Coorg
With roads which gave a side hug
It started with me realizing I forgot my sweater after multiple warnings that Coorg would be cold. Nevermind. Well, it actually started a week before when I was confused whether to book the return tickets first or the other way around. Ended up booking simultaneously, one from my phone and one on my laptop, why even take the risk?
I reached Coorg early in the morning. 5 AM early. Waited till 6 and rented a scooty. I planned a lot for this trip. A lot, the finest details. A vlog told me to start my day early and so I did. At this point, I decided to do my day 2 itinerary on day 1. The first stop was somewhere near water. It is usually a sunset place but I didn’t care much and being alone helped too. Ever visited a place so silent that after a few minutes, you can’t unhear the random noises? Here it was all nature. Heard the water first but slowly realized I was not the only creature. There were at least 5 different animal sounds but didn’t bother. It was peace.
Did I mention the roads? Take a look
Imagine being the only vehicle on this road with super cold air hitting your skin and you forget your sweater. But hands down the perfect road to ride on. It had the right amount of turns, the right amount of banking & the right amount of mist. Can’t describe it better.
Later I went to a place where I was supposed to river raft. It was one thing I was looking forward to on this trip. I reached the ticket counter, the guy asked how many, I said one, he laughed and asked me to wait until a group came. I waited, and waited. Couldn’t river raft but saw a few elephants bathe, not my thing.
Next stop - Nisargadhama. It was the cubbon park of Coorg but with more trees and a river to enjoy. It had a river so I had to be there. Flowing water is just so beautiful to watch, although sometimes it irks me to think that the flow will never stop. My peaceful stay here was not long lived as a bunch of boys from a school picnic decided to do schoolboy things. It wasn’t before I managed to get a click of the river at its purest!
As I wasn’t alone anymore, I got up to wander around the greenery. There was a deer park, a few treehouses, some adventure activities, but my eyes went to a road not taken. I hope I made Robert Frost proud. It started with dense trees on the side and branches going all over you and rays of the sun hitting only certain parts of the earth. As I left the trees back, it was a small pathway leading to I don’t know where but along the bank of a river with only a fence in between us. The river was on the left and a forest on the right. I walked, and walked, I will get back to civilization at some point, won’t I? To be honest I was looking for a way to meet the river on my left, so I kept walking until human voices became low and now unhearable. A cut branch of a tree appeared like a huge eagle and it scared the shit out of me. I paused, statued, took out my phone and zoomed. Foolish me, I kept walking. After a good 10 minutes, I heard some rustling in the bushes ahead, you can’t guess what it was. A deer jumped out and ran back into the forest! A deer! Never in my life, I saw a deer with nothing in between us. Where was I? I checked the maps on my phone and I was right behind the deer park, wow. I did mess up. I turned back and walked the fastest I could. The first sign of a human gave a sigh of relief. That was quite crazy. And I was on my way back to my hostel.
It was around 1-2 PM and my day’s itinerary was over. Lesson learned - don’t leave early just because a vlogger says so. I had no plans for the rest of the day. On my way back, I had this sense of accomplishment, I don’t know why. I was singing completely wrong lyrics of the randomest songs at my loudest under the helmet. It is all fun until anxiety creeps in. In a snap of fingers, you realize that you are alone. Focus shifts from everything to just your heartbeat and how it is rising. You are now afraid. What will you do if something happens right now? There is no one behind your back. You start feeling claustrophobic on a wide-open road with just 2 more cars other than you. I felt every second of this until I reached my hostel and came back to reality. Phew! That was scary. I had this feeling at least 2 more times on this trip, I hope it gets better.
Anyways, the rest of the day was to myself and with nobody to be accountable for….I slept. Woke up at 6 PM to see a few guys playing snooker. I remember playing it with my dad as a kid but had gone a bit rusty. Tried socializing with them for a bit and guess what, I was successful :) We then went down for a bonfire. Five strangers sitting around a fire, having the most random conversations with some not even knowing the names of each other, how random can it get? It was also the birthday of a girl. For the second time in a row, on my trip, someone had their birthday. Now I’ll wait for the third time to make sure it is not a coincidence. We then watched a movie and dispersed. A friend, while going to his room, said
“Good night! We’ll never meet again but this is how this life is”
I got some time to think over it while cuddling a pillow in my bunk bed. What he said was so true. Did I enjoy his company? Absolutely. Will I need his company to enjoy my life? Probably not. Do we really have to build “connections”? I don’t know, I mean I didn’t have a bad time by not making one.
The next morning, I woke up at around 8, 3 of my friends from the previous night had already left. I had my breakfast and was ready for the day. That day, I just travelled around the city like a traditional tourist visiting all the attractions the city is known for.
As yesterday, with the finest of planning, my day ended way early. This time I was glad it did as I could then sit back on a bean bag and watch India destroy South Africa while sipping hot chocolate with a bowl of maggi. While strolling around in the evening, I saw a guy drawing something. I think he was sketching. I tried to start a conversation and here is how it went -
Me: Hey
Guy: Hey
Me: What are you drawing?
Guy: *shows me a sketch of a dog*
Me: Wow, do you draw?
Guy: Yes
Me: Ah okay, are you an artist?
Guy: No
Can you sense the awkwardness in the air here? Probably he didn’t want a conversation or I am just too bad at holding one. In any case, I faced this a lot of times and now I have much less fear of rejection. And even less fear of talking to strangers. It still exists though and I’m trying to get better. If I look back, this is a huge progress and I’m proud of it. I would really recommend a youtube channel, Yes Theory - I credit them for making me take the first step :) To be honest, I still won’t start a conversation in my daily life. Travellers give a sense of comfort which I can’t explain. They are much more welcoming, without any judgments, you’ll probably never meet again and so you can be the most “you” with them.
The match ended, we won and it was time to leave Coorg! I hope it stays with me.