Weekender Guru

Concrete Jungle "Dubai"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 16:13:00 +0000

Watch out for more details!!!

Koti Lingeshwara - Om Namah Shivaya

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 13 Mar 2016 17:53:00 +0000

I had been longing to visit this place for a while as it is close to Bangalore (around 100+ kms). We a family of 5 visited this place on 13th March 2016. Let me jump to my review directly

Highlights

- Shivaling everywhere! Haven't seen so many before. +1 for that (See pics below)
- You can carry camera inside temple with a fairly high fee of 100 Rs.
- There are wheel chair options for physically challenged which I haven't seen before in other temple.
- Good if not "Must see" place for one day trip from bangalore
- Road conditions are great except for last 20 KMS (small road but not bad roads)
- The priests inside temple explains in details about this place.
- Surprised to see many celebrities and politicians have donated in this place and they have shivaling in their names :)
- You can club "Bangaru Tirupati" visit which is near to this place (I did not visit though).

Lowlights

- This is more of a day trip and not a "true" pilgrimage trip. Good view for eyes but no feeling of "bhakthi" sadly. This is just one time visit.
- DO NOT go during summer. There is no shelter near those idols and they don't pour water anywhere and you can't just walk as it is too hot (even at 4 PM).
- Money oriented (Ex : Chappal stand fee is Rs 2 as printed but they charge you Rs 5 quoting "Jatre time" lol)
- WORST EVER TRAFFIC to reach this place even on sunday. KR Puram and Hoskote toll plaza (long queues) are horrible while going and coming back.

Folks, these things might help you

1. Start early or start after 2 PM from Bangalore and don't go in summer. If you don't like traffic or stay in "Bangalore south" then honestly whole journey is terrible. Specially crossing KR Puram and then hoskote toll. After that it is a smooth ride.
2. Coordinates to reach this place 12.998357, 78.295764
3. Near hoskote there is only one good hotel (Udupi bhavan i guess) and then Kamat nearing Kolar. If you miss that then don't worry. There is one in Bangarpet right opposite to government bus stand. Do visit that hotel - M Meenakshi mess (Veg hotel). They serve on banyan leaf and water they use the mineral water. Medium spicy food and clean. It is a good place considering that area. See the photo below in case you want to visit
4. GPS can misguide to reach this place. After Kolar you have to take right turn (Ramp on flyover) towards KGF / Bangarpet. Keep an eye on that.
5. Between 12:30 to 3:00 the temple will serve lunch.

Happy journey and keep travelling

A day outing in Pondicherry

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 17:03:00 +0000

My dear travellers,

Here is a blog for one day trip to Pondicherry from Chennai.

I stayed at my sister's house in chennai. So, I would not go much into details of chennai trip as my old blog details still holds good. Oh by the way, road from SriPerumbudur to Chennai (while coming from bangalore) is pretty bad and slows you down.

About Pondicherry :

Pondicherry is totally influenced by "Sri Aurobindo". This is my first impression of this beautiful place. So make sure you read about him before you visit his ashram or auroville.

"Pondy" in short, is a quite a pleasant place. One day is more than enough to visit all the places unless you want to stay in a beach resort and relax for a weekend.

Some of the key places to visit

1. Sri Aurobindo ashram

2. French colony buildings

3. Auroville

4. Seafront Promenade

5. Arulmigu Manakula Vinayagar Temple

6. Churches

7. Paradise beach

I was not keen on visiting beaches or temple or churches. So my visited places includes 1 - 4. I have posted photos of the same and will add more details if time permits.

Must visit place of all these is Auroville and evening walk at Seafront Promenade. The road will be closed in the evening for traffic everyday and you can walk in this 1 km stretch road. Really beautiful.

Tips:

Except for paradise beach, Pondy does not have any beach where you can get into water and play.

Chennai to Pondy route : via Grand Southern Trunk Rd/Nagapattinam-Chennai Hwy/NH45

Pondy to Chennai : via East Coast road (Returned home in the evening. So not able to catch glimpse of beach)

Food : A2B near Sri Aurobindo ashram. Clean and good food (Vegetarian only).

Distance around : 180 KMS with good road

Happy travelling

Weekend trip to Dharmastala & Kukke subramanya from bangalore

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:50:00 +0000

I was busy for a while to write my travelogue on Dharmastala & Kukke. Inspired by our Current CM and Ex-CM's news about taking Oath in Dharmastala, I decided to write this blog before my memory becomes old.
Unlike my other trips, this one was little different for the fact that we had a newly wed couple with us - Srikanth & Swapna.
Here is how we planned. Last minute plan with the confusion whether to take Shiradi Ghat or Charmadi Ghat, we ended up going through Shiradi Ghat. It was a good decision in the end.
This trip was one of my best planned trip.

Our date of journey : 17th Feb 2011 till 19th Feb 2011

Route : Bangalore - Nelamangala (Take left towards Mangalore road after reaching nelamangala & look for a deviation board and make sure to exit from fly over) - Kunigal - Hassan - Sakaleshpur - Continue towards Mangalore and on the right side you see a deviation towards dharmastala (which is 20KMS). Take that road. The total distance will be around 305KMS.

We started around 6 PM on Friday from office (Domlur) and reached Nelamangala road by 7 PM. As usual, we were greeted with terrible traffic but once you hop onto the nelamangala fly over, it is an amazing experience.
Make sure you take a deviation to the left (there is a sign board about Mangalore road) else you will end up hitting another toll gate which leads to Tumkur.
We hit Mangalore road and headed towards kunigal by 6:50 PM. The roads are quite decently but still under repair / construction. So, while driving in the evening make sure you don't drive too fast as there are always surprises waiting for you.

Left to Right - Me, Srikanth, Swapna (Behind) & Akshatha

This picture can give you an approximate idea of the road condition

Wide roads

Below is my suggested plan

Start atleast by 6:00AM, Reach Hassan by 9:00AM, Have breakfast at Kamath yatrinivas (just before hassan). Drive till Dharmastala. You may reach by 1:00 PM. Go to "Rajathadri" and take room. Dump your luggage. Go to temple and see if you can do darshan, if not, have lunch (Temple will be closed by 2:00PM and i am not sure if you can make it). So, have lunch and take rest or Visit car museum and bahubali temple which are closeby. It is worth visiting. Get ready by 3PM and visit the temple. You will be back by an hour. Start from Dharmastala (Checkout from hotel if you are planning to stay in kukke) and reach Kukke. Mind you it will be very hot and humid at both places. I'd suggest you to carry umbrella.

Driving directions to Kukke :

Return to bangalore - Mangalore road highway (NH48) and head towards bangalore. On the way to bangalore (around 10 kms) towards right side, you will see a board towards Kukke. That place is called Gundya and is easy to locate. Take a right turn and continue. You will reach kukke in half hour (around 20KMS). Go to temple for darshan as it will be closed by 8 PM.

