My Journey's in Life

AFL Grand Final Parade

2013-09-16T16:00:00.000+05:30

Australian Football League Grand Final Parade

Australia is a football crazy nation. I was just going around the city as usual on a friday afternoon and I notice the roads all around federation square are filled with people and traffic has been diverted. I had never seen so many people in Melbourne till this day.

Turns out the AFL final that was to happen that weekend always precedes with a parade of the players and mascots etc. There was hardly any place to stand for me and I had to go pretty far to get a decent view of what's going on. The entire of federation square had different stalls for things ranging from face painting to kids section for playing football.

This is a structure that was quite mindblowing. I had seen this under construction a couple of days earlier and it made no sense at that time. I could just see a couple of Australian footballs hanging. Now it all made sense.

There was media everywhere. There was even a helicopter covering the parade. It was really a big deal here. It was fun to watch an entire city coming to stop on a Friday afternoon.

Princes Walk

2013-09-15T17:00:00.000+05:30

Princes Walk

Right behind Federation Square there is a Princes Walk. You can find joggers, and tourists here just enjoying the beauty of of the city by the Yarra river.

There is a building under renovation that's supposed to be a children's attraction.

As everywhere in Melbourne this place too has some art. This is certainly some aboriginal art.

And this is some modern art right beside the yarra river.

It must be hell of a life to live around here and come for a jog by the river , watching ducklings learn to swim and beautiful trees and occasional kayaks on the river.

Southbank

2013-09-15T16:00:00.000+05:30

South Bank

South Bank is a suburb of Melbourne beside the Yarra River. You can catch a ride on the Yarra River. There is also the South Bank Foot Bridge.

As everywhere around in the CBD you can find street artists performing near the River.

On the South bank Foot bridge you can find love padlocks. and its fun to read the messages on them.

Flinders Street Station

2013-09-15T12:00:00.000+05:30

Flinders Street Station

Flinders Street Station is the central Railway Station of Melbourne located right beside Federation Square.

This is the place where you can see a crowd of people on the streets. Unlike the usually empty streets of Melbourne.

National Gallery of Victoria

2013-09-15T09:00:00.000+05:30

National Gallery of Victoria

National Gallery of Victoria is located near Federation Square and is without any doubt a must visit for Art Lovers.

There are Fountains and art installations all around the building and it makes it a pretty artsy place altogether.

The Entrance is quite interesting as you can see in the picture. It made me feel like it was cage, but boy was it huge. Sometimes you don't mind walking into a huge cage.

As is the case with most things in Melbourne, NGV was having a temporary display. This time it was mexican artists. Some of them were quite amazing.

Once inside its a completely new world. And I get to start with a decapitated head. Yay

The paintings in their collection are pretty huge.

Some of them are really huge and yet very detailed.

This is a zoom into the bottom of the painting and you can clearly see the animals.

This again is the zoom on the old man on the left.

There was this one painting that I just couldn't help but notice. Quite frankly I don't get it. What's the big deal. Its just lines.

Outside there is the iconic Tram Bar Restaurant.

I am not a very artsy person but the paintings and sculptures here did make me realize how someone can enjoy art.

Australian Centre for Moving Images

2013-09-14T19:00:00.001+05:30

ACMI

ACMI is a world of Moving Images in all forms Movies , TV , Internet. There are a lot of interesting things to experience here.

Its located at Federation Square.

A huge display of notes people have written predicting future technologies and you can add in your predictions too.

You can also play some old vintage games here.

There are a good number of artifacts related Movies and TV.

Including an Oscar.

And the jewelry of Captain Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean.

There is also a Room that is completely dark and filled with light smoke and a single beam of light and the patterns the smoke forms are pretty awesome.

There is also a futuristic Touch free display . You interact with it by simply placing your hand over the control points.

There is also a pretty huge wall TV and it spans across three walls of a room.

ACMI also includes a Strobing Lights animation .

You can also create a Matrix style action video of yourself .

Federation Square

2013-09-14T19:00:00.000+05:30

Federation Square

Federation Square is the Meeting Place of Melbourne. This is the Centre of the City and There are a lot of Places of Interest all around Federation Square.

Some of them include

There are a number of Street artists performing all around the City and in Federation Square .

