Blackforest - Triberg

Triberg (pronounced Tree-berg) is a small town in Germany, not too far from the Swiss border.

Things to see around here:

• First world's largest cuckoo clock
• Must-see. Situated inside a small village called Schonach, this cuckoo clock was the first "large"-est one built ever (There have been many others built that are larger than this, but this one is a must see, reasons being:
• This is run by a family, which has numerous hand-made cuckoo clocks. The family is very kind, and and more than welcoming in explaining the workings of the clock, and the history behind how it was made.
• We walked back to Triberg from here - The views were amazing - the houses very  beautiful, and architecturally very different.
• We missed the 5 o' clock cuckoo run, and the family was sweet enough to make the cuckoo come out more then once at 5:30. A special thanks to them for that! :-)

First world largest cuckoo clock

• World's largest cuckoo clock
• It's an ok place to see, if you have time. Good place to collect souvenirs. We tasted good wines here :-) Bought some too ;)

 

World's largest cuckoo clock

• Going to Triberg, and missing Germany's highest fall?? - A big NO! The trek to the falls is beautiful. There are 3 trails - Cascade trail. that goes along the cascade, a Culture trail (That takes you through many culturally beautiful places of Triberg), and a Nature trail (that takes you from through the dark blackforest).
• We did the cascade trail, and part of the Nature trail (due to lack of time). I would recommend that you stay at Triberg for a night, and do all the treks on one day, and visit the cuckoo clocks and other interesting (The hotel you stay at will give you a detailed pamphlet with things to see around).

 

The Triberg countryside

 

• Do check out restaurant around the MarkPlatz (market place). Good music, and even better - good food!

 

MarkPlatz at night

Villa Retreat and Kodaikanal

Now that I have become active on tripadvisor, I find little need to write too much about my travels on my personal blogs.

However, here is a review of The Villa Retreat, near Coaker's walk, that I wrote on tripadvisor.

Villa Retreat review

In short, the place is nice, and cosy, however, rooms are small (too small for what they charge, infact). And, what could be called a garden view room could end up being the "edge of the garden" view. Room service guys could annoy you by knocking too many times by shouting "saaaar.... saaaaar.." ..

All said and done, Kodai is a beautiful place, though! (But, if you have a choice b/w Munnar and Kodai, please choose Munnar. It's simply woow!).

We went to the Mannavannur lake near Kodai, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's around 30 kms from Kodai, the drive is scenic, and you get to see small villages with terraced slopes where the farmers engage in farming. The lake reminded me of a pic of Swiss that my friend had sent!

The Kodai lake is a good place to take a walk around. We really enjoyed the small hikes around the Pine forest too!

Manchanabele Reservoir - A weekend getaway

Visited: Beginning of 2012 (Yes, I am a lazy bum when it comes to publishing my trip journals)

A couple relative was visiting us from Chennai, and we wanted to go to places that were neither too far, nor too close to Bangalore. We drilled down to Manchanabele - It's a small reservoir near Bangalore, quite scenic, and a nice ride (Of course, once you cross the metro constructions!). And, there ain't many people who come there, so you definitely do not have to face the crowd.

The Big Banyan tree is on the way, and it's a good place to stop around for some time to relax. Here's an aerial view you see before reaching the reservoir:

Linger @Balur Estate

Reviving a blog after an year and a half takes a lot of motivation. Here I am, back again, not knowing how long this would last.

Balur is a small town near Mudigere, and it is around 5 hours drive from Bangalore. So, if you ask me what made me go there, I'd just say "Tripadvisor". Whenever I plan a vacation, that's where I look for good places to stay. So, out I went, driving, along with my brother and his wife to Balur, all the way hoping, that the reviews were not forged. And, I would say, this was a happy happy vacation, in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

The drive to the estate bungalow was a very scenic one. The bungalow is an old, well maintained (as a matter of fact, extremely well maintained) place to stay. It has a cottage, outside, right next to an ancient swimming pool, which also helps keep the place cool.The tranquil bungalow has a long old-style veranda, overlooking beautiful green hills - beauty that can blow your mind off. We were told that we could trek up one of the hills, but we didn't have the time. What surprised me the most was water in bottles that looked like wine bottles (That seemed like a very innovative concept). The bungalow has a small, interesting library - in fact, I found a film fare magazine from the 90's which spoke about Sunny Deol and his affair with Sushmita (really? How many of us have even heard of this ?). Apart from all these, the bungalow is filled with antiques (worth a lot of $$), which makes us feel we're staying in a royal palace.

Personally, for us, what made the trip even better was the company. Jishnu and his family ensured that we were treated with nice music throughout, especially at the camp fire.