Have dinner at temple. Now you have 2 choices - 1. Return to dhamastala or 2. Stay in Kukke and return to blore.

Choice is yours. The only problem in kukke is Stay. No good hotels are available for stay and most of them are booked. If you are planning to stay in kukke, You can visit the restaurant (Neo Mysore cafe) and enquire about the stay. They have a good lodge which is little far from temple (around 1 km). They charge around 500 for standard rooms and 1000 for AC rooms. It is worth the money for that hotel. You can have breakfast at Neo cafe. It is a very good place. Visit the temple if you like (evening you cannot visit adisesha temple as it will be closed by 7PM, so you can see that next morning)Next day after darshan you can head back to blore.

This is what we did

We decided to start early from bangalore on friday, reach Dharmastala by mid night, take rest. Next day visit temple for darshan then have lunch at Temple, check out from room and head towards Kukke.

Visit temple at kukke (both Adisesha and subramanya temple), stay if you can get accomodation. Next day morning visit the temple, have lunch and head towards bangalore.

Below are the pics of our journey

Day 1 : Friday night - Dinner at Kamat Yatrinivas

Caution: If you not comfortable or used to driving in the night or with just one family, please don't take this route. The lorry guys are just maniacs and you just can't imagine how rash they would be driving on shiradi ghat road.

Tea Break before entering shiradi Ghat

Day 1 : Reached Dharmastala by 12:00 AM. Took room at "Rajathadhri" near New Bus stand in Dharmastala. Luckily there wasn't much crowd as it was exam time :) & right time to visit

Day 2 : Temple visit by 8 AM

Below is the place where we took our room (Rajathadhri).

Note : Rooms are very neat yet very cheap (Rs 200/ room) Only 24 hours stay is allowed.

Rajathadhri lobby

Just to give you an idea about the room

Temple Entrance

Note : Buy the "sankalpa" ticket which is around Rs 180. This will help you to stand in front of lord manjunatha for sometime unlike normal queue

For camera - Swapna & srikanth

Few more :) me & my wife

After temple visit, we had lunch at temple and then went back to the room. Took rest for an hour and headed towards Kukke.

Note : We found it very tough to get good rooms in Kukke. The place is now controlled by government which is sad part (unlike Dharmastala which is under control of Dharmadhikari Sri Veerendra Hegde).

Day 2 : Left to kukke by 4 PM

Enroute to Kukke

Nice landscape around kukke

Some peak not sure which one

Kukke subramanya temple : Lucky enough to capture this nice view of temple with Moon.

Utsava murthi...

For pilgrims reference - Looked like handy information

This is the place where we stayed. Most of the rooms were booked and we were able to find this one. By the way, the weather was very humid.

The deluxe room that we took

Neo Mysore cafe - One of the neat hotels in Kukke

Another hotel opp to Neo but we didn't try here.

Day 3 :

Early morning walk in Kukke. Our plan was to visit the "kumara dhara river". There is a dam being built around that place and since it was summer there wasn't anything for us

Inside Kukke temple. This little giant was very impressive.

Sri Adisesha temple. Must visit place where you can get the "mrithika" kind of holy soil.

Ganapathi temple in kukke

Break during our journey back to bangalore

My favorite "Goli soda"

The "Ossoor" hotel in Sakaleshpur. Our stop for lunch.

Hotel view

We returned back on sunday with sweet memories & reached home by 6 PM (started around 11:30 AM).

Happy travelling :)

Shirdi Sai baba, Nashik & Triambakeshwar Darshan in 3 Nights / 4 Days

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 10:53:00 +0000

Being devotees of Shirdi Sai Baba, we were planning to visit Shirdi. With Baba's grace we were able to visit his place. Based on my experience, I have provided my guidelines, if any of you planning to visit Shirdi in near future.

Destination Shirdi:
Prior to this trip, I had visited Shirdi 7 years ago and there have been many obvious changes to this place. It is crowded with pilgrims, hotel agents, taxi agents, petty shops selling idols / flowers, beggars & so on. Overall this is a commercial place now with expensive lodges & expensive food. Horrible taxi / auto rickshaw walas always planning to lure the customers for money. If you aren't smart enough then you will certainly lose money.

We (myself, my wife and my B-in-Law) had planned for 3N/4D trip to this place. With the help of travel agent we booked tickets (Tatkal) from bangalore till Kopergoan (round trip). What surprises me is the railway booking. I searched for almost 5 months range and tickets are already booked. I am sure there is some golmaal here.

Suggested plan :

1. Book train tickets in advance to shirdi through travel agents preferably KK Express as it takes less time to reach that place. You may not be able to book it by yourself as it is already prebooked by agents. Don't plan for shirdi during holiday season or Thursdays. Best time is a weekday. I'd suggest booking train in 3rd AC as the crowd is not so inviting.

2. Train starts at 7:20PM from bangalore station (Majestic) and reach kopergaon by 1:00PM. There will be autorickshaws (shared 8 seaters or 3 seaters individual autos). Depending on you they will ask between 200-300 on 3 seater autos and in normal shared auto they will charge 30 per person. Its your choice. But you need to bargain. The distance from Kopergaon to shirdi is 16kms. We took shared auto while going to shirdi (Paid 30 per person) and individual auto (Paid 200) while returning back. Mind you, they have a good union and the price is uniform & high.

3. We didn't book hotel in advance as we didn't find any good hotels. Besides, it was off season.
So, you have 3 options -
a) Book hotel in advance through MTDC online booking (Maharastra tourism)
http://www.maharashtratourism.gov.in/index/index.aspx
b) New Bhakta Niwas (It was full when we visited and had to wait for sometime to book. So we came back). There will be free bus facility from Baba mandir to this place and is owned by Sri Shirdi sai trust. Food and stay is very nominal rather very cheap (not
sure how much,someone told me about this) and heard rooms are very neat.
c) Book hotel close to mandir.

We booked hotel near Sai mandir itself after searching for few hotels. Luckily we found a hotel near sai mandir and paid Rs 850/- per day for 3 bed room. It was new, clean and had basic facilities including TV and has 24 hours checkout facility.
Here is the address if you like

Our Plan :

Day 1 (Feb 25th, Friday)
Our Train to Kopergaon (KK Express) left at 7:20PM from Bangalore. We reached the station by 6:30PM and train started on time. Had dinner in the train. Food was very average as expected, thanks to IRCTC.

Don't ever try Upma in train. It is horrible. The best bet is Dosa / IDLI or Veg Biryani. When you order tea, ask for an extra tea bag as the tea which they prepare will be very light. Never try coffee in train unless until you like watery Bru coffee.

