Chikmagalur

This was a special birthday, not least because we took a holiday to Chikmagalur and it was my sixtieth one!  So good to have friends and relatives over for this special celebration and great to have our son in law and daughter over from Hyderabad.  It was my last birthday in Bangalore as we are relocating back to Hyderabad after five years in this lovely city.  

Chikmagalur is in the heart of Karnataka and the place where coffee was first introduced into India.  It is said that Baba Budan, a 16th century Sufi hid seven raw coffee beans in his beard when returning from the Hajj, at the Yemeni port of Mocha on his way back to Chikmagalur.  He had tasted the coffee there and coffee beans were not allowed to be taken out of the country unless roasted!  So he hid the raw beans thinking to grow them back home and grow them he did.  That place is known as Baba Budan and coffee is a major exporting crop in Karnataka.

The Western Ghats have the Baba Budan range and Mullayanagiri is its highest range at 6330 ft.  We stayed at the Chikmagalur Golf Club, a scenic place and visited the coffee museum and as well as the Serai Resort, a panoramic view in Chikmagalur.  Beautiful surroundings and our time was well spent in enjoying the beauty of nature.