Why “The residency Karur” is the best place for you to stay in Karur

We decided to stop over in Karur owing to the fact that the drive from Kodaikanal to Bangalore could be pretty lengthy. The next challenge was to find a good hotel in Karur. Most of the times, my father always used to suggest Valluvar near the bus stand. But that was more of a stop and go hotel just to refresh yourself and had no great restaurant or ambience whatsoever.

More recently a hotel by name “[The residency](http://www.theresidency.com/residencykarur/)” had opened up in Karur which was off the highway by a very less distance. I checked on TripAdvisor and found that there were no rooms available for my stay. I picked up my phone, called the hotel and they agreed to provide me two rooms for the same dates. The bonus was a 24-hr checkin checkout policy. It almost took about 2 to 3pm to reach the hotel from Kodai hills. But this checkin policy was the comfort zone.

The hotel’s car park is behind the hotel and though there is security, an unfortunate thing was that it was not a closed car park. Atleast they could have arranged for a thatched roof parking to beat the summer heat of Tamil Nadu. The temperatures were close to 40 degrees and leaving the car in the open sun in that heat was no less than a ridiculous move, but without any other choice, nothing else was possible.

The hotel reception lobby was inviting and the attendants or front desk officers were neatly dressed and they already knew about my arrival and had kept things ready for me. After a brief intro, we were given our room keys. In the meanwhile my kids were enjoying in the front relaxation area watching the transparent lift going up and down with people. The rooms themselves were neatly organized in the corridor with minimal noise and some great woodwork and carpetry.

Once inside the room, it was clear that this is one of the better hotels in Karur the other one being Hemala which is a 5-star hotel. The room was well appointed with the usual things including writing desk, sofa with center table, beds, tolietries, cupboards with digital safe, huge mirrors and some practial lighting. The bath area was clean and airy though it had some smell from outside thanks to vents, but that was sorted soon.

I did have a few requests from housekeeping as soon as I entered and I must say here that this hotel had one of the FASTEST room service response rates till now in my life. Absolutely fast. Ask and thou shalt receive is how I must put it. The food menu was more on the expensive side, with breakfast part of the daily tariff. Room service was a tad more expensive but well served and on time. We did have a chance to eat breakfast at the hotel the following morning and I personally felt that the choices of food could have been something more traditional and of larger variety. Neverthless barring a couple of items the rest were good to eat. I would not say its the best of quality when it comes to food, but its not terrible to say the least. This hotel is a bit of hit and miss with respect to food stuff. Sometimes the food taste was not upto the mark, but in some cases – like the phulka and channa masala – they had literally nailed it for good. It was the best item I had ordered in a while.

The restaurant itself was clean, and organized well – kid friendly and people there were very courteous at all times. Though I did not stay long enough to comment on the laundry or general housekeeping refreshes on daily basis, I am pretty sure they have a capable strong team to take care of that at all times. The soaps in the bathroom were herbal and refreshing for an example. A keen eye to some of these details is worth mentioning about this place.

The room we stayed in was a bit around 3,500 bucks a night mark which is reasonable considering the demand supply statistics for Karur. Its proximity to Chennai Silks makes it even more enviable since shopping is literally as close as walking out of the door.

To summarize I would say “The Residency” in Karur is a cozy and comfortable place for the weary traveler to get that well deserved relaxation. I would recommend this hotel to anyone wishing to stay in Karur. Try it out and you will not regret the decision, I promise.

Hotel Kodai International Review

During the long holidays, I had a chance to visit Kodaikanal for the first time in my life. While I will write a different blog post on the route I took and other iternary related information, this post is just to review my stay at Hotel Kodai International in Kodaikanal.

I was expecting that the hotel was setup in the midst of a tea garden, but my expectations were shattered when I reached the hotel. It was in the middle of the town, just couple of kms away from the really charming Kodai lake.

**Reception lobby**

The reception area is large and inviting, and there is a reasonably useful car porch outside. There are sofas placed around the reception area with a nice front desk. The experience of checking in was pleasant. There are also couple of restrooms for public which are neat. Also, there is the cafeteria/restaurant which has access from the lobby. This also has a very small play area with colored balls for small kids, but I found it to be near useless and with no light or air, making it very clautrophobic.

I must mention though that there are housekeeping staff who are waiting to take your luggage to your rooms and it seemed to me they were a bit over courteous in expectance of some tips.

**Room standards**

Before we dwell further let me explain to you a bit more on the room rates so you know what you would expect out of this hotel. The per room rates were nearly around 5000 Rs. per room per night. When I emailed them and spoke with them, I was sepcifically told that the checkin and checkout timings were 24 hours and not the nearest 12 hour window.

Now obviously one would expect climatized airconditioner, great beds, some reasonably soothing lighting and last but not least, really good sanitation facilities. However I was in for a surprise when I got into my room. I felt that the room was old fashioned, the beds were the hard mattress types (which I personally like, but many others dont appreciate). The lighting was lacklustre and failed to instill the needed peace of mind of being in Kodai.

Coming to the toilet, here is my main grouse. There was a large stain on the floor which I thought was left behind by the previous occupant of the room, hence I requested room service to clean it up. The lady managing the room service was indifferent to my request and said its a permanent stain due to water leaking from – hold your breath – the ceiling. Now imagine having a room with water dripping on you when you are doing your most important morning job.

Now before you start judging the hotel, let me tell you that all rooms may not have had this problem, but a problem is still a problem and with the amount of money being charged for the hotel upkeep the least expectation is most definitely not a leaking roof.

The room service lady asked me whether she can place soap for my use. While this question is reasonable when I am already in the room, is it not etiquitte enough to have all this in place before even I enter the room in the first place? I have been informing from days and even for the last several hours of my whereabouts so that the hotel understands when the guest is likely to arrive. Each time my mail was even acknowledged. But at the end when you enter your room, many things are still not in place. We had to request an extra towel as well.

**Room service**

Normally in any hotel review, the room service will find a mention but in a small way. If I have to dedicate an entire section about room review in my my blog post then you can imagine my frustration on this topic.

The room service in this hotel was almost as if it was non existent. The rates for room service was through the roof at nearly hundred bucks a coffee to 200 bucks a hot chocolate which was available just in the common area of the hotel itself for 1/4th to 1/8th the price. What you do expect for this price is for those items that are easily prepared in lesser time, the items be available in a jiffy.

For the money being charged every room service order of mine had to take at least a minimum of 3-4 reminder calls to let them know that there was a guest waiting for something. Perhaps they have a shortage of staff or something, or perhaps they were just acting indifferent which is something I am not sure of, but what I am sure of is that there was no such thing called efficient room service.

**Other nitty-gritties**

* The bathroom thankfully had hot water at all times mostly which is a plus considering a 15 degrees C temperature in Kodai early in the mornings.
* I did not remember seeing a coffee making machine in the room
* The soaps could have been better at that price
* There was no centralized air conditioner in the room
* No sufficient towels in the room even after specific request
* The room provided to me was very close to the main boiler area which was heating up water to the rooms, so it was not the best room in the resort, but it was not noisy
* Room service is extremely exorbidant and its a rip off at the stated prices – perhaps the hotel is encouraging guests to step out of their rooms and socialize a bit 🙂

**Cafeteria/Restaurant**

I decided to have dinner at the cafeteria and it was an a-la-carte menu. I must say that the dishes done there were of good standard and some dishes were outstanding. Coming to the price part, the cafe/restaurant was again quite on the pricey side, but then that is how expensive hotels are bound to be.