We reached next day by 1:40PM. Took shared auto and headed towards Shirdi. Reached in about 30 mins time and it was extremely hot. Check these out

KK Express

Only green patch we saw enroute to Kopergaon

Not sure if this was a lake or river but it was huge

Day 2 (Feb 26th, Saturday)
After some research we finally zero'd on Hotel Shivam. It was decent hotel and very close to the temple (may be 200 metres).
There will be many agents for the hotel search. You can take their help if you like. Got fresh'd up and had snacks in nearby hotel (Hotel Neem in MTDC hotel). It was a calm and cool place. I'd suggest everyone this hotel as the food is good compared to any other hotels (we tried many).

Some pics of hotel just to get an overview

Rooms looks organized .Isn't it?

After having food, we went into mandir for darshan. It was close to 5 PM. By the time we reached samadhi it was 6 PM and we were made to sit for evening arathi (Dhoop aarathi). It was a good feeling to do bhajan.We came out by 7 PM. Roamed around for some shopping. Finished dinner and came back to hotel. We didn't see Dwarakamayi as there was a very long queue.

Sai Mandir

Shoppers stop in shirdi

On the way to hotel, we went to a travel agent and booked for next day's trip (one day trip to Nasik, triambakeshwar & Panchavati). We paid around 200/- per person for this shared trip.

Day 3 (Feb 27th, Sunday)
We were ready by 8 am and headed towards Nasik on a tata sumo. There were 9 of us in the sumo. There was many andhra people in our vehicle. It was a nice company.
It is a organized day trip and so we visited these places - Nasik, Triambakeshwar & Panchavati. Check these pictures to have a view.

Road condition to Nasik

Shop for dry fruits in Nasik. It is very cheap. Good raisin is around Rs 100/- per kg.

Our taxi

Surrounding Triambakeshwar

Main Temple

Landscape view

Cameras are not allowed inside the temple. You can deposit in the lock room nearby or leave it in the taxi if he is reliable.

There is "sita guha" (cave) which we didn't take the picture. All these places shown below are very close and you don't need an autorickshaw to go. You can take a guide if you need.

Sri Kalaram Temple, Panchavati

Shopping place

Godavari river in Panchavati

Kapileshwar temple

Returned back in the evening. We did some more shopping and snacks. Tried chats / masala soda / Pav bhaji & Vada pav. It was good.
Pedas are good here and if you want to buy, below is the address. - M/s Gangwal A.S & Co.

Don't buy the packed boxes instead buy the other ones which are weighed and packed in front of you. Try it before you buy. It is very good.

Day 4 (Feb 28th, Monday)
We got up early by 3 AM and went for Kakad arthi. There was sufficient crowd to fill the whole room. There will be TVs if you are not able to watch it directly. It is better to be at that place by 2:30AM to stand close to the baba samadhi.

At 3 AM

Main entrance

Chai @ 6 AM

After bhajan and arthi, we came out at 6 AM. Finished breakfast and headed towards "shani shingnapur". This place is kind of different in the fact that none of the shops have "Doors". It is believed that if anybody steals from here, they will be severely punished by the lord himself.
On the contrary, i feel it is infested with thiefs & goondas. Its just a hype that they show that there are no doors and talk about the god. We had a bitter experience with this place.
The taxi which we took dropped us near the temple and immediately the shop keeper came with many wet dhothis and pooja items. We didnt want to buy anything & said no to him and walked towards the temple. But then the owner of the shop and other guys came and forced us to buy from here (and the price of these items starts from 200 till 500). We didn't budge and so did others in our taxi. They threatened us that they won't allow us to go back to shirdi till we buy. I really got pissed off and after a verbal fight, decided to boycott the taxi and took bus.
It was a terrible experience and the taxi driver was one among them. When complained to the temple security (as there was no police ), they just ignored saying nothing can be done and those guys are like that. I wonder if Sri Shaneshwar is really present in that place, then such kind of people wouldn't exists. :)
I wanted to complain in Shirdi but couldn't do that as we had to rush back to catch train.
These are some pics enroute to S Shingnapur.

Sun rise

Our taxi

The govt bus

Before booking taxi, clearly tell him that you are not going to buy any pooja item from anyone. And don't pay money or advance till you return back (except for booking).

We check'd out from the hotel and returned to Kopergaon after taking an autorickshaw. Overall, the darshan was a very pleasant experience and follow my tips if you need to have a problem free trip.

Dirty & stinking Railway station

Read about baba if you can (& If you don't know about him) before you visit this place. You feel really good and all these places makes sense when you visit each of these.

Nagarhole - Kannur - Mysore - Bangalore [3 Nights 4 Days]

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 16:28:00 +0000

Planning to Kerala has always been a challenge, specially when it comes to driving. If I ask anybody about the driving in kerala, I'd get a question back "Are you crazy?"

Well ! They are true. People drive like maniac in Kerala. I still couldn't figure out why!!!

Anyways, that is my honest opinion. I don't think cab drivers in bangalore can beat them.

In order to celebrate new year - 2011, we had a major plan to visit Munnar / Thekkady / Kovalam for a week. Since my wife couldn't get a week's time off (but got 2 days off 30 and 31st), I had to reconsider my plan. So, we decided to visit Kannur (Cannanore ).

Our plan was to halt in nagarhole and then proceed to Kannur.

Route :

Bangalore -> Nagarhole (224 KMS) -> Kannur (141KMS)

[More details about directions - Google map]

My review summary :

Likes :

1. Driving in nagarhole is a great experience. It is better than driving in Bandipur

2. Thalassery beach drive was an amazing experience

3. Staying overnight in Nagarhole homestay was good. One can get a peaceful sleep.

4. Kerala sweets (halwa) was great.

5. Driving inside Bramhagiri forest was a chilling experience.

6. Pineapple & Mango dipped in sweet and chilli juice.

Dislikes :

1. Road maniacs in Kerala throughout. On a single lane road they can drive in 90KMPH and overtake too... oooooouch... Saw couple of accidents too. No surprise!!

2. Food was a major problem through out. No good veg hotels.

3. If you don't book accommodation prior reaching that place, then you are in soup.

4. Irpu Homestay at nagarhole was so-so. It was a boring place. Food served was pathetic. I had stayed in other homestays in coorg but this one was a let down.

5. Kannur is definitely not a tourist place.

6. Cemetery near Beach.. sucksss..

7. Average roads

8. Too much of traffic

Overall rating [ 10 being best - 0 being "Forget it"]

Nagarhole homestay - 5

Kannur - 3

My recommendation is NO to this place. Only best thing is the beach drive and nothing else.

Journey:

We started off from Bangalore at 12:30 PM on 30th Dec 2010. It was a bright and sunny day. Stopped at Kadambam near Chennapattana for lunch. Had good puliyogare and sweet Pongal and headed towards Nagarhole.

