philosophy | delightfully local weekends

April 17, 2015

Experience the Deeper India

“People from my country, they come and visit the same old stuff. The Golden Triangle – Delhi-Agra-Jaipur, a couple of popular resorts in Kerala – and that’s all! They miss out on the real India” – said Daniel of Aventura/Chalo-Spain over breakfast when he was in Bangalore. He’d just done a motorbike ride to our locations at Gokarna, Balur Estate and in Chettimani (Coorg), and is trying to get folks to visit the deeper India.

Made me think about how much of a disservice the travel industry inadvertently ends up doing to both the traveller as well as the beautiful places, cultures and people that represent the true India in all it’s variety, across geographies, seasons, the profusion of colours, terrain, customs, food, festivals – everything. And this India is outside of the major tourist locations, outside of the cities and off the bigger highways. It’s in the little towns and villages – with their unique stories. It’s when you stay in the homestays. It’s when you walk, take it slowly and interact with folks around. Coorg’s Pandhi Curry, the catch of the day along the coast, the quiet solitude of a large coffee estate, the profusion of flora and fauna deep inside a Himalayan forest – these are all small bits of that huge jigsaw puzzle that India is – and they’re best seen from outside the comfortable familiarity of a “resort”.

This is the India that Daniel is trying to showcase to his clients, and that we at Linger would like our guests to experience. It’s not about the “points”, or checklists, but the experiences of a civilization that has been through more iterations, changes and adaptation than we can usually imagine. It boggles the mind and mesmerizes even those of us who have been born here and live here all our lives. I can only imagine how much of an amazing – indeed incredible – experience it will be from someone coming in from Europe etc. It can be experienced however you like – on a bike along with one of Daniel’s tour, on a slow bicycle ride, on bus and train journeys that let you interact with so many real people in real life situations, on a road trip that stays off the bigger towns and roads – the only thing to remember is to explore with an open mind, ready to embrace the myriad surprises that greet you at every turn. Sure, not all will be pleasant, but that’s what travel’s about!

So do yourself a favour – and don’t stop with that Golden Triangle 🙂

March 20, 2015March 20, 2015

Weekend Family Fun : Overnight Camping Around Bangalore

For those of us living in the city, this is not just a great idea, it’s critical. We have all come from nature, we instinctively know it and belong in it, but our urban spaces often dull these connections and instinct. By now we even have tomes of research that connects our well-being to being out there, connected with nature, though of course deep in our hearts we’ve know that forever, haven’t we?

A weekend spent camping out there offers a lovely opportunity to spend a couple of days finding this connection again.

Here’s a few great reasons.

Disconnect.

Our heads are perpetually abuzz, given the lives we live, schedules we follow and to do lists we chase day in and day out. A quick camping getaway is a great way to slow down, reduce the interrupts that drive life, and enable fresh thinking.

Be in the sun

Vitamin-D deficiency is assuming epidemic proportions these days. In recent times, the sun has been much maligned, and we forget that all the energy we have and use derives from it! We are, in some ways, mere bits of the sun, and it’s critical for us to spend some time out there soaking it up. An outdoors weekend at a campsite affords a lot of time out there, and helps recalibrate your climate-friendliness and adaptability 🙂

Campsites are in places where you can explore the outdoors in multitudes of ways – there’s boulders to climb, lakes, fields, treks to do and even farming if you want to try your hand at that.

Be there, out in the sun a bit!

Spend time together

No TV, no internet, no classes to attend, chores to finish, none of the myriad distractions that the city around you provides. You spend a lot of quality time with the family, or friends, or building a bond with the team. You face challenges together on a trek, you burn some meat trying to barbecue it over the fire, you sit around for long hours exchanging thoughts, jokes, stories and generally shooting the breeze around the campfire. This is probably the most amazing aspect of a camping trip and we feel delighted to see it happen again and again at our campsites.

Understand a different world

We live in fairly make-believe urban spaces. Milk comes from plastic packets delivered at your doorstep, and vegetables appear magically in large heaps at supermarkets. The connect with where these come from, the effort that goes into them, and the realization of how much processing and packaging actually take away from fresh food is a very precious takeaway – especially for the kids.

And in places such as these, you observe the birds a lot more, you understand to respect wildlife, their behaviour, needs and how we can, and should co-exist with them without getting into exterminator mode.

Sleep in a tent!

This is a must-do- experience if you’ve always wondered what camping feels like. It’s not about the sleep quality – it’s about the fact that you’re in a “room” with a mere canvas skin, under the stars, and practically on the earth (except for a little softer mud pack and a few mats that we add to make it comfortable). It’s a great lesson in how little we really need 🙂

History

The places we live in are old, irrespective of what we know about the past of the cities we gave names and tags to more recently. Places out of town still let you explore the past – often with living remnants. From our campsites, you can go check out the awe-inspiring Madhugiri Fort, Namada Chilume, peek into the gold mining around Bangalore, discover where and when the Marathas made incursions and left behind traces that live on even today!

