Saddle Up
Liz and I left for the group rendezvous at 9:30 PM Friday night. After sitting in rainy, nasty traffic for 90 minutes, we got to the bar for "Let's party before we leave." I drank a post-traffic bourbon and chatted with new acquaintance Erik, who has lived all over India.
Some cops showed up around 11:40 banging sticks and shooing most non-foreigners out of the bar (giving the police need something to do while waiting for bribes), and I met a man named Aziz who offered me advice on keeping my husband.
Eventually all cars and travelers showed up, and we started 5 hours of bumpy, rainy driving/half-sleeping. I'm very glad our driver was good.
It's Noon Somewhere in the World
Around 6:30 AM (after several stops for directions), we ended up at Chikmagalur Golf Club. I passed up both playing in the six-some as well as the vodka I was offered (For the record, I didn't start drinking until after breakfast). The countryside was pretty and you could hear all sorts of bird calls. Some of us found an empty couches to nap on for an hour or so while waiting for the golfers.
We lounged on the clubhouse veranda until 11 or 12 (drinking coffee, having some shots, listening to music that probably irritated the golfers on the first tee box), two jeeps showed up and we took a bouncy ride up into the mountains to the plantation. Beautiful ride, sunny weather, great lunch upon arrival, and then the rain started. We were more or less housebound (I read and napped, some played a drinking game). When the rain stopped, a couple of us went tromping around the creek, looking at coffee shrubs and frogs. Let's go with some pictures, courtesy of Liz:
The jeep waiting at the clubhouse
I feel totally like a legit traveler...
...because I bear tiny, proud scabs from leeches. The leeches were very small and easy to pull off, though I couldn't figure out how they kept grabbing my shoes and socks (I wasn't in any water). Here's one of Liz's leeches:
By evening everything cleared up, we had a nice barbecue (mmmm--coal-roasted tiny bananas stuffed with chocolate and coconut!) and more drinking. I listened to stories of ex-pat debauchery (thanks--I'll stick to just drunkenness) and was exhausted by 11 PM.
Coffee & Vishnu
Sunday was definitely the best day. Those of us left behind from the first jeep load got the tour (and more leeches) from Joseph, whose family owns the plantation. It's about 150 acres with a creek running through it. Seeing how small scale agriculture works was interesting. The mountains are all green and misty, and it's so, so nice to be away from honking Bangalore.Of course, we had a delicious breakfast with lots of chai before another jouncy, scenic ride.
We ended up taking 9 hours to get back to Bangalore for a number of reasons, but the best one was a very cool Vishnu temple in Belur that all sorts of extraordinarily detailed carving inside and out. We had a good guide who was easy to understand, and the tourist scene is pretty mellow (we were the only foreigners I noticed there).
All in all, a long, near-sleepless but fun weekend.
