Gopalaswamy betta - 04 Oct 2008

....this time it was Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta, 200 kms from Bangalore. As usual, with drop-outs and hop-ins, we were 5 of us, with a full 7-seater Qualis at our dispense. Started at around 3 on Sat morning.
The name 'Himavad', indicates 'Snow' and 'Mist'. Much apt to the naming, this place was dense with mist and fog even as we entered as late as 8 in the morning.
Located around 70 kms from Mysore, it is along the Mysore-Ooty highway. As soon as you enter Mysore, coming from Bangalore, take the left on the ring road, reach Gundlupet (60 kms), drive further till you find a place called 'HanagaL', then take a right for the rest of the 11 kms. We found a small toll-gate after 6 kms on this road. This one is open from 0600 to 1700 we heard. This last 5 kms is simply superb. Prior, I had plans of leaving the vehicle at this place and start trekking. But mind you, it's just a walk on the tar road leading towards the temple, that's it.

Fascinated by the misty surroundings, we got down for some snaps. Paying heed to our driver's suggestion, we decided to let the vehicle go and walk the rest on road (some 1.5 kms). 

See the temple on the right: there are hardly any steps, still you cannot see the entrance. Quite a number of people come to this place. There is a small stone at the door of the main temple, from which condensed water keeps dripping. The priest told us later, to touch this water to our forehead, calling it 'hima'.
We also found later that there are around 77 little ponds all over the surrounding hills. In one such pond, a crow dived and became a swan it seems. We found one such pond on the way. People take bath here, although I wouldn't suggest doing so.

With the priest not yet arriving, we wandered a little away from the temple. There is a bungalow nearby, which is rented. One can stay overnight at this place. A view of the temple from this place.
The fog was there till around 9:30 or so. Slowly it cleared, with the sun still playing hide n seek with the clouds.

The priest arrived at about 0930 hrs. After the darshan, we cam out to view the cleared-of-the-fog scenaries. it was great. Some photos below.


Altogether a wonderful trip, which included Nanjungud, Nimishamba and Rangathaswamy temple at Srirangapatna, ending the wonderful trip with a view of the Mysore Palace.\ late evening. The palace looks marvelous when all lit-up.

It's 12 in the night and I am feeling damn sleepy. So, I am hurriedly putting everything now, lest I forget about the details later. Altogether a wonderful trip. Catch more photos on my Orkut album. I wish to load some onto Picasa sooon,

ramanagaram - 28th sep 2008

an idea cropped up in our minds, going through a lazy Saturday afternoon. To ride upto 'dodda aaLada mara', the Big Banyan Tree, about 16 kms from our home, and then upto the dam 10 kms further. More thoughts poured in, and finally, our ride got extended upto Ramanagaram. Not sure if many of you know this: this was the place where the film 'Sholay' was shot :-)

Started at around 7 o clk the next day. After a quick breakfast somewhere on the way, reached Ramanagaram at around 9 or so. Climbed all the steps to the temple on the top. Few photos....

taking little rest on the way. At the top, amidst two rocky hills, is the Ramadevara temple. Don't have any details about this temple. There is also a pond nearby which we are not allowed to touch. Beyond this temple, is the rocky hill, which we planned to climb first. The last stretch of the climb is thrilling, with steep steps carved into the stone, and just an iron railing to hold on.

we actually wanted to climb the second one opposite to this one. We could just go half-way, thru the bushes and came back, only to know from the priest of the temple, that we were indeed going in the right direction, and just had to go little further, to find a way.

Tired we were, with the Sun directly above us. Decided to end out rendezvous with all this, and wind up. Went to Kamat Lokaruchi, a few kms ahead and had a good lunch. Returned home by 2 o clk.

More photos on my Orkut profile and Picasa (yet to upload as on 29 Sep 2008)
Trip: Bangalore -> Ramanagaram -> Climb -> Kamat Lokaruchi -> Bangalore

..no trip outing off late

am dying to go out somewhere. Not getting enough chance though. Weekends just go by nowadays, without me knowing what I did over the two days, sitting in the bus on monday morning ;-)

Hope to go out sometime soon.

