The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land." G. K. Chesterton

A couple of weeks ago I read a line which said "All of life is a journey ,which paths we take, what we look back on, and what we look forward to is up to us. We determine our destination, what kind of road we will take to get there, and how happy we are when we get there.” and our little journey to the sleepy coffee estate of Bainehare ,some 25kms from Sakaleshpur, started with a FWD. Yep a mail fwd showing awesome mountains, misty huts and a lot of trekking ( Thanks Anantha). It was more about a homestay.(,a homestay means that the traveler lives with a family for at least part of his or her trip). Travelers usually have a desire to experience the "real" culture and this is usually accomplished through a homestay. We decided to travel on the 3rd weekend of August and started planning for it. First step choose the place. Since all the others were booked we had to go with Bainehare http://www.malenaduhomestay.com/mhs/homestay_binahere.htm . We called the travel agent luckily it turned out that he stayed close to Malleswaram and he promptly came over to pick up the advance of Rs1750. He confirmed that this was for a 2 day and 1 night trip with authentic home cooked food. He also added that "they" would provide a guide and take us out sight seeing. We decided not to go with the Non Veg package which was Rs 500 extra :) a wise choice I might add. We booked the to and fro train tickets and were all set to travel on Friday night. Then it rained and rained and rained and the train was canceled :). Landslides in the GHAT section. We had to run from one KSRTC counter to another to book bus tickets but alas since it was a long weekend and more-so because the network was down,we had a horrid time. But I used my connections (AIRTEL) and managed to get 2 tickets on a VOLVO departing from Bangalore at 11.15pm. We didn’t bother about the return journey :). ( psst we couldn’t get any ). I contacted this dude , Anand who supposedly owned the coffee estate and who was supposed to be our point of Contact at the homestay. I told him that we would be arriving at Hassan at around 3am in the morning . The call got disconnected and he called back and apologized for the bad connection. It seems the network in his area was so screwed up that he was currently sitting on a tree.. I asked him if he could make arrangements to pick us up. For which he replied that it was going to be difficult since the elephants would be roaming around at that time of night. I looked at my phone, did I hear it right ? Did he just say elephants? "Gulp". and wait a minute, did he say he was sitting on a tree ?? ( I told this to my wife and she smiled, but didn’t make any comment ( RED FLAG).He assured me that by the time we arrived he would make some arrangements .Uff with that settled we were all set to enjoy the vacation. The Volvo bus was delayed by 45 minutes ( thanks to our Friday night traffic) and since the bus was half empty, we got to sit in the front seats. On this short journey I learnt that the VOLVO bus can do a max of 120kms, the daily collection is Rs 40,000 and the driver gets 2% on the ticket collection. There are always 2 drivers and the brakes are adjustable. But the best part was its mileage. 2.8kms. Yep hardly 3kms /Litre. We got off at 3.15 am and I called Anand , well actually I woke him up ;) and informed him about us being at Hassan. Firstly he thought I was someone else and then he told me about the elephants “GULP” and how they would be crossing the roads (I still wonder why they would be crossing roads, only the chicken crosses the road). I was furious. Here we were stranded in some smelly bus-stop, where every other dude had a blanky on his head and he was talking about elephants.GRR. He then said he’ll do something about it. (That was his stock line ). At 4 am , I get a call from some dude who claimed that he would be picking us up in 10 minutes and that he was referred by Mr Kishore. I was happy that we got a cab and told him where he could find us. ( I never bothered to ask who Mr Kishore was) . It was 4.45am before we were picked up and the cab turned out to be a rusty old Maruthi Omni van running on “GAS”. He told us that the road was pretty bad and that the distance was about 45 kms. We sort of fell asleep but the bumpy ride gave us nightmares. My wife thought she saw dark figures peeking through the windows and I laughed when she said she saw 2 kids standing in the middle of the road in full school uniform. I mean its 5 am and who in their right minds.. ( well it was true, I saw them too) . Then the cabbie lost his way and in the gloomy morning