Kurumba Village Resort - A Trip..

16-apr-08

We had planned to start at 5 am sharp, tomorrow, since we need to reach the resort by noon, the check-in time (I booked/ paid in advance). Wife kept alarm at 4 am. But I asked her, “ should I also set alarm in my fone?” she said

‘No need’ ….

(Our cook had come in the evening and while cooking, saying the weather is hot, she kept the door (to balcony) open and thus mosquitoes already entered the house and hid at tactical places, without my knowledge)

It really was a hot night. I can’t sleep just under the fan as it might give a stiff neck (coz of my cervical spondylosis) . Can’t keep the windows open since there might be some disturbance (honking, police siren, dogs) and I am a light sleeper (who actually needs some sleep)….we decided to go to bed very early….

There came a thought about my friends… it wasn’t pleasant. I felt a lil sad…. then I felt like sending a mail to a friend….but the internet wasn’t working since an hour or so….but then I saw it started working… I sent a one-liner …before I could do anything with the net, it failed again….

I stayed awake for sometime….then I slept, may be by 11 or 11.30 …

Within 10-15 minutes I woke up again… it was hot… I got up and opened the windows.. I saw some dogs running towards my apartment's direction, barking (not at me !) … so I closed the windows … mosquitoes…. Then I decided to sleep in the hall switching on the far off fan, by that time it became 1 am, already… I could not sleep…then I thought of some pleasant moments in my life, to comfort myself…and …

17-apr-08

“Wake up, we are already late!” wife woke me up… so its already 4 am…. “ its 4.20, get up, I woke up at 4 am and thought that I will snooze for a short while but I fell asleep…” said my wife…

“very good…I told you that I will also keep the alarm…”..

The other day , I did some swimming, there was some running around, went to gym at night, did not drink enough water and did not get enough sleep too… so I felt like I just came out of my grave…, tired…

Then for a moment I thought – should I blame her and crib? Then the mood will go…that will spoil the enjoyment of the trip….anyway we cant help , we are late and just accept it and start as early as possible … then I thought of some alternative options, drive a lil more fast (which I couldn’t convince myself), reduce rest in between…. not to drink enough water so that I don’t have to stop to pee many times….

When we all got ready, it became 5.35… and we started by 5.47 sharp. 47 minutes late !!

The result? From my apartment itself, there was traffic, though not that heavy.. I couldn’t reach the main road (to Mysore) in time..

Main road, the Highway, too had traffic, but it wasn’t that heavy…I was the fastest on the road, on that time and I overtook all the vehicles that were in front of me, at some point of time, I touched 150 km/hr, may be the maximum my car can go… I tried to keep some steady speed and the result?



Wife had told me that we need 2 and a half to 3 hours to reach Mysore (she collected this info from the net, reading many trip diaries).. I reached Mysore in one hour and 40 minutes, pretty well. So, now we are not running 47 minutes late.. relief !

The ride through the Bandipur forest region was very good. The road was good (half the way), we were lucky to spot some elephants…



But we weren’t that lucky to spot any leopard or deer or peacocks (if you hit any animal, you straight away go to jail). Forest fire is common here and we saw a stretch like that, with burnt trees.



There were bad roads stretching to 12 km, filled with lots of potholes. I took more than half an hour to cover this. (I love my car - any car that I drive - and hence I never move fast on bad roads).

We stopped at Mysore to have breakfast. I checked mails using my mobile and was happy that I got a reply from a friend and a :) too….

There were 36 hairpin curves to climb up and then 10 to climb down to reach our resort. We reached there well in time, by 12.41 pm, sharp !

The way to (from the road we need to take a side route) the resort was very ‘steeply down’, that too with a sharp curve. For a moment, I thought the tyre might slip and we might hit somewhere and topple. But that did not happen…

Our cottage was near the office/restaurant/pool (I made such a request when I booked). One thing I observed was the use of more wood/bamboo and very less plastic. The door handle, towel rods, lamp units, everything was wooden. Even the electric switches were of Bakelite.







The bath room was very clean. Every cottage had individual electric geyser. So we always had hot water.



My mobile did not work there. It looks like only BSNL connections will work, as of now. TV had very limited channels (one Hindi, one Tamil and one news), no news paper… totally cut from the outside world but in to the deep nature..




We had our lunch. The food was nice( lots of food – sweet corn soup, veg salad, ghee rice, fried rice, plain rice, pulao, roti, dhal thadka, pickles, papad, rasam, pulissery, curd rice, beef fry, fish fry, chicken curry, ice cream, fruits salad, chocolate moose…..).




We took a table at the end so that we can see the hills and forest. The place where this resort is located is not fully natural.




Its mainly an estate. The main plantation is Nutmeg and cloves. But everywhere we turn, its green. Filled with trees.






The place around had a stream (may be coz its summer and later it might become a lil more wider with more water flowing) and then there is pure nature, untouched by humans. It is sort of forest. There were lots of hills around and rocks too….. after all, this is a hill station…..The air was fresh, the weather was cool, though it was summer….




