Travelogues

My Maiden 10K run...

2011-12-10T01:06:00.000-08:00

Fire in the mountain, run run run.

Yes, that was the only time I enjoyed running. No not when there was fire, but when we were singing these songs as a kids!!!

Then bit of running to catch those already over loaded PTC bus (Yes, the great Pallavan transport of chennai)

Once out of collage, things changed drastically. No more walk. Cycle with those BSAs.

When I started to work, and bought my new RX, that put a big full stop to what you call walking or running.

Atleast a bit of cycling using the BSA SLR was happening before that. But after the arrival of RX, even that stopped.

So, enough of history.

Screen change - after almost 15 years.

With all those life style, I burned my cash for fuel, but started deposits in the name of FAT. I wish it was FAT cash!!!!

Then the wheel started rotating reverse on the screen. Yes literally the wheel started rotating, But in forward direction with me back on the pedal.

One day when I was talking with my cycle friend, he casually mentioned about the Mid-night marathon that happens every year in Bangalore.

I was interested to run, but never had any training. But since I know I will never practice without commitment, and no commitment if it do not involve money (lol), I registered for the even to run in the 10KM. Eventhough it was less than a week for the event.

So, atleast to get my returns back (ya, the Medal!!) I started running couple of KMs. And that was when I came to know about distance. So far, traveling 10s of KMs in car was not hurting except the pocket.

But running or walking just 1 KM made a big impact on me. Yes, thats when I came to know I am not fit anymore for running.

It was so difficult running, or even jogging for more than 1 KMs.

2 days before the run, I ran with little extra enthu, and got my knee injured. Next day was spent fully in taking care of the knee - with hot water, ice cubes, volini etc etc...

On the eve of D-day, went to the location to pick my chest number.

D-Day arrived, and I was very anxious if i can really make it. But there I see so many people with full enthu waiting to participate in the 10K run.

It was organized in KTPO area of Bangalore. The run was planned to be a 4 lap run, covering 2.5KMs for each lap. When I started the run, I could see that all people overtaking me left right and center.

I heard the same people saying, we should run slowly for first couple of laps, and then try to finish, were now running as if doing a 100m race.

Anyway, me as usual the last bench, oops, last person to run slowly watching all the fellows running in front.

I was about to complete my 1KM mark and i see 2 Ethopians passing me. For a moment I doubted if I was running so fast than them. Only then I realized that they are already in their 2nd lap :)

What a legs they have man. fantastic running. I ran the first 3 laps slowly.

One day before the knee injury, the goal was to finish the 10K run at any cost. But today I goal shifted.

The main goal was not to finish, but not to worsen the knee injury. So, I kept it slow paced. Even then when I was at the last lap, i started running fast without my knowledge.

Altogether, completed the 10KM in 85 mins. I did not go for the timing chip, but time was through my Endomondo.

Finally, here I am with the Medal, a first in the history of MJ's life.

My experience with PSK, Bangalore

2011-11-25T00:49:00.001-08:00

I usually do not blog all happenings or daily incidents. But this one is little special in the sense, an experience with the government office in India. Yes, usually dealing with government office and related work is mostly been a pain. Especially when it comes to something like getting a passport, its really pain. (Or used to be!!)

But after the Passport Seva Kendra has been opened in many places I have heard all good, bad and worst news about them. So, always had a biased feel about these centers.

To be frank, it had been a pleasant surprise for me to get things done here.

The place is very clean, neatly managed. No more rushing crowds. The online appointment system is really helpful. But yes, there are several complaints about not able to get the appointments online. Because, mostly its taken within few minutes of opening the slot. Atleast, no need to wait for hours together in the queue to get the token.

Let me first brief the process before going to actual visit.

First and foremost, you need to login to www.passportindia.gov.in portal to register yourself and fill-in the online form. You can also download, fill and upload the form in case, your internet connection is not stable.

Then select the application, and upload the required documents. The list of documents is also made very simple with the Document Advisor online. Just select the option for your category and it will list the required documents. A self-attested copy of all the required document along with the original is all what needed.

Next, go to Manage appointment page and fix an appointment. This is little tricky. Because, mostly the slots are filled the moment its open. So, try to make sure you are logged in by 6pm and then try for the appointment. Also, note that its closed for Friday & Saturday. So, you can login on Sunday to get an appointment on Tuesday.

Now, lets move to the PSK and see how they operate. I fixed the first appointment around 9AM in the Sai Arcade building in ORR road of Bangalore. This was bear to my place and hence this choice. When you reach there, there is a private car parking area behind. Park it and you can enter fro behind to the Passport Seva Kendra. Ofcourse, with the security check.

Sharp 8:30AM, which is the reporting time, the counter opens and security after the initial check will let you in. In front you have around 4-5 counters and people from TCS working to make sure your documents are intact and then issue the tokens for processing of the Passport.

There are 3 different type of counters after this token is issued. They are called A, B and C counter. The A counter, also called as CSE - Customer Support Engineer, is the place where your picture and finger prints are taken. Me, did not like this process where they take pictures.

They just take pictures and definitely not good. I know, its just a identification purpose, but don't you think we like to have a better looking pictures on a document which will be rolling over for the next decade? Certainly lot of room for improvement in this area. Hope TCS/PSK improves this.

They also collect the passport fees, only in cash, and provide the receipt. Keep this safe, since this is required at the exit counter.

They also cross-verify the documents, scan and create the file and send to B counter.

The B counter, also called Verification Officer, verifies your document with the file created by CSE. Once satisfied, forwards your file to C counter.

C counter, also called as Granting Officer, again verifies the document, interviews if needed, and decides to grant the passport. Depending on how much he is satisfied, he grants the passport with PRE, POST or NO police verification.

The Pre-verification means that a police verification is needed before the passport is issued to you.
The Post-verification means that the passport will be issued even before the police verification is completed. If you are lucky enough, this will be your case :)
The No-police verification is mostly for kids.

There is also one more counter called APO - Assistant Passport Officer. Probably need to meet him in case of complications? Not sure.

Coming back to the flow inside the office, once you are issued the token in front office, you will be asked to sit in the lounge with clean seats. The lounge has Coffee, Tea, Xerox (Only board, no machine though!!!), rest room, drinking water etc.

It has Phone charges for different phones. A welcome move.

It also houses LCD TVs, where the token number and corresponding counter to visit are displayed. I for one, liked the concept of the token number not being announced. It just displays. But still, there are helpers who keep calling for those token numbers just to make sure you don't miss it.

Before every counter visits, you will be asked to wait in here. Which I liked since no crowding of people in front of the counter.

Once the C counter is done, you can go to the exit counter. If its re-issue of passport, then you will get back your old passport after "Cancelled" promptly.

In the exit, you will need to show your fees receipt and you will be given a acknowledgement mentioning the details on passport application. Keep it safe, since it has all information like file number, verification type etc.

And that;s it, open the door and keep singing your fav tune!!! Oh, you wanna dance, sure, go ahead. Who cares!!!!!

One thing I noticed is, people still bully with securities when he says he will allow only the applicant. I don't understand why they pick up fight with him, or try to argue that he needs to accommodate his wife or friends or what so ever. Time to grow up guys.

Post your questions, in case I can help with info, I will do.

Thanks buddies....

Some helpful links,

http://passportindia.gov.in/AppOnlineProject/welcomeLink

http://passportindia.gov.in/AppOnlineProject/docAdvisor/attachmentAdvisorInp

http://passportindia.gov.in/AppOnlineProject/online/downloadEFormStatic

Good luck guys...

Lost in the land of Ferrari !!!

2011-10-02T14:01:00.000-07:00

A monk who sold a Ferrari.

No, this had nothing to do with that title. I would love to become a Monk for a Ferrari. LoL...

But then why its here? Ya, you will know shortly!

When the superstar Lewis Hamilton was burning rubber in my town, I was here sitting right next to the Mecca of F1. Yup, MONZA.

But there was no race circuit planed this weekend. Had a plan to visit the park and have a look at the circuit.

Unfortunately, you are not with your plan when on business trip, Right? Yes, have been in office and working both Saturday & Sunday.

So, decided to head to Milano city center for the lunch on Sunday.

Now, the option was to drive a Audi, or get a ride in Porchse. Which one to select?

No brainer, you got it right. It ought to be PORSCHE!!!!

Speeds are something not to be put in the public blog! lol.

It was a great feeling.

Sitting in the Porsche and watching those Ferrari & Lamborghini passing by you with those lovely "Vrooom Vrrooom"s is one hell of a feeling.

Once in city center, planned to spend some time in the Ferrari merchandise center. Its just around the corner of the famous church - Duomo.

Around the corner...

Yours truely!

Once I was inside, I was like a kid in the candy shop running towards every available color candies in all directions. Oh man, not able to control myself and was crazy to even think which of them I should see first.

There was a F1 car placed in the front, and a BODYGUARD placed right next to it.

He got his masters in saying - "Sorry sir, you cant take picture near here."

Me kept saying "Oh, you don't need to say that. I can make out from the giant figure, why you are there.". Ofcourse, in my mind :)

Anyway, roamed around every floor, and clicked almost everything I could.

Oh, did I forgot to tell about the songs that was blasting in the background. Sorry, cant remember the album, but ya. A funtastic one. Was hard to control legs. It simply refuses to listen.

Enough of talking, lets move to visuals.

And here you go!!!

Custom pose...

Why horse?

Beautiful painting, spoiled by a frame in front!

Me lucky! No smoke this time...

Pirrelli, anyone?

DAMN, it was fantastic in flesh! Pardon my phone cam.

Just for your eyes!!!

For those Jr. Schumacher

Silence. I know its difficult!

Look at the beauty. I mean the one in RED with 4 wheels!

Btw, I forgot to mention something for my friends.

I love Milano, especially when its hot !!! Its much a better way to treat your eyes, than visiting in winter.

I mean, the beauties of Milan (as in Milan City, ya, believe me!!!) are for your EYES only!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Got it!!!

Yes, and so, what are you looking at? Its over. Now, get back and look at your work :o)

My 6th Century ride

2011-09-17T18:48:00.000-07:00

Ya. This was my 6th century ride on the RR5.2.

Did not plan it as a century ride, but happened to be one. Myself and fellow buddy Rajani planed to go out for long ride. Its been a long time since we both went on long ride.

But since he was planing to go for the Half-Marathaon the next day, was planning for 50-60KMs ride. He along with his wife came for the ride.

Due to the problems in his wife cycle, the ride stated late around 8:30AM.

We went to Decathlon to get this done. As you know anytime you visit this shop, its no way possible to come out before you spend atleast an hour. You are spoiled by choices like those kids on the Mittai shops.

Since there was no plan, we decided to hit the Bagalur through the Sarjapur. It was a very good ride, except the one in Sarjapur busstand and passing through Sarjapur. I wish they get this tarred and made drive/rideable.

Once you cross Sarjapur, this it was like a breeze. Such a beautiful roads till Baglur. The curvy roads, with good amount of trees till left helped to have a nice ride for all of us.

The moment we entered was welcomed with the "Naan aaanai ittal..." song of MGR. Such an energetic song provides energy for anyone anytime :)

Had a tender coconut and decided to try Chikka-tirupati through the Mallur road. It did turn out to be a good decision. The roads was excellent, except a small stretch around the Christ International school.

The left to Chikka-tirupati from Mallur road is not marked, and easy to give a miss. Its bang opposite to a brick factor. This road directly hits the Chikka-Tirupati temple.

Once there, had some juice and chat. Left from there. The sun was at his peak and it was indeed making us more tired. With not so greens, and shades we could not rest anywhere too. Finally reached Sarjapur and then Decathlon.

Spend some time in there, and then took the Carmelaram route to Hoodi. When we thought we have almost completed the ride and time to depart to home, we noticed that we have almost done 90KMs.

So, do not want to let the fire down. More over, its gonna be the first century ride for Rajani's wife. So, she was very keen on doing the extra 10KMs. And we could definitely understand.

We took the SAP, Vaidehi route and hit Cosmos mall to make sure she clocks sufficient KMs and finally... YUP we did completed the CENTURY.

Was feeling so nice to have completed it, and started worrying out the next day, when you get to feel the pains in all over the body.

But, will it stop us?

The trail : http://www.dailymile.com/people/mjothi/entries/9889620

Bangalore brevets - 200KMs

2011-06-27T01:21:00.000-07:00

When I first thought of cycling, never thought will do more than 50-60KMs.

Was searching for a cycle with a budget of 3-4K. People who are already into cycling laughed at me. I laughed back at them telling, who will invest > 10K for a normal Cycle.

Now I sit back and remember all those conversation about buying cycles. I feel so stupid now. :)

Anyway, after getting my Rockrider 5.2, I was equally laughed by my other colleagues. But, the ride on it was a pride for me.

My main intention to buy a MTB was to workout. Had no idea of long rides etc. So, kept it as stock as possible. Until I meet my other fellow cyclist who were riding Bangalore-Mysore in weekends.

Add to that, some of my friends participated in Bangalore Brevets, and compelted 200KM, 300KM, 400KM and 600KM.

Now, that were the bug bite me more seriously. Priorities do change. Isn't it!

But due to Vitamin-M, I dont want to invest another 15-20K on a bike. So, decided to first try with changing the tyre. So, the stock Kenda 26x1.95 was replaced with Kenda 26x1.75 in Decathlon.

Although I did not notice any big difference, I believe it should have helped.

Enough of old memories and back to the topic.

I registered in Bangalore brevet 200KM ride, which was scheduled for 26th June 2011. On D-Day, started the ride at 4 am. Rode from Brookefield to MG Road CCD, which is the starting point. After the initial logistics and formalities, started the ride around 6am.

Just before the Flag-off

Get set....

I was following some set of riders on the main road after Raj Bhavan. Suddenly I realized that these bikers are not participating in the Brevet run, but riding the normal weekend ride to Nandhi. Great, I was half-lost. luckily did not followed them long and a small detour made me back to right track.

Add to that a wrong left made me lose another 5min. All these in the initial 1hr of the ride. So, I lost all my friends who were no where in sight now. Slowly pedaling to catch with them. Finally caught them up in Kamat.

It was a very long ride after Kamat. Weather was good, and loved the ride. After several breaks and snacks finally we reached karjeevanahalli Toll Booth. This is the place where we are suppose to get a sign-off to show the event organizers about reaching the right spot.

We reached at 12:25pm. 6Hrs 30min Approx from the beginning. 110KMs done.

Had curd rice. Filled the water, electrol etc and started the return ride.

We have another 90KMs to go. Now we were slowly moving in groups chating with each other. The 30KMs to Tumkur looked like a never ending ride. After reaching Tumkur, it started raining, sometimes heavily.

Riding in those rains, with no worry was excellent. its every childs wish, right? Ok, I may have crossed that stage, but still. When nature pours on you, there is no one who does not love it.

Couple of Tender coconuts on the way, many breaks, still not reached Nelamangala. The traffic after Nelamangala was hectic. Very difficult to ride in the left most lane too.

With all these difficulties somehow reached the Nelamangala toll booth. And I had a shock of the life. The toll booth was so much crowded that I lost almost 15min in it.

here me come...

Closer...

Still closer...

There you go...

After managing the Bangalore traffic, finally took the left for the road to end point. I drove past the end point and then came back to complete!

Then went to the CCD, Jalahalli where the meet was happening. Had a great Sandwich and Brownie. Just tried to get back the calories I burnt in the ride :o)


Give back my Calories...

Then the main problem started. How do we go back to my Home? it was like a solid 30KM ride from there. but since no option was left, we took some rest and started to pedal again.

Finally reached home by 11pm. That's almost 17Hrs of pedaling with breaks!

Poor Rockrider... This is how he was after the 250KMs of ride...

Fuel:
Coffee at Kamat,
Nuts and dates.
Water - 3-4 litres
Curd rice
2 tender coconut
1 banana

GPS tracks:
.http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/n4iWgbhiwBc

Some Stats:
Total distance - 250KMs in 17hrs
Min Altitude - 606mts
Max Altitude - 862mts

Nandi Hills, on my Rock rider 5.2

2011-05-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

So, it all started with my previous week 100KM ride. After I am done with the century, I wanted to go to Nandi Hills. I mean, just the base. I had no intention or capability [me felt so] to climb on her.

I started as usual by 6am from my home in Brookfield. For some reason, covering even 30KM was tough. The dust on the cycle and chain made it too difficult to pedal. Infact, I got this fellow serviced just 2 weeks back. Time to lube him again.

I saw a lady zoom passing me on the road bike after I took the left from NH4 that leads to New airport. And after I crossed the Budigere, I saw 2 more guys on their road bikes with a Innova support vehicle following them. First time, I was thinking if I should switch to a road bike or atleast change the tyres :)

And I saw this very same guys returning from the Nandi while was near Prestige construction place in the Nandi road.

Anyway, when I reached Devanahalli town it was nearing 8:30am. Thought of having breakfast there, but for some reason decided to continue without stopping. Had a tea break when I reached NH7. Took some usual pictures on the turn to Nandi.

The ride from there was really difficult for me and I took many breaks in this stretch. It was like a never ending straight road. Took 50min to cover that 10KMs. Then after the left it was even difficult and i need to take rest and continue.

Finally, I reached the base where we have the Nandi statue. Goal was reached.

I stopped the bike around that corner shop and thought of having my quota of tea. It was that time I noticed 2 more bikes parked in front of the Nandi Multi cuisine. So, went to say hi to the fellow bikers.

I met these 3 people - Yogesh & Pramod, and one more person from Chennai. [Sorry sir, forgot ur name!!]

They were also trying to climb Nandi. And Yogesh was the one who spoiled me with the wish of climbing Nandi. Since my goal was already met, anything further beyond this point was a bonus. So took some courage and said will join them.

"Join them" is just a statement. I cant be going with them. Especially guys like Yogesh whoe is on his Nth time climbing Nandi and having a best time of 38min [Said this time he made it even better. 36min!!!]

After some rest in down, we started to climb little before 11am. Initial climb was little steep and by the time I could see whats happening, Yogesh vanished from the scene. Now, I was all alone trying to see which gear is better, moves helps more etc etc and almost crawling on Nandi roads :)

So many 2 wheelers and almost every curve had atleast 2 couple spending their weekend with some fun. Oops, this is not the forum for that!!! So, skipping.

I slowly counting the KMs reducing and I see 4 KMs marked. Then I see some biker sitting with his bike lying on ground. I go closer and it was none other than Yogesh. This fellow have completed the climb and was descending now!!! I was almost fainting. He got his front tyre puncture and fixing there.

And me continued further telling him, I will try to see how far I can continue.

It was 30th curve I think. I was literally down and was not in a mind or health to continue further. So, sat in the shade and had the banana and electrol I got with me. Then took the gear to the lowest and tried to push myself and ofcourse the bike. The kenda tyre was proving to be so costly on me now. Could not move this guy an inch.

With great difficulties, yes very great difficulties and too many breaks, finally I see this arch and you should have seen my face. :)

All the pain in my legs went like anything with a 1000W shine on my face. I could not believe myself that I made it. Ya, finally made it after 1hr and 40min. Who cares, atleast I was able to make it. I should thank Yogesh here. Certainly it was because of his moral support and encouragement I attempted this, and made it. Thanks again Yogesh.

