Mysore - City of Palaces

When my in-laws came, we planned to go for a day's trip to Mysore. After estimating time for travel and food, we finalized 3 places - Srirangapatna, Mysore Palace and KRS.
Thus planned, we started at around 8 AM on March 19th, 2011. At hotel Kamat Lokaruchi, Ramanagara around 9 30, we stopped for breakfast and proceeded towards Srirangapatna and reached around 11 AM. Asking the route, we went to Sri Ranganathaswamy temple. There was an incident involving the priest regarding a photo taken inside the temple where photography was prohibited. Click here to read that.

Anyway, we came outside and went to Tippu's summer palace. Sri Ranganathaswamy temple is to the right if traveling from Bangalore and Tippu's summer palace, also called Dariya Daulat, is at the right side. The signboards are pretty well. The architecture of Dariya Daulat is beautiful. Photography is prohibited there, so couldn't capture in my camera. It is now converted to museum with many of Tippu's household stuffs, clothes, various portraits and photographs of his children, battle ground, fort and things like that.

 

We went to Gumbaz afterwards. Gumbaz is burial ground of Tippu's father, Hyder Ali. Now, one can find tombs of Tippu, his father, mother, wife and children there.

Our last place of visit near Srirangapatna was Sangama, which is the confluence of two branches of Cauvery. Of them, one is called Lokapavani and it is considered to be holy to take a dip and bath there. Many people give tribute to their demised parents at Sangama. However, we didn't like this place since somebody was worshiping and just beside that some fishermen were cutting fish into pieces!


We started from Srirangapatna and went to Mysore. We had lunch in a hotel near Palace and went inside Palace. Wow! I had never been to Mysore Palace, though had seen bits and pieces in media, and I liked it very much. A tour inside Palace along with nearby museum (then Palace before current Palace was constructed in early 20th century) took almost 2 hours. The architecture of the building (referred as Indo-Saracenic), a stoned structure, numerous photos and description beneath them, which tell us the story in brief, the gifts the wodeyar dynasty received, their household items - overall, it was fantastic.

We strolled for sometime, spending time in taking snaps, outside the palace and we left for KRS. Parking arrangement at KRS is good. I guess it is constructed recently. It was around 6 PM when we reached there. We took a walk and climbed up the dam to see the backwater and came back. It was 7 pm then and the lights were turned on, feasting our eyes. We started taking quick steps towards musical fountain, taking snaps all along and of-course exclaiming what we see. It took us almost 20-25 minutes to reach and watch musical fountain. We watched for some 15 minutes and we started back since we had to come all the way to Bangalore. KRS provided us an amazing sight and we had a great time enjoying there.

We reached Bangalore-Mysore road at Srirangapatna from KRS and from then, it was one stop journey at Kamat again for dinner before we reach home in Bangalore at 11.

Madurai Meenakshi

Madurai, city of temples, is one of the ancient and prestigeous city of Southern India with rich cultural and heritage background. Madurai Meenakshi temple is one of the greatest cultural and architectural landmarks, built during early A.D and restored in 14th century.

For one of my colleague's marriage, we, 8 guys,  went to Madurai on May 28th, 2009. The marriage was around 80km from Madurai at a place called "Rajapalya". The hotel for us was booked there. After around 10 hrs journey by Airavata, we got down at Madurai to find a vehicle waiting for us to take to wedding place. We got in and we met with a minor accident on the way. It was over 11 o'clock when we reached our hotel. We got ready quickly (more than an hour!) and went to choultry. It was 12 30 or so and wedding functions were finished and even reception was getting over. We managed to wish and could give a pose (which we won't miss always).

It was time for lunch and having skipped breakfast, we were very hungry so had heavy lunch, without bothering what the items were actually. While coming out, we saw two people sitting on different tables taking something and noting it down. When we enquired, we came to know they were gifts. I didn't know till then that in Tamil Nadu (or could be in some communities in TN) you have to give gifts and have to make an entry as to for whom you are giving the gift.