Took a deviation from Ranganatittu, joined Hunsur Road, reached hunsur and then entered Nagarhole.

It was a great view of forest in the evening. By the time we entered nagarhole forest it was 5 PM. Though we couldn't sight any rare animals but the drive was amazing. I always love to drive in the forest.
Check this out

Bangalore -> Ranganatittu -> Hunsur -> Nagarhole

Stayed in IRPU homestay. Few pics of it

Few lines about this homestay. Rooms are clean. But still need some maintenance. There is no TV in this house and if you are looking for any entertainment, all you need to do is "talk".
But it depends on individuals. We got little bored but in the night had a sound sleep as this place is absolutely silent. Food served was average and not so impressive. Other than that there is nothing great about this place though they charge 1250/- per person for Dinner & Breakfast.
Instead I'd suggest Jade homestay. It is cozy though they charge the same price.

We started off from Nagarhole after morning walk in the plantation by 10 AM. Reached Kannur by 4 PM. Started hunting for hotels (as it was a last minute plan) but checked at many places. We couldn't find any. After roaming inside Kannur for almost 2 hours, finally we found a place called "Asian Heritage" which is in Kasargud road. To our surpise it was a clean and new hotel. We paid around 1200/ INR and it has 24 hours check out facility. 31st night in Kannur was very average and not much of activities around.

This is the beach view from Mascot hotel.

From hotel that we stayed, we got some places of interest to visit in Kannur.
First we visited Thalassery beach which is around 15 KMS from Kannur. We got lost in between but somehow managed to get into that place. No sign board or anything :(

Entrance to drive in beach

The photos that you see are taken on Jan 1st 2011. There were hardly any people on the beach. Its a different experience to drive on this beach.

We left Kannur on Jan 1st and reached Mysore. It was crowded for obvious reasons (new year). We visited chamundi hills too but couldn't visit the temple.

Overall it was a average trip. Its not just because it was unplanned trip but rather a boring trip because of the place.

A day trip to Melukote

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 05:34:00 +0000

Bangalore has the best climate and since it was November the temperature had dropped down few more degrees which made us to think of a short trip or a day trip.

So me and my wife decided to drive down to Melukote. This was one of our pleasant trips that we had in the recent past. Melkote is one of the holy places of Karnataka. Wikipedia will give you more details about this place. So, i will go directly into the travel directions and my review about this place.

Destination type : Pilgrim trip.

Directions : We stay close to Mysore road. So, driving to mysore is not a big problem for us. Below is the route map in case if somebody needs it. The total distance from bangalore is around 140KMs.

There is a deviation just after passing Mandya City. You need to take a right (sign boards have been put). It is about 35 kms from that point.

My review summary :

Overall, this is a good place for a day trip from bangalore. Family can enjoy the most. There are 2 temples located in this place. One is Cheluvanarayana temple and the other Yoga narasimha temple. Yoga narasimha temple is located on a small hill top as shown in the following pictures.

First you need to visit Cheluvanarayana temple and then Yoga narasimha temple. One can drive to the Yoga narasimha temple directly.

Best time to visit is during Winter. I've heard from others that summer time would be very harsh and best avoided unless until it is a cloudy day.

Please note that these temples close by 1 PM (Cheluvanarayana temple) / 2 PM (Yoga narasimha temple) & open after 4. So make your plans accordingly.

Food : You can always have breakfast at Maddur or at Ramanagar (Kamat / coffee day). For lunch it is melukote. Melukote is famous for Iyengar's "Puliyogare". One should definitely not miss this. This is not a fully commercial place but still you get decent food here. There is a place called "Subbanna Mess". You get very good home food here. This is the must place to visit!!

These temples are just amazing and its surrounding is just beautiful as you can see here.

Road enroute Melukote

Yoga narasimha temple which is on a hill top - Just love this view

Some rituals being performed

Dominated by Sri Ramanujacharya followers (Iyengars)

If you carefully observe, there are 2 Kolas (Akka - Tangi Kola)

Few steps to climb to see Yoga narasimha temple

Landscape view from Yoga narasimha temple

Landscape view from Yoga narasimha temple - Timing is important

Just to show you how cold this place was - Chill breeze :)

Cheluvanarayana temple view from Yoga narasimha temple

Cheluvanarayana temple

Mesmerizing Nandi hills

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 05:12:00 +0000

Though my hometown is very close to Nandi hills (20kms), I've never been to that place in the recent past because of the bad crowd. However from past 6 months things have changed. They have made it plastic free and alchohol free zone. So, it is a decent picnic spot on a weekend.

Sunday 7th November - While returning back to Bangalore from my native, we decided to visit Nandi hills. It was a cloudy day and it started raining by 10 AM.
To try something new, we decided to see nandi hills before returning back to blore. Finished lunch by 2PM and headed towards hills. It was a pleasant surprise. It was raining heavily and it was very cold but we just loved it.
We couldn't see tippu drop or any other place because of rain, but we enjoyed the drive.
Had tea / cucumber / pop corn and returned back. We could visit only the temple.
Bought some grapes on our way back (near karahalli cross) and you should definitely try that. It was very good. Check out the pictures. It is a must visit place when it is a cloudy day. Make sure you take all the accessories.

Tip: The best time to visit nandhi hills will be a cloudy day.

A weekend trip to sringeri and horanadu

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 10:53:00 +0000

Sringeri - Sun Rise view amid mist

Introduction : Our starting point was shimoga. So, if you are travelling from bangalore, consider extra 7 hours. We started from Shimoga on sunday evening around 5 PM. Reached sringeri around 8 PM. I was driving slow so that my parents are comfortable. Took the Theerthahalli road but the road was very bad. Had a pit stop at theertha halli for 30 mins and then left to sringeri.
Tip : Take the BRP dam road from shimoga. It is THE BEST road.

On the same night, we visited temple. There was a "darbar" inside the temple due to navarathri. We were able to see Guruji Sri Bharati Tirtha. It was nice to visit temple during this time.
Tip : If you have plan for dinner at Sringeri temple, better go before 8:30PM

Next day morning 7:30AM, we visited the temple again. Finished breakfast outside and little bit of shopping (Jackfruit papad, mixed pickle, Kashaya powder, Banana chips and so on). The route from Sringeri to Horanadu is quite bad. I have added few pics below. But once you reach horanadu you will just love it. Its a scenic view. We visited temple, had lunch and left to shimoga. It was a special trip as we visited during navarathri.

