Four Fountain Spa Review & A Contest

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contest, four fountain, giveaway, spa, sponsored review

Well who doesn’t like Spa’s, I love my regular dose of pampering at the spa. The relaxation with a massage, so when I was offered to try out the “Four Fountain Spa” long long ago I thought I must go and then happily forgot about it. Yes that’s typical of me and later many months later when I was going through my emails I chanced upon the email again (along with a follow-up too, bad me) and decided to try the spa out. They have branches which are widely spread and I visited the Kormangala branch.

The first look when you enter the place is that its clean and very efficiently designed with a good use of space. It’s not a large space but one doesn’t feel it because of the way they have managed space. The person on the reception was polite and well-informed of the process. I was taken for a small consultation where my routine and diet was understood post which I was suggested a treatment.

Coming to the treatment rooms, again basic but clean and well-managed. The person who gave me the massage was well trained and knew her stuff. I loved the massage and experienced exactly what they had promised an hour or so of bliss.

I have gone back couple of times post that and considering its so close to my house I think I am gonna keep going back too

After this experience when they asked me if I would like to host a contest and giveaway on my blog, I was like why not

So here is the question for you, answer and you could win an hour of bliss too.

Tell us why we should give this voucher to someone you think really needs it.

So think of someone you would want to gift this voucher too and let us know with a reason in comments below.

There are two vouchers up for grabs so put your thinking caps on and start typing

The contest is valid across India and the vouchers can be redeemed at the centers mentioned at their website

The winners will be decided by Four Fountain team and the decision will be final

The last date for entering the contest is 7th June, 2013

Colors Galore – A short Break at Mugilu, Sakleshpur

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Highway tales, mugilu, sakleshpur, travel, travel tales, weekend break from bangalore

The gorgeous colors of Mugilu

Couple of weekends ago, while the child was in my mum’s house in Delhi for the summer vacation, me and N decided to take off on a small couple getaway. A break with just the two of us after 5 years. We didn’t really a lot of time since we were both taking a longish break in May for trip to Kufri and Delhi (and for N even beyond to Kaza and Spiti) we decided we will do only a three trip and hence began the search for places around. Being the travel lovers that we are, we had done most of the people that were coming up in searches and recos and then suddenly Cookie mentioned Mugilu, I saw the website and had a faint recollection that someone else had recoed it to me too and remembered it was Ruth. We called and booked the place without further delay. Mugilu is in Sakleshpur which is a small hilly town in the Malnad region. Mugilu is about 263kms from Bangalore and can be reached via the Bangalore-Mangalore Highway (here is the google map). Most of the roads are great apart from a small stretch where there was some construction going on and it was all dug up. When we drove through, the roads on either side were covered with flaming red flowers, sugarcane vendors in parts too, there was also a small part where the road was completely covered with a canopy of red flowers. What a site it was.

The other bad patch of road was the last stretch to Mugilu after taking a detour from the main State Highway, it was a mud road but the driving enthusiasts that we are we actually loved that and were zipping away flying loads some dust behind us and when we reached Mugilu we saw a sign that read “Bad roads lead to great destinations” and we were like bad roads, where? when?

yes thats us 🙂

Mugilu is a lovely place if you want to do nothing and just chill out,  read some books, take endless walks in the coffee estate exploring new leaves that are growing, the fruits and veggies they grow, some random stuff here and there.

Some lovely sights we captured during our walks

There also is a pretty big meadow just behing Mugilu where you can take well some more walks, what we did there apart from taking walks was try our hands at some drifting. An open meadow, a car that can catch speed, no traffic its a perfect recipe for drifting 🙂

Beyond the meadow if you keep walking is a small stream around which we can take some more walks. I am told there is a fort and a church that are close by and should or can be visited but we were a lazy couple in that holiday and did nothing of that sort.

Mugilu is run by a very sweet couple Sapna & Chandan who are from Bangalore too but moved to Sakleshpur some years ago in search of a quieter life, what they are doing almost seems like the dream I had retiring in peace in the hills while I am young, just that they have taken the plunge while I have not. We spent a lot of time with them talking about just anything that we would fancy from the planters club and how people behave there to how fireflies would take over Mugilu in June (next year I am so going there to check that out) to food and how they get around buying that property.  During our chats it turned out that Chandan & Sapna enjyong offroading too and own a jeep for that and that made the conversations much more interesting 🙂 The food at Mugilu is lovely too, fuss free local cuisine, I loved the akki rotis and chicken curries that I eat there.

Shunti – The dog at Mugilu, we so fell in love with her. She accompanied us to all our walks 🙂

Another thing that is lovely about Mugilu is that it is a pet friendly homestay, while we were there, there actually was a family that had come with a pet of their own dog which was happy being there and making friends with Shunti but couldn’t get along with the other dog they had because of which we couldn’t get around making friends with him

While you are in Mugilu one thing you should not miss is the sunset, gorgeous colors

In short, I recommend Mugilu to everyone who wants to do a short do nothing vacation a short drive away from Bangalore and they tell me its gorgeous while it rains

Reservation and tariff details on their website here and FB page here

Gulabi, Bemba and a head : Book Review (The Spy Who Lost Her Head by Jane De Suza)

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book, review, the spy who lost her head

When a friend has written a book and you pick it up, it’s always a tough situation. What if you don’t like the book? What if it doesn’t match up to the expectations you have from your friend. Will your friend’s funny bone reflect in the book or will it fall flat on your face. These were some of the thoughts with which I started reading “The Spy Who Lost Her Head by Jane De Suza”. Jane is a fellow blogger (blog link) and has become a friend too. Her blog Jane Kidding is a hilarious read I kid you not and that is what reflects in the book too.

The book is about Gulabi, a village belle who comes to town to search for her man, her BEMBA (read the book to know what it means, I am not gonna tell you) and turns into a James Bond style super spy. The city takes Gulabi with surprise and the effect of Gulabi and her Queen English is similar on the city and its people. In the process of finding her Bemba, Gulabi, who somewhere becomes Pink Rose in the book, lands with an additional head which she inturns loses and creates a mystery.

The book is a roller coaster ride of humor, I kid you not when I say that there is no moment in the book when you will not be laughing out aloud. The characters are very well defined and clearly seem to have a mind of their own. Whether its Gulabi herself or the landlord which she keeps forcing to believe is her Bemba, Tanya the other roommate and a journalist who tries hard to turn the village belle in a city girl.

The only little small crib I had from the book was that the climax somehow seemed a little rushed to me. Else it kept me laughing and engrossed through and through.

In the end like I said on Gulabi’s FB page “me spending two nights with you. Laafffing too much and then crying with laffter. My head is hurting with laffter but I am still spending night with you. Gulabi you are too good. My Bemba might get angry with me but I am still spending night with you laffing :)”

Go pick up the book now and I promise you won’t regret.

Rating 4/5

Book The Spy Who Lost Her Head by

Authors  Jane De Suza

Price Rs 250/-

Flipkart Link – BUY HERE