While I was generally going through update by brain feed with various travel updates I used to constantly see the name Orange County, Coorg suggested by someone whenever people ask for stay options in Coorg. Of course it's not a good choice as people who ask for those stay options were looking to plan something within a budget.
But one fine lazy day when there was too much work and I wasn't able to concentrate I opened up the Orange County site. I saw three destinations Coorg, Hampi and Kabini. It was a time when I had just come back from Hampi. Otherwise Hampi would have been my obvious choice because my better half's dream place is Hampi and it also has one night free for people who stay for three nights there. My bad. So my next obvious choice out of curiosity was Kabini. And boy, wasn't I amazed with its splendor. Just the look of it was enough to pull me into it. So serene and tranquil.
There were few things that I wanted for sure in my honeymoon.
It had to be an all-inclusive trip with minimum roaming and maximum leisure. And I don't want to break my head what to eat. There should be a private pool. Dot. Bonus point if I could take First AC train so that honeymooning would extend in train as well. If you know what I mean 😉
Kabini fit the bill perfectly. In fact, one step higher because of additional brownie point in point number two. It didn't only have a private pool but also a temperature controlled one, that too with Jacuzzi, so night or day it doesn't matter, any time is pool time.
I had already gone through the site, line by line checking for every detail possible. So needless to say I went to several hotel search websites too to compare prices and got to know that it's better to book from their own website. My pleasant experience started right there.
I'm not much of a telephony person so used their live chat to get some details on honeymoon package. Ishita from their office called and asked for my personal number. At a comfortable time, we both talked on various things the package would include. I chose weekdays as I anyways would be on leave and that's one sure shot way to get an economical package even though I want to splurge. My package was blocked by next day but we discussed about a lot of things for at least one week. She was a sport and explained everything perfectly. So by the time I paid I was fully confident that it was going to be an amazing experience.
Day 0 - My First, First AC experience
3/9/2019
It was one of the many surprise for my girl who didn't know where we were going for our honeymoon, which place, which city, which mode of transport but little would she have expected that a first AC experience would happen. Till the time we boarded the train she didn't knew. Only after we entered the coupe she got to know about it. You know what's even more special, the train had only one first AC coupe that mean we were the most privileged ones.
To be honest even though it was a two people coupe with good spacing, it wasn't as clean as I expected but she was excited so I was happy. After fooling around for a while we had a good night's sleep. We had got chauffeurs contact number by then.
Day 1 - Mystic Mysore and Enchanting Evolve Back
3/10/2019
Guess I got the title good here.
Our Kaveri express reached Mysore on time, like it regularly does and our chauffeur called us on time too. He was polite and nice to us. Our Innova was spotless. Mysore rekindled some fond memories, it was a pleasantly chilly morning with wide roads, less people, less pollution which felt so good. I asked our chauffeur to take us to GTR for breakfast. Gayathri Tiffin Center is a household name there. Even though I was in Mysore for six months I didn't have much chance to eat out. The only famous restaurant I had been is to Vinayaka Mylari for their special Masala Dosa, that too not during those six months but while returning from Tadiandamol trek. Oh how could I forget those buttery dosas.
GTR tiffin was divine, especially their Carrot Halwa. Meanwhile chauffeur and I caught up with few stories as he was intrigued on how I knew GTR. The next couple of hours' journey was quite good but as we were tired I was hoping that we'd reach the resort soon. Roads too were not that great. But my girl's curiosity kept me awake, she still didn't know till the time we went to the resort.
In the resort we were pleasantly welcomed with a Sandalwood thilak and were asked to sit in their lobby. They made us comfortable right from the word go. We were also given sugarcane juice to cool off and their oh-so-good incense towels. Our tiredness just waded off. Also our early check in was hassle free with no hurry burry.
Then we were explained our package, which I'll mention in the below paragraphs, as and when it happened. From there Ankita took over, she was really nice with sweet smile always, sad that we couldn't interact with her post day 2 as she made us very comfortable and was easily approachable. We were led to the rooms and one look at it we both were controlling our smile which we did once she left from the room, that too from ear to ear. Special mention to the elephant shaped towel on the bed.