You can leave a comment if you need more details about stay and driving directions

Sri Sharadhambe temple, sringeri

Not sure how they could do this :))

Big fella

Enroute Horanadu

Coffee and Areca plantation - amazing view

Falls on our way to Horanadu

Oh Yea...that's me

I don't think there is a need to explain to anything about this

Just to give you an idea of the road from Sringeri to Horanadu

Horanadu Sri Annapoorneshwari Temple

In and around horanadu

Kalasa - Kalaseshwara temple

Bharachukki

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 11:28:00 +0000

A day trip to Devarayandurga (ದೇವರಾಯನ ದುರ್ಗಾ) and sante (ಸಂತೆ ) shopping at Urdigere

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 06:08:00 +0000

Devarayana durga Entrance

Devarayan Durga (ದೇವರಾಯನ ದುರ್ಗಾ) - A nice and easy get away from Bangalore... Dated : 25th Jul 2010

It was an unplanned trip decided on Saturday night.

Distance from my place : To and Fro total of 160 KMS (I stay in girinagar)

Tumkur Road

Route : Girinagar -> Hanumanthnagar - Chamarajpet -> Good shed road -> Rajajinagar -> Bhashyam circle -> Chord Road -> Yashwanthpur -> Peenya -> Tumkur Road -> Nelamangala -> Dabaspet and Deviation towards D Durga

Return Journey : D Durga -> Dabaspet ->Nelamangala (Tumkur Road) -> NICE Road towards Link Road (Hosakerehalli) -> Girinagar

Deviation to D Durga

Taking NICE road is a big plus. So, return journey was much better.

TIP : Try to avoid taking that chord road. Its a big mess. After you cross the NICE road bridge, the roads towards nelamangala is very good. They are building toll gates and might open shortly.

Road to D Durga

This entrance is for the actual temple which is on the hill top

Tip : There will be 2 entrances when you reach this place. First you take left turn see the temple below and then comeback and take this entrance as shown above

The temple that can be visited first (it will close by 12:30 but the other one is open till 5:30).

There will be free food available on saturday and sunday as there are no hotels around.(You get stuff like corn, bhel, juice and so on though). In case, you don't want to try it, you can donate some money which will be helpful for other pilgrimages. (Hall was clean and they serve plastic cups and plates made of leaf)


Entrance to the steps for climbing into the hill Mind you, if you are planning to climb this, there will be additional steps to reach temple. It is fun but little tiring.

Cute One.... Gave a good pose

Testing our KSA (Knowledge, Skill and Abilities) :))

Tired after testing........

Temple at the top. No cameras allowed inside temple but the God's Idol is truly amazing

A cute family. Can you spot the baby?

This little one was sitting close to me but before my wife took a snap it left :)


Combing Operation in Progress

View point

Tip : On the way to dabaspet, you will find people selling Jackfruit and Seetaphal (ಸೀತಫಲ).
Don't miss that. Eat as many as you want after bargaining and buy for your home. Don't buy fruits inside the Urdigere as it will be costly. For each jackfuit (small one) we paid 20 bucks each and for seetaphal we paid around 40 bucks for 40 pieces. This is the best deal.
While returning back, if you are travelling on Sunday, there will be Sante (Meaning of santhe) and don't miss to buy fresh vegetables. It is dead cheap compared to the prices sold in bangalore.

It was a fun and easy trip overall as i never expected this place to be so good. If you'd like to feel fresh air, this is a day's picnic spot. Ideally for a family.

KodaiKanal (கொடைக்கானல்), the misty hill

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 17:49:00 +0000

As you all know, Kodaikanal is the King of Hill Stations. If you love driving, you would enjoy driving in those ghats (not so dangerous curves if you are thinking !!). You don’t need a powerful car to drive in this ghat section unlike ooty’s nilgiris.
Here is my briefing :
1) We started from bangalore on 3rd July 2010 at 6 AM with 4 of us me, my wife and my in-laws. Road is just amazing and you can maintain an average speed of 70KMPH through out. (On road you can drive steadily 110KMPH without any problem)

2) Filled petrol at HP petrol pump (near Shri Krishna Inn, Shoolagiri) as pertrol is 2 Rs cheaper compared to bangalore.
3) Breakfast not at A2B (Adyar Anand Bhavan) as most of us do. I didn’t like that hotel because it is always crowded and service is pathetic. While travelling to chennai, i found out a decent place at krishnagiri where you can get very good food and it won’t be too crowded. The hotel name is Hotel Sri Saravana Bavan [ I didn’t misspell Bavan but the hotel board is like that ;-) ].

My favorite Hotel at Krishnagiri

After crossing A2B, may be in 5 min you would find a fly over. If you take the service road instead of flyover (which is marked to show the Krishnagiri town path) and take left towards RoyaKottai road, you can find this hotel.

Its a small but a very neat hotel. You can also find the Kamat hotel in this way but I don't like that one either. All these are just like a fish market and it will kill your travel time.

You will find a waiter named "sekar". He is very energetic and lively. Whenever i travel on that side, i make sure to visit this hotel. They server hot food and hotel is clean. By the way, Sekar can speak decent kannada. Not many know about this small hotel.

He is Mr Sekar, from Saravana Bavan

4) After breakfast & some small photo session (can’t help if your wife is fond of it) we headed towards Salem. It was a straight forward road and mind you there are 100’s of toll gates and for the whole trip you might end up paying around 300-400 bucks for the toll. But driving in the NH7 is just a pleasure and you don’t mind paying that amount.

5) The route was very easy. Bangalore – Krishnagiri – Dharmapuri – Salem – Namakkal – Karur – Dindigul – Batlagundu – Kodai. We stay in Girinagar, it was around 480Kms and took around 9 hours of drive (including frequent breaks for breakfast / lunch / and so on)

6) While climbing kodai, the first view point we found was Rat tail falls which is nothing but a valley.

For every kilometer you travel, you will find lot of fruit shops. First we stopped by near jackfruit shop. And had stomach full. Mind you a little bit of bargaining is needed.

Then we reached the Silver cascade falls. Spent few minutes and some photo snaps. You can try Fresh carrots and bhel with boiled groundnut masala. Oh! if you feel bored you always have monkeys around to keep you entertained. Its nice to watch the monkey pranks and you see hundreds of them in kodai.

7) Headed towards kodai and we stopped by a big fruit stall. You can find different kinds of fruits which you normally won’t find it bangalore. These includes mangostan, litchie, plums, and some other fruits which i can’t remember the names. But you must try all and its just awesome.

Fruit shop - Feast for fruit lovers

8) Reached kodai around 3 PM. We didn’t book the hotel in advance as we wanted to see the hotel and then decide. As this was the off season, we were confident that rooms are easily available. After searching for some hotels (outside and close to the kodai town) we found Hotel Bala to be the best bet. As it is close the bus stand, we can just walk to a restaurant nearby or for shopping. It was a very good decision. Hotel Bala is maintained very well and you find professional staff. Rooms are neat and well maintained. You can check-in / check-out 24X7. The only catch is that the parking place is cramped but it is not an issue as they will take care of your parking. Tip : First see the room and then decide. We found some rooms to be stinking with cigarette smell.

