Hassan Travel 2 - Manjarabad Fort

Having finished lunch at Hassan, we didn't go to hotel that was booked for us. Instead we continued on NH48 towards Sakaleshpur for our next place - Manjarabad fort.

It is on a hillock beside NH48 at a distance of 7 km from Sakaleshpur towards Mangalore. There is a village by name Donigal where trucks stop for a cup of hot coffee. The path adjacent to these shops, rather canteens, leads to Manjarabad fort. The fort was constructed by Tippu Sultan, then king of Mysore. Started in 1785, it took 7 years to complete.

Primarily, the star-shaped fort was constructed as part of defense strategy to see British Army from Mangalore. Also, it was used to store ammonium, horses, and a secret tunnel to Srirangapatna, capital of Tippu Sultan. However the tunnel is closed now. There were lot of chambers and we were told they were used to house horses, used as kitchens, bathrooms apart from storing war weapons. In the middle of the fort, there is a well/pond with 'plus' shaped stairs leading to it, which was the source of water back then.

It was drizzling when we went and we drenched. However we didn't quite feel it since our minds were filled by the spectacular view of western ghats the fort was providing.

This is Manjarabad fort from Google Maps, satellite view

After about an hour, we got back to our car and returned to Hassan.

Hassan Trip Loc 1 - Shravanabelagola

Hassan Travel 1 - Shravanabelagola

One of my friends was getting married on August 15th (what a co-incidence!) at Hassan. We planned to go by car on 14th morning itself and visit some places near Hassan. Since all of us had been to Belur and Halebeedu, we finalized on 3 places to visit. Shravanabelagola, which is just a few km off Bangalore - Mangalore highway (NH48), was the first one.

Shravanabelagola town is situated between two hills Vindhyagiri and Chandragiri with a tank in between, namely, Belagola meaning Bili Kola or white pond. Shravana or Shramana means Jain ascetic, meaning, lifestyle practiced to pursue religious and spiritual goals avoiding worldly pleasures. The town is named after this Jain ascetic and pond. The place is a Jain pilgrimage center as there is 57 feet monolithic statue of Gomateshwara on southern hill, Vindhyagiri facing North.

The statue, center of attraction, is the tallest monolithic statue in the world. The statue is carved beautifully as if anthills surround it and creepers encircle up to thighs. According to the information available, it was installed by Ganga King Rachamalla Sathyavaka's minister Chavundaraya in 988 AD. Gomateshwara or Bahubali was a son of first Jain Thirthankara, Purudeva. He was transformed after he won the fight for kingdom fought against his brother Bharatha.

When we left Bangalore it was 9 am and we stopped for breakfast at Hotel Mayura, Ballur cross. It was very expensive and the service was slow. From NH48, we turned left to Shravanabelagola at Hirisave, roughly 125 km from Bangalore. From there, it is 18km.

We trekked amid hot Sun and visited Basadis on top of the hill and tried our luck to encircle Thyagada Kamba, a pillar and if one encircles by his hands it is believed to be a lucky symbol. On our way up, we saw a lot of people climb up 2-3 times to offer some religious vows, many a times, holding children. After circling round the statue, seeing all 24 Thirthankaras and overwhelmed by the Majestic statue, we took some snaps of the inscriptions and started back.

We climbed down, had tender coconut water and started towards Channarayapatna, at a distance of 11km, (different road than the one towards Hirisave) and from there to Hassan.

Flopped Antharagange Trip

"We must go somewhere outside Bangalore", my friend called me. It was already 10 am and we had just finished breakfast. I quickly considered quite a few options and decided on Anthargange. Following a blog by someone I don't know, I thought it would be a nice trek with caves on top of the hill. But little did I know my plan would be ruined that day.


By the time we got ready and leave the Bangalore, it was nearing 1 pm. We didn't stop till a Shanti Sagar on the outskirts of Kolar. We had lunch there. It was good until my wife got a cockroach free with the lunch!
We almost finished our lunch, so we started towards Anthargange querying the route. I do not write the route here since we took too many alternate routes as many roads were dug up in Kolar. Finally we got a tarmac road to Anthargange, but by then, it was cloudy and very dark. Time was around 3 pm.

