On the night of December 25th, I embarked on my journey to Thrissur in an Ambari Utsav bus. By the next day, around 8 AM, I reached Thrissur. From there, the event organizers had arranged for a bus to take us from the bus stop to Guruvayur. It was a one-hour ride through streets lined with magnificent houses, each showcasing unique architectural styles. Our destination, Guruvayur, marked the beginning of our yatra. I stayed near the ISKCON temple in Guruvayur. After enjoying a hearty breakfast, I visited the Kesavan Samadhi. The burial place, of a remarkable elephant. This was no ordinary elephant but a devotee of Lord Guruvayoorappan (Lord Krishna) named Kesavan. Kesavan was so devoted that he underwent initiation ceremonies just like human devotees do in various temples. The Samadhi was a short walk from the hotel. After paying our respects, we returned to the hotel for lunch. For lunch, I ate the special delicacy of Kerala coin paratha skipping the day's Prasad at the ISKCON Gu...
On the morning of 18th April we left to Madikeri on the new and modern KSRTC Power+ one of India's most modern buses. The bus has a controlled environment with an automatic lane-changing system that works on simple keys. Moving on with the trip we passed through the urban lanes of Bengaluru to the farmlands near Channapattana through the Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway to the town roads of Mysuru then the reserved forests of Coorg. The Bus journey was also a good experience. Then we checked in to the resort and took some time to freshen up and have lunch. We then left for the 1st destination of the trip, a walk through a coffee plantation that was filled with the scents of Arabica and Robusta codee plants and a bit of Sandalwood and even Arecanaut trees. Then we had a try of the special creamy Coorg filter coffee. This can be equalized to Starbucks's coffee (due to the sugar content). Popular Indian lore says that on a pilgrimage to Mecca in the 17th century Baba Budan, a Sufi sai...