It would have to be in South India, for logistical reasons. Old fashioned as I am, I believe that for a truly enjoyable vacation one can either clamber to a spot which reads x thousand feet above sea level or soak in the sandy beach at exactly sea level. The choice b/w the two usually boils down to “are you more of a mountain-person OR are you more of sea-person” question cliché. In my case the choice was easy – I am an out-n-out sucker for mountains.
Now this was going to be tricky for a south-India vacation – after all there wasn’t the luxury of heading to the imposing Himalayas as we so often do from Delhi. But then, I always wanted to experience the elements of the greater Western Ghats and Nilgiri hills- something that I had never done before. The other criterion was to look for a place to totally unwind – no commercial establishments/no rush et al. After some research I zeroed in on Coorg. Most of the info on the NET described Coorg as quaint little valley in the Western Ghats with lovely coffee plantations. The coffee plantation idea was really the clincher – even more so when I found out that TATA (the organization I work for) owns massive estates there and rents out large colonial bungalows to vacationers. I promptly booked a heritage bungalow as the options were quickly exhausting due to the New Year ’s Eve rush.
With some help from my IIM Bangalore soon-to-be -classmates (Umang/Sumat), I charted out rest of the logistics. I would travel to Hyderabad (ISB); sweet-talk Nitya into adjourning her MBA life for a couple of days, take a flight down to Bangalore from Hyderabad and then our pre-arranged cab would take us to Coorg. I only partly succeeded- Nitya came along but she refuse to part with her laptop and books throughout the 10 hours long flight+cab journey. I had to amuse myself with some great music collection, which I had thoughtfully packed for the trip and a rather meandering Mark Haddon novel. Our cab driver Jagdish provided some amusing moments as well with his a-la-Schumacher maneuvers, which he manifested the most abrupt of times.
But once we ascended into dense woodland environs of Coorg everything changed. Foremost, the weather simply turned magical! With a blink of eye, the sparkling sun morphed into nimbus clouds and it started to rain and then it stopped- equally unpredictably- as if someone was controlling the play of weather with a magic switch. Even Nitya (who till that was immersed in her stupid Harvard Business Case Prep study) turned off her laptop, rolled down her window to admire the game of hide-and-seek between sun and the rain. The more we traveled into the heart of the valley, the more enchanting it became. I loved every minute of it.
My already buoyant mood got a notch breezier when we entered the TATA Plantation Trails and drove over to our bungalow. The chalet upheld its British antecedents from colonial days and had such lovely romance to it.
We were right in the woods and there for a nearly a radius of 3 km there was nothing but lovely coffee plantations with silver oak and rosewood trees spread all over.
We were greeted by two of most courteous souls I’ve met in my entire life- Gopi (the bungalow caretaker) and Ramu (the cook).
Gopi informed us that we had the larger Heritage room of the bungalow, but we will be joined by 2 more guest families in the adjacent cottages. Our fellow guests turned out to be 3 intellectuals (a German couple and an Irish woman), all of whom had taken quite a liking for south India (this was their 3rd trip).
As a matter of coincidence it turned out that the two ladies had worked/lived in same 2 places (Indianapolis & Munich) that Nitya & I had been before. We hit of an instant friendship and everyone had a heartfelt “Happy New Year 2010” chant the next morning at breakfast.
For most part we stayed at the bungalow and took regular long winded walks into the plantation trails. Ramu served some mouth watering delicacies and Gopi was responsive as ever – we were thoroughly enjoying our stay. One morning we took the guided tour of the estate where we learnt to identify the different type of trees at the plantation (coffee/cardamom/pepper/beetlenut) and visited the local coffee drying units on the estate.
Another time we took our only short trip outside of the plantation, where we drove for an hour to watch a melodic waterfall (Iruppu). It seemed like a rather long drive for a little waterfall, but we didn’t mind.Enigma was playing in the car stereo en-route and for once Nitya was fully engaged in the holiday mood. She was at her chatty best, as we both recounted our childhood travel memories and Nitya flaunted her credentials as a Tamil cinema critique.
On our return from the waterfall Gopi & Ramu had organized a lovely barbecue dinner in the garden, complete with bonfire and music. The food, I must say, was incredibly delicious. I enjoyed generous swigs of fine single malt scotch (Glenfiddich), while having illuminating discussions with our fellow European guests on a host interesting topics such pharmaceutical business, changing societal make of India, their time in India & our time in Europe, Indian weddings, movies (Indian/German/British), literature and much more.
The next morning we had to leave and we had that sinking feeling in our hearts that we have to leave this paradise to head back into the mad bustle of our everyday lives. I left generous tips for Gopi/Ramu & co and even more generous compliments in their record book.
On our way back we stopped at the Tibetan monastery in Kushalnagar(Umang's reco) and the Golden Temple main hall was a sight to behold. Stunning life size statue of Buddha in Gold was absolutely arresting. In general the monastery is very well maintained and is a great place to spend time and meditate.
Such was the tranquility of the place that momentarily we lost track of time. It was a call from Jagdish that brought the grim reality to the fore that we better get going if we were intent on catching our flight back to Hyderabad. With another deep sigh we slithered back to the cab.As soon as we sat down, I made a mental note (more like a wow) to come back to the place with a more relaxed schedule next time.
The evening traffic in Bangalore was a dampener. We barely made it to the airport in time. On the flight back we were inundated with the memories about this short little trip to a place we barely knew existed a few months back. I had already started penning down memoirs that I would post out on my blog as soon as I get time. It took me a while to write this but made sure I mention all the highlights.
On a lateral note, looking back there was so much on the trip that reminded me of “Malgudi days” (my favorite childhood serial)- the backdrop, the characters, the setting - all seem to have the same soul as that of Narayanan’s literary works, almost as if these characters were stolen from the script he couldn’t finish. Some passing notes on the interesting characters we met
- Jagdish “the driver” – would speak only when spoken too. Was calm and cool for the most part, but every once in a while exhibited a freak streak where he felt the urge to zip his car and overtake every vehicle in sight.
- Gopi “the caretaker” – was a youngish fellow who was very sharp and quite competent in his work. With regards to us (the guests) he had a subtle way of presenting his plans (guided tour schedule/barbeque dinner timing) in a convincing manner.
- Ramu “the cook”– excellent with his culinary skill who did not like suggestions on menu as he wanted to do his own thing.
- Carson & Antje (“30 something German couple”): Carson was a researcher by profession and judging by his demeanor he must be a very good one. Highly insightful guy with a deep knowledge of the subjects he discussed. Antje, as we were told, was the brain behind the trio’s India trips. She had all the activities planned and exhibited childlike excitement about every forthcoming event (getting up early to see Elephants being fed and washed/prospect of attending her Indian friend’s wedding in Gurgaon etc). She also liked Shahrukh Khan, much to Carson’s dismay.
- Barbara (“40 something Irish woman” accompanying the Germans) Barbara loved to talk and had lots to talk about. There was a tinge of cynicism in her. She insisted that we give her reco to get her started with Bollywood cinema. “Lagaan”, “Taare Zamein Par” and “Rang de Basanti” was our list of suggested flicks. In return she recommended that I watch ‘Looking for Eric’ (seeing my over enthusiasm with English football). I’ve watched the Ken Lough film since and have absolutely loved it (despite not being a Manchester United supporter). Thanks for the reco Barbara.
