Experience Nature ..

Bikaner - Places in Rajasthan

2012-01-15T21:37:00.001+05:30

December last week and year end was simply awesome when we decided to go and discover a new place, where we have never been. We decided to explore Rajasthan this time.

The state of Rajputana or Rajasthan is divided into two main parts, the Mewaad and the Marwaar.

Mewaad covers the cities of Jaipur, Mount Abu, and Udaipur.
But we covered the other part, called as the Marwaar and also famous for its deserts - Bikaner, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur.

BIKANER -

We reached Bikaner on 23rd afternoon and checked-in to Hotel SAGAR. Its a really nice hotel and here are the details of the hotel, you can definitely consider if you are visiting Bikaner.

Hotels in Bikaner -
HOTEL SAGAR
Lalgarh Palace campus, Bikaner.
Tel: 0151 - 2520677
http://www.sagarhotelbikaner.com/

Hotel Sagar in Bikaner

Places in Bikaner -

Karnimata Mandir -
Bikaner is famous for its Karni Mata mandir and the Lalgarh Palace. It also has a very unique camel Research Farm which is a good place to visit if you are not familiar with camels.

Karnimata temple is a very famous temple and is worshipped for the avtaar of goddess Durga. Temple is good and clean and has many shops alongside. The best part of the temple is the presence of thousands of rats in the temple. They are considered as the reincarnation of children of Karni mata.

More than the goddess, tourist are busy in photographing the rats or people running from rats. Its fun to see people reacting when they see so many of rats inside the temple. :-)

Junagarh Fort -
Forts in Rajasthan are built near water sources for obvious reasons. You just can see water anywhere in Marwaar. Junagarh fort is no different. Its a huge fort built near the only lake in Bikaner. For was built in 1594AD and is built using red sandstones. Fort is very well maintained and the carvings are really appreciable. It also has a small temple inside the fort.

Junagarh Fort

Camel Research Farm -
Have you taken a camel ride? I never did and so I was excited about my next spot, the Camel research farm. Although I didnt take camel ride here but its a nice chance if anyone has to try it! :-) The way camel sits down and stands up is really some exercise for you. Take care of your back, that's one advice I can give! :-)

Camel research farm contains camels of different breeds and also have baby camels. They are really something to see. We could even see a 2 days baby camel which couldn't even stand then.

Camel Research Farm, Bikaner

Camel milk was the main attraction of this visit. We could taste camel milk there, one of the highlight of our tour :-)

Camel Milk Parlour, Bikaner

With these three main places covered and some more museums we moved on to Jaisalmer, the place of real desert. I will post more about Jaisalmer in my next post.

SHIVNERI Bus: Bangalore - Mumbai - Bangalore

2011-10-23T10:50:00.001+05:30

I have travelled a lot between Bangalore and Mumbai. Mumbai being my hometown I keep going home after every few months. While doing so, I have experimented with almost all mode of transport, different timings and comfort. Addition to it is bus service by MSRTC AC Bus "SHIVNERI"

It was in August when I was at Majestic bus stop waiting for my AIRAVAT bus at 5pm, I saw SHIVNERI starting promptly at 4:30pm. I could strike a conversation with the bus driver, in Marathi ofcourse! :-) and I asked him all the details about the service. So this time I decided to come home for Diwali in a SHIVNERI.

AIRAVAT has set some very high standards and for my last 5 years of travel betweent he cities never ever I remember AIRAVAT service giving me a reason to crib, always punctual, all cabin services are well maintained. So MSRTC's new service have some very tough competition to break and very loyal passengers to attract!

Thankfully my first experience with the service was not bad at all. Two things prompted me to go for SHIVNERI this time. First, bus starts at 4:30pm which is half an hour early than usual 5pm AIRAVAT bus and second, the feeling to try SHIVNERI :-) Bus started at 4:30pm and without any delays and sticking to its schedule, I reached Pune (Swarget) at 6:45am and Vashi at 9:30am. On time!!

Some information about the service:

Bangalore - Mumbai SHIVNERI Timings: 4:35pm from Majestic bus Stop - Platform-1

Mumbai - Bangalore SHIVNERI Timings: 12:05pm from Mumbai Central
Other boarding points are - Dadar East, Maitri Park, Vashi Highway, Nerul Phata, Kokan Bhavan.

Fare - Adults - 1490/- Child - 990/-

Online booking for MSRTC SHIVNERI - https://public.msrtcors.com/ticket_booking/index.php

Wish you all a happy and Safe Journey :-)

Happy Diwali !!!

Kumara Parvata Trek

2011-10-17T00:50:00.001+05:30

It was few years ago that we conquered Kumarparvat. It was one amazing experience to travel to the top and also to experience the view from top of the mountain. Its a must visit place if you like trekking.

START OF KUMAR PARVATA TREK

Kumar Parvata Trek route:

Kukke Subramanya is the starting point of Kumar Parvata Trek. This place is a very famous place for temple of Snake God. Its a small town on Bangalore Mangalore highway and is around 250kms from Bangalore.

NOT EVEN HALF WAY TO THE TOP

Bhattara Mane for food:

Three to four hours into the trek you will reach Bhattara Mane (House of Bhat). He serves very simple but tasty food. Food includes Rice, rassam, papad and lots of butter milk. You can even fill the butter milk into your bottles and take it for your trek ahead. Bhat charges you some minimal amount for food which is never a problem for you trekkers!!

Kumara Parvata is a 18-20km trek. We covered it in two days. We halted at top of a mountain-1, ya we need to cross two-three mountains to reach Kumar Parvata. We packed tents with us and halted at the top of a mountain for the night. Awesome experience and started again the next day at 5:30am.

ROCK CLIMBING - KUMAR PARVATA

Rock climbing in Kumar Parvata:

Last few kms are very interesting if you want to reach till the top. A km stretch is actually some rock climbing. Initially I was not sure I would be able to do it but having come up I didnt want to miss the peak for last few kms. Once into it, we could cross those rocks quite easily. It was fun actually. Again a very new and gr8 experience which you can get only in treks.

AT THE TOP OF KUMAR PARVATA

On the way back from Kumara Parvata:

Any person who has been trekking will tell you, its not that easy to climb down a mountain. Sometimes it even feels, how I wish I could be just climbing, I dont want to rush myself down the mountain. Knees and calf muscles start asking questions if you rush a bit and our faces in the below picture tells the story. :-)

BACK TO THE START LINE. TREK IS COMPLETE

Overall a superb trek and we were back in Bangalore by Monday early morning.

IN KUMAR PARVATA TOWN: WAITING FOR RETURN BUS

Tips for the trekkers:

1. Carry lots of water with you. It increases your luggage but you 'll not regret while on top.

2. Carry lots of glucose powder.

3. Once you leave Bhattar Mane, you wont find much food on the way to top.

4. Carry ready to eat food stuff and fruits like Bananas etc.

and ya most importantly ... enjoy your trek!! :-)

Places on Mysore Road

2011-10-02T13:19:00.001+05:30

Mysore road which connects Bangalore and Mysore is a well maintained 150kms stretch. It just not connects Bangalore and Mysore but also helps tourists visit many other historical and scenic places along the way. I have prepared this list of places on and around Mysore Road. You can plan to visit these places while you are travelling here -

I am assuming here that you have started your travel from Bangalore towards Mysore -

1. Big Banyan Tree on Mysore Road:

Big Banyan Tree is around 8-10kms from Mysore road. If you are coming from Bangalore, look for Rajarajeshwari Dental college and take the turn towards right. Later you have around 8kms to travel inside. Ask the local people for directions.

I have more detailed information about Big Banyan Tree mentioned here -

Big Banyan Tree experience

Map to reach Big Banyan Tree

2. Wonderla on Mysore Road:

Wonderla is the famous amusement park cum water park of Bangalore. It is around 16kms from the Mysore road Exit of the NICE Road. Its a must visit place if you are in Bangalore. It has something for all and kids and parents both can enjoy the rides and water themes in this park.

More information on the park can be found on its website "www.wonderla.com"

3. Innovative Film City:

Innovative Film City is a place for kids and not so enjoyed by teens and elders. Personally I will recommend this place only for kids. Its around 26kms from NICE Road exit on Mysore Road. Once you continue on Mysore road, you will find a diversion which has a big sign board indicating "Innovative Film City - this way" which will help you to be on right track.

More information on Innovative Film City is available on its website here

4. Kamath Lokaruchi Hotel on Mysore Road

If you are on Mysore road and travelling from Bangalore to Mysore, you cannot miss Kamath Lokaruchi which is to your right. You will see many vehicles parked already which just tells you the popularity of this restaurant. This places isa round 40kms from the NICE road exit towards Mysore Road. Also it comes after "Ramnagara".

