Sinna Dorai, Kadamane : In the middle of tea heaven

Tags

bangalore to sakleshpur drive, Highway tales, highway travels, kadamane, sakleshpur, shettyhalli church, sinna dorai, travel tales

I (actually we, since pretty much all of us at home are the same, but since I am writing the blog I will stick to I) am sucker for places which are away from the main hustle bustle, the main tourist attractions. You will rarely see me vacationing in Ooty and even if I do we usually find places like Bellikal around ooty and not the main city. So last when we were looking for a spot to take a long weekend, we almost zeroed in on Valparai and on a little more research found this gorgeous looking bungalow called Sinna Dorai and then when we called them they were full and suggested us to look at their other bungalow in Kadamane and when we saw what we looked, we quiet liked it. So Sinna Dorai, Kadamane happened to us by chance and what a gorgeous looking chance. Would you complain if you were to reach a destination which is based in the middle of these tea estates?

and you have to drive through these roads to reach the place, most definitely a good chance, what do u say people?Now that I have your attention with these gorgeous pictures, I am wondering if I should let the photos do the talking in this post and make it a picture post or should I put some words here and there too. While I decide on that, let me show you the gorgeous porch chilling area of the place you drive into. The one view you get the minute you enter the gate of the sinna dorai

Kadamane falls under Sakleshpur district (read about Mugilu in Sakleshpur here, the post also has driving directions to Sakleshpur) , Once you reach the Sakleshpur town, you need to drive till Munzerabad Club – circa 1894 and past it till about 2.7 km ahead, At this point, the highway has a fork to the right with signs for the Sinna Dorai Bungalow. From here on follow the signs from and the gorgeous roads with twists and turns to reach the bungalow. We had clocked at 268km from kormangala to Sinna Dorai when we reached

Sinna Dorai is a beautiful old world plantation bungalow, clean filled with a little antiques here and there with very warm and courteous staff. The bungalow has three parts the lower cottage which is a suite kind of cottage, the partners wing and the twin cottage which have two rooms and the rooms in the house. We took the rooms in the house as we needed about 4 rooms together, when we reached we realised that the three rooms are in a row with the whole corridor and veranadah to ourselves which became our evening chat and drink adda.

The first day we reached there, we did nothing much apart from chilling and the kids running around the open free place. Ojas and his friends went mad running around

It was continuously drizzling and raining when we went there (which was in August if you are wondering) and it was such a pleasure taking long, walks on the winding roads of the tea estate, look the gorgeous woman plucking tender tea leaves and trying to have a conversation with them

The next day we did a visit to the Kadamane tea factory, the factory was closed that for operations but the guys gave us a quick handsdown on what happens when it’s operational and god we all got scared shit on the amount of pesticides and all we are having in our tea on a regular basis, sigh the dangerous lives we live.

The other place we visited many times while we were there was the view point, which was about 15-20 kms drive from where we were staying and the views there were breathtaking. Though it’s not a long drive but the difference in the height and view of the two places was considerable, you go to the view of a lovely valley and in summer the folks also arrange a picnic lunch there which we couldn’t because sitting there was just out of the question as due to rains the place was infested with leeches, after one of the trek we did we found around 10 of them in the child’s shoe but the brave child that he is, he didn’t flinch.

The other reason the view point excited us was the drive. We drove one of the 4X4 fortuner we had all the way up to the hill and what a delightful drive it was, we took turns and had to go up so all of us enthu cutlets could experience it. See that up on the hill. What pleasure man this beast is

The next day some of us decided to go on a trek, a nice and proper trek and yes I was among those. Frankly I was very apprehensive before I started, Am I fit enough? Would I be able to do it? Should I just skip and let the others atleast enjoy but I decided against it, I decided I will give it a shot and I am glad I did because I surprised myself, I did finish the trek. I lasted and it was such a pleasure doing it. All of us in raincoats, climbing up a hill when it was pouring, atleast for a part of the trek the rain was pretty intense and the rest of the trek it was drizzling on and off but it did never stop on the whole trek. It was one of the most enjoyable treks in the recent past for me. Another person that surprised us on the trek was O, he completed the whole half a day trek by himself. Not once did he say, I am tried. Not once did he say that enough. He was so enjoying it and infact he was always ahead of us with the guide leading us all.

