Trip to Kodagu - Kushalanagar

We reached Kushalanagar at about 1 PM. We took an auto to the Veerabhoomi resort. The auto driver charged us Rs 25. Unfortunately for us, at about 50 meters from the entrance there was so much slush from previous day rains, we could not even walk. A bus had got stuck. We paid another 20 and went around and landed in the resort.

It is a very nice resort at the foot of a hill, with manicured garden with some cottages which looked like huts. It had a wall built around like a fort with some carts and cannon in between. It is a picturesque place. Nice warm welcome from the people there. The waiters are dressed like the old soldiers.

But the standard room we took was a disappointment. It was not maintained well. No cable and telephone when we entered, it was repaired it for us after escalation.

We hired an auto; we negotiated Rs 200 for a trip to Golden temple and Nisarga dhama. At Rs 50 per hour looked reasonable.

The golden temple was very good. It is situated in a nice place at the centre of lush green fields. We entered the gates we saw lots and lots of monks. There were lot of kid monks, they seems to be no different from the kids I see everywhere playing, fighting, etc. Was wondering how it is to be a monk.

Entering the temple was a very new experience. I knew the Buddha were big did not really expect it to be that big. The main statue was a usual peaceful looking statue other 2 were looked totally different from what Buddha was to me. In fact I though one of them was a devil, Rishica was actually scared. I realized that it was a Buddha after reading it. My experience in china and Hong Kong had not made me wiser about forms of Buddha. Took lots of photos and then went to Nisargadhama.

We went around the island formed by Cauvery River. The river was full and flowing swiftly. It's a nice place full of bamboo trees, with rabbit and deer park. Children enjoyed playing with rabbits. We literally had to drag them away. But there was no elephant ride that day spent about 2 hours there. By the time we came out it had started drizzling children were tired and started acting cranky, it made us tired and angry. We went back to the resort. We were told that we may not be let into Harangi dam so we decided to skip it. We decided we were going to relax the next day without visiting Dubare elephant camp.

Evening there was a culture show by artists in Veerabhoomi. Initially I was skeptical on how it would be. But they were pros. They kept us entertained for 2 hours. Infact tourists staying in other places came to the resort to see the performance. It was a mixture of song, dance magic show, jokes. There was a fire dance by one of the guys for the Rajkumar song from the movie Ashwamedha. It was really good. It was the first time I saw anybody fire eating and spitting kerosene on a torch, it was an amazing sight. Kids also had there share of fun.

I and kids joined the dance party at the end. Rishica really enjoyed dancing.

We had dinner, food was descent. We did not risk trying out anything new; we had akki and normal roti with dal fry.

Next morning, we had a good bath had breakfast and let kids play in play area. We showed the artist the video recording of their performance they were mighty happy. We had a early lunch and left Kushalnagar.

Took the KSRTC volvo bus at 1 Pm. we reached Bangalore at 6 PM inspite having 4 breaks.