Stars, bucks, tea, and coffee

Welcome to Coorg.

Coorg, also known as Kodagu, is known as the Scotland of India. No kilts, no pipers, no haggis, but plenty of lush, rolling hills and valleys.

What are they rolling with, you may well wonder?

Coffee, tea, and wild animals! Rawr!

We were set up at a fantastic homestay called Serene Home (http://www.homestayscoorg.in/), which was run by the lovely Navya, sister of Deepak and Rashmi's neighbor down the hall, and her kind husband, Prakash. Prakash runs his family's coffee plantation, and their land goes on for acres. And acres. Their guest quarters were just right, clean and bright, and featured a huge open-aired veranda where we played games (did you know that Lado is another name for Parchesi?) and watched TV (my favorite new reality show isn't Top Chef any more, it's about pre-nuptial Indian bridal makeovers!). Janet got the best bedroom nook ever, and immediately set about putting her things away in the cupboard.

The gardens were lush and the trail down to the stream took us past coffee and black pepper plants, and even some jackfruit trees, as well as a few buildings where the estate workers lived. Palms, flowers, the electric hum of cicadas, and the occasional lizard crouched on the hill beside our rooms---it was heaven. The food, rich with local coconut chutneys and uttapam (fermented rice pancakes), made us waddle back to our room contentedly.

The tea, from the very first day in Bangalore, is sweet, milky, and warm with spices. The coffee is similar, but with an earthy edge of chicory. I am completely a convert to caffiene. No more sissy, split-shot soy lattes for me! (At least not here.) We thought coffee was king of the neighborhood at first. That is, until we saw the Tata corporation's (owners of Tetley) tea farms, all under the name Glenlorna Tea Estate. All that talk of caffiene made me, who goes into jittery convulsions with a few sips of either brew back home, do as the locals do: imbibe! Two or three times a day! (Maybe that's why I'm still up at, um, 12:10am....)

We made the most of Coorg, despite our rather brief visit of two nights and one very full day. Wish we had more time there, to just kick off our sandals and read more Bollywood magazines (my preferred reading material, FilmFare magazine). Two major events took place in the same day that, I might add, I'd never imagine would occur in my life within hours of each other.

The first: We climbed steps up to a waterfall. Then we stood under a waterfall! We all got drenched from the Irpu waterfall!

The second: I saw a mongoose. My first one. Oh, and a bunch of wild elephants. The mongoose was so fast I had no time to capture it, but the elephants held up our safari bus, making threatening bellows and stomping hoofs as if to prepare us for being stampeded. That was in the Nagarhole National Park. Janet had the camera.

Tomorrow we're off to Sri Lanka for 8 days, an eagerly anticipated trip to spend time with Seattle friends who are with the American Embassy in Colombo. More from that elephant-governed island!