A slice of heaven at Little Earth

Thanks to Outlook Traveller’s Bangalore Getaway book, I came to know of the Little Earth group and their resort called ‘Destiny Farmstay’ at Avalanche. The concept sounded unique and the pictures on their website looked refreshingly lush and pretty.  I added this place to my list of ‘must-visits’ immediately. At a little over 300 kms from Bangalore, this place sounded a perfect destination for a 3-day long vacation. We planned out this vacation for the next 3-day weekend and I must say, we’re really glad we took our little break at this little heaven of a place.

The Route:

Destiny is around 25 kms ahead of Ooty. To reach Ooty, we took the Bangalore-Mysore highway, crossed Mysore and drove to Gundelpet through Nanjangud. After Gundulpet, you cross the Bandipur and Mudumalai forests to reach the Y-fork at Masinagudi where one road takes you through 36-hairpin bends to Ooty (distance 36 kms) and the other longer route with no hairpin bends is through Gudalur (~67 kms). Like last time when we went to Ooty, my husband and I debated about which route to take. I wanted to take the safer longer route but finally we took the trickier shorter route (yeah, just like last time again). If you’re a nervous driver, this route is not for you. The bonus, though,  is an awesome view all through the route.

From Ooty, you need to follow the route map that the Destiny folks will give you. The route map is very precise and if you feel you’re deviating even a little bit from the map (which we did twice), then you’re on the wrong track. After you cross Emerald town, be sure to ask around for the Emerald Dam and take the turn that takes you to the Dam and not Avalanche town.

You will need to park at the Destiny parking lot (after a back-breaking drive of a couple of kms, especially the last 300 meters or so) where the Destiny people will send a military truck to pick you up to cross the last kilometer or so. This leg of the journey and a few kilometers prior is on a route that is more pot-hole than path – we were visiting during the rains which made it worse.

The place:

As soon as we stepped out of the truck, we knew what we saw was worth all the trouble to reach there. Nestled on the slopes of a small valley, close to a portion of the Emerald lake, the farmstay is a vacationer’s delight. In addition to the pristine surroundings the farmstay is located in, the resort is very well made and maintained. All the rooms and the restaurant are in 2 blocks – each with green roof and dark wood exterior with fireplaces for the luxury rooms. A sense of deja-vu swept me – this place brought forth some very old memories of Kashmir and recent memories of Switzerland.

View of the Emerald Lake from Destiny

Destiny Farms - Cottages

The restaurant has a wood-cabin look  and overlooks the lush green slopes. Each room has a small balcony and huge windows so every morning you can wake up to the misty hills. The resort also has a dairy farm, stables and other animals like rabbits, sheep in addition to slopes full of exotic vegetables like zucchini, iceberg lettuce, rhubarb etc.

Horses grazing in the farm

Room balconies overlooking the vegetable garden

The Activities:

While you’re at Destiny, it would make sense to spend all of your time at the farm resort rather than hopping in & out to visit Ooty and other nearby places. The resort provides quite some activities –  few of them free like dairy farm visit, horse riding, indoor games. Other activities – like long & short trek, valley crossing, camping etc are all paid. You can always go for leisure walks across the huge farm on your own. The views from every corner of this farm are spectacular. There is no TV and hardly any cellular coverage, so expect yourself to be pretty much cut off from the outside world during your stay.

View after a short trek from Destiny farms

The Food:

The buffet breakfast at Destiny is complimentary. The breakfast spread was quite good – everything seemed to be freshly made. The idlis were the softest I’ve ever tasted and the juice seemed naturally sweet. Many of the vegetables used by the cooks are home-grown. Lunch, dinner and snacks are a la carte. The prices are not very steep, though not very economical either. The quantities served are satisfactory and there was never a meal when I got up from the table dissatisfied.

The Verdict:

A Big YES. If you live anywhere within 400-500 kms of this place and don’t mind an hour of bumpy road travel, this is an experience you must not miss.

Trip to Pollibetta, Coorg

A week ago, we went on a much-needed vacation to Pollibetta in Coorg, Karnataka. Pollibetta is around 250 kms from Bangalore and famous for its coffee plantations.  Tata Coffee Estates are head-quartered here and Tata has around 10,000 acres of plantation land – primarily growing coffee interspersed with pepper, cardamom and vanilla crops.  Tata Estates provide ‘heritage’ bungalow accommodation (called ‘Plantation Trails’) to guests within these lush green plantations.

