Generally what I write is a mish mash of the ‘unhappened’, ‘could have happened’, and ‘why it did not happen’.. I hardly feel the need to write the ‘what happened’. Well maybe I’d rather not save my experiences for posterity, I’d rather just let myself keep what I need in my head and forget the rest. Why would I need to save what has already happened? I was there, may be I’ll remember, and if u weren’t, why would you care anyway. If I forget in a while, which might well just happen, it is great – for the next time I have such an experience I wont have the baggage of previous great experiences to beat. Ok, that s an ‘eternal sunshine of the spotless mind’ moment. Yea, there is nothing of that sort on this planet, we don’t have that luxury, the ghosts of our past will catch up, memories make past experiences seem ever more enchanting, people seem more interesting than they ever were, I’l imagine myself younger and more energetic than I ever was. The world would seem less spoiled, more green. Blemishes are forgotten and yet faults get exaggerated, reality mixed with the imagined served on a platter the need of the hour.
Anyhow, let me try and write something on this very interesting weekend
So the story starts with the stated - unstated need to boast, hey what did u do this weekend – nothing? Shee, what did u do last weekend – NOTHING!! .. oh mi gawd.. u know.. I went to Coorg.. how cool am i!
Well for whatever the reasons may be, the weekend was a treasure to be stored for posterity. So it was me, her, two old and yet new friends, a driver and a car, few coconut laddus, namkeen, a DVD with random videos and a half baked plan. The decision to go was in the morning and we left in the night, so we found ourselves at our fist pee spot couple of hours too early for things we could do close by, and the only thing we could was too far away to make. What made up was the amazing drive from the pee spot to Madikeri, the winding road had really beautiful scenery on both sides, tall trees and coffee.
We reached the first spot called Raja seat, and of course we took this winding trail to nowhere, with picture book steep ravine on one side with fern covered rocks with hardly a feet of the train in between. We only reached a little late to see the sun-rise which any way was on the wrong side of the mountain.
Breakfast of puttu- which is rice flour steamed with grated coconut, with ‘kadala curry’. Puttu was nice, my girl and I ordered. the two friends, one from somewhere up north, the other a fake Hyderabady, took a ‘safer’ bet by ordering idli which turned out to be good for the old guns in the madikeri fort as ammo. So puttu went down with steaming coorg ka cofi in dirty half cracked glasses.
Break fast followed by a random search for a place to stay, so we found one soon enuf and cheap enuf too, so there were three beds for 4 of us, space enuf. The girls didn’t mind, which was good enuf. So we have a room and lots of time.. so we start.. for TalaCauvery, a farce if ever there was one. There was enuf water to drown a mouse. Let alone white water rafting the website promised. We went to the Sangam which was the meeting point of three rivers, how exciting. I could imagine three rivers flowing into each other, with the force enough to smother a mountain and.. hm.. we see a small little piss pot of a stream.
Lunch back in Madikeri preceeded a reluctant us heading to Abbey Falls. The driver showed the most enthusiasm, he being happy that his meter was clocking his rupees. What followed was a different story. I took a small dirt trail and other came along, this led to a stream, rock strewn, slippery with moss and irresistibly attractive and beautiful. There was no way we couldn’t not walk down. My girl was all enthusiasm for it. We kept at it, balancing on tottering rocks raising flocks of mosquitoes and bugs. So finally we reached the place under the bridge which is the main vantage point for tourists. We were the only idiots not on it, and we were the object of ridicule / amazement for many on it. Few more minutes saw a gesticulating policeman blowing his whistle and shouting in Kannada. Among the indecipherable shit what he said, it was clear we weren’t supposed to be where we were. Blows looked imminent. We climbed up a trail to the wrong side of the footbridge, there was a locked gate and very angry policeman on the other side. The guy obviously wanted us to climb over. He pointed at me, again the message was very clear, you piece of shit, climb over and I am going to beat some sense into you. Well, obviously I hesitated.
Presence of mind is a nice thing, and so is guts. Suha jumps over immediately. The cop cant well beat a woman. We follow.
From here we drove back to see the sun set. Then a fort nearby. The small confused streets, old architecture, metamorphic clouds, bright flowers and suha, all made for a nice pleasant feeling. We sat on the walls of the fort till night fell. Some nice pics taken today, we sat and saw them.
Later the girls fell asleep. I and ankesh went for dinner. Next morning I woke up next to her, nice morning. Pari was most enthusiastic and generally pushed us all out of bed by 6. Ankesh managed to sleep lil more.
We reached Dubare the elephant camp. The drive was again beautiful. We overshot the sign in a very filmy way and reversed into the right road. the camp was the other side of a stream. We could see elephants bathing from here.
Bathing the beast: when you washing the largest animal on land, you’d feel a little threatened. But the guys here were rather nice, and showed a sort of patient indifference the general molestation. Again, I took a lot of pics. The girls enjoyed a lot. Anyhow, you can wash an elephant only for so long. so we walked around, and I said, lets go climb a tree. J we did actually. Four of us on top and the camera below. Anybody who walked our way was asked to take a few pics. Funny stuff.
Later we went to nisargadhama, a park by the river. After trying the swings and even a see-saw! We sat down in a machan - watch towers set on bamboo thickets. Some coziness got us stares from distraught parents and single men. After this we got lost in the park and walked around pulling around a sulking pari. after about an hour we found neat spot to take a dip in the river. So we did. We floated around in the shallow waters under tall trees. It looked like a place that would be a lot more threatening when the river was high. It was mellow enough now.
Most of the day was done, time to go back. The drive back began, we stopped at a Tibetian monastery on the way – the prayer halls are amazing. Then the long drive back. Suha curled up on me. we all played antakhsari. I cant sing to save my life. yet I pretended to. Got caught soon. Then people fell asleep one by one.