Place is famous for South Indian snacks and coffee. Enjoy the tasty Idli and Rava Dosas with Chutney and Sambar. Dont forget to have hot coffee before leaving this place.

Once you cover these places you can say that you are completely out of Bangalore and racing towards Mysore. In my next blog, I will write more on the towns you will cover while travelling between Bangalore to Mysore.

Cubbon Park - Bangalore

2011-09-11T17:22:00.001+05:30

This week we planned to spend our Saturday visiting a very famous place for breakfast and then head towards Cubbon park, garden which should get due credit in maintaining its city, as the City of Gardens!

Cubbon park is a huge park which can very easily be missed or overlooked for a simple reason. Its just too huge!! Well maintained main roads cut through the park and the entry gates to the park are not too evident.

Cubbon Park heading KR road

Cubbon park has multiple gate and hence you can enter the park via Vidhan Soudha end, Kasturba Road, Minsk Square, Corporation circle.

Reaching Cubbon Park from MG Road -

Reaching Cubbon park from MG Road is easy as you just need to reach the end of the road towards the cricket stadium side (circle connecting Queens road). You will see an entrance to the park at the same circle.

Green cover in Cubbon Park

Cubbon park is aurrounded by government offices and these are really appealing as they are not modern structures but a very attractive red colored traditional buildings. Park is surrounded by VidhanSoudha, High Court, Public Library, Vishveshwarya Mueseum, Art Gallery.

Central Library at Cubbon Park

Vidhan Soudha Bangalore

Birds in Cubbon park Bangalore -

To add to these beautiful structures and the greenery, Cubbon park acts as a shelter to variety of birds in this area. Oriental White eye, Shikra, Eurasion Golden Oriole are some of the birds found in Cubbon park. This makes it a must visit place for the nature lovers and photographers.

Some tips on visiting Cubbon Park -

If you are new to Bangalore or haven't seen much places yet, then you can plan to cover many things once in Cubbon park. Following are the places you can cover at one go once you are here -

1. Cubbon park in the morning

2. Vidhan Soudha and High court

3. Vishweshwarya Technological meuseum

4. Venkatappa Art Gallery

5. UB city for a nice dinner :-)

View in Cubbon Park Bangalore

Other interesting places in Bangalore

Tipu Palace in Bangalore

Lalbagh in Bangalore

Big Banyan Tree around Bangalore

Tipu Palace - Bangalore

2011-09-10T01:17:00.003+05:30

Last weekend we decided to get set on our bike and cover some important places within Bangalore. We went to Bull Temple, Ganesh Temple on the Bull Temple road and then to the Tipu's Palace situated on the KR Road in Chamrajpet, Bangalore.

How to reach Tipu Palace:

from anywhere in Bangalore, you can ask for KR Road which is very famous. Tipu Palace is situated on KR Road in the area of Chamrajpaet.

If you have mobile connectivity, check these co-ordinates: 12.959415,77.573712

Tipu's palace was built in 18th century. started by father Haider Ali but the work was finished by Tipu Sultan. Its a two floored structure built mostly of wood. Wooden pillars with design of lotus on its top gives it an appealing look. Tipu palace is surrounded by a very well maintained garden. It contains variety of flowers and well cut lush green grass. Feels good to be at such a place!

Spent some time in the palace and relaxed a sitting in front of the main porch of the palace.

Timings: 9am to 5pm

Tickets: Rs. 5/-
No fee for still camera but Rs. 50/- for video cameras.

Here are some of the pictures from the palace..

Tipu Palace - Inside view

Tipu's Palace - outside

Tipu Summer Palace, Bangalore

Here are some other places in Bangalore worth visiting

Madiwala / BTM lake and Garden

Lalbagh Bangalore

Madiwala Lake garden / BTM lake garden - South Bangalore

2011-08-28T15:39:00.002+05:30

Recently I could visit Madiwala Lake garden in South Bangalore. It’s generally called Madiwala lake or even BTM lake garden and is good if you want to go for a nice peaceful evening walk along the lake.

BTM lake garden is at one end of this huge lake. If you are in BTM 2^nd stage just stroll along 29^th main and you will be enjoying a nice view of BTM lake. Lake garden, as the name suggests has a well maintained lake and an equally well maintained garden. It’s still under development so everytime you go this place, you see it getting better all the time.

How to reach Madiwala Lake / BTM lake garden

It’s in BTM Layout 2^nd stage and can be easily reached if you know BTM area well. If you are new to Bangalore or South Bangalore, just reach BTM 2^nd stage and look for 29^th main road. This road connects the BTM main road and Bannerghatta Road. Keep going towards Bannerghatta Road via 29^th main and you will reach BTM lake garden.

Boating in Madiwala Lake / BTM lake garden:

Boating is available in BTM lake garden. Its not much crowded and pedal boats are available for 30mins and 1hr. As it’s a huge lake and well cleaned, it’s good to have boating at this place.

Garden is pretty well maintained and continuous development ensures it to be getting better all the time.

Interested in photography, get your cameras as you will enjoy the view and the greenery here.

Entry tickets for BTM lake garden:

Entry tickets are nominal at Rs. 5 with no extra charges for cameras.

Parking fees - Rs. 2/-

Here are some of the pictures from the BTM lake garden.

BTM Lake

BTM / Madiwala Lake

Interested in biking ?? Then, you might also be interested in visiting "Big Banyan Tree". You can read more here

Travel experience: How do I kill time while travelling ?? :-)

2011-08-22T12:21:00.000+05:30

How do I pass my time in long distance train travel ?? :-)

Travelling alone is not that enjoyable and it gets frustrating when you come to know that train takes a longer route. It can easily go along the Konkan stretch and cover the distance within 75% of time taken today. Why couldn’t train go along the coast and enter Karnataka and Bangalore instead of taking this longer route via Solapur and Wadi??

Anyways, that’s not in our control, is it? Thankfully I have my laptop (oh yes a new one this time) and much better phone to ease my 24hours travel boredom J Trying out different things and passing time and as I type am still thinking of different ways, weird may it be to pass / kill time during a long duration train travel.

TRAVEL SNAPS:

HTC’s 8mp camera helps me a lot here! Anything and everything can be clicked and if you like to get down on stations in between, you really have lots to click! Hot Idli Chatni at Wadi station or a stall of Pav Bhaji, rain drops on your window or hot cup of tea, anything can be captured!

MOVIES AND SONGS:

For the first time I am feeling why don’t I have a huge collection of songs on my mobile. My wife keeps asking me to download more and more songs and I keep delaying it cos of little interest J But when it comes to travel, songs can help you pass time easily. Better use of songs is to get good sound sleep. Put those earphones and run through your playlist. Movies are gr8 way to pass time. I think one should have his set of favourite movies into his phone all the time. I just completed 3-Idiots and will start with ‘Andaz Apna Apna’ in sometime :)

INTERNET ON ROAMING:

That’s a bit expensive option but very useful if you wish to connect to your world of facebook and CricInfo anytime in your travel. With the way India playing I hardly launched my cricinfo app but for me FACEBOOK and MONEYCONTROL are good travel apps. I wish I had some good app on railways which would tell me current train location and train status and next few stations. If someone knows about such an app, let me know!!

NEWSPAPER:

This is the only time when a lazy reader like me reads each and every page in a newspaper. Sunday Times means more pages and that much more time spent in reading the paper. SUDOKU is a great way to spend time and apply your brains at the same time. I play the MEDIUM level often and for me working on a DIFFICULT level means some good few hours spent well :)

BOOKS / NOVELS:

Another great way to spend the train travel time well if you are on a long journey. With new gadgets available and e-books easily available, it’s so very easy to have books handy during your travel. So guys with iPads and Kindle fill up your online book shelf and get ready to kill time page by page now

BLOGGING:

Because the above item is of less interest to me, I spend most of my time in this category, BLOGGING!! Its 9:20pm now and am somewhere in A.P. Not sure where exactly. Wish I had that app which I mentioned above.

These are some ways I can think of passing / utilizing / killing time in your train journey. And ya, forgot to mention one important thing. Do all this only if you are travelling alone (like am doing now), if you are with your better half pay all attention to her and talk and talk and talk!! :)

What other ways you guys spend time when you travel in train and are up for a long travel??

Would like to listen to your ways of passing time. I will definitely try it the next time am travelling alone!!!

