Giant buddha statue in Namdroling monastery. This status is at least 15-20 metres high!!


Tibetan murals on the monastery walls.


Side view of the monastery. The whole building was glittering like gold in the mid-afternoon sun.

 

Another picture of the elephant park.


Dew drops caught on a spider web, glistening in the morning sun.


The whole place was covered with these flowers. Lots of bees on these flowers, seems like the source of the famous Coorg honey. This pic was taken in Macro mode (very close to the flower).



Reflecting on one's life in the tranquil surroundings.
 

Found this tree during a mini-trek in the mountains. The whole tree is covered with some green fern/moss like growth. This trek turned out to be pretty harrowing in the end because we ended up soaking wet and every one of us got bitten by leeches ... eewww.



Raja's seat in Madikeri. This is a park with a supposedly fantastic view. We couldn't catch the view becuase a cloud had hit the mountains but I got to click some nice pictures in the fog.


Early morning drive.


Elephant park in Coorg. Here the elephants are being given a bath in the river by their handlers.
 

Coorg: The MS gang took a trip to Coorg during Dussehra (and Gandhi Jayanti) holidays. The trip was hectic, loads of travelling by road getting tickets and hotels during peak season but in the end it was well worth it.

We travelled from Hyderabad to Bangalore by Volvo during the night. Next day we arranged for a smaller 12 seater vehicle from Bangalore. The picture above is taken during the trip from Bangalore to Mysore. This road is now part of the gloden quardilateral and is an excellent road to drive on.

We reacehed Madikeri town in the evening. A picture of the evening sky there.

We stayed with a family in Madikeri who rents out rooms to tourists. This is the Aishwarya, the landlord's daughter.

Taken during a drive away from Madikeri. Notice the cloud topped mountains and the sun-lit farmland. Coorg has a highly unpredictable weather during this time of the year. It would rain ten times a day and without any warnings.