Trip to Princeton University

hey !

finally back to write something in my travel book on the web ! It's the morning of July 4th and I just woke up from a sound, 8-hr sleep. It has been almost a month on my second trip to the US. Yeah ! I know, my first visit to the US lasted a complete 5 1/2-month period with just one blog entry :-o I have heard that people some start blogging once they are in here, to keep away boredom, rather I stopped blogging after coming here....he he :)

July 4th weekend is a long here in the US. July 4th being the Independence

Day for them and a holiday the following day as well. So, we had a long

weekend this time. And we made plan to visit Princeton University, a 40-min drive from my home.

I am sure most of you must have heard of this University. The architecture of the buildings were a sight to see ! Being one of the prestigious ones in the World, this was an addendum. Find here few photos of the same.

My friend informed me that 'John Nash', on whom the movie 'A Beautiful Mind' was made, is part of the faculty here. I never knew this. Feels good to hear about news like this.

A building with Roman architecture >>

On the left you can see the student hostels.

It seemed like each one of the

buildings had some historical importance. I overheard a guide telling some tourists who were on a visit to the campus :)

We had started late in the evening and sun was almost setting in by the time we were in. The sunlight covering the top-half of some of the buildings was nice.

We came out after sunset. And were back home by mid-night after an Italian dinner at 'Olive Garden' ! There goes the first day of my long weekend. Planning to go to

Manhattan, New York tomorrow, for the July 4th fireworks at 9 PM ....

-

Sudhir

an early morning trek to tadiyandamol

I had been to this peak an year back. Tadiyandamol, the second highest peak in Karnataka, in Coorg district. But this time, we chose the night time to trek. Our plan was to be there in time to watch the sun rise from the top. I was sure excited after figuring out that the night would

 be close to a full moon night.

Starting little early from office on a Friday seemed little tricky. But we all managed to start at around 5:30 or so. 16 of us. The journey was 6 hours from Bangalore. With travel breaks, we reached the base point, i.e. Kakkabe-Aramane, little past 02:30. 

Everything was so silent at that place. Almost everyone had a torch in hand along with other precautionary stuff. We were lucky to be there on a full moon night. I expected our trek to take atleast 3-4 hours. Last time, it was day light, with many photo breaks in between, we had taken around 6 hours to reach the top.

The walk up to the top was great. Surrounded by darkness, with our path lit by torches and at times, moon light. I helped myself with the path lit by others'

 lights. We did not miss some of the wonderful sights of the night as this snail in the pic. I was careful not to use flash. This pic was taken with the help of LED torches :-)

For those unfamiliar with this peak, there are dense woods little below the top. We made sure that we walk as a group here, without making any awkward sounds. Alas, fortunate or unfortunate, we never found or heard anything better than a frog croak beside our path !!! 

We managed to reach the top within 06:00. Little before the actual sun-rise time given by the Met dept. I was little disappointed not to see t

he complete sunrise, owing to the cloudy weather on the peak. But the view and the feel of cold winds at around 5400 feet above sea level is simple unexplainable. It can just be experienced :-) We spent a wonderful 4 hours on the peak, taking snaps, climbing on rocks, standing at the tip of the valley, feeling on top of the world.

We started back around 10 o clk. The first 200 metres of descent was tricky and one had to be careful. Rest was good. We were lucky to find an empty Jeep going down. We finished the last 2 kms of the down trek in it. We were too tired for the next day. After having lunch at Madikeri, we went to Nisarga Dhama, a place where river Kaveri splits into two, before joining again, forming an island in between. Little interested we were in that. Spent some time before starting back home. A weekend spent well.

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How to Reach:

Bangalore -> Mandya -> Virajpet -> Kakkabe - Palace Estate (Base Point) [300 kms]

Food:

Pack something from your place. Kakkabe is a pretty small place, with just one hotel. 

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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.