Route to Pollibetta:

Pollibetta is located about 130 kms from Mysore. From Bangalore, take the Bangalore-Mysore state highway SH17 while crossing Ramanagaram, Mandya, Maddur and Srirangapatna. (On this route, we stopped at Kamat Lokaruchi just after Ramanagaram for breakfast since we had started real early from Bangalore). After Srirangapatna, you can either take the deviation through Ranganathittu and join Yelwal (I guess this is shorter), or continue on SH-17 and take the ring road to avoid the city and then join the highway again before Yelwal. We took the former route, but I would advise against it since the road is very bumpy and uncomfortable to drive on. The straight SH-17 route, though longer, is much more comfortable. From Yelwal, the straight route leads to Hunsur. Cafe Coorg in Hunsur is a must stop-over – I loved their cold coffee. From Hunsur, drive towards Tithimathi. At Tithimathi, you will see a big Plantation Trails billboard at a Y-fork. Take the right at this junction and keep going straight for around 9 kms to reach Pollibetta.

Stay:

The bungalows at Plantation Trails are scattered over the coffee estate at some distance from each other. We were staying at the Taneerhulla Cottage. The Taneerhulla bungalow and cottage are adjacent to each other. The bungalow is much bigger and shares the premises with the cottage. The cottage has 3 rooms, a dining space, a big living space, a kitchen and a front and back lawn. The cook Palani and the caretaker Lokesh look after the guests of this cottage. The room was quite big, comfortable and clean (not modern though, these bungalows are old).

A view of the Taneerhulla cottage

If your budget permits, it would probably be even better to stay at one of the bungalows – they look much bigger and better-furnished. The cottage did prove to be pretty comfortable for us and the hospitality of the cook and the caretaker was outstanding. They made us feel completely at home – it was as if we were staying in a house with a superb cook and everything else taken care of. A much better experience than a stay in a hotel.

Food:

Food, as always, has to be one of the highlights of any relaxing vacation. In a guest-house kind of accommodation, one obviously cannot choose the menu as one would do in a restaurant – but then that’s what I liked about this vacation. No choices to be made. Everything is presented before you – ready for your consumption (yes, I can hit such levels of laziness).  So the breakfast and dinners were mostly at the cottage, but our lunches were outside. A special mention of the lunch we had at Orange County in Siddapur. It was outstanding. If you are holidaying anywhere in Coorg, buffet lunch at Orange County must not be missed. Though a little pricey (Rs 500 per head), it is worth the money and the extra little detour.

Lunch buffet at Orange County

Places to visit:

Well, who needs to visit any other place if you’re staying within a coffee estate – surrounded by trees and spices and coffee blossoms. But if the serene bores you after a while, do not miss to visit the Bylakuppe monastery (Golden Temple) at Kushalnagar – around 45 kms from Pollibetta. The memories of the beautiful temple and the huge golden idols will remain with you for sometime. I had seen the monastery before, but this time I had the good fortune of seeing the prayer ceremony as well where scores of devotees were praying in unison. You can shop at the small shopping market just outside the monastery and try out momos at the little restaurant there (we were not too impressed with the momos, though).

Inside the Golden Temple

Prayer ceremony at Bylakuppe monastery

We skipped the routine ‘must-visit’ places, the only ones we did go to were the Elephant Camp at Dubbare and Nisargadhama. If you’re running short of time, you can give Nisargadhama a skip. The elephant camp is good for one-time visit. There was a big crowd there though and I’m quite sure that weekends would be much worse.

Tusker enjoying the water at Dubbare

If the weather is agreeable, I would recommend exploring the coffee plantations at Tata estate by foot instead. The Abbey and Irupu falls near Madikeri are supposed to be worth visiting after the rains – the summers are not a good time to expect anything great at these waterfalls.

If you don’t mind spending a fortune on your vacation, you can stay at Orange County in Siddapur. The place is very aesthetically done and extremely pretty. The tariffs, however, were too steep for us.

Orange County at Siddapur, Coorg

Movie review – Sherlock Holmes

I’ve always been a Sherlock Holmes fan. As a loyal fan, I was hoping that the director does some justice to the legend. And quite frankly, I was also quite confident he would.