Since it was offseason, we got room for almost half the price. We took rest for an hour and went for a walk in the evening at 5 PM. We went near the lake. Ordered masala tea and mirchi bajji. Sat in front of lake (don’t worry you will find benches similar to the ones in the park) with tea and bhajji. Thought of taking a bicycle ride or horse ride but didnt find it so interesting. It was a relaxing evening. We were not so keen on boating too so we didn’t try.

Kodai Lake

Then we went around the lake for some shopping. Bought few stuff. Then headed back towards bus stand to visit Coaker’s walk. It was 7 PM by the time we visited and there was no power inside that place. So, we went for around 500 mtrs and returned back.

Kodai Bus Stand

Had dinner in a hotel called "Tava". Since we are vegetarians, this was the ideal place. The phulkas (chapatis) with the palak panner was just amazing. They serve hot chapatis and you would just love it.
By the way, inside kodai you are always welcomed by sudden mist and you feel the chill. Its a splendid experience.

Day 2 : We got up at 8 AM and got ready by 9 AM. Till 9 AM the sun was shining and all of a sudden we saw mist being covered everywhere. The 24X7 hot water at hotel bala helped us to fight with the biting cold weather. Breakfast at Hotel Annaporna. We successfully planned and covered the following places :

a) Upper lake view

b) Pine tree forest

c) Guna Caves

d) Pillar rock

e) Green valley view (Suicide point) and returned back to hotel.
Tip : You don’t find any hotels for lunch outside kodai town. So make sure you comeback before 2 PM. For shopping bargain. There is a lake called Berijam and Caps Fly valley. It is supposed to be very good and clean place as not everybody is allowed. If you can get a permission from DFO (District forest officer) seeking permission to enter, this places seems to be worth. But can you really get the letter!!??
After visiting these places. Most of these places was covered with mist. So, we couldn’t see any thing. But the drive and the weather is more than enough to enjoy and we didn’t mind about not seeing those places. Try ICE creams in this weather. Its a different experience. Try all the fruits. Evening we went for shopping chocolates. Found a small shop called "Chocolate factory" and they make amazing chocolates. Its priced litte high, but its worth the price. Other shops quote 300 - 400 / KG, here it is 650/KG. You can visit other shops and have a sample of chocolate and then decide to buy. I tried at other places and in some places its so pathetic that you will forget the taste of chocolate. Along with that we bought the spices and few herbal oils.

Photos of these places are posted below

Day 3 : We had plans to visit some temples and the bear shola falls. Due to shortage of time we had to return back on Monday. We checked out of the hotel by 9 AM (by the way hotel checkout time is 24 hours. Thats a plus). Finished breakfast and headed toward bangalore and did some shopping of fruits. Bought mangostan for a price of 200Rs/KG, litchie for the same price and plum for 120 /KG.

A playground in Kodai.

Interesting Banner. Check this one.

Morning 10 AM, on our way back.

Our favorite shopping

View point

With a small change of plan, we went to visit madurai as it was 55KMS from kodai road. By the time we reached it was 12 : 30 because of bad road near madurai (around 15 kms). Temple was closed and will be opened after 4 PM. So, we couldn't wait till that time. Mind you, Madurai's climate is tough to bear after coming from kodai. It is very humid.

Madurai Temple - Main entrance (there are 4 ways to enter this temple)

Finished lunch at the "Modern Restaurant". Its a very clean and tidy hotel with tasty food. This hotel was once showed in NDTV Good Times. Make sure you go to this place, if planning to visit madurai. Hospitality is excellent.

Check out these pics.

NH 7 Road view

The details below are for the travellers who are planning to visit Kodai :

Started on : 03rd Jul 2010 morning 6:00 AM

Returned on : 05th Jul 2010 night 9:00PM

Place of Start : Bangalore

Hotel Stayed : Hotel Bala (priced around 1000 / day since it was off season)

Restaurants : Hotel Annaporna (for Breakfast / lunch), Hotel Tava for Dinner {All are Veg Hotels)

Route : Bangalore – Krishnagiri – Dharmapuri – Salem – Namakkal – Karur – Dindigul – Batlagundu – Kodai. (around 480Kms)

Tips : Fill petrol at HP petrol pump Shri Krishna Inn, Shoolagiri, NH-7. So, you can fill around 10 Litres of petrol in your car tank before you leave bangalore. Rest fill at this place.

Reference for my travel plans :

Very nice review about Kodai in MouthShut from Deepak

My favorite Team BHP

Enjoy :)

Talekadu

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 29 May 2010 11:40:00 +0000

Bhadra River Backwater (Mar 15th 2010)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:59:00 +0000

Here is the view of the Bharda River backwaters. We took special permission and visited the dam. It was huge and the view was breathtaking..... We couldn't take the dam pics due to security reasons (Terrorist Threat and so on).
These pics were taken during sunset.
By the way, this place is called Lakkavalli dam and you can also plan for Jungle Lodges' River Tern Lodge

My Wife's Grand father who is 94 years younger and stronger.

We travelled from shimoga to reach this place. The road is very bad. If you come from Bhadravathi, the route seems to be good. To tell you more about, i stumbled upon a blog who has provided greater details about this place.
Lakkavalli Dam BRP

Weekend @ The Nest, Coorg (Dtd 23rd Jan 2010)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 06:34:00 +0000

This was a trip to the place The Nest @ Coorg with our Manager - Peter Lu, who had come all the way from San Jose, California to Bangalore.

From Left to Right (Alok, Arun, Peter and me)

Srikanth and Krishna


Our Pal

Neat rooms at The Nest

Here is Peter

Krishna trying a pull shot :)

Our favorite POKER game.. Check the sunlight when we started playing

It went On and On till night..........

Oh man !! These guys aren't tired of playing at all..

Enjoying chilly night

Scorching Chennai and Elegant Mahabalipuram

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 13:45:00 +0000

Here are the pics of my Chennai and Mahabalipuram trip

Kabini (ಕಬಿನಿ) and Nagarhole (ನಾಗರಹೊಳೆ ) trip (5th Sep 2009) 1N2D

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:32:00 +0000

A weekend trip to Kabini and Nagarhole

Picture speaks more than words. All i could tell you is some tips to travel to nagarhole. Rest you could see by yourself.

1. We had planned to visit Kabini first and then nagarhole. The Kabini river lodge was full so we just visited the Kabini dam first. It was tough to get into dam due to security reasons. If you are not booking through the lodge you better skip kabini.

2. You can find the driving directions in all the sites. Our plan got little deviated so haven't mentioned about my route plan.

3. Driving through nagarhole is "must not miss" experience. Its a long drive so don't miss it.

4. You can either book home stay or choose a resort. We asked near the security check post and they gave the Tranquil lakes resort contact details.

