THE SERAI CHIKMAGALUR- Cocktail of Coffee, Culture, Nature & Nurture

The best trips are those that rarely happen! Mad monsoonal rains are ripping through Southern India. The hill station of Chikmagalur, India’s premium coffee-growing region, is cowering under the heaviest rainfall in decades, tumbling with landslides. The Serai Chikmagalur calls to cancel our long-planned, much-anticipated trip. This is devastating.

We are stranded for 6 days at the new RAS Residency in the temple town of Kumbakonam trying to reinvent our itinerary. All alternatives are rain-impacted. In exasperation we are about to book flights back home. JUST then The Serai calls. The rains have miraculously ceased.

U-turn to Chikmagalur. HURRAH!

 

A 4.00 am departure from Kumbakonam to make a flight out of Trichy Airport 2 hours away to Bengaluru from where a 4-hour scenic drive conveys us to the verdure-draped Chikmagalur battered on now by the sun trying to show the rain who is boss. We are ushered into The Serai Chikmagalur whose high-perched wall-less lobby seems to be at the same level as a billowing ocean of green over which the sun presides royally as if on a throne. WOW! The resort website quite simply doesn’t capture the astonishing beauty of the retreat set in 70 acres of plantation. But this only accentuates the surprise on arrival.

 

Whilst we are still reeling with the impact we are served the refreshing coffee & jaggery welcome drink which immediately conveys that we are in coffee country and The Serai grows its own coffee. Guest Relations Manager Sumant BR presents us Wilfred Sequeira, our “one-point contact.” He is the F&B Manager and this already signifies that F&B is a major highlight of the resort.

Wilfred wants to direct us straight to lunch. But we’ve been travelling for almost 12 hours and Mum wants a detour via our villa. The resort is 4-tiered, a steep flight of steps takes us down to lawns cradled between the resort’s restaurant, recreation centre and spa. Another flight of granite steps descends us to the spectacular infinite pool that seems like it’s flowing into Moghulesque fountains that cascade downhill flanked by villas set amongst an exuberance of manicured foliage. Our Estate Terrace Villa, No 28, is in convenient proximity to the immense resort pool. Our Estate Villa boasts its own private plunge pool. Burnished real wood floors and furniture enclosed in glass framing wide vistas of greenery recalls our villa at the famous Datai in Langkawi and The Bulgari in Bali. When you have bathrooms as big as the bedroom, you know this is absolute luxury!

My brother hasn’t time to imbibe the intricacies of the villa. He is working remotely from resort and needs to set up his “office.” He wasn’t thrilled that mum, wanting family time, enforced a duplex villa on him when he might have had a private villa to himself. However, Sumant reveals the villa’s second floor, which we descend to, is the villa’s living room overlooking a gardened private pool which doubles up as my brother’s office-cum-bedroom. He is happy with his den, relieved of the babble of two ladies confined upstairs.

After a light lunch I would feign sleep in ample luxurious beds. But birds are chirping merrily over the tree tops outside my window exploding in a myriad vibrant colours as if someone were throwing up paint balls high into the air.

I chuck my siesta and head out for my evening walk. The stepped water body  streams down between the resort’s 28 villas to a pavilion beyond which is a helipad for VIPs who chopper in and vanish into the resort’s Presidential Villa, but a skip away from the helipad.

And then I go off track on adventure and penetrate plantations dense and tenebrous with soaring trees arched over little-trod mud paths. Instantaneously there’s lunatic shrieking as   crickets sound like a billion ambulances going off in protestation at the invasion of their territory. Possessive creatures, they keep raging like banshees throughout my hour-long trek through treacherous terrain still puddled with rain water that hasn’t dried under the tunnel-like canopy of trees. From branches contused as if in elaborate yoga poses long extrusions like witch’s hair serpent down. I soon find myself in an entanglement of cobwebs from which I emerge with hair tufted as if in white candy floss.

Feeling like Alice in Wonderland, I stray deeper into forest of trees, stumble on all sorts of creatures, almost collide with a whoosh of peacocks taking off at my approach and arrive at a pond wild with marshy flora. This couldn’t surely be the picturesque spot Wilfred said they set up breakfast on? But through 70 labyrinthine acres of coffee plantations shaded by mahogany trees shooting above 120 species of flora on the estate, I come across suave lawns beyond which is a gazebo set by a delightful lake. The serenity is stilling, the setting hypnotic, like something in the English countryside. I can’t believe I am in Chikmagalur. Darkness falls steeply, I decide to get back on track and head home to my villa for a long shower (although the bathroom is endowed with a plush marble tub).