Meanwhile, I was out of stock of water. And had 2 tender coconuts on the top.

Then the return was a breeze. :)

Ya, just breeze. It was so fast I don't want to continue at that speed. Keep braking often to make sure I was within controllable sped.

Again met with Yogesh who was climbing for 2nd time.

I think it took 4 or 5 min to climb down. Fantastic. My fastest for a 8KM. lol.

Have posted some pics. Hope you guys don't mind.

Fuel :
Couple of Teas & Parle G.
Diary Milk chocolate
Electrol - 3 packs
Water - 3 liters
2 Idly
3 Tender coconuts
2 Banana

GPS tracks.
http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/o5QnOMV98Gg

Some Stats:
Total distance - 127KMs in 9hrs 40min
Climb - 8 KMs in 1hr 40min
Max Altitude - 1307Mts.

Armenia... Land near Noah Ark!!!!

2011-03-08T18:06:00.000-08:00

Its been always in my dream. Ever since I joined the company in early 2000, I always wanted to visit this place. But it took almost 10years to land here.

Armenia is a small country situated between Russia and Turkey. It shares its border with Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iran and Georgia. Armenia, like India has been invaded several times and mostly by Arabs. There are rich histories about these.

Options to reach there:

Usual route is to take the Aeroflot from Delhi to Yerevan through Moscow.
But recently the Armavia airlines operates direct flight from Delhi to Yerevan.
Through Dubai.

Anyway, I took the Dubai route.

About the Visa. The consulate is in Delhi. The procedure for this was little different from other countries I visited. We need to send the scanned copy of Passport to our counter-part in Armenia and that was it.

They prepare the invitation letter, pay some tax and get the Visa from the office in Armenia. Then its transferred to India office. Here you can just go to the consulate, submit a form and fees [Rs. 5150] and you are done.

Generally it may take one or two days in Delhi. I was again fortunate to get it across the desk.

Yes, when I visited the consulate, the security said that visa is not issued now and to come back on next Monday. I was shocked since I did call the guys and went there.

Then luckily the Consulor was coming out and I talked with him directly. He was so kind and gave me his Mobile number to call back by 9PM. And when I called, he asked me to come directly by 10:30PM. Yes, in the night same day.

Surprised, and visited the place at that night. Got the visa immediately.

As far the cost, its one country where you "divide" by Indian rupees to know the value in Indian money. Unlike most places where you "multiply". Yes, 1 Indian rupee is equal to almost 12 drams. So, not so costly unlike other foreign countries.

For the flights, you have several options. I took the Dubai route [Emirates + Armavia]. There are flight through Moscow [Aeroflot] and directly to Yerevan [Armavia] from Delhi. Not sure of the prices.

I reached Armenia on 8th March. It was almost late evening. After completing my immigration and customs, I came out of Airport. I had a cab for pick-up and hence it was not much trouble to reach hotel.

I noticed a lot of Casinos on the way to Hotel. Later heard that they were all moved out of city and hence all are now in both side of the roads from Airport to city.

I was staying in Golden Tulip which is near the Republic Square. There is also a Moscow Cinemas right next to the hotel. And a Disco bar too right opp to Hotel.

Anyway, I was very busy with the schedule and was not able to try out anything.

We were working on Saturday too. The last day, me and my friends started a little early by 4pm and they took me around to show their city.

The first and foremost thing that took my attention was the cars. Ofcourse.

I was astonished to see the variety of cars over there. Lot of Russian cars are seen all around.

At the same time, we can see the latest Beemers, Merc, VW, Fortuner, Mustang, Porsche, Fortuner, Hummer etc etc.

And I saw lot of Aveo's & Logan there. All are yellow boards. Yes, taxis.

They have women-special Taxi service. And the color of the vehicle is PINK!

They are mostly Octavia and Fabia. One strange thing is, the drivers are Mens.

Cops have the Toyota Altis.

Most of the trucks are oldies, and the whole scene reminded me of some Russian movie.

Its one place where we would like to shop. Why? Because, its where we divide the money with Indian rupees rather than multiples :)

Republic Square, Yerevan.

Will post some more pics soon...

Lake Bimont, near Rousset, France.

2010-12-05T08:51:00.000-08:00

Panorama View from the Dam

When I reached Rousset this time, I had 2 places in mind to visit.

One was the Saint Victorie. 2nd was the Arles.

But as we say, there is always something that waits for you when you wait for something else.

I started to Saint Victorie, but unfortunately, I could not continue since the rain started to play spoil sport. Anyway, there is always a next time. So, said a good bye to the Mountain, and got back to Hotel.

But I was not able to digest that I am wasting a sunday. So, was google-ing and that's when I see this huge lake.

The Tom-Tom was so adamant and old fashioned, that as per him he did not have any roads from D10 to the lake.

Ok, decided to give it a try and see how it goes. Luckily, Tom-Tom. was able to find the Saint Marc Jaumegarde. So, started from Hotel again. The hotel was on the D6, near the Industrial zone of Rousset.

Even though it was still raining, I was not in a mood to say no because of that. Started the car, and in next 30 minutes, reached Saint-Marc Jaumergade. Now what?

Passing through the Aix-en-Provence

I just thought of driving little further and once I did, I see this right turn from the D10 with signs saying "Le Barrage de Bimont". The moment I see this Bimont, got happy and prayed that it should reach there without any issue. Cursing myself for not taking up the french in the schools, took that right.

In next around 10 minutes of drive, I reach the parking lot. It was empty with just 2 more cars. But I did not see any people around.

Went to the gate, but it had so many instructions and timing in the French. Not sure, if we can enter or not. Just took some courage and wet inside the gate. Luckily, no one stopped. Infact no one was present to see me.

So, I walk around and see these massive Lake.

WoW was the word. Here I am standing near the lake, and took my camera. Switched on.

Lake Bimont

Damn it. It just smiled saying "No memory card".

Being a photo enthu, I was like jumping into the river. Ok, I know. It was too much. Anyway, technology is so advacned now. I always use to wonder why these gadgets need to be multi-use when, its much better if they just do their work.

No I was wrong. Today, my saviour was my phone. Ya, all picture courtesy was my Blackberry. Thanks RIM.

Yours truely...

And also thanks to the nature, for stopping the rain just for 5 to 10 minutes for me to have a good photo session. :)

Driving to Rousset, France

2010-12-04T02:37:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my new Travelogue.

In a way, this is not about the places I visited, but about the drive I had in reaching this place.

To cut the long story short

I reached Milan, and was pleasantly surprised to get a Ford Focus as my rented car. I opted for the Golf - economy car when reserving. So, now you know why I am surprised.

And when in Milan, had fun with this car driving around. It was snowing for several days and that's when I begin to think the -ve side of these snow.

In India, we don't have such chances. Atleast the place where I live. So, I always envy the people who lives in region where it snows. But not any more. Its pain when you need to get your car ready to leave for the work.

So, then comes this portion of the drive. I have driven only once before to Grenoble from Milan, and this is my second long drive in Europe. So, I was looking for this eagerly. The snow scenes did some spoil sport. I was wondering if it could create any trouble on the day I need to drive.

The D-Day came, packed the stuff, check-out of Hotel, stuff the baggage in the car. Carefully, keep ALL the warm clothing next to me in car :)

Ok, enough of talking, let me make this a photologue...

The drive begin...

Show white...

Wow, whitey...

Snow, snow and snow...

Somemore snow...

Still.....

Numerous tunnels connecting numerous hills...

Coast, a seen from the highway

Yield for a Photo session,

Near Genova I guess...

A better view...

Nice Bridge...

Another nice view of the Coast...

Thankyou Michelin...

This is the welcome I got in Rousset...

Finally, my Stay...

Drive to Lepakshi...

2010-11-01T05:46:00.000-07:00

I have been planing to visit this place for almost 4 years now. But, somehow it never got materialized.

Yes, everything has a time, and we should wait till it rings. And it did finally ring!!!

1st November 2010.

Morning, 5:30AM, alarm goes off. As usual slap him off and go for another round. By the time I started to doze, it striked me. Wow, this is the D-day for the trip to Lepakshi. Get up Buddy.

Got the family ready, [oh, did I tell you I have 2 naughty kids!!!] and start from my house bang at 7:30AM.

Since it was a holiday in here, the traffic was very less and had a very good time getting out of Bangalore.

The route was

Brookfield - KRPuram - Hebbal - Devanahalli - Chikballapur - Bagepalli - Lepakshi

I see a new Toll being constructed just at the exit to the Airport from the NH7. No clue why they want to charge Toll for everyone, including the guys to Airport & further. I wish sooner or later we pay for the KM we drive and not a flat charge.

The only hurdle after this was the railway crossing just before the Devanahalli. Not sure when they will complete this bridge.

Once you cross this, its a breeze to fly on those NH7. But my speed governor [ya, you read it right, my WIFEY:) ] was not allowing me to cross 80KMPH.

Anyway, the weather was excellent and the view was so scenic that I did not worry about crawling on those beautiful roads.

Had a good breakfast in Kamat which comes after 6-7 KMs you crossing the Chikaballapur. There are numerous lakes all the way. We did stop by one of them and you see the nature at its best.

Nature did do a spoil sport. Yup, it was making us to stop every now and then for these photo shoots.

We did saw a Porche and tried to follow him. I see touching 140kmph and thats the end of the follow.

After Chikaballapur, its a 50KMs on NH7. At the end, you see the Bagepalli village. There you will come across the Toll. Rs55 for one way and Rs80 for to & fro. No prizes for guessing what I took. Yes, I took a return toll.

Then you see the Karnataka RTO checkpost. Lot of lorries parked left, right & center.Keep driving further and you see the RAXA Acadamey to your left. In next 1 or 2 KMs you see the AP Tourism restaurant, and immediately after that you need to take the left.

Once you turn left, you will the famous "Crane" spot. This would help you to confirm that you are in the right track.

Seems this area is full of corn cultivation. You can see hills of corns on the road waiting for transport. Drive through these nice curvy [now I know why mens like curve, ya mean the one on road. hehehe] roads. But the problem is every alternate KMs are super road, but the other alternative roads are not so. Its a narrow and bad road. Wondering what made them to think / implement in this angle.

Finally around 11 we reached the town of Lepakshi. Once you enter the Town, you are greeted by this Monolithic Nandi.

Its yours truly, posing in fornt of the Nandi...

Usual photo capturing around and we left to the Veerabhadraswamy temple. It is just within 500m from this place. A beautiful temple constructed almost 500 years before, still standing with pride.

This temple has a pillar which is actually hanging from the roof. Guides here prove this by passing a piece of cloth below the pillar. It was amazing to see those. Ya, there are still a plenty of unknowns in this world which was done in those earlier days at ease.

Le Moucheratte, France.

2010-06-05T13:27:00.000-07:00

I visited Grenoble after almost 5 years. This time it was 2 week visit. Since I had a car with me, I wanted to drive around. But talking with the locals, it seemed that hiking to the Le Moucheratte mountain would be a great adventure.

Its 1901m height. But we can drive till 1100m. From there is a tough trail to climb the rest of the 800m.

But then, there was also a warning that its a difficult one, and would take 2.5 hrs to just reach the top.

So, I was really thinking if I should do it or not. Anyway, decided to drive till there and take the call. After a good sleep till 9am, yup...

Started @ 10am from Hotel. It was a less than 30minutes drive to the Saint Neizer town. There is a office of tourism just when you enter the town/village.

The drive was awesome, with those hairpin bends, and view of Grenoble town from the roads. I did stopped couple of times to enjoy the scenic beauty. Finally, when I reached the village, I parked my car and got into the Tourism office. Had small chat with the office people and decided that I am not doing the climb on that day. The reason was, it hot and gonna be tough.

So, just walked around the town, got usual pictures and enjoying the site seeing. I was casually walking across the old church and saw a board indicating the direction of the mountain.

A evil thought from my inside said, why not try to climb as much as you can? And then stop if you cant. Nothing to lose. Right?

Ok, so decided to give it a try, started to climb. Initial 10-15 minutes was ok. So, I was just walking / climbing and after a while I felt very thirsty. It was just then I remember that I did not get anything from the car. Since I had no intension of climbing, I left all things in the car itself.

So, even if I want to have something, I need to go back atleast 30-40min of walking and then get the water. So, decided to forget about water and continue.

I see a couple who also walking in front of me. Had a casual talk and the first thing they said was, if you dont have water, better not to try any more. Wow, that was the worst I can listen to at that time. But they were kind enough to add that, I can request them if needed. Thanks for their hospitality.

And after about 1 hour of the climb, I was exhausted and cant move an inch. They both continued with same phase and I sat around the trees and rocks. I waited for 2-3 minutes before doing the attempt and finally was almost near the top. It should be like 40min to the top. I see 3 "young" ladies walking with their mountaineering sticks. I say young, because they should be more than 60 years old. Yes.

Seeing them, I got boosted and continue to climb and finally reach the top. On the way, I did see a stream of water flowing out of no where. Initially thought if it may not be sage to try those water. But then the situation I was, made to try it out. And it was not a bad idea. The water was refreshingly cold and re-ignited my spirit.

And finally after like 3 hours, I reach the top.

I go to the edge of the hill and see the ground below.

Wow, it was WORTH the pain. The whole city of Grenoble was viewable from there. The highways, CEA center, and other buildings was clearly visible. Also, the Alps surrounded by snow (snow was just starting to melt due to summer) was a beautiful view.

Heard that on a clear day, we can view the Mount Blanc from there. But I was not lucky enough.

And suddenly I hear a greeting from behind. I turn, and I see the same couple. They were surprised to see me there. They have decided that I would have returned back. Cant blame them, because that was my situation when they crossed me.

Then moved around and couple of pictures and started to decent. The decent was comparatively easy. The couple also joined with me while climbing down. We were talking about both India and French cultures, studies etc and to our surprise, we made the descent in 1:30min. You may be wondering if I am good in French. No, not at all. Then how did I interact with them? Ya she is a English teacher in one of the french school. So, got it?

Said a good bye and thanks for the couple and started to my hotel. And yes, it was a lovely hiking on this Saturday.

Venice, Italy

2010-05-29T00:38:00.000-07:00

So, whats coming up in this log?

If you wanna know interesting place to visit in Venice, then sorry, this is not the one for you. This is an unplanned, undecided travel with only one thing in mind.
I want to visit Venice. Period.

I did not even bother to print or take map of the land. Agreed, a land of water on all sides.

The only thing I did was to check train timing. So, what's in here then? Simple. If you want to explore the beauty of the Venice city, then just choose to walk around. Beleive me, its the best way to enjoy it.

And of course, be ready to get lost in the crowds on those crowded streets.

I woke up at 5am to make sure I can reach the first train from Milan, which is around 6:30am. Got myself ready and was out of hotel on my car to Gobba at 5:3-am. I reach Gobba metro station for parking my car and see that its closed. What the heck?

It just then I notice that it opens only by 6am. So, had to wait for 15min there and finally parked the car. The took a metro pass for the day and headed to Milan. Luckily, got the metro within 5 min and reached Milan station at 6:20am. All well so far.

Even though I had the Euro Star waiting to start at 6:35am, I could not buy any ticket. Hell with the automatic ticket vending machine. All the machine was saying this...

"Attention: System is restarting. Please wait..."

Ofcourse, it was reading this in almost 5 to 6 language and luckily I could read since it had a line in English too. lol.

By the time the system was ready to be used, it was 6:45am and Euro star would have already reached Lambrate station.

The next train was at 7:25am and a normal train. Which means, I save 50% of euro but loose extra one hour. That's fine. I took the ticket and went to the train.

The train did left on dot at 7:25am. No signal, no alarm, no honk or any signs of starting. It just took off.
Had a wonderful company in front of me in the train. So you know how the 3+ hours went just like that.

I get down in Venice, come out of the station and here I am, shouting with joy looking at this.

All I know in Venice is, San Marco which is on the other side. So, I wanted to just stroll through the streets. It was tough than I thought. With no maps and no idea of direction, I was just going through each street which ever came in front. With every 2 or 3 minutes of walk, you would either come to the bridge to cross water, or a dead end where the canal is flowing through.

So, enjoy the pictures taken all around.

This is made of Glass and as you know Venizia is very famous for these kind of works.

I was causally walking around the streets and reached the famous bridge on Venice, Rialto.

Some pictures around it.

After crossing the bridge I went straight to the San Marco square.

And was viewing this beautiful Campbell tower & cathedral.

From there to a park on a lonely street, and joined the other side of Venice. Watched those private hotels and luxury ships.

As usual clicked some pictures and here they are.

"City of Water", "City of Masks", "City of Bridges", "The Floating City", and "City of Canals"

Bergamo, Italy

2010-03-13T20:59:00.000-08:00

Museo Nazionale in Milan, Italy

2010-02-13T14:16:00.000-08:00

I was always a fan of Leonarda Vinci's work. Was very interested to see his work adn read about him. And when I came to know that there is a museum in Milan that hosts most of his ideas and work, it took just a sec to plan for it.

Although I planned it during my last visit, I could not make it. So this saturday I made sure I will visit this place for sure.

As usual, parked the car in Casina Gobba station and took the Red line to Snt. Ambrogio. The station is at walkable distance from the Musuem. Infact the station is right behind the exit door of the Museum.

This is rightly named after the great person Leonardo Da Vinci. A master of all arts.

Started around 1950's and that too in a 16th century Monaster. But slowly it is changing into the modern day buildings.

So what do they have?

The question itself is wrong. You should ask what they dont have. Will be easy to list it out.

Yes, they have plastic to metals, Arts to science, energy and up to the latest technology on communication and all field. They current hot topic of nano-technology is going to be started by March 2010.

This is one of the best Museum I have ever visited. So much stuff to learn and see around.

The museum is divided in to 4 sections.

The first section has the Automobile, telecommunications, Astronomy and the works and idea of Leonardo Da Vinci.

The second section is called Rail building. Where you can see those old-age steam and diesel beauties.

The third one is very interesting one. Its called the Enrico Toti Submarine.Wikipedia describes it as

"The submarine is notable as being the only Italian submarine to have sunk a Royal Navy submarine during the Second World War."

This legend is discontinued from service during the middle of 1960's. Then it was moved to this Museum around early 90's. Public can visit inside the submarine and have a feeling.

Next will be the Air & Water building. yes, they have the olden aircrafts and ships. Some of the Aircrafts will make you doubt if that was really used for flying. And yes, it is. That's the amount of changes the current technology has bought in.

Now lets move on to each of the sections.

At first I went to the stones section. I was wondering whats so peculiar to have in a Museum, and there I see so much rare stones.

The crystals, and their details well explained. So many types and so I cant explain them. Have a look by yourselves.

There were automobile section where you see this cuties.

In the telecommunications there was a big board quoting this

"Do you now, italian was the first to use FAX before telephone was invented?"

Interesting. They had the display of the classics which got retired after the recent mobiles. :)

Even though we have so much advanced cell phones, these classics always have a special place in our heart. Isn't it?

