Madikeri, Coorg District

Coorg is a wonderful place to spend your holidays and I have been there a many time, in fact at least once in a year or more than that whenever I get time. Madikeri is the capital; it is a hill station with beautiful climate like Ooty. Coorg is called as Kashmir of Karnataka. It’s such a wonderful place with forests, coffee estates, hill stations, falls, temples, and trekking places.

Madikeri is around 250 odd Kms from Mandya you can reach there by taking mysore road from Bangalore and take deviation on mysore road to Hunsoor, then next town you will see is Kushalnagar, and then Madikeri. It takes about 5 odd hours in car to reach madikeri from Bangalore. If you are starting from Mangalore then take the route of Puttur, Sulli. Madikeri is just 50 kms from Sullia. The things to enjoy in madikeri are the stay round the year, during rainy season you can enjoy the heavy rains, and winter will be too cold, and summer will be pleasant. If you plan your stay at madikeri then you can see almost all the tourist places in coorg.

The things to see in Madikeri are Rajaseat, a view point where you can see landscape up to miles, with mist in background. This place was used by Kings in ancient time, and thus the name. There is fort where you can see the ruined fort, now it is converted to govt offices. There is a museum which is not worth visit.

There is pretty old temple in the city Omkareshwara temple, which is a worth visit. This was built in 1820 by Lingarajendra the then ruling King to ward off the evil caused by "Brahma Rakshasas". The Shiva Linga is said to be brought from the holy place "Kaashi". This temple has an unusual architectural combination of 'Indo-Sarsenic' Style. Nearby is the holy tank. Regular poojas are performed in the temple for the different deities like Lord Subrahmanya and Ganesha.

The other place to see in Madikeri is Gadduge or three tombs with their Islamic style building domes and minarets with gold coating built in Indo Sarsenic style, The entrance to each tomb has Carvings of Hindu Deities. The Central largest tomb more ornate than the other two, contains the graves of Virarajenda and his wife Mahadevi Amma. The medium sized tomb is of Lingarajendra and the simplest tomb contains the grave of Rudrappa Virarajendra's Guru. A bird's eye view of Madikeri can be had from here.

You will find lot of home stays in Madikeri which is the best way to enjoy the beauty of the hill station, even resorts are available where in you get an estate for yourself to enjoy for a day, but it’s not a budget plan.