5. Visit nagarhole and irpu falls during rainy season. According to me that is the best season.

Kamath hotel @ mysore road

Me & my wife

Kabini dam.

En route to Nagarhole

Tranquil lake view resort

This insect / bug can scream at levels > 100 decibels.

Morning walk at the resort

Plantation

Lake inside the resort

Entering Irpu falls

Irpu falls

This was a thrilling experience! Irpu at its best..

Majestic view

Majestic Irpu falls - feast for eyes

Puppies at the resort

My wife wanted to try these :)

We had plans to visit this home stay but couldn't go

The majestic Irpu falls.... Click to open this video

Wayanad (വയനാട് )

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 10:52:00 +0000

Our First anniversary celebration at Wayanad

This was the first week of March. And we decide to celebrate our anniversary at wayanand as we heard a lot about this place. After some research we decided to book Green Gates hotel near wayanad and listed out places to visit which are as shown below.

Below are my tips for this trip :

1. Never visit wayanad in summer (Nobody mentioned about this in any of the blog or may be i overlooked it). It was scorching heat and very dry.

2. We stayed in the hotel, but staying in resort like Vythiri would be better.

3. Finding veg food is little tough as most of the hotels server only non veg.

4. Remember, you need walk atleast a kilometer to visit each of the places. Ex : Kuruva islands, sochipara falls and so on. If you strong and willing to walk, then wayanad will be a good place for you.

5. At each place you will get masala butter milk, lemon juice. Try those. It is awesome specially during summer. Try masala soda too... Walking for a kilometer and walking back again for a kilometer was tiring but quenching your thirst with masala butter milk was a memorable experience. You will love every bit of it.

6. Don't miss the drive to visit Thirunelly temple. This temple is in the middle of the forest. Its a splendid drive.

7. Fill petrol whereever it is available. I found many petrol pumps having "out of stock" board. So, it is risky if you take chances. Good thing is petrol is cheaper compared to karnataka.

8. Each of these places are scattered and are "not on the way". So, wayanad is kind of 3 days trip to cover all. Visit only during winter.

Passing through sultan bathery


Kalpetta


View from the Green gates hotel

Boating at Pookot lake

Kozhikode(calicut) road

Breakfast at green gates

In and around hotel

Edakkal caves

Climbing edakkal caves

Socchippara falls

Tea estates while returning back.

Chill out at the pool after trekking in sultry weather

Rare pic i guess ;-)

Entrance to kuruva island

Kuruva island, where there was little river flow

Can you spot a baby fox? This was on the way to Thirunelli temple

Thirunelly temple

Candle light dinner for our first anniversary.

Hotel lobby

Here is Ooty (ஊட்டி), Queen of Hill Stations............

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:44:00 +0000

Ever since i joined Engineering, I always loved to travel around places Me and my friends have done some memorable trekking. After graduating to married life, each of us hardly get any time to meet. I know its quite normal and prone to happen :)

Luckily, my wife is equally passionate about traveling as i am.

Quite often whenever people talk about Ooty, I always get to hear - "OH Ooty!! It's just a commercial place".

But my childhood memories wanted to me to visit this beautiful place. To summarize, Ooty is just an amazing place. If you like chilly weather, hot tea and mist, I bet that is the place you want to visit.

Overview of the place :
As you all know, Ooty is called Queen of Hill Stations. Of course, King of hill stations is none other than KodaiKanal. To start with, our reference guide for all the places of my travel has been Outlook Traveller's Weekend Breaks from Bangalore

Our Journey : We started from Bangalore on Feb 21st (2009) early morning at 5:45 on our santro. It was a smooth drive on Bangalore-Mysore Road driving at a speed of 100 KPH and not much traffic. Reached Mysore by 7:45AM and stopped at Kamath Hotel which is near Mysore Zoo. Our pit stop was for 30 min and breakfast was good except for the bad coffee. By the way, we are pure vegetarians (yes, not even eggs).

There are 2 paths to reach Ooty :
Bangalore – Ramanagaram – Channapatna – Maddur – Mandya – Srirangapatnam – Mysore – Nanjangud – Gundlupet – Bandipur – Theppakadu – Masinagudi – Mavanalla – Ooty

Bangalore – Ramanagaram – Channapatna – Maddur – Mandya – Srirangapatnam – Mysore – Nanjangud – Gundlupet – Gudalur – Ooty

We took first path to reach ooty and came back via second route (Via Gudalur).

First hit the Mysore-ooty road via Nanjangud. Road from Mysore till Bandipur is just average. And later on its just smooth and you'd love to drive.

A small tank before you enter bandipur.

We paid 20 INR in the checkpost of bandipur (for no reason) and then 10 INR near Madhumalai (Ironically, TN seems to be cheaper than karnataka even in bribe).
Our entry to the Bandipur forest : yes, you got to be silent if you need to spot some wild animals. It was very hot in bandipur and temperature could be around 32 Celsius that day.

The drive inside the bandipur forest is most enjoyable. All you need to do is to drive very slowly. Turn off your car stereo and you could hear the forest. Here is the forest path for you.

Luckily we could spot few animals :

Feels good to spot an elephant :). Here comes the Madumalai forest, TN.

I love driving at these places.

By the way, there is a restriction about the entry time to the bandipur forest. Please check if you are planning your travel in odd hours. You may not be allowed inside forest before 6 AM and after 5 PM.
We then took the road towards Masinagudi / Nilgiris.

Reached the starting point of 36 hair pin bend curves. Before you start from here, stop for a tea break. You'd find a old small tea shop (Kalhatti falls). Don't forget to eat fresh Carrot.

Moving on, we reached Ooty in no time and visited the Ooty boat house. Weather is very cool on top though it was sunny.

Our Itinerary for a perfect weekend.
Day 1 : Visit Boat house. Find a good hotel. Rest for a couple of hours. Visit Tea museum and factory. Botanical garden. Shopping in the evening Dinner. Back to hotel.
Day 2 : Getup at 6:00. Morning walk towards Botanical garden. Hot tea :)
Visit Dolphin's nose which is after Coonor. Didnt want to try toy train as we are not so fond of it. Second, it would eat up half a day. Visit Lamb's rock. Head towards Kotagiri to St Catherine's falls (not worth at all). Lunch at Kotagiri. Visit Doddabetta (nothing spl abt this place) Shopping Back to hotel
Day 3 : Headed back to bangalore via Gudalur. Visit 7th Mile / 9th Mile / Pykara lake (not much water as it was summer) Frog hill view point. Lunch at Gudalur.Visit Nanjangud and return back home.

