Saturday, September 7, 2013

Take a break, smell the coffee and head to Coorg


City dwellers have this strange obsession of finding a new place to spend their holiday. Our day-to-day life is so full of hollow, seemingly busy activities that we panic when there’s nothing to do. Yet we know that at times not doing anything is what we need to do. 

Coffee beans in Coorg
If you’ve figured this out, then you should be packing your bags for your first trip to somewhere in Coorg or the Kodagu district in Karnataka. As a bit of online research will tell you, Coorg is the land of coffee, pepper, honey and unending green cover. It’s called the Scotland of India. I’ve not seen Scotland, so I’m not sure about the aptness of this comparison. If it holds true, then Scotland must be a very beautiful place. 

You could go to Madikeri and look at the usual tourist sites and shop from the specialities of the district. If you are a fan of non-touristy destinations like me, then head towards Virajpet and then go deeper into the unexplored areas of Kodagu. 

Getting to Virajpet is easy. Local buses, including air conditioned Volvos run from Bangalore and Mysore. I took a local non-ac bus the first time I visited Virajpet. It took long, around 10 hours, but the sights from my un tinted, open window made-up for it. 

From the window seat of my rickety bus, I first saw Coorg and eventually started feeling it. You can’t recover from that kind of beauty. It’s the kind of beauty that made Wordsworth worship nature. You can’t be sure if it is for real. You’ve seen it in paintings and postcards somewhere.

The flat, brown landscape starts giving way to treacherous slopes guarded by coffee and pepper as you get closer to Kodagu district. The heat of the dusty cities gives way to fresh, coffee-smelling air. If you are lucky a few raindrops might drop-by as well. Then come the beautiful cottages, a welcome break from the never ending skyscrapers of the city. 

Once you conquer the awe of seeing Coorg, you start feeling it. All that quaint beauty tugs at you, pulls you in and heals you. It eases the weary mind, the tired body and the broken soul. It takes over, soothes you and nourishes you till you become a part of it. 
landscape in coorg

The warmth and hospitality of the people in Coorg will make you want to stay forever. Meat lovers won’t be disappointed as tradition Kodava cuisine favours the carnivores. Pig or pandi being the most popular delicacy. Vegetarians don’t despair. There’s the raw mango curry and a local variety of French beans to satiate your hunger. Of course there’s enough coffee and honey for everyone.

As you spend more time in this beautiful land, you realize that doing nothing is the greatest occupation. You can’t really come back from Coorg, some part of your mind will always wander off to the cloud covered hill-tops and the numerous coffee estates. As work consumes you, you’ll smell the coffee and take yourself back to the land that heals.