Definition of Pleasant surprise: Trip to Chikmanglur

How can one create pleasant surprises? Expect the worst... and when those are continuously exceeded... event after event... one gets amazing experiences.... the pleasant surprises.

Behind The Scenes
As the trip was planned three weeks ago, we were expecting a big gathering. As usual, there were a lot of drop-outs, and we were five of us... the darbaris (sumu, manoj, me), Meenu n Dilip.
Personally, for two reasons, I am pretty happy that Dilip joined the trip. First the last trek we (darbaris n dilip) did was almost two years back (to the Himalayas). Second, he needed a break, given all that he has been through off late.
Only at Friday 8pm we got back to the drawing board to freeze the plan. (We had to wait till we get all the confirmations of who are not coming). Then we were discussing two options: a night stay at Chikmanglur or a day trip to Sravana Belagola. We then decided to continue with Chikmanglur as planned, even though it meant a pinch to the pockets. After all we do not get time. We did not have a hotel booking but we have taken note of few hotel ‘prospects’. That’s the only prep we did.

Drive to Chikmanglur:
The next morning we planned to start by 8:30 but got delayed by an hour. The first thing we did was to get the flat tyre done. I had it over the last weekend. We did not want to take a chance on the highway and wanted to have the spare tyre handy. Then followed it with a big cruise to Yeshwantpur which took an hour. Next was a stop for breakfast. We stopped at Agarwal bhavan, near the Jalhalli circle on Tumkur road (a suggestion from Murali). It was awesome. You should taste the ghee filled Dosas and the curd vadas. Yummy!! We also got a few Kachoris and mini-samosas packed for the short-eats in the journey.
We started at 1200pm. The route we took was Peenya-Nelamangala-Kunigal-Chanarayapatna-Hasan-Belur-Chikmanglur. Till Nelamangala it was Tumkur national highway. The road is horrible because of the flyover construction. That’s one reason we did not touch the shimoga-chikmanglur route. From my past experience (with the former route), we preferred it. This is a state highway but is really good. Till Kunigal (80 kms from bangalore) the road is dotted with diversions and speed breakers. After that it is a zip through. There are only a few villages in this route, so not much of pedestrians crossing the highway.
Just after Chanarayapatna, we had a scare. Most of the highways in Karnataka have no indications of humps. We were caught unaware of one such hump, and Sumesh (For a change, this time I drove less. He was behind the steering of A-Star for most part of it.) had to bring the car to a screeching halt. Literally screeching, we also smelt burnt rubber from the tyres, while coming down to 0 from 120. The worst part is that the cars without ABS will start skidding at such great force. You need to experience, to understand how helpless a driver can be when car starts skidding away. Only two things can actually help in those situations: dirver’s skill and luck. And we had both coming to our rescue. We cleared that one off safely.
After crossing Hasan (200kms from Bangalore), we took a break at Kamat Upahaar/CCD at 2pm. We stretched our selves, then had the Kachoris and discarded the idea of having food at Kamat. One advise to those who plan to stop at this Kamat. The wash rooms are at least a one kilometre away from the actual entrance . So suggest you to stop after the CCD or the BP petrol pump, so that you can escape the long walk. We decided to sip some cold coffee from CCD. One interesting thing we found is a pedestal fan. The big fan had a mist blower. So the breeze which it was blowing was cold. I liked the idea of blowing some water mist from a fan. Despite all our efforts we could not figure out the make of the fan.
Anyways, we resumed our journey. We crossed Meenu’s fav windmills just before Belur. (Last time, in our trip to Manipal, we stopped here n took a lot of pics and videos.) By this time we came to know that the Hotel Grendale Stay was completely occupied for the night and had no rooms available. So we wanted to check the next one on our ‘prospect list’: Nature nirvana. Manoj had read a few negative reviews about this and wanted to be sure we are not heading for a wrong one. So he did some more research on web and found out that the approach road to this resort is not good. I then called them to check. The price they quoted was Rs1600 per head. This included the stay, three meals, trek n pickups. We thought it was a good deal given the cost of other hotels. (Grendale was charging 2000). However as a sales guy i cant help haggling and so I asked if they can give it for Rs. 1200. That guy did some calculations and enquiries and finally gave for Rs1200. Probably I should have asked for Rs.1000. :).
Our next scare was somewhere after Belur. We had to get the vehicle to another screeching halt. I do not remember now what happened exactly. Anyways all the way, it was pretty hot in our drive and we never realised we were in Western Ghats. As we neared Chikmanglur, suddenly there were showers. It suddenly dawned to us that we were in the hills. We rolled down the window panes and there was the rain. We have experienced the first rains of 2010. :). We went drenching to an ATM in Chikmanglur n I liked it. After experiencing the Bangalore summer, the nice heavy shower was the first pleasant surprise we had.
The resort was one of the bababudagundi hills.(check the story on wiki about him). So we took the Datta peeta road, in direction of kemmanagundi hills. We religiously followed the route which the hotel manager has sent. The message read “Reach Kaimara 7kms from chikmanglur, take left to Attingundi 16kms, reach Sampige katte 5kms”. Two things which are worth mentioning here: the western ghats are awe inspiring - every visit to them is always new. Next, a blind man telling us the way to Sampinge katte. We reached the village only to find out that there was no jeep waiting for us as promised. And there is also no signal to call the manager. Luckily Dilip’s BSNL number came handy. Remember to take a BSNL mobile if you are hitting Western Ghats next time around. After intimating the manager, it took more than 45 mins for the jeep. We were disappointed with that. But then our usual debates kept us occupied. We had a big discussion on Indian behaviour habits (I just came out from a Belgian delegation conference the previous day), the movie ‘Leader’ ( a new telugu movie) and other things.
Finally the jeep arrived, to take all of us to the resort. We requested for that as the next 7kms was a private road of the estate and is muddy, stone filled and can prove fatal with five people in the car. So except for me and the resort manager everyone went in the jeep. Both of us, cruised the next half an hour over the winding, dusty, stone filled, dangerous road. But I had an interesting conversation with him. Here are the few points which can be useful. A coffee estate would cost Rs. 6 to 10 lakh per acre. The amount to invest for seeds, pesticides and labour are Rs. 30,000 per year per acre. An acre would produce around one ton of coffee. It would fetch Rs. 70,000 per ton in market. So it 60% gross margins, better than IT businesses. :). An optimal business would be to have around 10 acres with around 30 labour. The peak time labour will go up to 90 in that case.