You can always get a Horse Carriage Tour from Federation Square.

There is a huge screen that runs movies or live matches on weekends . Rest of the time it just shows whats happening in fed square.

Federation Square always has some or the other event going on. I was lucky enough to experience the footy parade and the following.

Street Art in Melbourne

2013-09-14T18:00:00.000+05:30

Street Art in Melbourne

Melbourne has some amazing street arts and I had hunted for them right on day 1. And I was not disappointed . Most of the Street Art is present in Hosier Lane. Its in the Melbourne CBD , very close to Federation Square. The entire lane is filled with Street Art , A simple walk through this lane makes you feel like you visited one of the best art galleries in the world.

Melbourne has pretty impressive Street Art spread all over the city at random corners so always keep an eye open for them.

View Larger Map

Melbourne Visitor Centre

2013-09-14T17:30:00.000+05:30

Melbourne Visitor Centre

Melbourne Visitor Centre is the first place anyone should visit when travelling in Melbourne. There is a plethora of information and discounts that can be availed of.

It is located at the City Centre , also knows as the Melbourne CBD. Its right at Federation Square the meeting place of Melbourne.

Its a pretty simple building but a perfect example of how well the Australian Govt is promoting Tourism. Its pretty well staffed .

There are many brochures that you can pick up from here and they usually contain some kind of discount. There are also brochures of Tour operators that you can pick for sydney , adelaide or Great Ocean Road Trips.

There is also a list of Bike and Walking Trails that you can take if you are interested in that. There are brochures with maps and everything. Bikes are available for rent all around the city. There are bike lanes almost everywhere.

The Visitor Centre also has a good collection of Souvenirs, However unless you find something you really want , better get souvenirs in the airport duty free.

If you have any inquiries to make or purchase something there are staffs to help you out. Its always a good idea to chat up with them as they can give you information about the tourist places like no one else.

Take as many brochures as you want and go through them to make sure you make the best out of your time in Melbourne.

You can also download their app - Android iOS

Reaching Melbourne

2013-09-13T21:00:00.000+05:30

Continued from Flying Out of India

After a long wait I boarded my flight to Bangkok on time . It was pretty cool that I got a fancy Window seat with a nice view of the Right wing and close to the small screen displaying the Birds eye view of the outside . This single handedly provided more entertainment than the In flight entertainment.

It was fun to watch the runway go far far far and the view shifts to clouds and then to a starry sky. Actually felt like a star trek voyage.

The food was pretty standard Thai food. But the scotch was good. I have never had such amazing scotch mixed with just water. I need to try that . I fell asleep in no time and I was in Bangkok . The view of the city before the landing was amazing.

It was pretty hard to communicate with the people in the Bangkok airport. we both were of course trying our best. Finally I managed to reach the gate and I had an hour to spare.

I was on my way to the gate to board the next flight when I saw one of the guys at the security fiddling with a Note 2. Surprisingly it looked exactly like mine, the scratches and stuff. Then it struck me. Thankfully I had a photo of myself in the phone so I could quickly prove it was mine and move to catch my flight. A nice lady had found it and saved me a lot of trouble.

Then started the crazy 8 hour flight. But then the advantage of travelling on a weekday is that the airlines are not fully packed. In the last flight I got a window seat and only the aisle seat was occupied. In the next flight I get all three seats to myself and I lie down and sleep throughout the journey .

I managed to capture a bit of a video for you guys to enjoy.

Finally I reached Melbourne, After passing immigration I stepped onto Melbourne and it was cold. I luckily got connected easily to Airport WiFi and managed to get some last minute change in the rendezvous location with my hostess in Australia.

Flying Out Of India

2013-09-09T23:48:00.000+05:30

Flying Out Of India

So I finally got a chance to set foot outside of Indian Soil. It has been a quite overwhelming experience till now. The numerous problems and documents I needed before even reaching the airport . Not to forget the huge amount of money invested before starting the trip.

So I am going to Australia for 2 weeks. Melbourne Specifically.