Lalbagh Flower Show 2011 - Bangalore

2011-08-07T20:25:00.003+05:30

I visited Lalbagh Flower show today and it was really a good experience. I have been hearing about it for so many years now but never managed to make it. This time I could along with my camera to capture the Flower show.

Really liked the spread of awesome collection of flowers and the sight of different colors looked really superb!! Use of white roses to create a replica of Bahai Temple is the highlight of the show. Also dont forget to visit the "HOPCOMS" stall if you are in Lalbagh, I wont disclose the details but something nice is on display at the stall.

Anyways, I would definitely suggest families to go and visit Lalbagh this month. You will see colors and more colors. Nice flowers and huge rose garden is setup too! Unfortunately I could not go inside the rose garden (not allowed) but it was nice to see so many colors of well bloomed roses!

Timings -
Lalbagh tmings are 6am to 7pm.
I reached the place at 12noon to beat the rush! It worked! I could peacefully enjoy the place.

Tickets -
tickets are priced at Rs. 40/- and there is no extra charge for cameras.

Refrain from using plastics or throwing waste in the garden!

Location and accessibility -
So there are four gates to Lalbagh. Attaching the overall layout of the park as it would give you some idea of which gate would be most convinient for you. Rose garden and glass house are the places where all the action takes place. So plan accordingly if you dont want to roam around other parts of the park. I entered through the west gate from where both places are easily approachable.

Here are some of the pictures captured today -

Dandeli Trip ..

2011-08-05T21:48:00.002+05:30

God knows how it all started but suddenly we all took this very seriously!! We had to go for an outing together, group of 12 of us from office. It all started as fun and everyone came up with their options for the place. Goa, Mahabaleshwar, Matheran etc etc. Soon we realised we have hardly 1 night 2 days of stay and should plan accordingly.

It had to be some adventure sport and hence all agreed upon DANDELI, karnataka. :-) Now this had been on my minds to go to Dandeli for water rafting and I was so excited to hear this name!! Yes yes ... thats the place and we all started working on the accommodation and travel plans.

Dandeli in Karnataka, is known for its White water rafting through the river Kali. Tempo Traveller booked for 12 and we were on our way. We started at around 10pm on a friday night. No one was in a mood to sleep and right so! Who 'll sleep in a trip :-) Games and Antakshari and by 3am we were all tired!! Having Chai on roadside dhabaas while travelling is so much fun especially at night :-) Njoyed a lot. Finally slept for few hours and when I opened my eyes we had halted at some dhabaa at around 6:30am. This was our 4th or 5th tea. :-) of the night. Or shall I say, the first for the morning!

MIDNIGHT CHAI TIME

After around 360kms, we left NH4 and took the State highway-1 towards Dandeli. Since then the road was getting narrower and could hardly find any shops around. Reached Dandeli resort at around 9:30. It was quite a long travel and with no sleep. But the resort brought us the excitement back and we rushed in and out of our rooms within no time. Tasty parathas were waiting for us and some chai again :-)

Adventure sports at Dandeli:

Resort had so many options for outdoor activities and we were thrilled with it, wanting to do each one of them. Lots of minds when think about something, most likely it ends up in a mess. We almost did something similar. But then decided to take it light and instead of all, do few activities but spend time and enjoy it!

KAYAKING

Kayaking in Dandeli -

Kayaking is use of Kayak for moving across water :-) wowww wikipedia gives such dumb definition sometimes :P It was great fun. We were waiting for our turn and the person in front of us lost hs balance while getting into his Kayak. That made me think a bit but all was comfortable from then on. We managed to get onto the Kayak and since then we just enjoyed the sport! Few in our team even compete against each other. It was fun to watch them.

NATURAL JACUZZI

Natural Jacuzzi in Dandeli -

This is nothing but some stylish name to sitting in river water and enjoying the light stream of water flowing around you. We spent most of our time in water. It was so relaxing, we could spend hours in there. Splashing water over each other, clicking photos, playing truth and dare, it was fun time!

Supa Dam visit in Dandeli -

Supa dam being the second largest dam in the state is built on the river Kali. It was nearby from our resort and also with some influence available, we could not miss visiting the dam. It was awesome and one of the highlight of our trips. Have never seen a dam from the top. Could manage it this time thanks to my friend :-)

CAMPFIRE

Water rafting in Dandeli:

Unfortunately could not do the most important part of the tour. White water rafting!!!! So here's the lesson learnt out of Dandeli trip! The entire rafting business in Dandeli depends on the water level of river Kali. Apart from the normal logic of water levels being good in rainy seasons and not so good in other seasons, there's one more important thing to be known. There's a big SUPA DAM in Dandeli used to generate electricity and this Dam controls the amount of water flowing through the Kali river. No one can be sure if you will get to do the rafting on any given day. Thats what happened with us. Just a day before we arrived in Dandeli, water level was sufficient for rafting. But the Dam blocked the water since then. So by the time we reached, river water was flowing well but not sufficient for rafting!!! Ultimately we missed it!! :(

Anyways, next day planned for river crossing, rappling and trekking!! remember multiple brains thinking and planning!! :P We did nothing! :-) But absolutely no regrets as we had spent entire night playing cards and learnt a new game MAFIA (thanks Thejas for enlightning us with MAFIA) and it was a HIT game among us!

Next day, had breakfast, enjoyed one more session of Kayaking under the sun. My wife had this idea of collecting magoes. wowww thanks we did it as we got so many of them and all turned out to be good. :-) packed our bags by the afternoon and started our return journey.

Everyone were kind of tired and journey was bit lengthy considering we took almost 12 hours to reach back home.

KALI river

Dandeli known for - Adventure sports and especially White river water rafting.
Best time to visit - Ask the locals about the water levels. Entire trip depends on it.
Stay in Dandeli - Bison River Resort

Bison river resort Feedback -
Activities availability - Yes and good.
Experience with activities - We tried Kayaking and natural Jacuzzi. Thoroughly enjoyed it!
Resort quality and service - Good.
Food Quality - Bad
Price - Expensive food. Stay is fine. But we don't have other food options. So overall EXPENSIVE
Would I refer anyone for it - Try out other resort. Hopefully it would turn out better and cheaper.

Awesome Chikmanglur trip

2011-08-04T19:20:00.002+05:30

I always believe that more than the location, its the group which determines whether you enjoyed your trip or just returned from your trip!In last few months, we kind of gelled together like never before! And after an amazing trip to Dandeli, we decided to go for our next outing, CHIKMANGLUR, Karnataka!

Chikmanglur, is said to be the home of "leeches", atleast in Karnataka and it proved absolutely right. :-)

Now I feel like our trip would have been incomplete if not for leeches in Chikmanglur :-)

We were 19 adults and 5 kids and so decided to have 2

Tempo Travellers. Journey time, around 7hrs. Started from our office at around 11:30pm on Friday and reached Chikmanglur at around 6:30 - 7 in the morning. Superb weather welcomed us and it was just awesome climate all throughout our 2 days stay there.

Hebbe Falls

Quickly settled in our rooms and ready for breakfast! This was a surprise ... we were ready to have a not so good food in our homestay (thanks to some reviews online) but were pleasantly surprised to get some simple but very good food.

Upma (kharaa bhat), Poori, Bhaji (saagu), coffee, tea was in the breakfast menu and everyone hogged like they were hungry for last few days! :D

We were kind of relaxed and not in hurry of reaching our tourist points.

That was good as all the time was enjoyable

and never missed any spot because of time crunch. Headed to Hebbey falls which was around 25kms from our homestay. Must say, excellent view around.

We could literally stop our bus at any point and start clicking photographs! It was just so good! Getting to Hebbey falls ws not that easy!

Around 13kms from the falls, we were stopped and forced to take a jeep as buses wont go further. and yes, he was right. Small roads and our jeep somehow crossing the rocks and stones and managing to stay away from other side of the road, deep scary valley! :P We were literally closing our eyes and scared to look out on a few occassions! After a bumby, scary drive we were there. No, not the falls. We reached a point from where we had to walk for around 2kms and cross 3 streams of water! This is where we were welcomed by "LEECHES".

This is how wikipedia defines a "Leech" - Leeches are segmented worms that belong to the class annelida and comprise the subclass Hirudinea.

But it forgets to tell u a very important part (which is mentioned later on the page ofcourse) that Leeches suck your blood!! and that was terrifying!

Consider this -

You are with your partner, you are holding a baby in your arms (no not me, but others in our group :P ), you need to now cross 3 streams of flowing water and you have leeches wherever you step on ground and if not there, it will for sure appear somehow on ur legs if you stand at a place for even a minute!