Our way back to Madurai was pleasant after heavy meals and we arrived near Madurai Meenakshi temple around 5PM. While entering we came to know we had to come out of the temple by 6 PM. (I don't remember the reason now, but it was not our constraint, instead temple administration's). Madurai temple is very huge and one can actually see it's gopuras from quite a long distance (1-2 km) on top of Madurai's buildings. (Gopura is ornate monumental tower, at the entries of Hindu temples - a prominent feature of Hindu architecture) Inside there was huge crowd to see the temple and Meenakshi idol. We roamed all along the temple wherever there were less people and came out after around an hour.

I am not writing much about the temple. It is best seen than said. Instead of posting the pictures, I am posting a link where you can virtually walk inside the temple. Click here to step inside.

You can see other Tamil Nadu temples here.

PS : It needs Adobe flash player and takes a while to load.

Bluff or Shimsa and Talakadu

After our graduation, we, classmates, had never been to any place together. So somebody suggested and everybody else agreed to visit Shivanasamudra and we went there on Jan 31st, 2009.

Actual name of Bluff or Shimsa is Shivanasamudra, which has two waterfalls namely Gaganachukki and Bharachukki. At Shivanasamudra, river Kaveri branches off into two and drops over cliffs forming multiple waterfalls. We went to Bharachukki and left out Gaganachukki as we prioritized visiting Talakadu than Gaganachukki. The hydral power plant in Shivanasamudra is first in Asia! From Bengaluru, there are two ways to reach bluff. One via Maddur -> Malavalli from Bengaluru Mysuru road and the other one is via Kanakapura->Malavalli. Distance is almost same but first one is better as the road is good.


Having breakfast in Kamat hotel, Ramanagar, as usual, it was around 11 am when we reached Bharachukki. Unfortunately, our time of visit was not very good as the water at this time of the year would be less. But who goes only to see the beauty, we were to enjoy the trip after all! Coming back to the day, we climbed down the hillock and reached the bottom. To go below the falls and to play most in water we hired 'Teppa', (Raft or ferry, I don't know what it's exact counterpart in English). Getting soaked in water after sometime was giving us lot of cheerfulness in that heat. After playing in the waters for about an hour we were back to land and started for Talakadu.



Talakadu, full of sand, is a small town beside river Kaveri. It has great history and buried underneath in sand are 30 odd temples! It is also associated with the "curse of Talakadu" by Alamelamma. She cursed "Talakadu Maralagali" along with two more curses which include "Mysore Wadeyar may not have children for all time". Almost everybody in Karnataka know about these and I don't write anything more.


Talakadu is a very good place to hang on for some time with family and/or friends. We spent sometime along the river shore after taking a round to the other end in Teppa. This time instead of rowing, they were just pushing with the help of a long bamboo pole. When we asked the depth, the guy told it's just 4 feet! If we knew this earlier, we wouldn't have given him Rs 100 just for taking us otherside of the river once.


The most funny part followed this. One elderly lady volunteered herself as a guide even when we were refusing. Then she started addressing every one of us as "PuTtamma, Chinnupaapu, Ganesha, ... ", and so on and particulary one of our friends Seena, who got very close to her in that short period and was pity about her. She not even closed her mouth for a second and we were just making fun of her.


It was getting dark and we started from Talakadu at twilight hour towards Bangalore and had something in Kamat hotel, Ramanagar once again!

Goa - A Tiny Emerald

One fine day, 2008 March last week, we (Me, Jagga and Manu) thought we could go for a trip. We also thought we should decide the date, place and invite others instead of asking everybody for probable dates, otherwise the trip itself wouldn't have happened. We called our friends immediately we booked 4 tickets in KSRTC to Karwar (as we didn't get train tickets) for April 4th evening when only we 3 were confirmed, rest denying. Finally Deva joined us as 4th member, when none of us were aware of boarding, lodging, travelling etc., in Goa. We just googled it and found out some places and left.

It was 9 am when we got down in Karwar and had breakfast. Not knowing the train timings, we caught a KTC (Goa state transport) bus and reached Margao by around 12 noon, two of us looking at Western ghats, rest continuing sleep...

