Kurumba Village Resort

This post is all about the trip to Kurumba Village Resort, it was two week before my first anniversary, I planned to go out from Bangalore city, I googled and found few resorts where I can go, one is The Serai in Chickamagalur, the other one in Dandeli & the other one I found is Kurumba Village Resort, I was impressed by the website & the review by other readers, I tried booking on the net, but the rooms were booked for entire month of May 2009, but I wanted to go on 7th of May, being my first anniversary. So called up & tried negotiating for a room but in vain. Later I decided to check out other resorts & dropped in to an agent - Indian Holidays, located in Brigade Gardens in Church Street, even he suggested Kurumba is the best to getaway from the city, after checking with Kurumba, he said rooms are booked for 7th, but I insisted I need the room on 7th & 8th. Finally after a week he confirmed that the room is booked & I made the payment in Bangalore & planned to leave for my short vaccation.

I did a research on the internet for which route I should take to reach Kurumba, there was two routes, one via Hosur Road, Salem, Coimbatore, & to reach Mettupalyam & climb the hill till we reach Kotthagiri & from there we have we need to take around 5 hair pin bend and reach Kurumba. From the base of Metupalyam, it will take 28Kms.

But I am sure the route is a boring route, where we will not have any greenery to look around, and as I had planned to drive down to Coonoor by my Maruti Swift, so thought I will not have fun overtaking trucks & busses. Finally decided to take Mysore - Bandipur - Ooty route.

It was 7th May, left home at 5am, reached Mysore within 1hour 40 mins. It was awesome drive, anyone who loves driving, will enjoy this route esp during early morning. After Srirangapatna, you have two options, you can take Left turn (Ring road) its a long route, it will join Mysore - Ooty road, the other option and the route which I took is enter Mysore city and dont even touch the heart of the city, you need to take one or two left turn and you will reach the highway to Ooty, once you enter the Ooty highway, I found Kamat resturant, I was the first customer on that day, had breakfast and left as I was not sure any other good resturant in this route. 

you will pass Nanjangud, Gundulpet, just before you enter Gundulpet, you can take a break at the Cafe Coffee day, its the only place where you can find the best restroom in midst of jungle :).

Once you pass Gundulpet, after 6 to 8 kms, you get bypass where you can go to Gopalswami Betta( from the bypass it is 11 kms to climb the hills, it is a good place, where you can get the view of Bandipur forest & you can visit the temple on the hills. 

 As I had visited Gopalswami betta last year, so I never bothered to go there, it will take around 10 to 15kms to reach Bandipur. Once you enter the forest, you keep watching for the wild... ofcourse you do get chances to come across few wild animals if you happen to go slow i.e below 20kms until you cross the forest. I came across deers, elephants, baboons, nothing much.. once you pass Bandipur, you will come across the other side of forest, called Mudumali.

Roads are awesome from Bangalore, you can find hardly 1/2 a km under construction road near Gudulpet, and few bummpy road till you reach Gundulpet from Mysore. Once you cross Bandipur, roads are good, you can find lot of speedbreakers inside the forest area, make sure you do not go before 8am to Bandipur, as I have heard they will not allow vehicles from 6pm to 8am everyday due to wildlife.

After you cross Mudumali, you will reach a post, where you have two options, one route goes via Masinagudi, which will take 35 kms, another route takes 68kms to reach Ooty. the difference is you have to take 36 Hair pin bend in this shorter route, but its a childplay for any driver. Note: Its easy to climb the hill with the 2nd Gear, just you need to go slow while turning, while coming down from the hill, you need to be careful, by not using your break tooo much, instead drive in 1st gear or 2nd gear. use less of break, as due to the pressure break shoe might worn out and break may fail, lottt of cases has happened, ensure that you have sufficient break oil.

On reaching Ooty, you can find boards to Coonoor, you just need to come to the junction, and you can find signboards towards coonoor, you will atleast take 30 to 40mins depending on the traffic, once you reach the town, you need to go another 15kms to reach Kurumba. On reaching the 5th hair pin bend, after 200mts from 5th hairpin bend, you will find a board Kurumba Village resort towards your right hand side, its a mud road, you just need to take that deviation, many of them will miss out the deviation. I was wondering what fun we will have down the hill, cuz you would have come atleast 30kms from Ooty and I was not happy to select this resort until I reached the venue. 

On reaching Kurumba, you cannot take the car till the cottage, you need to park near entrance, that was ok, We were welcomed by the officials, we were given welcome drink, was wondeirng what.. we were told it was Sweet Lassi, But actually it was Sour Lassi :), not impressed by that I took one sip of that. ambience was ok, we were supposed to walk atleast 400mts to the cottage from the reception, its well maintained, full of greeneries, you can find Bakasura Betta, Its huge, simply huge..... full of greeneries, trees of all kinds, plants of all kinds. we were taken to our cottage.

Cottage was GOOD, V.Gud, more than I expected, when we entered, it was huge room, with TV(small one), good interiors, there was a sit out, when opened the door, I could get the marvelous view of the Bakasura betta & the top of the tree was hanging near the door, Bathroom, was clean n tidy, it was open bathroom, with glass on one side,  there was

 total privacy, had bathtub attached, a small one, which I was not impressed :( .

We were told lunch would be ready by 1-30, it was buffeet, there was lot of varities, but taste was lacking, veg n non veg was available, it was filling. Again the resturant is an open resturant, where we could get the view of Swimming pool, bakasura betta, and lott of trees,   

with chirps of different birds. Had food, took some rest in room, and walked back to Swimming pool, the only thing everyone hates is walking, its like walking upon a hill with hair pin bend :). Trust me, its tiresome.

Its advicable for girls to get their own swim wear which they are comfortable, if not they also provide swimwear. Location of pool is very good, its open swimming pool, where you can get a view of the entire place, with full of greenery. I never had been to a pool like that before. Its amazing. Spent more than 2 hours in the pool. You do have lot of privacy, no one to disturb you, Only drawback is that they do not serve any food or drinks near the pool. They also have games room, where you can find Chess, Billiards, Carrom, Cards, you can also explore the stream,

 where you can find water flowing between rocks. If you are a treckker, you can explore the forest.

Around 4-30 they provide tea/coffee with snacks, i.e just right next to the pool, rest of the time we spent in the room, then had dinner, different dishes, it was good. Later spent night in the room, advicable to close all the doors, as you do not know which insect may enter your room :).

The good thing about Kurumba is you never feel like going out, we spent the whole two nights & three days in Kurumba, it was a peaceful place, where you will be in your own world and forget the things outside world.

During checkout, I was told the telephone bill has come upto 800+, that was a shock to us, I had to use the landline cuz there was no coverage of any phone network except BSNL & Reliance, I was also told it is Rs.12/- per pulse for STD Calls, and I was dead sure that my bill would not have crossed 350 to 400. I was totally surprised and the management ppl started to argue that the system shows that the bill is 800 and I am supposed to pay that, atlast when I asked for the breakup, it showed that I had used around 30 to 35 mins, but the outstanding bill is shown as 800 bucks. After all the arguments, they agreed that its the system error and they charged only 400.  Please ask and get to know if they are charging for any extra facilities they provide, also recheck the outstanding bill once again, to avoid paying excess.

 We took the same route to reach Bangalore, it was great fun driving, it took around 6 to 7 hours to reach Bangalore. Overall trip to Kurumba village was fun.