We reached Anthargange and parked our car. There is a police substation and a constable at the base from which there are steps to temple at a distance of approximately 300mts. He noted down everybody's name and sought address in detail. When I inquired about caves, he said there were no caves. We should not go beyond temple. There was a hillock range but it was the place of leopards There would be illegal activities going on and family people should not go. etc., To add to our dismay, drizzling started. Bottom line is our plan to trek and see the caves was shattered.

Anyway, being come so far, we thought of visiting temple atleast and return. There are too many monkeys in Anthargange. They literally attack each and everybody for the reason they only know. One monkey came and it almost attacked my wife and she, in order to escape, gave her bag to it. Monkey was confused on getting the bag without much effort, so it sat upfront scratching head. By then my wife realized her mistake and told our home key, wallet, everything was in the bag.

Now, it was our turn to attack the monkey and get the bag back. It was groaning but still sitting in front of us. When I tried to snatch the bag it tried to hit me and I took back my hand quickly. My friend was holding a stick with a lot of leaves so I told him to shove towards it. When money turned towards it in defense, I snatched the bag, this time very quickly. After that, we climbed up hurling sticks at monkeys.

 

 

We had not even reached the temple when heavy rain started pouring. We stood there for sometime watching rainfall. It was 4 30 pm when we got back to car and drove towards Bangalore.

I plan to visit again with proper route map to trek and reach the top and caves.

Pyramid Valley

It was a Sunday evening, 24th April, and while sipping afternoon coffee, me and my wife thought of going to Pyramid Valley. Pyramid Valley is the world's largest meditational pyramid. However, we went not because to meditate instead to see the Pyramid itself. I am always interested in architecture, as I have said before. It is at a distance of around 28 km on Kanakapura road. The website has all the information.

When we reached Pyramid valley, it was cloudy and dark and we expected heavy rainfall any moment. At the entrance there is a map of the campus and we were asked to enter a hut like structure beside main reception. There a guy would explain what is meditation and its advantages in about 10 minutes. After listening to meditation tips, we came outside and walked towards Pyramid.

Pyramid, called Maitreya-Buddha Pyramid, has a base area of 160x160 ft and with height of 102 ft. Its external surface is covered by murals depicting various nature elements. It has a capacity of around 5000. There are beautiful murals and art work of Buddha in the lower hall, to remind him for his meditation techniques. It is said that the geometric design of Pyramids collects, radiates and stores cosmic energy and thus meditation done inside a Pyramid is thrice more powerful.

We sat quietly for sometime in Pyramid. There were many people meditating. Some were sleeping, though we were not sure whether they went to that state meditating or just that they were sleeping in pin drop silence.
We started back sometime later just when heavy rain started pouring on us.

For more information on Pyramid valley, click here.

Yana and Betthageri Beach

During Ugadi festival time, we had been to native and decided to go for a day's trip. My brother wanted to go to a beach. Only me and my wife had seen Yana and no one else had. So we planned to visit Yana and go to Kumta for lunch and then head to Betthageri beach for sunset and return home.

It was a Sunday, 3rd April, and we were on our way to Yana. Yana is a village in Uttara Kannada district amid Sahyadri hills (Western Ghats) range with presence of huge unusual rocks. These rocks are formed of crystalline limestone. There is a popular saying in Kannada "Sokkidre Yana Rokkidre Gokarna", meaning, one needs quite a bit stamina to trek to Yana and needs quite a bit money to reach Gokarna, since, for outsiders, Gokarna would be expensive enough. But today, this saying is not applicable for both of the places! After Kannada movie "Nammoora Mandara Hoove" (1997), Yana became more famous and now there is a tar road, going very near to Yana and the trekking distance is reduced to only half a km.

We reached Yana via Sirsi, and taking Kumta road, soon followed by taking a deviation to the right. The distance from Sirsi is around 40km. We first visited the temple, a Shiva temple. For "Pradakshine", one needs to go inside the gigantic rock. The path inside resembles cave and there are a couple of small rocks hanging in the narrow space in between the rock. We had tender coconut, banana before resuming journey to next destination.