Day 1 : It is the day we reached Ooty
Boat House for you. You find a big crowd of various people here but its worth to go once. Mind you, weather seems to be hot but the water is very cold

We tried toy train. Its been while since we tried (after cubbon park's train)

We searched for a Hotel and were able to find it easily. Reached Ooty by 2 PM and finished lunch.

Tip : You have to see the room and then decide. Don't take help from agents. And bargain for the room rate. You will get a good room with good deal.

After couple of hours rest, we set off to see the Tea factory by 5 PM. It was a good visit and bought some tea for house.

Tip : Don't buy green tea here. You can try dust tea which is good.

View from the tea factory

Here is the botanical garden for you. Good for a walk in the evening. Don't forget to try fried corn and tea opposite to the main entrance.

Day 2 : Visit to Dolphin's nose.
More than the place, the drive to reach dolphin's nose is most memorable. You cross so many tea estates and pass through the cool breeze with the clouds. Nature is just wonderful. Below are the glimpse of it. The time is around 11:30AM. See how the climate change.

Viewpoint of Dolphin's nose

We headed towards Kotagiri to St Catherine's falls. Lunch at Kotagiri. Visit Doddabetta (nothing spl abt this place)

View of St Catherine's falls. Not worth visiting as you can't go nearby water.

Back home and shopping in the evening.

Day 3 : Headed back to bangalore via Gudalur. Visited 7th Mile / 9th Mile / Pykara lake (not much water as it was summer) Frog hill view point Lunch at Gudalur .

Frog hill view point.

Nanjanagud temple

This concludes my cool trip to the Ooty. By the way don't forget to see the video below. You will get a fair idea about the place that i was talking about.

Travel tips :
Plan your places of interests during your planning.
Remember... All visiting places entry time is before 5:30PM. So, you better be in at least by 5:00. Must try strawberry, home made chocolates, Ooty apple and plums. For hotels, go directly to a hotel and check the room. Avoid agents.
Most of the hotels will be closed by 8 - 9 PM. So, be prepared for a early dinner.

Making Best use of office shutdown (1 week) - Kodachadri, Agumbe, Kollur, Murudeshwar, Idugunji, Udupi and more

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 10:55:00 +0000

My office had a shutdown for the last week of December as usual....And we have been planning for this trip for quite sometime and it turned out to be real merry to see all these places. Check out the photos.

I will split each day's trip. My in law's house is in shimoga.
And the trip date : December 20th 27th 2008

Day 1 : Sakre Bayalu (20th Dec 2008) - The Elephant camp

Akshatha posing with a baby elephant

Day 2 : 21st Dec 2008 Rest

:))))))

Day 3 : 22nd Dec 2008 - Few pics from Koodor (ಕೋಡೂರು) which is my wife's grandma's village

Shiny the Shy dog

Cute Shishira with the calf

ದನ ಕೊಟ್ಟಿಗೆ

We left to Kodachadri on the same day after lunch :)

Day 4 : 23rd Dec - Left from Kodachadri after breakfast towards murudeshwar

Day 5 : Udupi & Malpe Beach

Returned on 24th Dec to Shimoga via Agumbe.

Returned back to Shimoga.

Day 5 : Simha dhama near shimoga 25th Dec 2008

Day 6 : Theerthalli (Kuppahalli) and Mahishi

GPS coordinates for the following:

Sigandhuru:-

Launch boarding point: 14.07850512, 74.912685

Temple: 14.07604497, 74.87319586

launch boarding point on temple side: 14.06776843, 74.89567486

GPS Point near luxury home stay, jog falls: 14.22462226, 74.87788351 (saw a board saying luxury home stay from the road)

Aghoreshvara temple, ikkeri: 14.1352718, 75.02257766

Kodagu - The Scotland of India

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:15:00 +0000

Madikeri (ಮಡಿಕೇರಿ) 29th Jun 2008

Briefing : This amazing trip was planned in a week's time with the objective to attend the wedding of my wife's friend. Later, this plan turned out to be awesome weekend trip.

Initially we thought of taking bus and had booked tickets but at the last minute we decided to go by car as i was very impressed about the places around mercara.

So, four of us (my family and my friend's family) started off at 10:00 PM and reach that mercara by 2:00 AM. We didn't book any hotel prior to this and searched for 10 mins around the bus stand. Found a decent and new hotel and took rooms. We paid around 800 per room / night.

The night drive was amazing. We were getting close to reach that place and the whole road was foggy. We hardly could make out anything. It was thrilling experience. Thanks to KSRTC bus which helped us to drive safely (we followed that bus as it was too foogy).

Route which we took :

Bangalore > Mandya > Mysore > Hunsur > Mercara.

Our plan :

Reach Madikeri by 2 AM. Take rest and get ready by 9 AM.

Day 1 : Visit abbey falls, Bhagamandala, Talacauvery and return

Day 2 : Raja seat and Fort. Attend wedding. Return back. Also visit tibetian colony (kushal nagar) while returning back.


My friend kishore and his wife supriya

Kodagu at its best

Me and my wife

Add caption

Abbey falls

Bhagamandala

Talakaveri

Here is pranav for you

Wedding in Coorg

(Lavanya and Sandeep)

Nisargadhama

Nisargadhama


Golden temple - Tibetian colony

Singapore

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:55:00 +0000

A 6N 7D trip to Singapore... It was rather a suprise honeymoon to my wife.

Sangama and MekeDatu

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 10:55:00 +0000

Sangama is one of the most enjoyable places and best of all its just a day trip. If you like relaxing in the water this is the place for you. You don't need to know swimming at all as water is not deep (Water level is only till Knee) and this is a place where whole family can enjoy.

The best part is the feeling that you get when you are inside the water. This is a place where 2 rivers meet. So, you can feel a sudden current of cold water followed by another current of warm water.... Don't miss it :))

Travel Tips :
1. There are no good hotels around. Best thing is to pack your food in bangalore and then have it at sangama. Worst case, there are few non-veg hotels but i never tried as i am strict vegetarian. There is a good hotel near kanakapura called Hotel Vasu. You can get decent food and it is famous for dosa.
2. Don't forget to carry extra pair of clothes & towel. Guys can wear shorts / boxers but ladies might need to get into water with normal clothes (Reason - Crowd is kind of average but its not bad though).
3. If you are going by car, put your autocop controller inside the car and lock your car manually. This is required to avoid water getting inside the autocop controller.
4. Your start time ideally should be 9 AM from bangalore. Route is bangalore - Kanakapura - Little further Take left. Drive is very good. First visit Chunchi falls (i wasn't impressed much), then sangama and mekedatu. You can cross river from sangama and reach mekedatu easily and wouldn't need a boat.
5. Follow safety procedures and don't go to remote places. Stick with the crowd. Have fun...

Stream near chunchi falls


On the way to sangama

Boat rides if you need to cross the sangama to reach makedatu

Fishes from clear water

Add caption

Sangama