Shanti Kunj - Chikkamagulur

Shanti Kunj (http://www.shanthikunnj.com/), another homestay in Chikkamagulur. Though they claim it as a homestay, I beg to differ as the owners don't stay at this place. The place is maintained and managed by the staff. The resort is at a very good location. It is surrounded by trees and the river flows right infornt of the resort. They have different variety of accommodations. The best is "Glass House" which overlooks the stream. The log houses are also pretty good. They are really huge and can accommodate 4 adults easily. We found the food below average. This was disappointing as one expects good food - especially in homestays. Also they played really loud music at night, which defeated the purpose of staying in a remote place.

View from Glass House

Since we visited this place with another family (Venki, Meera, Maithree and Golide), it was fun! We had booked 2 log houses and 1 glass house. All the 4 kids decided to stay in the glass house. The log houses seemed really huge with just 2 adults.

Shringeri Math Temple at Sunset

We reached the place around lunch time. After lunch, it was time for relaxing. Adults too a nap and kids had fun exploring the homestay. Late afternoon, we drove to Shringeri Math and temple. This time the temple wasn't crowded. We spent some time here to explore the temple and the math.

Late evening was time for some card games. After playing for sometime, we went to check out the campfire. A campfire was lit close to the dining area. We always look forward to campfire during our homestay vacations. However, we were disappointed here. They were playing loud music and the coloured light streamers glared in the dark. The snacks served were also disappointing. We walked back to our rooms as it was quieter there. It was nice chatting up on different topics - atleast we could hear each other. Dinner too was not great. I feel the biggest disappointment at Shanti Kunj was food :(. Apart from the food and loud music during campfire - everything else was great here.

Trekking Mullaingiri Betta

Next day morning we started very early to trek to Mulliyangiri Betta. During summer months, it is advisable to start early as it get really hot at the top of hill after 11am. This time, we trekked from the base to the top. It was a good 3 hour trek. Though the distance is small, we spent lot of time chatting and taking breaks to click pics :)

Having fun in Bhadra River

After lunch, we decided to do the water activities. We were taken by Jeep to a spot where we could swim in the river. This was fun. Playing/Swimming in the cool waters of Bhadra on a hot April afternoon was very refreshing. Each of us were given a life-jacket and we could swim in the river. Farther part of the river was very deep. We decided to play along the banks. None of us wanted to get out of the water. After playing in the water to our heart content, we returned to the resort. Here we went for Coracle ride along the stream infornt of the resort.

Hike Around the Resort Area

Next day morning, we did a good guided hike around the resort. This was really good as the guide took us through paths which initially started as coffee plantation walk but later we were amidst forest area. This hike was for couple of hours, but worth it.

At the end of the hike, we were really hungry and thirsty. We had a good breakfast and it was time to head back to Bangalore.