Kairali Ayurvedic Health Resort, Palghat – 12 Aug 11 to 15 Aug 11

Thumbs Down!!

Yeah, we were mainly attracted to fabulous deal we got through a telemarketing. 2 night stay at this resort at a cost of tax, i.e. Rs 3000, for a family. While it seemed to be an odd place (Palakkad), with nothing else to do other than the resort at your resort. We decided to go for it.

Very first challenge, how do we go there? Train, drive or hire a TT. Spent lot of effort in booking train ticket at first place, then kept struggling with change in thoughts to drive down. Ultimately, one drove, other dropped out and rest boarded the train. Phew!!

Arrived at the place after negotiating in English with ONLY Malayalam speaking Ooto (auto) driver’s, early in the morning. Resort fellow was complete disconnected with their marketing office who had promised us an early check-in. Nevertheless, got the rooms of varied size and shapes. In general the resort is decent with lot of vegetation around and a dirty stream in between.

Second challenge, the food. As it turned out to be by name, a real health resort and hence food was worth non-healthy people. It was much below average with meager supply and service, arrogant  manager who says an insect in a food in normal even at home!! I am sure, an healthy person can definitely fall sick after eating such food that too at a cost of Rs 750 for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Frankly, it was worth Rs 100 or less for the day.

Third challenge, friends who remained in Bangalore started looking forward to join us later. It excited us as well and we franticly started looking for place to accommodate them. No cottages available anymore in the resort so we drove down to nearest town to check some hotels. The end was however, status quo, with no one finally decide to come over and join us.

Fourth challenge, we got the innovative idea of picking the food from this nearby town once. And the experience was much more horrible. Do not want to describe much, other than the statement that it is not worth that effort we took up.

Final challenge, I think so many events and the large group together, kids with different priorities and behavior created some unpleasant situation around and strained the relationship in some corners. But that is worth ignoring for sure, as one has to give importance to the benefits of togetherness. Har friend zaruri hota hai, yaar.

Well, the good part. Plenty of time to spend as we were all together … a nice walk to the kitchen garden with almost all vegetables grown there. A drive to the nearby Malampuza Dam, which turned out to be a good break from the resort and those evenings where we just used to park our lazy bottoms’ and sit together for hours chit-chatting. Kids enjoying among themselves with plenty of movies to watch, thanks to my portable DVD player. Delhi Belly for grown-ups, it was hilarious.

Conclusion, avoid such place which is primarily for health and Kerala massages. Their core strength is not for people like us who wanted a good break, nice place and plenty of good food.

Some snaps to give you glimpse:

Travel Partners: Anil, Rohit, Santosh & Sanjay’s family
Location: 20KM from Palakkad Junction
Major Attraction: Lazy Time 
Other Information: Avoid
Food: You are not worth it

Bandipur–29 Apr to 01 May – 2011

So many years since we are in Bangalore and this place remained on our to-do list for long. Even at this time, the plan was made, cancelled and re-made….at the last minute at around 11:00 PM ..Yes, let us go. And we were all set to roll next morning at 07:00 AM. There are plenty of place for one to stay, most of them are seemingly very expensive. Few other, which looks OK on web and particular site, but it is an art of photography and one will not be sure what he/she will finally be getting. And hence do a thorough research as the place is secluded and one must ensure that all necessity is met once you decided on a resort/accommodation.

Since it was a last minute plan for me, I booked Bear Mountain Resort in Masinagudi which is about 25 odd KM from Bandipur. The cost per person including food is Rs 1750. While we heard from friends that resort is in good location and food is good too, it was a bit far away. Before this, I tried The Wilderness, which looked OK on web, but it was full on given days. In a way, it turn out to be OK as we did go almost near to this resort and found it to be equally too far from major attractions.

As usual, breakfast break at Kamat on Mysore road and in about 5.5 hours & 250KM we were in Bandipur. Right at the entrance of Bandipur one will find the offices of forest department; Jungle safari is conducted right from this place. There are forest dept cottages as well, which are required to be pre-booked by calling the Mysore number (0821.2480901 Field Director). Upon reaching there, we thought of enquiring for the accommodation. The mobile signals are very poor around this place, yet we were lucky to get through the number after couple of tries. And we were tad lucky to see that one of the cottage “Kokila” was available and we booked it instantly for 1 night. It costed around Rs 3000 for entire cottage having 2 bed rooms and includes park entry, parking and maintenance fees. However, the accommodation is basic, with a hall, bedroom and 2 pair of single bed. No other frills like towel, soap etc. A very basic mess facility to serve food if required in advance and that’s about it.

