It is very rightly said “Life is an open book and those who don’t travel remain on the same page their whole life”. Exploring new places, learning new cultures, mingling with new peoples and their traditions and testing one’s taste buds with new cuisines of different places by different people are some of the hidden assets which a traveler gains in his life.
I have never been reluctant to explore new things but though i have kept some guidelines as well for me , and its always good to be in limit. Sometimes these limit are set by yourself only or sometimes things also force you to be aloof from them, it becomes a test of guts sometimes. But a theory is always incomplete without a live experience of it.
Ever heard of a coffee costing around $2000 a Kg , sounds interesting but still you would like to skip the sip of it , there would be many a reasons to taste that coffee but only one reason is enough to know, which wont let you drink this costliest coffee.
Going on a trek in a Coffee estate in Madikeri , my host Mr. Coluvanda Cariapa Thimaiah walking ahead of me telling about the types of Coffee he grow at his coffee estate. Suddenly he stops and asks me ” Have you ever seen Wild Cat ” , I replied ” I have seen the pics but havent seen live till now “. Then he came up with something which was awesome and awefull at same time.
He said ” Look down Tarun, Can you see these Coffee beans , This is the dropping of Wild Cat , She loves coffee and sometimes she enters my estate and eat coffee but unable to eat whole coffee she eats only the outer part and the left over beans come out in her Dropping. You wont believe in international this shit or dropping of wild cat is sold at rate to $2000 per Kg “.
Then his assistant came with the dry dropping in his hand and kept it in my hand , though only for a second i could resist in my hand and gave back to him. ” He giggled and said again, you could keep it in your hand for some seconds and in some countries in South east asia Elephants are forced to eat coffee so that they could get this same coffee in their droppings in large amount “.
Trust me Tarun it is processed and sold in market in US , and you wouldnt even realise what you are drinking , only thing which would come out from you mouth would be ” Wow , it was the best coffee i ever had in life “.