Dressed for supper, we go up, up, up to the bar at lobby level. The bar’s open terraces levitate as if above the dusky head of trees swaying heavily in the virile evening breeze. It’s suddenly chilly, despite the spray of stars. Wilfred suggests we soak into arm chairs within the bar’s roofed part which flows seamlessly onto the terrace, unimpaired by walls or doors. Effervescing with excitement Wilfred, as charming as he is gracious, pampers us silly with starters capturing local flavours. The onslaught of starters Wilfred explains is required to get me through the canter of cocktails that keep coming onto the table. Mum and my brother Samir don’t drink so I am the sole recipient of Wilfred’s creative imagination! We swing from tangy cocktails incorporating tamarind and mint sauce to Barman’s Special where galangal, lime, capers, basil and bell peppers tango together. Signature cocktails like The Plant and Forage have gin and pineapple juice shaken with estate-grown peppercorns and coriander root whilst Harvest swirls with vodka, fresh coriander leaves, carrot juice and lime. Extraordinarily, Wilfred is a teetotaler. So how does he craft these cocktails? Sheer imagination! For mains we have local speciality neer dosa, delicate white rice pancakes folded like lace handkerchiefs.

Next morning, after Wilfred busies about us at breakfast, we embark on the much-discussed excursion to the UNESCO-stamped Belur and Halebidu temples dedicated to Vishnu and Shiva respectively. Wilfred says the temples are small, a couples of hours will suffice, he is expecting us for lunch with bated breath at 2 pm. Past lush greenery we drive to Belur 45 mins away and meet our guide Ms Veena. With wit and vim she brings alive the exquisite, intricate sculptures of the 14th-century Chennakeshava Temple, amongst the finest embodiments of Hoysala architecture emblazoning Karnataka-Dravida artistry and the largest temple complex to have survived the ravages of Muslim invaders. There isn’t space the breath of a slender finger left unadorned in carvings of such ineffable finesse they make you want to weep.  Veena animates depictions from the great Indian epics The Ramayana and Mahabharata and stories from The Puranas, as we circumambulate a dizzying swirl of  gods and goddesses in dramatic poses and scenes of courtly life including of dancing girls and the Dancing Queen, which the famous Hoysala Queen Shantala literally was. The story goes that a mighty Hoysala king utterly smitten by the enchanting dance girl made her his queen. Hours elapse as we inspect every bit of artwork from the tremendous to the thumb-sized.

Halebidu is another 30 mins away and if we thought nothing could surpass the architectural of the Belur temple then Halebidu’s 11th century Hoysaleswara Shiva temple transports us to further heights of rapture, such is its monumental grandeur. The drizzle is gathering into a more robust downpour but we are steadfast in our devotion to the spectacularly elaborate sculptures that resonate with tales of chivalry, romance, legend and spirituality. We learn to decode the narrative presented in stone, to distinguish scenes of battle from The Ramayana and Mahabharata (horses appear only in the latter whilst the former war was fought on foot by the army of monkeys who accompanied Lord Rama to Lanka to retrieve his kidnapped wife). Veena dwells on minutiae of carvings, pointing to a depiction of Shiva and his consort Parvati on Nandi, the bull that’s Shiva’s sacred conveyance and she says Nandi is grimacing in protest- he is for Shiva’s exclusive use, Parvati has her own personal conveyance so why should she burden him!

Besides its beauteous carvings this temple boasts 2 of the 7 largest “nandis” crafted on a colossal scale. As the rain pours down tears too stream vigorously down my cheeks hearing of how the Helebidu temples was savaged and barbarised by the Muslims who wantonly desecrated this Hindu site. The guide says at least we have a temple, elsewhere the Muslims completely annihilated historic temples. Alas, nobody dares say it lest it trigger riots in the communally sensitive region with a large Islamic population. Tears of anger well at the destruction of sacred spaces and at the bias of UNESCO which recognised these sites only in 2023 when 100-year-old churches in Europe are classified as “ancient” and conferred UNESCO status.

