What began as a trivial topic of discussion over lunch, actually took shape and landed us all in beautiful place called Hoganekkal near Karnataka- Tamil Nadu border. My office team went on a super-short trip to this super-stunning place, 150kms from Bangalore.
After going around the city picking people up from all corners for almost two hours, we left for Hoganekkal at 8:30 am in the morning. The driver was, well, a bit too careful and drove at a speed of 60-80 kms/hr. After filling his pot belly with a heavy breakfast somewhere on Hosur road, we finally set off for a non-stop drive to Hoganekkal. It was extremely hot and we were all aprehensive about how on earth will we have fun in the sun; nobody really wanted to get tanned!
Somehow, after a 4-hour long journey we hit the town and called Rama, the guy (guide) for our ‘trip’. He took us on this narrow lane running parallel to Cauvery. Oh by the way, the lane we were on was Tamil Nadu and the area across the river Karnataka! Strange…
Anyway, Rama took us to the bank of the river where we waited for our coracle that would take us to the other side of the river (Karnataka). On our way, in the middle of the river, the boatman decided to spin the coracle creating a whirlpool driving us insane. I felt the first gush of excitement at that time. After a lot of screaming and mad laughter, we reached the island. Our coracle was followed by another one which carried the cooking material, our luggage and dear lady cook.
As we walked to the other side of the island discussing who will go for the massage first, we saw this beautiful stream of water, surrounded by huge hills that encompass that area. The hills, some green some naked, created quite a scenic beauty. It looked like a perfect painting. Wow.
I am scared of water. I stayed behind the group that went quite berserk when they saw the river. Our ‘camp’ was lovely. With this tiny inlet of river dividing two pieces of land, we had a perfect place to chill out. Just when we were getting acquainted with the place, we saw our colleague slip and fall into the water. 
And I think that did it for us, we all just jumped in and were playing in water for the next 5 hours. Wine, some yummy fish, good massage and friends- a perfect treat.
Wine: We looked for wine more than we would look for water in a desert. Finally found one shady shop and picked up some booze. Would advise you go prepared whenever you go as a) you won’t find anything good there and b) whatever you will find is highly expensive!
Fish: I am a vegetarian. But for some reason I have an influence of the many Bengali’s in my life and I tried fish. I tried fish to an extent that I wiped off 2 plates of fish fry sitting pretty in the water. The fish is fresh and it’s yumm!
Real Fish: While we all ate and drank immersed in water like lazy lumps, we suddenly saw this group of atleast a 100 fish all around us. They were tiny and cute and were biting us all over! Also, I was told that these fish come and eat off all the dead skin on your body. And I didn’t believe him till I saw my legs!!!
Massage: Before the act, let me give you a brief about the lady. The lady, who is the cook and also one of the boatman’s wife was a tall, dark, hefty lady with a very attractive face and lot of gold. She didn’t look too clean but definately did not look poor. She was so big that she overshadowed everybody in our group. Well, coming back to the act. She broke my bones as I moaned and screamed in pain. What sounded like a *fun* session was not all that fun. I actually heard my bones crack!!! And the oil STANK!!
The Wash: No, they just don’t leave you soaked in stinking oil covered with sand. They also give you a wash in the river. Not that the bath really helps as the soap or whatever that was stinks like the oil. She rinsed my hair so thouroughly that whatever little hair I had, I saw it floating away in water. Eeks! Hey, I am not trying to sound mean here. The massage was indeed pretty relaxing and the bath was, well, extraordinary.
After all the food and the massage, we kind of got into some serious discussions about life, aspirations, career, relatonships etc. Well, never mind that.
At around 6: 15 pm, we finally decided to get out of the water and go visit the famous waterfall from the Roja fame. Evening sky, excited birds flying back home, soft splashes of water, surrouding trees, distant hills…and amongst all of that was I. Sitting in the coracle all of us became exeptionally quiet. We just observed life around us and absorbed the beauty of the moment. It was serene and absolutely spectacular.
After getting to the point from where we had to again sit in the coracle to go near the waterfall. This was the most amazing part of the trip. He took our coracle right under the fall!!! AWESOME!!!!
Then nothing. We changed into dry clothes. Looked for our cab driver who had gone missing. Negotiated over money and drove back to Bangalore. Oh by the way, in this entire process of switching coracles, my right leg fell straight into this gap of tree roots in water and hurt my knee. I now have a very cool blood clot.
Driving back was a 5-hour long journey and we all slept like drunk logs.
Awesome trip. Must go. Later.
Weather is great today.