After lunch, we took rest… In the evening, I went to try out the pool. The deep zone was only 5 foot 6 inches, which was safe for me. The pool was good , neat and clear. Initially I did not use any goggles and hence my eyes became red…




Then there was this complementary tea and snacks. Thy were making it fresh. We tell them what we want (from a limited choice like potato baji, onion baji, capsicum baji etc) and the cook will make the snack just for us.

Wife and son borrowed some books and started reading….I spent the time just watching the nature, listening to the sound of the stream, birds etc. ..there were many sight seeing packages which I did not opt for. There were lots of monkeys and birds. There are about 40 types of birds in and around this resort area. I saw only four different types. But we can hear many different types of chirping sounds.



It became night and its dinner time (hot and sour soup, salads, chapatti, noodles, fried rice, plain rice, pepper chicken, beef fry, Chinese chicken, veg cutlet, ice cream, payasam, carrot halwa…)

It became cold. We needed a blanket to cover at night. I enjoyed the cold weather and night….There were lots of glow worms. I managed to catch one and kept it inside my room for a minute to take a pic. But the interesting thing was, as soon as the camera’s focus light fell on it, it stopped glowing…...Good Night…

18-apr-08

I woke up at 6.30 am but stayed in the bed just thinking… …lots of birdie sounds…and the sound of the running stream ….. it was cold and pleasant

A group of monkeys came to visit us... A 'guy' tried to break into the room..He looked like the chief of that group. I gave banana to a couple of them.




We were curious to checkout the breakfast items. There were a lot – corn flake, choco flake, orange juice, pine apple juice, pine apple, papaya, idli, sambar, coconut chutney, tomato and chilly chutney, vada, varieties of dosa and egg items (they will make exclusively for us), puri, potato sagu, chicken sausage, potato fry, tomato fry, bread toast, ragi upma, tea, coffee….

I kept a plate of food on the table and went to take a cup of coffee…and a monkey came and took one puri from my plate, though my wife and son was sitting in the table, they could not do anything… a staff came to take the plate with the rest of the food but I told him I don’t have any issue and I will eat it (share it with monkey). But he did not allow me, he said it’s not healthy and it is unhygienic. He was not ready to take any risk.

Then we visited the stream. Spent lot of time there just playing in the cold water…it was refreshing.. then walked around, rested some time in hammocks, then it became lunch time again….




I did not go to the pool in the evening, but spent time near the stream. I used the pleasant and blessed condition for a quick meditation. It was soo relaxing. …

The thought of ‘we need to leave tomorrow morning’ made all of us a lil disappointed. So we decided not to think about it.

There was camp fire, live music and a housie game at night… it was fun

It became dinner time… it was very cold. I loved that weather. But son did not like it. We did not bring any winter wear even for him…. Back to cottage

19-apr-08

Monkey visit....but nothing to give...

Decided to vacate after breakfast. And also decided to take a different route to go back home. It was said that the new route is more scenic, though we need to travel about 30 km extra. Wife collected this info from somebody’s travel diary. It had also said that, though we need to travel extra distance, the road is much better and there is no hairpin bends. I wasn’t worried about the hairpin curves, which I was very comfortable with. Good road, more scenic and trying a new route… that sounded fine to me…. But?

That was the biggest and only blunder we made during the entire trip (except that we did not carry the charger for the camera). It was scenic, but our camera had no power to take snaps.




The road? Horrible… pathetic…it was nothing but a collection of potholes…At many places, road work is going on…. I was on first and second gear for more than 10- 15 kilometers … thus wasted lots of petrol… now I cant calculate the average mileage my car gave for the trip…. then the wear and tear… car started to produce some creaky sounds… was it only 30 extra kilometers? Nope, at the end, we realized that we travelled at least 50 kilometers extra, that too which had a long stretch of bad roads…

We knew that we wont reach home as per our plan. I don’t like driving at night in the highways coz of two main reasons. One, my car is not fitted with hi-power halogen bulb and the second is most of the vehicles plying will be using those bulbs that too with high beam... so, I decided to take a by-pass which had 10 extra kilometers (than cutting thru the Mysore city) but offered good road. Race ….race …race… race with every car that you see in front of you….. this time, I could not defeat two cars – a Hyundai Terracan and a Skoda Octavia, both high end cars …..

When we reached near our apartment, we stopped to buy dinner and stretch our legs. My knees were paining due to that 10 km of half clutch driving…. But it became OK in a few minutes of walk.

Back home, it was hot…. Fan, cold water bath…. Then wife asked

“ are you not going to check mails?” , she gave a kind of smile…she knew that I was eagerly waiting for that…

“yes, I am” …….

“how many mails are there?”

“46….but mostly from the resident’s association and then the news letters I subscribe…no mails from any of my friends…”

I had told almost every friend I am in touch with that I am going…but, not even a single ‘happy journey’, not even a single ‘ where are you going’ ….not even a single ‘ how are you doing’….not even a single….

Sigh…. Wife looked at me, my face, read something….

“People go for vacations, and sometimes our friends may not wish a happy journey, so forget it”

Sometimes my wife is wise…..