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Quick weekend getaway

It's not exactly your plush resort to chill in, but if you're the out-n-about types Coorg Hallimane's where you can pitch camp

PHOTOS BY AUTHOR.

NATURE'S LUXURIES The resort near Kushalnagar

In the air of the night in the hills, I can feel the warmth of the bonfire and see the starlit sky. I can taste the hot onion pakodas melting in my mouth and savour the hot akki rottis with honey. But I can't hear the silence of the valley.

I'm listening to electronic music on large speakers, and there's lots of singing and clapping in the backyard of a resort in Coorg.

Sitting by Koodige Road near Coorg's Kushalnagar, at the base of a gently sloping hillock is Coorg Hallimane.

A few stumps of fresh green plantain dot the border and a hill rises from somewhere far behind the "eco-friendly holiday home" — a brick and stone building with a few balconies jutting out from the first floor and a sloping tiled roof.

The undiscovered Mallalli Falls

The whole building is structured around a sort of central courtyard — there's no formal reception area, lobby or lounge. A thin curtain fluttering in the wind separates the kitchen. "We wanted to keep off the hi-fi five star resort ambience," explains R.K. Bhat, MD of the resort.

But I'm just wondering if a steel almirah sitting awkwardly in the courtyard is part of that deal. "We are attempting to make a resort that will be in touch with the grassroots. We are not corporates. There are no gimmicks, there is no glitter. We are from the village and it is that innocence that we would like to show here. Vacations for us meant going to our grandmother's house in the village."

Innovative furniture

The resort at present has eight double rooms. Each room has furniture and cots hewn from a different kind of local wood — coconut, arecanut, teak and even bamboo have been used extensively to make doors and window frames too. All the rooms open into the courtyard and its supposed to give the close-knit family feel. "In fact it's ideal for a family to book it so that each generation can stay in a different room and have their space and yet come together for any activity." The food they offer is good traditional Coorg fare, with a mix of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. A breakfast of kadambuttu (rice balls) and nool puttu (rice flour vermicelli) with kaayi rasa and honey for accompaniment topped off with coffee starts the day with vigour and energy. There's also bread and omelettes or idlis for those who can't do without their standard fare. Lunch consists of a full-course meal with traditional delicacies like the fiery hurali-saaru (horse-gram sambhar) and ghee-soaked paaysa!

You could also request an ayurvedic massage. While a lot is still in the planning stage at the resort (they don't have a formal dining area yet!), right now it looks like a very basic place where you can dump your baggage and hit the road. Which is pretty much what young techies from Bangalore do, resort manager Manjunath tells us. And there is plenty to see and do. One of the packages that they offer is a trek to the little-known Mallalli Falls that doesn't really come in the tourist circuit. Most people tend to head toward the more popular Iruppu and Abbey falls. Mallalli Falls is about an hour's drive from the resort and then a six-kilometre trek literally up and down a foot-track that takes you to this waterfall. The waterfalls is on the Kumaradhara river and you can see the Kumaraparvata far off in the distance from beautiful viewing points atop big black boulders. The resort's adventure guide Shaji with manager Chandru will lead you to the point of a cliff from where the river falls off, allowing you a rare peek of a waterfall from above. After some playing about in the water and walking in the sun, a homey meal of saaru-anna, coconut loaded beans curry and fish curry at the Anchetira family home (the family cooks for trekkers on request from the resort) makes for a day well spent.

Spicy `naati' oranges for a song

Plans on the anvil at the resort include starting a vegetable garden, keeping cows and chicken at the resort so that people from the city, specially young children, get a new experience. They also plan intimate theatre experiences where the audience can participate, and one's own family is the spectator. Their idea is to club culture with adventure so soon they want to start go-karting, dirt track driving, river-crossing, rock climbing and other such activities. Over the year they plan to expand to a total of 25 rooms with cottages and dormitories for student groups.

The resort is 230 kilometres from Bangalore (about five hour's drive away) and three kilometres from Kushalnagar town, at Koodlur. The resort charges Rs. 1,200 per head with food. Children up to five years come in free; those aged five to 12 are levied a half-charge. If you don't want the food, and prefer to eat on the move, a room comes at Rs. 1,500 per day. Log onto www.bgrowholidays.com or call 94490-78126/ 08276-320617.

Coorg hopping

You could make day trips t the nearby elephant camp at Dubare or do a bit of sight-seeing at Madikeri (36 kilometres). You could make a day's picnic of visiting Cauvery Nisargadhama, a 64-acre island sanctuary where you can walk amidst bamboo groves (and hoards of noisy tourists if you are unlucky) or sit lazily on a swing in the sun if it's a quiet afternoon. Or you could go boating in the backwaters of the Cauvery. Don't miss the `naati' little oranges and cucumber they sell at the gate. Eat oranges a different way — they slice it in half and add red chilli powder and salt to it and you can squeeze the tang into your mouth! It would also be delightful to see the Namdroling Monastery at the Tibetan settlement of Bylakuppe by night — it makes for an iridescent and unforgettable sight.

BHUMIKA K.

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