But all this just added to the fun and the kind of adventure we had in our entire trip! :-) Hebbey Falls is awesome and one of the best or may be

the best falls I have seen till date!

As if this adventure or our hide n seek with blood sucking leeches was not enough, we were stuck while on our way back to our Tempo Traveller from the falls. A jeep ahead of us failed to move and it made us wait in that leechy jungle for an hour!

Returned to our rooms and ordered Onion pakoda for snacks. It turned out to be good again. We realized how mcuh should we rely on online reviews from here on ;-) Dinner too was

good. Veg, non veg options and all seemed happy!

MAFIA was the game of our Dandeli trip. UNO took over the MAFIA, I guess and atleast 12 of us gathered for UNO which continued till not so late night, say 1am and we had a good sleep then.

It took me some time to understand and pronounce the names of our next day spots. They were Bababudangiri and Mullayanagiri. Mullayangiri is said to be the highest peak in Karnataka at around 1950mts. It took us sometime to reach these places ofcourse because of the mountains but everyone enjoyed a lot!

Baba Budangiri -

Also a pilgrimage place for Hindus and Muslims. It feels like heaven once you are up there. Cloud cover all over and rains and breeze to add to that awesome feeling. Hot Chai is a must if you such places and we had some good hot tea and some Andaa bhurji in a nearby shop! Lots of clicks, lots of poses and we headed towards the next spot

Mullayangiri -

If Baba Budangiri makes you feel like heaven, Mullayangiri will make you fall deep in the valleys from that same heaven!! It might get risky if you dont pay attention to the tremendous wind blowing at this place! It was something new for me. As soon as I stpped out of my vehicle, I could barely stand. Wind was literally pushing me. To add to it, I did a mistake of opening my jacket. This increased the force on me and I had to quickly et down from the cliff where I was posing for a click! :P Very low temperatures, tufaan wind blowing and clouds everywhere makes this place one of the best places I have been to, a must see for sure!

After this spot, we started with our return journey, took some time to get to the highway. But were home by 2am (sunday late night). The group made it more special, I must say! Games we played, photos we clicked, jokes we cracked, some stupid act we did in bus, even the feeling of conquering Hebbey Falls together helps create a bond between us! It was simply great! All of them together made this trip a wonderful and memorable experience! :-)

PLACES IN CHIKMANGLUR -

Hebbey Falls, Baba Buddangiri, Mullayangiri

STAY IN CHIKMANGLUR -

We stayed at 'Rangers Camp'. Its a simple but good and very economical homestay. I would advice people to go. We spent 1050/- per head which included all stay, meals, breakfast for a day and breakfast the next day! Worth it!

RANGERS CAMP

Ballavara
Tarikere Taluk
Chickmagalur - 577129
Karnataka, INDIA
Phone:08261 258138 Mob:9663409979/9448555633
http://www.rangerscamp.net/
SOME TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS -
1. Pack your bag with good enough food stuff. Once you are out of homestay covering spots, you wont find any shops, hotels.
2. Carry salt, spray like MOOV etc to fight Leeches.
3. If you wanna trek to Hebbey falls, start early to the spot, say morning 8-9am so that its all done within day light.
4. Please take care of yourelf aganst heavy winds at Mullyangiri. :-)

and yaaaa .... most importantly, enjoy the Leeches to the fullest! :-)

Coorg/Madikeri trip in June2011

2011-06-22T22:44:00.001+05:30

Recently we went to Coorg, around 260kms from Bangalore. Month of June, so we were expecting some rain but it was better than we expected. Coorg is a perfect mix of rain, cold, clouds, fog and whatever it takes to make an awesome weather and some wonderful trip!!

So it was a quick weekend trip and hence we decided to pick some of the 'must places to visit' and spend good quality time at every place. We picked up the following places -

1. Buddhist Monastery at Kushalnagar

2. Nisargdham

3. Raja's Seat

4. Abbey Falls

5. Talcauvery

and we did it in the same order.

Buddhist Monaestry is a must see place and more so if you havent visited a monastery anytime .. The temples, the architecture and the idols are so different and so unique, we feel capturing every painting on the wall in our camera!! .. Yes, I have taken a snap of some devils painted on one of the walls ... they are so beautiful!! :-). We spent around 2 hours here..

Nisargdham was OK OK as it doesnt provide the Elephant ride for which it was famous for! The forest park is kind of good concept but apart from the hanging bridge and flowing river I didnt find anything exciting there. We spent around an hour here.

Then we reached our hotel. Simple, economical and with some good view outside the balcony. The hotel manager and the support staff were friendly and helpful!

We covered Raja's seat on the same day evening at around 5:30pm and may be because of the season, the view was just superb!! Clouds and more clouds... and a cool but not at all uncomfortable temperature. The place is famous more for the view than the actual 'Raja's seat'. It also has a train ride (10/- per head tkt) ... was just fun!!

Next day we visited Talcauvery and Abbey Falls. I wont say much about these but just that, both are 'must see' places and you should not miss it, if you are planning for Coorg!! TalCauvery takes around 1:30 hours drive so plan accordingly!

Coorg as a town, is very small and you will notice the Coorg main Pvt. Bus stand and Police station without fail. Entire town is around these and you will find good hotels nearby these places. We found 'NeelSagar Veg restaurant' as a good place for food. You can ask anyone for the restaurant and he 'll guide you with directions, that's the best part when you are in a small town! :-)

How to reach Madikeri -

1. From Bangalore, get to Mysore Road and proceed towards Mysore.

2. Once you cross Srirangapatnam, you will see a by-pass road for Madikeri. (look for signboards)

3. Around 10kms on bypass, take the diversion for Madikeri (look for signboards)

4. Its a straight route which travels through Kushalnagar (Buddhist Monastery) and Nisargdham.

Hotel we stayed -

We stayed at a place called 'Hotel Hill View' which is the most economical option. Home stays is another option but we didnt try it this time. The Hotel is at a good location and very near to Raja's Seat.
We got the best deal through yatra.com which was Double Deluxe room for 900/- per day. Hotel contact number is 08272-223808

That's about it ... a good trip and now waiting for the next one!! ... planning something for July!!! ... place ??? ... read the next blog! :-)

HOTEL suggestion in OOTY

2011-05-23T11:12:00.000+05:30

Recently I suggested HOTEL DARSHAN to one of my cousins as a good place to stay while in OOTY. He went OOTY and stayed at the same place and was very happy about his stay and service. Best part for him was the location and scenic view of Ooty lake right from the rooms.

Thought of creating this post to just mention about the hotel as I know how important the accomodation is while you are on a weekend trip to relax and enjoy nature -

Hotel Darshan - http://www.darshanhotels.com/, 0423-2443378 (picked from website)
Location - 11.406784, 76.68677

My older post on Ooty and other details is here -
www.meetthenature.blogspot.com/2010/06/ooty-in-june-2010.html
You can add your experience in Ooty and hotels you stayed, in the comments section of this blog. It might help others planning for a trip.

[I am in no way linked to Hotel Darshan. This blog post is just as per my experiences with the hotel]

Iskcon Temple Bangalore

2011-05-15T23:12:00.000+05:30

Went to Iskcon today, not for the first time .. but yaa.. Iskcon @ evening happened for the first time!! It was good. It was looking beautiful but ya very crowded as it was Sunday evening.

Comparatively mornings are generally calm with not many people. We can araamse enjoy the darshan and sit for a while in the temple.

Also JP Nagar to Iskcon on bike was a good enough distance (21kms one way) and Google Maps GPS was as usual a gr8 help!!

Bannerghatta National Park .. improved!

2011-05-07T16:57:00.000+05:30

Its not that I havent been there before but the fact I had helped me to compare the Bannerghatta National Park 3 years back and the Bannerghatta National Park today!!

I will say a vast and healthy difference Not much to talk about their caged animals or shall we say pets but I am more happy about the Safari ride which we experienced in the National park recently. Even I didnt expect but lots of animals could be seen in that 45mins safari ride.

To Reach the park -

For anyone who's new to Bangalore, Bannerghatta National Park is to the south of Bangalore. Ask anyone for bannerghatta Road and once you reach till Jaydeva Flyover square(on Bannerghatta Road), continue further for 18 kms more. Its just a straight road.

Destination - 12.801392,77.576791

We reached there by around 11:30 and there was not much of a queue as we got our safari tickets withing 5mins and were in the Safari Bus in quick time. Got a good seat luckily...