The most fasinating area was the line where they had many inventions from Da Vinci. Those are wooden models created with the sketches and drawings Da Vinci had created and explained in his books and notes. It so amazing because, he has discussed almost everything on earth.

He has explained about the military weapons to air screw [which later lead to airplanes ideas], dredging ships, moving cranes, portable bridges which can be used in military, some high power ships used to destroy the enemy ships etc etc.

They also had a section with the Musical Instruments. Very good collections they had. The speciality is, they have displayed how some of the instruments are actually made. So, was very much interesting to see a normal wood turning in to Violin or Guitar etc.

This museum is not just for display. It also has a program called i-labs, where school children can participate in the interesting science based workshops, experiments etc.

And its very cheap for the students if they show their ID card. less than half of what you and me pay.

Now, let's move to the next section...

Lago di Como, Italy!

2010-01-16T13:59:00.000-08:00

One more weekend in Italy. What to do? No more confusion. I decide to drive down to Lake Como which is north of where I stay.

Lake como is the 3rd largest lake in Italy. It flows like a inverted Y from the north of Italy to south.

Its a one hour drive from our hotel. We started at 10:30am.

Took the motorway, paid the Toll and finally reached the city of Como at 11:45am.

This was the one that welcomes you when you enter the Como city from the motorway.

This time the GPS saved us a lot within the city. We drove through the city center. On the way we saw a brewing factor.

The city was very scenic. Hills covered with fog, was a beautiful view to see.

We were just trying to find the water and followed the signs for it. Finally we saw the ferrys waiting for picking up people.

Assuming we have reached the destination, we now searched for the parking. Parked the car and walked down to the Ferry starting point.

The plan was to go to Bellagio, the next beautiful city around the lake. From there to go to two more places called Varenna and Mennagio. Basically there is nothing fancy in this place but a beautiful old european style villas and hotels facing the lake.

It will be a one hour travel in the Hydro-foil to Bellagio. And there was also some tours operated for oen hour. This tour will take you to surrounding places near como in ferry and drop you back to starting point.

Since we have already made up our mind to go to Bellagio, we took the ticket for the location. We had some 25min to spend before we had the Ferry. So, time for a coffee.

The moment I see the Ferry, my memories went back to Phi-Phi Island. And today, there is going to be one more memorable Ferry ride in the beautiful lake of the Italy.

The weather was too much foggy and could not see anything. We were very worried to see that. But we still continued to take the ferry hoping for it to get better.

Ok, the ferry arrives, we board and pick the front two seats for a better view. Yes, hope. Its all hope that we will get the weather better.

From the moment the Ferry started, we were only clicking and clicking. Too many nice views. All the colorful building along the mountains as their backdrop and lake in front.

Eventhough it was cloudy and foggy, we were able to get good views. But, if it had been more clear sky, it would have been a bonus.

We pass each stops and after like 20min, the weather completely changed. Sun started shining and everyone on board was happy and cheering out.

We reached Bellagio in 50min.

It was a small hilly town. I was surprised to see all the shops closed over there. Eventhough its a tourist spot, most shops are closed for the weekend. Was wondering what these Europeans really do on weekends. Anywhere you go, they close their business and no where seen.

We had no maps or plans to see. So, just started to take a stroll around the town.

We were attracted by the steps that was leading up to somewhere. We take it and reach the other roads and churches up hill. And finally we reached a point where it was no more way. That was an excellent and romantic location. See it for yourself.

I did see some couples spending time over there. One of them was from Australia. Had a chat and left the place.

We took some pictures of the place (and not the couples!!!) and leave. While we were about to see, we see a UK couple coming to this place. Actually, we met them in the ferry. They started in a opposite direction and hence we said bye to them, walked down here only to see them coming back to this same place.

Then we walk back in search of some restaurant. Finally we found one opened. And we did see bunch of people sitting inside and enjoying lunch. No wonder, this was the only one open and hence all crowds here. And we see the Australian couples in there. We all were smiling each other quoting how small the world is.

By the time we ordered our lunch, we see the same UK couple back in the same restaurant. And everyone around was cheering and smiling when they said, they are following us. yes, indeed a small world. Is n't it?

Then we took another ferry to Varenna. I see that many people take their car in the Ferry to go to the next town across the lake.

When we reached Varenna, we were invited by an beautiful site. It was small and cute. And the cute little thingy was...

Varenna was also a good town to take a stroll. We went around the town and took the next ferry to Menaggio.

Mennagio was actually a bigger city like the Como. We went around the city and visited one of the Church there. Did some shopping around and left for Como in the next Ferry.

This is something I shot in the shop.

It would be good to revisit this places in Summer. Hope to make it. Lets see.

Duomo in Milan, Italy

2010-01-09T01:49:00.000-08:00

After exactly a decade today I land in a foreign country on a New Year. Yes, the last trip I made on a New year was 01-01-2001 and now its 01-01-2010. Whats a better way to start a new year?

This time it was Italy. Although I have been in Italy for several times, it was always south of Italy, Catania. But this time it was Milano. Wow, I thought myself so lucky and plan for Rome, Pisa, Venice and florence. Never thought how I will make it, but just want to make it happen.

But when I reached Milan, everything was a mess. I fell sick very badly and was not able to move out anywhere for next 4 days. There goes all my 3 days of leaves and plans. Anyway, I had a doctor visit my hotel and prescribe some medicines for the flu. It took almost a week for me to get back to start my driving.

So, with initial days of driving to office, the Saturday came. I was so keen to make it to Duomo on this Saturday. Add to that the weather was also plesant.

But one big trouble in this hotel I stayed was, you are literally out of connectivity on weekends. Not that its great in Weekdays, but you don't need it.

There are sub-way stations around 10-15KMs. But no connecting bus or trams from this Hotel. So, either you need to take a Taxi with a minimum fare of 35Euro or drive down to one of the Metro station, park and take a train.

I decided to do the latter. I drove down to Gobba. Driving was plesant and signs was easy to follow and reach the station. Was there in less than 40min and parked the car.

In Italy, you have something called 24hour-Pass for the metros. It costs you 3 Euro. You also have 48 Hour-Pass costing 5.5Euros.

I took the 3Euro pass and boarded the Green line towards Loreto. In Loreto, changed the line to RED and got down in Duomo station.

The moment I came up from the station, I was surprised of the View. I am standing right in the Duomo. I was initially worried of searching or walking to the Cathedral. never thought I will land straight in that place.

I see people having fun on the stairs of the station. One side of the staircase was designed in such a way that it sounds the note from Piano for each of the steps. So, people were walking and dancing on that stairs for making those sounds. Hmm, a warm welcome.

Then I see this guy on the horse staring at me. Ya, its the statue right in the center. I take a picture of the fellow and turn back. I see one person looking at me. For a moment, I can literally read his mind. He was also alone like me in this place and longing to pick-up some talk with other than Italian people.

I say a hi to him, we greet each other and finally seems he is from Bangladesh. Good, atleast we have someone to take a picture of ourself.

I mostly had this problem when going to many places. I will take all pictures of the places, but seldom will have myself in those pictures.

We keep clicking each others pictures and the Duomo in different angle and approach the gate. We had a security check and enter the Duomo. It was really impressive. The statues are all form 15th and 16th century. One would wonder how precisely these were made in those olden days.

There was a lively and scary statue of Saint Bartholomew. Seems it was sculpted by the artist and in fear, he did not want to even accept it was him who did this work. because, the statue shows the saint after he was skinned alive!!!

We move around the cathedral and saw the body of some saint persevered from 1584.
Then we came out in search of the steps to reach the roof. You have 2 options to reach the roof. One is through the lift, and other walking up in the steps. I was in the impression that we will get some good view while walking and hence took that route. Later found that it was just waste. Its a narrow and steep staircase which gives no view by only pain in legs.

Stairs cost 5Euro and Lifts cost 8Euro. I guess 8Euro would have been worth. Anyway, finally when we reached the top all the pain in the leg just vanished due to the excitement we had.

Words cant express the excitement. Pictures can speak a little. It had to be felt by presence.

The weather was also helping us till this time. It was shiny, but just started to drizzle.So, we took nice pictures and then returned back. Had some good lunch in the near by MacDonald.

Again roamed a little in those drizzling rain and had the view of the shops. Nice shops but felt those are really expensive items. Anyway, no expense for window shopping, right?

Finally around 2:30pm, left from the place. Took the subway and reached Gobba Parking.

This time thought of driving towards the countryside and skipped the autostrade roads. Eventhough it was not as easy as the toll road, but was fun.

More pictures here

Weekend Trip: Jog falls with full Josh...

2009-07-19T21:18:00.000-07:00

It was in my plan for almost 2 years now. When I heard all news talking about too much of rain around Shimoga, sagar and coastal region, I immd decided to go to Jog the very same weekend.

Jog is around 380KMs from Bangy. Since we stay near to outer ring road, we took the ORR, Hebbal, Jalahalli, Tumkur road, Neelamangala, Gubbi, Arasikere, Shimoga to Sagar.

Started @ 7am from nice road Junction.
Reached Sagar @ 1:30pm. Exactly 390KMs from home to hotel.
Took the Tumkur by-pass road. Oh, very bad situation. This needs immd attention, literally no roads. Had breakfast in Gubbi. The roads are awesome when compared to our previous venture when we guys did the Tirthahalli trip.

After having lunch we left for the Jog falls around 3pm from hotel Vardhashree.

Nice roads with occasional pot holes, but you will definitely enjoy those curves!!!

Since it was raining heavily, we could not take much pics on the roads. Very bad.

And beware of those "Force" travel guys on the roads between Jog & Sagar. They are terrible. Caution required. I saw one Force hitting "happily" the omni at rear right. The Force was coming from the Jog bridge and the omni was coming straight from the Honnavar road.

While I was seeing whose going to stop, none of them did and had a neat collision. Damages not so bad, but Omni's rear right was dented. I could see the omni being pushed to side when the force bumped on it.

I was worried mainly because, that was the place where you have the fuel store. Lucky, nothing bad occured.

We went to the Jog with so much of expectation, since it was rainling heavily for the past weeks. We got equally disapponted when we reach there and saw the condition.

It was completely covered with mist. No oen will even believe that there was a Falls there. Nothing visible.

So, with no option we returned back to hotel praying the god for getting us a beautiful view the next day.

Was expecting a mighty JOG and ended us viewing those misty Jog only. We even thought if we did a mistake of making that trip in this rainy season. To add to that, the hotel guys said, it will be same next day too. Only when the rain stops and its windy the mist will clear.

I am sure you know how it would feel on hearing this. Especially after traveling 400KMs with kids on those rainy days.

Due to rain and not-in-a-good-mood, the flowing of pics was also not in mind. So, we could not take much pics on the day one.

When we reach the Jog falls, it was heavily raining. My son was in srini's Ikon and so he went to the main place of Jog with Srini. I wanted to view the jog from British Bunglow side. Thanks to Lalu's direction.

When you go to Jog falls, you have a bridge that connect to the other side of the falls. This is the usual route people take. There is also one more route (infact many) that leads you to the falls itself. One such route is around 2 KMs after you pass the bridge without crossing it.

One big problem here is parking. Litereally no place to park and people park it as they like. So, sometimes it becomes too difficult to take your car when you want to.

Me, my wife and daugther went to and parked our vehicle in there. There are some steps to a view point. From there you do have a good view of falls. But people dont stop with that. They go beyond the steps, get into the rocks and peep in down the falls. Quite dangerous, but young blood. Who can say anything?

We also tried to get to some distance near. But since I had kid with me, do not want to go further.

Within few meters, the soil was too lose due to heavy rain. Many people lost there shoes since it got stuck heavily in to it. My wife sandal was also got stuck. But not so bad. We were able to recover it without tearing apart. Saved a shopping day! lol..

When we went there, at first we saw the same mist. Although we were let down by that, thought it will clear. Luckily it did clear for some time to time.

Since there was no signal in phone, I was unable to inform Srini about my whereabouts. So, after seeing the Jog, we decided to leave to the other side. When we were approaching our car, we noticed srini family coming.

Then started out second round of Jog visit.

My wife & kid rested in front of the Bungalow while me and Srini family went to the falls. Now, since I did not had kid, I was able to see much more glory of the falls.

Then we tried to go to the Rani falls. But was denied entry. Seems it was colsed and gaurded due to heavy rains. So, went to the Power station. The power station is just behind the Parking lot. Best way is to walk from parking lot and have fun and view.

Then we headed back to hotel. Got couple of delicious Pineapple on the way back.

We drove back in thoseheavy rains. We had rains almost till Shimoga.

After that it was just drizzling and never stopped till entering Tumker I guess.

Rameswaram & Gulf of Mannar

2009-06-01T19:26:00.000-07:00

Eventhough this had been in my plan for long time, never had a chance to make. Last weekend, I finally made it.

Rameswaram is a small village in the southern tip of India. The main places will include the Adiyaman beach, Danuskodi, Ramar Padham (The Feet of Lord Rama) and ofcourse the famous temple of Shiva.

From Madurai, you should get on to the NH49 and keep continuing. It literally hits the temple gopuram in Rameswaram and thats how you are welcomed in to the town. The most common public transport in here is auto. People normally come buses and take auto for sight seeings. .

We reached Rameswaram at 9am and had the breakfast in Ganesh mess. Its just before the temple.

The practice in here is first to visit the beach. Have your bath and then go to the temple. In the temple, there are about 22 theerthams or wells. You are suppose to bath in all these wells. You will have a official fees of 13rs per person for the same. But thats just for the sake of it. You need to hire a person to pour for you in every wells. It ranges from 50rs per person and above.

Since we had a local friend in Rameswaram, he guided us himself. We had good bath in all the 22 wells. We were infact thanking this rituals since the whether was so hot. But due to this we did not feel anything.

Then we were ready for the Darshan at 1pm. We went and had an excellent darshan.

The next destination was to Danuskodi. Had a good lunch before reaching there. Danuskodi is an excellent spot for outing. The way to Danuskodi is full of trees on either sides, with little or no roads in middle. You can see the sea on both the sides of the road. Heard that it will close the roads if it rains heavily. We could see sea sand almost along the full stretch of the roads.

I heard there are no electricity till in Danuskodi. All use only the kerosene lamps in those huts. Normal cars can real only till the starting of Danuskodi. You need to hire a 4x4 van to visit the village. They charge 80rs per person for both up & down.

We hired and went. The route was compeltely on sand. Infact there is no route. Its just vast sand dunes and vehicle crawls on that.

Now coming to the pictures.

Chikku Bhukku Railu

Weekend Trip: Visit to Tiruvannamalai...

2009-04-04T02:02:00.000-07:00

Route : Bangalore - Hosur - Krishnagiri - Kannanda halli - Uthangarai - Chengam - Tiruvannamalai.
Distance : 493Kms (Home to Home)

I woke up around 7am on 4th April with a sudden a flash of an idea to visit Arunachaleswar in Tiruvannamalai. I ask my wife and she was ok. The plan was to reach the place around 5pm, stay for the night and next day visit Gingee fort. Then to return to Bangalore.

I left around 12:45pm from home, zeroed the trip meter and took the usual, speed breaker famous route of the Varthur-Sarjaur road. With not so traffic, we reached the border at 1:35pm. I saw a large number of Tata sumos with VIP escort marked on them with several police vans parked in the border.

So, I crossed then and stopped a little front. When I enquired a police man he mentioned that It was for Dr. Abdhul Kalam's visit to Hosur.

Then we finished the lunch in BP-Chinnar A2B, and started to head Tiruvannamalai. After we took the right in the NH46 and entered the NH66, roads was not good. But i wont say it bad either. With pot holes here and there, but still can be driven under a comfortable speed of 60-80kmph.

We made on halt around a village just before those level crossing at Samalpatti. This stop was due to those beautiful Sunflower garden we saw on the right side of the road. Had a photo session and started again.

Then we reached the Sri Ramana Maharishi Ashramam around 5-5:30pm. Unfortunately we did not get any accomodation in Ashram. So, decided to check some near the Temple. We went straight to the parking lot of the temple, parked the car and checked for the lodges around there.

We got one called Kalaimagal Lodge for around 600rs per night. It was a A/C room with a clean toilet.

Once we were in hotel, we refreshed ourselves and decided to visit the temple. We went to temple around 8pm. Since it was not a peak month there was no crowd. Infact, there were very less people and we had real good time for the Dharsdan.

The main Gopuram that you enter first is called the Rajagopuram. This is the 2nd tallest in India. Once you enter you will see the Murugar sanidi to your left. Visit and continue further. Dont be surprised if kids of around 10yrs and even lesser keeps bugging you to buy the flowers they sell. They will be found pleanty even inside the temple.

Then you will cross the Nandi. Towards the right hand side you have the Badala Lingeswar. Hostory says that Ramana maharishi was found here meditating and his body was eaten up by worms. One more Rishi has taken him from here to the Ashram.

We decided to visit here while returning after Unnamalai dharsan. This temple is constructed in 2 layers of wall. First layer have four Gopuram in each direction and the main is the Rajagopuram. Once you enter this layer, again you will find one more wall with 4 gopuram. And you enter this to see the Unnamalaiyan.

So, totally you have 9 gopurams in this temple. The 9th one is in the center.

We went inside and had good dharsan because of very few people. We walked so leasuirely around the temple. We say the temple door begining to close and it was when we started to move from temple. This is what a plus when you stay next to temple.

Had our dinner in the near by restaurant (Ganesh Bhavan). Had nice dosas, Othapam and coffee.

It was around 10pm when we hit the bed.

Just posting the pics of those magnificent gopurams.

Whichever view you see, one cannot miss those beauty and artistic work on it...

Next day morning, we got up at 5am and got ready around 6am and left to temple.

We finished the a wonderful dharsan and had some couple of pics inside the temple. We sat inside the temple. It was so nice admiring those art works. Seldom we get time to spend like this.

My daughter was so happy and was dancing all the while and playing. We had breakfast in the near by hotel called Arunachla. It has a restaurant also. Food was ok.

Next was to Gingee.

It was almost 10:30am and hot weather. But we thought of visiting the fort. Srini's brother was smart and said he will stay in AC rather than coming to fort. So, we all went in my car.

Roads from there was also good.

Btw, I see a broad road crossing this stretch after like 20kms of Tiruvannamalai. Not sure which road is this. Any idea?

Gingee is 38Kms from Tiruvannamalai town. You will start seeing the fort on the hill when you enter Gingee. You need to turn right to go to the Palace and fort. When we reached the fort, the sun was right on top of our head. Entrance fees was Rs5 for Indians, and Rs100 for others.

Luckily we met with a insider who is working there. He was kind enough to explain us the details of the fort.

So here it goes.

The moment you enter the fort, you will see a circular place build of rocks. This is the flag hoisting place. Whichever king rules, his flag will be placed here. He mentioned around 13 Kings have been in this fort.

Just to opposite to this on the right is the "Murasu Mandabam". Its here they keep those big drums and announce messages.

Then you enter inside and to your right you will see the Kalayana Mahal.

Bottom of the Mahal is the Queen's swiming pool. There is a mud pipe connection coming from the hill for water to the pool.

Next you have the Elephant tank to your left where elephants use to have water. And to the right you will have the place where horses will be tied.