There have been basically 3 Major Things I had to worry about

1. Tickets - I booked them a lot in advance. I managed to save around 10k . but i could have saved more if i had booked a day earlier. It was such a pain to see the price go up by 6k in one day. Book 4-5 Months in advance for the best fares.
2. Visa - This took me a lot more time than expected not because of the embassy but because It took time to get the documents. The visa took about a week after I submitted all the documents. It was an e-visa . It costed me about 10K so pretty much make up for the money I saved on tickets.
3. Travel Card & Cash - I got the Travel Card from HDFC Bank. The person handling it was foolish enough to take almost half an hour to give me the rates and they were wrong. I had to go the next day to give another check.

I also got some nice and shiny Australian dollars . Bled my poor Indian pockets though. These babies are each more than '₹3k worth .

The Cab arrived half an hour before, to my amazement. But it was well compensated by the amazing Bangalore traffic. At several points it felt like the car was driving through a river.

Thankfully I arrived at the airport well ahead of time and everything went smooth after that. And I am sitting here near Gate 20 , watching random people eat, sleep and mostly stare at their phones/laptops. Sometimes I overhear about some Singapore airlines flight being rescheduled and cringe inside. I am sitting here in the last few moments before I begin an epic Journey to Melbourne.

As it happened in the Hobbit

Hobbit: You! Mr. Bilbo where're you off to?

Bilbo Baggins: I'm already late.

Hobbit: Late for what?

Bilbo Baggins: I'm going on an adventure.

I bid adieu with your warm wishes for a nice and safe journey and leave you with my dinner .

Reaching Melbourne

Rasta Cafe

2013-09-09T17:48:00.000+05:30

Rasta Cafe

There are a lot of places in Bangalore where we can hang out with friends and have a nice time. But then there is always the Cinderella hour of 11 pm . Since all places in Bangalore are closed by 11 , there are only a couple of Cafe Coffee Days that are open 24/7 that cater to the insomniac Crowds. And then there is Rasta Cafe.

Its located in middle of no where on the Mysore road. Pretty hard to locate if the Sign boards are not lit. Better be equipped with GPS .

The Food here has improved a lot and now its actually great. But unless you are ok with smoking Hookah or other people smoking Hookah better stay away from here.

Its a huge place with a good lawn and lots of trees. This is the only place Near Bangalore where you can get Hookah , after Bangalore police shut down all hookah places in the city.

There is usually a pretty good crowd on Saturdays and there are Bouncers all through out the night. So it is pretty safe.

A Few Tips

It gets very crowded on Saturday nights. Better reach there by 11 pm.
Get a jacket . It gets really really cold.
When you are going to Rasta cafe from Bangalore you will find Rasta cafe on your right and will have to take a U turn. Drive Carefully on Mysore Road and especially this U turn.
Always carry an ID card . Especially for girls.

And now I would like to leave you with a nice song

Enchanting Jog Falls

2012-11-02T18:30:00.000+05:30

Enchanting Jog Falls

Enchanting Jog Falls

Jog Falls is the second-highest plunge waterfall in India. It is certainly one of the most beautiful and dangerous water falls I have ever visited. It is 400 km from Bangalore and 240 km from Mangalore. Jog Falls is formed by the Sharavathi River. The best time to visit Jog Falls is from June-September, During the monsoons.

We took the following Route from Bangalore to Jog Falls.

View Larger Map

Here's a small video compilation of the falls followed by some interesting snaps.

The route was quite scenic and the road was decent. In spite of it raining it didn't feel unsafe to drive.

Things turned even more beautiful as it was drizzling.

When we had almost reached jog falls we hit a bridge.

It was afternoon and yet so misty that it looked like the marshes from Lord of the Rings

Finally we reached the Enchanting Jog falls

Then it suddenly got misty and hardly anything could be seen.

And after sometime the mist cleared off as well. It was quite an experience to see one of the largest waterfalls vanish in its own mist.

Jog Falls is a must visit for everyone.

we continued towards goa after that...

Photos By: Joyjeet Dan & Ankita

Bangalore to Talakadu

2012-10-27T18:30:00.000+05:30

Bangalore to Talakadu

If anyone ever told you Bangalore doesn't have a beach then take them to Talakadu. Talakadu is a beach on the ranks of river Kaveri . It is located 133 km from Bangalore . It is certainly one of the best places to visit around Bangalore since its actually a beach .