When we checked into a hotel in Margao, everybody was eager to have shower - a desperate needy at the hour. After having lunch in a Kamat hotel nearby, we set for Colva beach dressed in shorts, convenient to play in sea-waters. We played in sea, watched sunset and returned to our hotel. We used only public transport on our first day.

One unusual thing about Margao (or rather different than what we thought), is town's time to embrace the sleep. We started for dinner at around 9 pm and we walked around 3-4 km till the town's center and still we didn't get even a single hotel opened that time! Hotels, shops, market, - everything was closed for the day. We had a tough time finding to have food and finally we settled for paav bhaji, he too was packing up, which we found luckily on a roadside.

Next day (6th) we went to Anjuna beach, where Scarlett Keeling's body found just one month prior, and we got into a cottage. We changed bus once at Panaji and then at Mapusa on our way to Anjuna village. It is quite a different beach, full of dark brown rocks near shore, not usual sandy. Its also a famous shooting spot.


After playing for a while, We left the shore and hired two bikes. Now this is something very common in Goa - rented bikes. We asked a guy for two bikes, which he gave willingly, taking Rs 250 per day per bike, and not even bothered to ask whether we knew the driving or not, let alone DLs! When we were about to start, he told about accelerator and brake!


We then visited Bhaga and Calangute beaches. Those two are beautiful beaches, where we enjoyed most. We played water sports, watched sunset for second successive day, and did shopping. There is a very good veg restaurant in Calangute, (name I don't remember now, must be some 'Sagar') where we had both lunch and dinner.


Next day early morning, we explored Anjuna Beach a little more before heading to to Panaji. As soon as we got down, probably guessed by our confusing looks, somebody came and was leading us to a hotel, the next moment! We checked into a hotel, Sona, near Panjim bus stand. After enquiring about cruise timings, we booked for that day evening's, since it was already time for morning's.

We then booked a cab cum guide to show us temples and churches. First we visited St. Francis Xavier's Church, whose speciality lies in the preservation of St.'s body from around 450 years. Near to that, we can find one more famous monument Se Cathedral, which truly depicts the royalty of Goa during the Portuguese rule. The art museum there, is good to visit. I am not going to write the historical significance of these architectures that you can get, very well detailed, if you google it.


Churches enough, next thing was to visit some of the famous temples. We visited 3 famous temples - Shri Mangesh temple, Goa's one of the most prominent temples, located at Mangeshi village, followed by Mahalasa temple, another name of Vishnu's Mohini incarnation, located at Madroli village, and Shantadurga temple, which has an impressive idol of Durga, who is said to have mediated between Vishnu and Shiva and stopped their war. Goa's temples are really good and one can find the architectural similarity between them.


After that we went to Dona Paula and Miramar beaches, visiting 'big foot', a miniature setup to recreate the rural life of Goa's olden days. Big foot got its name because of big footprint that was discovered on a rock and the footprint is believed to bring good luck for those who stood upon it. The laterite sculpture of Saint Mirabai in Ancestral Goa has been cited in the Limca Book of Records as the Longest Laterite Sculpture in India.

Hmmm, it was time to say good bye to Deal(Deva, our friend), who had to leave us for his home. We then went on to ride cruise. In cruise they take us on the water for about an hour's ride. There will be dance and / or similar programmes on it.


Next morning, we woke up early and before 6 am, we were at Panaji bus stand to catch the bus to Margao, from where we had to catch Konkan train (Vokha - Ernakulam Express) at 8 or so. That journey from Margao to Karwar in train was the best train journey I ever had! Though we got the seats in II class, we soon left the seat and stood in the door for our entire journey till Karwar. It averages about 120 kmph. There are so many small tunnels and 2-3 lengthier ones as well. (2-3 km long). Even inside the tunnels, dark and lit by small bulbs, the train didn't reduce the speed. The sound was horrible, when it goes inside. And we were afraid at times, seeing rocks and stones very much near to train! Wonderful journey nonetheless. It reached Karwar in 45 mins (rail distance - around 70 km or so)


Finally we got down in Karwar and caught a bus to Talavata, (my native place) via Gerusoppa ghat on 8th of April.

PS : For more pictures, you can refer to my picasa album http://picasaweb.google.com/gowthuhk/GoaTrip#.