There are two roads from Yana to Kumta, our destination. One route is via Mabage village and waterfall, called Vibhooti falls. I had been to there and have had a blog posted about it. Click here to read. The other route is taking the route towards Sirsi and take a deviation to Manjuguni after about 20km, which would join to Sirsi-Kumta road. We took the former route as it was nearer, 48 km. One can find many pages in internet about the distance from Yana to Kumta mentioned as approximately 25 km. But this is wrong and via the shortest route, Kumta is at a distance of 48 km from Yana. However, from Yana till Mabage the road is very bad with jelly (crusher stones) and to travel 7 km on empty road, we took more than half an hour! We had some food, packed from home, and went to Kumta. After a pit stop for coffee/snacks, we head towards Honnavar and took a right for Betthageri beach, roughly 10 km from Kumta on NH17.

Betthageri beach is very clean, as it is still remote. When we went there, there was nobody else, though some people came after us from neighboring villages after sometime. We played for an hour in the beach and just when the Sun started to set, it became cloudy and though we got nice views, we didn't get nice sunset!
 

We returned to home from there via Honnavar and Gerusoppa. It was a wonderful trip with full family after a long time.

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.

Innovative Film City

We had bought a Godrej refrigerator in last May from Girias, Majestic. That time, there was some discount and they gave two package passes, each worth 699/-, for 2 persons, meaning, 4 people could use. When my parents came from native, we decided to use it, on September 25th, last year.

It was a Saturday and we reached Innovative film city after traveling 35km on crowded Mysore road by 11 30. After exchanging passes with tickets, we visited Innovative Talkies. Innovative talkies shows some of the old movies for 10 mins. The talkies is made to look like very old with wooden benches and iron chairs. We watched some shots from "Sholay" before moving on to Wannado City.
Wannado City is a role-playing theme park, a designed city where a child can play a role of a firefighter, actor, TV reporter, chef, judge, pilot doctor ... One can even become a thief and go behind the bars!
We next moved to Mirror Maze. This was very good. All the rooms had only 3 sides with 2 walls angled at 60 degrees to the adjacent ones. One actually have to find out the way and move to next room. All the fun was in finding out the way to the next room.
Our next point was Dinosaur world. There are artificial dinosaurs. They move, they roar! This was worth visiting. Different species of dinosaurs along with sub groups are present there.

Our next stop was Fossil museum. Fossil museum gives an insight to the fossils of dinosaurs with information of various dinosaur fossils displayed. More the time, more the information can be gathered here!

Ripley's Believe It or Not museum was our next visit. Robert Ripley discovered a lot of unusual, odd and unbelievable stories while exploring in over 200 countries. The museum houses a part of these stories with bizarre exhibits on display. Here also more time is needed to read out all those stories.

We continued further to Louis Tussaud's Wax museum. This has statues of well known personalities around the world. The statues were realistic.

Time was running out and we proceeded to play for sometime amid hot sunlight. We played Golf though we didn't enjoy much. Not having extra clothes prevented us from jumping into Aqua Kingdom, which is nothing but an artificial beach, a good one, particularly in summer.
Most enjoyed game was Roller Coaster. This was fantastic. All the fun can only be experienced but can neither be explained nor be written.
Finally we visited miniature city before departing. It's like a portrait of a real city.

Overall, it was a good day trip.

Vibhooti Falls and Gokarna

When I was in hostel, Shimoga while studying engineering (2002-2006), we went to many places. This is about one such trip, when we went to Vibhooti falls (also called Mabage falls, since its near Mabage village) and Gokarna.

It was November 1st, 2003, Saturday and we had holiday because of Kannada Rajyotsava. We planned to have one day trip, starting early, about 4 AM, go to Vibhooti falls, about which we had read in "Taranga", a Kannada magazine (article titled Mabage falls), play for sometime and start from there and go to Gokarna and come back to Shimoga late night reserving next day for rest(Sunday). We didn't know by then that we would not come back on the same night due to unforeseen circumstances!

8 years back we were not used to Internet search. So, we just followed what was written in the magazine. And by doing so, we took a longer route of Shimoga-Sagar-Honnavar-Kumta-Mabage. The better route was Shimoga to Sirsi and then to Mattighatta, Devanalli via Hegadekatta and from there to Vaddi Ghat from Vaddi cross and Mabage. As per our plan, we started around 4 30 AM and reached Honnavar via Sagar around 9. Having breakfast at Honnavar, we started towards Kumta and after about 20km from Kumta, took deviation to the right at the place where deviation to the left goes to Gokarna. We further traveled for about 22 km enquiring Mabage village. From here, left deviation goes to Yana at a distance of about 8 km and right one goes to Vibhooti falls, again at a distace of 8km. It was around 11 when we reached Vibhooti falls after about 2km trekking.

