In June I went to Coorg for a vacation with my partner Shika. We had been planning to go somewhere for a bit and June just felt like a good time to travel. The weather was going to be cloudy with small showers and Bangalore was getting as hot as it can get. I wanted to surprise her with the stay and the kind of activities we would do. I wanted to find a place that was peaceful and away from the main city Madikeri, a homestay that had an estate, less rush and was just relaxing.
After looking at tons of places I found this property by Raho called Nila. I had stayed at their toolhouse three years back when I visited with my parents and I could vouch that the stay would be great, pretty rooms, a wonderful breakfast and home cooked food. We booked the place for four days and three nights. I know it is a stretch but I have kind of realised that three nights and four days is the sweet spot where you get a good break from the city but it is also not so long that you start wanting to go home.
The plan for the trip was to do fewer touristy things and more exploration in the neighbouring hills and hikes. S really loves being outdoors, a lot more than me I have realised, and we both wanted to do something that was fun, challenging and relaxing.
The trip started at 7am. We packed fruits, drinks and coffee for the way and decided to stop only after we had exited the city and beaten the peak hour traffic. The roads were empty luckily and we were on the Mysore highway by 8. Mysore was going to be on the way so the much awaited SAPA was one of the options but we decided to skip the city and try SAPA on the way back instead. For breakfast we stopped at a place we found along the way called Kamat Lokaruchi. It is one of those old underrated places on the Mysore highway that very few people know about. The dosas were excellent and we ended up ordering a few dishes from the menu before getting back on the road. S dozed off into a nice nap after the dosas and we crossed Mysore and were well on the way to Coorg.
We reached by around 12pm and went straight to the nearest cafe for coffee and some light snacks. Honestly the coffee was average but the pork poi bun was excellent. We stayed there for about an hour and the place overlooked an estate and a pond which was really pretty.
After that we went to the Airbnb and crashed for a bit and freshened up. We wanted to go to Madikeri the same day so after relaxing for a bit we headed out. The drive to Madikeri was about an hour away and honestly one of the prettiest drives I have been on. It rained the entire way with little glimpses of the valley popping up every now and then through the mist.
We went for coffee straight away. I had a pour over and S had a cappuccino. The coffee was honestly very mid. For a place that is known for its coffee it really does not have any standout coffee spots and the more we talked about it the more we realised that most people who know their coffee just end up moving to tier one cities and setting up there instead.
We left after the rain and decided to do an early dinner at the Club Mahindra resort. The food was quite average but the property itself was stunning, massive and green with loads of things to do inside. We came back to the Airbnb after dinner and were greeted by a resident cat. This cat was something else. She followed us all around and just wanted to be petted and held. We were completely taken.
The next morning she came right outside while I was making coffee and just hung around with us the entire morning. S was delighted watching me with her because I have never really owned a pet. But something about this little one just brought out my inner pet dad and I found myself carrying her around everywhere. She ate almost anything we gave her too. Biscuits, cake, idli, she had no standards and we loved her for it. S really wanted to take her home and honestly she nearly had me convinced as well. We did not want to leave her at all.
But that day was the day we had set aside for hiking. S had found a really nice trail with a waterfall at the end and we set off on the road. The scenery the entire way was something else, lush green almost all the way through with little raindrops here and there making the air breezy and cool. The roads were long and winding and genuinely pretty to drive through.
We reached the trailhead after about an hour of driving. The hike is called Kabbe and it is supposed to be about one and a half hours up and an hour back down. The moment we stepped through the tree cover and out onto the open grasslands we could not see a thing. The mist and clouds had completely settled onto the ground. It was the kind of weather you rarely see in the south and the sight was honestly breathtaking. There were people walking just twenty metres ahead of us and we could not make them out at all. As we started climbing the clouds slowly began to clear and we could see everyone below us and just how vast the valley was spreading out in every direction.
It took us a while to reach the top but it was so worth it. There was a slight drizzle hitting our faces the whole time which made it feel at least five degrees cooler than it actually was. We ended up taking a lot of pictures at the top. The cloud layer on the other side of the valley was so thick and dense that it looked like a solid white wall had been placed at the edge of the world.
