Yelagiri & Hognekkal falls

This was an unplanned trip with many spontaneous decisions and a mixed crowd ! Few of us planned to visit Gopalswamy betta. The group size kept increasing and finally I booked a TT since there were 12 of us. 2 hrs  before the travel, we got to know that trekking has been banned in Gopalswamy betta and it would be a waste of time going till there. A quick change in plan resulted in a memorable trip to Yelagiri and Hognekkal falls.

*ing : Johnson, Vijay, Nish, Sandeep, Sooraj, Bhavya, Ramya, Charu, Deepak, Supreet, Richa and me
                                      

July 7th : We started our journey from Bangalore by midnight. The TT was filled with a group of strangers (most of them were meeting each other for the 1st time, me being the connecting link :D). Though all were silent initially, by the time we crossed Hosur, everyone was geared up to play dumb charads. This was more of an ice breaker session. For 3 hours, the game went on without a break and by 4 am all of us decided to have a quick nap which didnt last long as we reached our destination ! We had booked a room in Hotel Ashoka (must appreciate the hospitality !!).

The night long dumb charads session resulted in a sleepy morning ! Most of them were dead tired. Since we had to complete trekking before the sun rises, we freshened up and quickly started our journey ! The hotel authorities guided us with the trekking spot. The trek was a bit straining coz we forgot to carry water bottles !! After a 2 hours trek, we reached the hill top. It was very peaceful around the temple premises on the hill top. We started off with our monkey business climbing trees and rocks posing for pics :P After about an hours time, we headed back to the bottom of the hill. The return trek didnt take much time !!

After returning from the trek, we checked out of the hotel and headed towards Hognekkal falls which was an instant plan. Only concern was that Ramya was not keeping well. However, she insisted on continuing with the waterfall plan. Cheers to her spirit :)

Though Hognekkal was a repeat destination for many of them, it was a different experience with a new group ! After a bargaining session with the coracle riders, we got into the coracles and rowed towards the falls. On the way we saw the spot where Abhishek Bachhan dives during his intro in the movie "Raavan".

We were allowed to spend some time in the water. All of us got into the water and played for a while. Sandeep even found a Rs.50 note flowing in the water which was later utilized to buy snacks :D. The law of nature says "To gain something you have to lose something". We got a Rs.50 note but instead lost a diamond ring (Supreet) and a gold ring (Charu) which was a costly deal ! After spending about an hour in the water, we headed back to our parking lot and our return journey started.

We reached Bangalore late night, had dinner in electronic city and reached home by midnight ! With this, a memorable unplanned trip came to an end.

                                           

Xtreme Zone Paintball

A weekend getaway with a fun filled gang is something that most of us would love to do ! Paintball is something that  all of us wanted to but had never tried earlier. We got an info in advance that if we form a group of 10+, we could have an exclusive session for our own group and wouldnt be mixed with strangers. So we decided to go ahead with our coorg gang with few additions and subtractions !

*ing :- Abhith, Vj, Johnson, Kiran, Vidya, Ramya, Swetha, Nishchitha, Megha, Manu, Vimal, Prashanth, Ashok and me.

We left from Hebal by about 10am and reached Angasana resort (close to BMSIT College) by 11. Our organizer (Chetan) was ready to give us instructions but we had to hold on for sometime since Vimal, Manu and Ashok were yet to reach. As soon as they reached, we formed 2 groups (Johnson, Ramya, Vj, Vidya, Manu, Kiran, myself in one group and the rest in the other group).On receiving instructions, we were all geared up for a firing session.

The game that we played was known as "Elimination" wherein one group had to eliminate the other by shooting each of the team members twice. For those of you who dont know what paintball is - Its a game wherein you shoot each other with pellets and these pellets bursts splashing a colour on the surface where it hits !. Both the teams had the same strategy "dodge till the other team lose waste sufficient bullets and then start firing. But since both the teams had the same strategy, nobody fired and finally the organizers had to interrupt asking us to shoot each other instead of just hiding and sitting :D. We kept running from one bunker to the other which made us feel like we were armed militants fighting for our nation ! :D.. Most of the time we would aim someone and shoot but it would be the poor trees that would receive a firing ... i pity the trees in our war field :D ... After about 45 minutes of shooting, the game came to an end and our team emerged victorious.