There are two ways of reaching Talakadu from Bangalore. You can either take Highway 209 or Mysore road. While Highway 209 is a shorter route, the road is pretty bad. The recent work for Metro has completely ruined the road and beyond that the road is narrower than Mysore road.

View Talakadu, Karnataka in a larger map

There are some shops near the beach but Its not a good idea to have anything more than a couple of snacks.A Good Plan to visit Talakadu is to first visit Shivanasamudram (Barachukki and Gaganachukki) and then visit Talakadu in the evening.

Talakadu has temple ruins which have a legend behind it. Supposedly it's the result of a curse that the temples in Talakadu get submerged in sand . You will find lots of people trying to show you the temple as guide's. These are just locals trying to make some money. Personally I never had the interest of visiting the temple ruins.

The beach is quite clean and a great place for playing football/volleyball etc. If you can then take the football/volleyball with you. otherwise you will get extremely-low-quality-use-and-throw-balls to buy there in the beach.

If you are in bangalore and need a one day trip then this is one of the best places to visit. But make sure you have a heavy breakfast and pack some food for lunch as you will not get any decent food near the falls,beach or even on the way.

Bangalore To Shivanasamudram

2012-10-26T18:30:00.000+05:30

Shivanasamudram

Bangalore To Shivanasamudram

Shivanasamudram is a waterfall on the river Kaveri located about 140 km from Bangalore. It is one of the best Waterfalls around Bangalore. There are two ways of reaching Shivanasamudram from Bangalore. You can either take Highway 209 or Mysore road. While Highway 209 is a shorter route, the road is pretty bad. The recent work for Metro has completely ruined the road and beyond that the road is narrower than Mysore road.

View Barachukki Route in a larger map

The best time to go to Shivanasamudram is within the first few months of rainy season(July-Aug). If the monsoon hasn't been very good then any time is good for Shivanasamudram. Going after a good monsoon season will mean the waterfall will be at its best but then you won't be able to actually go near the water.

There are two falls in Shivasamudram , Barachukki and Gaganachukki . These are separated by about 20 kms.

Barachukki is where you can actually enter the waterfall, play in the water. Gaganachukki is a majestic waterfal that should only be admired from far.

Which makes Gaganachukki the destination during the peak of monsoon.

The road to Shivanasamudram is quite scenic. And the fresh country air is what one needs after suffering the horrible pollution of Bangalore.

A year back when I had been to Shivanasamudram there was hardly any facility there. It was quite a neglected tourist spot. But now a lot of development has happened. There are proper stairs and changing rooms. Which is especially good for Ladies.

Shivanasamudram - Development

If you are in bangalore and need a one day trip then this is one of the best places to visit. But make sure you have a heavy breakfast and pack some food for lunch as you will not get any decent food near the falls or even on the way.

Shivanasamudram

While you are here you can also visit Talakadu. Start as early as possible from Bangalore if you want to cover Gaganachukki, Barachukki and Talakadu.

10000 km on my Yamaha FZ16

2012-10-21T18:30:00.000+05:30

10000 km on my Yamaha Fz16

10000 km on my Yamaha FZ16

On January 14th 2012, I took one of the best decisions of my life. I bought a Yamaha Fz16 . I had the specific requirement of a city bike, since I needed to travel almost 50 km everyday within the city. So my friends suggested Fz as a good city bike.

It took me 9 months and 8 days to finish 10000 km and at the end of it I was left surprised that just few months back I wasn't sure if the costliest thing I am buying is a good idea or not.

The bike is the perfect city bike anyone can get, it's very light and handling is extremely smooth. The brakes are extremely good and have saved my bones a couple of times.

Yamaha Fz 16 Silencer

One problem I have faced till now is a very irritating false neutral . Its quite dangerous when that happens to a newbie on slopes. Now I have got used to it and manage to get out of it in no time.

The best part of the bike is the silencer, it looks so beautiful and probably gets a lot of evil eyes. The only part which gets damaged is the silencer cover. the beautiful silencer cover. If the bike falls on the right hand side the silencer cover easily gets damaged. And the beautiful silencer starts to look hideous.

I have always observed the silencer cover of other Fz's on road and it'll almost always be damaged.

The Tyre pressure is ideally supposed to be 29-33 which always confuses the petrol bunk guy , somehow he feels every bike is a pulsar.

