Our Native Village is a resort close to Bangalore - about 1 1/2 hours drive from Bangalore, off the Bangalore-Tumkur highway. This resort is nestled in the quite villages. The resort is themed to provide village experience with modern amenities. A pretty decent resort, and fun for a weekend getaway with family and friends.
We planned for a 1N/2D stay in the last week of February. This was our first family vacation without Shree. Vacations are never the same without all the members of the family. We missed her but knew she was having great time with her friends.
We started relatively late after a breakfast at Adiga's close to our house. We took the NICE road and exited on Tumkur road. We followed the directions given by google maps. Once we reached Nritya Gram, we realized the road specified by google maps was closed. We spent about 30-45min calling Native Village to give us directions. Since there are no concrete landmarks, following direction was difficult. Finally, one of the staff from Native Village came to Nritya Gram and picked us up. There was no way we would have figured that route without the help of the staff. It was mud ridden road through the fields. The resort is literally middle of no-where.
Once we reached the resort, we were offered butter-milk which was refreshing. After the check-in formalities, we were guided to our room. The rooms are huge with an attached balcony. Room was pretty cool even without an AC or Fan (rooms are fitted with AC and fan - but didn't feel the requirement). We had some time to spare until lunch. We played some games like catapult, basketball, cricket. It was fun. By now it was pretty hot on the ground and we were hungry too.
Lunch was great. They had lot of dishes. It was a set menu served on the table. We wished the menu could have been more native - inline with the resort's theme rather than a standard North-Indian cuisine. Nevertheless we had a good full course lunch of soup, salads, starters, curries, rotis, rice and desserts. After a heavy lunch, me and Pankaj dosed off. Shrishti took to her reading.
Around 2:30-3PM, there was pottery activity, which we happily participated in. We made some small pots and mugs. After pottery, went on a bullock cart ride. There was milking the cow activity too. We felt tired, after these activities on a hot afternoon - even though we didn't do much. Now it was time to get into the pool for some cool relaxation. And that is exactly what we did. Playing and swimming in the pool was fun and relaxing.
Later in the evening, there was a camp-fire and some music under the stars. This was great time to meet fellow residents of the resort. We would have liked it if there wasn't any electronic music and one could just enjoy the calmness and some sounds from the insects. I guess, this was one other thing apart from native food, which the resort can take up as a change. One of the activity mentioned on their brochure was "Night walk". We were interested in this and signed-up for it. This was planned after dinner.
We had dinner, which was buffet style with great variety of food. Post dinner we were all ready with out jackets and shoes for the walk. Weather was pleasant but a thin jacket was required to keep us warm. As directed, we were at the gate on time. Soon we realized we were the only ones for the walk. It wasn't any formal activity. One of the security guards with a powerful torch led us. Four dogs (Gabbar, Mallika, Sheetal. can't recollect the name of the fourth dog) from the resort followed the security guard to guard all of us :) This turned out to be one of the best night walks we have ever experienced. After about half a kilometer walk from the resort we reached a place full of trees. We further walked about a kilometer or so through these trees and then we hit grassland. Complete open space - a 360 degree view of the star-lit sky. This grassland goes on and on. The view was similar to the dome-theater experience in any planetarium. It was around full moon time, the moon wasn't yet up high in the sky. Which kept the sky almost without any light except the stars. Watching countless starts amidst the grassland with no one around except us, the security guard and the four dogs was an amazing experience. Absolutely no sound. Even the dogs stayed quite through out the walk. Every few minutes the guard would shout the dog's name and they would pop-up from no where. It was unbelievable that we were just about 60Kms away from Bangalore city.
We didn't feel like going back to the resort. But we had to as it was pretty late and we were tired too. As we started our walk back, we noticed a big peach colored balloon in the sky. We were wondering what it could be. When the security guard said it was the moon, we couldn't believe our eyes. The moon was just rising and it was huge. Through out our walk back to the resort, we noticed how the moon started rising up and re-sizing. A beautiful sight to end our night walk and the day!
After a good night sleep, we started our day with a small leisure walk around the resort area. The resort is literary middle of no-where. We were back in time for some hot breakfast. Post breakfast we spent some time playing some more games like gilli- danda, top, cricket, aadu-puli etc. It was now time to head back home. We had booked tickets for "Gully Boy" 4PM show and didn't want to be late for it:)
In all a great place for a weekend getaway!
