GugaBaba… Living life through Music, Food and Travel

For people in Bangalore, Coorg is one of those default travel destinations, which you rely back on when nothing else works out. Here are overviews of few places we have stayed in and visited.

Places we stayed at:

1. View Point Home Stay

Lovely homestay, with warm hosts and delicious food. Though only breakfast was included in the package, we had dinner also here for all the days, as the food was too yummy to miss!

Route taken to Coorg: Bangalore>Mysore Road>Road towards Ranganathittu> Bylakuppe >Kushalnagar> Suntikoppa.

The view from the first-floor balcony is great. For almost a full day we were here in the homestay itself. Relaxing, reading books and generally playing with Mishki, our Labrador.

The property is quite big, which gave Mishki ample space to run around and explore. We did have to run behind her a couple of times, as she escaped out of the fence, and went a bit far out of sight. If your dog responds to your call, then you should not have any trouble letting go of the leash.

The homestay is nestled around 9 kms away from Bylakuppe and around 12 kms from Medikeri. The road to the homestay is also very scenic. However, if you are planning to roam around a lot, then this might not be a great option to stay. You might then want to stay at a place more near to one the main towns in Coorg.

2. The Homestay we passed by: River Tern Homestay

This place was around 12 kms from Kushalnagar, just beside Harangi Dam backwaters. The place was very disappointing. Firstly, there was no water in the backwaters (so the surrounding looked very different from the photos which were posted in booking.com towards the property).

Secondly, and most importantly, the property is horribly maintained. The bedsheets provided had all sorts of stains, they were torn. The rooms were extremely dirty. There were bottles of booze from previous guests, still lying around in open sitting areas.

We had not gone into the rooms initially but had ventured into the grassland which was there in place of the backwaters. There was very little water in view, but we nevertheless wanted to it check out. It was fun running around with Mishki.

We noticed the mess once we came back and ventured to move our luggage into the room from the car.

Both I and Moumita felt cheated to be charged INR 4000 for this mess of a place. Had an altercation over the phone with the owner. He did show us a couple of other options, but they were of same horrible condition. We moved out.

3. Carpe Diem Home Stay

This place is near Kushalnagar. No great view, but nevertheless a perfect cozy place with a couple of cottages to nestle in for a couple of days. It’s very close to Kaveri, and hence can be an attractive option to stay for people who want to try out white river rafting in Coorg. Saw quite a few options nearby. Also, Bylakuppe is very close by from here.

Again a dog-friendly place, and thankfully as this place was completely walled, we could leave Mishki to explore the place.

The cottages are neatly maintained and the food is also great. We visited on a weekday, hence the place had no other guests other than us. Overall had a good and relaxing stay.

4. The Road’s End

It is literally at the road’s end. A serene place to stay. The manager Chetan was very cordial and caring. A very well maintained property too.

They made barbeque and bonfire in the evening. Food spread was not much but overall had enough items and was tasty and good.

Places to visit in Coorg:

1. Bylakuppe

We visited Bylakuppe from View Point Home Stay. It was a journey of around an hour. The main tourist attraction is Namdroling Monastery, which is also the place where the Golden Temple is located.

Bylakuppe hosts the second highest population of Tibetians in India, after Dharmashala. It has many monasteries and settlements for Tibetians which are all awesome places to visit.

The Monastery itself was an awesome place to visit.

There were other monasteries which I wanted to visit, Sera Je Monastery, Tashi Lhunpo monastery, etc. But had to come back as we lost a lot of time in Namdroling itself. We had to visit the place one at a time, as someone had to stay with Mishki in the car.

I came back telling myself, that I will come back here to explore the other monasteries some other day. I was more interested to visit these places as they attract far fewer tourists, and provides a far better experience of the Tibetian Monastic living, which was what I wanted to explore.