Coorg

This past weekend we got away from the noise and pollution of Bangalore and went to the "Scotland of India." One of Ale's friends from undergrad, Pam (who is in her last year of internal medicine residency in Maryland), joined us. Pam is in Delhi for a month doing a similar shadowing medicine experience. She took a flight down to Bangalore and met us at The Thackers around dinner time on Thursday night. Mrs. Thacker made a delicious meal of okra, "drumsticks" (a vegetable), daal, and baby eggplant.

Mr. Thacker drove us to our bus around 1030 pm, and we were very thankful he was there. There was so much traffic and the bus was on IST (Indian standard time) so it came 20 minutes late. He not only found our bus, then a place for us to pee, but he walked us on and made sure we were okay. It's nice to have a set of parents in India. The bus was dirty but luckily the seats reclined to about 150 degrees, so I laid back and literally woke up 7 hours later in Madikeri (the city we were arriving to in Coorg.) Ale also slept pretty well, but Pam unfortunately did not have the same bus experience.

When we arrived at the bus station in Madikeri around 6 am, a rickshaw was waiting for us. We then took a 25 minute drive up some crazy roads to the middle of the hillsides and were greeted by one of the owners. I was praying we didn't crash as we barreled up these windy, tiny, poorly paved roads/dirt, Ale was praying we weren't being brought to the wilderness to be raped and murdered (Since I had picked this place, I knew it would be in the middle of the hillside. She did not.) We hiked about 5 minutes up some hills and got to our tent. It was really adorable, not in a cute and clean way, but in an "at one with nature" way. The tent had a double and a twin bed. So it wasn't too rugged or anything. We took a 2 hour nap and then trekked down for breakfast. We had some dosas (which were obviously delicious) and met a few of the people staying there, all tourists.

After breakfast from 10-1 everyday they have a trek, so we joined. It was beautiful. It reminded me a lot of being in Peru. The climate is very dry here and it's pretty hot during the day but pretty cold at night. We got some awesome views of the hillsides and saw some coffee plantations. We only saw 2 people the whole trek, who had a little home with chickens and cows. It felt wonderful to finally be moving my body after eating 10x more per meal for the past week.

Afterwards, Pam and Ale went down to the common area for lunch, but I stayed by our tent and read in a hammock for a couple hours. Pure bliss. Then we decided to venture into Madikeri because Pam needed a bus ticket, we wanted to go to Raja Seat, and Pam and Ale had found out our meals were 300 rupees each at lunch (which is grossly overpriced for veg food. 300 rupees is about $6, but it's all about principle.) We were glad we went into Madikeri, because we also set up a driver for the next day which was 1500 rupees instead of 2500 the owners were charging. A little fishy Rainforest Retreat. But really, the area was beautiful and we loved our tent and the food was good, we just don't like being ripped off!

We explored the little town, and headed up to Raja Seat, which is where it is claimed the most beautiful sunset in India is. It really was beautiful. It happened to be really crowded with Indian tourists since Saturday was Independence day for India, but it was still neat to be the only foreigners in a sea of Indian tourists seeing a beautiful part of their country with them.

Afterwards we had a very yummy dinner. We didn't understand why no one else was at the restaurant (was it bad? Vaibhev had recommended it since he is from Coorg), but as we learned the next night, most people in India eat dinner after 8 (hence why we eat dinner at the Thackers around 830/9) and not 6. We called our rickshaw driver, who conveniently would come drive us whenever we wanted. He even let us stop for snacks and drinks and we became fast buds. There is nothing quite like speeding up the hills in the dark in a rickshaw with the wind blowing at your face and PitBull blaring on the radio.

Both nights, we giggled ourselves to sleep in our tent. There might have been some food fights with gross Indian snacks and some henna gone wrong on Ale's foot.

On Saturday, we had a driver pick us up at 730 am. It was a little rough, but it meant we'd be to the Dubaru elephant Sanctuary in time to watch them be bathed and fed. It took a little under an hour to get to the entrance from our tent in the hills. Our driver dropped us off and then we took a jeep to a boat to an island with elephants. Pam and I rode an elephant, but it was kind of a lame ride. There were five of us on our elephant and we literally went in a circle on a dirt path. But despite that, the elephants were still pretty adorable. It was a really pretty island, just lots of Indian tourists. Again, we were glad that at least we were vacationing where the Indians vacation and not just with a bunch of foreigners. We had some coconuts which had the most amazing juicy pulp inside. We got back in the boat and then on a jeep but halfway back, there was a traffic jam so we had to walk the rest of the dirt road to the main road where our driver was waiting. When we got to the main road it was even more jam packed with cars and buses. We found our driver and got in the car but we couldn't even move for 15 minutes and then it took another 30 to get out of the mess. In India, all the cars pass each other and go in the opposite lane of traffic so somehow the road got so packed, and then the jeeps and cars on the dirt road got backed up and it was a mess.

When we arrived at our next stop, we thought it was The Golden Temple but it was instead a big park (there was a rather large language barrier between the driver and us.) We decided we would still go because we like parks. It definitely wasn't like a park in the states. There was bamboo everywhere and dirt and very little grass. You could easily spend hours walking around it. We found a little gazebo and sat next to an Indian family having a picnic. I was smiling at the grandmother when she goes "You like chapati?" I told her I didn't know what it was and then the entire Indian family decided to feed us. Chapati (a bread) and rices and chutneys started piling a plate. Each time we almost cleaned the plate, they would add more things to try. Luckily we had gotten used to eating ginormous portions at the Thackers, so we smiled and ate even when we had been stuffed to the brim. I must say, I thought Jewish moms like to feed people, but they have nothing on the Indian moms.

After our eating adventure, we found our driver again (which is quite amazing since we had no reception and couldn't call him and this was a very busy holiday) and he brought us to the Golden Temple. It is one of the biggest Buddhist monasteries in India and unlike the temples I've seen in Thailand, this was a large complex where all the students and monks live and study. There were also several beautiful temples on the property and very lovely gardens. Outside the complex, there was even a little shopping. It was late afternoon by the time we left the Golden Temple and we decided to head back to Madikeri for dinner. This is when we found out nothing opens until 7/8 pm and we had to have tea and dosas until any of the restaurants opened up. We had a very delicious dinner and then called Bashkar to bring us back to the Rainforest Retreat.

We had another silly night in our tent and finally got a little bit of decent rest. We slept in, had some dosas and tea and then it was time to send Pam off so she could get back to Delhi. After, I went on a little trek to a nearby river with our guide and a nice couple from California/Paris. I joined Ale in the hammocks by our tents afterwards and had a very lovely afternoon lounging in the rainforest. Ale and I even took our first shower from the spout. We had been avoiding this for almost 2 full days (and lots of sweating and being gross) and decided it was time. I had a freezing cold sponge bath while Ale went all Indian and used the big, dirty plastic bucket with a little pitcher to scoop water out. It felt really good to be semi-clean. We headed back to town for a traditional Coorg dinner and then headed off another night bus back to Bangalore.