The surrounding terrain is plane and this is the only place around where you will find hundreds of deer roaming freely around. It was indeed an amazing site to see more than 200-300 dears at once. After freshening up, when we came out of the cottage, found entire backyard filled with many dears. Similarly, in the night, almost all of them took the shelter on the grounds of the cottage around and it was really an amazing site.

 

We looked around for a decent place for lunch. Forest rest house reception recommend as to go to JLR which is back towards Gundelpet (about 10KM). We went all the way there to discover that the food is overly priced and not worth. Came back and this time decided to go ahead of rest house to Country Club. Found food to be extremely good and we all (specially Anuj) enjoyed the spread… it was as if we were eating after many days. We liked the location and beauty of resort and instantly decided to stay here for 2nd night. We were lucky again to get the accommodation, Rs 1800 per person including food.

Booked it to check in for next day, came back to rest house and stood around reception for hours to get the bus for safari. We finally got one for 05:30, which started inly after 06:00 PM. Bit disappointed since it was already getting dark. Also, saw others fighting with the reception as they failed to see any animal after paying hefty charges. For us, it was same, nothing other than bison …. what a disappointment. Looks like we just missed it by an hour, we heard from a group that they managed to see even a tiger at 05:40 …in a different bus.

After lunch, we were sitting in cottage at around 09:00 PM wondering what to do. No TV, no other means of entertainment. Decided to put 3 Idiot on the laptop and watched for sometime before retiring to bed. All had in mind, we must get up early to check if there are some unusual sights in the morning.  05:15 AM, it was still pitch dark. 06:00 AM, and again all we see is deer all around. Jumped into the card and decided to drive on Madumalai area. Drove for about 30 KM and this turn out to be better than the paid safari. At least we could see wild elephants and peacock.

After returning, checked out of the forest rest house and went straight to the country club which is about 2.5 KM away. Nice place, plenty of options for kids and good food.

Had all round fun with cricket, table tennis, karaoke and beautiful surrounding. However, missed on bonfire as it rained heavily just after 06:00 PM. Next morning, we had plans to go for jungle tracking organized by the resort. 06:30, and we were running all around to get ready and not to miss the tracking. To our surprise we saw just 2 more than our family waiting in lobby for tracking to start. The guide took as into the jungle toward a dam which was about 2 KM away. It was not even 500 meters and we sighted fresh paw marks of a leopard.

 

It was a mixed feeling of thrill and fear. We were not sure to move ahead yet wanted to have a sight of the leopard. The guide was not having even a stick and was on his slipper. Encouraging each other, we still ventured deep into forest, which later we concluded to be a foolish thought. We were lucky not to encounter the leopard or the latest discovery that this jungle is filled with bear. And in a moment we spotted fresh bear paws as well, probably mother and son:

The climb up to the dam was steep and slippery since it rained last night like anything. Most and specially my mother struggled much and after lot of push and not allowing her to give-up, she managed to climb up. By this time, all her dress and shoes were showing only mud .

The guide who had climbed down to wash cam running stating he is not sure if it is wild dog or tiger, but it is not safe to stay and hence we started walking back to the resort. Missed everything in terms of seeing a wild animal, but did some close to the maximum fear and natural beauty.

And the climax was heard of elephants intersecting vehicles when we started back to Bangalore on 1st May. Couple of cars were slightly damaged (minor scratches) and I was tensed being in my just 2 months old car. However found an opportunity and escaped behind elephants … just to stop back in Mandya for lunch and finally in Bangalore.

 

Travel Partners: Anil, Madhuri, Mom, Mohini, Kush & Anuj
Location: KA-TN Border, about 250 KM on Mysore Ooty road. Ooty is just 60-70 KM from this place.
Major Attraction: Jungle, what else 
Other Information: Carry torch, Misquotes repellents, Dry snack, Warm cloths and umbrella
Food: Multiple options, but good food at a price will be available only in decent resorts