Roaring Through My Twenties

After only a day and a half in Mysore, we packed up and left for Coorg. Only about two hours from Mysore, and actually back towards Mangalore, it was an easy ride. 

Last time I was in India, I had actually visited Coorg. For me, that trip certainly had its highs and lows (we had the greatest time ever taking a jeep ride up the mountains; I most definitely had sun poisoning one of the days). And so, I was happy to return, especially because Coorg is known for its coffee. 

Before visiting, I had many people tell me that Coorg would be colder than Mangalore is. And, when I asked for clarification on what they meant by “cold”, they would quickly correct themselves and tell me it’s not the kind of cold that I’m used to. I obviously knew this, but it’s fun to tease about the differences between the perceptions of “cold”. Coorg, by the way, is also named as The Scotland of India, and when I google why it’s referred to as that, it says that the landscape is similar to Scotland (this could be true, I guess!). 

The place we stayed was owned by a friend of a friend…of a friend? And it was so beautiful. The resort was on a huge coffee plantation. They were also growing other fruits and plants like avocados, bananas, chikoo, figs, and more (this is where I learned that cinnamon comes from the bark of literal cinnamon trees – huh!?). It was incredible and very impressive. And after the craziness and crowdedness of Mysore, this was a great place to reset. 

Picture from the coffee plantation

Settled at our accommodation, we fought off the biggest spider I’ve ever seen in my entire life (which we were reassured was harmless…), then spent the evening hanging out. 

Our one full day in Coorg was spent seeing all the local, well-known places. 

The Glass Bridge (which is more of a platform made of glass than a bridge made of glass) allows you to see Coorg’s beautiful mountains. I have to shout-out Mali who, despite her fear of heights, was so brave and joined us for the view. As a treat, we checked out the chocolate and wine shop here, where I bought chocolate-covered cashews. 

Squinty selfie with Mali and Zoe on the Glass Bridge

In addition to being well-known for its coffee, Coorg is also known for its chocolate, spices, and homemade wine. Every couple of strides you’ll pass a shop that’s selling a combination of the list above. I can confirm that the chocolate and coffee are very good and the wine is certainly unique (chili wine, for example, burns – and not in the fun way). 

Raja’s Seat is another great place to visit. It’s essentially one big park, but overlooks even more of nature. Its name, Raja’s Seat, actually means “Seat of Kings”. Apparently, the kings of Coorg used to visit here to watch the sunsets and sunrises. 

View of the mountains from Raja’s Seat

And after eating lunch we, again, stopped into another chocolate/wine/spices shop, where I bought more chocolate (not for me this time- as a gift for my project advisor!).

Our bus back to Mangalore wasn’t scheduled to leave until 6pm, so we were able to spend the morning visiting the Tibetan Golden Temples. Although I had visited this on my previous trip to Coorg, the temples were still as beautiful as I remember. The walls are decorated with very intricate paintings that depict Tibetan Buddhist mythology and the statues themselves are breathtaking. It’s a little silly, too, because as you are a tourist walking around these temples, the resident monks are going about their usual routine.

(When I write these blog posts, I tend to use google to make sure the information I share is correct. Just now when googling these temples, I just learned that this complex is one of the largest Tibetan settlements in India – 6,000 monks and about 16,000 refugees). 

One of the Tibetan Buddhist Temples

Inside one of the temples

Painting on one of the walls inside a temple

And with our last stop completed, we headed to the bus station to begin our journey back to Mangalore – and a journey it was! 

Since we had traveled from Mysore back to Coorg, our travel time back to Mangalore decreased, and I certainly appreciated this because the circumstances of our travel home were a little bit different than our way there. 

For one, it was easier getting onto our bus to Mysore. Instead of a bus station, our bus came to a single bus stand, so there was less to navigate. Secondly, we were arriving back to Mangalore late, so I was worried that the security gate at my apartment would be closed. Lastly, we knew that our bus home was not going to be the same kind of bus as it was on our way there (my comparison for my US friends would be like a coach bus vs. a CDTA bus…).

Anyways, sitting at the station, I was watching as bus after bus pulled up and people were just hopping on. For the life of me, I could not figure out how they just knew what bus they were supposed to be on – every single bus was identical, the buses were not labeled by destination, and no – there’s no way to track the arrival of a bus on your phone. It wasn’t until I looked up and realized there were numbered ports that listed the locations that the buses were going to (which wasn’t helpful to us because it was written in Kannada). To be fair – I’ve only ever rode buses locally in Mangalore and all I have to do is know the number of the bus and there are many buses of the same number running at the same time.  

Because we booked our bus tickets a few weeks before the trip, we had “assigned” seats on this bus. However, as we watched buses pull in one after another, we heavily questioned our chances of actually getting our assigned seats. I would watch as a bus would pull into a port, and the people getting onto the bus would throw their backpacks into open seats through the windows of the bus, because without doing so they wouldn’t be guaranteed a seat and would likely be standing for at least half of their ride. And because our bus ride was five hours, we worried that our bus would be so crowded that no one would honor our assigned seats on our tickets and we would have to stand. 

Waiting for our bus to arrive and discussing this worry, one man standing next to us, who was waiting for the same bus, tried to reassure us. “You’ll be fine. If people are sitting in those seats, just ask them to get up.” Another man standing close by laughed at this sentiment and responded with “This is India, people won’t get up.” Yikes!

And so, while chaos unfolded as we boarded this bus, Zoe very confidently pulled out our ticket and showed it to the trio who sat in our seats. Surprisingly, all three stood up and let us sit down. Not surprisingly, we did get a few angry glares from two of them as they stood for the next hour of their ride. Sorry!

Safely back in Mangalore, I’m back to working on my research (and plotting my next trip!).

P.S. Check out my Photo Gallery page for additional photos from this entire trip!

Disclaimer: This blog is not an official site of the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State.  The views expressed on this site are entirely those of its author and do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State, or any of its partner organizations.