There have been no issues whatsoever with my bike and driving it is still a pleasure. Though the pillion rider doesn't feel the same way. The seat is too small for the pillion, though the new Fz seems to have fixed that.

The longest trip I have gone has been to Mysore and It was quite an experience.

Which bike do you own and how was your experience. Do share in the comments.

Mysooru

2012-02-28T23:44:00.002+05:30

Mysooru

We made an elaborate plan to go to Mysore, and just like any other plan we didn't stick to it.

Initially the plan was to leave early in the morning but then there were some glitches and we finally settled on starting at 4pm saturday 25th Feb 2011. Plan also included that we all will go in Amar's car.

But then we were 6 of us and so i decided to take my bike too.

A bike is obviously slower,all the more with a pillion, on highways than a car, I started early at around 4.30 from domlur and reached Nayandanahalli and joined the mysore road . Here I filled up my bike's tank and started off at 5.20.

Its always fun driving in mysore road . But as luck would have it right after Rajarajeshwari nagar there was an interceptor waiting for me.

I was doing just 70's and the traffic police didn't like that. After coughing up 300 bucks i continued my journey.

We had started after lunch and weren't hungry at all. I did get very thirsty at times. We stopped only 2 times before we reached Srirangapatna.

Now the initial plan was that the rest will come in the car and probably overtake us somewhere on the way.But we had reached Srirangapatna before them and they were still in Ramnagaram. So we halted in Srirangapatna and bought the booze.

A large old monk and a large vat 69.

There were hardly any decent shops for liquor . I am used to buying liqour in Madhuloka kind of shops and didn't really want to visit any of the dirty local shops. Srirangapatna came to the rescue with an average, but better than the rest, liquor shop. Then we started off with the liqour to mysore

We had booked a hotel - The Viceroy in mysore. I wish i could write something good about the hotel but I can't. When we had called them and booked, they had quoted a price and when we reach there it increases by 500. We could have accepted that if we felt that the rooms were worth that much.

Simple facts - the bathroom leaked, the basin was partially clogged ,the TV's sound didn't work and picture quality was no good either.

Other things were ok but we certainly didn't feel it was worth the money. we decided on having dinner in the hotel as it was already quite late in the night. the food was below average . Right then we realized that we got the booze but forgot to get the soft drinks to mix it with. So we were roaming around the streets of mysore at around 10.30 for cold drinks.

It was not just disappointing but rather surprising. None of the shops had coke. Some shops had, but it wasn't cold. Finally i managed to get a 2 litre 7up and three 500ml pepsi.

Once back at the room we got cozy and started boozing. Things obviously got better after that. and for obvious reasons its hard to recall what all happened but some of the interesting things -

I usually mix every drink with 7up/sprite kind of drinks and ppl liked it this time . So that goes to my recommended list.

Someone feels that his nose is gone(yet again) and finds it amusing to rub his non existant nose on the pillow, obviously we did the same.

For some reason we started singing - handla glass , glassla scotch, eyes fullu tearu

All this resulted in some very memorable pictures which couldn't be uploaded due to their extremely embarrassing nature.

We slept off wondering what we'll do the next day. I got a bit less than 5 hours of sleep. I got up and found everyone in different states of awareness. Some were suffering from insomnia while some were certainy somniac.

We managed to wake everyone up and ready by around 11 . we checked out of the hotel. and went to a nearby restaurant for breakfast.

We finally decided we'll visit Chamundi hills . There is a temple at the top but we weren't going to the temple, certainly not after seeing the kind of queue there was . We got a decent view from the temple. We walked down a fleet of stairs to a view point .

Climbing back was excruciating, thanks to the alcohol induced dehydration and the dry sunny weather ..

We returned back to the city and had our favourite domino's pizza .

We saw the St. Philomena's church on the way but didn't go inside.

We decided that we'll visit Tipu's palace in Srirangapatna as it comes on the way. Neeraj drove my bike from Mysore to sri rangapatna and i got a much needed rest.

Tipu's palace is rather simple compared to the palaces they show in movies. It was peaceful and the only interesting artifacts inside the museum were the few weapons that were on display.

We sat outside in the garden , it was really peaceful except for a crow, which went away eventually.