It’s nearing 4 pm when we finally head back, the visit to the temple museum rain-aborted. Wilfred is glad for we’d have otherwise rocked up for his surprise lunch at 6pm! And Wilfred unleashes Baale Yele Oota. This is the resort’s celebrated regional lunch served on a banana leaf. Chikmagalur has its own nuances which we discover over panaka, a thrilling jaggery-based drink we down 3 glasses of each. And request repeats of the delicate pineapple rassam too. Wilfred if delighted. The simple but superb kosambari salad with raw lentils tempered with shredded carrot and coconut again we have seconds of as of raw banana pepper fry and crisp masala vadai. Wilfred doesn’t warn we have to get through another hundred items as next flavoured rice,  a plethora of millet rotis and country vegetables prepared in traditional Chikmagalur style are followed by sambar & rice, rasam & rice and curd rice as per South Indian tradition. We decline dessert, Holige, a local speciality of wheat rolls stuffed with coconut and jaggery which seem too heavy. But Wilfred will not be denied. Not only do we finish every morsel but have then with obscene lashings of ghee.

As it starts drizzling the only option is to essay the resort spa with signature treatments incorporating coffee. After the colossal lunch we opt for a liquid dinner. Wilfred has planned a sequence of coffee cocktails. We are, after all, in coffee country. Think Chikmagalur Tini (vodka, espresso, vanilla, honey), Roasted (Gin, black coffee, coriander seeds, honey, tonic water), Bella Kaphi (whiskey, coffee, jaggery, fresh cream),  Malnad Mist  (Kahlua, espresso, tequila), Filter Creme Cafe (Baileys, scotch whiskey, chocolate syrup, South India filter coffee).

Sunday. After yet another lavish breakfast over which Wilfred personally presides, a busy resort notwithstanding, we head off to the Bhadra Tiger reserve for a safari. Tigers are elusive but the reserve is so pretty and rife with frisky spotted dear, hefty Indian gore and peacocks with a strikingly unusual deep indigo hue. Safaris are timed and just too short. I almost want to go on another round but the circuit is fixed due to conservation strictures and most of the park remains inaccessible. We’ve requested only cucumber sandwiches for lunch but Wilfred being Wilfred we’ve been sent a banquet! We won’t be spared for supper. This evening we sit al fresco and Wilfred pops a bottle of Zonin, fine Italian Prosecco. Wilfred has connived a concatenation of tongue-tickling chaats, the popular street food that luxury hotels have expropriated.

Weatherly vagaries prevent treks to waterfalls and caves. However, The Serai Chikmagalur is perhaps India’s only resort set in coffee estates to have developed an itinerary around Coffee Tourism. The resort has us discover Baba Budan Giri, Chikmagalur’s highest peak, where Sufi saint Budan who’d carried 7 coffee beans in his pocket from Yemen first sowed the coffee seeds. Thus began South India’s fabled coffee culture. The Chikmagalur Coffee Museum reveals that today Indian coffee ranks amongst the world’s finest. Certainly, premium Black Forest, available at the resort souvenir shop, is world class. The Serai’s Bean to Cup experience, involves visiting the ABC Roasting Unit and a Plantation Walk in the resort followed by a coffee making and sampling interaction at the restaurant.

On our final night Wilfred presents another sparkling Italian wine, Freixenet Cordon Negro Brut, which complements another of the resort’s curated dining experiences, Earth & Eastate- A Slow Cooked Meal. The entire meal arrives theatrically on a long wooden plank bearing heirloom cooking contraptions that resurrect the flavours and textures of heritage culinary techniques. Slow cooking isn’t a contemporary trend or an innovation in India. It’s an age-old cooking style, this is how food was cooked in India since time immemorial when people led slow civilised lives and had time to do things properly. Varietal kebabs and grills, Indian breads, rich redolent curries, biriyani and watermelon halwa clamour all at once for your undivided attention. As does the sparkling wine- the bottle must be finished before the bubbles burst!

Five nights don’t at this extraordinary resort. Wilfred agrees. He still wants to present the third sparkling wine in his repertoire over a champagne breakfast set by the lakeside gazebo on our final morning. But descending to the lake on foot doesn’t thrill mum who has been deeply inconvenienced by having to climb stairs from our villa to the restaurant and again to the lobby. Strangely, a resort of this calibre which attracts as many families including elderly grandparents as young romantics, hasn’t an elevator.

We end our marvellous sojourn on a high- 4 cups, each, of South Indian filter coffee for breakfast with a flask each of Wilfred’s could-teach-Starbucks-a-trick-or-two Cold Coffee to go!

The Serai Chikmagalur https://www.theserai.in/chikmagalur-resort/

Estate Terrace Villa, Doubles from USD 500