Coorg (Kodagu)

Kodagu, which the British spelled Coorg, is a district of coffee, cardamom and steep green ridges, ruled until 1834 by the Haleri rajas and never quite like the rest of Karnataka. The Kodava people keep their own language, ancestor rites, a customary right to bear arms without a licence, and a kitchen built on pork, the sour kachampuli vinegar and rice in many forms. Madikeri, the hill capital at about 1,150 metres, is small enough to walk: the fort the rajas built and the British rebuilt, the Omkareshwara temple of 1820 with its unexpectedly Islamic dome, and Raja's Seat, a garden ledge where the valley fills with mist at sunset.

An hour away, Talakaveri on the Brahmagiri slope marks the source of the Kaveri with a small tank; pilgrims gather here in mid-October for Kaveri Sankramana, when the spring is said to surge. Below it, three rivers meet at Bhagamandala. Mornings are for estate walks under silver-oak shade, pepper vines spiralling up the trunks and robusta drying on the yard.

Afternoons suit Dubare, where the forest department's elephants are scrubbed in the river, or the Golden Temple at Bylakuppe, a Tibetan settlement whose Namdroling monastery holds three gilded Buddhas about eighteen metres tall. Nights are cool enough for a blanket, even in April.