Visiting Karnataka : Coffee, Beaches and Hampi

Whoever coined “One State, Many Worlds” for Karnataka Tourism got it spot on! The diversity of geography, languages, food, climatic conditions, and the history, wildlife, culture across the state is unbelievable!

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Someone asked us to stitch up a road trip across the state inside of a week to cut across and sample various places, so we thought we’d share it for everyone’s benefit. The idea is to keep the drives to 4-6 hours, and cover a decent variety. The whole state is still too vast for seeing inside a week, and we usually recommend more time at each place. Hampi, for instance, alone needs about 3 days!

Bangalore – Sakleshpur/Chikmagalur via Shravana Belagola and the exquisite Belur Temple.

About 300 km : 4.5 hours + breaks

The drive itself is fantastic, and gets into a scenic countryside pretty much as soon as you get out of Bangalore on to the Mangalore highway. There’s a bunch of options along the highway for a quick snack.

Sravanabelagola – about 150 kms out – is one the most important pilgrimage centres for Jainism, and goes back to the 3rd century BC! It’s totally worth a stopover.

The Belur Temple at Belur, 35km past Hassan, is one of the best crafted and preserved temples in South India. Do use the services of a guide while there – they tell the story really well.

And then you’re amidst the coffee estates. Rolling hills, low clouds for a major part of the year, rivers and streams born in the Western Ghats, and a cover of green as far as you can see. We’ll be happy to host you at the Balur Estate or at Golden Wood, Sakleshpur.

Spend a day or two here soaking it in, going on long walks/treks in the estate, understanding growing, picking and producing coffee and its different grades and forms. A planter’s life is a blissful one, if tough.

Malnad – Tirthhalli – Shimoga – The Sharavathi Valley – Honnavara – Gokarna.

About 310km – 6 hours + breaks.

The Malnad – male’ nadu or the land of hills – is one of the prettiest terrains we’ve ever driven through. The roads are not always great, but the treat of the eyes, the clean air and the lack of traffic make up for it. Tirthalli is one of the wettest districts in the South!

You could stop over at the Jog Falls which plunge 830ft. This is especially gorgeous just after the monsoon, and a sight to behold.

At Honnavara you get to the coastline after a lovely drive through the Western Ghats – the lush green Sharavathi Valley which drops to the coast in a matter of a few kilometres. The roads from here are good, and you keep catching glimpses of the Arabian Sea. Turn in to Gokarna (stay with us!) for quiet, long beaches, pretty estuaries with sandbanks, hills and forests, right upto the sea, mangroves and numerous fishing villages. The temple town is ancient and psychedelic, and the area – unlike Goa – retains the feel of the ages old world that it is – great for exploring on foot.

Gokarna – Hubli – Gadag – Hampi

Another 320km – 6-7 hours. No real stops on this.

The drive starts out along the coast, winds back up the Western Ghats and then gets deeper into the Deccan Plateau. Gadag has an ancient Jain Temple worth a quick stopover at.

But it’s Hampi you want to get to! A whole city built of stone and abandoned completely a few hundred years ago.

 

The drive back to Bangalore should take you about 7 hours, and is mostly zippy highway. Except a quick stopover at a dhaba, not much there, unless you want to stop and ogle at the magnificent Chitradurga Fort. It’s amazing how much history dots the landscape everywhere!

Gokarna : A lot can happen in February!

Gokarna is witnessing events around the biggest of them all – the Mahashivaratri there, with the Temple Car (ratha) festival and a lot of cultural activity as supporting acts.

Check this out:

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The boat race is on today, and the Yakshagana performance late into the night is a must-see! If you want to head to the coast for a delightful couple of days of catching up with the local cultural scene, and of course some sun, sand and fish, let us know right away.

As always, we’re at stay@linger.in and +91-95900-50001

 

 

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!
(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!”

Surfing at Gokarna. Even for Beginners!

We’re always looking for local stories and fun things to do around our places. On our last trip to Gokarna a few days ago, look what we found!

Yep, there’s a surfing school in the neighbourhood. And Sandeep of Cocopelli is a passionate young man who’s been living around there for a decade teaching a bunch of local kids what he loves most – surfing!

They also do sessions for those willing to go learn surfing – starting with “Try It” sessions. you’d typically need a course of 3-4 sessions of a couple of hours each over a weekend to get somewhere. Kids 9 and above are allowed, and they do not merely rent surfboards unless you’re a regular, experienced surfer. Prices for a session start at approx 1000/- with all the kit (board, an upper-body rash protection suit, etc) and training. Sandeep is confident that he can guarantee anyone will learn to surf in the duration of the course.

It’s doable even in this season, when the water’s a little rough. They’ll advise you on when it’s safe.

Even getting to his place in the monsoon was an awesome experience – check this out 🙂 (Yup, that water that you see is the path)

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So the next time you wanna come Linger, do check out this option. Let us know, we’ll connect you with Sandeep and you’ll return with a tan, fun memories and a lot more!

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 🙂

 

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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….