Chapter 15
Trip to Kemmangundi

This was first of the 3 trips which I had been recently. I had almost spent 3 weekends on
trips itself. This trip was with my teammates in my previous company. You all should be knowing by now that I shifted the company recently.

About the trip
Preparation: I was chosen the leader to organise the trip to ooty(planned before). There
were 2 other people whom I have to thank for their constant support in helping me organise
the trip. I forgot to mention - I was the Fun lead in that company. For those of you who
dont know what the hell is Fun lead, we are the people who take complete responsibilty of
easing the work stress of the entire team. Not to be confused with "Jokers". Back to the
trip topic. We started planning(almost prepared draft) a month ago from the actual day - man
being software engineers su**s. We were made to run around whole of bangalore to book
travels, arrange food etc. Organising a trip for software officials is a pain. And whoever
want to do that, my sincere advice is that please drop that idea.

After all that pain, it was almost finalised and the day had come when we about to leave to
ooty. Final suggestions, final advices, things to carry etc were being discussed when
suddenly we got to know that there was a state wide bundh being announced in Tamil Nadu on
the day we were leaving. So, what do we do???????? We changed the whole trip plan to
Kemmangundi(near Chikmagalur) in 2 hours flat. We could draft out the places, get the
accomodation, travels etc. within 3 hours.

Execution:Time had come when we left for Kemmangundi. I got the bus from depot and we went to the place of departure. We saw people waiting over there. My manager was quite happy with our efforts. I had got my bike to office and didnt know where to keep the helmet. So, asked
my manager if I cud place my helmet in his car. I kept in a brand new white Maruti Zen car.

And then we left the place at around 10:30. Atlast we started the trip. Thank God, my job
was almost done.

We played Anthakshari, Dumb charades etc etc inside the bus. This went on till everyone were
tired and soon fell asleep. We reached Chikmagalur at around 5 a.m. It was pitch dark,
weather was very chill, we straightaway went into the rooms. There, we caught up with one
more drama. My PM was dissatisfied with the ambience of the rooms. He decided not to stay in
that room and we were not getting any rooms anywhere else. Man.. You should adjust
sometimes. I was completely pissed off by his action.It was a peak season and there were no
rooms available in the entire district and my PM, in 5 am, wanted us to look out for rooms
in other place. We somehow managed to get a decent room for him and we decided to stay there
in the same place.

Bababudangiri Hill Top

The Jeep drive to Bababudangiri

We got ready, had our breakfast and left to Bababudangiri hills. The place was quite good,
but pretty hot, would have been great if we had gone there on Monsoon season. The road which
lead to Bababudangiri hills and Kemmangundi were pathetic but hats off to the driver who
made it look easy. We then left to Kemmangundi and there we had our lunch. We decided to
trek down to Hebbe falls which is around 8 kms from Kemmangundi. My Tech lead also decided
to trek down inspite of his back problems. It took around 2 hours for us to reach that
place. It was the most beautiful falls I had ever seen. The water was freezing. We were
pretty suprised to see water at almost 2 degrees even in summer. We played there in the cold
water till it got dark. Then we trekked back to the place where cab was waiting. Actually I
forgot to mention, only half of crowd had trekked down and other half had chosen to take the
jeep. So, while going back everyone were so damn tired that we all agreed to take the jeep.
There were only 2 jeeps available and 8 of us thought of waiting for the jeep to drop the

rest and come back.Hebbe Falls

It was pitch dark, in the midst of the jungle, a haunted hut right next to us, and people
talking about scary things, uff... it was damn scary. We also had a dare that someone should
go inside the hut. But no one had the guts to go. It was a memorable moment. Infact this was
the only memorable moment. Atlast the jeep arrived. We got back to the bus and we had our
dinner, reached our rooms at around 1 am.

Next day, we got up, got ready, had our breakfast, left for Belur which has a famous temple.
The architechture of this place is simply superb. You should hire a guide and get to
know the speciality of the temple. The place is worth visiting. This temple took around 100
years to get completed according to history. And their efforts are simply outstanding.

We left the place at around 3pm and had our lunch in some hotel on the way to Bangalore. We
reached back at around 8pm. Atlast or should I say Alas! the trip was over. I asked my PM's
car key so that I could take my helmet. Remember, I mentioned, tht about the white Maruti
Zen where I kept my helmet, my PM said his car was maruti Esteem and not Maruti Zen. Fu**, I kept my helmet in the wrong car, and I couldnt find that car anywhere near that place too.
Anyways, there is always a sad ending to a great story. Thus came to an end to the story of
trip to Kemmangundi.

Next post - Trip to ooty