Jan 31, 2009 08:38 PM
4756 Views
(Updated Jan 31, 2009 08:42 PM)
I don’t fully agree with Prashanth. We about 5 couples, stayed in Hallimane for a day and the stay was horrendous. First of all it’s not a homestay; it’s located in the close proximity of the Kushalnagar city and it’s a small place.Following are the key features of Hallimane which makes you to run away from the place.Buffet food was provided for lunch.
Food was too bad, only the pickle tasted good which is the only item we finished. They provided one fish & chicken dish, which was not at all tasting good. Being from coastal region, it was hard for all of us to eat the river fish item. It was prepared for the sake of providing a non-veg buffet.After the bitter lunch experience, we asked the hallimane staff to change to menu to provide only chicken dry items along with rice, rasam & sambar, which was somewhat better than lunch.
So we went to enjoy our night in the campfire or bonefire whaterver it is, surprisingly we saw a gang of 6-8 men totally drunken, creating noise around the campfire. When contacted the owner of Hallimane (he is available only over phone), he said it’s a common campfire, he can’t help. However he can arrange a separate campfire at a cost of Rs. 2000.
The hallimane was full with our group & one more group with 3 couples. And the question infront of us was who are these people. And then slowly realized that it could be the hotel owner’s people.After all these hassle, we went to sleep and had another surprise. Very thin SINGLE blanket was provided on a double cot, which is available in Big Bazar for Rs. 50. (U can understand the quality now). We had hard time in the cold night fighting for the blanket.Morning it was cold and no hot water!!.
When asked, we were told that the boiler pipe has broken down hence no hot water.Breakfast was puliogare prepared from previous day’s left out rice & rice-undi with again previous day’s sambar. You have a choice to have coffee & tea, but to tell you, you can pick any drink and call it as either coffee or tea.After all these, we were about to checkout. Listen, now comes the real climax.
Hallimane booking can be done only over phone. When called, the staff of Hallimane explained the tariff, facility. They said Rs. 2550/- per couple, the charges for one day stay & all food in buffet (veg & non veg) & complimentary campfire. After bargaining, they agreed for 20% discount. We agreed and transferred 5K advance to their account.
On the checkout day, we were given a bill which is 1.5 times more than we were told before. When asked about it, the staff said, package per couple is Rs. 2750/-, there is no discount. The other charges are charges for fish, chicken we had for lunch & dinner!!! Many more. We asked the staff to check the order book and fortunately we had a proof, the 20% discount was mentioned in their order book.
staff & we had several telecoms with the owner Mr. Manjunath (who is available only over phone) about the discount & separate charges for the non-veg items. The owner had only one mantra "pay the bill, pay the bill". We wasted about 1.5 hours to convince him that we had taken a package with stay & food and the charges to be included in the package.
Only one good thing was the staff was good, provided serve whenever asked.If you are planning to enjoy a stay, Hallimane is not at all the place in Coorg. There are many god homestays insidethe estates. Go for them through references, if available. Otherwise stay in a standard resorts/hotels. Don't pick places like this.