The bungalow and the cottage

Site of the campfire

The veranda

View from the veranda

Water in customized Balur estate wine bottles :-)

The moon looked beautiful that day. I don't think I have ever felt as romantic before on seeing the moon. I just wanted to lie next to the pool, and gaze never-endingly at the beautiful moon, that was occasionally being stolen from me by the dark clouds.

And, the sun-set point. The clouds played satan on the two days when we went to watch the sun set. But the view from the sun set point was worth a million dollars. The winds only brought smiles on our faces.

Small treks around the estate (with a guide, unless we have plans of getting lost) was a plus. We went to a nearby lake, spotted some wild peacocks, and a few birds. In fact early in the mornings, all you can hear are the bird cries, and wild peacock noises. The peacocks come very close to the bungalow when it rains, and that makes it all the more charming. 

The most exciting part of the trip was the scooter, and cycles. We had a great time going short distances on the cycles, and  playing with the scooter. That was the first time I ever used a scooter, and it was an amazing experience. They have a mini golf kit too. And, if they could get a foose ball table, nothing could beat the fun we can have there !

The scooter

With a heavy heart, after 2 nights, we left the place - sad that we had to get back to the daily grind of work, sad we had to leave all the greenery and nature behind, but happy, that we made a decision to go to a place which was worth my time.

Date of stay: April 6th, 2012
Recommendation: Cottage for a couple, the bungalow for a large bunch. Ensure that the doors of your room are locked. Food is great, don't hesitate to make your preferences clear, as they accomodate your preferences.

Nandi Hills - A revisit

Last year, at this time, a trip to Nandi hills to watch the sunrise meant an exciting, eventful, heavenly, memorable trip. Something got into my mind, and I had this idea of taking my parents to watch "sunrise" at this spot again. And hence, we happened to revisit Nandi hills.

Sunrise on that day was at 6:24 am. So, we started at 3:45 am from Indiranagar, and by 5:15 am we were at the foot of Nandi hills. There was a traffic jam at that place. We walked ahead to see why people had stopped midway. And there we saw a gate -> A gate that opens generally at 6:30 am (What's Nandi hills if you cant watch sunrise :P ). Apparently, due to increasing cases of rape and murder, police have stopped sending people up the hill, till the morning. Thankfully, due to the sheer volume of people, the police folks opened the gate at 5:45, and by the time we reached the barricade, it was 6:00 am. To worsen the situation, when we reached the hill top, we had to wait at least 15 minutes to buy a ticket to get in :-( . So, in effect, we missed the sunrise.

Clearly, this time, the revisit was a big flop ;)

Inspite of this, it was very nice to watch the clouds floating around. Here is a picture (A pic is worth a thousand words they say )

I still remember the clouds during my last trip to Nandi. They were so close to you that you would just feel like jumping and sitting on top of them. I wouldn't say it was bad this time, but I definitely think that the place has started catching a lot of attention offlate, due to which it's difficult to catch the sunrise.

And yea, after watching the clouds from 2-3 view points, we decided to push off. Before that we had tea, idly, vada, omlette, noodles at a place on the hill top (Btw, we were four of us, so I didnt eat ALL of this). The Vada here was crispy and nice, and I would recommend this to anyone who goes there. We had to throw away the noodles, as I didnt like it.

My recommendation : Go catch the place soon (for sunrise), before it catches more attention :-)
Please note : I am looking forward to trek to Skandagiri, so that I can catch the sunrise there. I hope I'll be able to do it sometime soon :-) And, when I do it, I will definitely post a blog on it.

A small, short, beautiful trip to Wayanad

Like everybody, I (not my husband ;) ) wanted to go out of Bangalore during my first anniversary. I would have preferred an abroad stint this time, but the time factor, planning, and other ordeals made us decide that a small sweet trip to a nearby place would benefit us. Unfortunately, Sivaram couldn't take off during that time, and so, we decided to exploit a long weekend to celebrate a pseudo anniversary.

So, off we went to Wayanad (I would definitely not call this a "cool" thing to do. But, surprisingly, both him and me enjoyed it more than anything else). He loves to drive, and so, we started off from Bangalore around 6 am, and we were there at a resort in Vythiri, Wayanad, around 1 pm (We stopped for a nice, hearty meal at Cafe Coffee day too :-) ). The resort is called Stream Valley resort, and, I have posted the good-bad things about this resort here .

Wayanad is really really beautiful. So beautiful, that words fall short. What I liked the most about this place, was the green capped mountains, and the tea estates that were in abundance. The best way to enjoy the place is to just drive around in the roads-less-travelled. We didn't come to the place with any agenda as such in mind. Our aim was to just relax and have a good time.

Day1 :
We arrived, and went into a deep slumber :-) . It took off the travel stress, and made sure that we were in good shape on Day2.

