Reasons to like Coorg -
Hills? Tick.
Greenery? Tick.
Hiking? Tick.
Peace and quiet? Tick.
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| The bus to Madikeri |
After a few months travelling through mostly flat and arid scenery in India, I was excited to read about the Coorg region, an area in the south-west that contains many of the things I like about home, but in a warmer, bigger and more exotic manner. Taking the local bus from the city of Mysore the road slowly got windier and hillier, and the scenery greener and covered in lush forest and jungle. Soon the roads were lined with flowering shrubs - a fairly rare sight in India, and in between the trees, coffee bushes - for Coorg is India's main coffee growing region.
Nearing the final destination of the town of Madikeri, I heard a very loud screech of tyres and looked forward through the bus windscreen to see another bus coming around the corner towards us, chucking out a spray of dust and gravel as it went round the corner seemingly way too fast. It turned out to actually a coincidence - I turned around, expecting to see the bus lying in the hedge only to see it driving on as normal whilst we came to an abrupt stop. It was actually us who had problems - a blowout on one of the front tyres at that exact moment. After over seven hours on buses, it wasn't exactly the ending to the journey I wanted and I expected a big delay. The driver and conductor got out to have a look, and quickly set about changing the wheel, before ten minutes later another passing bus came to a stop and ferried us on board. Not the drama I expected at all.
Madikeri instantly appeared to be a fairly nice town by Indian standards, with the town built in a valley, and various buildings scattered amongst the tree covered hills reminding me a lot of Launceston in Tasmania. I knew the Coorg region I was in was beautiful, but lacked any info about it so I wrote-off the rest of the day to do a bit of research and planning to work out what to do and where to go, and came up with some good ideas for the next day onwards...
Tibetan New Year
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| The Golden Temple |
By chance, it was Tibetan New Year, and I was an hour from Bylakuppe - a large Tibetan settlement like Dharamasala in the north which I visited a few months back, to which many Tibetans fled after the Chinese invaded in the fifties. The area is now home to around 10,000 Tibetans, mostly Buddhist monks and nuns. Another traveller told me it would be well worth the journey over to see the celebrations, so after a morning of catching up on a few jobs I hopped on a bus that afternoon and headed over to see what was happening.
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| With Buddhist monk |
Arriving at the settlement of Bylakuppe, I walked to the Golden Temple; set within a large monastery complex and the centre of the events. Walking through the gates it was obvious it was not really India - the area being clean, green and landscaped, the buildings beautifully kept, and that sense of calm in the air typical of anything to do with Buddhism. Until the celebratory firecrackers started... For reasons I'm not sure of, Tibetan New Year is in early March and an all day event held over four days. Young monks in particular were lighting firecrackers throughout the large complex, resulting in very loud and unexpected explosions wherever you walked. Very exciting, but the only celebrations that were happening that day it turned out. The Golden Temple itself was a really striking and impressive complex of buildings, each brightly and delicately decorated, with huge golden statues of Buddha and his chums. Interestingly many local Indian tourists who were Hindus also strolled about - both religions strictly speaking aren't actually religions, and there was clearly a mutual understanding between them, partly thanks to their historical connections I guess.
Walking back out, I briefly made eye contact with a monk who was quietly sitting on a wall having a drink, and he motioned for me to join him. His English was self-taught and reasonably good, and we spent half an hour chatting away. I find most Tibetan monks to be smiley and friendly, and this guy was no exception, telling me about the settlement, how most monks are funded by sponsorship from abroad, his life as a monk, and how Buddhists live life in moderation, taking only what they need and nothing more - nice guy. I walked along the road through countryside for a couple of miles to see another Tibetan settlement, which once again had a calm and peaceful aura about it. Being the only foreigner in town, a couple of Tibetan guys in their mid-twenties curiously chatted to me, and kindly me round a few of the old buildings for a few minutes. A very pleasant and interesting afternoon.
Madikeri
I started the next day with a South Indian breakfast I'd not tried before - interestingly called chowchowbath, and consisting of two piles of a mash potato-like substance - one savoury and one sweet, and both very tasty. The day that followed was another 'stuff' day around town; booking a trek, buying a few local gifts, scouring six ATMs before finding one that worked, buying a new phone after months of it slowly dying, and posting a box of bits and pieces home, something I'd dreaded for a while.
