Friday, August 1, 2008

Coorg - Weekend Getaway - Day 2

After a visit to the famous Raja's seat, known for the commanding and amazing mist filled (err.. was it fog filled??... Hmmm.. does it matter??) view of the city, a ride in the cute toy train in the rain, a totally amazing Day1 came to an end.
We realized that we were yet to reach the HomeStay. I was totally thrilled that we had managed to pack so many sights in a single day. We reached the Homestay and were welcomed by the very hospitable home owner and her talkative daughter. We did not want to appear like ravenous gluttons and I am glad that inspite of hogging on sumptious roti - subji dinner - they did not think so. In fact, they felt that we were eating very less (hehehehehe :) for once!!). After a refreshing sleep at the Homestay inspite of there being no power all night, either we were too tired or too sleepy, we were all set to go white water rafting in the not-so-white waters on Day2. The plan was to wake up at 6 and be at Dubare by 8 am.

Day2:
We woke up at 8 and had an amazingly heavy breakfast of a Coorg delicacy known as Paapittu.
We drove all day and had a delicious dinner, why were we still hungry?? Anyways...the Paapittu was served with a tomato onion gravy which was simply too delicious. I barely managed to resist licking my fingers ;P
We left finally towards Dubare. I was wearing my peach salwar and suddenly wondered if they would let me go rafting in my salwar :( Well, I needn't have worried, it was oookay and we did not go rafting till 11:30 am. We sat around waiting, listening to the instructor telling us "You should have come at 8 am" and whiling away our time, hoping we would be next and finally the moment arrived. We were given smelly life jackets and helmets which we were helped into and given instructions that lasted for arnd the same time. We were then asked to get on the raft with our paddles. 3 ppl joined us who were from Orange County. An old man with lotsa attitude, his wife, and their daughter. So we set sail with two instructors giving us instructions, explaining some rules, and generally bugging us. After I came to know that the water was more than 23 feet deep, I decided to pay more attention to what the intructor was telling us.

The first rapid was nice, not too scary but we were totally drenched. I totally lowed it - not surprising considering I am a water sign :) Anyways the other rapids were scarier and it was one helluva experience. Our trip went way off the budget b'cos of the rafting but we lowed it so much that I was real glad that we did it. We rafted or is it rowed 8 kms -I got badly tanned as a side effect. We were treated to nice hot tea at a road-side stall after we landed and we were then transported back to Dubare. We happily drove back to the Homestay, had a refresing bath, ate lunch and left Coorg.

The drive back seemed looong - we tried a different scenic route and got lost :) I was very tempted to move to the back seat and fall asleep but the dazed zombie look in his eyes made that thought disappear almost instantly. Plus, he was making these bizarre remarks 'bout wanting to place match sticks in his eyes to ensure that they do not automatically swing shut while we were driving :O Lack of sleep sure does tell :)

It was one helluva vacation and we totally lowed every bit of it including the scary ride at the end.