Day2:
Well, we didnt have any plans in hand yet :-) (lazy as ever ;) ). However, we knew that Pookode lake was walkable distance from the resort. So, post breakfast, we set off for the lake on foot. Once we reached, we saw an amazing view of the lake surrounded by green-capped mountains. What a beauty the view was. It was as though God sent us into heaven for a break :-). Luckily for us, we got a boat ride real quick. During the ride, the boatman showed us the Chembara peak (It's the tallest peak in Wayanad). It looked really beautiful. Sivaram said that he climbed the peak once, and we decided that we will return to Wayanad to climb the peak once we're fit ;-)

The boatman told us about a place called Banasurasagar dam that was around 30 kms from Pookode. It's Asia's second largest mud dam. Since the two of us were fresh, we decided to get back to the resort, take the car and get to the dam. The drive to the dam was heavenly. I fall short of words when I wish to describe it. We drove through tea estates, across scenic lakes and rubber plantations. There weren't too many people living en route, and that made the place look all the more scenic. And, when we reached the dam (we had to climb some steps to reach there), we are greeted by strong winds that try to prevent us from going further. It was as if the winds were conspiring against us, trying to tell us that this is not a place for humans. What we saw was a big lake, surrounded by islands, and green mountains. There were 2 speed boats for people to get into the lake and see the surroundings. Unfortunately, it would have taken us 3 hours to get a boat ride. So, we decided that we would just sit there for sometime, listen to the music of the wind, and enjoy nature at its best. After sometime, we drove back along the same, beautiful mesmerizing route.

We had a small pre-anniversary celebration at the resort in the night, after which we fell asleep.

Day 3 :
It was time to pack and leave ! We left after breakfast, all the while thinking about when we would get back to the beautiful place, all the while thinking of the work stress that would be awaiting in Bangalore, all the while thinking of when we would ever be able to lead a life where travel was the only thing to worry about ! And, a voice inside me tells me, "Get real girl ! This would never happen. Just enjoy the small stints you can afford to make".

The Ammadi Home Stay

I have been absconding for a long long time ! Well, there are umpteen reasons for this. One - I got busy with the mad CAT race, two - I got busy with the mad GMAT race, three - I got engaged, four - I got married, and now, five - I realized the first two were a bad excuse, and next two lame excuses. :-) . Nevertheless, I am back, and let me warn you, I might abscond again :D. But I'll definitely come back !

Well, so around Christmas, Sivaram and me had a great idea to venture out on a road trip around Bangalore. Christmas is a bad time to plan on-the-fly trips, especially if you're looking for a decent place to stay. But boy, we were lucky!

One of my colleagues sent me a link to Ammadi Home Stay. I searched on the net for some reviews, but didn't find many, as the HomeStay opened for outsiders in August 2009. My colleague however, was full of accolades for the family (apparently related to Kuvempu's mother). And, we ventured out (Not like we had any other option) on a holiday to Ammadi.

Situated in Koppa, around 90 kms from Chikmaglur, the drive to this place was amazing ! Winding roads, greenery all around and the traffic-less drive made our day ! And, when we reached the house, voila ! It was an amazing view. There was a nice traditional Malnad house, with paddy fields in the front, and plantations surrounding it. We got one of the best rooms there (Facing the paddy fields - If anyone wants to go there, please ask for these rooms). The house itself was worth seeing. It had amazing traditional furnitures made of wood, an open space in between, with rooms in the front and back, and long corridors joining them. (Looked like a traditional "naalu kettu" house, as is called in Malayalam).

Here are some pictures:
Road from Chikmaglur to Koppa (Taken through the car shield, lacks clarity)

View from our room at Ammadi:


Food - Unlike most homestays, the food here comes from a caterer, (as the lady of the house is no more, and it is run by a single person, Mr. Srinivasan, whose sons help him on weekends). I wouldn't rate the food excellent, but it definitely was just a notch below being excellent :-).
I loved the coffee here. It's available anytime you ask for it :-)

Hospitality - Excellent. Hosts were very helpful. Infact, Ashwin (who is the owner's son) called us a couple of times when we were enroute, to ensure that we were on the right track. They also took note of our food preferences. They would sit along with the guests to make conversations, and we even watched a cricket match together. However, they didnt cross the thin line between hospitality and intrusiveness.

Location - Koppa is a small village, which is close to Agumbe, Sringeri, Kundadri, Kuppali (Noted poet, Kuvempu's place) and Thirtahalli. During our 3 day stay in Koppa, we visited all these places. We also went on a drive across the Kudremukh national park (This was the best part of the trip, and I'll leave it to a separate blog).

Price - We paid 1250 per day per head, and this included Breakfast, lunch and dinner (not to forget the "any time coffee" service :-) ). The hosts are accomodative, and they gave us discounts when we skipped meals on any day.

To conclude, Overall I would rate this homestay a 4 on 5 :-) .