Snuggled into the hills of southern India lies Madikeri, the principal town in the region of Kodagu, more commonly known as Coorg. Coorg was a state in its own right until 1956, when it merged with the state of Karnataka. It’s a glorious area of verdant coffee plantations and luminous hills, but in addition to this Coorg is fascinating from a historical and anthropological point of view too. The Kodava race, which inhabit a lot of the Coorg region, are said to be descendants of the migrating Persians and Kurds, and perhaps even the Greeks, left behind from Alexander the Great’s armies. In addition to the this, the area of Bylekuppe to the east of Madikeri, is home to a number of Tibetan villages, with an estimated population of around 10,000 Tibetans. Numerous monasteries, nunneries, and temples remain today, and the area is thought to be one of the largest Tibetan settlements in the world.  Coorg is a wonderful and unusual area to explore and we recommend visiting on a weekday to avoid the crowds heading out of Bangalore. It combines beautifully with Mysore, Nagarhole National Park as well as idyllic Neeleshwar on the coast.