From Bangalore to the rainforest

Again, despite waking up fairly early, I was cutting it fine to get to Bangalore’s central train station. I called an auto but belatedly realised the crazy Bangalore traffic was too dense. I would not get to the station in time. So I rerouted the driver to Indiranager metro.

The metro in Bangalore is very reliable. It’s the fastest way to get around. Bangalore’s population has grown too fast for the road network to keep up. From Indiranagar, there was a direct train to the station. Thankfully, the train arrived quickly. It was a speedy, uninterrupted journey to the central train station.

I was soon on my train to Mysore. In my carriage, there was an unusual incident at the start of the journey. Despite the chaotic reputation of Indian trains, they are, in fact, well administered. Seating arrangements are manually checked before the train leaves. For example, people who’ve cancelled their tickets are removed from the passenger list and their seats freed up. At every stop, an inspector walks through the train, checking names against his list.

This time, a woman found her seat was taken by someone else. She thought the person was in the wrong seat. However, the woman and (seated) man both had booked that seat. The woman settled behind me. We spoke briefly. There were plenty of unoccupied seats in the coach. When the train inspector came by, she asked how two tickets could be issued for the same seat! She continued: what would have happened if the coach were packed? The official said he would look into it.

Fast forward 15 minutes and the man in her seat gets up and leaves! I asked the person sitting next to the man why his neighbour had left. He replied that the person was supposed to get off at Bangalore station, the very station the woman got on! He had missed his station! The woman and I looked at each other. I said to her that my faith in the Indian train system was restored. I’d imagined this scenario but had never experienced it. Knowing that your (booked) seat could be double-booked was disturbing! The woman replied that in all her life she’d never experienced this. She was happy to learn it was a user error!

The rest of the journey was uneventful. We arrived at Mysore fifteen minutes early.

Helene was waiting for me at the station. I messaged our taxi driver and we were soon on our way to the Rainforest Retreat we’d booked in Coorg. It was a three hour journey.

When we arrived, we were shown to our room. As we were unpacking, we saw two large spiders: one in the main room, the other in the bathroom! They moved quickly! We shouldn’t have been surprised to see them in a forest. However, this was the first time I’d seen such large creepy‑crawlies in India!

After settling down, we were given tea then walked around the plantation.

It was soon time for dinner. This was very tasty, fresh, home-made food. We could eat as much as we wanted!

April is the time for fireflies in the rainforest. Ravi, who looks after everyone, is very knowledgeable about the flora and fauna here. He took us on a walk around the rainforest at night. We had our torches on but switched them off when Ravi told us to. The sight we saw was breathtaking. There were fireflies all around us. The trees pulsed with light as the fireflies synchronised with each other. It was as if someone had installed Christmas lights throughout the rainforest.

This video doesn’t do justice to the fireflies but it gives a flavour of what we saw.