I so happened to glance at the kitchen of the hotel when I was at the restaurant and I must share here some positive words regarding the quality of the kitchen. It was impeccably clean and very modern. This is one part of the hotel stay that was really pleasing to me.

Just outside the restaurant, there is a HKI Tea shop which serves hot masala chai and coffee at specified times. Though at the time of me going there it was beyond working hours the cook was kind enough to ask If he still needed to make coffee for me and this kind of request is highly appreciated as it means going out of the way to please a guest. Also the rates for coffee was almost 1/4th of room service rates and made me go there more than once.

**Dance floor and other entertainment areas**

***Dance floor***

There is a dance floor with disco lights and some beat songs that are played from 7:30pm onwards upto about 10pm. Thanks to my room being somewhere close by, I had to put up with the loud noise this area was making within my room as well. This inspite of closing doors and windows to my room. Almost a little past 9:30pm I grew so tired of this noise I had to literally call up front desk and request them to shut the music out soon as I was very sleepy after such a long drive.

This was so different from the [destiny farm stay](http://www.chowchowbath.com/2013/05/26/the-destiny-farm-stay-ooty/) at ooty which I have written about earlier to this post. In the resort they had the same dance floor as a completely indoor area which did not create noise for other people at the resort.

***Campfire***

Coming to the campfire request at the Kodai hotel, they specifically requested us to come to the campfire. After taking the walk upto there we were informed there is no campfire on that given day which is not acceptable. What I mean is its not acceptible to give wrong information, though it may be okay to me that there is no campfire.

***Children’s play area***

This resort also has children’s play areas which have slides, swings, merry go rounds, hammocks, and the likes which make this a unique hotel. If you have kids like me, rest assured they will be extremely happy running around the place. I did find that some slides which are the really old ones, which we as kids used to play with and they are uneven, made of cement and hurt kids. These needs to be replaced by the hotel with more of plastic based toys. Of course this will mean some money but then that’s what’s needed to attract more people. Safe kids play area can be quite a relief to many parents.

***Gym and other games***

This hotel has a gym which I did not use. However from what I hear, this should be a decent one. The dance floor also had table tennis tables.

***Rose garden and waterfall***

There was a rose garden for guests, and also a private waterfall within the hotel. I did not try and access it since it was late evening already, but guests I believe can go there and go up above to view the waterfall in closeup.

**Animals & Birds**

From what I understood this resort had some emu birds, and rabbits and perhaps a few ducks for kids to see and enjoy. Though the emu enclosure is safe, sometimes unattended kids who are left near the enclosure can get a knock or two from an emu if they go too close.

**Housekeeping**

The housekeeping was as similar as the room service. They acted indifferent, were not there on time at the room and generally needed lots of reminders that something was requested.

**Final words and advise**

The hotel is a mixture of good and bad. The room rents are high, but the rooms themselves are not of high standards matching the rates. The room service is highly expensive. There is hot water all round the clock thankfully. Food in the restaurant is on the expensive side, but good to eat. The dance floor is somewhat of a failed effort in bringing people together. The children’s play area is a nice touch, and there is also a temple within the property along with the waterfall and other such areas. There are big lawns as well where people can casually play games like cricket, etc. The tea shop is a nice touch too.

I was shocked out of my wits to learn that the checkout time was 9AM and not 24 hours as told to me earlier. I feel the hotel goofed up in properly stating this to me and felt let down after I stayed there due to this fact. One good thing is I paid after I went there rather than book upfront as is the usual norm these days.

There are properties in Kodai which are more perfect for the facilities offered as compared to the Kodai International, for the stated price.

In my opinion, I may not stay there again.

My first trip to Tiruvannamalai

I had to check out, analyze and provide my opinion to my dad on the project called Viviza Grande by [Shrisha Infra](http://shrishainfra.com). It was a clear Sunday morning and due to my inability to wake up too early, I could only get out of Bangalore by 8:30am. Still due to almost negligible traffic, I was able to quickly hit the elevated tollway, and exit Karnataka peacefully.

For those to whom this route is home ground, you can only sympathize with me the feeling when you enter Hosur – this town kind of drags you down in terms of speed so you lose some time getting out towards Shoolagiri so much so that we had to make that customary stopover by Shri Krishna Inn, which is famous for its piping hot idlis and dosas which are quickly served. Not to forget to mention the filter kaapi 🙂

After that customary stopover we headed and reached Krishnagiri in no time due to great roads. The trauma started after we took that right turn to Tiruvannamalai road. Before I go forward, let’s look at google’s map suggestions. There were totally four routes which we’ll take a look now.

**Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Mathur-Uthangarai-Chengam-Tiruvannamalai : 196km, about 3 hours and 35 min**

This is the route we chose as default since my dad had visited before and suggested the same. But after krishnagiri, I was appalled at seeing the condition of the road as we moved on.

At many places due to infrastructural works going on, only 50% of the road was motorable and in that as well there was two way traffic. Besides, whatever was left of that 50% was only 25% of tar road and the rest was broken gravel not fit for motoring really. Its unfortunate that these road works only allow us to only travel at 40-60kmph thereby consuming an additional 2 hours of time to reach destination. It took a total of almost 6 hours for us to reach there. Lack of sanitation facilities, or tender coconuts along the way or any eateries made our life only that much more difficult.

There is a particular stretch between krishnagiri to uthangarai, where even the mobile data signal is not present which makes it difficult for us to gather the maps using smartphones. Offline maps are highly recommended. The GPS alone is not enough to latch onto where you are as the phone also expects cell towers to be present nearby.

Also some parts of this road was a breeze to drive on, and it gave a picture of what this road would be like by another year or two. But these stretches were short lived and the euphoria was abruptly put to halt each time dumping the vehicle into sudden trenches in the road which is not at all good. The absence of warning signs and direction boards only made it worst to traverse not knowing where roads would lead.

Add to it the government buses of Tamilnadu who just wanted to speed up along the dusty stretches to prove a point on how much dust they could rake up forcing other vehicles to keep their windows closed at all times. God forbid you keep your window open by mistake and you are going to have lots of road debris inside the vehicle and potentially all over your face as well 🙂

Some of these stretches were only full of stones and driving on that was utter rubbish with japanese sedans such as my sunny. Perhaps vehicles like Bolero would do better !

After nearly two hours the car had been transferring all the road abnormalities to the steering and the pedals and inturn to the hands and feet and left me completely shaky by the time we reached the destination.

We quickly took a look at Shrisha’s Viviza Grande project. Priced reasonably at this time and being equidistant from the central areas of Tiruvannamalai the project is one that shows a good amount of professionalism in the thoughts that have gone into its design. In this post I will not concentrate on the real estate specifics such as whether the papers are proper or other such info, but the project does have many parks designed as per scientific rules, drip irrigation, lots of tree lined avenues which would be a fantastic place if maintained properly for next 10-20 years.