The movie is fast-paced, and has almost everything else you would expect to see in a Sherlock Holmes story – his brilliant deductions (I’ve always loved them), Watson, Irene Adler, even his arch-rival Professor Moriarty. As a bonus, unlike the TV series, you get to see good-looking versions of both Holmes and Watson, quite a bit of action sequences and even a hint of comedy.

Looks like Ritchie already has a plan for a sequel coz the movie ends on a note which gaurantees a follow-up story. I look forward to that as well.

I only wish I had subtitles for the movie as well – the british accent is hard to follow and you don’t want to miss a bit of Holmes’ amazing deductions.

Must-watch for everyone, especially Sherlock Holmes fans.

Microwave Chocolate cake

On popular demand, I’m blogging my chocolate cake recipe. Its a straightforward and basic recipe – no icing, nothing fancy – very useful for occasions when u want to bake a yummy cake even on a weekday.

 

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 cup refined flour (maida)

3 eggs

3/4 cup melted butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp cocoa powder

small quantity of milk (for getting the right batter consistency)

almonds, raisins, chocolate chips (optional)

Procedure:

Preheat the microwave oven on convection mode at 180 degree Celsius.

Mix the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder in a bowl. Beat the melted butter, eggs and sugar in another bowl till it gets fluffy and the sugar dissolves. Of late, I’ve been using an electric hand mixer for beating which makes it much simpler and quicker to prepare the batter.

Now, slowly mix this egg mixture to the flour mixture and beat till you get a smooth batter. The batter could be a little thick – smoothen it by adding milk till the batter is of a thin ribbon consistency. Once the batter is ready, add almonds, raisins, chocolate chips or other dry fruits of your choice to get that extra flavor. Mix the batter well.

Grease the cake tin/bowl with oil and pour the batter uniformly in the bowl.

I’ve noticed that the cake comes out better if you wait for the oven to cool a little after the preheating is over (probably for 3-4 minutes). If possible, keep the bowl on a low rack and bake in convection mode at 180 degree Celsius for 40 to 50 minutes. In between (after 20 mins or so), you can remove the low rack and continue with the baking. After 40 mins, check if the cake is done – insert a thin knife and see if it comes out clean. If it does, your cake is done. If not, continue for some more time till you feel that the cake is baked properly. I still use this trial and error method after 45 minutes to check if the cake is fully done.

Once done, allow the cake to cool before serving.

Broken Promises

I’ve always believed that I’ve had this problem of lack of discipline, or should I say lack of resolve. The result – broken promises to myself. I’ve lost count of the number of promises I’ve made to myself – and most of them have met the same fate – they’ve been broken. The most common and frequent one has been the promise to maintain a healthy diet and exercise regimen. Fruit-laden, low carb diets don’t last for more than a month and sincere, regular workouts don’t last for more than 20 days.

It doesn’t stop at this. My lack of resolve surfaces in a lot more ways – half-hearted attempts at continuing sketching, half-finished books and (staying in context) irregular updates to my blog. So much so, that I still have 2 incomplete drafts in this wordpress blog – waiting for attention from me.

The irony of the matter is that I seem to be completely the opposite at work – I’m quite focussed on anything I’m doing at work until I complete it. I find myself unable to multitask a lot at work – which is good, because it means I can focus all my energies to the task at hand.

This again brings me to the same question – if I am capable of focusing, then why am I unable to exhibit the same degree of resolve to non-work related activities that I bring to work-related ones? I’m sure its not the question of enjoying what I’m doing coz I definitely enjoy sketching, blogging and exercising more than writing code. Is it a case of priorities then? Or is it my conscience that prods me into commitment for my work because I get paid for it? Or is it a case of pure laziness? (My husband would vouch for the last one )

One thing is for sure – none of the “time management” or “prioritize your activities” or “seven habits” trainings or books ever help when you need these simple answers. Each person is on his/her own to look for such answers.

Kashmiri Dum Aloo

For Mahashivratri this year, I decided to make dum aloo – a must-have of any vegetarian Kashmiri feast. For the benefit of non-kashmiris, let me first clarify a misconception. The brown, sometimes sweet so-called “Kashmiri Dum Aloo” served at hotels is nowhere close to the original. The original dum aloo is deep fried, fiery red and painstakingly cooked. Reason enough for me to blog the recipe. Here’s what the final product looked like:

At the outset, I was a little apprehensive. I’ve cooked dum aloo a few times before and its been appreciated by non-kashmiris, but connoisseurs of the kashmiri cuisine would’ve passed it off as a lame attempt. This time, though, the results were excellent. Enough talk, lets get to the recipe now.