The room was so great that till lunch time we didn't feel like going out at all. Lunch, duh, I guess I should take one whole page to write about it because food in Evolve Back is not just about food but an entire experience. It was sumptuous buffet, every single time and courteous waiters just make it even more awesome. We settled in one of the best seats, which you see in their website, overlooking Kabini river and had a hefty lunch.
We just lazed around for few minutes and got ready for our first activity, which is complimentary in honeymoon package. A Vehicle Safari in Nagarhole National Park. I'm not very keen in wildlife but my girl is, that too in birds, so she was excited. I was interested and hoping to take few good photos. I learnt that Nagarhole is pronounced as Nagar holae and not Nagar hole. That's the lesson for the day.
We were asked to assemble at the lobby by 3.30 PM which we did and were taken by boat to the opposite side, from where the jeep safari started. We spotted various type of deer and sambars initially then few birds and elephants. All through the journey I was so damn sleepy and even dozed off a couple of times. It was a dusty passage in jungles but finally while returning back to resort we saw an elephant from the road which was trying to eat of the branches, it was beautiful and I got some good clicks. There was an annoying person in our group who kept on asking silly questions which irritated everyone.
From the Nagarhole side before our boat ride we had tea and sandwiches ready for us, Oh My God, didn't it taste heavenly. The breeze had gotten strong and chilly so we couldn't just stop with one cup of tea.
Once back we were keen to increase our knowledge on wildlife by watching a Wildlife Documentary. I have a bad habit that whenever I go to a place I want to tick off everything in the list. I didn't want to do that during honeymoon thinking it'd irritate my partner but luckily I got one who was a sport and was ready to try out everything.
That documentary was in fact informative. It was more like a private screening with only us in the room. The image of elephants trying to feed off dry grass by using their trunks is still on my mind.
You're going to read the next sentence quite often. We had a sumptuous dinner post that and retired to our room.
Day 2 - A day for relaxing and rejuvenating
3/11/2019
Ankita did the best thing by suggesting Breakfast on Bed rather than Nature Walk that day so that we could wade off travel tiredness, sleep well, have a sumptuous breakfast (again) and walk around the park. But we did miss the breakfast in Honeycomb restaurant that felt a lot better, in the open.
We proceeded directly to Vaidyasala (Ayurvedic Massage Centre at the resort) for complimentary full body massage called Abhyanga, which came along with the package. It's a full body massage done by two people who work in unison. One of them was especially good who gave great pressure and eased off all the muscles.
We went ahead and explored the resort, went to a local museum, a souvenir shop and then again for lunch. So it was the most relaxed first half ever in any of my trips. We rested for a while and proceeded for a special Romantic Coracle Ride with Wine and Dine. We got a Sula Red Wine which tasted much better than Champagne which we had the previous day, also some kind of cheese dish which came along with it was awesome.
After a few minutes break we proceeded for Bullock Cart Ride which we weren't really excited but a nice slow stroll around the Kabini river around the sunset time was perfect to rekindle romance. The ride ended with freshly cut tender coconuts which were followed by High Tea by the Infinity Pool.
After some rest we attended a Tribal Dance by locals and then opted for Night Trails but with our attire the naturalist was skeptical and so was She. So we sat for Jungle Tales. First up, thanks for the Cocktail. Three of the naturalists whom we were already acquainted sat to share their story and cleared our doubts. It was more interesting than we thought. Their interest in wildlife is addictive.
We had a special dinner arrangement at The Kuruba Grill, that day, a specialty grill and kebab restaurant. We went there post 9 but seems that it closes by 10, also our reservations were not clear and Ankita was not available. We told that it was there in our itinerary so they went ahead and served us. We were informed that it's a slow serving restaurant. But it was okay as we were not hungry so ordered minimal dishes. The last dessert served in banana was the best dessert I've ever had in life. Unluckily I forgot the name. Don't miss out on that, whoever goes there next.