But a trek isn’t complete without a story to tell is it? So here is ours, while we were coming back suddenly our guide suddenly halted in his path, looked here and then there. Ran up the hill, came down and in this all we were standing there wondering WTH was going on and then after about 10 minutes, one of us dared to ask him and looking scared he told us he smells wild elephant herd around but can’t see them. He asked them can’t you smell elephants and all of us reluctantly went “yes we can smell something different but not sure they are elephants” 😉 Man it was so funny but jokes apart I understand how dangerous a herd of wild elephants can be and were glad that we reached back to the rooms safely bitten by a couple of leeches yes but nothing major that happened

The tent we had pitched outside our room for the kids to have fun in, Hitchy this is a decathalon tent 😉

The other thing I loved about the place was the food, I swear I drank glasses full of rasam at every meal. Finger licking, home style yummy food. I also loved their dining area with surprises full from a previous area, gratuity box, water filter, boiler etc

 One more reason to fall in love with Sinna Dorai was the fact that there was no cell phone signal there, yes I did miss out on some birthday wishes but boy because of that we all really relaxed. All we did for three days was absorb nature and enjoy. Look out from the balcony to the view of tea gardens and a trees and flowers, take walks and chat. A most relaxing vacation in a long long time

I most certainly recommend this to anyone who wants to take a short break around bangalore. Leaving you with a view of the place from our verandah

Oh I almost forgot mentioning about the lovely submerged shettyhalli church that some of us stopped by one the way back. The church is about 25 kms drive from the main bangalore-mangalore highway and during various seasons you get a totally different view of the church, when we went only the top was visible but what a lovely sight.

 

Colors Galore – A short Break at Mugilu, Sakleshpur

Tags

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

On the road with kids

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Highway tales, parenting, parenting thoughts, road trip, road trip with kids, traveling with kids

We do a lot of long drives is not a news to the regular reader of this blog. When we were just married people used to tell us that chalo do as many road trips as you want now once you have kids there is no way you can continue this craziness and now the question I get asked most often is how the hell do you manage with a child? How does he take it? Ofcourse not all are as critical and some really want to know how do I manage road trips with kids. Some days back when I was just coming back from the epic delhi drive, I was talking to Ro and she said that she wants to drive from Hyderabad to Bangalore and would I have some tips, I am wondering if this tip a little too late for her as she is starting tomorrow but nonetheless jotting it down here 🙂

Let me begin by stating that I have really been lucky enough to have a child who loves the road and does have motion sickness but I also think that apart from the fact that I am lucky somethings always work well when one is on the road with kids… Here are my top few things to take care of while traveling with kids via road

1.Enough to Eat – If O is very very cranky there are usually two major reasons to it : sleep or hunger. Sleep usually is not a problem with 90% of the kids during travel but hunger it can turn a child into a monster (I think to some extent adults too). So plan to carry snacks and lots of it, you can’t be stopping every hour or so for food… biscuits, fruits, chocolates, chips, muffins, cakes, vegetables, bread, butter and jam are something you will always always find it in my car when I am off to travel. Infact N makes fun of me that I overdo the snacks but I can bet my life on it that its never too bad too overdo on it. Snacks also work as a perfect time filler…. keeping the little one busy for a while. Get fruits that take time and are fun to eat like oranges, things like crax which you can play with along with eating. Take butter knifes along and let the little ones assemble a sandwich for u once they are above 3 yrs, if they are under that age, let them lick the spoon. But having enough stock and variety to eat would be my top most item to plan when traveling with kids