Belur - HaLebeedu sculptures revealed

Let me describe little about each of the sculptures I had a glimpse @ my Belur Trip last week with my mother. I thought of writing about each of the architectural pieces I had seen there, I am sure you would like them. First thing about this place, any historical place for that matter, HIRE a guide.

You can spend a life time, yet not realize some of the beauty, until someone details more on it. We would never have realized the intricate details in each of the architectural pieces, without this guy on the left.
Trained by KSTDC, there quite a few guys like him, knowing a lot. He took us all around the temple and revealed stories out of carvings made on simple stones. Below are a few of the amazing things:

A finely carved arch at the doorstep of the temple, containing a strange animal.
This animal has the trunk of an elephant, mouth of a crocodile, belly of a pig, feet of a lion, tail of peacock, ears of a monkey (if my memory goes right :-) ). It denotes the qualities of a good King: ability to digest anything (pig), hold a grip on to the empire (feet lion), have a charm (like peacock's tail), ability to swallow any kind of disaster (croc's mouth) etc.. I don't remember the exact things he told, but the arch looked amazing.

<<>ple which amazed me the most: around 600 odd elephants carved in stone, lining the temple, and NO TWO of them are alike !!!! In fact, if you would take each elephant in a video camera and flip the images together, you can see an elephant walking :-)
Equally nice was the one on the right: stone carvings resembling thread like structure. The pose of the statue is that of a player, tuning his instrument.
All these statues sit little high to observe closely. I would suggest you help yourself with a good zoom camera, like my Sony DSC-H2 did for me.

A step inside the temple, and you would be greeted with a majestic dome, with a stone cylinder hanging in the middle. This middle one acts as a keystone, the guide informed us, holding the entire structure !!! Magnificient were the carvings on this dome. Otherwise pitch dark, facility is made to see the dome using a strong lamp from below. >>

<< Make sure you watch the expressions of the elephants fighting with their trunks. :-)

Ganesha's vehicle, the mouse, getting pained under the weight, check it's opened mouth and the bulged ground below it's feet. >>

I might end up writing a much bigger essay on all this. Stopping now. Visit this place once, little different from regular outings to forests, trekking, falls etc. I am sure one would like it.

~signing off..
Sudhi

Belur - HaLebeedu - Sravanabelogula

Just one line about this trip: ONE DAY isn't enough to take in the sculpture beauty of Belur and HaLebeedu. Each one of them takes you into a different artistic world, as you would marvel, looking at the intricate details in each sculpture design, carved out of just plain stones. Built by the Hoysala kings and further developed by the kings of the Vijayanagar empire, the temples at Belur and HaLebeedu just stand great.


I owe this tour to my mom, who was on a trip to Bangalore, on the last leg of her yearly visit to South India this summer vacation. I had guessed she would be tired enough and would be left with little enthusiasm !! Much against my expectations, my ever energetic mom forced me into this trip.

Off we were in the KSTDC package tour, starting @ 07:15 morning. The bus had just 16 members. One less and KSTDC would have cancelled the trip, as per rules. We also had a pretty French lady, Mary with us too. I saw that she had seen much of India, and also seemed interested in Indian epics !!! Take this: "Oh, as the wife of Lord Vishnu??", was her first reaction on hearing my mother's name (Lakshmi) :-)

Our first place was at SravanabelogoLa, familiar to most of us with the statue of Bahubali atop a rocky hillock. The view from the top of the hill was great. We had to hurry here, climbing up and down the steps, to cover each detail in the one hour allotted.

After having a quick - "come within half-n-hour" - meal at the KSTDC hotel, we were off to the 'Chennakesava' temple at Belur. You know how these package tour guys hurry us :-)
The Chennakesava temple, gets its name from the most-beautiful statue of Lord Vishnu here. It WAS indeed a beauty, as I saw inside. Most of all, the temple is an architectural museum in itself, with innumerable sculptures. There are around 600 odd elephants carved out of stone as the bottom most line of the walls surrounding the temple: "NO TWO elephants are alike" And in fact, at some places, if you follow each of the statues one by one, you would feel like the these are of an elephant walking !!

Below you can see the dome inside the temple, with the middle keystone holding the whole structure. Carved on the keystone was the Narasimha avatar. Amazing it was I must say.

Wait till my next blog, wherein I intend to write in detail about each one of the sculptures, I am sure you would love to read it.