he stopped a lady who was standing by the road and asked her directions.She was so weird. The road was pathetic and since its always raining it was muddy and full of slush. At last we arrived to be welcomed by a couple , who introduced themselves as Mr Anand and Mrs Sumanth. ( STOP) It was at this juncture that we realized the we had relied on unknown people to pick us up at 4am,people who we had never met. Imagine the possibilities ( shudders). I never found out who the mysterious Mr Kishore was or who had asked the cabbie to pick us up. (Makes the sign of the Cross) We were shown our rooms and we sort of liked it. After a refreshing hot bath we slept for a couple of hours. At 11am we had our breakfast and Mr Anand told us that we would have to join another group of people for the sightseeing trip, in a TT. The first stop which turned out to be our only stop was what was called the BEAUTY SPOT. We reached the spot at 4pm. All we could see was mist everywhere and the distant roar of water. And then it happened. The mist cleared and we were stunned by the view. Hills ,valleys and waterfalls everywhere. Everyone was silent since they couldn’t find words to express their feelings. I was grinning from ear to ear. The journey was worth it. On the trip back we realized that Mr Anand forgot to feed us . So we stopped at one of the shops and bought some cookies and chips. It kept us going, for the time being. But every time my wifey pointed out awesome “huts” and breathtaking scenery , I couldn’t respond ,all I could see was chickens on the road and the tasty leg……..slurrrrrrrrp. I was hungry. Period. My wifey says that I was looking at her fingers hungrily, I deny it. Well the thought did cross my mind, especially since she was eating those masala lays, masala fingers..crunchy munchy. So we reach the “house” at 7 pm and had to wait till 9pm for our dinner. We wolfed down the home cooked meal and were grinning like little kids. Ofcourse I kept looking at Mr Anand who was ferrying chicken for the “Non-Veggies”. I silently cursed myself for opting for the Veggie package. But I got over the urge to chew chicken legs , uff thankfully , that was close. The next day we were up early and sort of tried looking for the “tree” from which Mr Anand made his calls ;) and ofcourse we were excited about trekking and checking out Tipu’s Fort. Mr Anand had other plans. When approached he acted surprised Trek ?Trek ? You want to go trekking? Well we sure wanted to…He was lost in thought and then said something which was ahem..too much .” I thought you guys were going back to Bangalore”. Yes Mr Anand But not after we’ve seen all the places that you and your website boasted about.. He was taken aback and then delivered his stock line ‘ Let me do something about it “. 2 hours later I demanded that he really do something and show us some places. He quickly said “Have you seen the terrace ? “ , I gave him my “ You_think_I’m_a_dodo” look and said, “ Yes we saw your TERRACE”. He was very disappointed; I almost decided to go check out the terrace again. He then called his “associates” and asked them to take us on a boat ride. Aaaha Boaty ridey..atlast some action. It was a nice walk through the coffee estate , we even saw elephant dung ;) and then they stole the boat and took us for a ride. The water level was way to high thanks to the rains.Awesome lake. We came back at 11.30 am to find that we were indeed off on a trek to Parwathammana Betta. It was a good trek and I clicked a few awesome pics. The view from the top of the hill was magnificent. We were back at the homestay at 4, where we had our late lunch. Yep they usually have their lunches late in the evening ( grr) . We were fortunate that the other group were also off to Bangalore and agreed to drop us off. We were all packed at 7 and it was pitch black.It was at this juncture that Mr Anand made his last mistake,he handed me the feedback book. I wrote just a couple of pages of what I came to the homestay to experience and see and what I really saw. Food was on top of the agenda and ofcourse the sighseeing trips were in the second line.Later I caught him reading my review with a weird expression. I bet it didn’t make any sense to him. I gave him the rest of the fees and bid him farewell. He came over to the driver of the TT and said “ If you see any elephants crossing the road, switch off the engine and don’t do anything.” Oh we were thinking of doing the Tribal dance of the ChewChewaaka Tribe ..yappppppppa.. anyway I was all set with my camera for my first encounter with the pachyderms but alas it was not to be. We reached home safe and are looking forward to our next adventure ;)