The Recipe:

10-12 small potatoes

Oil (lots for deep frying, around 3-4 tbsp for cooking)

Kashmiri Chilli Powder (the quantity varies depending on how much you can handle, make sure though its enough to get a nice red color)

Saunf (aniseed) powder, called baidyan in Kashmiri (around 1 and 1/2 teaspoon)

Soonth (Dry ginger powder), called shonth in Kashmiri (around 3/4 tsp)

Curd or Dahi (2-3 tablespoon – if its the hung curd variety, mix it first into a liquid form)

Cloves (3-4 pieces)

Cardamoms – black and green both (2-3 pieces)

Salt to taste

Try to choose the right sized potatoes – don’t go for mini potatoes, just select the smaller sized ones. Boil the potatoes, peel them and prick each of them on all sides with a toothpick or a knife. Heat a generous measure of oil in a kadhai (wok). After the oil has heated up, put the boiled potatoes in the oil and reduce the flame to the minimum. Now, let the potatoes deep fry. I’ve seen enough recipes of the dum aloo that hardly talk about the process of deep frying the potatoes. I would say that how you fry the potatoes will finally determine how well the potatoes are cooked. The trick is to let the potatoes slowly deep fry at low flame till they turn brown. Make sure you don’t over-do it. The potatoes should be light to medium brown in color when you switch off the flame. It might take close to an hour for the potatoes to be ready if fried at low flame. Be patient, give it that hour and stir around the potatoes at regular intervals of time to fry them evenly.

In a kadhai or pressure cooker, heat 3-4 tbsp of oil and add the cloves and cardamoms to it. Add salt, saunf powder, soonth powder and chilli powder to the hot oil. Now, these spices may burn in hot oil, so quickly add the curd, keep stirring. Add a cup of water, stir and bring to a boil. Now, add the potatoes and let it simmer on low flame. Stir around the potatoes at regular intervals of time. Most of the water should dry and you should see the oil come to the top before you switch off the flame. This might take another 45 minutes to an hour depending on the quantity you are making.

The dum aloo is best served with white rice, and mind you – seldom alone, there have to be at least 2-3 more side dishes with it( Kashmiri cuisine, of course). Watch out this space for more such recipes.

Georgia Sunshine Village

Just a day before New Year’s eve, we were looking for a quiet retreat to a place close to Bangalore. We had just a day off, so it had to be a place not more than 2-3 hours away. Googling for such places, I came across a resort located close to Sivanasamudra and around 120 kms away from Bangalore. This is the only resort in the vicinity of Sivanasamudra falls. We made the bookings – the money has to be paid in advance – and headed for an overnight stay at Georgia Sunshine Village with Sito and Vrushali.

The Route:

We started from Bannerghatta Road, hit the NICE corridor and headed towards Mysore road. There’s practically no road connecting the Bannerghatta Road to the NICE corridor, so be prepared for a dusty and bumpy ride for around 100 meters or so. But the NICE corridor is a pleasure to drive on – a stark contrast to all other roads in Bangalore. This road led us very quickly to the Mysore road. We drove straight on the Mysore road (SH17) till Maddur via Bidadi and Ramanagaram. At Maddur, we took the left fork towards Malavalli. On crossing the Malavalli town, we drove straight ahead till we reached the ‘T’ junction that leads to Shimshapura road. We turned left at this junction and went ahead till a board for Georgia Sunshine Village directed us to turn right. Now this right turn leads to an uncomfortable 2-km stretch drive on a narrow untarred road before you reach the resort.

The resort:

As soon as we stepped into the resort, we were greeted by a cute little daschund, Whisky, as well as the owner of the resort, Mr Leonard. As we discovered later, there were a few more daschunds apart from Whisky, a friendly Labrador and another fierce looking Labrador (this one was tied, luckily). The resort has around four cottages, each having two rooms set back-to-back. The room Sito and Vrushali were put up in had a semi-open bathroom i.e. the roof covered only half the bathroom. The rooms were quite spacious & clean and the resort itself was quite tastefully done with rugged walkways, an enclosure for rabbits and lots of flora. There’s also a small swimming pool and an activities room (with a TT table and some board games) at the resort.