Out next halt was 'HaLebeedu'. The place gets its name from the literal translation into 'destroyed town'. The temple, in fact a set of two here, seem to be not yet completed, with stones left without carvings or little work done on them. We were informed that this was after the attack on this town by Delhi sultans and consequent weakening of the kingdom. The sculptures here depict most of the Indian epics. The Nandi statue here is the most beautiful one, indeed it was as you can see here.
I must say this HaLebeedu temple has been maintained very well, with a green garden surrounding the monument.


We started this place around 5 o clk in the evening. It was a long 5 hourney back to Bangalore. Altogethe, a wonderful trip again, of course, my mother was very happy... :-)

Sangam-Mekedatu 17 May 2008

17 May 2008 - Vehicle: Tavera - Place: Kaveri-Arkavati Sangam & Mekedatu

Another hastily planned trip, last Saturday. I guess we can owe it to Mrunal, who forwarded an .xls, containing a list of nearby places to Bangalore. Although not the right season to hangout at a river side or falls, but enthusiastic we were, for a day long trip. Also, felt like taking a
much needed break from our routine.


Now I can't help stop myself from narrating the manner in which we fell upon this place. It was 16:00 hrs on Friday and we were not yet fixed with a place to go. "Hognekkal", was ruled out, owing to the cost factor. And we were a little skeptic about other river side places, due to the non-availability of water at this time of the year. A quick consultation with friends and colleagues led us to many places, with 'kanva' reservoir being one of them. Little was written about this place in blogs, so wanted to explore it and called up KSRTC enquiry, about the bus timings.

"Yaake ri allige hogthira? alli neerey illa !!!! Naavu allindavare, nannige keLi" (Why do you want to go to that place, there is not water there at all. I hail from Chennapatna, I know about this place pretty well.), said the enquiry person. I was little surprised, at the same time amazed at him taking out time to help people planning trips. "Sangam matthu Mekedatu hogi banni. Alli neeru idhe." (Go visit Sangam and Mekedatu, they are better off at this time). After a quick note of thanks and pleasantries, I went with his idea, which was not that bad afterall, as we saw later.

Booked an SRS travels cab, and planned to start early next day. :-) Unusual, but we almost started the same time we had planned. This place, Kaveri Sangam, is about 90 kms from Bangalore, via 'Kanakpura'. Getting to know that there would hardly be any food available there, we decided to get something packed at Kanakpura. The road till this small town was nice. We reached a small hotel there, with 'Puliyogare' seemed to be the only feasible option to get packed.

Reached 'Sangam' at around 10:00 in the morning. This is the place where the 'Arkavati' and 'Kaveri' meet to form a still bigger river. The scorching heat was too much to bear. But, it all subsided when we entered the water. We played in the water for a really long time.


Our next halt as well as planned lunch spot was Mekedatu. This is about 4 kms downstream along the river. Cross the river Arkavati and you would find a road (if that's what they call it). I swear the road is really bad and not at all walkable, if you want to dare going by walk. Go for the bus/jeep available there. (40/- round trip)

The river Kaveri flows through a deep ridge at this place, the ridge bring very narrow, thus the name 'mekedatu' (Goat's Cross), synonymous to the width of the ridge. Well, not don't look out for the actual statistics there :-) since the ridge is no longer that narrow. We could see small fishes trying hard to swim upstream near the fall (as in the pic below)

One can also find many monkeys at this place, greedy for your packed stuff. Needless to say, we never got a chance to open our bag and eat something. One monkey was outwitting us every time. Decided to go back to Sangam and have there.

We enjoyed the 'puliyogare' very much, with curd and kesari bath along side.


We started from that place and figured out that 'Talakadu' might be a better place to visit during the rest of the day. The river drops down to plains at this town, and the whole town is filled with Sand. You can find more about this place in one of my previous blogs "Sivasamudram and Talakadu 18 Aug 2007".

Started late from there, around 19:30 and stopped at a dhaba on Mysore road.
Reached Bangalore at 23:00 or so. Altogether a wonderful trip again.

Trek to Tadiyandamol | 06 Jan 2008

Going on a trek without proper planning has never turned out so successful as this one. Chalking out a one-day trip to this trekking spot wasn't so difficult, having had a hint of the route, thanks to few friends. Tadiyandamol, the highest peak in the Coorg district of one of the greenery rich states, Karnataka. Here it is: an epilogue of our adventurous tour to this trekking spot.