Vibhooti falls is a two stepped falls. Water collects at the bottom to form a pool which is a good place to swim and play. We played for about two hours and started back to our vehicle. We retraced to NH17 and took deviation towards Gokarna, where our lunch was arranged.

I usually take front seat near driver, since I would love to watch driving (back then). Likewise, I was sitting at the front seat while most were asleep. There was a right curve and I could see a car coming from opposite direction but the sad part was our driver didn't see it! In a fraction of second of thinking why our driver is driving dangerously on the right lane, a loud noise, "Dhab", is heard. I could see our vehicle hitting a local car. An accident. Soon we got down from our vehicle and people started gathering. Luckily only the car was damaged but the family inside were safe.

We were 30 boys, all aged between 18-21, most were only in shorts, not expected to be treated well in a situation like that. We waited by road side for about 3 hrs and finally, after our vehicle owner agreed to come down to Gokarna, we were allowed to move but the vehicle had to be in police station until the owner arrives from Shimoga. It was 6 pm by the time we sat for lunch! We roamed Gokarna main streets and called the day off to settle at a place for the night, 10 each in 3 rooms.

Next day, visit to Mahabaleshwara temple was followed by playing in Om beach till evening. By then our vehicle owner and the car owner had compromised, so we could start our return journey. It was 10 30 PM or so when we started from Honnavar towards Shimoga after supper. Reached Shimoga around 3 AM. Thus, our one day trip was extended to 2 days with one day vehicle rent!

Nandi Hills by Our Car

Bought a Santro car! So, what next? It was December 26th, 2010, sunday. Dialed some buddies to go for Nandi Hills. But none was free but that didn't stop me and my wife from going. We left our home at 7 a.m. and thought to drive for sometime before breakfast. We didn't stop by any hotel till we cross Hebbal and once we crossed, we didn't find any! We crossed BIAL deviation and took left at Devanahalli and one more left (I don't remember the place' name) reached Nandi cross. On this road we spotted some tea shops with bread and buns but no hotel. Finally when we turned right just before 3-4 km from Nandi hills, we found a hotel. We had a tasty breakfast there. Those who start early from Bangalore can have breakfast here - after Nandi cross. By the time we finished breakfast, there was no fog and sky was clear. Reached Nandi Hills and paying car fee went on top of hills and parked the car. Here there is one more hotel 'Ranjitha'. Though we didn't have anything there, that looked average if you are too hungry.

View on the way to Nandi Hills

On the way to Nandi Hills

All the way from Hebbal till Nandi Hills, there were too many cyclists cycling. It looked to me they were all part of some cycling club since they knew each other. Their age ranged from 18-20 to 60-65! The road after Nandi cross till Nandi Hills has many hair pin curves and it gives great pleasure in driving. At the same time, one has to be very careful since at many places vehicles coming down would come at higher speeds and left side of the road is very steep and dangerous.

Nandi Hills map

I am not going to write much about the places on top of Nandi Hills or its background since one would get any number of websites stating about all the places of interests to tourists and their significance. I am just writing my experience. There are many stories why it got the name Nandi Hills. But what is unambigous is Tippu used it as his summer palace. There is a fort (also called Nandidurga) covering hilltop and you need to enter inside (two wheelers not allowed). One point here is for those who want to go by two wheeler, most of two wheelers get punctured there and there is a puncture shop! Anyway, we did see following.

View from Tippu Drop

* Fort - You need to enter through it.
* Temple - Nice temples with only stones (both walls and pillars) and Kalyani (pond)
* Tippu Drop - Fantastic view point and with good camera, excellent panoramic photographs can be captured. This is where prisoners were thrown from.
* Children's playground - Not much to write about it
* Amruth Sarovar - With lot of fish including one with golden orange colour
* Tippu's summer palace - Entry barred to public, we could see only from outside

Amrutha Sarovara - spot the golden coloured fish

Tippu's Summer palace

Places which were not interested
* Nehru Nilaya - Nehru used to stay and now it is guest house of horticulture dept. of India
* River sources - Mostly dried up
* Secret Escape route - Came to know about it only when came back

We started at around 11 30 and stopped by the same hotel where we had breakfast and reached Bangalore for lunch.