But when I reached Orange County, a resort set in the middle of coffee and pepper plantations in Siddapur, Kodagu in Karnataka, there was not a single bloom. The white flowers had long ago made way for the beans, now cherry red and ready to be picked. The disappointment was compensated by warm sun filled days and cool nights. And the silence, an eternal silence filling the soul with a deep sense of peace and gratitude. After Delhi's smog-filled, noise-driven existence a year-end week in Kodagu was proving to be an ideal refuge.

That is where I decided to stay put, on the fringes of civilisation, close to the forests and closer still to the Cauvery running along brooding boulders. There is something about nature, which is healing, and man was meant to live among trees as his ancestors did and not among concrete. It was with these critical thoughts running through my mind that I booked myself in at the Orange County resort. It was then that my process of forgiving civilisation also truly began. If nature offered a peace unparalleled outside, the accommodation proved to be comfort unparalleled.

Orange Country resort is a cluster of 50 cottages fashioned on a 16th century Tuder style English Village. The village is set in a 30-acre area, carved out of a 300-acre coffee-pepper plantation, which shares its boundaries with a reserve forest and the wildly running Cauvery. A factor which I came to appreciate a great deal later. The cottages are done up English style, with furniture made of teak and rosewood maintained squeaky clean and elegantly comfortable. Set up independently, they afford privacy and a sense of space. This despite the the resort being fully booked at the year-end.For a resort, bordering a forest, Orange County hides several surprises.

mini golf course under constructions, a lake with boating facilities, and a kettuvallom (a houseboat) permanently moored there for guests who would rather sleep to the gentle rocking motions of a boat, angling and bird-watching facilities and other regular features, including a health spa, swimming pool, restaurant and bar, and conferencing facilities for corporate guests. An expensive nursery, from where one can buy saplings and even flowers, is an additional attraction.

With hectic tourist promotion activities going on in neighbouring Kerala, the County has also adopted an ambitious project, an Ayurveda village, with a vaidyasala (Ayurvedic clinic) at the centre. On Karanataka's soil, I actually entered the traditional Kerala padippura (gate house) to enter a nalukettu (quadri-lateral house) made of exposed bricks and polished teak.

Each of the three cottages overlooking terraced paddy fields have the unmistakable feel of Kerala. Slightly out of sync, but set up for physiotherapy are separate swimming pools for each cottage. The vaidyasala has an Ayurvedic doctor and has the traditional thoni and steam room for Ayurvedic treatment.

Impressed though I was with the Country's Ayurvedic offering, I retreated to the Dubare forest (20,000 acres) the next day, taking advantage of an organised forest trek. Such treks would occasionally lead to the sighting of wild elephants or sambars. My trek led me to the banks of Cauvery, through acres of land where bamboo and wild flowers grow along with trees reaching to the skies and giant creepers making very convenient hammocks for tired trekkers.

Day three of the holiday brought an unexpected twist. Wandering alone and slightly lost in the 300-acre plantation, I found myself before a magnificently maintained bungalow. Chicknahalli Bungalow is out of bounds for holidayers. But if you are as lucky as I am, you may get lost and find yourself before this picturesque edifice and savour its beauty. This lime-and-mortar structure was built over 100 years ago by an Englishman who owned the estate. On a cold evening, you could still light a fire and the chimneys are still so good, not a wisp of smoke escapes into the living rooms, said the lady of the house.

At the beginning of my journey, I had been told that "hospitality was the only sign of civilisation" at my destination. They had proved it right. In my cottage there was a small sign which said that they welcomed a guest and sent away a friend. I found that they were doing that to me, too.