Every plot has a water and electricity supply to the plot neatly, and the entrance lighting is managed with solar panels. Tiruvannamalai being hot, this bodes well for harnessing solar energy. The project also provides a great view of the mountain from almost every plot which is a divine experience for many.

After having a rather late lunch at the Chola restaurant, I bumped into the drivers of the volvo bus from Bangalore who also echoed to me that the route that I had taken was rubbish and there were better ways to get back to Bangalore. One of the suggestions was to go to Vellore and then hit the tollway back to Bangalore. But that meant a good road with another hour more of driving.

**Tiruvannamalai-Vellore-Krishnagiri-Hosur-Bangalore : 283km, about 4 hours and 15 min**

It was almost 100km more and total drive time was 4 hours and 15 mins which was tempting. The guy also spoke about Harur but was skeptical whether the route would be any different from what I had come through earlier.

The harur road was about 4 hours, and about 50 km more.

**Tiruvannamalai-Harur-Kannamangalam-Krishnagiri-Hosur-Bangalore : 248km, about 4 hours**

I tried following the road through and to Harur, but the first right turn my google phone told me to take was less than 20 feet by width where a sedan could never make it. I was terrified and decided that a known devil is better than unknown angel. Knowing Vellore was more by distance that was out of the list immediately. The only way back was through the same hell. So after driving upto Chengam, Google showed me a right turn even though going straight I would have taken the road back to Dharmapuri.

**Tiruvannamalai-Chengam-Singarapettai-Bargur-Krishnagiri-Hosur-Bangalore : 215km, about 3 hours and 36 min**

Somehow unknowingly I decided to take that right turn and was plesantly suprised that the road condition had improved by leaps and bounds. This is when the route map of going via Tirupattur turned out to be one more option for me. Adding about another 50km, but having a difference between hell and heaven, this perhaps was the most useful decision I had taken. The next 50km was close to a drive on an airport tarmac more or less with little to no traffic on the road on both directions, and beautifully winding roads which made driving a bit thrilling as well. Finally catching a sunset at Krishnagiri, we headed back to Bangalore for what would be a body-pain filled tired night.

> Familiar to Thine ears are the sweet songs of votaries who melt to the very bones with love for Thee, yet let my poor strains also be acceptable, O Arunachala!

The degree kaapi life

(image credit : www.indiarailinfo.com)

The man inside the house is dressed only in a dhoti and is sitting facing his bare back to the busy main road either oblivious to the surroundings or perhaps ingrained in the fact that life has to continue despite the contraints that the world outside has to offer. He is either watching TV or just medidating in the midst of all the hustle and bustle barely a few feet away from the floor where he sits on. His palatial house of yesteryears perhaps offers the solace to him that the outer world can’t.

The pavements are decorated with navaratri dolls and vegetable and fruit vendors lined up for many a kilometer that the eye can see. With not even an inch left on the road, the traffic is everywhere. A loud sustained honk generated when you press the squeezy green ball shaped invention is umistakable as it announces that a vehicle perhaps 100,000 times larger than the horn is arriving at breakneck speed at rubbing distance from you. The driver seems least bothered whether there are humans walking on the road, or other vehicles either merging from the alleyways or from the opposite side. Frankly its upto one’s destiny to heed that honk and move away. Else the bark of pure unadulterated tamil is worse than its bite in Chennai.

There are both fast and slow paced worlds coexisting here. The traffic is maddeningly fast. Someone exits the main road to join a by lane, while someone appears suddenly and merges into the main road. Another guy does the unpredictable act of darting from the opposite lane aiming his squeaky two wheeler straight into one empty parking slot on your side. Driving straight on your face that is without any feeling of an error. He got that most coveted parking for the next half an hour that no one managed to notice.

As I approach an intersection there is a large corner plot which has been demolished. The compound wall now has large structures standing tall made of thatched coconut leaves. Every now and then I can notice the moon playing hide and seek as I walk by this large empty land. Its only a matter of time before a swanky new commercial complex or some apartment comes up here. As I near the corner, I am only able to notice very bright rays of a couple of sharp yellow bulbs and can smell something large which will unmistakably squash me if I dont pause.

A large vehicle followed by a few pesky two wheelers dart from one by lane to another putting to a complete halt every vehicle on the main road (the bus included). This precision system works without a signal or a cop and its merely based on an understanding of the teams working at right angles to each other. The traffic is self managed. Almost twenty five years ago, when I came shopping here, a series of petromax lights on vegetable stall quadricycles welcomed be in the cacophony shouting at top pitch – thakkali, urulaikazhungu, keerai, vengaayam.

There was no way you could get along without buying any one of that after a heightened marketing pitch. The very same fruit and vegetable stalls still dot the busy main road even today – petromaxes replaced with swanky chinese CFL lamps running on solar charge – minus the marketing. The old charm still remains but no one calls you to buy unless you stop by anymore.

Along the corner is a temple with people stopping by paying a visit to the diety, wishing that their lives become better than what it is while vendors are busy selling puja items to help the cause. Somewhere along two guys dressed in lungies are sitting besides lots of unsold navaratri dolls lamenting on low sales this year and how people are losing the traditional touch. Opposite the temple is a small but clear board in tamil that reads white font on blue background – “Saloon” – hair in chennai will quadruple the amount of sweat your body can generate, so you do need someone who can “take care” of that for good.

As I walk along, I notice a rather burly man, about three times my size (just to let you know my wife feels I am a pot bellied ‘fother’ to my kids already). He wears a neat full sleeved shirt rolled to 3/4th of the arms. His veshti can give an inferiority complex to Mamooty in the “salute Ramrajkku salute” ad. The folds of his veshti expose his rather large thighs, knees and strong hairy legs ending in a sandal. His gaze is fixed on me, and his large eyeballs look threatening and menacing. As I walk forward, I realize he is looking at something behind me. Some distance further the street gets dark due to lack of shops for a brief period.

This is place where dimly lit locked up houses are present, and I notice two friends are chatting up sitting on the pavement. One of them explains his injured fingers to another while showing the bandage. They share a laugh or two as I walk past. As I go further, a share auto screeches to a halt in front of me blocking my path and a man in a hurry jumps right onto my face from the auto. The share auto revolution has now managed to make the normal auto drivers by storm and they think again and they now “put meter” which is equivalent to the 8th wonder of the world.

Strong smells of agarbathi, degree kaapi fill the air as I walk further past. At a corner of Brindavan street, a huge shop screams of Krishna Sweets with the traditional mysorepa kept all over the place. I continue walking past in search of a certain Jockey showroom when I notice how dark the street has gotten suddenly. There are vehicles constantly whizzing past you reminding you to take care of your mortal remains assuming they have scared the rest of the shit within you while brushing past. “Anney, Seenu anney” screams a guy across the street from his garage. I continue to be amazed how some people live their daily life in a garage in an atmosphere dominated by sweat. Seenu anney does not respond and I walk on.

A bunch of auto drivers are loudly discussing something and it seems like anytime they would break into a fight. Whether they would hurt someone is anyone’s guess but most probably not. A woman screams something from an apartment on top to someone on the road at a time when mobile phones are the thing of the day even to talk from one room to another within the same house.

