Coorg or Bust?

I've been wanting to go to Coorg since I came here. It is written about as an idealic, green slice of heaven - the Scotland of India. Chandan has been listening to this desire and we decided that we would go when his girlfriend came to town. Laura and Nancy agreed to go as well. And here is the foretelling statement - we were not able to get a room on-line, so asked Naveen, Ramesh's boss if he could find one. He said not to worry.

We set off earlyish Saturday morning. It's never the time that the driver would like, but it was early enough for us. The road we took is the old familiar road to Mysore. The turn off to Coorg comes just before Mysore. Ramesh had said the road was being repaired 6 months ago when he was last there. I'm sure he was right because it it still being worked on. In some places it was 60 mph to be stopped short quickly at a dirt road that merged into another speedy place. It just kept us all awake.

Our first stop was at the Golden Temple, a Buddhist temple. This and the surrounding area is the home of many Tibetan refugees. The monks were so colorful in maroon and beige-gold robes. We were also treated to the drums and horn playing that calls the monks to their prayers and mantras. It was very exciting to hear. The Temple was beautiful. It was amazing to see this totally diverse community in the middle of Karnataka. It was like having Chow Young Fat wandering around. These are very striking people.

Our driver was supposed to take us to a cultural event. But he suggested the elephant park instead. Chandan wanted to see the elephants. He had a vision of a wild animal park where the elephants roam fairly freely. I felt bad that he didn't get to share that experience with us. Instead, we were in a bamboo forest with two poor elephants being prodded into walking a short circle. I knew I wasn't going to get on top of any elephant. I'm too stiff and un-sure-footed. So I found this little elephant statue and climbed on board. Even that maneuver had my friends gasping for fear I'd end up head over tea kettle. I got on and give my best Yippie-ki-yi-yo whoop. A proud moment for all old ladies everywhere.

Nancy was more bold. She actually got up on the elephant. The trip was ruined for her, however, because all she could think of was "poor elephant." She feed the elephant 5 cucumbers when she got off the thing. That was the most fun for her. She is a pretty agile woman. She hopped down on to and up off of that elephant without a thought. I saw a lot of Indian's struggling to adjust themselves, but Nancy was all over the thing is seconds.
Despite Chandan's dismay, we had a good time there. Laura danced her way across a swinging bridge (fear drove her to scamper.) Chandan and Divya took pictures with Nancy's camera and chatted with us. They are such a nice couple. I would never ask Divya how old she is, but Chandan is younger than Adrian. He told Divya that he called me Mom. Mother hen, more like it. That has become the joke throughout the whole trip. One waiter stuttered on "Ma'am" and called me Ma'am Ma'am, which sounded like Mama. That was too much.

Have you guessed yet that we didn't find a room in Coorg? The driver and Chandan tried valiantly to find a place, but we had to go back to Mysore and stay in some dirty 2 star hotel that was found for us at the last minute. In the meantime, we were literally kidnapped and taken to a local Bollywood send up. Lots of people singing and dancing and making funny faces. It was all in Kannada, the local language. This was the cultural event that Naveen was determined to have us enjoy. Okay for 10 minutes amusement, but you know those Bollywood movies are 3 hours long. We left after 10 minutes and drove down the hill to Mysore in the dark. Got to the hotel at 11:00 at night.

I've been to Mysore 2 other times and have never seen the Palace. This time we did. I made it almost all the way through this beautiful building. Sweat was pouring down my back and I was afraid to lean on anything for fear of leaving a puddle. We left before we went up the long staircase to the dancing rooms. Our guide was so informative. We had a good time in there. You can see how pretty it is there. Isn't this a gorgeous bevy of beauties?

When Harriet, Harold and I were in Mysore 9 weeks earlier, we wanted to go up Chamundi Hill to see a panoramic view of the area. That day they had a "political protest" on the hill. Lots of police, lots of protesters. I finally got up the hill on Sunday. It was a pretty drive. There is a Hindu temple at the top of the hill. We didn't remove our shoes and walk through. We took plenty of pictures from the overlook, but Nancy and Laura both had their picture taken with a reclining cow at the temple. One of the sounds of this trip since Nancy arrived is "cow, cow, cow at 9:00." She is fascinated with all things cow. Divya and Chandan were in the back of the van this weekend. Divya often got Nancy's camera to try to get the one last shot of the cow. I think Nancy finally has photographed every cow in Bangalore and the road to Mysore.

We went back to the palace that night to get a picture or 100 of the palace lit up. This is what KJ and I wanted to see when we visited on our trip to Ooty. We just had gone to a hotel for a drink and then decided to drive by the palace on our way to dinner. There are more photos of everything: Palace, hill, temples, friends, on this website: http://www.picasaweb.google.com/pnorman811 . The palace is lit only on Sunday from 7:00 - 8:00. We timed this perfectly. Our driver was getting used to our unique style of traveling (changing our minds every two minutes.) It allowed us to see a lot during the weekend.

And now we are back "home", ready to go back to work. Divya is on her way to the airport to return to New Delhi and work. After all we did, it seemed like I had known her for a very long time. An all around excellent weekend.