Have you been to paradise lately? It has smooth winding roads surrounded by green slopes of unripe coffee bean plants, with garlands of big pink bell like wild flowers over fencing bushes, paddy fields at a little distance down the slopes and far away a view of hills, blue and dreamy, wearing dark rain clouds like a scarf. Tour operators and websites may tell you to visit Coorg in the winters to smell the coffee bloom, but if you want to experience nature at its most beautiful visit during monsoons like we (my husband and I) did last month.
Whether you are a tourist or a traveller, skip the hotels this time. Homestays are aplenty in Coorg and I believe the one we chose must be the best. At a comfortable distance from the two main towns of Kodagu (local for Coorg), nestled in the middle of a coffee estate, a vegetable garden and rows of hydrangeas and anthuriums this family home built in the old english style is Souland Estates Homestay. I could say that this home is exactly what you need to enjoy a real, serene and unspoilt place like Coorg to its fullest. While we couldn't get enough of driving around the roads lined by greenery, or walking through the village roads, when we did come back, we came to a warm home filled with so much personality and love, a hotel just cannot match that. The house is filled with personal collections, art, trinkets and books. Walking through the hallway to the dining room, we had many interesting little things to see on the window sill and the shelves. Everyday I could spot something new. The owners of this beautiful home, Jayprakash and Prabhavati are the kind of people one needs to know. They take you in their home with warm hearts and open arms. We couldn't but call them uncle and aunty with affection after only a couple of hours of being with them. Uncle gave us thoughtful suggestions on places to visit, and it must have taken some thought given our preference of non-popular destinations, recommended hikes and trails, shared interesting stories about his childhood and adulthood and heard to all of our jabber patiently. Aunty took care of our tummies. She cooked the most delicious food and a rasam that I am still attempting to get right. Sipping coffee on the verandah looking at big blue butterflies fluttering around the various blooms, and there were so many for a rainy season, brought us as close to the nature as dodging spider webs and spotting camouflaged frogs while walking in the family's coffee plantation.
I have so much to share about Coorg I might make a couple of more posts, I will say this however; you could go to Coorg for coffee or for elephants, even for its pleasant weather. But I will suggest you go to Coorg to learn about nature, to see beauty in simplicity, to be a better person. Sit in an open verandah and look at the birds and the insects, the trees and the flowers, the rain and the fog and you will be surprised how easily you will feel better about everything in the world.
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| a beautiful wooden cottage on stilts in the middle of the coffee plantation at souland estates homestay |
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| plants in the verandah of souland estates homestay |
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| a vase made of coconut shell and wrought iron chair |