The Food:

The most important part of any laid-back holiday at a resort is the food served by them. The food at GSV was quite decent, though not outstanding. The menu wasn’t extravagant, but we enjoyed it, nevertheless. We didn’t order any extras – like tea/coffee etc – but I think that anything extra, even as simple as tea, is charged here. The package includes morning as well as evening tea, apart from the meals.

Activities:

GSV arranges fun-fishing at a small pond near the resort. It was fun initially, got boring after the first few minutes. There’s no fishing to it, it ought to renamed fun-feeding. There’s a bonfire arranged by the resort at night and the board games, TT and the swimming pool are available all of the time. Early in the morning, GSV arranges a small trek – I would call it a nature walk – across the nearby village fields. This was the best part about the stay at the resort and we really enjoyed it.

About 14 kms from GSV, is the Gaganchukki waterfall and another 10 kms is the Barachukki waterfall. We didn’t have time to visit both after checking out of GSV and on consulting Leonard, we decided to visit just Barachukki which is supposed to be better. Here, one has to descend a steep rocky stairway to reach a lagoon right at the bottom of the falls. Coracle rides are provided where they take you almost underneath the waterfall. We went coracle riding and the experience was good. Apart from the coracle ride, there is nothing much to do here. As all other tourist spots in India, this place is damn crowded, so sitting down and relaxing is out of the question.

After the visit to the falls, we headed back to Bangalore.

My new “makes-me-feel-younger” mobile

What do you do when you’re no longer a college kid but want to feel like one? You buy a red-and-white mobile with an in-built MP3 player that you can flash around and hope that people mistake you for one. Well, I’m not sure if thats why I bought the Nokia 5300 Xpress Music, but I must say that I’m quite happy with it. The sound quality is amazing. It looks good (or thats what I would like to think), and has all the features that a phone in its price range ought to have – camera, bluetooth, PTT and an expandable memory slot.

Checkout the official website at:

http://europe.nokia.com/A4199012

The Bartimaeus Trilogy

The children’s fantasy genre has gained a lot of popularity thanks to a certain teenage wizard called Harry Potter. I’ve read all the six Harry Potter books, although I have to admit that I found the last few to be a bit of a drag. This is not going to be Yet Another Blog about the Harry Potter series. In fact, it does just the opposite. I’m going to talk about another series – a trilogy – that belongs to this genre. The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud.

One of the things that appeals to me about this trilogy is exactly that – that its a trilogy. 3 books. Doesn’t stretch beyond that. And hopefully, thats going to save the series from becoming a drag (I haven’t read all 3 yet). Another point worth mentioning about these books is their subtle humor. The protagonist – Bartimaeus – comes across as a djinni with a sense of humor. Also, one shouldn’t miss the footnotes – they’re not exactly in sync with the story, but they make an amusing read.

Here’s the fancy website:

http://www.bartimaeustrilogy.com/home.html

Drumstick sambar

Of late, I’ve been trying my hand at quite some recipes, and surprisingly, the results have been pleasant. I’ll be posting these tried and tested recipes on this blog, as a reference for myself as well as for sharing it on the internet.

I’ve always loved the south-indian sambar. I’d cooked sambar a couple of times before with good results, but I was still looking for an easy way to get the perfect flavor. I chanced upon a sambar recipe on the internet – it sounded good and simple. I did make a few personal modifications to the recipe and this is what the result looked like:

The Recipe:

1 and 1/2 cups toor dal
2 drumsticks (vegetable)
1 medium onion
1 capsicum
1 medium tomato
1 teaspoon turmeric
4 teaspoons sambhar masala
wet tamarind pulp
salt (to taste)
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon asafetida powder
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
curry leaves
4 dried red chilies (whole)

1. Chop all the vegetables into medium-sized pieces. Drumsticks should be kept 2 inches long. Put veggies in a pressure cooker with the Toor dal and turmeric powder. Add enough water to cover the vegetables. Cook for about 20 minutes.

2. Soak the Tamarind in warm water for about 30 minutes. Remove the pods and filter out the tamarind water.

3. Open the pressure cooker and make sure the dal is cooked well. Add about 4 heaping teaspoons of Sambhar masala. Also add the tamarind water and salt to taste and stir the mixture.

4. Heat oil in a kadhai and add asafetida powder, cumin seeds, curry leaves and red chillies. Add this ‘tadka’ to mixture.

5. Boil the mixture for 2-3 minutes and serve hot.