Straight you will face the ruined palace. The palace first has a BIG bed made of Single rock. It also has a pillow sort of thing made again in single rock. This was decorated with velvette clothes to make it like cushion. Raja was suppose to sit here and watch the dance that is done opposite to this.

The place you see on top of the hill is the one where they have "Aaraichi/Aalosanai Mani" (complaint bell???). Next to that is the Ranganathan Temple.

Still further you have a circular staircase which leads you to the individual rooms of the palace. But there are no rooms now, all are runied and just some walls present.

Once we are done with this, we deicded to return due to the hot weather. There is also a Gym for the soldiers next to the elephant tank.

After returning from Gingee, we headed to Maharishi Ashram.

We did not had much time and hence decided to just visit Swami's samadhi. We were greeted by many peacocks. What a lovely place it was? They also have his room he used last, with all his belongings.

When I took this pics, I could see people staring at me like "what the heck is this guy doing?" But how do they know that these are some of the memories that never vanishes? Like first smile, first step, first word, this is first drawing of my daughter.... How can I miss. Hehehe

When we are done, we started to drive back to Bangalore.

Salamat Detang - Malaysia, Truely Asia

2009-03-07T22:16:00.000-08:00

So, now I am back to a foreign land. This times its again the Asain country. Malaysia.

Although I have already visited this country, I never had a chance to stay or visit Penang. This time, I got the oppurtunity for that. I reach Penang through air via Kaulalumpur from Bangalore. You need to complete the Immigration procedures in KL itself. Then take the domestic terminal and reach Penang. Its just an hour flight. By the time you finish the Wafer & Peanut they provide, you will asked to fasten the seat belt for landing!!!

I reach here at 10am. Passed through the customs and arrived the arrival hall. You have a prominent Taxi Service booth waiting to serve you. Went to the place and booked a taxi for my hotel. Its G-Hotel in George Town. They charged my 38MYR. Good system. Its a pre-paid service and you show the slip to the cab driver outside and he drops you to the destination. Hassle free trip.

When I reach the hotel, initially the receptionist mentions that the room is not ready and will be available only by 2pm since its the Check-in time. I was wondering what to do. It was just 11am. Anyway, even before I complete the formalities, she said only one King size room is ready and I can check-in if I am ok. A big smile in my face. Get the key, Oops card, go the 11th Floor where my room is.

It was a wonderful room and had a good view to the ocean as well. Time to refresh. Called my home, informed about my safe arrival and refreshed myself.

Went out for a short walking in the hot sun. I noticed that the traffic even at this time (12noon) is too much. No space to walk or cross the road also. Probably because of the Sunday fever. Not sure.

Then joins my co-worker from US. Around 2pm, we both started to explore the location. We wanted to have something to eat on the road side and ence we walk along the beach. We found a good place called Coffee island for lunch. It took almost 1 hour to get our food. Then we again started to walk along the same beach and clicking the pics.

Panaroma - 1

Panaroma - 2

Panaroma - 3

After a long walk we returned hotel and started to work to complete the items for the customer. Then evening we left to the Hawkers shop. Wow, so much of varieties, fish, meat, shark etc etc...

We tried a little bit of this and that and some was really good. When we were really hungry we deciced to get to the hotel for the dinner. it as a pretty nice restaurant. Almost empty. We went and I had Cumin Fish Fillet. Umm, it was delicious. My friend had some Green soup with chicken. It was late night when we are done, went straight to sleep.

Eventhough it was public holiday on Monday, we could nto go out anywhere in the first part of the day. We were busy working for the demo to be shown the next day. Later in the afternoon, thought of exploring Penang. So decided to go to the Chinese temple called Kek Lok Shi temple.

It is around 10-12 KMs from the hotel where we stayed. We took a taxi and reached there in around 40min. There mostly none of the taxi puts meter. Its all flat rate for each palces depending on the area you are in.

The temple was having huge number of Buddha. Everywhere you turn and you will find these statues of different sizes. Said to be around 10K Buddhas.

Some pics from the temple.

There are 2 important places you need to see you visit here. One is the Pagoda and the other is the huge statue of Goddess of Mercy which was made of bronze and gifted by China to Penang. It is 30m in height.

Currently construction work is going on for providing a roof to this statue. The roof will be hold by 6 giant pillars. The temple is collecting funds for finishing that roof. So, if you pay 30RM, you can write the name on one of the roof slabs. So I paid and had my names and family member names in one of the slab.

Then planned to visit Penang hill. We could not get any taxi from the temple. So, we need to walk down the hill and followed the signs to the Penang Hill station. But when we reached the station it was almost 6:30pm and hence we did not make it to the top. We thought we could have good view in those less visibility and no day light.

One day we both went to the Botanical Garden. We found some bikes parked in front of the hotel and enquired if it is for rent. But luckily, its free for hotel guest. So, we both started in the bike.

It was hot sun but it did not stop us from cycling. On the way we saw many Hindu temples including the Thai-Pusam famous Balamurugan temple. But it was all closed since it was noon. Kept driving and reached the garden. had good stroll in the garden and good fun with the monkeys. Then we took some less taken trail in the garden. It seems it was once a very good botanical garden. But now not so well maintained.

Politics,
there also corrupt. but so much good infrastructure...

After a couple of days visit to the customer place, I some time around noon of friday. So visited the Penang hill again.

Sawadee Kaa, Land of Smiles

2009-02-19T22:31:00.000-08:00

It all starts with my friend asking me to plan a trip to Thailand for him. I get all details, flights, hotels etc and finally he drops. This planning made me to think about what if I do the trip? And since we have been thinking of making a foreign trip for almost 4 to 5 years now, we said, ok we are doing it.

I book the tickets 2 weeks before the trip. Keep searching Agoda.com for hotels and other online forums, blogs etc to make this trip a merry.

We were so excited about the trip since this was our first trip where in we all go together. The plan was to go to bangkok and visit Phi-Phi Island. I booked the park Hotel in Sukhumvit Soi 7. And also book the Phi Phi Natural Island in Phi Phi northern island.

Finally the D-Day arrives. I booked the meeru cab for reaching the Airport. Since it was 13th Feb and there was Air show going on, i was worried about the traffic. And hence we took the Devanahalli route through the White field. Eventhough it was little logner (almost 120rs extra) it was worth it. We just reached Airport in 1;: from Brookfield.

The flight was @ 00:30am, and we were in airport at 8:45pm on the previous day. The check in counter was also not open. So, was just roaming around the airport with my kid.

Around 9 - 9:30 they open teh check-in counter, I check-in my luggage. It was just 26Kgs and the guy checking was smiling at it. So, I was just asking him if I get concession for less baggage. Lol.

Got the boarding pass and headed to the Immigration. Since we were early, there was not much crowd. Got the stamps and passed the security at ease.

Now, we still had almost 2.5 hours to kill. What to do? Umm, what else, window shopping only. We managed to kill almost 1 hour. But got bored after that. Every second was like years and I almost lost control when my kid kept asking when the flight will start for every few seconds.

Finally, the flight arrives, we board in. Only when I enter the flight my wife asks me who sits in the Window seat. Ha, I forgot to get a window seat when checking in. We got the 3 center rows. I convince my wife saying, even if you arein window seat you dont happen to see anything since its all dark.

Zoooooooooooooing.... Sound of flight getting to its V2 speed for take off!!! And there we go a small dot on the sky under the thick clouds.

14-Feb-2009 [Happy Valentines Day!]

Sharp 5;15am, flight touches the Suvarnabhumi Airport. I see my son sleeping in thte next seat. Thinking if i should wake him up now or wait for the taxi to be done. Then change my mind adn wake him up, show him the outside airport. Eventhough he was sleepy, the view of teh airport immideately makes him fully awake with him jumping to his feet to peep into the next window.

ha, that was one reason I want to keep away from waking up. Anyway, I tell him, its not right time to do that and should wait for the Flight to stop compeltely. Reluctantly he accpets and wait for teh stop.

The moment it stops, he breaks the seat belt, jumps from the sat and rush to teh window. But the other fellow passenger was also equally fast that he cant reach teh window. Everybody was on thier feet.

Since we got the seat at the last, we waited for sometime to get down. We follow the Immigration & baggage claim signs. We reach the Visa on Arrival counter. Damn, it was crowded. I could see the agent from Cox & Kings holding a playcard and huge number of people who have come for a tour I guess.

I pickup the visa application, fill it in, stand in the queue. Then I suddenly realise that it has to be Local currency for visa fees. Go to the nearest Exchange, change the dollars and back to the queue. If it had been India, I would have re-joined the queue in smae place, but its a FOREIGN land, so just koin the queue again at the end. Hehehe...

Submit the application and get the token number. Then we need to wait in the hall till you are called for that token number. that took about 20min.

I reach the Immigration counter and was almost fainted. huge huge crowds in all the counters. It was standing till the arrival hall. I was standing for more than 30 min and a gentle man comes and informs, passenger with children no need to stand in this long Queue. OMG, I lost so much time. Then I goto the near by counter which is closed but allowed only for special passengers like us. Seems there are lot of trainee officers in place. Me and my son went to the trained officer, got the stamps. My wife went to a traniee and was getting delayed. There was sme hush-hush when she was stamped, and later I realized that she stamped wrong date off 13th Feb, instead of 14th Feb. Anyway, never mind.

When I reach the baggage belt, i dont see our flights. Only then i realize that it was 7:30am, almost 2 hours after landing. So, the belt was not known and I go to the baggage service office, get the belt number. Back to teh belt and i see my 2 baggage calmly waiting for me to pick it up.

Atlast, we are in Land of Smiles. Great!!!

Since I have read several bad remarks on the Taxi system of Thailand, I went straight to the Public Taxi stand. When I was taking the coupon for ttaxi, a gentle man asked if it was first time to bangkok. on me aying yes, he directed me to a tourist information desk. There she gave a map. i was feeling good and appreciating. Only then I came to knwo it was just to sell teh tour for Graandpalace. She offered it for $8 per person while the normal charge was $40. bith amount was mentione dby her only. Since I was not interested to take any chance, just ignored and ledft from there.

She also gave a paper which was written with my hotel info and address in Thai. I was suppose to give this to Taxi driver. I came out, feel the fresh air of bangkok. Took a Taxi. The taxi driver went a few meter adn showed a paper which read 660 BHAT. He managed to make me understand that he wanted that amount to go to Sukhumvit area. It was just then I remember about i all these tactics, and checked the meter. it was not switched on. I force him to switch it on. After some initial talks he finally puts it on.

While on the way he asks me to give the toll charges. I give him first a 25BHAT and then 45BHAT in the second toll. Later when we reach the Sukhumvit soi 7, he stops on the main road saying that it was a one way and hence he cant get in. Ok, I see the meter. it smiles at me showing 197BHAT. Cool, I give him 200BHAT and reach for the Hotel.

My wife was surprised to see the area. It was a busy place and was almost similar to India. She had a assumption that she is going to see sky scrappers, clean roads as we usually see the US and other western cities in movies.

We check into the hotel around 8:30am. The room was clean and had basic amenities without any luxury.

Since we already planned for going to Kanchanaburi to see the Tigers, we immd refreshed ourselves and got ready in next 1 hour. I had no clue on how to go there, but decided to take a BUS from Southern bus terminal. This was the info I got on the net. When we got down, a guy came running to us asking if we need a car for the day. Initially I refused and strated to walk. But the guy did not leave. Was following us and finally I picked up some talk with him. He said he will charge 2500BHAT for going and coming back. I negotiated for 1500BHAT, but he was not in a mood to accept. So, we left.

Then immd another guy came. Seems the previous guy informed him. He said he will take us for 2000BHAT. Since I kow that the place was far and even on buses and taxis it should cost around 1200BHAT, I thought ok, lets take it for 2000BHAT.

Once we enter the parking lot, we see this Mercedes waiting for us. Umm, nice one though. Then he slowly said why dont you try to peep into the Crocodile park and elephant show which is on the way.

Since it was on the way, we decided to take it. It was a very long drive though. We reached there and driver said, please add 100BHAT to the 2000BHAT smilingly. Now we know why he was doing all these. Anyway, we said ok. He also mentiones that show starts from 11am.

I go to the counter and ask for 2 Adults (500BHAT / person) & 1 child (300BHAT) ticket. Also, I was asking for the show timing. The lady in the seat just starred at me but never opened the mouth. I reluctantly paid money and went inside. We kept searching for the show. Later we found that it was only on Sunday and National holiday they have show from 11am. Other days it starts at 12:45pm. So I was really upset for the expense I made and returned back immd to the cab after seeing whatever we can see on the way.

It was

I told the cab driver that he should have guided us correctly. he said he will go and check. I was silently following him. It was then I found out that they get commission for brining people there.

Guys, be very careful and do NOT take anyones words in Bangkok. Mostly, the reason for them to help us (or pretend to) is that they will get some benefits.

Driver said, you can see the show and we can leave around 2pm. Still we will be able to see the tigers etc. But I dont want to buy his words. I have read the timing and it closed around 3:30pm. So, we again started to head Kanchanabhuri. It was very long distance an we reached the place sharp 2pm.

I get the ticket [500BHAT per person] and enter. The place was like a open forest. It has a huge compound wall surronded and you see the deers all roaming around freely.

The moment we cross those place, you will certianly close your nose. Yes, it was smelling so badly due to the open toilet or the food for those animals.

First we went to see the cubs in there. When we went there we were so excited to see those cubs jumping up and down and having Milk in the feeding bottle. :)

They had a small queue. We joined the queue and had a chance to sit near the cub for sometime and play with it. One cub was almost on my legs jumping and my pants were all become dirty. But who cares!!! I was holding the cub and suddenly that fellow almost biten my little finger. Luckily nothing happened except for a feeling like a small scratch.

Then we left from there and went to the main place where they have the big guys.

Wow, the whole place was like a shooting spot. They have huge fans with water being sprinkled from it to make the area cooler. Couple of big umberllas for shades. And ofcourse a looong queue.

We saw 2 queue there. One was very short and other was long. On enquiry they said that the 2nd queue (shorter one) is for people who can pay extra 1000BHAT. This not only gives you quick access to tiger, but you can also get some nice pictures with the tigers head on your lap, you hugging the tiger and a tiger teeth/nail chain something.

We decided to just skip those part adn joined the lengthy queue. It was really moving very slow. The volunteries there actually take each people holding thier hands, keep the hands on the tiger and take pictures. Two volunteers for one visitor. One takes you and the other takes the picture. They repeat the same with all the tigers over there.

We were waiting for our turn. One voluntere gives announcing that we should not have dark / bright color attire, nothing hanging from the clothes, no reflective specs etc.

Finally we get the chance. We go with one of the volunteers and she takes us to each of the Tiger, we sit next to tiger, touch them and they click us.

Wow, what a feeling. Even if you initially had some fear for these wild cats, after you touch them it will fly away. You will be eager to keep playing more and more with the Tiger. The body is so soft. When I was touching the 2nd or 3rd tiger, it gave me a small hit with its tail. Oh, luckily the tail was clean. Lol...

You can see many volunters keep on fan-ing the tigers and pouring water to keep it cool. Sometimes the Monks come and do a friendly hug to the tiger and they also help the volunters. Some one big tigers, it was always these monks who came and lifted the head so the vistor can sit near it, put the lap beneth the head and take the picture. It was the only tiger which was really big amoung the rest.

After we are done with all the tigers we again went back to the Cub. Played with it for somemore time and then left the place. It was 4pm when we came out of the place. Then we started heading back to hotel. On the way, the driver was trying to get one more 2000BHAT for the next day. Ha, no more chance. I said firmly that I will not be taking any taxi tomorrow and will like to take the Metro rails and buses. To that he mentions, you cannot make it, becasue Thailand trains and buses are not as good as our place. But since I was determined to try the Public transport, he failed to convince me.

He was also asking me if I have already got the ticket for going to Phuket. When i said no, he was consistantly trying to take me to a booking office. but, after reading all those horror stories of these type, I said a big no.

Finally we reached the hotel around 7:30pm. We refreshed ourselves and again started our journey.

My kid asked if we can try those elevated trains. The metro (BTS) train is waht he was mentioning. Since we were staying very near to the Nana BTS station, we took the train from that place to Siam square.

It costs 40Bhat per person. We take the ticket from the vending machine, get into the automated entry and walk to the platform. The connectivity is very good. They have the trains in a frequancy of about 3-4mins. We take the train and start towards the Siam square.

It was so nice to view the city with all building lighted up and that too from a high raised position. in moments we reached the destination. When we came out we saw a huge crowd with loud music. Ah, thats when we remember that it is Valentines day. With youngsters all round, with bouquet in hands.

Lound music with lights was attracting everyones attention. We walked around for a while, crossed the crowd with great difficulty and finally saw a Mac Donald. Decided to have our dinner right there, we get into it. Had a nice dinner and decided to do some more walking back to our place.

It was almost 9pm and it was time when the street side shops comes to life. We can see everywhere on the street, people setting up the shops. Had a good walk back and hit the sack with no plans of what to do the next day!

15-Feb-2009 [Happy birthday MJ]

I wake up the next day around 6:30am. We all got ready by 7am and started to plan for the day. Suddenly my son jumps and says, Happy birthday dad. Wow, it is. And we just share the joy and decide to go to the Grand Palace for the day. Since we need to check out before 12 noon, we also decide to check out before leaving.

The plan is to go for the Grand Palace, roam around and come back to hotel by 3pm. We checked out around 7:30am, and start to walk to the Nana BTS station. Our driver guys comes one by one and asks for cab for the whole day. I just ignore all those fellows, climb the stair for the station and get 3 ticket to the Saphan Taksin station.

This station is connected to the Pier, called the port/harbour. From here we were told that we can take the ferry/boat to The Grand Palace.

The train journey from Nana BTS to this place is actually in 2 different trains. The connecting station is the SIAM. We need to get down in this station and take a different train to Taksin.

In less than 30min you will arrive to the Taksin station. The scenes from the train was very interesting and view was much clear due to broad day light. Totally different from the previous days night journey.

Once we reached the Taksin station, we had no clue on which way to go. We saw a Information counter in here and so asked them. They said we can take the boat service in teh river to reach the Grand Palace and we need to get down in Tha Chang pier. She also mentioned that it would be less than 20BHAT per person on me asking the rates.

Ok, we follow the signs and the pier is very near to the station. Once you get down on the left of Exit 2, you will see this pier. It like a bus service operated by Bangkok govt. You will also find many touts and other boat operators bugging you and telling the govt boats will take atleast 30min to come etc etc story. They charge you anywhere between 120BHAT to 300BHAT depending on what they thin at that time. yes, its huge money.

We wait for a while for the boat bus to come. Meanwhile we have a mini photo session clicking all the colorful boats around there. We take the boat going towards the Tha Chang and the boat conductor comes for ticket. It costs ONLY 13BHAT for the destination.

They have a peculiar cylindrical box which had tickets rolled inside. The way they tear the ticket from that is really funny.

Then we enjoy the environment, surrounded all sides by water, with speed boats going up adn down, long tail boats with restaurants on it etc.

