Club Mahindra, Kodagu Valley Resort - Day 3
The day before saw Kiruba and Apurva make an early exit. Kiruba had to attend the Nokia Word Conference in Amsterdam and Apurva had to leave to Lucknow for a personal engagement. But I could feel their reluctance to part earlier, especially Kiruba, who wished he could stay back.
On day 3, we were up earlier and were ready for the next leg of our trip, the Dubare elephant camp.
On the way to the boat - towards Dubare elephant camp
The Dubare elephant camp is a project undertaken by the forest department and the jungle lodges and resorts, nurturing about 100 elephants in various camps. The elephants from the famous Mysore Dassera are trained here. The forest department maintains these elephants and their mahouts. Visitors can participate in feeding and bathing the elephants. You can also go an ride atop the elephant, which is an experience in itself (though I felt guilty burdening the elephant with my weight - no matter how insignificant that may be).
Ekadanta
The Dubare camp is located about 4 kms from Kushal Nagar and about 20 kms from Madikeri; Since it is on the other side of the river Cauvery, you would require a boat to cross it.
There is even a small shop that sells merchandises and you can pick-up mugs, t-shirts, jackets and other memorabilia.
And as usual, Joy, our affable Club Mahindra guide was a storehouse of local information feeding us with information tid bits along the way. He even conjured up a bubble blower from a plan stem right in front of us!
The other bloggers were having a jolly good time at Dubare, especially Sudhir gauging from his blog entry.
It was time to return, but as we were heading back to our bus, we spotted a maverick, off-road vehicle. Curious as we were, we spent some time studying the vehicle, and even managed to have an interesting conversation with the owner of the vehicle - also the owner of a rugged, all terrain bicycle.
It was then time to return back, much to the relief of Joy :), and head to the coffee plantations after lunch. A beautiful account of Coffee in Coorg can be read at Anil’s post.
The day would soon come to a close, the trip was coming to an end and we would depart back home early morning. Dev, Amogha and Anita however sceduled to depart tonight, and we could all feel the pangs of nostalgia already.
But we weren’t going to let our trip fade away into the night, as we would soon discover. The efficient staff (thanks to Resort GM Hemant Bagga, manager Jayant John and Joyful Joy) had already made arrangements for the night, and what an arrangement! A bonfire, dance troupe! and the lavish food.
Joy introduced the dance troupe in waiting and gave us a brief of the performance. The song was Kannada and the context was that of a lover selling bangles. The dance was captivating, especially the expressions on the face of the performing lady. The song was melodious too and had our attention for the length of the performance.
This was followed by a Bollywood dance performance and an English pop music number, both of which were equally well performed and choreographed.
After the performances were over, Joy entertained us with some innovative, interactive games that kept us amused.
As the night progressed, the bonfire lost some of its intensity, almost signalling the end of the show. But that was not to be, as Dev picked up the guitar and entertained us through the night. He started off with a song that was popular in his engineering college days, a song that can be adapted to any situation you are in. Here is how it goes…
Hello Darling Hello, hum tum pe marela hai,
Peeche Mudke Dekh Zara, Deewana Khadela hai …Khadela hai …Khadela hai.
Then you can improvise it the way you want. For instance…
Jee Karta hai Tumko Bahar Gumaane ka (chorus),
Gaadi bhi hai, Petrol bhi hai …Par Tyre Fatela hai ….Fatela hai …Fatela hai.
Dev at his best
We then improvised the song to every member in our group, and it was fun all the way.
The songs and fun continued, until we were reminded that Dev, Amogha and Anita’s cab back to the airport had arrived and would be leaving soon. Dinner ended with a short recap of the trip, and interesting anecdotes of everybody in the trip.
Its funny how you start off as total strangers, and part off as good friends.