A bit further I notice a rather neat and well built small apartment on my left with huge entry gates and some builders name glorified on it. I fail to notice on my right something dark, black and almost non existent to the naked eye unless noticed carefully. Its nothing short of about fifty years old and the moss and algae all over without any light around makes it an apartment in complete contrast to the one I just otherwise noticed. Not to forget to mention two big multi utility vehicles squeezed into an already small lane.

Finally I reach a junction from where one cannot miss noticing the all encompassing Pothi’s store glittering away in lights that could perhaps light up a locality of frustrated voters in some other village outside the city. I find the Jockey store finally and quickly get into the comfort of the airconditioned lifestyle inside the shop. As my sweat from walking during the evening dries up almost instantaneously a rather confused store attender wonders which undergarment to show me.

He looks at me like I have come from Mars. He gives me a stare like I am not going to make a successful purchase and the whole atmosphere is now beginning to turn a futile shopping experience. When I ask for something that he does not have he says – “two shops later there is Fashionberg, you must check there you will surely get it”. I sign out of the store and stand in disbelief two shops later. “Fashionberg” is a 10×10 store with 100 customers already standing inside and I am sure the Germans would be feeling the heat seeing someone use their naming style for a shop this small.

I decide to walk away almost instantaneously and walk past the Venkateshwara Boli stall. I must say that all Boli stalls have something to do with the name Venkat (venkateshwara, venkataramana) to be successful. A father asks his young daughter – “Bonda saapadrayaa?” as he points to the shelf full of Bondas lined up. As I ask the store owner whether he accepts card and get a negative reply some others are jostling behind me uncontrollably with their urge to eat that “soodanna bajji rendu” just ordered before me. As I walk further past back to my home I notice a few more stalls ahead after a dark patch. A whizzing two wheeler driven by a lady and her young daughter on pillion abruptly stop at the dark side of the street.

After witnessing what seemed as a never ending chaos of overflowing traffic I assumed that there is a traffic jam ahead only to understand later that the woman stopped just behind a huge DUSTBIN which has been intentionally left at the middle of the busy street. When I was just feeling good for the woman who stopped on time avoiding crashing into the dustbin I was dumbfounded when she picked up a cover full of garbage, threw it into the dustbin in “rajini style” and vanished from the place all in one go. I was left imagining what kind of person would come all the way with her daughter in tow on a two wheeler to a designated dustbin to just throw some trash?

Finally as I walk past the last stretch towards my home I notice a clothes showroom which is brightly lit with a board saying – ‘all credit and debit cards accepted with no service charge’ prominently displayed in front of the shop. In today’s world its a matter of being customer oriented and service oriented. In a world where shark eats shark, you need to woo people to stay in business. And its so much more the case in an area like west mambalam where the crowd is humongous, the hunger has to be fed at the earliest and a missed opportunity means that you would be out of business on a sustained failure.

I cannot help noticing the temporary shed blocking 50% of a street as I reach my home. It seems the lady who owns this shed has single handedly fought with everyone in the locality who tried evicting her saying the government alloted her the land years ago and she will see how anyone will try getting her to vacate her hut. She speaks of political contact at government circles who she will go to if people disturb her existence.

Welcome to west mambalam, Chennai.

The destiny farmstay, Ooty

In my last post , I wrote about my journey to Ooty, spiced up with certain constraints and situations. In this post, I will let you know my review of the Destiny Farmstay at Ooty. Read on ….

The Destiny Farmstay is about 25-30 kms away from Ooty main bus stand. The car parking in Destiny is about 2km away from the actual farmstay, and the road beyond that does not permit normal sedans or hatchbacks to get to the actual farmstay as its very slushy, extremely bumpy and risky in terms of damage to the vehicles. The directions provided by the resort is fairly accurate, but towards the end you may have to keep your ears and eyes open for signboards, turns, identification points and the likes.

An army truck belonging to the Little Earth group who run destiny farmstay, took us from the car parking into the resort. The ride can be very bumpy and little kids can feel rattled and extremely afraid as did my little one. So take care of this part. The reception at the resort was neat and kept well attended and the staff there were very courteous in welcoming the people to the stay. A welcome drink was also made available on arrival since it would mostly be beyond noon when people reach there. As other formalities were being completed, the lunch menu was also being taken for order from different guests so that lunch could be made available on time.

A point to note here about the lunch or dinner is that they are limited in timings and one has to be within the time frame of cafeteria being open to source the required dishes. Room service is available at a cost but not always. So its best you return to the cafeteria at specified times in order to avoid missing out on the food. And you guessed it right that there is nothing near the resort where you can otherwise go for food and so you are by yourself. Another thing I felt about the food was that it was quite expensive (even beyond bangalore standards) which is not a good thing. This is always a demand supply factor resorts capitilize on and I am okay with that if the resort were to be otherwise highly rated. Though TripAdvisor rates this resort high, one must understand the fact that there are actually very few new, other resorts, around this place. So naturally everyone who goes here would tend to recommend only this one. Additionally they do not add too much spice into the food, so its kind of kid friendly too which is a plus.

The rooms themselves are nestled neatly along a row overlooking a valley created by more than few mountain slopes. This is the valley where sloped farming is done. When we went to the resort rains were lashing ooty, and towards the evening the atmosphere was damp and the skies opened up a bit. The sunset was a surreal experience. The rooms were large with two single beds put back to back. So that meant some ample room for four of us (two kids). The toilets were large and neat, however not always did we get hot water. You can compare that to my review of the eagle eye holidays in chikmagalur where I did have hot water 24 hours of the day. So if they can do it, why not Destiny?

The room was supposedly a deluxe room, but the only deluxe part about it was the front verandah area overlooking the valley. Other than that the sofa inside the room was not well maintained and the springs had worn out. It was more uncomfortable to sit on it than anything the other way round. The rooms also had no tube lights or no fans and had a coffee maker in case you needed a quick one.

The farming itself consisted of many different type of flowers, cabbages, carrots and the likes being cultivated there. In addition to this they had a horse stable with atleast 3-4 horses who would take you for a ride at a specified time in the mornings with supervision on a high ground area. In addition to this were a large amount of cows, and some sheep. There were also rabbits and ducks which were near the pond down the valley. There were hundred odd steps that led to the valley below which is a good exercise if you take your kids down and back, assuming you are carrying them.

In addition to this, there is a disco room that’s operational at night, and there is a bonfire every night which in my opinion is absolutely necessary. Its advisable to carry a set of diapers, all essentials for kids, and atleast three pairs of footwear for kids. Some woolens and raincoats and atleast one or two umbrellas are a must.

Please be advised that there are NO medical facilities anywhere nearby atleast for a good 20+ kilometers, so you have to take all medical supplies that you might need. Remember that your car is parked a good 2-3 km away from the resort from where the nearest hospital is another 20km away, so this could be risky if you need urgent medical attention. From what I spoke with hotel staff, I am not sure that they are addressing this need.

Its also mostly likely that the cafeteria or reception would remain out of reach beyond some earthly hours. There is also a well stocked library to spend some time in. One of the major reasons I went to this place was that they had advertised some activities for the kids such as nature painting and so on, but the person conducting these was away on holiday himself, so one promise never met. Luckily since I carried a whole lot of sketch pens myself, I was able to get some paper and let my son try his artwork there.

