Holiday and More !! Close to the heart !!

Living in Bangalore with a corporate lifestyle, the urge to take a holiday comes with the necessity to drive out of the city at the same time keeping in mind the time constraints.

With a friend coming over to our place with her daughter for a holiday made us want to give them a memorable experience and have a break for ourselves too. We happened to come across Hill View Farms on the internet as we were planning for a trip to Mysore with some sight-seeing and to be sharing some part of the holiday at a quiet space for an experience with a difference.

Hill View Farms offered us an apt environment. A location just around the corner, 10-15 min from the main city of Mysore. The pre-booked stay provided us lovely fresh home cooked food, eco-friendly environment with utmost utilization of natural resources like bio-gas set up, boiler system for water heating, fruits from the garden, having a cow shed (children would love to experience this), some amount of chicken farming (it’s a veggie place so the chicken were strictly for caring & petting ), in-house pigeons and a few stray dogs who were sheltered and had now became the pets at the Farm.

It took us some time to mentally accept that we did not have the option to plant ourselves in front of a TV & the ever invincible urge to connect to free wifi when on a travel. Soon this became a boon and we connected the old style – talking and laughing.

The hosts, a couple who ran the place were very friendly and had a cute and obedient Lab breed pet called Chotu – simply adorable. The couple are doing a wonderful service by maintaining the place in a very natural way that we miss being part of, in the busy city life. Given an opportunity I would revisit the place alone or with friends & family anytime.

There is a difference between being a guest in India and in Europe and it’s a good difference because of the culture differences we have.

When we were guests in Slovenia, our host was super excited to meet the first Indians in his tiny village. He showed us the room which had a road view but looking at us he suggested us to take the other room with the view to the mountains. It was more expensive but worth it.

Rules were clearly laid out: If you break something, pay or replace it. Language was a bit of an issue as he hardly spoke English. But in his own way, he never interfered. It was all hi and byes mostly, which suited us too.

In India, we have observed that people tend to ask intrusive questions very soon. We are a private family and we don’t like to be asked about our religion, our family etc and it becomes very difficult for us to answer. I remember we were asked once if we were Hindus, to which I promptly replied that we are Indians, with shocked looks from my family.

But that ended the barrage of questions expected from the Host family.

Sharing some observations for Hosts:

• 1. Communicate your house rules beforehand.
• 2. Clean up the place and make sure the place is dusted.
• 3. Do welcome the guests and show them the place around. If you are not around, do send a text message and check in with the guests.

Sharing some observations for guests:

• 1. Communicate when you arrive and leave clearly.
• 2. Ask for House rules and follow them.
• 3. Communicate if anything you find is broken beforehand.
• 4. If you break something, do communicate to the host.

These are just some broad observations, clearly just be appreciative and kind, that should basically do as a guest or as a host.

When Airbnb came to India, we stopped staying in Hotels. And it was that simple.

One of the best experiences we had of staying in one was in Pune. We drove during that trip and were looking for a place with Parking.

I remember it was raining when we reached the house of Priya. It was a beautiful independent house and our 2-room set was in the ground floor overlooking a small garden.

Inside, Priya had marked every convenience carefully, to make it fully functional for us. Hot water, Microwave in the kitchen etc were marked with the required instructions. There were even Menu cards from nearby Restaurants which we did make use of.

Next day morning, we were to leave at 8am and promptly at 7.45am Priya herself came down with Breakfast. A tray laden with steaming idli’s and chutney with fruits.

That was our first experience and we ended up becoming good friends.

Another not so nice event was en-route to Goa when we stopped on the way. This too was a huge house. They had 2 rooms for guests, but the rooms needed cleaning. The place was run by an elderly lady but remotely managed by her daughter in Mumbai, who manages all bookings. Food was good. We had opted for Breakfast and paid for the same beforehand. But the next day we were told to pay for breakfast again. No amount of explanation could make the lady understand and so we left it at that and paid up.

I think the vibes of the place matter to me most. First place was smaller, but the good vibes were there.

Second place was bigger, but it was a sad place.

So, I suggest you choose carefully, if you want to be a host or are you happy being a guest!