2. Entertainment – The second most important point when it comes to kids is entertainment, here you have to think according to your child. What works for mine is a couple of CD’s (we have a portable DVD player, but the its timed) some music that he likes that we can all sing along too. Playing word games which are age appropriate, for the younger kids start with showing things on the road and ask what is that and explain what they don’t know. Actually that works for kids most ages – this delhi trip we discussed clutches, gears, windmills, volcanoes, earthquakes, sun and shadow, truck sizes and its relation to the number of wheels among many more things on the way. The trick is to keep them engage in things. If you have two kids you can get them to play dots and cross and some simple games with each other too. In our household books play a very very important part of entertainment too. Let the child chose his or her own books. If he/she is big enough to read by themselves let them else you read to them

3. Toys or Familiar Objects – Kids thrive on familiarity. All it takes is the favorite teddy or ball or bay blade for them to feel comfortable and at home. Let them pack their own toy travel bags. Give them guidelines on whats good and whats not but let them choose. O has been choosing his own toy bag with our help since he was 1 and now he does it all by himself, it also helps me run away from the blame he might put on me incase I forget his toy home 😉

4. Bio Breaks – For babies and kids in daipers this is not a big deal but with older kids it does become a big deal. So be prepared, the rest rooms on the Indian roads unfortunately leave a lot to be desired for. So carry your own toilet seat covers, anti bacterial wipes, santiser. And be prepared to explain to them why the toilets on the road are not clean and what can we do it make them better, its a great time to instill some values. Having said that prepare for all this but also prepare to make them willing to pee on the roadside… some places in India unfortunately one just has to do it

5. Frequent Stops – Kids need to stretch legs, take fresh air more often then us so plan a stop even if its for 10 minutes, every two to three hours. It may seem a lot but trust me it will save you lot of effort and time in the long run

6. Fight the big battles, not the small arguments – I think this is just as most of the time at home too but becomes even more important when it comes to travel. Don’t fret if he has eaten a little two many chocolates but yes fight if he doesn’t sit in his car seat

7. Start Early, Start Small – This is what I tell most parents, for the first two – three years if you never travel with your child on road, please don’t expect him to do a 12 hour road trip in his first trip. Get him used to the car, get him used to the road and see your child fall in love with it. We actually did the first road trip with Ojas when he was a little over 3 months and we think we delayed the first trip 😉

So happy driving folks, do share if you have more tips to add to this

The City of Everlasting Love – Agra

Tags

Agra, Delhi, Highway tales, highway travels, on the road, road trip, taj mahal, travel, travel tales, Yamuna Expressway

While we were in Delhi this time during our crazy and epic drive, me and sister thought we should also may be drive out with the family for a day, someone mentioned the new Yamuna expressway and the plan was freezed in like two seconds, yes we are mad enough to get excited about being on road after 2500kms+ 3 drive too…

The expressway starts from Greater Noida and has only one entry, we stay in Rohini and thats like the other end of the town and it took us about 1.5 hours that too at 7:30 am in the morning just to reach the expressway start but we were able to find it pretty easily thanks to my most treasured thing when driving. Yes you guessed it right I am talking about google maps 😉 How I love that app on my phone and one of the reasons I haven’t upgraded my phone to iOS6 is because I will lose google maps…but as usual I digress..

Once we were on the expressway, it was delight through and through. Cemented 3 (infact I think 3 and half) lane roads, barricaded on both sides. We were constantly cruising at 150. At one point of time, hubby even mentioned this is so smooth and good, I am almost getting bored. The only sad thing about the roads was the fact that they were so deserted. I mean I think we saw just 50 cars on an almost 150km+ expressway. Ofcourse we weren’t complaining on the lack of traffic but we were worried that if its not used, it won’t be maintained well in the longer run.