Soon after the paintball session we had a team building activity wherein the 2 teams were made to stand in a straight line parallel to each other. The one who stood last in the 2 lines had to go to the organizer who would toss a coin and assign head/tail to the 2 team reps. They had to pass on the msg to the one in front of them with sign language (the one in front wasnt allowed to turn back and look at the one behind while communicating) and each one passed it to the other in a chain. Finally the one in the front had to shout out head or tail. Though it sounded silly, it was fun while playing this. It was best of 3. Our team won the 1st one and the other team won the 2nd won. Final one was a tie breaker which we won !!

The next event was an interesting one. The 2 teams had to form a circle holding hands. There was a ring looped in the chain and we had to pass on the ring from one person to the other without leaving our hands and the one team that took the least time in completing one full round would win. This was a thrilling one and our team emerged victorious beating the other team by 3 seconds !

The final event was another interesting one where each team had to form a train holding each others shoulders. Except the one in the end, all were blindfolded and 3 spongeballs were scattered here and there. The one in the end (who wasnt blindfolded) had to communicate with a sign language (without speaking a word). While playing this we realized how miserable life would be for the blind ! Fro a change, the other team won this team and they had a good strategy.

With this the paintball session came to an end and we headed towards Friends dhaba to have lunch. While having lunch we got to hear some more of the stoneman experiences from Prashant !! After lunch we had to part ways. Abhith, Vj, Nish, Swetha and Megha headed towards our college (Sir MVIT) to spend some time there and then returned home. The rest of us decided to go to Ascendis Mall in Whitefield to play Bowling. By about 8pm all the fun came to an end and we returned home after an eventful day. Thanks to all those who made it ....cheers :). Our experience with xtreme zone could be rated as 4/5 and this is for sure a recommended place for those who have plans to play paintball could try this. http://extremezoneindia.com/paintball/paintball-bangalore-angsana/pricing.html

Coorg

New yr bash at Coorg Coffee Flower Estate - A memorable new yr celebration it was !! This trip was a mix of action, romance, comedy, dance, adventure ..in a nut shell a complete entertainer !! It was more like a blockbuster movie with a superb star cast but a disappointing climax :P

The plan started off 1 month in advance and the tickets were booked by 23rd ... 14 of us were all set for the new yr bash not knowing whats awaiting us in Scotland of the East - Coorg.

We started our jounrney on 30th Dec at about 4 pm from BEL circle. Abhith, Mani, Harshitha and me boarded from BEL circle. We picked up Megha from Hebal, Ramya from Bapoosapalya, Prashanth and Sunitha from Marathahalli, Vimal from Belandur and finally Bharath from BTM layout. Johnson, Kiran, Vidya and Jacob came in Jacobs car. We had a good time playing games like Dumb charades and Anthakshari during our journey. We reached Kushalnagar by about 1am and tried contacting the resort guys for directions. Meanwhile few cops stopped by for an enquiry. This gave the initial negative vibe !! They shot lot of questions which created a small tension but then we handled it without facing any issues from them. On receiving directions to the resort, we reached there by about 2am. Though we were initially praying that atleast 50 of them should be there in the resort to create some noise and fun, we were shocked to know that there were more than 300 of them in a place which could accommodate a max of 150 ! Thankfully gals got a room for themselves but guys had a tough time coz we had to stay in a tent which was more like a refugee camp coz there were about 20 of them staying in the same tent !!! We werent even provided blankets (At this point I need to highlight that Prashant slept with his jacket as a pillow in freezing cold weather and realized early morning that he could have put on his jacket and slept instead of shivering the whole night :D )

31st Dec 2011 : We woke up at about 7am and had a good laugh at our refugee experience. Breakfast was prepared and all of us were disappointed when we heard that we would be served "upma" but surprisingly it tasted good and we enjoyed the breakfast sitting by the poolside. We then planned to visit chikilihole backwaters which was just 5kms away from the resort. Expectations were quite high but the thrill didnt last long once we reached there coz it was just a normal reservoir with barely anything to do. Abhith, Johnson, Bharat and me started popping stones over the water which is something that we tend to do when we see water ! After spending about an hr at the backwaters, we returned to the resort for lunch by 12:30.