We got down in Tha Chang pier. We were greeted with a crowdy place with shops on all the sides with little way for walk. Its a very busy junction.

When I arrive the road, 2 guys [the tuk-tuk drivers] comes asking for where we are heading too. i just ignored these people. If you wanna know the reason, just google for "Thailand Gem Scam" and you know why. Infact the same thing was sort of happening to me too.

They said the Grand palace was closed for the day and he woudl take me to different place to see. I ignored him since i was already aware of these tactics.

You cross the road and will see a white compound wall. This is actually the part of those Grand Palace. Follow the compund straight further and you will have the entrance on the right side of the road.

When you enter the palace, you will first see police/army everwhere. There is a special room for them to the right. They also have regular drills everyday. Dont be surprised if you see bunch of soldiers marching briskly towards you with those rifles. its a routine exercise. You would really love those single and syncronished sound of boots.

Then you will see everyone taking picutres of those palace in the backgorund. It was a tough job since the sun was in same direction as you take the pictures.

From there we go to the counter and they charge 350BHAT per person and its free for the Kids. You start getting to the entrance from there and you can see a board mentioning separate lines for Thai people and Foriegn people. Not sure why.

They also have people checkign your attire. If your attire is nto fully closing your body, then you would be asked to rent a cloth adn cover the body fully. For eg;: Sleeveless shirts, short skirts etc...

Then they provide a pamplet that talks about the significance of the Palace and what it contains. pretty useful for a tourist spot.

There isn't much to put in words, but the pictures are more worthy.

Inside the Palace, you also have the Emerald Buddha temple. Its very sacred place and so you are reqeusted to remove your shoes/slippers. Maintain compelte silence inside and most importtant is, not to use your cam or recorder. Even though they request not to take any picture inside, they do allow taking the equipment with you. I thought its just the belief and to make system easier.

but later i found that its not just belief, its the system they have. There vigil guards who are monitoring the moments of the people.

Inspite of all these checking one gentle women managed to take video. She was sitting in a posture like praying, keeping the camcoder below her and adjusting the LCD screen so that she can shoot the Bhuddha without anyone noticing. Surprisingly, I saw a guard peeping from her back in doubt, and somehow he sensed her doing these and taken the camera. Not sure what happened next, since we moved from there.

It would be nice for people to follow some instruction provided by those people. Else, it would only result in they asking to deposit all the cam and then enter the premises, which is more pain.

Once you compelte those, then you exit from there. On the way you have beautiful wall paintings that glow on pics. After taking some pics we left from there. Behind the Palace, there are other building like Museums, govt offices etc.

We took some pics with the guards who where standing there. Almost everyone did the same thing.

Then we came to the place near Museum. Here you can see rows of Canon and balls used for those displayed.

After that you have the museum which contains the very interesting stuffs like construction pictures, materials used for construction of the palace, donations from other countries, things used by the king etc etc.

Its worth having a look if you have time. Then we were outside the venue around 1pm. Not knowing where to go further we just starred on the roads. Later we decided to head back to hotel.

While coming back, we saw some interesting spot for food. Since we were hesitant to take food fro those road side place we just got one plate of rice and chicken curry for me. Initially my wife said she dont want to try anything there. but later we ended up having a full meals there is another story. Lol... She found it very tasty after trying some and we ended up gettting almost 5 plates.

Then we went to the boat place to take the ferry back to Taksin. Here I saw a interesting site. On the boat stand / pier, there was notice stuck by the private boat operators.

It reads this.

We came back to the hotel by taking the same BTS Boat service and train service. On the way we had lunch in one of the thai style hotel in the Boat station itself.

We initially thought of taking the taxi for the Southern Bus terminal. This is the Bus station from where all buses going towards down south of Thailand is starting from. Heard that this bus station is really far. But since we had almost 3-4hrs to kill, we decided to take a local bus to the Bus station. We enquired the information center and came to know that the Bus # 511 goes to that station from our place, Nana Station in Sukhumvit area.

We came to the main road, rolling our baggage. In the bus stop we waited for almost 30min. Every 1 sec we will have a taxi stopping by and offering the service. Infact some guys even mentioned to give what I thought was ok. Anyway, I was just waiting for the bus. After like 40min it came.

We took the bus and the charge was 20 BHAT per person. It was nice to have the view of the city. Rather than sitting inside the Taxi and loosing all those building and views this was a better decision.

I think one has to move in the local transport to know the place culture, people, city etc.

We reached the Bus station around 5pm. We got into the station for the booking. Booked the ticket in a VIP bus with Toilet. The fare is around 1000BHAT per person.

It takes almost 12hrs to reach Phuket. You can reach Phi Phi Island from 2 locations. One is Phuket and the other is Krabi. Both the buses starts from here.

The buses and the roads are really good. You wont even feel the tired when you reach the destination.

Bus starts almost 20minutes after departure time. No diff from our place. But it reaches sharp 6:00am the next day.

I had a very good sleep in that Volvo...

Dreaming for those Phi Phi Island and the James bond island!!!

17-Feb-2009
Morning around 6am we reach the Phuket Bus station. We are surrounded by bunch of drivers asking for destination. I just ignored all and went into the Bus station. I see a information board. So decided to ask for the details.

She says it would take 40BHAT per person to the pier and its around 2 kms. But all these guys were asking for 100BHAT per person. Not only that, they were so curious on the boat service I am planning to take. So they all asked for the ticket if its booked. The reason being, they will take you to the pier and make sure you get a ticket in some ferry and get thier commision. I wanted to take the Andaman Wave master since they had a tie-up with the hotel and said will drop us to the hotel without any extra money.

Other option is to go to the Tonsai bay and take a lang tail boat. Which would cost additional 1000BHAT one way. But this one was 1000BHAT per person for both up and down journey.

We came outside the bus station to the main road. There we see a bunch of collage guys and gals grouped. Later we realise that they drive to pier for extra money. One guy approached us askiing for 50BHAT. I thought it should be ok and got into his Toyota.

We reach at 6:30am in the Pier. It was almost empty. With no shops open, very minimal human traffic, we could see that it would be boring to spend those 2 hours. Slowly things started to change as the time past. By 7:30 we could see some more people arriving there and some of the ferry operators opened their ticket counters.

We were waiting for our operator. She came like 8am and checked the hotel bookings etc, called the hotel to confirm and finally gave us the ticket.

8:30am we board the ferry. It was a AC ferry, with open place in top to have a good view of the sea. We decided to sit in the top to enjoy those scenes. B we forgot in the excitement that it is going to be boiling hot.

Infos at the last.
Route and direction, buses for kanchanabhuri

Chirping of birds
Sound of water
Occasional boat sounds
close ur eyes and listen those...

Laka Laka Laka - Alamelamma to Chandramuki , Mysore Maharaja to Vetaiyaraja

2009-01-24T22:43:00.000-08:00

Shivasamudaram, Talakad, Palace Illumination and lots of fun.
We started from Bangalore around 6Am on 24th Jan 2009. Went to Murugespalya, picked up my friend and his family and headed to Mysore through the city at 6:45am.

The traffic was just starting and we managed to get to cross them and reach Mysore road at ease. Once we crossed the Rajarajeswari nagar junction, the drive was much better. We decided to stop at Kamat for the breakfast and halted there. As my expectation, there was huge crowd since it was a long weekend.

Waited for our turn, had a good Idli, vada and Akki roti. Then started back on the track to Shivasamudram. Once you cross Maddur, you need to take the left turn. The sign would say Kollegal. From here the roads are not so good, but drivable. We reach Shivasamudram around noon and to our disappointment, there was no water. There was just one stream of water. But the view from there was very nice. It showed why i should return here during monsoon.

Then had some coffee break and started to barachukki falls. But that was even worst. We cant see even droplet of water anywhere over there.

Just rock, rock and rock. With huge disappointment, we headed to Talakad. The roads to Talakad is very bad and I have no clue how long I was driving in those bad roads. We reached Talakad just after noon, and took a guide. He was briefing the story and name reason for these talakad.

Hunters used to have a cow which they allowed to roam around the forest for gazing. Everyday when it returned, it would not give milk. Angreed hunters followed the cow one day and they found that this cow was pouring the milk to a Shivlinga. The hunters got wild and threw the axe to cut the head (Tala) of the cow. I missed and hit the Shivalinga. The shivalinga broke into 4 pieces and fell in 4 different locations. The Shivalinga was bleeding and hunters, realizing what they did, helped to stop the bleeding.

When asked for what they want in return, they requested this place to be named after this incident as Talakad.

25th Jan

Lalith Mahal Palace.
After a small off-roading behind the Palace, we managed to join the Road that leads into the palace.

But this place has also become a cheaper. Cheaper in the sense, people started demanding money and claim they show the guest rooms etc.

Last time when I went here, they had the chariot ride for the official fees of Rs50. Why i say official fees - They did give the receipt in the reception.

but this time the scene was entirely different.

When we entered, the security said there is no Chariot ride for today also. Ok, seems its not tehre for sometime. Then I told him, i would like to take a look at the palace for those Rs50 ticket. he agreed and allowed me in. As i was approaching the reception, a In-Charge came and enquired about us. We explained why we are there. He then mentioned us to go ahead inside and have a look, meanwhile he will come back for the ticket.

When we entered and hanging around a servant came and said he will show the guest room where former CM of Tamilnadu Ms.Jayalalitha, Dr.Abdul Kalam and other celebritties stayed. Infact he said Dr. Kalam was visiting this hotel for stay the very same night.

We went with him to see the room. Wow, those rooms are really excellent. It had a nice hall, dressing room, bed room with a big balcony and high end toilets.

When we were in the bedroom, the servant mentioned that this place was the one where famous Rajini movie Chanramuki was shot. He showed a big chair and claimed this was the one Vetaiya raja used to sit in the movie, and shows other palce and mentions that this is where the famous "laka laka laka" song was shot etc.

Eventhough we did not buy it, we just accepted his claims and took some pics.

Then we took some more pics on the outside of the palace, swimming pool etc and started to Balmuri Falls.

GQ Drive: 2vehicles,5people,6days,13states,6000KMs

2008-12-31T23:58:00.000-08:00

Whats a better way to end an year for the drive enthus? Yes, there would be nothing other than such a long drive. Especially after the GQ roads being done.

The moment we decided that we are driving all over India on the GQ, the excitement never came down.

We covered 6196KMs in 6Days.

25-Dec
Bangalore - Bombay - 1044Kms
26-Dec
Bombay - Behror - 1360Kms
27-Dec
Behror - Alllahabad - 817Kms
28-Dec
Alllahabad - Kolkatta - 831Kms
29-Dec
Kolkatta - Anekapalli (Vizag)- 926Kms
30-Dec
Anekapalli - Bangy - 1218Kms

Totally its 6196KMs.

25th Dec 4am

When people are getting ready to have fun for the X-Mas, I load my baggages and stuffs in my Aveo. The Aveo rolls on the dark with the beam of lights guiding it. Reach Hebbal Flyover around 4:35am and reach the apartment in next 5 min. Park the Aveo next, unload Aveo and load Safari. We all get in the Safari. Note the time, ODO and we are all set to go.

25th Dec 4:45am
Safari reverses and starts the first step (should I mention first rotation of wheels?), get to the main road. Take the Service lane and take the underpass. And take the Hebbal flyover and starting to head to the GQ.

Although we were expecting lorry traffic, never expected such a huge Jam. There was a deadlock in the BEL Circle.

But we were quick enough to take the Jalahalli road and join the NH4. next we reach the first toll, at this time, we never knew how many toll we are yet to pay for the next 6days.

I think the toll roads in Karantaka only has sub-way and sky walk for the pedestrians. This greatly helps to keep a constant speed above 80-90kmph.

Our smart people does a great roads, puts the speed limit like 80 and even 100. But forgets one thing. They fill it with bumps and humps everywhere. not just that, most of the places where you have a small bridges on the road, the road is never the same level as the concrete on the bridges. Its either the roads are above the road level of Bridge or vice versa.

I need to mention this here for others who take this route for the Pune/Mumbai.

Once you cross around 220kms from the Neelamangala Toll (or 75KMs after the Chitradurga rail road cross), watch for the stupid design like I mentioned above. You will have a small bump followed by the intersection of the road in the bridge. Actually we could not notice this and we experiance a jump here. Since we were in reasonable speeds, not any damage. But in case someone takes it above 100, they are in trouble.

Now coffee break. Stopped our Safari in a place called Highway Palace which comes in the left side of the road after Davengere. Had decent tea.

Fresh tea helped us to cruise on the GQ and then we cross the Hubli Toll. We were in search of a breakfast stop. We saw a Vithal Kamat after the Toll and stopped there.

The heaven on Earth in God's own country - Munnar

2008-10-05T19:46:00.000-07:00

I have been longing to do a long trip to Cumbum and surroundings in my Car. But since I only drive in day, it means I need 2 full days for driving. So, I was always waiting for holidays more than 3 days. Luckily with my son also had 10 days holiday from 1st of October. Since we had 1st & 2nd public holiday with Saturday and Sunday usual holiday. I decided to take 3rd october vacation. There you go I got cool 5 days.

This became a ideal vacation for going to long drive and I had no dificulty in deciding the location near Cumbum. It is Munnar. The thought of me driving through those Bodi mettu and hills made me so excited.

Obviously like I was expecting the opposition to me driving and going for vacation came from both my family & my wife's. But it did not stop us from doing that. Hehe...

My wife was also very excited but little scared too. It did not take much time to convince here.
Me: How about a trip to Munnar from Cumbum?
Wife: Wow, it would be a wonderful trip. I would love to do that.
Me: Good, we have 5 days holiday.
Wife: Yes, it will be good to be relaxing in those greeny environemnts.
Me: Ok, I will book the hotels for Munnar.
Wife: How about the to & fro tickets? Are you not booking?
Me: WHAT? Tickets? Why?
Wife: ?? How are we going there then?
Me: How? Obviously in our car.
Wife: WHAT? In our car?
Me: Yes, and I am driving.
Wife: No, no. Its not posisble. I am not for it.
Me: Why?
Wife: Its too windy and ghats. Its neither a easy plain nor good roads.
Me: So what? I am driving.
Wife: Oh no, I need to rethink of this vacation.
Me: Come on, should not be scared of driving unless I do some stupid moves and reckless driving, which I wont.
Wife: But still,...
Me: Ok, we are not going then. We will drive somewhere around Bangy then.
Wife: Umm, if you promise that theres absolutly no risk in doing, then I am ok.
Me: Hehe, there you go.

Ok. Call the hotel and almost all respond same answer. Sorry sir, no rooms. Its the start of the season and so I found it difficult to get a decent rooms. Then I managed to get one in Green View Munnar. Not sure of how it would be, infact no elevation of the hotel also in the website (www.greenviewmunnar.com). So reluctanly, I book that for 2 nights and start preparing for the trip.

The current ODO in my machine was reading 4.7K. Since it would be more than 1K drive, I thought of giving it for 5K service. It was done (updates on ownership thread).

As usual, search the net, take notes on routes, road conditions, call our guys get updates and all set before 1st October. The plan was to leave Bangalore by 4AM.

October 1st 3:00AM

Set the alaram to 3:30AM. Went to sleep, but I could not sleep due to the excitement of driving to south. Woke up every 30min checking for the time. Finally woke up and turned off the Alarm. Woke up others too and we are all ready by 4:30AM with all luggages loaded in car. We loaded the car boot with my daughters stroller, Jackets, Raincoats, Umbrella etc.

October 1st 4:35AM

Exactly 4:35AM I left from my parking lot. Took the Varthur-Sarjapur Road and went to Hosur through Attibelle. I see 2 new spead breakers in the Sarjapur Road. If I am right, it was not there during the previous visit (a month and a half back?). These things grow like anything. I wish they grew trees like this.

As usual, filled petrol in the BP before Krishnagiri. Took the over bridge on the Krishnagiri and was surprised to see the number of diversions after that. I was hoping to have the road like the one going to Chennai. Umm, anyway, it was not of much traffic and I was doing 80-90kmph easy. Reached Kaveripattanam @ 6:45am.

The road was almost on one side only till we took the exit from NH7 to Theni after Salem. So many diversions, but good stretch. Reached Dharmapuri around 7:20am after which we had some Coffee break.

Then drove to Salem and the sad thing happened. Since there was too many diversions, some marked, and some not, I missed one diversion and went straight. I followed a TSTC bus and later figured out that I should not followed him.

When I followed the bus, I saw some stones put on the roads so as to avoid traffic from coming in. But the stones was also not big and gave a look like some how it has fallen from the lorry or something. Also, since there was no traffic I thought its good to follow the bus. When I decided to take on the stone, it hit my underbody and I could feel the hit. But I just kept going on the road. The road was very good but dont know why they closed it. Later it again diverts to join the other side.

The second incident was after Dalavaipatti I think. There was a truck which was coming in the opposite direction. I saw him and stopped. He showed me hands saying to take the other side of the road. I thought I missed the diversion and so reversed a little and tried to take the mud road that connects the other side of the road. It was so steep that it stratched the bottom of my Bumper and then I decided not to take it.

Initially I was thinking that since this is usual route for all vehicle, it should be ok to take it. But seeing this, I was puzzled and asked that truck guy again. He said "I showed hands like that, because I want to go that way" OMG, mis interpretation. Anyway, nothing happned to the bumber since I took it very slowly and backed it.

Then comes the Salem junction. I was sure not to get into the Salem city and was following the NH7 junctions. I crossed 2 junctions and the board said to go straight. I went to the 3rd and then saw some decent restaurant. Since it was 8:30am, I thought of stopping there for breakfast. Parked the car and went into the hotel. I waited for 15min and no one came for taking the order. I lost patience and left from the hotel. The scene I saw after coming out added to my angry and blood started boiling. Some stupid guys have parked the car behind mine and I have no way to take it out.

It was a parallel parking and all the guys parked one next to other. But this smart guy put it behind mine and here I am searching for the owner. It took 15min to get that guy in the hotel. After shouting at him which I dont want to, but he made me to. When I ask him to take his car, the response was "We are going to have breakfast". So I asked him if I need to wait for him to finish the breakfast. I just got him washing his hands and I already know how much time its going to take for the service guys to serve him.

Finally took the car and headed further straight. I wanted to stop somewhere and relax for a while before driving long. But I just continued making myself cool. After like 25KMs, I see a board pointing direction towards Chennai. What? Where am I going? I check with the Petrol guys and they tell me this roads goes to Chennai. Then asked me to go back in the same direction and take left in the first Junction. Ok, time to relax. I stopped the car for a while and relaxed with my kids. Then again came back to the Junction near that same restaurant and started towards Dindugal.

October 1st 10:00AM

Reached Namakkal around 10AM. The roads allowed us to do more than 80kmph easily. In one hour I reached Karur. Then drove straight to Pallapatti. Then I know that there is a right turn which leads to Theni, but not marked. I took the right just before the one that leads to Theni. Once I turned, I stopped and enquired with the guys. They pointed me to take the next right. I came to that right and found a board on the left hand side of the road. But the problem was its after you take the right turn.

