Sisterhood of Travelling Umbrellas!

When three chuddy buddy women decide to go on a vacation to coffee country, three things are bound to be there…gossip, shopping and pictures (tonnes of them). We had a fabulous trip, the highlights of which are listed below!! 

•  The super spirited language students from EFLU who travelled with us. Within the first half hour of the journey we got chatting and giggling enough to annoy our neighbours.
• The ‘no English, no Hindi only Kannada’ auto that we rode in to the bus stop. We were not sure we liked him till he voluntarily took us to a tiffin centre and let me have my morning cup of coffee!
• Venkata in Sankata, I think I have the worst luck with bus-movies. One of Sandalwood’s very forgettable offerings.
•  Mysore Palace; the Kushti Akhada and the Wedding hall especially, made me want to live in those times.
• Brindavan Gardens; full of lovers holding hands, sharing umbrellas and mirchi bajjis. Was a really picturesque bus ride though.
•  One of my favourite parts of the trip; the bus ride to Kushalnagar. A really empty, clean bus, fantastic roads, a gentle drizzle, Antakshari, goofing around with the bus driver. Have new respect for KSRTC.

•  Ismail (if i remember correctly), the friendly neighbourhood spice vendor. His wares were as delightful as he was. Locally grown Cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, pepper, tea, coffee and honey; fragrant and fabulous.

•  Bylekuppe; watching a shy young Tibetan monk squirm in his seat, trying in vain to concentrate on the prayer being conducted.
•  Dubare Forest Reserve; our close encounter with the mighty elephant, the gentle giants who stole our hearts.
• Prasanna ; the auto driver who took us to Dubare; he also took us down memory lane with Bollywood songs from the 90s. Such a sweet, good natured guy, we have his phone number if anyone is planning to hit Coorg in the near future.
•  The mighty Kaveri in all her fury, cascading down a hill, to become the glorious Abby falls. We could not take our eyes off her, and try as we might, we could not take a picture that did justice to her splendor.
•  Madikeri; with the rain as our constant companion, we walked the narrow streets, got laughed at by auto wallahs, shopped in the tiny stores, rode a toy train and went to a view point with no view at all.
• Returning to Namma Bengaluru in the wee hours of the morning and trying to find a place to crash; something I never ever want to do again.
• Shopping our hearts out in Bengaluru, cherishing the lack of rains and relishing the good food.