The organizers informed us that lunch would be served only by 2pm so we decided to play some childhood games like lagori. We started of with a warm up session by playing volleyball and then started off with lagori. It was fun to relive our childhood days. Since we had a good team size, it was fun to play. Abihth, Megha, Harshitha, Johnson, Prashant, Mani and me were in 1 group and the rest were in the other group. Our group comfortably defeated them with a score of 3-1 !! :D

At 2pm we had lunch and then headed towards Dubaare for rafting. Swimming in deep water with life jackets has been a common factor in most of our trips in 2011. Though the place looked quite good, it was a bit disappointing that there were no rapids. We had to do rafting in still water but the interesting part was that there was a spot where we could jump into the water and swim with life jackets. This undoutedly was the best part of the trip. Prashant and Sunitha stayed back since they werent interested in rafting. Rest of us thoroughly enjoyed this part of the trip.

By about 6pm we left from there and reached the resort by about 7pm. All of us barged into the room to get dressed up for the DJ night. Just as we entered the room, the organizer asked us to vacate the room. There were a few unpleasent conversations between our group and the organizer coz the facilities in Coffee flower resort was PATHETIC !! We were finally given an alternate room where we all dressed up quickly and headed towards the dance floor for the DJ night.

We had a terrific time dancing since we hadnt danced for quite a while. We were finally relieved that there was something good about the resort. But this positive feeling didnt last long coz the power went off by 10pm. We then got to know that there were lot of issues going on outside the dance floor. Localites around the resort cut the power cable, threatened people with knives and even threw bricks on few of them. We were all shocked and scared about what was going around. Cops had also come within no time. The party was now heading towards a disaster. We were just hoping that the dj night picks up at midnight atleast. But to our disappointment, at 12am Jan 1st when whole of India was celebrating, we were sitting in pitch dark wondering what to do. 10 seconds before 12, I started a countdown and Johnson was ready with the party popper. At the count of 1, Johnson bursted a party popper and all those who had gathered around cheered and clapped. We then witnessed some fireworks. After this, we had dinner and noticed that lot of them had gathered around 1 guy. Abhith and me went there to see what had happened. The organizer was getting abused for ruining a new yr celebration for the 350 of them who had gathered there. For a moment I got animated and utilized all the kannada vocabulary that was familiar to me. I felt glad that my 3rd Language in school was kannada coz it turned handy while shouting at that guy. (But Im sure that the rest of the crowd could figure out that kannada was not my 2nd lang for sure coz it was that pathetic :P). The crowd even started manhandling the organizer threatening him to refund the money. By then his supporters arrived to the seen and the organizer managed to disappear from the crowd. We had no clue how and where he disappeared amidst such a big crowd ! A furious mob barged into his house and messed up his furniture ! We even saw few pple running away with his LCD tv and other electronic equipments !! We reazlied that it wasnt safe to stay there any longer and hence left from there by about 1:30 am. On our way, a white color maruthi van blocked us and few guys got out of the van. All of us sitting inside were horrified wondering whats going on. Everyone was speechless !! But in a few moments we realized that they were not blocking our way and instead were trying to cut across the road. There was a big sigh of relief :D. We reached Mysore by about 3:30am and our plan was to halt at Mysore.
Once we reached Mysore few of them had the opinion of returning to Blore and few decided to stay back. Johnson, Kiran, Vidya and Jacob stayed back, the rest of us headed towards Maddur CCD. 

Jan 1st 2012 - Johnson and gang spent jan 1st in Mysore at Planetx. The rest of us spent time till about 9am in Maddur CCD . We played the game Truth or Truth (a simpler version of truth or dare coz we didnt have the energy to take up dares :P ). We had lot of fun listening to Prashants stone theory and got to know lot of dark secrets in each others lives of which Prashants casanovic experiences were the highlight !! Abhith pledged that on jan 2013 he would take Prashants place :D ... In memory of the gyan that we received from the love guru, we named Jan 1st as the Stoners day :D The stoneman murders was an icing in compensation for the disappointing new yr celebration that we experienced in Coffee flower resort !

Morals of the story :
a. Never book a dj night without prior track records - It could ruin your new Yr !!
b. Never drop by COFFEE FLOWER RESORT coz they provide the worst ever facilities that you could think off
c. Tony mon still remembers Kannada to a certain extent :D
d. Group with which you travel matters a lot (We had some amount of fun only coz the group was good !!)
e. Playing childhood games once in a while is very entertaining and helps relive childhood days !!
f. Stone theory is something that one should be aware of before you start flirting :P (As stated by the Love guru aka stoneman Prashanth )