I stayed at Destiny Farmstay for only one night, but I feel its an experience where kids learn about farming, and look and feel domestic animals once in a way. To summarize Destiny is aiming to be unique in what it offers, but the expensive food and no medical help nearby might make it go out of your list for a holiday. If you still want to give it a try, the location is beautiful and would relax a tired soul.

The cost for a deluxe room towards end of March was 5,500 + and the three time meal cost came to almost 1,700 +, add a fuel of almost 3,000 + from bangalore upto the resort and we are looking at around 10,000 for a day’s worth of holiday.

Tags: agriculture, animals, avalanchi, bandipur, bangalore, bengaluru, bidadi, blog, bonfire, car park, channapatna, cows, desitny, disco, distance, domestic, earth, emerald dam, farm, farmstay, food, gudalur, gundelpet, hair pin bend, horse, hospital, hotel, karnataka, kengeri, library, little, maddur, mandya, map, medical, mountain, mudumalai, music, mysore, nanjanagudu, ooty, parking, pig, pool, rabbit, rain, ramanagaram, resort, review, rooms, route, sheep, srirangapatna, stable, tamilnadu, theppakaadu, tripadvisor, weather

In search of my Destiny

When everything is in your control, your life seems great. You can do what you need to, when you need to with predictable outcomes. If you are taken out of that organized lifestyle and put on an unknown path with a time limit to reach your destination, and your quest is spiced up with very less food, bad weather, poor visibility, and no end in sight then that becomes another situation altogether. You then have to resign to only one thing – your DESTINY!

This was the essence of a trip that I undertook during the last two days covering hundreds of kilometers with my family to a non descript location a few tens of miles of a fairly populated hill station – all from a concrete jungle infested with information technology professionals much like locusts eating up all the produce in a field and leaving it empty. The upcoming festival weekend only meant a long holiday and a certainity of unavailability of any room in any resort anywhere in Karnataka thanks to the smartness of the above mentioned locusts of the city.

So this time, my ploy was different – but a rather tried and tested one – with accurate results – that of using up the weekend days to make this trip possible when the locusts were busy elsewhere working away. In a situation where you have a couple of young kids, planning is of utmost importance for their comfort. My analogy of the kids being able to cover about a 150 odd km range in three hours or so as a maximum threshold at any given point of time proved to be right beyond which enjoyment turns into hunger, sleep and frustration. A brief halt at Mysore for the night proved to be useful to bring the kids back to a calm state of mind.

The next morning was fresh and the journey continued towards Nanjangudu, Gundelpet and Bandipur. For those harried souls of the information technology kingdom, whose only source of inspiration is a wallpaper on their laptop showing a never ending road with the mountains far beyond and only yourself to drive through – the above said highway would be the actual representation of such a wallpaper! This stretch of highway is a treat to the eyes and to the mind. For those who travel extensively one would not debate on the fact that distance and time are inseperable. You have to keep your eyes on the clock, and keep the vechile at a certain designated speed in order to reach a certain place in a certain defined timeframe! For these kinds of people the Nanjangud-Bandipur highway is a place to step on the gas!

When you enter the Bandipur forest area with the sole intention of ripping through forest land like a vagabond, the government has ensured that you give respect to the rightful owners of the land there – the animal kingdom of bandipur. India is a country where when people are said of certain things to follow – they do exactly the contrary. So there is only but one option left – keep crippling your enthusiasm until you start behaving properly and predictably. I was referring to the innumerable road humps in the Bandipur-Masinagudi highway which kill your enthusiasm just when you go past the 80kph mark to throttle upto 100 and beyond, much like if you receive a phone call in the middle of an intercourse 🙂

You really know when Karnataka ends and Tamil Nadu begins. Much like a climate change would let you know the difference, here the road conditions change for the worse as soon as you enter Tamil Nadu. Without much to do along this stretch, as the number of kilometeres on the boards begin to decrease towards a certain hill station originally inhabited by the (yea you know who) britishers, the adrenalin begins to increase. It is then that you are welcomed by a huge mountain in front of you, with a head spinning 36 hair pin bend road that leads you straight to the top – if you are lucky enough.

This stretch of road is the best to test a car that you own or want to own. Forget all the useless test drives and the customary question Sir, so how was the test drive – just take the car to this road. The last time I took a Ford Figo it stopped on hair pin bend 26/36. In first gear. Just like that. It gave up. It wouldnt go forward even when Maruti 800s, altos didnt give up. Agreed this was a diesel but still the manners were ridiculous. And Ford says it is celebrating the sales of lakhs of units of a car that just gives up on the owner. Dear Ford, its perhaps time to take your vehicles up this curve and see for yourself what you are selling.

This was my second go on this road, this time with the Nissan Sunny Diesel and at 26/36 I was naturally a worried person. The feeling was one of frustration but thankfully the vehicle drove past all the way upto 36/36. It was not an impressive climb, but nevertheless it was completed. There was a feeling of euphoria of having reached Ooty or Ootacamund or Udhagai or Udhagamandalam and having neared the destination – only to understand that my destiny was something else. A thunderstorm with hardly 100m of visibility with rain lashing on the car from all sides. Just few tens of miles before it was as hot as hell and now this!? Google had advised me the route to the destination as just less than a mile ahead only for me to understand that it went horribly wrong for once. My destiny was 30 more km ahead. Google has this habit of saying take slight right and then turn left and this led me to a small road off the actual highway. Only later that I understood that this is just googles way of saying stay put on the same damn highway until there is actually a reasonably visible large right turn.

You must remember that in Ooty its best to ask people locally or rely on your own intuition than to choose Google maps as there are some really narrow roads that may or may not lead anywhere as your destiny is defined. After about 25kms of drive towards a place called avalanche (or avalaanchi) and further inside emerald town, I hit upon two bridges as advertised on the resort route map – one without water on both sides, and one with water on both sides – the latter being the emerald dam. Then I had to pass the White house (unfortunately obama was out and i couldnt meet him) towards two sign boards that brought me to my destiny – The Destiny Farm Stay!

In my next post I will share with you my view of the resort or holiday destination as offered by the Little Earth Group – Destiny.

On Indian Railways, Thoothukudi express, Waiting list booking,TatkalThrills, Pulling the chain and a train journey that has no logic whatsover!

I recently made a trip to Kanyakumari. I had an initial set of tickets which had everyone on a waiting list. I was hoping that would clear when I realized that it wouldn’t. I had booked from Bangalore city to Vaanchi Maniyachi junction. According to wikipedia, Vaanchinathan Iyer shot dead the collector of Tirunelveli, a britisher named Ashe on a train that came into this station exactly at 10:38am.