Easy, Quick, Affordable!

For your first taste of camping, an overnighter’s plenty. A place about a 100-150 km from town also let’s you head out early on Saturday morning, drive there quickly, and spend a whole weekend in the outdoors. Thankfully, places around Bangalore are beautiful in every direction, there’s hills, forests, farms and the weather’s relatively benign. There’s also a lot of variety in terms of terrain, activity, food and history. It’s the quickest, easiest getaway you can do on a whim over a regular weekend, and often costs less than a movie, a trip to the mall and dinner outside!

August 19, 2013August 19, 2013

What a great start to a week. Thank you!

The last weekend was a long one – and we were pretty packed across locations. It was pretty tight, with some last minute cancellations and bookings too. We almost ran out of sheets at a couple of properties, despite a huge extra inventory (partly thanks to the rains)!

But Monday made it all so worth it!

This ->

[Guest’s name] and I would like to thank all at Linger cottages, Coorg, for the phenomenal holiday we had. The property is beautiful beyond belief, and the splendid solitude was such a manna to city dwellers like us. We loved the food, the walks, the sit-out meals, the songs of the birds and the toads, the unbelievably green landscape, and the brilliant light works of the million fireflies.

A special thank you to Harish and Uday. Their ever-smiling faces made the delightful stay even more pleasant. Uday was kind enough to take us to see the Cauvery in the rain.

We would highly recommend your place to friends and family, and would love to come visit other Linger holiday spots.

Thank you,

[Guest at the Upper Cottage in Chettimani, Coorg]

Then, more ->

We got back yesterday after having a great time.

I must compliment you on the way the place is setup !

Thanks again,

[Guest at Bavikodla, Gokarna]

And apart from this, one phone call about a happy time at the campsite in the Devarayanadurga Hills, and one more delighted response from a couple at Gokarna. Last weekend’s guests at Gokarna had called in a couple of days earlier to tell us it was one of the best beach vacations they’ve ever taken!

And then we came across this – http://blog.tripthirsty.com/post/58574323240/lingering

(There’s surely some constructive feedback – and as always – plans are already being drawn up and instructions being sent out to respond to those by way of process, infra and other fixes.)

We’re facing an uphill challenge for gathering the bottles we need to deliver to replace plastic bottles – that saw a much-larger-than-anticipated-response. But despite that, accounting hassles and other minor battles we’re fighting, we’re on cloud nine!

Thanks everyone – this feeling is a huge reward!

And may be humbly submit – “Yay, baby!”

August 17, 2013August 26, 2013

On A Mission To Replace Your Plastic Water Bottles!

It’s a given that you should be drinking lots of water a day.

Especially given air-conditioned offices, it becomes even more important to remember to drink – and have a bottle handy that’s easy to refill and keep sipping from. And from what we’ve seen, everyone uses plastic bottles! We don’t like those at all.

Why? Read this. Or take a look at this. Clearly, even recycling is NOT a solution. It has to be stopped at the source of the demand – consumption!

So we decided to do something about it. You’ve already seen we’ve been using these at our properties. They’re pretty popular too – many a guest has asked if they could take one home 🙂

Bottled Water - Linger Style — Bottled Water – Linger Style

We have now decided we’ll do the same for howmanyever offices we can do it for across Bangalore. Yes, we’ll find great looking bottles, clean them thoroughly, make them look smart (see the sticker choices below) and send them over – complimentary!

Sticker Choices:

All you need to do is to FILL the form below, and we’ll do the rest. The bottles will be delivered to your office within a few days, complimentary! Do send us a pic or two with the bottles at your desks, of course 🙂

July 12, 2013

The Kind of Payment That Lifts Your Spirits

We were having a pretty crappy day at work – catching up with account sheets and realizing how bad the rising costs over the last 6+ months have hit margins. It’s not a great feeling to need to consider raising prices again, and wonder if the already slow market will slow down more.

And while you’re doing suchlike, a surprise gift like the one arrives, totally lifting your spirits and reminding you why you’re really doing this in the first place, and the numbers will work out, eventually, so don’t worry 🙂

PoornimaGokarnaSketch — The earth laughs in flowers

Poornima, a guest who had been to Linger at Bavikodla, Gokarna and sketched it while there shared this with us. We’re delighted, amazed, and very touched. This is the other kind of rewards doing Linger has – and keeps us determined to keep going.

“‘The earth laughs in flowers‘ and so shall you…the mystical flower power, so petite fragile yet so vibrant and colourful! Doodle trip — with Anita in Gokarn, Karnataka. made this picture during my stay at Bavikodla with my sister. It was wonderful thank you.”

Poornima – thank you! For making our day, and making it easier for us to ride over the bumps and still enjoy the journey. See you Lingering soon again….