Stay at Nature Nirvana
The first glimpse of “Nature Nivrana” is itself a pleasant surprise. You would not imagine such a nicely made resort in middle of muddy roads, thick forest and plantations. It was quite good. Our welcome coffee was relaxing and rejuvenating. (They brew it for themselves). Then we started with Volley ball. I am playing this almost after a year. I liked the very thought of playing the game which i perfected in my engineering. For next 20mins, everything was going fine in the game until Meenu hit the ball over a fence into the dense plantations. Next ten mins we spent searching in the thick dark plantations, but to no avail. We gave up and started off with basket ball. The first, short, match we (manoj and me) scored two against zero (Sumu n Meenu). For the next match Dilip joined Sumesh and Meenu. Three of them scored better off.
By this time the snacks were ready. Pakodi/bajji. We savoured all of them and ordered for more. There was also a bigger group in the other side of the resort. These people were playing nice, loud music. So we spend sometime over there. Then back to business, we had a long discussion sessions over nice cocktails (vodka with mixed fruit and ice). A few things which I discovered over the conversations:
1. How Dilip avoided ragging in his college days?
2. Why Sumu never been into drugs and Manoj not been to drinking?
3. Meenu’s Engineering days at manipal.
I would leave it for you to find out the secrets from them.
After dinner we had a long session of “Hearts”. It is always fun to play cards. And when it is next to bon-fire it is just a pleasant surprise which you never think off. Sumu smoked for first time. At least i have not seen him do till that day. Gosh!! No wonder, I felt short of cigarettes that night.
Next morning we woke up early for a trek. We climbed through the thick plantations, through the steep slopes, crossing the streams. After a half an hour trek we reached the top sun-set point. From there we got a nice glimpse of the Mullanagiri mountain. We heard different versions, and one version says this is highest peak in Western Ghats. On our climb down we saw a mango tree witha height of more than 200 feet high. And the rest of the journey back was a discussion on can mango wood be used for making furniture.
We played dumb-charades as we waited for breakfast. That is again one game which I mastered in my college days, but now lost touch. We then had a heavy breakfast and set on our next expedition. We wanted to do some boating and get into the water falls. Unfortunately the boating was already occupied by the other group and we decided to go with our trek to waterfall. Though we had an option of a safer route, we preferred wading through the stream. We slowly trotted our way through the slippery rocks until I finally crashed. I was about to climb a big rock and suddenly my left foot slipped and I had a fall into the deep waters. Worst part is that I had a towel hung on my neck which absorbed water and bloated to weigh almost 2.5kgs. It did not allow me to come up and instead kept pulling me into water. After taking the towel from my neck, I could finally manage to come out. Then I realised I hurt my chest badly with the crash. Fortunately, no broken ribs. :). Finally we reached the water fall.
There is always this fear of getting into cold water, until one takes a plunge. That’s what we finally did. And then it was fun. The water, when it falls with a great force on the back, gives a feeling of soothing massage. And we experienced it for the next one hour. One always falls short of time when in water. Here I need to mention about this creep behind the water falls. It was so big and so dark that sumu invented this story of an anaconda hiding in the creep. The water fall experience is our final and big surprise. We never expected the resort to have such a nice and small private water fall.
We dried our selves basking in the sun and then walked our way back to the room. We then had a carom board session. First game, I beat Sumu. I should admit that the way I won the game was just out of the luck. I am never good with the striker. Next game Dilip too had a lucky hand at beating another pro, manoj. Now the final between Dilip and me is still pending. :).