After the hike we decided to head back to Madikeri for an early dinner at a place called Raintree. The owner had worked in almost every top tier restaurant before deciding to open something of his own here and you could tell. The food was excellent, probably the best meal we had the entire trip. After dinner we walked over to the Raja's Tomb. The entire garden there is built in a staircase pattern and from almost every spot you can see deep into the valley below. It was a really nice way to wind down after a full day.
We headed back to the Airbnb a little early that night, partly to rest and partly because we both knew the cat would be waiting. She was. That night she came inside, helped herself to whatever was left of our dinner and made herself completely at home. At some point she climbed onto the bed, curled up and just fell asleep. I have never had an animal do that around me before and I was so taken by it that I genuinely did not want to move. S thought it was the funniest thing and kept placing the cat on top of me just to watch me get more attached. The cat clearly wanted to stay the night but after a long and tiring day we eventually had to wind down and she slipped out and slept on the balcony instead.
The last day we decided to take it easy. We woke up late and lazed around in bed for a while just figuring out what we wanted to do. Since we were in the middle of coffee country surrounded by estates it felt like the right time to do a plantation tour. We went to a place called Mercara Gold Estate which is one of the nicer spots that does these tours. It went on for just over an hour and was genuinely informative. It started with spices, fruits and flowers and then took us through the entire process of how coffee is made at the factory from start to finish. It was fun and unhurried and we ended it with a nice cappuccino which felt like the right way to close that chapter.
After the tour we went back to Madikeri and stopped at Ainmane for cold coffee and cookies. I had completely forgotten to mention that we had also stopped here on the first evening and it had been just as good then. We both picked up some coffee and chocolate to take back for friends in Bangalore.
The other thing we had both been looking forward to was the observatory in Coorg. It is one of only five in India and has large telescopes that let you see the stars with a clarity that is hard to come by otherwise, along with an observation deck. We got there a little early and the sky was heavily clouded over. The manager told us to wait about an hour and check back once it got fully dark to see if the clouds had cleared.
While we waited we spotted a pottery studio nearby and wandered in to have a look. We got talking to the owner and one thing led to another and we ended up signing up for an hour long class where we would each make something on the wheel. We were both a little hesitant at first but it seemed like such a fun thing to do and a genuinely nice way to take something back from the trip. So we put on our aprons and got started.
S was way better than me. She figured out how to knead the clay, how to shape the base and how to apply the right pressure on the wheel while it was spinning. We both took turns and made our own little things to take home. S made a cortado cup and I made a trinket tray. We are still waiting to receive them since they have to go through the oven and glazing process but S has been asking about them almost every other week for the last two months.
We went back to check on the stars after the pottery but the clouds had not budged and we could not see anything through the telescopes. A little anticlimactic but honestly the pottery had already made the evening. Neither of us expected to enjoy it as much as we did and it ended up being one of the best parts of the whole trip.
We drove back late that night and reached the Airbnb to a warm meal waiting for us. It was a perfect way to end our last evening in Madikeri. We were going to miss that cat more than we wanted to admit and we both knew it.
The next morning we woke up a little late, packed our bags and headed back towards Bangalore. On the way we stopped at Namdroling Monastery which is one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist settlements in India. I was not fully prepared for what was inside. Every single wall was hand painted from floor to ceiling, each panel telling its own story or depicting a moment with such attention to detail that you could stand in front of one section for a long time and keep finding something new in it. The colours were vivid in a way that did not feel excessive, deep reds and golds and blues that had clearly been applied with a lot of care and intention. And then there were the statues. Enormous does not quite cover it. They filled the temples from base to ceiling and every inch of them had been worked on, the robes, the expressions, the ornaments, all of it crafted with a level of precision that was hard to take in all at once. The whole place had a stillness to it that made you want to slow down and just look. It was one of those stops that you did not plan to spend much time at and then ended up staying much longer than you expected.
We left for Mysore after that and the drive back was easy and relaxed. We had both been looking forward to stopping at SAPA for coffee and bakes and it did not disappoint. We did a quick stop, got what we came for and then headed straight back home to Bangalore.
Good trip. The kind where you come back feeling like you actually went somewhere.