In Pictures | Driving to Somwarpet

I spent last weekend in Somwarpet with my family and family friends, to attend a wedding. We had such a blast and I thought I’d put together a teeny tiny post about it with pictures. Here are a few snippets from the trip:

We were a total of 9, so we hired a 15-seater van. Guess who ended up in the very last row, where the ride is extra bumpy! I couldn’t complain though. Legs stretched, book in hand and multiple naps throughout, I had a pretty comfortable ride to Somwarpet. What am I reading? Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

We stopped for lunch at this restaurant called Namma Halli Mane, which translates to Our Village House in Kannada, the local language of the Karnataka state in India. The restaurant has a rustic look and feel to it, with its red tiled roofs, wooden pillars and low hanging lights. Clay pots, white chalk drawings and lots of plants form the decor. They serve a mix of south and north Indian cuisine.

We started off with some fresh, cool buttermilk (salted curd-based drink) or majjige as they call it in Kannada and it had bits of coriander in it, which I love!

We ordered biryani for lunch and it was yum! You can see, one bowl was almost over before I could get a picture. We also ordered butter rotis (Indian flat bread), dal fry (a lentil dish with spices) and chicken 65, which we also loved. There were barely any leftovers – that should give you an idea of what we thought of the food.

Almost there! Once we entered higher altitudes, the weather was instantly cooler. There was a light shower, which explains why my video is extra blurry. And of course, all the bumpiness of the video is owed to the winding roads. Still, I had to try and capture some of it. Look how beautifully green it is!

In Somwarpet, we stayed at a property called Silver Oaks Valley. It’s a simple, homely property with maybe just 10-12 rooms and no amenities whatsoever. It’s away from the city and bang in the middle of all this lush greenery. There was also no cellphone network or electricity throughout the night but I have to say, it was quite the peaceful getaway. I’ll never forget how clear the night sky was, glittering with a billion stars. Sigh.

I’ll take any chance I get to take a Boomerang video! An Indian wedding band looks something like this. In the video, they’re playing outside the venue while the groom makes an entrance (which you can’t see here). As I was waiting for the groom to appear, I couldn’t resist capturing whatever I could on the app.