Quick recap of my experience 3 years ago -

Bus enters the jungle and follows its regular route. Rather than driving, driver's concentrating on whether we get any animals to see. Deers are animals who come for the rescue of such National Parks. Somehow these deers appear in plenty and save the show for these guys ... When we entered the "Tiger Gate", we saw a old (or whatever ... in short weak) sleeping under sun. Driver had to throw some water on the tiger and then I think poor animal realized .. "show shuru ho chukaa hai

... audience aa gayi hai !!!"

Safari 2011 -

Bus enters the jungle and follows it regular route. Driver concentrating on the road ahead. The safari begins with deer as usual ... lots n lots of deers.. grazing around!! Fun watching them pretty near us! Bus crossed the next gate "Bear Gate" and I was pretty sure of hardly seeing one or two of them. But to my surprise Bear were in plenty and that too very active, near to the bus route. Thats when I felt, there's something different and efforts are being taken to improve this place.

Encounter - 1: Lions v/s Safari Bus

Oh this was fun!! Wouldnt hav said the same had those 5secs extended to a bit more ... We entered the "Lion Gate" and we started looking for Lions around. Again a vast improvement and we could see many, yes many! We approached a road where Lions were already present and crossing the road. Our bus fellow stopped the bus right in the middle of 4 Lions. It was a beautiful moment watching these giants so near us. But we halted a bit too much may be .. cos soon the four Lions came together at the back of the bus and we all were shifted our attention to the rear side of the bus. All was well but suddenly these huge built animals showed some aggression and started walking towards us in anger, as if they 'll attack any moment.

Those expressions and their steps towards the Bus .... unforgettable!! Bus driver moved at once.. :-)

Encounter - 2: Huge Elephant v/s Four Safari Buses -

And it was all done and we were almost out of the Jungle and suddenly we saw a big Elephant in the middle of those narrow roads. 2 buses already stuck and ours was third. Another one soon followed us. Now the problem was buses dont have any other route (unless they go back few kms) and the elephant is playing with tree trunks in the middle of the road!!

...... and suddenly one of the driver threw a stone at the elephant and the next few secs were crazy!!! The elephant started running towards us to attack the drivers and the buses!!! Something I have never seen...

All tamashaa done and we were out of the Safari. Went to check out all caged animals then which was like OKKK .. and returned in sometime.

Overall for the kind of animals we could see, this Safari trip was one of the Best of Bannerghatta National park trips for me. Hopefully they keep doing this good work for sake of animals and the visitors who come in huge numbers.

Bangalore Mysore in rains ..

2011-04-26T23:26:00.000+05:30

Here I am ... back to my blog after a real long time!!!

Something different happened, we did and that made me sit and write this blog!!! :-) It was a bike trip for me after a real long time ..

So, me and my wife (ya, m married now :) ) decided to go on a biking trip to Mysore over the weekend!! We started on Friday thinking it would be a good adventurous trip and it really turned out to be! It sound romantic but given a choice, I wouldnt have asked for rains on my way to Mysore n back... But the rain god was with us all the time and we had no choice but to njoy the rains! :-)

Started on friday at around 6:30am and travelled for about 2 n hf hours in slight drizzle. Slight drizzle can be really frustrating, while on bike, believe me! Kaamat Lokaruchi was our adda for breakfast and then we kept going to reach Srirangapatnam at around 11am. Tipu's palace at Srirangapatnam is kind of well maintained, liked it! Later we also covered Phelomena Church and Brindavan Gardens. Garden disappointed us cos of rush and musical fountain was not too impressive too!

Next day, Mysore palace was really good and my wife was pretty impressed with it!! ( Shall build 1 such palace for her one day! :-) ) Started our return journey at 3pm and were going smooth till we reached Kaamat Hotel in 2hrs. And then it all started!!!

It was raining pretty heavily so much so that it measured the highest rainfall for the month of April in Bangalore.

It was better to keep going as rain had no signs of slowing down!!! We stopped for a while under a tree where other bikers waited too, started moving again. Stop n go was the plan and this made us reach Nice Road. Then was the best part!!!

How does it feel when u know, you have heavy rains which is not going to stop -- U have now to cover a stretch of 20kms which dosnt have a place to stop, take shelter -- a 20kms stretch which doesnt have a street light!!! ..... and we started slowly but were njoying the weather and finally reached the end of long stretch!! and then reached home in sometime..... phewww!

This was just awesome experience!!

This trip was special for more than one reasons ..

- My longest bike trip till date

- Biking in rains is something special!!

- Used GPS to travel around Mysore and it was just perfect! Try it!

Weekend outing to Clark's Exotica

2010-07-18T23:58:00.001+05:30

Looking for resorts around Bangalore? Apart from Clark's Exotica, you might also be interested in Guhantara Resort. Click here to read more.

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This weekend was fun and we had plans for team outing on Saturday and Sunday. Seriously I thought not many would turn up for a weekend outing that too in a resort just outskirts of Bangalore.. But the scenes were different as almost every person showed interest and and finally we got a good number a the resort.

So we planned to start at 10am IST from office ... n ya I mean IST .. which means we started at 11am. Some of us planned a small Nandi trip within this trip and hence got our bikes too to the resort. Super excited abt the Nandi Hills trip the next day early morning.

The place 'Clarks Exotica' looked wowwwwwwww the moment we entered the resort. Got our room keys, entered the room and again wowwwwwww :-) did'nt expect such rooms really!!

Relaxed a bit and back to the reception .. wats the plan!!! "are bhai bhuk lagi hai" was the mood and good food was served. Okk I wont talk about food much cos thats wat I do all the time ;) Food was good all the time and abs no issues there.

Its time to play, swim, eat .. and thats wat we did for next 1 day. :-) In to the swimming pool just after lunch and pool was big enough to accomodate more than 20 of us easily. To add to it 10 more from some other company and we even had a water football match against them :P Oh that was real dhamaal .. Had gr8 time in pool and after FIFA2010 is iver we had our own water style of playing football :)

I added two more games in my list this time, badminton and Squash! First time badminton with net. I still remember we used to play badminton with imaginary nets :P But I really enjoyed the game. Dont ask me the match results (cos i lost most of them :) ) but just loved the experience. Must mention found few good players playing so well and so effortlessly .. majaa aa gaya unka game dekh ke and the tricks they had while playing the game.

Squash was fun too. Didnt get much to play the first day but played for some good time the next day morning. Tiring game, I must say!

Resorts always provides these games but wat adds up to the whole experience is wat u do apart from it ...

Bhoot ki kahnaaiyan .. guess Chinmay started it but was fun. A group of 6 roaming around talking and walking Ghost stories :P and exploring new routes on the way "We didnt go here last time, lets take this road" was the reason for us taking new routes all the time :P 'ladki 3rd floor se koodi aur chalke ghar aayi', 'photo me bhoot', 'shimoga ki kahanaiyan' are some of the highlights of the ghost stories :)

And when all these things were going on, gr8 Mr. Ashwin didnt let the receptionst sleep. He made his life hell asking for playing cards again n again! was fun though. 6 of us playing BLUFF. Had gr8 fun explaining rules to all. Lag raha tha explain karte karte subah ho jaayegi :)

Should mention about the evening get-together, musical chair, dumb-charades, simple games but fun filled and gr8 to see everyone playing it sportingly. Hopefully all kids enjoyed their games too.

Next day early morning was coool. 6:30am at a place like this, wat else to expect. It was gr8. Had one more round of Badminton and relaxed a bit in pool. No substitute for water we say, right? same is the case when it comes to swimming pool ... araam and relaxation!!

Started return travel at around 2:30pm and a smooth ride to home. A great, satisfying and fun filled trip coming to an end .. n m sure this trend will continue and we plan more such outings now.

- Badminton was really a gr8 experince.

- Ghost strories should continue in office too :P

- I wont forget my morning tea here. :)

- Have u ever seen BLUFF game being played by keeping all cards open?? I witnessed it!! :P

- 4 course breakfast was gr8!

- Our excitement when we shouted 'Chandani Chowk To China'was something special! :)

.... and ya .. Nandi never happened !!!

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Looking for resorts around Bangalore? Apart from Clark's Exotica, you might also be interested in Guhantara Resort. Click here to read more.

Big Banyan Tree in June2010

2010-06-29T00:25:00.003+05:30

We decided to go for a quick bike ride last weekend. We had only 3 hours in hand and hence really needed a nearby place which would also give us an opportunity enjoy our bike ride. In such a case, there is no better place then 'Big Banyan Tree', I would say.