We made good use of temperature controlled private pool post that as we had too much food to go to sleep.
Day 3 - Romancing away the last night
3/12/2019
Our day started early with a Nature Walk, we were joined by one more person and walked along the Kabini river (again) one more time. This time for bird watching. As I had gotten up early that day I had splitting headache but the experience was really good in spite of that. While returning back to the resort the naturalist asked us to guess a tree present there and I guessed it as Peepal tree without knowing why. He told it was right and that made me happy and got me to my favorite memories of Malgudi Days and R K Narayan.
I dozed off immediately once I came back to room. We skipped the Village visit that day and took it on the next day as we didn't have vehicle. Again Ankita came to our rescue and suggested it. It was a great plan.
Once I got up, we spent some time in pool and Jacuzzi which got us insanely hungry. So hungry that I ate biriyani directly without even looking at other dishes. It was quite the opposite in the morning where my headache made me eat only Choco Flakes with cold milk. But it's such a lovely combination.
We didn't have much to do post lunch so we went around the place and explored the resort further more just leaving out the Reading Lounge for the last day. Thought of getting into the Infinity Pool but couldn't. We went for Sunset Cruise in the evening which again I wasn't expecting much but the guide Srikant there made up for it, he explained the Kabini stories so well and in such an uncanny way he made us sit up for the stories. It was a pleasure indeed to see the sunset along with hearing those stories. We ended the cruise with a tea alongside infinity pool.
For dinner this time we were on time because of the Kuruba experience the previous day. It was a Romantic Private Dining Experience by the Kabini River. The place was superbly done, we felt like stars with such a setting. Unfortunately, we were not at all hungry so we were getting restless with the amount of insects thronging there more and more because of the light. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the dinner.
We caught up with a movie in room before sleeping.
Day 4 - A satisfying last day
3/13/2019
Generally, the last days are the toughest in trips but this time we were actually living in the moment and not thinking about the future and the fact that the next day we need not go to office also played in our mind unaware I believe. So we were stress free and looking forward for the last day instead of what's going to happen on the days after that.
We woke up earlier than usual and hit the Infinity Pool in which I swam for a good forty odd minutes and she too took a dip for few minutes. Needless to say that got us very hungry. We ate so much that we skipped lunch day. It was a nice gesture by the waiter to ask if we'd like something for the journey for which we asked for a couple of Chocolate Muffins. It was a unanimous decision by both of us.
We quickly changed and went for Village Visit (Spirit of Kabini) with Srikant whom we met previous day in the River Cruise. That guy is just brilliant; the way he explains the things happening there without any attitude was like telling everyone, "no matter what you do, we'll find a way to live". He took us to Puttamma's place and explained how she was living there for so long and the fact that she talks in ancient Tamil made us much more close to her. But her accent was tough to grab. The same words when spoken by Srikant was easier to understand. Least expectedly, that visit surprisingly became the best part of the trip. We went to another place from there to have Jaggery Coffee, which my grandma gives me every time when I visit my hometown. Only that it was a spicier version.
We came back to the resort and spent some time in reading lounge, freshened up and called for a couple of sandwiches and Cold Coffee for travel. All were neatly packed and kept in the Innova. Also along with it were French Fries and Donuts. As we had not had lunch we immediately opened the French Fries and one sandwich which kept our tummy full till night. We didn't eat dinner as well. Out of everything I'd rate this gesture as the highest by Evolve Back. It was so sweet of them to not say 'no' to anything. Small things like these will only get etched in our memory for long time. I'm sure this wouldn't be erased at all.
We came to Mysore Railway Station where our train was already there, the station was pretty empty and very clean. We settled in our berths and this time the coupe was much cleaner so it was dearer. This was one trip in which we were happy right from the start to finish. In fact, the next day in Chennai too was awesome as we got a cab for an economical price than usual.
Thank You Evolve Back, you made us Evolve Back to our happiest selves in our Honeymoon.
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