We planned for a 1N/2D stay in the last week of February. This was our first family vacation without Shree. Vacations are never the same without all the members of the family. We missed her but knew she was having great time with her friends.
We started relatively late after a breakfast at Adiga's close to our house. We took the NICE road and exited on Tumkur road. We followed the directions given by google maps. Once we reached Nritya Gram, we realized the road specified by google maps was closed. We spent about 30-45min calling Native Village to give us directions. Since there are no concrete landmarks, following direction was difficult. Finally, one of the staff from Native Village came to Nritya Gram and picked us up. There was no way we would have figured that route without the help of the staff. It was mud ridden road through the fields. The resort is literally middle of no-where.
Once we reached the resort, we were offered butter-milk which was refreshing. After the check-in formalities, we were guided to our room. The rooms are huge with an attached balcony. Room was pretty cool even without an AC or Fan (rooms are fitted with AC and fan - but didn't feel the requirement). We had some time to spare until lunch. We played some games like catapult, basketball, cricket. It was fun. By now it was pretty hot on the ground and we were hungry too.
Lunch was great. They had lot of dishes. It was a set menu served on the table. We wished the menu could have been more native - inline with the resort's theme rather than a standard North-Indian cuisine. Nevertheless we had a good full course lunch of soup, salads, starters, curries, rotis, rice and desserts. After a heavy lunch, me and Pankaj dosed off. Shrishti took to her reading.
Around 2:30-3PM, there was pottery activity, which we happily participated in. We made some small pots and mugs. After pottery, went on a bullock cart ride. There was milking the cow activity too. We felt tired, after these activities on a hot afternoon - even though we didn't do much. Now it was time to get into the pool for some cool relaxation. And that is exactly what we did. Playing and swimming in the pool was fun and relaxing.
Later in the evening, there was a camp-fire and some music under the stars. This was great time to meet fellow residents of the resort. We would have liked it if there wasn't any electronic music and one could just enjoy the calmness and some sounds from the insects. I guess, this was one other thing apart from native food, which the resort can take up as a change. One of the activity mentioned on their brochure was "Night walk". We were interested in this and signed-up for it. This was planned after dinner.
We had dinner, which was buffet style with great variety of food. Post dinner we were all ready with out jackets and shoes for the walk. Weather was pleasant but a thin jacket was required to keep us warm. As directed, we were at the gate on time. Soon we realized we were the only ones for the walk. It wasn't any formal activity. One of the security guards with a powerful torch led us. Four dogs (Gabbar, Mallika, Sheetal. can't recollect the name of the fourth dog) from the resort followed the security guard to guard all of us :) This turned out to be one of the best night walks we have ever experienced. After about half a kilometer walk from the resort we reached a place full of trees. We further walked about a kilometer or so through these trees and then we hit grassland. Complete open space - a 360 degree view of the star-lit sky. This grassland goes on and on. The view was similar to the dome-theater experience in any planetarium. It was around full moon time, the moon wasn't yet up high in the sky. Which kept the sky almost without any light except the stars. Watching countless starts amidst the grassland with no one around except us, the security guard and the four dogs was an amazing experience. Absolutely no sound. Even the dogs stayed quite through out the walk. Every few minutes the guard would shout the dog's name and they would pop-up from no where. It was unbelievable that we were just about 60Kms away from Bangalore city.
We didn't feel like going back to the resort. But we had to as it was pretty late and we were tired too. As we started our walk back, we noticed a big peach colored balloon in the sky. We were wondering what it could be. When the security guard said it was the moon, we couldn't believe our eyes. The moon was just rising and it was huge. Through out our walk back to the resort, we noticed how the moon started rising up and re-sizing. A beautiful sight to end our night walk and the day!
After a good night sleep, we started our day with a small leisure walk around the resort area. The resort is literary middle of no-where. We were back in time for some hot breakfast. Post breakfast we spent some time playing some more games like gilli- danda, top, cricket, aadu-puli etc. It was now time to head back home. We had booked tickets for "Gully Boy" 4PM show and didn't want to be late for it:)
In all a great place for a weekend getaway!