My last episode of posting a parcel with the Indian Post Office a few months back was a pretty frustrating affair, but this time it was much more amusing, and a perfect display of the odd and inefficient way in which things sometimes happen in India. Rather than being given a box and some tape, I spent forty-five minutes sitting amused whilst a whole team of people worked on packing the box for me, all for just £0.60 (60 rupees). First I was sat at a desk to tediously discuss what was in the box and the options available. Two men then stood scratching their head whilst looking at the box, discussing the best way to go about it and continuously asking 'you really want to send this item?'. A third was then called to gather supplies, and a fourth stepped forward to give his take on things, before finally six people had had their say at various points; hilarious, yet a little sad. With what was left of the day, I went for a walk around the few local sights - the rather neglected fort, the raja's seat - a nice viewpoint, and the royal tombs - in a neglected park which overlooked the town.
Coffee Plantation and Hiking
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| Coffee bush in flower |
Despite hating coffee as a drink, the opportunity to stay in a homestay within a coffee plantation, well out in the countryside sounded very appealing. I took a local bus to the village of Mukkodulu, an hour away via winding roads that cut through pleasant hilly forest, with mostly just coffee bushes underneath. The suspension on the bus was harsher than you'd normally expect, and made a loud banging noise over every bump which the driver ignored for miles. Finally, after going from big road, to small road, to narrow dirt track, the driver decided enough was enough and we stopped. The suspension was clearly knackered, with the bus tilting severely to the left, and that rear tyre touching the chassis. The driver limped the bus a little way further and parked in a field. I thought this time it really was it, but once again, the Indian public transport system worked better than you'd expect, with a jeep soon turning up to ferry the few of us left to our destinations.
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| Abdul and Julie |
Valley Dew homestay looked perfect on arrival - a farmhouse stood in a clearing in a quiet valley, surrounded by coffee plantations, thick jungle, a beautiful river and scattered paddy fields. My main reason for visiting was to go hiking, and lead by Abdul the guide, we soon set off into the hills for a fifteen mile hike. He turned out to be perfectly prepared - carrying nothing whatsoever but a machete - no phone, water, food. Good job I had enough supplies I thought, until he asked for some of my water and biscuits! Along with Julie the dog, we walked along a track through the jungle, where the sound of birds and insects filled the air exactly as you'd expect the jungle to sound. The idea of an adventurous trek turned out to be out of the question, and disappointingly we mostly just walked on dirt track and road, which seemed especially boring and pointless when a pickup truck of tourists comes flying past.
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| Mandelpatty |
We followed the gentle curving track up to the hills of Mandelpatty, an open grassy area with fantastic views all around of tree covered hills, and it was finally clear why they describe the Coorg region as the 'Scotland of India' - a term I thought was a bit odd before then. Sat having a break near the top, we heard a buzz and turned to see a huge swarm of bees coming along the ridge towards us. We quickly crouched in a vain and probably pointless effort to avoid them. but fortunately they were more interested in flowers than people and passed by without problem. The walk back was pretty uneventful, and back at base, feeling suitably tired I read on the veranda for a few hours. With only a few other Indian guests staying, it was nice for a change to spend the evening in a quiet place, and I enjoyed talking to a fairly adventurous Indian hiker who earns a living as a musician in a gypsie-folk band, a combination you naturally don't expect to hear of in India.
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| Day 2 |
Enjoying the countryside and knowing there was more walking to be had, I stayed another day, setting off the following morning up another nearby peak, with a different guide this time, more prepared than the other one in that he had a machete AND a small bottle of water. What a pro. The 10 mile return hike took us from 700m or so elevation up to 1,643m, and this time I was defiantly satisfied. It was steep and challenging, and we went up narrow paths through rainforest, passing through dried-out paddy fields, and eventually clambering up a path through what initially looked like an impenetrable vertical wall of rock until a cutting revealed itself. The view was amazing yet again, and I was surprising to find a small shrine and temple at the top in such a remote place - it seems no hill in India is complete without a temple.
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| River bathing |
Once back at base, the perfect end to the afternoon was to be found at some waterfalls a few minutes walk away which the guide had shown me the day before. The water was a decent temperature to bathe in and up above the falls, within the gentle rapids of the river, there was a natural bathtub shape scoured into a rock where you could sit and relax, not something I expected to find in India before coming here. I ended up lying back and relaxing in the river for over an hour and with no-one else around, and nothing but the sounds of the local wildlife, it was paradise and an unexpected highlight of my time in Coorg.
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| Falls near Mukkodulu |
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| Paddy field terraces out of season |
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