Journey Back
We had a sumptuous lunch session, packed our bags and started on our journey back. We thanked and tipped the manager and the helper. It was because of them we had a very wonderful time. I would advise to stay at the resort to anyone who plan a trip to chikmanglur. On way back, dilip and myself drove back while Manoj, menu and sumu came in the resort jeep. Back on the highway we took a short break. The jeep-takers had to wash of themselves off the red-dust. I should here mention that the whole area is filled with iron-ore and hence has a lot of red dust around. You need to see to believe the dust which Manoj piled up on his hair or his shirt. Since the jeep ground clearance is high, the wheels, throw a lot of dust tangentially into air. This makes a jeep journey always a dirty experience. Literally. :).
I was behind the steering till chikmanglur so that sumesh can have a nap before gearing up. I missed the route somewhere in middle and got on to a road to mullanagiri (remember we saw it in the morning on the trek). Luckily we realised before it was too late and then retraced back. We reached Chikmanglur by 4:00pm (started at 2pm at resort). We wanted to buy coffee at Vijaya coffee traders or Panduranga. But both of these were closed as it was a Sunday. We filled fuel at the Indian oil pump immediately after crossing chikmanglur. It can come handy if you are planning a trip there.
On way back we had a few scares as well. Sumu tried overtaking a vehicle on a curve and he nearly gave heart attack to the Maruti 800 who was in opposite direction. :). We did a marathon driving session to cover the maximum distance before the sun sets. We reached Kunigal (120kms) by 6:20. We took a break at a small tea shop and had our fill. We resumed the last leg at 7 and reached Nelamangala by 8. This is the most difficult part of the journey since the highway was under construction and we had vehicles coming in opposite direction in the same lane. This was aggravated by lack of proper signs to indicate humps or diversions. We then had another scare, after that. There was Toyota corolla before us and he paused for a speed breaker pretty abruptly. This time around I was behind the wheel and had to get it to screeching halt. The wheels skid, but experience and luck again saved us. We took the NICE road to reach bannerughatta road and from there reached BTM. It was around 45kms from there and took 40 mins and a toll tax of Rs.60.
Overall the trip was awesome. The resort was lavish and as usual our conversations made it exciting.