May be they have a board on the left side of the bridge which are still closed for now. From there the route was 2 lanes and lots of trees. I reached Bathalagundu @around 1pm. Now its time for lunch. While driving along the Bathalagundu, I saw the Dindugal Thalapakattu restaurant and so went for lunch. Food was ok. We had Veg meals.

We left around 2pm and started towards Theni. My brother-in-law was suppose to wait in Theni. I told him I will pick him up from Theni to Cumbum. When I reached Theni it was 2:45pm. My BIL was still on the bus from Madurai. He came around 3:15pm. When I was waiting for my BIL, I tried to check out under the car to see what happened after hitting the rock before salem. What I saw is here. A big dent in the pipe from the engine. Not sure of what it is. But all I could confirm is, it did no harm to the drive or nothing was leaking. So, left it.

Then started to Cumbum with my BIL and his daugther. Just before the Palayam, she started vomiting and we stopped for a while. Then again we started our Journey. The road was very good except for the traffic. The slow moving trucks and buses coming in the opposite direction, was making me go mad. You need to be double careful when over taking these guys.

October 1st 03:30PM

Atlast, @3:20pm I was in my sister's house in Cumbum. I did not feel any tiresome. Was as fresh as I started. But my people was almost forcing me into the bed to take rest. After all, they dont know the pleasure in driving :)

October 2nd

We also had plans for tonsure for my kids near Cumbum. Its a famous waterfall area called Suruli. It use to be so good before it was turned to a Tourist spot. Now it almost lost the charm, but still worth a avisit during rainy seasons.

We have a Narasimar temple in there. This is where we did the tonsure. Once done we went to falls for the bath and it was lovely water. So clean and fresh. There are boards saying you are not suppose to use

* Shampoo or soaps

* Use the place for loo

* Take photos using mobile or any cam

* Separate Queue for male/females.

and usual etcs.

But 90% of points was voilated by our great vistors. I see people using shampoo left & right and using the falls as if its their own bathroom. Shampoo, Sikakai, oil bath, soaps and what not?

Anyway, we had good time in there, had packed our food but could not eat there. Left for the home and had lunch. It was around 1;30pm and I just laid down myself thinking of next days plan. When I opened my eyes it was 4:30pm :)

I dont even know how I slept. People started commenting about the previous day trip and tired etc. Umm, thats fine.

Then went for some shoping. I did not buy anything. But the bill was 2K +. Shocked and I had a view of the bill. Then comes the list from my better half and son. Ok, that is why I dont like Shopping. LoL.

My wife comments, I took just 2 for me, rest is all for YOUR son only. Hehehe. What can I say now.

October 3rd, 9:30AM
ODO - 5240Kms
I parked the car near my Sister's house in a open place. It was a dead end and hence I thought it to be a safe place. But, seems there were some kids playing with car toys on my car bonnet. I could see the marks of the wheels of the toy car on my car. I was so disappointed seeing that. Eventhough it was not so visible, it is still visible under sunlight.

I was cursing myself for not brining along the car cover with me to cover this in such situation. I started from Cumbum @ 9:30am and went straight to Petrol Bunk. Asked the guy to fill the tank till cut off. The person inserted the nozzle and talking with other guys. Suddenly I saw that the petrol was overflowing and shouted at the guy. After some discussion, he finally asked me to pay 10rs less than the bill. For sure it would have been like a litre of spill out. But I could not do anything. So, just paid him, cursed the star and left the place.

The mood was easily changed to a cool mood once I started to hit the roads. The roads was so scenic. Some snaps through Devaram (@10am), Pannapuram, Chinamanaoor, Bodi(@10:50am).

ODO - 5285Kms
From this where the actual climb starts. The roads are so windy.

We crossed the checkpost in Bodi Mettu and was surprised to see the difference. The routes are so green and fresh when compared to the other side in TN.

There was a Tata Indica cab which over took me and suddenly stopped in front. I was wondering why but did not stop and continued slowly to go ahead. It was then the driver showed us a snake in the middle of the road. It did not move, so we were doubting if it was hit by any other vehicle. Anyway we moved slowly not to pass on it and crossed it. We stopped for Chai before Poopara. The shop was a small one, but had good tea. Infact both my Kids also had Chai, which they usually never have.

I was talking with the shop keeper and he hinted that there is a very good view point from behind the street. So, we decided to walk down a bit and had a excellent views of the hills and lakes.

The roads on these ghats are laid very good except for very minimal pot holes here & there.

Kerala lands are very fertile and has water body everywhere you turn. Every rock has a small falls, and every valley has a river.

We had just 18KMs to reach Munnar but since it was Ghat section driving was restricted within 30-40Kmph. Moreover, there was too many stopover for photo sessions. It was hard to pass by without appreciating those beauties.

So finally we reached MUNNAR at 3:30pm with ODO - 5357Kms

So now time to find out the Green view munnar hotel. I call Deepak Raj (Hotel guy) and he asked me to head straight to the KSRTC Bus Depot. He also says that there is a big board and I will not miss it. He also adds its towards the Cochin direction from Munnar Junction.

Ok, I drive towards the Cochin direction. I see the Bus Depot. But could not see any board. So keep driving straight. I see the Hill view, Royal retreat hotels, but not this one. Then after a KM or so, I stoped by a check post and asked them about the locaiton of hotel, i.,e Moolakadai. He said I already passed it and guided me to go back to the same BUS depot.

When I was going back, I noticed the hotel board. Its visible when you are "coming" from Cochin direction. Anyway, the hotel was in a narrow lane. I was wondering if I can park my car there. So, I wanted to first make sure about this and the hotel room. Got down from the car and checked the room. I was satisfied. Then enquired room for my love (Aveo 1.4 LS, hehehe). He showed me the parking lot. But it was not easy to park here. But once parked its safe.

Then I gave green signal for my wife and she came to check the room. We were satisfied and checked in.

Good thing I liked in this hotel is, hot water was available 24hrs really. We had a quick refresh and checked with the hotel guys if there are any near by place to visit before it gets dark. He pointed me to Attukkadu falls.

This falls is in the cochin direction. I took the car and started fresh again. I crossed the same check post and once we cross, after couple of 100s of meters, you see a junction. The one on the left has a good old bridge (the moment you see this, the first thing strikes your mind is - When is this going to fall!!!).

If you take this route it leads you to the Pothamedu view point. If you take right, it leads to the falls.

We decided to take the Pothamedu view first.
Once done, we returned back in the same route. We reached the bridge again, waited for the vehicles to reach this side of the bridge before we started to cross. Then we crossed and headed towards the Attakkadu falls.

On the way to Attakkadu falls, the roads were very narrow. Its hard to have 2 vehicles pass by

Sometimes one has to stop or reverse to let the others to go. With great difficulty I reached a point where I was able to have a good look of the falls. I saw some jeeps stopped there and people taking pictures.

I also stopped and asked the jeep guys about the route further. He mentioned not to try those route as it a risky route and difficult to turn too. I did not want to analyse his statement and since took his words for 100% fact. I took some snaps and returned back to hotel.

With this experiance, the next thing I did is to call Hrag and checked about the route condition to the Mattupatty dam side. He confirmed the routes are good and roads are wide.

But still, I was not ok to take my car the next day. So, booked a cab for the next day trip. The Hotel guys charged me Rs.650 for the trip. I really felt so relaxed seeing the greens since I was not behind the wheels.

With all these trailors done, the main picture starts the next day only.

October 4th, @6:30am

Next day I woke up early and got ready in no minutes. While others were getting ready, I went out to have the feel of Munnar in early morning. It was foggy and misty.

The taxi was ready by 8:30am. Took the taxi and had breakfast in S.N.Restaurant.

I took the rear seat in the Alto. It was really so relaxing when you are not behind the wheels in these locations. Yes, because, you dont need to concentrate on the traffic. You can just enjoy the environments, take pictures and what not.

On the way we went to the Rose Garden. This was also a bonus. If I was driving, I would not have stopped here. Since the driver is a localite and knows all places, he stopped here and asked us to have a look inside.

It was so nice with so many different types of flowers. Some are colorful, while others are tooo big.

Once done, we headed towards the Mattupatty Dam. One the way we saw the Photo Point. What a lovely place it was? Like a green carpet, the mountain was looking so beautiful.

But since it was crowded like anything and the sun was exactly behind us, we could not take any pictures properly. So, we decided to do those on the way back.

When we moved a little further, we saw some more green patches and workers working on those. Decided to take some pictures and here it is

The dam was so huge and full of water. The view from the bridge was excellent. The cab guy asked us to get down there and walk through the bridge and waited on the other side.

It was a real good walk and so much oppurtunity for photo shoots.

October 4th, 09:55am

Once the photo session is done, we reached the other side of the dam. But heard from driver that we still need to go couple of KMs to go for the boating. So took the car and headed towards the Boating entrance.

It was 5 mintues for 10am and so the entrance was not open. Sharp 10am, the counter opened for getting the entrance tickets. We paid rs.10 each for adults + 10rs for parking.

You need to reach this spot as early as possible, since it seems to be crowded in no time.

We went to the boat counter and got the ticket for the speed boat. Its Rs.300 for maximum of 5 people. So, if you share with friends, its going to cost less for you. Since I was alone with my family, I just took the 300 rs ticket and headed for boarding the boat.

We were thrilled about this since this is the first time we are going to take this. We saw the boat wallas, driving it like anything.

While we were waiting for our turn, we saw this family boat slowly coming to pick the "family". Its a boat for max of 20people. The other family who was there booked this for 8 people and he took just those 8 for the ride. It costs Rs.700 for the family boat.

We were lucky enough to spot wild elephants that came for drinking water near the lake

When we left the Dam on the way we saw this shooting point, where huge number of flim shooting was done. Last week also there was a song which was shot here for one of the Arya's movie. This was the news from the cab driver.

From the Shooting spot we headed further to go to the Kundale Lake. On the we have the Elephant Arrival Spot. Its a place where you can have the elephant ride. Its costs Rs300 for 2 Adults. if you want to take photo alone, it costs Rs50 for one head. We did not stop here and planned to take the ride on the return.

This lake is actually the mattupatty Dam.

By the way I would like to highlight here the reason for the name. As per locals, it is actually "Maattu Patty". Which means cattle farm in tamil. The name originated after the Indo-swiss project for breading the cattle in here. Up to 3-4 years back, they were allowing public to visit the farm. but then stopped to open for public.

And cattles here easily produce 40lts of milk one time a day.

This is a narrow lane where only one vehicle can pass. There was a smart guy in a Shared auto who wanted to sneek in while a Innova was coming in the other direction. But both got stuck in the middle and by the time they fight for whom to back up, there was huge queue of other vehicles in the back of Innova. So auto guy had no option to back up. This guy did not back up properly and moved to the right side and parked in the entrance. Anyway, with great difficulty Innova and others passed this guy. i am sure everyone would have cursed him to the core.

I noticed that there are de-forestation happening in the ghats. I am not sure if its usual maintenance. I could see many trees being cut and it also had some effect on the traffic.

Do you notice the fencing? These are electrified fences. But not the normal AC volts, but of battery. This is used to keep teh wild elephants away from the cattle. Those green carpet is for feeding the cattles.

While we were heading back, on the way stopped for the elephant ride.

Heard this one was a new arrival from Thekkady. So they are not using this for the ride as of now. Probably in probation. Lol.

Other news is, this 2 elephants belongs to some MLA in kerala. he mentioned the place but forgot. He keeps it here for the ride. For one ride they get Rs300 and so you calculate how much they make per day.

I was initially thinking how expensive it is for a ride. Then i thought that it would really help the Elephant since there will be less number of takers

Anyway, hope they are taken care well.
Once you return, the elephant goes straight to the corn shop next to the arrival spot and raised the trunk on the head. Nice picture right?

Haha, it is trained to do so for getting the corn that you give after the ride. And they charge for this too separately. The claim - "you will get a beautiful shot sir" Indeed yes, he is right.

Then we went back to the Photo point. Now it was less crowded and took photos.
Had good lunch and relaxed inside the hotel. We had a nice Visu movie on the cable TV (Samsaram adhu minsaram). Watched and then it was time for dinner.

We took an auto from there to the town, just for the sake of going there. had a good walk around, window shopping and then back to hotel.
October 5th, 6:00am - ODO - 5370KMs
Having visited Munnar, we packed all stuff back and started to Bangalore the next day.
I could easily understand my kids feeling when they asked "Are we going back?"
Because I too had same feeling. What to do, every start has an end too.

We checked out from the hotel at 7:30am. While leaving we thought of giving a try to the nearest mountain once to see it in the early morning. And it was so nice. It was very next to the hotel, and we never thought it would be so scenic.

We took that route and came to know that it is the route to reach Lecthmi resort / Home stay.

A small Iron bridge across the river was old but nice to see and feel.
We went for couple of KMs and then decided to head back. Now we took the Coimbatur direction. On the way you will see a left road which leads to Tata Tea Museum. I could not go there since it was only 8am and they open by 10am. So, took the straight road towards Coimbatore.

On the way we saw these fresh carrot and got one.

Then we went through those windy roads, enjoying the beautiful scenes. On the way we saw many falls and rivers. We took some pictures in one of the river.

Then we reached Lakkom Falls. since it was morning (around 9:15am) there was no crowd. The entrance fee for the adult is 5rs each. Also, there forest officers there take care of the people who distrub others. So, its a very safe place for family too.

When we left from there, we thought that is the last halt and we will stop next in Udumalaipet. But we never knew that the return is going to be on such a beautiful ghats again. We stopped every here & there to take pictures.

Also, kerala is gifted with waferfalls.
Then we crossed Eravikulam and then were stopped at the Chinnar forest check post. We reached there around 12:00am.

ODO - 5432Kms.

Then we drove through the sandalwood trees forest. I was expecting to get some smell, no luck.

Then we stopped on the way to get some good fruits. Both my kids started to sleep now. So, we decided to just keep driving till they get up and not stop for lunch.

We did not stop anywhere, except for the checkpost in the border. My wife went to sign the register and came back in both the checkpost. She said he did not ask for any money. But on the tamilnadu side, he was asking money for coffee and tea to a yellow board driver.

Then on the road was really good. I could see a sudden change in the scenery. The kerala side was so green and fresh. The moment we cross the border, it was all dry and hot. We could see only trunks in tree with no fresh leaves.
Since the road was really good, I kept a speed of 80kmph. Then we reached Udumalaipet around 12.40pm.

From there I took the Dharapuram route to reach Salem. We found so many Wind mills and ofcourse took some pictures too.

Once I cross dharapuram, we took the left in the above place towards the Kangeyam direction. I missed the bypass in 2 places and ended up inside the traffic.

From there I was following the Salem board and crossed Perundurai, Bhavani and finally reached Salem at 4:10pm.

ODO - 5657Kms

I later realized that I could have taken the Mettur route too. But it was too late.

Once in NH7, it was so relaxed drive. Then once I crossed Dharmapuri bypass, I encountered a "T" junction. I saw the left marked as Hogenekkal, and straight as Bangalore & Hosur. So, just followed. It was only then I noticed that it was so familiar to me. Suddenly I notice the SH17 marked on the road. Only then I realize that I have taken the Royakottai, Denkanikotai route.

This route was with no traffic and we crossed the Palacode. In Royakottai, we were stopped from taking into the city. They redirected the traffic towards the bypass. Crossed the bypass and when I reached a "Y" junction, took the left to Attebelli. The right takes you to Hosur town.

And then filled petrol once I cross TVS factory. Drove straight and entered Attibelle.

It was exactly 8pm when I reached my home. I took the Varthur road to reach my house in Brook field.

ODO - 5838KMs

Total distance travelled - 1100KMs
I got a mileage of 17kmpl in this trip. Measured Full tank to Full tank auto cut-off.

Signing off for now.
MJ

Weekend trip to Srirengapatna, Lalitha mahal Palace, Mysore

2008-09-27T18:15:00.000-07:00

September 27th 2008 - Saturday 2pm.
We were planing to do this trip as a one day trip on Saturday. But since my son had Parents teachers meeting at 1pm, we could not make it for whole of saturday. So, we split the trip to 2 and made to Nandi hills in morning and then started to Mysore after the PTM was done.

We started @ 2PM from Brook field. I took the Airport road, Richmond road, Corporation circle and Elevated Mysore road route. The traffic was really bad and I could reach the Rajarajeswari Nagar junction by 3:40pm only.

From then on, it was a plesant drive as usual. Since almost everyone covered this route, there is nothing new I am going to cover here.

Our plan was to see the Mysore Palace I full lights in the night. We stopped in Mandya for a coffee break. We reached Srirengapatna around 6pm. So, we thought we still have time for Palace lights to be siwtched on and hence decided to visit the temple.

Entering Srirengapatna

Srirengapatnam Temple

We reached Mysore around 6:45pm and took the road inside city to Palace. The signs are little difficult to understand especially in the circles. The signs said Right turn for palace, and when I took the right, it was actually taking me back to bus stand. Then I figured out that the way is a one way and so, we need to take the other right. Finally we made one or 2 circles and reached palace by 7pm. We saw not much things happening there and checked with guys over there. Then came the answer as a big shock. The reply was no lights on Saturday, it is only one Sunday. So, all our dreams went down.
Snaps from outside palace

Then took some snaps in night of the palace and headed to get some room for the stay. We got a guide/broker(?) who arranges hotels for visitors. He did do a pretty good job. He arranged a decent hotel for us in Chitirakala Residency(I think I the name). Its straight on the palace road.

We had dinner near there and hit the bed around 10pm.

The next day we started to Chamundiswari Temple around 8am.

We were able to reach the hill in 1 hour. Not much of crowd and so we were back after dharsan outside temple by 9:30am.
On the way

Beautiful Temple

Naragasuran with my Son!!!

From the Ariel view point, we took the left to go towards the BULL temple. We went and had good time. Some snaps

BULL

Then while coming down from there, I got confused with the route. Luckily I stoped in the T-junction and checked an oncoming SUMO. The driver said, that road goes to Ooty/Nanjungud and asked to take exactly opposite direction to go to Palace.

Then one the way, I saw teh board for Lalitha Mahal palace. Every time I visit Mysore, I always wanted to visit here, but never happened. So, now I took that route to get in there.

I was stopped by the security and said no visitors allowed. Ok, we are nto visitors and said we are going to the restaurent in there. So he allowed.

Once I went in, I checked with the guys there and he said a good plan. If you buy ticket for the chariot ride (It will take you 3 rounds in front of the palace), you can enter the Palace and have a look in the ground floors.

And per head he charged Rs50. Well, that was a decent deal and hence went with it.

We went in, had a look at the shops, got some perfumes and stuffs.

I then realize that my battery is out. I forgot to charge it the previous night. i request the staff to help me in charging and he said ok. But again, my charger is from Japan and hence that has only the 2 flat pins. Luckily, his mobile charger also had same pins and he had the convertor.

So put the camera in charge and went for the horse ride. After sometime, I took the battery and started to click again.

And here is the pics

Once we are done with the Lalith Mahal Palace, we went back to the Palace. I am sure most of the guys would have visited several times here. This time I did not go to the Museum behind the palace. just went in, saw the amazing interiors, and back.

