If you are a Keralite, the first thought that crosses your mind is “OMG, this place is exactly Kerala”. The houses – the tiled sloping roofs, the wooden windows peeping out from under the roof so much like our (now dying) memories of the Kerala townscape.
The old house and the banyan tree – I had thought it was Deja vu
The arecanut trees. It’s only later that you notice that there aren’t many coconut trees around.
The red stones (Chengallu – as we we’d call it)!!!
Coffee plantations are one of the many things that Coorg is famous for.
Thadiyandamol is the highest peak in Coorg – in the Kodava language it translates as ‘the highest peak’. It is a 7km trek.
Nalkanad palace
On the way to the Thadiyandamol peak is the Nalkanad palace. The palace was where king Chikkaveerarajendra took refuge before faliing to the British. The wikipedia link is here.
The wooden structure beneath the roof
Under the roof. (Houses in Coorg as well as the old tiled houses in Kerala has this kind of wooden framework holding the tiles. The attic space here called macchu in Malayalam is used for storage)
The Kalyana Mandapam (Marriage hall/stage)
Somehow that lock reminded of life these days – us running behind all modern amenities and brands and what not, when the actual beautiful stuff has been always here and mostly ignored…
Wall painting at the palace … there was some shooting which happened there and the film guys had started plastering the wall and painting it with some shiny painting that they wanted in the film…so much of the actual wall drawings are now lost.
Just behind the palace is this lovely Nalli Kalli school (Nalli Kalli is a program based on Activity Based Learning)
The Namdroling monastery at Bylakuppe.
Any visit to Coorg isnt complete without seeing the Buddhist monastery at Bylakuppe. It is a Tibetan settlement. The monastery provides a serene, peaceful experience – try sitting quietly and just being in there.
The model of the Tibetan land – a small thought about their history and your heart skips a beat with the faintest of sighs.
They say that light is hope. For a nation, for a people, for lives, for peace, for love, for Tibet – although it’s a humble prayer that’s all that I have to offer.
We stayed at the Mother’s Bounty Inn, in Madikeri. The dorms are pretty clean and comfortable. The food was great, and they had also arranged for a campfire.
Mode of transport: There were about 40-50 of us, hence we hired a bus from Banglore. The journey is about 6 hours. KSRTC also runs regular services to Coorg.
Coorg by junykwilfred is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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