Travelling had never been my cup of tea. Staying in another city for work, I was always ever-ready to go home to my family. Home seemed like life for me. The little fights with my sister, happy gossip with my parents, and yes, the best of all – mom made food is what I craved for all the time.

I have a group of friends at office, who always loved to discover new interests, roam around and try different tastes around the world. I liked the stories they tell after returning from travel and the enthusiasm with which they narrate them. Listening to them created a love for travelling within me, unknowingly. I decided I needed a story for myself. I want a story to tell when I come back.

I thought about what I loved the most about home. Why do I always want to go back home ? It’s that homely feeling and togetherness. I began to search the same in my friends and soon my encounters with them turned into fun meetings, crazy moments and laughter riots.  Then I decided to add more madness in my life and decided to join them for my first trip, and soon the list never stopped 🙂

One of my friends has a fascination to visit all Shaki Peetams within the country. Gradually, I also started gaining interest in this idea. This time, it was Chamundeshwari temple, located in Mysore, which is one of the 18 Shakti Peethams. We extended the trip to cover Coorg, as it was an interest pending for a long time now. Another friend of mine was desperate about beaches, and included Mangalore beach on the list.

So we, a group of five, planned a 3 day trip to cover Mysore, Coorg and Mangalore. Initially, this trip didn’t attract me much, because in a span of 2 months, this was our second trip and earlier one had left no good memories. I tried to skip this trip, but somehow tried my luck.

Best moments happen unplanned is what we believed, we prepared itinerary every time just to not follow it 😛 I literally had no idea of what are we going to see and how are we were going to spend those 3 days. I chose to keep it a surprise for myself! The home stays usually attract me while planning, so I only know that we would be staying in a beautiful home stay in Coorg and that was enough for me.

On our journey day, we had a train to catch in the evening, and my friend, who was travelling along, got stuck up with a whole mess of work that his boss dumped on him in the last minute. Obviously he is my friend and he knows how to handle these kind of situations :P. He gave chakma (played a trick) to his manager and left the office in time. We caught our train on time, Uff.

Train journey with friends is always fun, full of laughter and food. Our friend got yummy home-made vegetable biryani and we ordered some starters. We had our dinner, laughed our hearts out and had a sound sleep.

Busy roads, noisy horns, dusty air, the city life. We exactly got the same feeling while roaming in the city, found no big difference from the place we come from.

Soon, we had a complete South Indian breakfast; and the filter coffee which always takes a special place in the heart.

We didn’t have any pre-booked stay in Mysore. On fly, we took an OYO residency for 2 hours to fresh up. We then started to Chamundeshwari Temple, located on the Chamundi Hills. We reached the temple at around 11:30 AM completed our darshan in an hour. We had fun roaming around on the temple streets, bargaining at the little store there and got some cool stuff back home.

After the darshan, we were off to Coorg. The road trip was exceptionally beautiful, full of greenery.   Our actual plan was to reach our stay and then visit either Abbey waterfalls or do some river rafting nearby. It was already late by the time we reached Coorg, so we dropped our plan and searched Google maps for any nearby tourist spot to visit. We found Chiklihole Reservoir which also gets closed by 5 PM. We skipped our lunch and drove as fast as we could. Despite of our efforts, the dam was closed by the time we reached there. But guess what!  we had great fun entering the Dam from backside and viewing it all alone. Only we five were there and we made best of it.

The shape of the dam is unique; it has a curve like structure. The water flow which increases at times offers a breath taking view as it looks like floating white cream, with tiny droplets of water sprinkling on us. We had a splendid view of sunset from the dam, which multiplied our excitement. This was one of our best sights till then. We praised our gods for making us late, had we reached on time, we would have missed that madness.

It was no less an adventure to reach the homestay we booked as it was located away from the city, somewhere in the forest. We drove for almost 2 hours and thought we were lost, but finally with the help of some locals, got the contact number of the owner and from there, he guided us. We reached our stay at 9 PM. That was a beautiful place run by a family, which had the best cooks. The house gave me a feeling of my Grandparents home, full of greenery and little pets all around – Hamsters, Rabbits, Guinea birds. The rooms were vast with beautiful balconies.

We spent some time sitting in the balcony, looking at the sky, gazing the stars. No honking, no chaos and cacophony, free from pollution, pleasant balcony view. We lived all those moments which we missed in Cities.

Early morning walks, green run ways escorting you, beautiful huts and small temples at every corner, what else could anyone wish for!

After walking for about 1 km, there were some steps downwards, which led to a water fall. There was a small Lord Shiva temple at the waterfall which caught our attention.

We jumped like free souls trying to reach skies.  We snapped all our emotions and walked back to our stay.

Later when my friend got a small bruise, owner of our stay was very generous, and she attended the wound and aided that with some medicine and cotton.

We had no plan for the day, so we went by our random instincts and decided to visit an ancient cars museum, The Vintage Cars Collection. For a car lover, this is a dream. They had the rarest of collection and it felt fantastic to see old Fords, Hillmans, and for sure the once most used Ambassadors.

We have a photographer in our gang and this guy makes sure to click some awesome memories to relive after every trip.  

Coorg is a place for nature lovers.

The road journey was exceptionally wonderful with lush greenery and rainfalls. Down your window pane, listen to your favourite music and let those tiny droplets tease you, you will have a constant smile pasted on your face 🙂

We bought the famous Coffee Powder and hand made chocolates to take back home.

 Our plan was a little tight as our wish-list was big. We then drove to reach Mangalore Panambur beach. It was 7PM by the time we reached, and the beache was already closed. We spent some time in the sand, making sand castles, destroying them and tasting food varieties at the beach. It drizzled for a while, and after a day long drive, all we needed was a sleep in the sand, with a few drizzles on our faces. It felt relaxing.

We did not book any stay for that night in Mangalore. Our next instinct was to watch a movie. We booked for Gang-leader movie show. We were all so tired after the movie, that we really really needed a good night’s sleep. We booked an OYO for that night, and started back to Mysore the next morning.

We had tea and omelette for breakfast, on a road side stall.

We reached Mysore around 1 PM and we were left with a few hours to catch our train back home. We decided to drive to the bird sanctuary nearby.

We returned the car we rented and boarded the train back home.

We primarily planned this trip for the temple, and then visited the places that caught our attention. But I felt, there are many more incredible sights which we missed due to the lack of time. Given a chance, would love to visit Coorg again, slowly taking the pleasure of nature. 

The sceneries on the Google images or the Wikipedia descriptions would never excite me before any trip, but the company and the fun quotient is what fuels me on trips. While planning for this trip, I was not sure if I would enjoy this trip, but I can now say that this trip is one of my best trips !