Some snaps from around palace

One day trip to Nandi Hills & BhogaNandhiswara Temple...

2008-09-27T06:28:00.000-07:00

I had my relatives who visited Bangalore for the last week. Since I was little busy in office, I could not take them out anywhere. But they managed to go to places like Vidhan Soudha, Cubbon park, Baneerghatta safari etc all by themselves. Infact they managed to get into Vidhan Soudha and visited all inside. I have never got a chance for this.

Anyway, so I was planing to take them to Nandi hills for the Sunrise. I have also heard about the Bogalingeswar temple near there and I wanted to visit there too.

We planned to start by 5Am from Brooke field so we can reach there before 6:30AM. With this plan in mind we go to sleep.

Saturday Morning 3:30AM

I got up even before the alarm went off. I was trying to get others wake up, have bath and get ready for the trip. Had garam garam Coffee, and packed the stuff for Nandhi hills. Finally when we all set and boarded the car, it was 5:30AM.

Took the K.R.Puram, Hebbal, Devanahalli route. I was driving at 90-100kmph and it was a delight to go so early when there was no traffic.

Saturday Morning 6:00AM
But when I reached Devanahallli railway cross, it was 6;15am and I could see the Sun comming up on my right. So we thought we will not be able to get to nandhi hills before sun rise. My uncle son was keeping the camera and taking pictures of the Sun. I thought ok, since I was driving. (Later in the noon we came to know that he was ONLY seeing through the cam - LCD view - and not actually taking pictures ). So, thats how we missed those orange ball.

When I was driving almost near the left turn to the Nandhi Hills, I was doing around 80kmph and there was no sign of any humps. So far I was searching for the BIG hump mentioned by friends and since I did not find any, I took some confidence and doing 80kmph. Bad luck, I suddenly see a hump and almost near it so I could not control. Anyway I braked and thud on the breaker and it was a real jump. I was cursing myself since I was informed of this the previous day and still missed it.

Man, I don't mind having huge humps, but please make a sign or something so its visible. This one was not at all visible unless you are very near to that.

Saturday Morning 6:30AM
Then I took the left (There was a small board, which you cannot miss IF you are careful) The Hill is around 24KMs from this point.

Took that till the end (around 12Kms.) and then took left to Nandhi Hills. If you take right from here, you reach Bogalingeswarar in next 5-6 kms.

After the left, the roads was pretty ok and i was doing around 40-50.

Continue on this road for next 2 - 3 Kms.

You see a small Nandhi sitting on top of a pillar. We took that right and stopped immd for having some coffee. Anyway the sun rise is over, so we thought no need to hurry.

Had some good tea. I think it should be like 25ml if I am right. He he.. thats was he gave as tea in a tiny cup.

The road to Nandhi is well maintained, ofcourse we do have some pot holes but thats understandable if you are living in bangalore.

Some pictures on the way

Btw, the monkeys here are so fearless. We had one window partially opened, and this smart guy jumped, got hold of the glass in one hand, and was hanging outside while I was driving slowly. Then we closed the door and went all the way.

Reached the top and we could hear a loud music (noise!!!). We saw many guys and girls grouped together and listening (annoying others!!!) to music from their open Swift. We passed them and entered into the gate to go further up. Got the ticket for Rs.60 and went up. Its almost 1km from here.
Entrance

We went there with big expectations, since we kept hearing about Nandhi Hills from friends and others and never been even once there.

But to my surprise, we did not have much attractions. Usual children park like in my Apartment, restaurants etc. We do have some temples and we visited each of them.
Some snaps from top

Crafts for display inside the temple

Paintings on the rock

Views from Top

Now to the BogaNandhiswara Temple

Then we came down and had breakfast in the hotel near the "T"-Junction, where we take the 2nd left to go to Nandhi Hills after the Highway. This route actually takes you to Chikaballapur.

The food was really decent and good. Sorry forgot the name, its the first restaurant. Had good idly, vada and garam chai.

Only when I came down from Nandi Hills, I noticed that I forgot to fill Petrol in my car. The needle had no energy to go up, yes it was almost sitting on "0".

I checked for the nearest bunk and there came a shock to me. Its 12KMs from there and in Chikkaballapur. Ok, no option, so I just started to drive towards the temple praying to God.

On the way to Temple
In about 5 KMs we reached the temple. The parking is on the road side but still people collect parking charges with no signs or boards. Fine.

We parked the car and entered into the temple. The moment we saw the temple, we got attracted towards its ancient look. I usually love old temples, especially the Shiva temple.

View from entrance - Welcomes with both hands wide open!!!

Some info about the Temple.

Wheel of the Chariot

We went in to the temple and worshiped the lord. The Pujari who were there was so old, that when he was showing the Aarti, his hands was shaking like anything. I was even afraid if it may fell down. I checked with him to see if we can take any pictures inside. To my surprise he said, its ok. I took some pictures, but this camera or this pics is not doing any justice to what I saw in terms of the hand work done by those great people. The carvings are so nice on the stone.

Look at the carving on rock with gaps inside. The jewels, ornaments was so precisely done on the rock

Further to the right you have the Vasantha Mandaba, Thulabaram mandaba etc.

You move further and you get this beautiful Tank.

Some more snaps around the temple

The ambiance was so nice that we felt like staying there for more time. In my opinion, this place is much better than Nandi Hills and we could have spent the whole day here. Anyway, there's always next time.

Catch you later guys...

Visit to Balmuri falls & Yedamuri Falls.

2008-08-03T03:58:00.000-07:00

After the KRS dam visit and a good sleep, we got up around 8am on Sunday. Too lazy to drive any far off place. But since I need to leave back to Bangalore that same day, I thought of going to near by place where we can play in water. And the thought of playing in water itself was so exciting and within an hour or so we are ready for the drive.

The place we decided was Balmuri falls. Around 13 KMs from my friend house in Mysore. We need to take the KRS dam road and on the way you will see a Arch that mentions about the Balmuri Falls. The arch will be on your right if you are going to falls from Mysore or Srirangapatna. The roads till this arch is reasonable, but the roadsafter this would be bad and you need to drive cautiously. At the end of the road you will have guys collecting the entrance fees. We paid 25rs.

You need to take the right turn in this end. The moment I was about to take the turn, my friend suggested that I take left turn. I was wondering why. He insisted with a smile and so, I just followed him. After like 1 or 2 kms of bumpy ride, I reach a beautiful place with water falling so fast and in full swing. We went so early to the falls, and could see very less people on the place. I heard from my friend saying that this is Yedamuri which is less known to travellers over there.

I parked the car in the place and we started to walk towards the falls. The water was cold since it was not a hot day. My son was the first person to get in to water. Even though he was shivering in chillness, he dont want to come out of the water. Same with my friends son too. They had a very good time in water.

I also started to play in water. I could see some people spoiling the whole fun. Guys were drinking and smoking (you can see one with the bottle in 2nd & 3rd pic below) right in the middle of the water and made the whole fun lost. But we just ignored them and played in water. My daughter was not ok to be in water. She started crying when I made her play in water. So, she was just taken back.

After having good time, we started to head back. This is when my daugther started to like the water. Also, the water was much warm now due to good sun shine. So, we left her to play in water. She was enjoying every drop of seconds by spalshing water all around and beating the water with both hands.

Then we planned to move to the Balmuri falls. We changed our dress and started to the other falls. When we arrived there, I could see the water flowing same as the Yedamuri. But the problem is no access to those place. We are not allowed to get near to the forceful water.

So, people was playing next to the steps. Good that my friend suggested the other one first. Because, here there was no option for kids to play since the water lever was high.

We were about to leave from there and then saw the fish roasted near the banks. What a trip without those fish? So, ordered some plate and had good fish. It was tasty. Guys said it was caught near KRS dam. Nice one.

Then we were heading to our car. Suddenly a guy came and asked if we like to take the coracle. We were thrilled. Because, the current of water was so much that we first hesitated. He claimed he has 15years of experiance and no need to worry. We were just thinking ourselves - "You may have, but none of us know swimming in this force current of water". Anyway, we decided to take the risk and it was worth it.

He took us in the water and we could se him struggling to row the boat. The water current was pushing him in other direction. Slowly we reached a small temple on the side and he got down. We were wondering what is he upto. Are we suppose to get down here and walk back? Will he demand anything from us in this place?

While our brian was thinking all possible stupid things, he started to take a rope and tie one end to the Coracle. The other end he put it around his toe. Then he was askign our camera. Oh, then we realized that he is planing to take a good picture of ours in coracle. He took the camera, and pushed the coracle away and started taking picture. The rope he tied was to keep the boat within his control. The picture came out really well.
Then he got in the boat and went a little further. We were in the middle of that river. Now he asked for Rs.20. What the hell? He is in the middle of the river and asking for money. Ummm.

Anyway, we gave him 20 bucks and then he asked us to keep the Video cam ready. Wondering what he is upto, we got ready. There you go. He started rotating the coracle and it was a thrilling experiance. We shot the excellant view from the rotating Coracle.

Then we came to the bank and got down. We paid him 100rs more and again he insisted for 10rs extra. We paid him. Infact we did not felt anything bad when he asked for extra money. Afterall we just saw how difficult it is to take the boat in that water.

Then we started back to visit my wife's sister house in Mysore. The guy is working as Wing commander, Air force. They live inside the SSB next to the Nandini diary. I did not know the place. But kept asking almost everyone I saw on the street including 2 traffic cops. But, it was not as difficult as I expected. Had a late lunch and started back to Bangalore around 4pm.

I am sure everyone knows about this route and so not much description. Only thing I want to highlight is about the accident I saw once I crossed Ramnagaram. It looked like a head on collision, but not able to make head or tail out of it.

One was Ford Endevour and other seemed like TATA Ace or similar tempo. The front of tempo was nothing. Infact, I see that the ford also had like almost front 1/4 is gone on one side. Not able to get any picture or details as cops were very busy is moving the traffic. Make sense, so much traffic there that it took more than 20min to cross that place.

There was a funny ending to this trip. When I was about to take the right turn near Vidan Soudha, after the Mysore Road bridge, I was jam packed between 2 BMTC's. When the signal was green, they both packed me and guided to go straight. I ended up going to Majestic and somehow back there. Oh, finding location is tough in Bangalore, especially you are not fully confident on the route you need to take.

Good bye for now!!!

Bangalore to Brindavan Garden & KRS Dam.

2008-08-02T03:39:00.000-07:00

This was planned for the last week itself (26th Jul) but due to the Bomb scares and issues, we could not make it. So, this week for the same trip.

We thought of starting from Bangalore in morning. But due to the meeting we had in my Kid's school, we started only at 2PM. I took the Airport Road from my sons school and took the Mysore Road bridge near K.R.Market. Eventhough it is Saturday noon, the traffic was real busy till I reached Rajarajeshwari Nagar entrance. After that it was comfortable.

While I was crossing the busy junction after this, I saw a Lorry accident just below the skywalk. The driver should have driven real fast. There are baricades put in zip zag manner to reduce the traffic speed. This guy some how got over steered or lost control and took on the divider.

I could see the crowd hitting a young guy, should be like 25yrs. Not sure if he was driver or cleaner. Hope no one was injured in this.

Then once we crossed Ramnagaram, the road was good except for those slow moving traffic on the right. Inspite of having signs saying heavy and slower speed vehicle to be on left side, no one listens.

I could not keep my car below 100. Even in 5th gear, it easily revs and reaches 110-120. I somehow dont want to cross 100 and struggled to keep it below 100. When I touched srirangapatna, it was almost 5pm. Called my cousin in Mysore. I dont know any place in Mysore and was so worried to locate the place. He just asked me to wait near the GRS fantasy park and came and guided me to his home. Had some Chai time and we all started for Brindavan Garden. I have been thinking of visiting this in night to see the dancing fountains.

As you can see, the water is really flowing with good current. Thanks to the Monsson.

We went to the Brindavan around 7:15pm. We need to pay 25rs to drive into the location. I could see a lot of crowds since it was Saturday night. I see the boards reading the show to be from 7-8pm on weekedays and 7-9pm on sat & sun.

You can either walk from this end to the other where you have the show, or take a ferry. We took the ferry. I wish they handled this much better. No good lights in the place where we take this ferry. Infact no proper blocks or rails to save you from falling in the water. Somehow we managed to get in there and started towards the show area.

When we are nearing the show place, we could hear the songs. Our exictment grew as we were nearing the place. No place to sit. The whole palce was dark except for the lights from the fountain. We stood in front of the fountain and started to take picture.

Then the next song they had was "Jaare jahan se achaa". On my god. I heard this would be the last song for the show. Did I miss the whole show?

Then I checked with the security there and he said, it will start again in next 5 min. Oh, I am saved. Then I see the lights come up and there are steps for people to sit and watch the show. We went and sat on the steps. You also have "mobile" cofee bar there. Got some hot tea and waited for the show.

There it goes. It started and we were about to enjoy and the whole place again went to darkness. People yelling left & right. Then there was a beam of light. Not from the fountain, but from the corner of the road. There came a Jeep. We understood that the show was stopped for this gentleman(?) or his family to come to the place. After like 3-4 min, it again started from beginning. We were thanking our star that they came after 5 mins of show itself.

Then we had some glimpse of Brindavan garen in night, some photos and we were coming out. Then we saw a TALL guy standing there. He allows us to take picutre with him for 10bucks. So, we took one. When I handed the 10rs to him, he shook my hand. Oh man, what a hand? Its so big.

Then we started back to Royal Inn near the ringroad and had dinner, then back to home sweet home of my cousin.

One day trips - Visiting Hogenekkal Falls

2008-05-29T01:34:00.000-07:00

I was looking for a drive to Hogenekkal for almost 2 years and it just got materialized. But the trip turned out to be one of the worst nightmare. I never drive / like to drive in night but ended up so, that too in the heavy rains. Ok, get in to details.

We started from home at 7:50AM on 17th May 2008 in my Aveo. We filled the tank in New Jeevan Bhima Nagar BP bunk with normal petrol. Reset the Tripmeter. (Then realized that the car has given average of 13.x for the previous trips.) We crossed Bommanahalli, Mayasandra and after that saw a huge traffic Jam. Seems like the saturday market around Chandapura was the cause of this and it took almost an hour to cross.
Traffic Jam near Chandapura

We reached Attebelle junction around 10AM. When I saw it was 10, I was sure I cannot make it before night to my home. But still continued the trip to see if I can atleast start from Hogenekkal at 3PM to reach safer. I took the right in the junction towards the TVS. Roads are good once you enter the TN border. The TVS factory is really good to see. I remember my olden days when I went there for a Campus interview. Good old memories.

Then after 2 or 3 KMs you reach a "Y" interection. The left goes to the Hosur and right to ThenKanikottai. When you take this right, you will see lot of TATA vehicles parked in this place. I saw some low bed buses like Volvo there. Remember seeing the name but forgot now. Then you end up in another junction. Take right from here for Thenkanikottai. From this point the Thenkanikottai is just 20Kms. You have good signs all over for Thenkanikottai, Anchetty and Hogenekkal.

We crossed so many "palli's" and I saw a place called Istanbur. We passed all these places and the scenes was really good. Its really nice to drive through these places.

Then we reached the "Kundukotai". The forest range starts from here. Its the start of the Ghat section drive.

Its so steep in some places with many hair pin winds. Some of the hair pin winds are very slippery since no roads on there.

When we were at the top the ghat, we were again stopped for 30min because they were laying roads there. I happen to drive over the stones mixed with the hot tar. Was worried about this, but seems its normal and ok.

When I stopped on one of the hair pin wind for letting the bus climbling up, I saw him saying something with his had to me. I could not understand. Then I realised that I was parking my car on the right hand side and allowing him to drive. Oh no. I was suppose to be on the left. May be that is what he was trying to convince to me. I took the hair pin and without noticing I was on the right hand side when coming down. So, since I saw a bus coming (2 bends next to next, so could not see him before) from other direction, I stopped thinking of helping him by giving way.

We decended and was releived that we crossed the Ghat section. I was not aware that one more is waiting for me in next hour.

We saw one newly painted "Ayyanar" sitting in one of the village we passed. It was really nice to see that in such environment. Took some pictures and left.
Ayyanar with his team (Kavval Dheivam also has a Kaval for themselves!!!)

Again after sometime, we entered the next ghat and this road was so bad. I was wondering if I could return. Then kept driving. The nice scenes around us was the only thing that gave us some enthu to continue the travel. Just before like 10 or 12 Kms from Hogenekkal, we saw the road even worse. Or I should saw no roads.

Road to Hogenekkal

One the way I could see the river flowing along with us. We stopped in one place. We walked down to the river and there was no one around us except the Monkeys.

When we were about to start we saw another family in Alto and we both joined together for Hogenekkal.

We took some pictures and left the scene. SOmehow I managed to pass this section and we reached Hogenekkal. Oh, yes I had same experiance of being stopped by a checkpost and asking to sign and ofcourse some notes.

Once we enter, we paid 30rs for the entrance fees in to the Hogenekkal. Then a 20rs for the parking. Ha, I then remember that our fellow team-bhpians said we can park in the TTDC. Ok, again I went inside and paid 15rs for the parking. They have slab system for parking. rs10 for hatchbacks, 15 for sedan, suvs etc. There was also a Coracle guy following us in cycle and not leaving us.

Ok, we are in Hogenekkal. Hurrayyy!!!

By then we realized that we are damn hungry. Found a place to eat there, had meals and fish. Not so good, but ok to fill in the stomach.

Then we headed towards the falls. By now, it was 2pm and other family was not interested in getting to boating. They said it will be late for them (they are from Hosur) and went. So, we went to the park to get into the coracle. We were only 2 adults and so could not find a good bargain. He was asking for 300rs for a hour. They were not ready to have us in some other group also. I was almost decided to leave. By then I saw another banglaore family bargaining with the coracle guys. It seemed they were 10 people and he was asking for 600 per boat. We picked up talk and they invited us to join them since we will be 12 and we can hire 2 boats. I was thanking my luck. We ended up negotiation for 500rs. Then came the actual problem.

The guy who accepted to take the bangalore family said he cannot take my family since we both are different groups. And the guy who was following me in cycle was also not ready to allow me. Who is he to allow me? I have no idea. Because I never asked him or even negotiatied with him.

Then I had no option to raise my voice to that guy and finally he left. Umm, unless you speak out, you will have no one listening there. For that matter anywhere I guess...

You would be surprised to know that the rates for per head (Rs.50) is clearly mentioned in the BIG board all through the place. But I have never seen even a single transaction that happened like it said.

It was interesing to balance yourself in the coracle. I could see everyone almost falling once they are in. 5 people were asked to sit in a circle along the corner of the coracle. And one in the center (of gravity!!!)

Atlast we are ready here in the boat for a ride. Once you are in the boat the boat first goes to the guy sitting behind a huge banyan tree. He is suppose to be the "Officer" who issues tickets or token for the coracle to get in the water. He charges 10rs per head. Once we are done we go for 100mts in water and then again disembark from coracle.