According to wikipedia, Vaanchi shot himself in the toilet after killing Ashe with a letter on him that read as below:

The mlechas of England having captured our country, tread over the sanathana dharma of the Hindus and destroy them. Every Indian is trying to drive out the English and get swarajyam and restore sanathana dharma. Our Raman, Sivaji, Krishnan, Guru Govindan, Arjuna ruled our land protecting all dharmas and in this land they are making arrangements to crown George V, a mlecha, and one who eats the flesh of cows. Three thousand Madrasees have taken a vow to kill George V as soon as he lands in our country. In order to make others know our intention, I who am the least in the company, have done this deed this day. This is what everyone in Hindustan should consider it as his duty.
sd/- R. Vanchi Aiyar, Shencottah.

While my whole Iyer fraternity back home was advising me against getting down at Vanchi Maniyacchi due to lack of connecting trains/buses to Kanyakumari and that they put a scare into my brain that its a non descript village, I was rather euphoric that Iyers too had contributed ousting the British and really wanted to see this place atleast for this historic reason 🙂 However after speaking with some real close friends from the region, I was strictly advised to get down at Satur, or Kovilpatti and take a connecting bus to Kanyakumari unless I wanted to re-enact the pre-1947 long walks to nowhere in search of freedom (read: to catch a bus from Maniyachi to Kanyakumari).

So practicality prevailed and we decided to get down at Kovilpatti. There still seemed to be one hitch left to solve – that of the waiting list ticket status. So knowing that the Tatkal procedures had been eased out lately, me and KK naturally sat down to work to get ourselves tatkal tickes to ensure that the journey part would be done in peace. Indians are always a bit disorganized when it comes to last minute activities and the Tatkal was no different. Of the six tickets we booked four with valid document numbers but one of them with dummy document numbers since the said persons were traveling with us. Having confirmed tickets now I still did not cancel the waiting list ones for those two people who I had entered dummy document numbers for. After that started a bit of mental hell as to whether they would be allowed by the TTE or asked to get down from the train and this uncertainity lasted a long time until the last minute.

I being a very organized guy, did all that was possible to try to resolve this document number error, and was promptly told by customer service that I would have to forfeit my ticket if the TTE would not agree to the error. I even tried to get in touch with people in railways who could reach the TTE but to no avail. Finally as the night of the journey approached, I learnt that the waiting list ticket that I had also was now RAC. So I now had atleast one legit ticket and decided to take the chance to travel. We arrived early at Bangalore city station to rectify this error but learnt that the TTE would also board only at 9:20 when the train departs from here to tuticorin. When the TTE finally came to our seats, we showed the tickets and six our ID cards in all possible jumbled ways. We also told him two of us did not have our ID cards, but he was okay with that and let us travel in peace.

Act-1, Scene-2: Kovilpatti to Bengaluru, Sunday evening: All our tickets were confirmed onto the S-11 coach and the same train was supposed to halt at Kovilpatti for a minute and nothing more. Heeding the practical advises from the fellow beings of the society, we decided to give Vaanchi a miss even for history’s sake and returned to Kovilpatti to board for return. After a lot of photography in and around the platform with a cool evening sunset, the train finally arrived onto the Kovilpatti platform a full 20 minutes late. By now the mind was calm and wanted to just board the train, find our confirmed seats and sleep in peace upto Namma Bengaluru. Here is where hell decided to unleash its own fury as a last minute surprise for us. As the train stopped, all the people at Kovilpatti rushed toward the entrances of the compartments. As we tried to get in quickly I realized that I was not making much headway through the door even after half a minute.

This is when a bit more of depth of the situation dawned on me. At the door were atleast 25-30 people organized into stacks of lines fitting into a tight package much as you would know about the Krack jack biscuits inside their packaging. I had a very heavy luggage which I pushed and tugged in every manner I could. Just as I was about to get into the walkway of the comparment, an old grandma lashed out at me and others boarding, screaming hoarse that her daughter following her was pregnant and it would be a crime for us not to respect pregnant ladies getting down by giving way. And there was only ONE freaking way. The way out! Who can argue against Vibhuti weilding furious grandmom’s having pregnant daughters? I had already had enough arguing against my own grandmom all my life. So even for a moment, this was needless. I promptly walked and pushed everyone out of the compartment and got down myself only to be blessed by the granny that if I was lucky enough again, I can successfully board the same freaking compartment.

Exercise repeated, I was in the walkway again. Only to find 200 more people dotted all along the walkway. Everyone of us believed – yes – BELIEVED – we boarded the wrong train by mistake. Yet we jostled our way in to reach our famed confirmed seats only to find the last six challengers of the trophy, the unreserved class sitting on our prized possession – confirmed seats. Asking them to get up and out only meant they went lower by status. From the lower birth to the floor. Same place. Nothing else changed. Having been scared out of our wits, we threw our luggages on the top berths and sat down sweating with a feeling of achievement, the same what you get when you pass complicated exams within predefined time frames. After having a tough time being concerned about the TTE with our tatkal tickets, we were sure of one thing – IF EVER A TTE managed to get into S11 coach this day – he would have his name engraved on the nearest station for being skinned alive. Not quite the Vaanchinathan types you see.

There was one issue with so many unreserved guys sitting all along reserved compartments. All of us. After having sat for 3-5 hours on that train, everyone wanted to take a leak. At the nearest toilet. Whichever direction – IF THEY COULD REACH IT ! The challenges dont seem to stop do they? Given that no one could board the train or no one could get down from the train, it was then a challenge even to get ourselves some water to drink and food to eat. At Viruthunagar, we managed to buy so many things including cakes, water, chocolates and whatever else was left off the cart that was going about on the platform. Drinking and eating all of that meant only one thing – we were also in the queue of people wanting to take a leak. Only question was how? And then the train suddenly stopped. Screeching of the brakes, and halting few metres away. Someone in our compartment were pissed off (literally) and had pulled the chain. The officials came to inspect what had happened and they could not even get in, leave alone listen to what we were saying. And then a few of us managed to go upto the toilets without causing a stampede of sorts of the people lying beneath us. Meanwhile an RPF guard in an unreserved compartment next to ours literally kicked a guy who flew and fell to the next track as the train started moving slowly. Dazed he asked his family to get down as well and a set of people and the guy on the track quietly slid away into the darkness knowing pretty well that they could not board an overflowing compartment.

Reaching the toilet was only one part of the adventure. The toilets were locked. We waited patiently with our bladders full for few mintues yet no sign of anyone opening up. Its only after sometime we figured out that some smart asses had locked themselves inside the toilets permanently upto Bangalore. There went our hopes of answering nature’s call as well. This is seriously when I lost my cool and the train again stopped suddenly 😉

Routine check, routine assurance, routine resets and train started moving. The only time the TTE came to the coach, he was hassled so much that he begged our pardon and said – “I’m the TTE only for coaches S6,7,8,9 and not s11 and that he came only due to respect he had on us” – He says even the poor unreserved people deserve some respect. Sure why not? Of course in India we have to be tolerant. Even to the extent we let people sit below our feet in whatever space we can afford to give them. Actually what the TTE really meant is that (and he actually said it to me) – if I forcibly pull a female’s hand and ask her to get down from the train, then it will become a communal riot! But seriously Indian Railways, for the face of modernization you have put up in a short span of time, how about adding more coaches to an already lengthy train, or how about introducing more trains along the route? Won’t you people think of such things?