Now I have already written a blog about this place -

http://meetthenature.blogspot.com/2008/03/big-banyan-tree.html

Big Banyan Tree

So this one would be just to update the new route I took in detail. Place is around 35-40kms from BTM Layout, Bangalore. Travelling around 10kms on Bannerghatta Road, you cant miss the entry to Nice Road, to your right. Follow Nice Road till Mysore Road. Continue for around 3kms and take right at Rajarajeshwari Dental College to your right. (do not confuse with Rajarajeshwari college to your left. U should continue ahead till you get college to your right). Once you take right, follow the road, cross a railway crossing and keep going for around 8kms till you reach Big Banyan Tree.

warning: Take extreme care of your belongings at the tree. Monkeys have created havoc there! :)

Ooty in June 2010

2010-06-21T00:28:00.002+05:30

Whenever we think about vacation, first question which comes to our mind is “Where ??”. This time it was different. We had already decided our place. Mom dad were in Bangalore in June 1^st week and Ooty was our destination this time.

So destination was not the confusion this time. My biggest confusion was … should our trip be 2 days or 3 days???? Well .. lets come to this discussion later J

So we decided on 2 days trip – Here’s how we planned our trip

Day – 1:

- Leave Bangalore early morning around 5 – 5:30am

- Reach Ooty in afternoon. Cover few places before reaching town.

- Visit few places in town and only then go to hotel.

Day-2:

- Start with Ooty – Coonoor Train journey.

- Visit Tea gardens and few more spots at Coonoor.

- Return to Ooty and cover remaining spots.

- Start return journey by evening.

Travel experience:

We decided to hire a Indica for 3 of us. Pretty comfortable and economical for 2 days too. Thanks to our driver we started late, at 6:45am. Road condition was never a problem. It was good throughout. Once we hit Bandipur Forest, got some awesome weather and then the ghat section all the way to Ooty is pretty awesome. Stopped for lunch just after crossing Bandipur and before starting our ghat travel. Pretty decent food. Liked it actually.

Ooty weather:

Now this is in June and we had pretty awesome weather. Ooty is all about scenic beauty and landscapes. It’s a town situated on hills. As expected its cloudy always and have chill weather. Temp at night dropped and was just amazing.

Places in Ooty / Ooty places to visit:

First spot we visited was a much hyped Pykara Falls. It was terrible and no idea why people keep asking me .. “Did u visit Pykara Falls??”. Isnt June the right time, not sure but Pykara disappointed us. We expected a big falls and we got nothing. But we soon realized .. forget falls, look at the view around. Just amazing!!

Went to a filmi Chakkar point, m sure where Mithun would have shot most of his movies :P Again .. just amazing view and u have to just keep your camera ready all the time. Anywhere you turn you see an awesome view you just cant resist capturing!! It started raining here and I had to run my way from top of a hill to my car.

We also went to a Tea Factory. Now you would think … ‘How Boring!!’ .. but NO. It was really interesting to see how tea is manufactured. Its such a simple process and all happens right in front of us. Really interesting and I liked it.

Apart from other good spots, I would specially mention … Tea Gardens !!!! Do visit tea Gardens and take a picture at these gardens, if you are lucky, you will get to wear similar costume and take pictures. I did it!!! J

Overall .. I really enjoyed all the places in Ooty. Expect some awesome sceneries from every place you visit. If you like to see such places .. Ooty is the place for you.

Accommodation / places to stay in ooty:

I did some research over the net and found this hotel where I stayed. Now, there might be others better than this one but I have no idea… What I know is .. HOTEL DARSHAN gave me the best service I could expect. Its right in front of Ooty lake and every room (floor 3, 4) gives a clear view of lake. Good room service, good food, no regrets to select this hotel!!

Lets come back to the discussion – 2 days trip or 3 days trip !!

There are many places to see in Ooty and every place gives you another chance to thank god for creating this wonderful place. So, I you have to spend a very comfortable time at every place and you are ready to pay your hotel tariff for 1 more day, do stay for 3 days!!

But its not a must! We could complete our trip in 2 days time and we could do it comfortably. I don’t think we hurried ourselves at any place. But yaa, we skipped 1 or 2 small points at the top of hill.

That’s what you need to decide 1 extra day v/s few not so important places. If you decide on this before leaving for Ooty, trip becomes all the more enjoyable.

Finally some tips:

- Discuss your plan with your driver. They are your guides and can help you plan.

- Plan for only 1 way travel in Ooty – Coonoor train. Else its waste of time.

- Leave early morning from Bangalore. This will help you if you are on a 2 days trip.

- Reach Ooty / Coonoor station atleast an hour before the train time. This will ensure you get tickets on time.

- Check weather before leaving for Ooty.

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If you are looking for more Hill stations, Coorg/Madikeri might also be a good option - Read more.

Trip to Bhubaneshwar ...

2010-04-04T21:16:00.000+05:30

I really wanted to go Bhubaneshwar and and it really turned out well … I still remember I was not in so good condition when I boarded my train from KR Puram on Friday night!!! Was really struggling with fever a day before my trip. But the best part of my trip was, I receovered while in train and felt just perfect when we got down at Bhubaneshwar. :-)

Well it was my first trip to Orissa and was one of the reasons I really wanted to make it. The most important reason, it was my very good friend’s wedding! We planned it really tight but the whole trip went on just perfect.

First of all it was gr8 to see my friend’s bro coming to pick us at station. And we sooner realized how busy this person is … but still he always managed to take care of our trip just all the time. So perfect! :-) It was so nice to meet my friend a day before her wedding, she was as excited as always and am so happy for her :-)
Wedding was nice rituals, which we have seen, not so new but what surprised me was the order in which it was done. (just that am not used to it). Since my childhood, am used to attend wedding in the morning, with morning muhurta as mentioned on the wedding card. This side of the country, its done a bit differently, everything happens in eve. Some change for me … btw … it really didn’t matter to me. :) For me the only difference was, in Mumbai, we have lunch after the wedding, here we had lunch before the wedding :) Overall a perfect day and really enjoyed the experience.

Next day was tight for us. That’s the only day we had for our Orissa outing and we had planned for two major spots. Trip to Puri and we covered Puri temple and Puri beach. Beach !!!!!! after so many days. It was just gr8 to be in water for next 2 hours. Clean beach and really a good place to enjoy. Puri temple was nice too.

Learnt a new word ‘Panda’ and he showed us the entire temple in n out. Looked like, he was a Pandaa turned tourist guide! :-) But he was good and really explained us the temple history. He had asked for Rs21 (now that rare to see) but we impressed with him, offered him almost 10times. I still remember the smile on his face! :)

Konark Sun Temple, world famous and we soon realized why!! Its built in 13th century and is meant to be a chariot of Sun god. Now this temple really impressed me for its architecture. It really is amazing and we spent max of our time understanding the mathematical brilliance these guys would have come out with to built its wheels. We finally learnt the method to find out time at any point of the day. We were really impressed!!!

It was really a gr8 trip and must mention it was all well cos we met really good people throughout our trip. Let it be our guide in Konark temple or Pandaa in Puri temple. Not to forget our cab driver who really was an entertainment. His special masala wali chai, the proudness he felt when he explained us everything about ‘pitili ka chanduaa’ or the way he forced me to stop and have ‘chene ka zillaa’ … all was just nice! :)
The whole trip was just perfect and then it was made even better when my friend’s bro came at night asking … ‘Hope everything went on well and you had a good trip to Bhubaneshwar?’. That was just so ncie of him and made our trip complete :)
Trip over, time to return and we had to catch train at 2:30am. Thankfully train was right time and our return journey was comfortable. Me, Syed and Dhandapani, 3 characters with only one topic in common …. MY PREVIOUS JOB. Yes, we are friends from my previous job. It was gr8 to meet them and have a trip with them after a long time. Enjoyed their company all the time. :)

Cycl-on goes cycling ...

2009-09-15T10:00:00.000+05:30

Its been more of a cycling than motor biking for last month or so .. somehow cycling has interested me! Last time i went to Iskcon on my bicycle .. and this time it was a trip to some unexplored part of Bangalore.

I am a part of a team Cycl-on which is a bunch of cycling enthusiasts coming together and exploring their limits to cycling, testing out their threshold and at the same time enjoying every bit of it! Same is the case with me as I remember telling my colleague that i wont be able to join them for Big Banyan ride .. but then had a great experience riding to Iskcon!

This weeknd it was rather an unplanned route, we just followed one direction and reached Sarjapur! So 6:00am was the start time from BTM Udupi Garden. Needless to say, we were half an hour late to start .. but thats ok if u are going to ride at ur own leisure pace! :) Oh ya.. thats wat we did .. and thats wat we planned! a so called Fun Ride across Bangalore.

