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Palace Estate Homestay

With most of my errands being unplanned and with friends, there was no much importance given to booking hotel rooms. Treks were spent looking up the sky, counting the stars and other biking or backpacking trips, it was crashing into a decent enough available hotel room. Last April when I planned to take my family to Coorg, I was lost in deciding on accommodation. Many web pages were viewed, reviews read; but of no help. Finally good freind and an avid traveller Arun recommended me Palace Estate Home stay near Kakkabbe in Coorg.

Though we started moring from Bangalore, it was close to four in the evening by the time we reached the homestay. Cool breeze welcomed us as we drove up the small hill to the portico. The beautiful view of the mountains and forests made us forget our tiredness. Palace Estate, a 50 acre farm, is run by Aparanda family where they grow coffee, orange, banana, cardamom, pepper and many other crops. The next two and half days were spent in the home stay with lazy walk in the farm and short visits around Coorg.

Location:
Palace Estate homestay is located in such a way that its so near but seems so far from the noices of civilization. A quiet, remote place which is perfect for a quiet holiday. Situated on top of a hill, standing in the balcony gives almost 270 degree view of the rolling hills & the forests. And you get to listen to only chirping of the birds all around. The places is approximately 25KMs from Virajpet and 35KMs from Madikeri (Coorg).

Activities:
If you are someone who want to leave the blaring city life behind for a day or two and enjoy the peaceful moments, this is the place for you. If you wish to explore the vicinity, you can hike Thadiyandamol which just 6 KMs from the homestay. Or go on walk within the farm, visit Nalnad Palace, Padi Igguthappa. Or browse through the books available in the small library.

Rooms & Food:
Rooms are spacious with attached toilets. Most of the rooms are on the first floor which are wooden constructions. Open varandah on the first floor gives a beautiful view of the forest range. The kitchen offers home cooked vegetarian & non vegetarian food, clean spring water & coffee.

How to get there:
Located a bit far off from the Virajapete and Madijkeri main road, it is advised to go on your own vehicle or taxi to reach this place. Here is the route -

Bangalore – Srirangapattana – Mysore – Hunsur – Thithimathi – Gonikoppa – Virajpet – Kadnoor – Cheyandane – Palace Estate

Near by places of interests:
Dubare Elephant camp, Bailukuppe, Nisargadhama, Abbi falls, Irpu falls, Nagarahole national park.

When you visit the place, switch off your cell phones, leave behind the noise back in the cities, just sit and linger with the nature and hills.

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Categories: Reviews & Analysis, Travel & Living.

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By Prashanth
— January 20, 2012 at 7:32 pm

All for none

My association with NH48 (stretch between Bangalore and Kunigal) goes a long way back to early 90s. What used to be couple of bus rides from Kunigal to Bangalore during vacations turned in to weekly journeys from Bangalore to Kunigal when I moved to Bangalore for my studies. Watching those beautiful trees passing by and enjoying the cool breeze was a pleasure. Gradually bus journies turned into bike rides and the journey became more beautiful. When I was on bike, I became part of the road. And then the horror struck – in the name of development, they decided to expand the road.

NH48, taken during winter of 2006
NH48, taken on a winter morning in 2006.

Those beautiful good old trees started going down one by one when the work started in 2007. With the road widening and countless number of diversion all along, I resorted to a alternate to traffic jams and delays. A quite less crowded route via Magadi. I forgot about that good old NH48 for almost 4 years since the alternate route via Magadi helped me avoid most of the city traffic as I used to exit out of Bangalore near Kengeri and then join Magadi. Quite recently while we are about to start our journey back to Bangalore, my cousin suggested that we take the NH48 as the work was completed. A new 4 lane road all the way to Nelamangala, with legal speed limit increased to 80 kmph from 50 kmph. It was a pleasure driving back to Bangalore. But that pleaseure was just interms of driving with newly laid, barren road.

All we got was – journey got reduced by 15 mins (only to get stuck for 30 mins in the long queue to pay the toll) for the cost of those old trees along a stretch of 48KMs. All for none.

4 Comments

Categories: Travel & Living.

By Prashanth
— December 15, 2011 at 9:53 pm

Dasara at Home

Dasara (Navarathri) has just concluded and here is a small video of Dasara doll arrangements at house. More than Dasara it was known to us as ‘Gombe habba’ (ಗೊಂಬೆ ಹಬ್ಬ) back when we were kids. For all the ten days during the festival, 50 to 60% of our living room used to get occupied with the dolls. Below is a small video shot by my sister of this year’s festivities (since there is no narration, I’ve tried my level best to explain the arrangements below the video) –

Top most step has ‘pattada gombe’ (ಪಟ್ಟದ ಗೊಂಬೆ) – depicting the royal family of Mysore. Next two steps goes for the Gods and Goddesses. Fourth and fifth has miniature crockery which my mom has collected over 40-45 years. Sixth step is a grocery shop (ಶೆಟ್ಟಿ ಅಂಗಡಿ/ನ್ಯಾಯಬೆಲೆ ಅಂಗಡಿ) – most of the groceries in the shop (especially cashew and Raisin) used to get emptied by me. And now my little nice has taken over that task from me. :)

This video was taken on ‘Saraswati pooje’ – right side of the arrangements has an idol of Goddess Saraswati, books. Left side of the arrangement has three different sets – first one is a wedding ceremony, left side of this set is of ‘Dasara Ambari’ (ದಸರಾ ಅಂಬಾರಿ). Behind the amabari is a 2 ft tall wooden doll which is dressed as Chamundi/Durga. My mom got this doll as wedding gift from her mother 35 years ago.

To the far left has a mini zoo and a small park which has toy train ride, food court, a fountain, a temple at the far corner atop a small hill.

PS: As there was no commentary during the video, my little nice offered to lend her voice with her humming and singing for the whole five minutes :)

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Categories: Art, Literature & Culture, Kannada & Karnataka.

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By Prashanth
— October 11, 2011 at 10:57 am

Back to reading spree

When I am travelling (read: while not driving/riding), I can do only two things – reading or sleeping. Continuous movement of the vehicle feels like a cradle to me. If I don’t have a book in my hands, and even if scenery outside the window is breathtaking, I can keep my eyes open for few minutes or maximum half an hour. Close to two and half to three hours commuting on a daily basis from/to office meant a book in hand always. Two-three years ago, I thought of and tried reading 50 books in one calendar year – that’s almost one per week. I was on track for five months till I switched from bus commute to bike. And after moving to Aberdeen four months ago, a visit to the nearest library to get registered got into my tasks list. Last week my procrastination skills failed me and I had to get the library membership.

Now I have three books in the stable. First one is – “Cycling Home from Siberia” by Rob Lilwall, a journey of 30,000 miles (48000 KMs) on cycle travelling through 28 countries over a period of 3 years. I am already half through the book. After riding in cold temperatures going as low as -40 degree C in Siberia, to Japan, China, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, now we have just escaped from the rascals of Papua New Guinea. And as I write this we are waiting for the rain and floods to reduce so that we can take the Kokoda trail to reach Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea.

Second one is “The Bonsai Grower“, collection of short stories by Sheena Blackhall and third one is again related to cycling – “The Flying Scotsman“, autobiography of Graeme Obree, a Scottish racing cyclist who built his cycle “Old Faithful” which included parts from a washing machine.

Time to get off the internet and bury myself between the pages… :)

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Categories: Personal & Others.

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By Prashanth
— May 17, 2011 at 6:06 pm