My Birthday Amidst the Hills - 2025 Edition

Hello there!

It’s been another year around the sun for me (my birthday), and at this point my girlfriend and I have set a tradition to take a trip- however short- on our birthday’s. With our tight schedules comprising of work and studies, this year we kept it simple and travelled to this cute little hill station 5 hours away.

The summers in India are brutal where the temperatures reach a whooping 40 degrees Celsius and, in the coast, there’s heat and humidity as well! Since we currently stay in Bangalore, which is a located in a plateau, here the heat is dry and hot and due to the pollution, it’s no better!

Last year, we decided to head to a hill station named Kodaikanal (here’s an article if you’re interested in it). This year, since the heat was no better, we decided to head to another laidback and cool destination.

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Located in the western ghats of India, this place was 5 hours away from Bangalore and is comparatively a smaller hill station than Kodaikanal. We set out on the eve of my birthday and reached within noon, grabbed a rental scooter and head to our stay.

Located 20 minutes away from the main town, this hostel was located in the center of a coffee plantation. It was a great gateway from the constant city noise and pollution. Although it’s a hostel and there are dormitories, the place also had private rooms from luxury to super luxury. These private rooms were in range of 3400 to 5000 INR (39.75 to 58.46 USD) per night.

We opted for a one which ranged in between these price points and got an amazing room with a great view! The room was spacious and very aesthetic with a ton of amenities. We spent the rest of the day in our room, enjoying the chirping sounds and the cool breeze around us. We watched some TV-something we are unable to do often given our busy schedule- and then spent some quality time over a lovely dinner.
The next day morning we started out with our itinerary and our first stop was:

Madikeri has a rich history of culture and a kingdom. The place is home to a major clan called the Kodavas who have inhabited this place for centuries now. They also had various kings throughout the time until the British abolished monarchy.

One of the famous spots in the town is the Raja’s Seat (Raja translating to King), it’s a small garden near a cliff and a seating area overlooking the beautiful western ghats. When the kingdom was thriving, the king and his court officials occasionally held small meetings here or use the place to relax and enjoy the view.

We went around and took in the sun and the cool breeze and that splendid view when we noticed that there’s a zip line and other small adventures activities. My girlfriend who loves heights has been talking about ziplining since a while now, so she took the opportunity and went for it.

Although this was a very short one and not high enough, at the very least it fulfilled her craving.
Once we moved out of the park, we headed to the next place which was not very far from Raja’s Seat.

The fort was used by the Kodava kingdom and then later used by the British to store armory and train their battalion. This was in the center of the town with a main building in the center and fort walls all around it.

Since the public was not allowed inside the main building due to renovation work, and the rest of the fort was not well maintained since it’s not monitored by the government, the area around the fort was filled with rubble and wild plants. We walked around the fort to get our step count and then headed out to our next stop.

Camera: iPhone 15 & Pixel 9
Editing: Snapseed
All photos/videos are my own. For any use or questions, feel free to reach out to me.