You need to walk around 2 or 3 min to the other side and from there the actual odyssey starts. Its tiring to walk that streach. And you see them carrying this coracle on there head and walking. We had lemon juices in one of the shops. Since we were tired and dehydrated, this was really good at this time.
Coracle on the head

Then we went and took our "seats" after dancing for a while in the coracle. So far we have not seen and falls and i was like, man whats this. We came to a falls and have not seen one. I was bit worryed because i thought I made this visit in a bad time. When all these thoughts was running in my mind, there was a sound like "johhhh". You can see my face smiling in Joy. Yes, that was nothing but the sound of the water falls. Wow, 3 or 4 falls over there and we went to the falls in coracle. Nice and different experiance. The guy took us to the falls and made us wet by the falling water. By then I remember snaronikar highlighting his porblem with the car key getting wet. THen I immd took out my car key from my Pant pocket and put inside the bag. Just in time. Thank god.
Atlast the falls

Then a couple of rotation in the coracle like merry-go-round. When we are heading towards the river for the bath, we saw these boys standing on the rock and jumping to the water for 5 rs. Had some pictures of them. Slowly we were enjoying the river ride and reached the other side where you have people cooking fish and food for you. The deal is like you pay them for the ingredients (wood, fish, masala etc) and they take the service charge for cooking. But I did not try this since we had food already.

Now its bathing session. Me and my kid went to water and played in that for almost a hour. We enjoyed like anything. I was litterally throwing my son in water and he too was enjoying it a lot. (We never expected we are going to pay for it later, in the name of body ache. Thats a different story)
Finally in water!!!

I could also see other crowds enjoying with little in their mind like some others are also there in that public places. May be they want enjoyment at any cost. Whatever, we had real good time and headed back to coracle. It was now I see the time and it says 5:30pm. OMG, what the heck is this. I was terribly worried on how am I going to head back to Bangalore in night. I was even thinking of taking some hotel to stay and start in the next morning.

Then the other couple mentioned that they too have come in 2 cars and we all can follow each other to reach bangalore. Little releived.

Then we went back to the starting point. This time all were so silent becasue everyone was tired.

Payment time. We ended up paying Rs560 per boat. (with tips) And I paid the other family 200 bucks. He returned 50 back. So, it was 150 for 2 person. Good.

We came out and took the car at 6:15pm. We are suppose to take it out before 6pm from TTDC parking. So little negotiation, may be they were trying for some amount. But did not pay anything extra and left for bangalore.

They came in one Alto and other 800. I was following those cars and we dont want to take the Thenkanikottai route. I was thinking that they are going for the NH7. But to my surprise they took the penagaram-Rayakottai route.

It was already dark and this also involved crossing a ghat section. It was little difficult to follow those cars because, everytime they overtake I should do so, and keep in pace with them. By now I could see lighting outside. I was worried again that it is going to rain. But it did not for sometime. Once we crossed pennagaram, it started with drizzle. After palakode, it was heavy. I was using my AC and suddenly the whole windscreen was covered with fog. I was in 50kmph, scared and tried to clean it off. I started the defogger and it did not help me immd. Then i figured out it was my mistake of using it correctly. I cannot stop since I was following those cars. Now i was cursing myself for not getting their mobile number.

For like next 2 or 3 min I was driving almost blind. Only relief was the 2 tail lamps of the car in front. I was literally following that light. Then somehoe figured out the defoger and it worked. Thank god. but still whenever there was a vehicle comming from other direction, I had some trouble in getting the vision clearly.

Some how we reached Hosur @ 10pm. Now is the height of stupidity. I was literally following those 2 guys and he crossed the GQ and took the right for the Krishnagiri. I was like, oh my god, why am I following these guys to Krishnagiri. Was there any sudden change in their plan? Are they visiting any of the relatives house? All these was running in my mind and I stopped the car to the corner. Then I realized that the other 2 car was also stoping. Oh, he confirms he took a wrong turn and the search for U-turn and here we are back to bangalore.

I wanted to thank them for the help but could not make them stop or get them in any juncitons. But I could very well see them in front. I waved hands to them, hoping they would have got it. I remember he said he is from R.T.Nagar. So, not sure where I missed them. When I reached electronic city, they were not in my site. It was a reall good "rail snegham".

Then we crossed the Silkboard bridge, madivala, IRR and back to Home sweet home.

Some more pictures of the trip...

Adventure sports by Kids!!!

Total KMs done :
Bangalore (c.v.raman nagar) - Attebelle - Thenkanikottai - Anchettey - Hogenekkal. - 130Kms
Hogenekkal - Pennagram - Palakodu - Rayakotai - Hosur - Bangalore. - 170Kms.

Route advise:
Route through Thenkanikottai - Anchetty is not advisable. Even though it is 40Kms less, it would certainly take more time or equal time to reach. wrt FE also, I would think it will be more since the roads are too bad for the last 10s of Kms.
Route through Royakottai is good enough for the drive. At-times its irritating with those lorries but manageable.

Oops: Was it me who wrote this big travelogue? Umm... Let me take a break. (You too!!!).

Weekend trip to Santa cruz beach, USA

2008-05-29T01:20:00.000-07:00

I was on a business trip to US for 2 weeks in the end of May 2008. Whereever we are, the weekends are for long drive right? So, I planned to take my car and go for a drive. The location I selected was the Santa Cruz beach. Its around an hour drive from my place. I was staying in Sunnyvale. Also, I had my co-worker staying near Capitol and so decided to meet him and then go to beach together.

Now the routes. Googled the route map. Got it printed, and the trip started. It was pretty easy drive.

Take 85-N till you reach exit for 17 to Santacruz.
Take 17 till you reach summit exit.
Take old san jose road to reach my friends place.

The 17 & old san jose road was very scenic. Its on the mountain with lots of windy curves. But you really enjoy those turns on the mountain. Sorry, since I was driving alone in those place I could not capture those beautiful scenes for your eyes.

Just couple of days back they had forest fire near here and I could see the Fire fighters placed still in the location. Also, I saw many boards thanking the Fire fighting guys all along the way. These boards are kept by the residents living in that area.

My friend lives in this excellant place, away from the city life. So calm. He owns a MG and Harleys. Both well maintained.

Then we started to beach. Drove to capitol Mall and went to Star bucks. Had good coffee and started to Beach. Usualy its difficult to get parking in there. So, we decided to park any place we see first. Luckily we had a slot and we parked in there. And other luck was the parking meter still had 15min for expire. So, we can park for free for next 15 min. Anyway, we added some dollars and made it for 2 hrs.

Then we headed towards the beach. I could see people surfing and kid enjoying those beach. East or west, I see same hapiness on peoples face when they play in water.

Then sat in the beach and saw 2 kids playing some game. Not sure of the name. They use a pipe and one end has a net to it. They use it to catch and throw the ball. Instead of catching in hand, they use this. Umm... Some game.

There are places for renting the Surf equipments, baords, wet suits etc.

We had a small walk and reached the place where people are present usually for fishing. I could see people renting the boats for fishing. Spend sometime seeing those and walked back to car.

We were hungry by now and so decided to head back to some restarant. Reached Chilli in Capitol mall.

Return was really interesting. I dropped my friend in his home and was heading back. I was following the signs and taking the 85-S. Some how I missed to notice a sign and ended up in wrong lane. Suddenly saw the sign saying "Right lane MUST exit" and took that exit eventhough it was wrong. Wished it should have been India, so we can just keep driving and moving to next lane. Anyway, somehow figured out and made a U-turn to join 85 again. But unfortunately, again took a wrong exit and ended up in 280. Which is perpendicular to this 85.

Man, its so difficult to even park the car in some palce to call for help. The place I was driving is like a commercial place and no place to park. All signs says no parking.

Then finally I saw someone parked on the ramp which leads to 85 and just parked behind them. Called my friend and with his help reached back hotel. Oh, I was really scared at first when I missed the exits. Anyway, finally made it.

Some of the pictures during the trips...

One day trips - Banerghatta Zoo in Bangalore

2008-05-10T02:01:00.000-07:00

Bannerghatta Zoo is in Bangalore and have good safari option. We decided to take a safari with the kids.

Started on Saturday, 10th May 2008. I dont want to fill the tank since it already had around 3/4 tank and I was planning to giveit for service. Just filled air in neat by bunk and started the journey.

Reached the Park around 8:50AM and parked the car. I was the 2nd person to be in the parking lot. I found only one i10 parked in there. Parked the vehicle and went to the ticket counter. They said it would open by 9AM. But opened at 9:20AM. Took the Grand Safari ticket and headed into the Zoo. The safari was scheduled for 10AM. So, had a short walk in the zoo.

It was 10:15 and we had the vehicle ready for Safari. But I found that they made all people (both Grand Safari and Tiger & Lion safari ticket holders) to take the same vehicle. So just wasted 35bucks per tickets

Anyway, initially we could not spot any animals except for some Bisons and Dear. Then we entered in to the space where they had all bears. We could spot many Bears. One was dancing with his head, shaking it left and right. May be the guy (or girl!!!) is in happy mood.

After passing the Bear portion, we headed for the Lion & Tiger section. When we entered there, we saw many people doing some maintenance work and the Tigers are inside the cage. Oh no. We were worried and cursing our bad luck.

But once we moved from there we could still spot some of the Lions and Tigers freely roaming around in other side.

We had a couple of Guys with professional Cameras and long lens. The Guy was sitting just on the engine next to driver and the driver was also in good mood. He use to stop for the Guy to take some good snaps. And we too enjoyed those moments.

Then we returned back to the Zoo. Started seeing each of the animals. They had one Hyna and that guy was always sleeping showing his back. Never suceeded to see him. We had good time with the Zebra. It posed for us for the Photo session. Then I saw some guys bribing it with bananas to make it come near them to take pictures. I wonder when our guys going to learn. The very place they stood had a board saying to not to feed or tease animals. Umm..

They had a lot of Crocodile and active too. At the end they had the Deer and Spotted Dears, Elephants etc. While returning we also seen the Cobra, Phython and others. Since we were exhausted by this time, we could not visit Butterfly park and I was planing it for some other day.

Best time to visit would be morning 9-9:30. Because, I see a huge crowd for the safari after 11 or 12noon. If you plan for 10am safari, then you could spend the time after that in the zoo. There are also one Jungle resort opened. Could not get any time to enquire, but seems it ready for accomodation.

So, here goes the pictures

One day trips- Visit to Chikka Tirupati

2008-03-29T02:13:00.000-07:00

When searching for weekend spots around bangalore ended up with this Chikka Tirupati. After reading those, I was curious to visit the Chikka tirupati. Did some googling to get the location & direction.
So, 29th March, we decided to do the visit. Planned to start around 9am but as usual could only get on the car by 10am. Started from C.V.Raman Nagr, Bangalore. Took the Whitefield, Channasandra route. Roads are with pot holes and Humps. I should say more humps than the pot holes. I dont know who planned for the height of the humps. Really bad.
The route was really a nice one. Eventhough the sun was shining, the wind was cool. Thanks to the greeneary all along the way.

When I was taking picture, I noticed that there are so many honey hive on the trees. Wondering what would happen if some birds disturb it.
We reached the temple around 11:30am. Bought the pooja materials for archana and went to the temple. The practice here was little different than the temple I have visited. Usually I have seen that we give the coconut and other Pooja items to the temple poojari. And he only breaks the coconut. But here we are suppose to do that ourselve just outside the sannidanam. So, we broke it and worshiped there first before entering the sanidanam.
Eventhough not much crowded, there was some small queue. While we were waiting in the queue, suddenly a guy came there in kakki and with a long stick. I was just seeing what he is doing. Then saw him climbing on the Hundi and hitting the hole with the stick. Oh, what is he doing. Then we came to know that someone droped some offering and it got stuck on the way. So, they are "helping" him to get the offering to the "right person".
When we are just about to get to the place to see the lord, oops, power cut. Waited for a while, and the power came back, thank god.

The dressing and flower decoration for the god was really great. The lights used inside was of Green color and it gave some special effect to the Moorthies. Darshan was done and we came out and had some rest.
While we were resting in the temple, we could see lot of Monkeys coming to us. None of them are scared of people. May be very used to. One came with her baby. Nice to see the way the baby was holding the mother. A banana was given to her and she started eating just right there.
Mum & baby [Sorry for the low reso, its from K750i]

Then came out and had some photo.
The Gopuram

Gopuram with Koti Kambam

On the way back, i just stopped the car and was relaxing. I saw a farmer doing his work.

On seeing him for a while, I was thinking about how we guys keep complaining about one thing or other. We are gifted by god with good life but still many out there complaining about their way of life. Here is a guy who has none of what we have, but still enjoying his every moment.

Time to go home... Enjoyed the scenery a lot (except those pot holes...) and reached home near 2pm.

Route: K.R.Puram -> WhiteField -> Channasandra -> Kalkunte village - Chikka tirupati
Vehicle: Zen LXi
Total KMs: 70Kms total
Time for the visit: 4Hrs.

Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, TX, USA

2008-02-15T02:41:00.000-08:00

During the last visit of my trip to Texas, I decided to spent my weekend in this place. It was 2nd Week of Feb 2008. Me and my friend took the rental car with the GPS (I dont want to repeat the "The lost world" as it happened during my Santa Cruz trip here)

Googled and came to know that this place was interesting since we can drive in our own car inside the Forest and "feel" the animals near. It was a long drive, but a worthy one.

Its not worth talking about this palce with out the picutres. But since its too many pictures, I could not upload all here. Beleive me, I cannot stop from clicking my camera!!! My hands was on the camera for longer than on the wheels :)

So, the pictures are in here

Pleasant Trip to Wayanad in Kerala

2007-12-25T01:10:00.000-08:00

I always wanted to go for some hill places and enjoy the weekends. I was waiting for a good chance and got it during the Christmas time.

I started for Panamara in Wayanad. Panamara is a small village 17km from Kalpetta. I started with my family & in-law family. We were 4 adults with 3 kids. Started as per plan around 5:30am on 25th decemeber 2007 from C.V.Raman Nagar, Bangalore. It was foggy and I found little difficult to drive initially as I never drove in nights before. Also, the wind screen was completely covered with mist. After initial struggle with the blower finally figured out to clear it.

The journey was through the MG Road and I took the Mysore Road through the elevated bridge after Stadium. It was a plesant drive. Reached Mysore around 7:30am. I took the Mysore city and reached the Palace. Took a few snaps outside the Palace and started again to Najungud.

Way to Mysore in early morning

Pic of Palace.

Once we reached there we had our beakfast. On the way from Nanjungud, the road was not so good. Also, many komadhas was blocking our ways. Finally with their "cooperation" we crossed that place.

Then we enquired the route for the Bandipur and reached the Bandipur forest.
Bandipur forest picture

I was so exicited to travel through the forest after reading all those travelouges mentioning about the animal crossing etc.

Spotted some deer.

Later I recognised that I should have taken the right in Guldelpet [I was searching for this right from begining but correctly missed!!!]. So, I ended passing through the Mudumali forest. The check post guy was so kind to ask for "just" 20rs. For what? No answer except for the smile. Anyway, gave 20rs and I could see him happy with that. Just enquired if there are any chances to see some animals. Seeing his watch, it was almost noon, he said its not possible.

Disappointed, we started our travel through the forest again. The road was with pot holes and I was driving the zig zag way to avoid the pot holes. I was going in 40 and suddenly noticed a pot hole in front. Without thinking for a second I moved to right and I saw a big lorry coming in opposite direction. I could hear him standing the brake. For a second I thought i am going to get something bad... luckily, I moved to left before he could hit me and heard him shouting all sort of bad words. Sorry, it was my mistake. Thanking god, we traveled further.

Now after reaching the Gudalur, we took the correct right to Kerala.

The route from there was real treat to eyes. I was little afraid of the hilly drives. This was my first drive on hills. Anyway, it was not so scary as I imagined.

Pictures of hills

Around 3pm we reached Sulthan Bathery and had lunch there. As some one mentioned here, the lunch was not at all expensive. I was trying for the curry mean (fish!!!) since one of my kerala friend said it would be great taste. I was unlucky that all through the journey, I could not get it. May be because of my untimely lunch times.

I was planing to visit the Jain temple or Edakkal caves before reaching my resort. But since I took a wrong route and it took alost 2 hours extra time of us, all were tired and wanted to go directly to resort. After an hour we were there in our resort. The first day was in a different house due to heavy booking.

Picture of first day house.

When I tried to take my car into the parking area, I heard a creeeech sound. Oh my god, my car bumper hit the slope which they put for getting into the parking area. Um... Then I realized that the slope was steep and some Mahindra's parked insdie. So, its for the Mahindra Jeeps thats found almost everywhere in there and not for a Zen. It had all of us inside and so it hit the ground. So, from next time, I just drove it with myself and asking other to get in or out before getting into the parking area. Good, that was the answer.

After some refreshment, we headed for a local river. The path to the river was through the plantation and it was not so easy. Only after reaching the river, we thought why did we took this assignment :( Anyway, it was a new experiance in there.

Pic of planation route to river.

Thats the end of day one and we went to sleep early. The next day, we got up around 7, had authentic kerala breakfast with puttu, kadala curry etc. We planned to go to Pookote Lake. The route to lake was so good. I wanted to fill petrol and was searching for BP, since I only use Speed for my baby. No luck.

So ended up with a Reliance pump. Oh, its expensive than bangalore. They had only Premium petrol and costed 54.xx. filled the tank. Now ready for the drive to lake. I was enjoying my drive throgh the hills and estates. All through the journey it was so interesting to see the names of the place. Chundalle, Yerumadu, yes.. u heard it right. Finally reached Pookote late. The lane to the lake was so narrow and was little difficult to reach the parking area.

Pic of bus and Jeep in parking area.

The entrance ticket was got. Then ticket for the Camera. It was interesting to know that 10rs for still camera [digital too], but 100rs for video camera.

Umm.. Anyway, got the ticket and went to lake. We took the rowing boat since it had a staff who rows the boat and we thought it would help us to relax rather than spending our energy

It was worth it. The staff was kind enough to allow us to try the rowing and we did. Was good. I saw the lilly in the pond and wanted to reach out there to take one. But he said he is suppose to pay fine if he row to that place. Not sure if he was right. But anyway, he did took us there and here is the pic...

Pic of lilly closeup.

Then we started to Chembra peak. From the main road I was asked to take a STEEP right to go to the Chembra peak. I took my szen and it was so steep that i was doubting if I can climb back. Then after reaching a little further from there, I saw a Chembra estate officer and enquired about the travel to the peak.

He said since it was noon, its better to visit the Soochipara and then try the Chembra peak. Ok, Chembra was cancelled. And I started for Soochipara falls. The climb was not so bad, my baby was really good to pull and climb the steep road with all of us inside. Great!

The route to soochipara was really awesome. The entire route was like you climb several hills and cross several hair pin bends etc. But it was so nice. But only thing is, I could see 90% only Mahindra jeeps with people flooded in it. Normal cars are very less. Seeing the route it made more sense too. After we reached the peak, I parked the car near the shops.

Route to Soochipara

Then we were told that we still need to go further down either by walk or Jeep only. We took the jeep and it was costing 50Rs. Real worth I would say. The road to the falls was so steep that ONLY a 4x4 could climb that. And one side its steep fall. