Strike One....

Last year, the 2008 White water rafting season started of on the 4th of July weekend, this year the season has started a week earlier.

The first batch of rafters that hit the water were all V's.. Vineeth, Varun and Vivek! Vineeth was with us a year ago in peak rafting season, this time he was the first to hit the water..umm.. literally :-)

The season has just begun and the water level has not peaked yet, low water levels means that the rafting is more technical and you bump into obstacles more often. You really need to buckle down and make sure you are strapped well -- apparently Vineeth was not as careful as he should have been, he flew off the raft at the Grasshopper rapid as the raft bumped into a rock and needed to be rescued.

The Barapole river offers the wildest white water rafting experience in South India with rapids becoming level 4 in peak season. A successful run i.e a non eventful one, is a combination of great guides, proper training and gear and of course a whole lot of luck :-). Thankfully we have good quality equipment, great guides who conduct the rafting at Barapole, the training program includes rafting commands and even rescue techniques. Folks are amply prepared for the river ahead of them and the challenges it throws at them.

Getting thrown of the raft and being rescued is common and even a lot of fun -- in fact, a part of the training and I think the most popular part, is making sure you are thrown off the raft and rescued by your team mates!! \

Still, Barapole river is not a theme park and even experienced rafters need to be very vigilant at all times as Rakesh found out, after Vineeth was rescued, Rakesh started to explain the nuances of holding on to the raft..and before he could complete his statement.. he was thrown off the raft :-)

All in all it was a great start to the season, with a lot of fun and lot of adventure!! For all the folks reading this, stop, and get there for the best white water rafting experience in the whole of south India!!

You can find details about rafting here
http://www.bethelestate.com/rafting.html
Tariff: Rs 1000 / head
Contacts for booking:
Anish: +91 9972361564
Rakesh: +91 9972362052
Rakesh: +91 9448201771

White Water Rafting 2009 Season begins!!

It's here folks!!!
The 2009 White water rafting season has finally begun!!!

The first batch of rafters hit the water today. For folks who want to know more about it, you can go here
http://www.bethelestate.com/rafting.html

Before we go ahead into the season,here are a few images from the 2008 season

See the same slideshow here (with sound)

Back in action!!

Last week we got back in action, we had Hema and team who joined us, we also had Nirmal and Gill joing us.

Gill has give us a review in Trip advisor, you can read about it here

Taking a break..

The meteorologists were all certain that the monsoon would be a week ahead of schedule and would reach Kerala by the 24th May... turns out it effectively didn't :|

Monsoon is a big deal for us, Coorg receives one of the highest rainfalls in the country -- the good is that this tropical rain forest springs to life with lush greenery everywhere, the waterfalls are in their full splendor, rivers rise and in spate....and the best of all, White Water Rafting in the best location of south India begins!!, the bad is well..it rains..and rains and rains..and guess what..it rains some more!!!!

For us preparing for rain means, well, buttoning the hatches!! Get protective covers for all the roofs, make sure everything is waterproof and well covered, generator rooms, kitchen, et. al is revisited in preparation of the anticipated rains

Bethel has been shutdown from the 1st of June, we will be back on the 19th of this month with Hema and family joining us..

All about reviews..

Just as we got the folks who don’t like us, we also have folks who enjoyed being with us, here are some of the new reviews we got.

Satish, from Chennai, was with us in April. He came with his wife and daughter, here is his review in HolidayIQ
http://www.holidayiq.com/Coorg-hotel-reviews-Bethel-Home-Stay-9611-14263-It-was-my-first-experience.html


The we had Ram from Hyderabad who, came with his wife Shoba and 3 year old son, you can read his review here
http://www.raahi.com/hotel-reviews/the-bethel-home-stay-coorg/great-place-to-unwindfantastic-host-22527.html#rev



Here are a couple of photographs from Ram and family,





You can see the complete set of photographs from their trip here
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AYuGTVs0YuGLCOA

Finally we had Prasad, Prasad was our very first webby’s ..i.e. Our first ever guests who came to Bethel by finding our website!!!
he was with us, exactly a year later, he review is here
http://www.tripadvisor.in/Hotel_Review-g503697-d1028241-Reviews-Bethel_Home_Stay-Kodagu_Karnataka.html

What do u do with old tyres ? You retrade them :-)

What to you do with old tyres ? Well, you, ahem, "retrade" (re-thread) them :-)

We found them — Folks who dont like us!!!!

A big risk you take when you decide to choose a theme for any place, is, well, there are always folks may not like your theme!! We have been very lucky that most of the folks who have come to Bethel have liked our place.

Finally, we had folks, who totally dislike us :-) -- and to be honest we are perfectly fine with it. I have stated this before and I would reiterate it. We do not have any presumption of having a perfect place or perfect processes -- We are thorough professionals and will try to do our very best.

Bethel is an intensely personal creation, we did not do a market survey when we decided how Bethel should be, we made it as a place where we would want to go and what would really represent Coorg, Wild, Close to Nature and at the same time keeping the place clean and hygienic with the additional comfort of good homely food.

Hemant and family had joined us on the May 8th weekend -- and he totally disliked Bethel, he has give us a review in HolidayIQ, you can read it here. They had booked for two days, but decided to leave after the first day -- completely unhappy with the Bamboo cottage that they were allotted, we had to turn down their request for the Swiss cottages because we already had bookings for them.

Folks liking and not liking us is a part and parcel of this industry, we have a standard policy, if folks don't like us and want to leave early we will refund any extra amount that they have paid and even help them in finding another place if needed -- but we will not be re-designing Bethel in the near future -- unless of course we get bored of it :-)

Anyway you can read all the good and bad about Bethel here..

• http://www.holidayiq.com/resortinfo_review.php?Resid=9611


• http://www.raahi.com/hotel-reviews/hotels-in-coorg/the-bethel-home-stay.html


• http://www.tripadvisor.in/Hotel_Review-g503697-d1028241-Reviews-Bethel_Home_Stay-Kodagu_Karnataka.html