What I also liked about the expressway is the fact that after every toll plaza (and there are three of them) there is a pit stop, a small quick eating joint and very clean loos, there is a janitor always standing there who cleans it just after u use. Hopefully this will continue as the usuage of the expressway increases too. We had breakfast on one such pit stop, took bread pakoras, veg puff and stuffed kulchas and eat it on the car along with hot tea

That’s my mum, younger sister and O enjoying our breakfast

After the quick breakfast stop, I took over the wheel from N and enjoyed the drive till Agra and I tend to agree with him after the 3 days of drive this did feel boring essentially because it was so smooth 😉 Like he says we needed a better car, a car that can take us to 200kmph may be and give that trip (Warning : The whole road is cemented and not tarred and there is a greater risk of tyre bursting which can be a huge risk at high speeds. Please use caution while speeding. We have all terrain tyres in our car which we fill with Nitrogen and hence the risk is lower)

We made it to the outskirts of Agra City including the breakfast break in under 2 hours after entering the expressway. What happened after we entered the city is another story though. My heart pains to say that roads of Agra are narrow, broken and dirty which is such a contrast from expressway that it hits you right into your face 😐 After traversing through those lanes and struggling with directions (yes google maps came to rescue again), Can u beat it there are not many sign boards guiding to Taj? It’s supposed to be a wonder of the world I thought, we did reach Taj Mahal parking somehow. The child saw the camel cart there and wanted to take a ride in one of those. So from parking to Taj was done in that and we all had fun like a child

When we reached the ticket counter, I was ready for another shock. No one wanted to follow queues, garbage was strewn all around. It was shocking to see that this was the state of affairs just outside Taj, one of India’s most important and popular tourist destination. It made me realize that why do all people have the image of India that they do. People were eating chips, throwing packet on the road when there is a dustbin right next to it and the security guards standing there will say nothing too. Food isn’t allowed to be taken inside the monument and its stated on a lot of boards but people were still taking it and there was a huge bunch of discarded things lying next to the entrance because of that which includes discarded melted ice cream, imagine the mess it would make. Taj is a monument of pride for me, for me visiting it fills me with joy and happiness that its in India, I wonder why do people not feel the same?

The minute you enter the premise the scene changes though and what you witness is impeccable lawns, clean and tidy and oh so gorgeous. When you look at Taj, even with so many people around you know there is indeed something special about it

Borrowing my friend Tara’s words to describe this picture – the lilliputian crowd, the bird in flight and the blue color

Unfortunately I couldn’t get around clicking pictures as I would have wanted, too many people, tried parents and a hungry and cranky child aren’t things that can let you pursue a hobby 🙂 So we exited Taj after a quick round of the monument.

One of the four side forts surrounding the Taj

After seeing Taj we headed for lunch to Ram Babu Paranthas (read the post linked here on the food blog for delicious Agra food tales) where we had a yummy lunch, following which we headed to Sadar Bazaar for a little shopping. After all what trip is complete without having to see what the city offers to its shoppers 😉 We picked up a bag, some footwear and so as Agra is also famous for its leather. We also visited Meena Bazaar and picked up a gorgeous marble mortar and pestle and some coasters.

Post all this when we saw the time it was already 5:00 pm and hence the plan to visit Fatehpuri Sikri had to be ditched 😦 and we started our journey back which was largely uneventful and the same kind of drive. We reached back home at 21:28 after clocking 508kms on road.

PS: this is my third post as a part of Marathon Bloggers, we are posting one post a day, Wanna join us ? here is the FB group

PPS: Here is the link to the xls with our travel data.

Early morning and drives

Tags

drives, Highway tales, just me, on the road

Generally speaking I am not a morning person at all. Actually I am a night owl. Give me night over morning any day. I can be up till very late in the night infact I can be up till morning but as me to get up early morning and you will have a very cranky and itchy person on hand for the full day

But there is one exception to this and that is when I gotta hit the highway, gotta go for the drive. I absolutely love highways early in the morning. For the start we can avoid the dreaded traffic 😉 but also the fact that everything looks so beautiful and fresh at Dawn (yeah but only on the highway ok? ;p) witnessing the sun rise between the trees and the road

the dhabha walli cutting chai – stronger than chai can ever be

And who can we not talk about the breakfast, whether it’s the hot paranthas with extra butter in the north, kandha poha in the west or steaming idles in the south breakfast tastes better

Currently as I type this on my phone I am enjoying yet another lovely drive and for this one I demand a Nobel prize as I got ready at 5 am wearing a saree, things one does for being a good Bahu 😉