Mysore and Coorg

It was a rather short trip to these two places which i consider made by the Divine. Both are heavenly in their own ways.Mysore is just about two hours away from bnagalore and with the new elrt and nice highway, the drive is rather smooth. W e left on 25th january evening and thought we'd stop off at the mysore temple and press our way to coorgbut the Divine had other plans. 26th morning, we left out hotel and yes our family did stay in Ginger Hotels and had the most amazing darshan in Chamundeshwari temple it was as if the Mother Godess had called us especially for the darshan and ive been going to that temple on the hill since i was a little baby and all the priests know my dad nevertheless it was a fantatic Sahasranam/ Stotram that was specially done for us by the preist and then w ehad the panchamurtham prasad which comes from right inside the sanctum sanctorum and i guess at 9 a.m we were amongst the first devotees to get it. Alas my brother was lazy and couldnt wake for this maybe the divine had something else in mind for him.
We also had the previous nights dinner at Pai vista hotel in the jungle themed restraunt which is right outta african safaries and even the animals are made out of fibre glass ( pics of this and temple in next post)

On 2 coorg then..
i have spent atleast 6 years of my chilhood on an estate in coorg and everytime i visit , its like seeing the divine creations of mother nature come alive . The fragrance of fresh pepper, coffee, vanilla (coorg is one of the largest producers of organic vanilla beans in india), cardamom and cinnamon touch my nose with a slight tinge of the aromas of allspice. Coorg is one place which has been described as the scotland of India and i do so agree with that as having been to scotland myself i can see the similarities except that scotland is famous for scotch whiskey and coorg for coffee, the scenic beauty of both places is stunningly mesmerising. Well in coorg i stayed with family friends and of course my age old buddies sheena and sunil whom i have known for the past 23 years it was their dads birthday which made my dad make such an impromptu trip 2 coorg. The food was divine and of course sheena's artisan jelly and cakes are outta this world of course i did make some amazing veggie thai curry and all but all in a days work it was fab to catch up with old friends. Of course the moment one enters coorg , the unmistakable magenta robes of tibetan and buddhist monks greets you. And of course did i forget to mention the beauty of sunsheen estate- named after my friends sunil and sheena is absolutely stunning i men from coffee to cinnamon to paddy and vanilla to a few organic lemon tree everything nature could ever produce grows here...i had a fab time there and hope to visit again very soon..