There was no better thing than the feeling of euphoria of having pulled the chain, a long time childhood fetish come true. You know you get to understand the physics involved in getting the train to stop. After rebuking the authorities multiple times, the crowd was slowly flushed out between Virtuthunagar, Madurai, and Dindigul. As we neared Dindigul station we could see a group of 20 people clinging onto another ten people who were inturn clinging onto the door of the unreserved compartment. I mean if this isn’t craziness then what the heck is? Even after that when we got down at Carmeleram in Bengaluru, few people stepped on the people sleeping near the door and the babies started crying at daybreak. A man becomes wise only with experience and this was no exception.

The wise need to note down these points stemming out of experience:

Firstly, if the waiting list is a 100 3 days before the journey, it will never clear to RAC.
Secondly if you are in RAC it will always most often clear to confirmed as they add a coach and clear up parliamentary quota in each train.
Third, hours before the journey there is no point trying to negotiate with the TTE
Once the chart has been prepared and it shows RAC you are guaranteed sitting at least and that status isnt going to change anytime in near future
Do not go to stations where the train halts only for a minute or so
If your confirmed ticket is in a coach right next to the unreserved coaches, expect loads and loads of turbulence including grandmas screaming at you
If you are still confirmed in such coaches and you have heavy luggage, then god save you
Last but not least, never try to board a running train as its very dangerous and that could be the last journey you undertake for the rest of your life

On the part of Indian Railways, just after a recent purported sabotage indicent happened in which a bogie was completely charred with the passengers before they could wake and up and react in the middle of night, my experience just goes to show how these types of incidents are repeatedly going to happen time and again and how in the midst of 500 passengers within a compartment there could be one terrorist who could spell disaster within a short time. Unless this country and its government learn to value human life they will not be serious about any such possible damages. Neither would they provide more trains or alternate arrangements to make life better. However when it comes to claims, they would make many which are focussed towards customer friendliness. For now my open challenge to them is to try taking a leak in S11 coach at Kovilpatti on a Sunday on the Tuticorin express !!

Tags: bangalore, kovilpatti, mej, vanchi maniyachi, tuticorin express, tatkal, unreserved, toilets, people, crowd, rpf, police, sabotage, incidents, TTE, ticket collector, chain, pull, network, indian, railways, express, booking, tickets, online, irctc, food, madurai, dindigul, viruthunagar, negotiation, documents, proof, id, carmelaram, bengaluru, blog, karnataka, tamilnadu, kanyakumari, nagercoil, tirunelveli, train, network, s11, rac, confirmed, waiting list, pnr, long, coaches, platform, food, catering, vaanchinathan, aiyar, iyer, freedom fighter, ashe, british

Airavat bliss and Airavat superia launched in Banglaore

The government on Wednesday launched two new buses Airavat Bliss and Airavat Superia on introductory routes Bangalore to Chennai and Tirupati. while the first series comes with Chemical toilets and built in pantry, the second one comes with these and additionally live TV and wifi internet services throughout the journey.

This definitely has perked up the road travel aspect for those who discerned it earlier due to the toilet break reasons! Additionally ladies can feel a bit more easier on these routes now. While a break of additional 15 minutes can be avoided, these buses would now be equally costiler and as much as comparable to other similar services such as Olivea which already operate in Bangalore.

Definitely the KSRTC service would be a bit more practical while the Olivea is generally more comfortable due to superior seating even though its the same multi axle volvos. The real issue is the cleanliness of the toilets and overall sustained maintenance which would be an issue as the service is continued over a longer period of time. There is a general lack of concentration on this and its reflected by customer complaints already with Olivea. Lets hope KSRTC does not repeat the same mistakes.

The costing of Olivea is about 2500 to 3000 bucks a one way ticket. However KSRTC does not still provide pricing details for this clearly on their website.

Have you availed of their services already? Why not provide your opinion on the same in the comments section?

Tags: bangalore, tirupati, bengaluru, blog, karnataka, chennai, multi axle, volvo, ksrtc, airavat, bliss, superia, live tv, wifi, internet, chemical, toilet, seats, luxury, services, buses, tickets, online, booking, oliviea, gourmet, meals, on board, rest rooms

KSRTC Volvo introduces new Airavat buses !

KSRTC has introduced new Airavat services from Bangalore to Thiruvananthapuram, Horanadu, Shimoga, Ernakulam and Kumbakonam. It has also launched routes from Shimoga into AP, as well as from Bangalore to Mangalore.

Its quite clear Yeddyurappa is showering goodies into his district with these new introductions. As such the train connectivity between Bangalore and Shimoga is sparse and this set of bus routes must add more charm for travelers to this region. Promising even full sleeper buses between some destinations, KSRTC wants you to travel like a Baby. Till now there was only KPN Travels that had buses to Kumbakonam, but with the introduction of an Airavat, the temple city of South India is now well connected to the silicon city of India as well.

To know more and to book tickets online, hit this link.

Tags: bangalore, blog, bengaluru, karnataka, yeddyurappa, sadananda gowda, cm, chief, minister, shimoga, volvo, ksrtc, ap, tn, andhra, pradesh, tamil nadu, buses, airconditioned, sleeper, mutli, axle, coaches, airavat, ambaari, flatbed, mangalore, thiruvananthapuram, kottayam, ernakulam, chennai, tirupathi, hyderabad, horanadu, panaji, ksrtc, message, feedback, phone, time, table, reclining, seat, leg, room, drivers, trained, infrastructure, depots, lcd, screens, mobile, laptop charging points, air, suspension, temple, city, kumbakonam

Eagle Eye Holidays (coffee estate) review

What is your idea of a holiday? Now that you have perhaps been to hundreds of resorts already do you still expect the 101st to be of the same ambience? Like a great reception with uniformed people welcoming you with some flowers or whatever, and then a grandoise room awaiting your fall on the bed to be in peace with yourself?
Or are you ready for a different type of experience? Are you the types who would prefer to check out something that tests your perception and mental skills a bit ? Besides that is your idea of a coffee estate something thats deep inside the clouds many thousands of feet above sea level with winds that chill your body to make you want that hot cup of tea more often than not?
My trip to Eagle eye holidays makes me think I need something like this again though i am unsure whether I would get such a right mix of things most often or not. Without much ado then let me tell you what made this trip memorable to me. Eagle eye Holidays is a coffee plantation or estate as we would often refer to it. This is situated near Kadavanthi or Kadathi, which is few tens of kilometres away from nearest proper civilization called Alduru (read: Aaldoooru). Alduru itself is few tens of kilometers from Chikmagalur which is the nearest proper town.

Reaching Chikmagalur from Bangalore requires that you partly travel on NH4 highway upto Nelamangala, and then take left to get onto SH48 which goes to Kunigal, Adichunchanagiri, Channarayapatna and Hassan along the way to Chikmagalur. The road upto Chikmagalur is what makes it worthwhile to undertake this journey. If you are a car driving maniac and are true to your wheels, you are not going to forget this hair rising highway drive. My current love is my Figo and speeds of 130kmph was a child’s play on this road. Particularly the SH48.
Though the NHAI is still developing the toll booths at a few places, the road by itself is an awesome piece of highway for speed racers! Don’t get me wrong, racing need not always be with another person, and need not always be of the rash type! If you are the expert driver types this drive should see you reach Chikmagalur in 4 1/2 hours flat. Such is the quality of the highway. But wait a minute… if you thought that’s all this highway is about quite contrarily – NO! How about throwing in some great looking paddy fields and rural sceneries on the way? And some lakes? How about the old tree lined roads you’ve always seen in your childhood? Some small hillocks? Lets make it more greener – Add some windmills churning power from the winds, and some neat twists and turns of the road. This is what being cheerful on a long drive is about. You got to drive to experience the talk.