It all started with an enthusiasm created among friends at office. It had also been quite sometime I had gone on any trip, since last Feb. We formed a group of 8, and were ready off to go on the night of 5th Jan, Friday. Booking a 14-seater for this small group wasn't an good idea. But, as it always happens, we anticipated last moment join-ins. And surely, we were 15 of us by Friday evening.

With the hired vehicle getting delayed a little, we finally started from Bangalore at early hours of 5th Jan, 2008. Travel was not tough, as we sang along, playing antakshari well into the morning. It was around 6 o clk, and we were still around 40 kms from Kakkabe, near Virajpet. It was around 6 o clk in the morning, when we stopped at an amazing sight of clouds over a small hill on the roadside. After a few snaps, someone suggested we freshen up at a nearby hand pump. Now this is what I call the beauty of unorganized trips. Ideas cropping up like these can make wonderful nostalgia sometimes. Catch Gautham giving a good pose here. I prefer not to share some of the other natural poses here. ;-)

Soon we reached Kakkabe. Now, this place, Kakkabe, happens to be the foothill of the Trek. A tiny hamlet of few houses and lots n lots of coffee estates. There are just two hotels there, as I got the info, which can help you with the breakfast and lunch. Andhthere is this little summer palace of the King of Madikeri. A vehicle would go only upto this palace, or 'Aramane' as is called in the local language. Little info here: There this guy named 'Suresh', who runs a small hotel at this place. I got the phone number of him from my friend, and had already spoken to him about preparing breakfast and lunch for us. This proved good for us. (Phone number: 0827238399. He makes good chapatis and don't miss his 'kadle saaru'). After having a quick breakfast and getting our pack of lunches, we were ready to go, to the palace, 'Aramane' which is about 2 kms from here. This 'Aramane', a palace in the local language, happens to the summer resort and a hideout of the King of Madikeri. There is a Govt school also nearby, and you can spot few kids as we did.

We started climbing up around 9 I think. Owing to our photography interests, surely me and my friends were left behind by others of my group. But, I was more determined to cover each and every detail of this trip. Gautham tries to touch the peak here. ;-)

This was not similar to my previous trek to Kodachadri, in Feb 2007. Here, the trail was quite visible and seemed known, except for little diversions at two places. There were quite a few other people along the track. The trail turns steep at the last two hillocks of the trek. And sure enough, with the lunch bag for the whole batch on my back, I could make it only an hour after the first of our group reached the peak. It was simply wonderful standing at the peak, with a heavy wind blowing.

It was lunch time and people were eagerly waiting for me to open up the pack. Not sure whether it was really the taste or the hungry stomachs, but the chapatis with 'kadle saaru' seemed awesome. I had a Jam bottle too as a back-up. We sat for a while after the quick lunch, looking around and taking snaps.

The return was not that tough. Except again for the last stretch. I felt my legs were giving off. Reached back to our vehicle around 8 or so. Had a quick look at the 'Aramane' from inside. Got few info from the Gatekeeper there. Everyone just too tired to say anything. Dozing off seemed like a better option for all of us.

Altogether, it was a wonderful trip. Catch more photos @ my Picasa homepage. :-)

Jan 1st 2008

31st Dec, 2007 - a friend suggested that we hit onto the road and ride to a place 80 kms away, and celebrate. All plans done by the evening, and decided to start by 10 PM. 4 bikes, 8 people, none of them Pulsars/Thunderbirds :-),
only an age-old Splendor and a Passion, with other relatively new Glamour and Shine.

Riding fast enough, we were just to reach in time to the Coffee day before Maddur. Bursting of crackers had already started by the folks who had assembled there. Mostly college guys from nearby.


Too much of a crowd we thought, and decided to proceed further towards another
Coffee Day shop after Maddur. 20 kms ride further.

The ride back was simply superb. That happening the first night ride of my life, that too at 0200 hrs, of a chilly and misty morning through the Bangalore-Mysore highway ....

We halted for hot tea, at the Ramanagaram bus-stand. Not a tea drinker although, I enjoyed it at the momentuous occasion and timing.