I was pretty rejuvenated after this and we decided that for the sake of safety I'll drive solo and rest 5 will come in car. so we drove straight from Sriranga patna to the CCD after ramnagaram.

On the way we saw some accidents, a truck had fallen on its side off the road, there was another where a car just drove off the road but no one was hurt, and then we hit a huge road block cause by a minor accident .

I hit a max speed of 110 and but most of the times drove at around 80. Had to slow down after it was dark though. After some rest in CCD I came home and the others went to theirs.

At the end it was 307.9 km on the odometer . Now thats the longest i've ever driven in my life. And all this for only 7 liters of petrol.

Night trek to Rangaswamy Betta

2012-02-21T20:19:00.000+05:30

Night Trek to Rangaswamy Betta

This was the 2nd time I was going on a BMC organized trip. Firstly it would be prudent to explain the reasons for choosing BMC.

There are atleast 2 solid reasons for choosing bmc over a personal trip

1) You don't have the numbers.

The first time we went for a BMC trip it was just my friend Amar and me. Its difficult to organize a personal trip if its just 2 of us even worse if its 3. The mode of transport(bikes vs car) being the biggest problem. This time it was the simple fact of not being sure of how many might actually be turning up for the trip. we decided the number only a day before the actual trip.

2) You don't have the time to organize

This is the biggest problem. The most common request from all my friends is - abe kuch organize kar na(dude organize something).

Other than these there is always the fact that you get to meet new people and also BMC in this case is pretty well organized.

Coming back to the original topic

It was 5 of us who finally registered for the trip - Night trek to Rangaswamy Betta. This was my first Night Trek.

As it was supposed to be a night trek, we finished our dinner and got into the BMC bus. There were two tempo travellers which were almost full . The onward journey was quite uneventful and I had almost dozed off, when I realized that we have reached. It did seem like a short trip. We reached the base of the hill by 12.

It was pitch dark and there was no moon around . we realized later that it wasn't a new moon night but certainly close to a new moon night. So with no help form the celestial bodies, relying only on our torch lights we started the trek .

The temperature was quite cold but a minute into the trek and we were warm enough to forget that. We had taken a good amount of water and some chocolates and energy bars.

The guide told us that the elevation was of 60 degrees , it certainly didn't seem a difficult trek to me. There wasn't much of a view at night but at one point we could see some city (we later learnt that it was kanakpura) with lots of lights. It looked beautiful. We didn't take a camera good enough to take a picture of that.

The guide told us that the elevation would be 70 now and another km was left. Some of my friends were tired . The 70 degree elevation did prove to be a bit challenging so much so that reaching the top did feel like an achievement and a relief.

The hill is more like a plateau with a flat top almost the size of a playground and there is a temple built around a rock that acts as a roof.

Now we started feeling cold and i opened my bag to take out my jacket only to find that there was no jacket. I had managed to drop it in the cab. So I was left at the mercy of the winds.We started a campfire with the dry plants and logs. It was indeed a tasking job to keep bringing more of them to not let the campfire die. the fire was nice and warm and the only reason i didn't freeze to death.

There were various games that were played ranging from mafia to dumb charades and then most of us slept. I was awake the whole night as sleeping would have meant being frozen.

There was some movement at around 5 and i noticed that some kids came out of the temple and started their own fire.

We started talking to the kids who knew only Kannada (and Marathi too). We ended up singing and dancing with the kids and we also gave them chocolates. Turns out that they have a school in the temple.

They told us that the otherside of the temple had a better view and indeed the hills covered in cloud did offer a good view.

Then came the eagerly awaited sunrise . It was pleasant to see a sunrise after a long time.

We left right after the sunrise. The kids started shouting bye bye when we were leaving.

The return journy was faster and we stopped for breakfast on the way. I slept the whole day after that.

Here are some other travelogues that I had read before going for this trip
http://www.bcmtouring.com/forum/travelogues-south-india-f63/trip-bilikallu-rangaswami-betta-chunchi-falls-t462/
http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Rangaswamy-Betta-review-plpopmlop
http://usandeep.com/trekking/rangaswamybetta.html
http://traveloguez.blogspot.in/2012/02/night-trek-to-rangaswamy-betta.html

If you have visited Rangaswamy Betta or want to visit do comment about it.