us 2 days in travel and we needed 2 days in Bangalore to oversee the progress of a flat that we have booked in Bangalore.
Coorg: Was a beautiful place with lots of places to see. We stayed at Prakruth and I must say that though the location of the resort was great, the service and food there left us with some bad taste. So in case anyone is thinking of staying there, I would recommend a big NO. But in spite of this problem, we did visit some very interesting places.

We first visited Nisargadhama which was a nice picnic spot beside the Cavery river. It has a thick green cover which gives you a feel of a walk in the woods. It was very quiet and pretty indeed.

We then visited Dubare elephant camp. To reach this camp, you have to take a quick ride across the cavery river. The place essentially famous for two things river water rafting and elephant interaction. Now since we both were still recovering from a leg injury (which we got in Goa - long story - later), we decided to pass the river water rafting (as much as we always wanted to try that). Also wifey's fear of any animals ruled out elephant interaction as well. So we decided to just sit on the other side of the river an just relax. :) It was indeed relaxing to just soak up on that beautiful view.

We also visited the beautiful Namdroling Tibetan Monastery. It was the first time that I was seeing a Tibetan temple. I found a striking similarity to the Nanhua Temple that I had visited in Johannesburg. But there were differences as well ... But I was definitely amazed by the sheer size and the detailing of the temple ... I also got to see some Tibetan monks performing some ceremonies. What I couldn't understand was the coke and fanta bottles that were kept near the idols !!

A swan I found in the temple premises

The good part was that all these three places were close to our resort so we were able to cover all of them in half a day. We also did some shopping for spices and coffee (which coorg is famous for). On the last day we visited two more locations slightly away from the resort - Abbey Falls and the Thalacavery.

Abbey falls was simply beautiful and I did try some photography techniques and it did come out ok I guess .. :) ...

We also visited the Serene and peaceful temple of Thalacavery which is supposed to be the origination point of the river cavery.  As strange as it seems the starting point of the river starts in a small tank in the temple. The photo below taken from Manoj's flickr stream (Thanks Manoj) shows this well .. I was not allowed to take photos in that area.

It is after this that the water flows into a larger tank where people can take a dip in the holy water. (Source: Wiki)

It was indeed a very satisfying feeling. After this we headed towards Chickamagalur (Route: Bus back to Mysore - rest in the night .. Morning train to Hassan .. and then bus to Chickamagalur) .. I know its a long route ... But in the interest of making all advance bookings and a relaxed travel I chose this.

I will describe the Chickamagalur in the Part II of this post.