A team of 6 Ambiants (actually 5 plus one non ambiant), ventured on a pleasure trip over the weekend. The team comprised of Shu, La, Ra(vi), Shyam, Sankar and Dodo (not necessarily in the height order!!!!)...... As fate had it, I happened to run in to Ravi, Shu and Dodo in pantry. They were discussing on a destination for a weekend trip. When they told me, I immediately jumped on the idea. After much deliberation, we zeroed in on Bekal Fort !! Dodo took care of calling the hotels and the boat house guys. Ravi took care of the logistics. So we booked a Qualis from B'lore (@Rs 7/- per km) and driver 'beta' at Rs 175 per day. After a sumptuous meal at Ravi's place, we left B'lore at around 11.15 pm.
Dodo was our official trip planner and also the guide. He was all set with map in his hands and we were deciding on the route to take. The driver said that the roads were bad in the routes that we suggested. But if were to take his route, we will be covering extra 50km. Finally, we decided to travel in the route that we suggested. B'lore, Mysore, Madikere (Coorg), Hunsur, Sullia, Puthur, Kasargod.... Each one had their defining 'Eureka' moments on this trip.
Let me start with myself, simply because I had the first moment (rather a victim)! The driver somehow got the idea that I was spying on him whether he was sleeping on the wheel or not. Just to scare me, he acted as if he was sleeping and driving little crazily. At one point, he almost ran into a bus and on an another instance, he swerved so much, that even Dodo got scared...Then the driver merely said he was trying to avoid a pit. Then we stopped for tea, which is when I realized he was simply trying to piss me off. Whatever, after that I started enjoying the scenes outside (the trees looked stunning under the moon light)...
At around 5 in the morning, driver wanted a break. So what place does he choose? A spot, right outside a house...Perfect spot in any horror movie in any language. In fact I got paranoid and was struggliing to stay awake. Anyway, after about 30 min, we continued our tortuous, winding journey in the Ghat section. It was 9am when we reached Kasargod. We were all gung ho about a lodge called Ktees Residency. We just could not believe what we saw. We had no idea that it would look like that (in the internet they have amazing pics). So people please be warned, if you are going to Bekal, do not ever think about staying at Ktees...(I think the word Residency was a 'bit' misleading)!!!! Anyway, we found another place called Fort Point. At Rs 400 (after 10% discount) per day it was pretty ok. We were bone tired after 9 hrs of journey and literally had to pull ourselves out of the bed.
Anyway, first we went straight to the fort. The cameras were already out, dishing out fotos after fotos, even before we actually entered the fort. With imagination running wild, each one was engrossed in taking pics and stiking poses...But from a particular spot (we had to climb a ramp like structure), the view was simply breathtaking. We were dumb struck when we saw the beach from top of the fort. My mind was busy scanning the fort to see from where Manisha Koirala came running to meet Arvind Swamy in the movie Bombay....Anyway, after more pics, more fun, we finally made our way out...The next on the agenda was food. We saw a restaurant named Kia Ora right outside the fort. Even though it was slightly pricey we decided to eat there. But little did we expect that fate would deal such a blow on our face (errr.....stomach )!!! First of all they took ages to serve the food, but when the food came, it was so bad, that I decided staright away I am writing about this place in my blog. Please avoid this place. Little did we know at that time, that it is going to be a gastronomically challenging trip!! Anyway, we had one memorable moment at Kia Ora. It was Shu's "graphic" moment. This is what happens to overly brainy, intelligent people.
Next we went back to the hotel to get freshened up and leave to the boat house. We hired this boat house from 5pm to 9am. We were little late because of the traffic. (This boat house was about 20km from the hotel). Once there, we quickly boarded the boat. It had a nice space to sit (chairs, tables et al). The first thought that crossed my mind was "Wow, nice setting for a perfect drink." Anyway, we were told that sun set will happen at 6.30pm and that they will take us to the beach. But we missed the sun set narrowly. After that, the boat came back and stopped in the middle of the river. The boat house stay was the highlihgt of the whole trip, thanks to Dodo. We were just sitting and chatting generally. Then we started playing UNO. It was such a blast. We only stopped when the dinner arrived, by which time, we had already started our 'Signature' moment!!!! The dinner was alright, infact it was the only good meal we had in the entire trip. Anyway, we continued with more UNO and later Rummy. That was when Dodo had his moment, 'Signature moment'....Shyam and I were laughing our lungs out!!! So finally we hit the sack at 1.00am. I had, by then, completely lost hopes of waking up for the sun rise.
But wake up I did, sharp at 6.30. However, the Sun god decided to play hide and seek with us. He hid himself among the clouds, refusing to come out. So I went back and slept again. But Dodo was at his best, captured some of the finest pics at that time. Anyway, finally we had breakfast as the boat was cruising towards the shore. The journey came to an end and our beloved driver was waiting for us on the shore. We were deceived by the sign board which said Kapil Beach 3.5Km. We wasted almost an hour looking for the place, only to realize that it was private. Anyway, we headed back to Bekal beach. Then started the fun time. We thoroughly enjoyed every bit of the beach part, dripping with salt water, covered with mud and felt content at heart. Finally, we went to hotel, checked out and started the long return journey back.
That is when the couple had their moment, 'WTF' moment....It was funny coz their mobiles were also in that bag only..Anyway, the hotel guys were eagerly anticipating our arrival !!! Anyway finally we left Bekal once for all. Except for that bad stretch of road, the driver was rocking. He drove in 90's consistently and we had amazing fun. This is when the driver himself had his moment when Dodo scared him to death by 'falling' asleep.....Thank u Dodo, for taking revenge on the driver. Oh I almost forgot Shyam's moment. It was so funny when he was trying to find the perfect location, hmmm, for you know what !!!!! He thought it was main road and then he had to hunt for another location.....
We stopped at Sullia for lunch, which proved to be another gut wrenching experience. The food was so pathetic that I was missing my cook's food badly. At this juncture we were debating on whether to stop at Coorg and spend some time there, as we reckoned that we will reach B'lore at odd hours and it will be difficult for all to go to their respective homes. But we decided against stopping and headed home straight, instead. We made one more stop in Kushal Nagar, where I had coffee. I broke my vow and had coffee after 2 years. I thought it was worth the experience. Finally, we left that place, with heart becoming heavy each second, as the trip was nearing its end. Lastly, we stopped in Mandya for dinner. Fate had the last laugh, as we had yet another horrible meals. It was the closing ceremony of the spate of bad food that we had over the two days. Ravi was so indignant that he strongly suggested that I write about that hotel too. I kind of forgot the name, it is something like Guruprasad or something, even though the board said Nandhinee also. Anyway, so guys avoid this restaurant also. We wanted to stop in Mysore, but then the driver took the by pass road, so we did not go into Mysore city. Anyway, finally we reached B'lore at 12.45am, settled the driver's bill and chatted for some time. Finally slept at around 2 am, knowing fully that Monday Morning was already waiting with a huge club in the hand ready to deal a blow on my head. I reached office at 12pm on Monday, still basking in the fun filled moments that I had over the weekend. It was made special by each and every one of you. Thank you guys and hope to venture into more trips.
