Our 5th Marriage Anniversary - Vacation - Part II

Inscribed by Hariharan

Chickamagalur: Our stay in Chickamagalur was all about the wonderful and memorable stay at Eagle Eye Resorts. We spent all of our 2.5 days there in the resort. Now you can imagine if we did that, how memorable the stay there would have been. All in all .. we highly recommend the place to anyone looking for a nice break and wonderful service/food and activities during the break.

The resort is actually 48 Kms. from Chikmaglur located within a large plantation land. Its a beautiful theme based resort with different types of rooms available to guests. One can choose from standard rooms, cottages, villas, tree house, and sky walk villas, water fall villas. You can check the above website to see what each looks like. We choose to go for the tree house because we have always wanted to experience the fun of staying in a tree house.

The inside of a tree house

I have to say .. It was an out-of-the-world-experience as we approached the tree house it was a short trek from the resort office. We were provided with torch lights to find our way in the dark. There was no phone range (at least for our service provider - Vodafone) which was also a relief. We made our way up to the tree house, climbing from within it. When we reached there the view was unbelievable. It was open from all sides just curtains to close if required and during rains. And it did rained now and then ... which made the climate even better. It was fully equipped with nice hammock, two double beds one inside and one outside with the typical mosquito nets .. In the night, they provided for kerosene lanterns which added to the night ambiance.

Relaxing on the Hammock

Tree House

A beautiful long exposure dusk shot

There was no sounds of civilization .. only the sounds of nature. Insects and birds and their sounds ... It was unbelievable. We had to go for breakfast, lunch and dinner to a common location. It was a nice walk during the day time from and to the dining hall. It became more exciting during nights when it was pitch dark and we had to use our torches to reach the dining hall ... There was a defined pathway but a definitely eerie (but fun) feeling to walk in the dark through the coffee plantations on both sides.

The food was outstanding and there was variety in the food spread. The service was also wonderful. As a part of the activities (part of the package) there was a morning trek (which we skipped because of our injuries and also - we needed a break no morning activities) but it should have been fun ... There was also a plantation tour where the plantation manager took us around the plantation and showed us the coffee plants. He also showed us the two different types of coffee - Arabica and Robusta. He also showed us many other plants/trees and made us taste us some fruits/spices ... Avocado, Mangoes, Oranges, chillies, pepper, cocoa, etc ... It was very informative and nice to taste fruits in their natural form right from the source.

Pepper

Coffee Beans

An extraordinarily large flower

Avocado

Pepper Again!!

Extremely Hot Chillies

Again a very unique flower

Mangoes

Cocoa Fruit

Snail

Itch worm

Beautiful Transformation of a centipede during self-defense

The other activities were Fishing and Coracle Ride. Both were fun activities. Again we had to walk into the woods to reach the pond/lake where we were going to do the coracle ride. The problem with these walks (this and the plantation walks) was that there were lots of leaches on the path and it would stick on to the leg and silently start sucking your blood. Probably my blood being sweeter (because of all the sweets that i have) the leaches choose me as their target. I was bitten by multiple leaches, in multiple places in my leg multiple times (so much so that I am now cool about leaches - I am able to pull them out on my own and throw them away). The fishing was also fun ... we were able to have our share of catches for the fun of it and we then released them back onto the pond.

Coracle Ride

Coracle Ride

Janani's Fishing Success

A beautiful panoramic shot

And ... my fishing success

Another beautiful panoramic shot

Overall, it was a really memorable experience to be so close to nature and to take a break like this away from civilization. Now, waiting for my next big break !!