(Courtesy: Raghu)

Charles, Jagdeesh, Preran and me from BTM and Abhijeet, Raghu coming from Jaynagar, we were 6 of us enjoying the smooth down hill 1+km route which takes you to SilkBoard. Everyone just thinking about what would be to ride here on or way back! :)

Our first stop was just after Sarjapur circle which means we covered pretty good distance before halting. Jagdeesh had some bike problems as it needed air .. We continued on the same way till we encountered a railway crossing. Me and Abhijeet saw the train pass by and hence knew why all vehicles are stationary. Our other fellows simply reached the spot and had no clue why the traffic was! :) But soon realised it actually was a crossing. Ok then .. time for a snap and we were on the railway tracks!

We had this question in our minds! "How should we find .. how much distance we have travelled?" .. but Charlie ..with Chacha Chowdhary's brains came up with this ... "Ahh .. no probs .. I will google it once i m home" ;-) ... oh Yaa and Raghu actually did it for us! Its 60km .. right Raghu?

For some reason, Charles was desperate to go Aishwarya Sanskriti Resideny, i guess the name says it all! :-) But instead we reached a place some 3 kms from Sarjapur and our friend, our Guru Brijesh asked us to follow a route which would take us through beautiful green fields .. but it meant we still tested our own limits :) Yes u r correct ... we took a longer route on our way back and we headed towards Marathalli where Abhijeet and I almost took the Whitefield way but soon realised we are better off if we go directly to Marathalli! Changed our route and headed towards Marathalli. What we saw was so relaxing .... a big slope, a long stretch and we were a bunch of happy folks ... but what followed was not expected! We had to soon cross a flyover which drained us to the core! :-)

Soon to Marathalli and this was the first real chance of having our breakfasts! We were just on a bottle of water, Glucon-D and Nariyal Paani for last 3 hours! But with the feeling that 'Delhi abhi Door nahi' we continued from Marthalli junction to Sarjapur Circle. This was the most difficult stretch for me .. not for the kind of road but for the amount of energy i had in store. Also this was the stretch where we had split. Some riding at their own speeds, some halting for a drink and I had to reach on time. Speed dead slow but i continued to pedal until i reached Sarjapur Circle, stopped their for sometime. This was the most satisfying stretch for me. With no energy in me .. i found a little water in my bottle and i remembered my conversation with Preran .. "yaar .. thoda paani to apne bag me hona chahiye .. pata nahi kab jaroorat pad jaaye .. aur agar koi sath nahi hua to?" .. and thats wat had happened! ;-)

Started again and had some pace now .. decided to stop only at SilkBoard. But with Silk board approaching, i was desperate to reach home and continued in the same swing. The moment i saw BTM signal i was desperate to reach it .. but had to really struggle to reach the place. Slowly but surely I reached the place from where we started in the morning. It was exactly 10:50am and thanks to Charles plan .. I was at home on time ..

A great ride .. which started as a fun ride but really tested us on our way back and am sure Preran will agree with me? right Preran? :) Had a great time with the group and was also introduced to new folks in office. Who would have imagined two people introducing each other while riding on bicycles .. but thats what it is and thats what Cycl-on does as it brings all the people of similar interests together.

Great ride guys .. and looking forward to many more! ;-)

BTM to Iskcon Temple on bicycle!

2009-08-30T00:46:00.000+05:30

I was on compulsory leave for 2 days (kya din aaye hai ... office asks me to sit @ home :) ). I just cant sit idle at home and was planning to go out somwhere for these 2 days. Nothing could materialize and i was about to spend all my time in my room. But a nice plan struck me ... and i thought of going visiting Iskcon temple after a real log time.

Its not the first time i went to Iskcon but what made it special was .. i went on my bicycle this time. Around 25kms one way was no fun! Now it might be "ahhh wats big deal" for some of u ... but i was pretty excited to go on a 50kms ride. Ofcourse yaar .. when i daily travel just 4kms one way, its a big jump from 4kms to 25kms ;-)

So, I planned to start at 6am so that i can reach pretty early to the temple. Mukul starting on time that too early in the morning, ye to hone se raha! :) I started at 7am .. i had no idea how to reach temple, jus knew i have to keep going North. I had some nice experiences ..

Scene - 1

After about 5kms of my ride ... i had a big de-moralizing effect :) This is the conversation between me and a auto-rickshaw driver -

Me - (i was on bicycle, ofcourse) Bhaiyya, ye Iskcon, Rajaninagar ka rasta bataaoge?

Driver - Kaise jana hai?

Me - cycle pe.

Driver - Ispe!!!!! (with that Amitabh Bachchan style hand movement where he says "oyee sala")

Me - haan. to kaha jaao mai. ye raste se jaa sakta hun?

Driver - Aap nahi jaa sakte. bahut door hai vo.

Me - (abe saale tujhe poocha kya hai ... tu bol kya raha hai $^@#!!!!) batao to .. (with smile)

Driver - aage signal pe right, second signal left.

I reached Bangalore Railway station. It was like half way through. I took the longer route purposely (or let me say .. i was told to take this direction :) ) and i encountered another auto rickshaw fellow - So here comes ..

Scene - 2

Me - are boss .. ye Iskcon keliye kaha se jaao?

Driver - (this guy was very busy reading newspaper.) Kyaaa???? (he hasnt looked at me. he's still staring at that newspaper)

Me - Iskcon temple jana hai bhaiyaa?? ( i realized that "boss" can suit only Mumbai rickshaw walas. Here people prefer "bhaiyaa" .. only when called by people of my gender)

Driver - chalo. (and he starts fiddling with his meter)

Me - bhaiyaa mujhe rasta bata do. mai chala jaunga.

Driver - bahut door hai vo. chalo cycle daalo rickshaw me. mai chod deta hoon (as if he 'll drop me for free)

Me - nahi. cycle se jana hai!!!

Driver - (how crazy can he be! As soon as he realized am not his passenger. He lost wat some interest he had shown tll now. He immediately shifts his attention to the newspaper in hand and with no interest says .. ) aage kisi ko pooch lena ...

I am a short tempered person .. and i was going crazy then. I wanted to slap him big time!

From there on .. it was kinda smooth ride until ... i reach a place from where i had to climb a

steep hill for around 4kms. Reached Iskcon at 9:10am sharp. So it took me a little over 2 hours which i thought was fine. It was a weekday so .. had nice darshan, had prasad, rested there for a while and started my return at around 10:30am. Again a 2 hours ride and i was back home by 1pm.

I was pretty doubtful whether i would be able to complete my 50kms ride. But you cant judge yourself until you give it a shot. This time it worked and once back home i actually thought i could manage it .. thats a good sign!

Overall a nice experience and now waiting for my next ride which hopefully would be a 70-80kms ride, thats what my office group is planning. Let see!!!

DD Hills .. on Tumkur Road

2009-08-10T23:17:00.007+05:30

If you are looking for biking trips around Bangalore, you might be interested in Nandi Hills. You can read more here

Its Saturday 5:30 in the morning and i m just out of my bed!!! What am i doing so early in the morning ... boss .. m actually late and as usual i have lost one more opportunity to experience Nandi Hills early in the morning!!

We were supposed to start at 5:15am from BTM and pick up a friend near Bangalore Cantonment railway station. I called my friend just to check if he's up n ready (as normally he's the one who is the late latif of our group). He doesnt pick up my call ... and m like .... c'monnn ... get up man .. we are late again .. and you are still sleeping!!!!! Me n my roomies are getting ready and my friend sms's me ... "am ready today .. its u who are late this time ;-) .. m waiting"

So finally we are late but we are ready and we reach my friends house at ... dont ask the time! ;-) but we were pretty late! We changed our mind so many times and finally decided to ditch nandi Hills this time and explore some new place ...

So here comes our trip to DD HILLS, a place aorund 95kms from BTM Layout, Bangalore. Its actually Devrayanadurga Hills in Tumkur District. A nice place if you wanna enjoy biking. We were four of us on Pulsor and Unicorn and once out of Bangalore messed up traffic it we were cruising at constant 90-100kmph on a nicely maintained Tumkur Road also NH4.

Top of DD Hills -

A nice temple which as they say is 700 years old is situated at the top. God Narsimha's sparkling idol can be seen and to my surprise too many devotees were up for the darshan. Actually as soon as we parked our bikes, ya bikes can go right till the top of the hill just at the base of the temple, we thought we are at right place and not many are to be seen .. we relaxed and just relaxed thinking we would go n have darshan in sometime. But as we approached the temple we found a long queue and people actually fighting, struggling to enter the temple. Have you experienced the chaos at Tirupathi temple just while entering the main temple, it was very similar to it. There's nothing much up there just the temple and looks like its kind of popular looking at the number of devotees who had come there at the top.