And you thought its all over when you reach Chikmagalur? Wrong again. Is this all you can think of? Assume I make the road the airport runway tarmac types, smoothen it off a bit more, add greater angle to the twists and turns, remove uphill components, and also subtract oncoming traffic. This then becomes nothing short of annilhation. Add another car who is spirited in testing your driving skills and negotiation and we have nothing short of a F1, well expect your car of course 🙂
The 30 odd kms between Chikmagalur and Alduru is sheer awesomeness for both speed drivers and slow drivers alike. The pristine beauty of large trees around, the amazing tranquility and discovering your inner self. Enough to rejuvinate you for some time to come.
Every good thing or bad thing will have an end. And if the good comes first the bad comes next in the cycle. After Kadavanthi somewhere along the way the next 10-20kms of road gets bad with potholes all around and this is where you feel the need for perhaps a cheap hatchback with 20″ alloys to take on the road like a monster! The map given by the resort is more of a type you would use for a treasure hunt, leave alone navigate somewhere. In this case the treasure being finding the resort itself. Add poor road signages and you are now really one with nature. If nature wills you will get to the treasure else not.
Its therefore essential that you stick to the map. Yes, take some glue, stick the map to the windshield, use the same glue and stick your nose on that map as well. Why? Because if you dont, you would forget that right turn at the paddy field landmark and the left turn at the dam gate landmark. Sounds punky in 2011 isnt it ? Welcome to some rural tones!
Oh and by the way you would like to call the resort for directions would you? Well assume that none of the mobile signals show up besides good old airtel and you are lucky to be holding phones of other operators services and there you hit the jackpot of ruining one chance to reach the resort with any sort of help.
The more I followed the second map that showed me the way to resort, the more I felt lost by each passing minute. Some 2kms away from the resort (lets correct that terminology shall we: say coffee estate) the last right turn takes you to a stone graveled road that will test your car in and out. after two gates when you take left onto the property, with a mile or more to, you begin to wonder if this is a con-job. Yes, i would say yes, its a master crafted con-job to disprove the very perceptions you had of how a resort must be.

The last mile makes you wonder whether you entered someone else’s property by mistake and what if that guy let loose his gunmen on you. Straight from a movie flick. As your car struggles hard to cope the incline, you reach a dead end with a 180 sharp hair pin bend. As you wonder “what more?” and whether your car would want to take that hair pin bend, two people come to you and say “welcome to eagle eye holidays”. It was a hot afternoon and we reached a bit late after some searching around and panicking. And a welcome drink was more than welcome. it was gulped down even without understanding what was given to us. The reception is more of a shack made with wood on a higher platform. And once you get onto the platform, you are no more interested in thinking about the journey.
The view of the western ghats and the valleys below soothen you down and you just want to rest a bit with the cool windws blowing on you under the thatched roof. Before we stepped into our room, lunch awaited us. The food given by resorts is always questionable. Here too some foodstuff werent great, but not all foodstuff was bad. Given this fact, Eagle Eye holidays provided good food at best if not sumptuous. Some items like the next day morning’s breakfast were yummy to keep away from. The rooms themselves were well appointed and there are many different types of rooms. Valley view rooms, glass houses, (for the brave) the tree house which is mostly open and perched on tree tops, hutments, and standard rooms are available. The rooms themselves are between 2,500 bucks a night upto 5,000 a night. We stayed at a waterfall room which in my opinion is a ridiculous idea. Agreed the management wanted to save a few boulders and/or could not avoid removing a few rocks so they integrated those and few faux rock arrangements into a thematic waterfall room. However neither was there a waterfall which is swithced on for an hour, nor does the room lend itself into any kind of ambience as such. The Tree house or hutments would make better rooms to stay in in terms of practicality. Also given the foregone conclusion that the waterfall room is costly (at 5k a night) its best to avoid this altogether.

Other than that the hot water facilities are governed by solar water heaters perched atop and in between trees. Due to the tropical climate of the coffee estate, there is no dearth of hot water which gets generated by the solar during the scorching afternoons. The upholstery like blankets towels, bedspreads are hand washed daily in front of you and its a job well done compared to a washing machine type of wash cycles. Due to the sprawling nature of the 130 acre estate, there is enough room to dry clothes daily. The management have also created a 30 feet deep lake in the middle of the property. A natural trail of road leads to this lake which offers coracle rides and fishing activities. Again dont expect professional fishing equipment to be handed over to, but with whatever stick and wheat balls used to lure the fish, my cousin who accompanied me on this trip was able to catch a good sized fish. If you want to laze around and do things that are not of the usual resort type, these activities fall into that list.
Being situated at a coffee estate there is no dearth of good coffee provided at all times and there is no restriction on the amount you can have. if you are hungry you eat. Period. A stroll upto the lake, and few peaceful hours later, its time for some campfire. Of course hot drinks are served during this nightly hour with some loud music and dance to follow. To add some dazzle to the show, the clear sky makes it possible to view the wonderful constellation of all the stars for those hungry stargazers. During the day time, there are plenty of subjects to shoot photographs with in the resort – flowers, fruits, birds, objects, elevations, winding roads etc.

The only downside to this resort is that the rooms are aligned across a path which is very steep which makes it impossible for old people to climb and this could be a dampener to people wanting to go to this resort. It took over ten to fifteen minutes for me to switch between reception and room each time which shows difficultly level. Not that I am lean, well built and all that. I’m the usual paunchy type of mid-life-crisis-beating-man 🙂 Early mornings begin with chirping birds and a great breakfast, not to mention some games like shuttle, table tennis, and strong coffee again with a great view of the mist settling in the western ghats valleys. Post breakfast there is just about time to go for a 2 hour trek deeper into the estate. If one would like to skip it, we can have long chats over breakfast and freshen up with a bath and just enough time to pack the bags and leave. This is offically called the two-days-one-night-package-syndrome that resorts exhibit. Best part of the journey was just the occassional treats we packed for eating on the way, full meals taken care of package at resort, and some lunch on the way back home. Plus meals for your car (fuel). No other nonsense expenditure.
Its also worth mentioning that once you are in the resort its NOT worthwhile planning trips to Shringeri, Augumbe mountains, or Belur or Halebid which are all nearby. This is an exclusive deal. Not an all-in-a-single-day deal. So bottom line is would I recommend this resort to others?

For the off the beaten path ambience – YES
For the cost – SORT OF YES
For the meals – YES
For the peace of mind – YES
For the drive – Oh YES!!
For the hospitality – YES
For the coffee – YES
For their payment mechanisms – NO! (they accept only cash, so there is no confirmation of prior room booking)

The pictures would speak more than anything else. What are you waiting for? Hit the road now!

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