How to reach DD Hills -

Well its kind of easy once you decide that you have to go DD Hills. Not like us who planned for Nandi Hills and reached DD Hills ;-)

You need to reach the Tumkur Road and just keep going straight, Njoy the road, the hills around you. But all this only after you leave Bangalore traffic behind. You will find a Toll post. Keep going for another 30 kms and then ask someone for Devrayanadurga Hills, its to your right, if you are coming from Bangalore. One you take right, its another 20 kms .. its a straight road except for few turns where the localites will help you out.

Takeaways -

Well .. its not so happening at the top if you are expecting something like nandi Hills. But the road to the Hills is really nice and you will njoy the ride. A stretch of around 40 to 50 kms once you are out of Bangalore traffic. Then the scenic beauty once you start your ride up the hill.

If you are looking for biking trips around Bangalore, you might be interested in Nandi Hills. You can read more here

Guhantara resort Outing ..

2009-06-04T00:25:00.003+05:30

If you are looking for resorts around Bangalore, you might also be interested in Clark Exotica resort details. Click here to read more.

-------------------------------
Recently, we planned an outing with office colleagues and went to a Resort located just at the Bangalore outskirts.

Resort called Guhantara and now you can imagine what the theme would be !!! :)

A very unusual place, having ambience of caves. So, the main hall, swimming pool, sports arena all inside a big cave. A really nice place and really new and refreshing look! We were in a group of 30 so .. had many things planned. Games, gifts, swimming and much more.

How to reach:

Guhantara is around 25 kms from Bangalore. On Kanakpura Road and actually very easy to be missed if you are going for the first time. Its ahead of 'Art Of Living' campus and to the right of Kanakpura. Actually you will see a sign board which provides you direction to take right from Kanakpura Road. This right turn is actually a very small kachha rasta and hence one should keep an eye looking for the sign board.

Also check this for more details -

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=guhantara+resort+bangalore&sll=37.579413,-95.712891

&sspn=40.168172,79.101563&ie=UTF8&ll=12.796527,77.500048&spn=0.011655,0.027466&t=h&z=16

Tariff

(Picture directly taken from Guhantara site. I do not own any details here. Pic taken July2009)

Facilities:

Resort provides you with many field games and one can really enjoy if you are in a big group. Relax, dance and play games. A perfect way

to get back to your childhood days and enjoy the time. Guhantara provides you with

- Volleyball, cricket ground, archery, basketball

- table tennis, carrom, chess, snooker

- cycling

- swimming

- rain dance

and a really unique and nice ambience to relax and enjoy !!

------------
If you are looking for resorts around Bangalore, you might also be interested in Clark Exotica resort details. Click here to read more.

Jamshedpur Visit !!

2009-05-29T16:41:00.001+05:30

XLRI,jamshedpur,life at XLRI

Its 10pm and m sitting on upper berth, of B1 coach, TataNagar Allepy train. Vishu sleeping in the opposite berth but m sure he has not slept. He must be singing the song "Teri Deewaniiii ... teri deewanniiiii ... " ... for reasons of his own ;-)

XLRI Jamshedpur, one of the few places to be, while in India for studies, and i got a chance to experience the same for a week or so. We booked our tickets and all were waiting anxiously to start our journey to TataNagar, a place very new to me but a place my dad has spent his childhood days.

We started on 1st May .. Me, Vishu, and KK, a new group, XLRI friends :)

Bangalore - Chennai in Brindavan Exp and then to Tatanagar in Allepy - Tatanagar Exp. Journey more than 40 hours but KK made it a memorable with his collection of songs and videos and speakers to add to it :) 2 days travel to Tatanagar, we actually converted our coach to a mini theatre and everyone enjoying the movies ... ya .. thoda padhai bhi kiya but its better we dont talk about it :)
Enter 2 more characters in the story, JP Nagar friends Biju and Ruchita. We met them in train. As we entered train, saw a person sitting on upper Berth and studying hard! atleast looked like .. Renju Abraham from Kochi.

Will never forget our entry to Tatanagar. Reached Tatanagar on 3rd morning 11am and as we got down, Vishu delivered one of his best dialogues of the entire travel !!! u remember Vishu ? ;-) somebody almost slapped him! ;-)

Ruchi's dad was there and he dropped us to XLRI campus .. and it was 'Welcome to Hostel life'. We met few more of our batchmates from Mumbai .. aur hum nikal pade .. unke saath chappal kharidne! ... and i will say .. Krish got the best deal anyone can ever imagine, right Krish .. ? :)

Next day was Accounts paper and we were out to Bistupur market .. but dont blame us .. even our Accounts teacher was roaming with us! Oh .. ya here comes our new friend .. who was with us for entire week, so .. wats her name .. bahut saare hai ... but the best one is .. "Motu" :)
Bistupur market ghume and started studying at 10pm and now dont ask me how was my exam .. u better make a guess! :)

Hostel life was really great, single room, full of cockroaches, lizards and antique furniture. Common bathrooms, jamshedpur ki garmi .. cafeteria with 5 rupaye ka nimbu paani, made it a complete experience.

Day2, we had no exams and that meant we again take it light on day1. Went out to Jubilee park, and to Safari .. and suddenly the climate changed and from being hot n sunny, we were caught in heavy rains and breeze, a mini cyclone i 'll say .. mast bheeg ke .. we were back to hostel. for a change jaldi so gaye. this was the only day we slept on time, that is .. 1am, rest all days we didnt sleep before 3am.

Marketing exam was day-3 and our teacher didnt help us much! :) bechaari .. poor gal, from accounts background .. and we were tortchering her for all our exams :) Went out to meet Ruchi's parents and soon realised we were at a place where everyone is a national medal winner! ... wat a family .. keep it going everyone! It was great to meet them and also went out for dinner with them. Dinner @ Sukh Sagar, Bistupur Market and spent great time overall.

Next exam @ 9am and can you guess .. when did Mr Mukul wake up that particular day? I woke up at 8:40am .. yess .. and that too cos of Naren's phone call .. another character Naren Middaddi .. oh, not sure of his surname .. damn confusing! :) he's a real character .. painting keliye bamboos lagaaye the .. aur bande ko chadna tha .. pata nahi .. kya sochta hai, kya karta hai .. :)

Friday was last day of XLRI and we had one of the toughest exams and it proved to be .. had absolutely no clue wat the question was .. but once the exam was done, it became a sunk cost and we were free to see Jamshedpur (as if .. we didnt till then) ;-) Saakchi Market, Bistupur Market and gifts, sweets, Chappan Bhog, Host, and so many places ..
Ram Mandir, Maharashtra Mandal, Fakira Chanachur, Jubilee Park, Masala Cold drink and so many things to check out .. and must mention .. i really liked Jamshedpur and the way it is maintained by the Tatas!!

So .. that about it .. had a real amazing 10 days in XLRI and it was a great experience to meet the professors, interact with them, attend lectures at XLRI and the cafeteria nimbu paani, 4 baje tak padhna, ghumna, firna .. was a memorable experience!!! :)

Let me . introduce all my friendssss from XLRI team ..

Naren - xx saal ka buddha yaa xx saal ka jawaan ... vaise harkate to bachhon jaisi hoti hai :) lively .. person! - likes chaat

Biju - didnt dind him with us for majorty of time ;) likesss chaiiii!!
GuruRaj - Calm and composed .. studying all the time .. always the first to complete assignments! .. fond of buying dresses for his kid! :)
Paayel - The Tigress of XLRI. the toughest thing for her is to keep silence for 5 mins :) .. likes foooodd!!
Krish - pura naam bahut bada hai .. he's benefitted the most from XLRI , right Krish! :) .... chicken .. tandoori !! :)
Vishu - again .. bahut bada naam hai .. our Marketing guy, broker.. sab kuch aata hai usko! u name a thing and he must have done it already! :) .. curd riceee and beer!
Ruchita - one who takes tension for no reason .. chilllllll !!! ..... kuch nahi .. learning orkuting !! :)
and our new friend ...

Motuuu - our teacher @ Jamshedpur :) ..Ruchi's sis! ..... Butter Masala Dosa and Gulaabjamun :)

Well all in all a gr8 journey and let me mention .. something which just happened, while m writing this .. m sitting at one end of the AC coach just besides the AC door and a sweet little 3rd standard kid came running and stopped by my side, a little surprised and she gave a real amazing smile and i wondered why ... then realized she's the one we met while we were travelling frm Chennai to Tatanagar and was real fun! Little gal remembered us and her smile just about made my day! :) name - Maonika ..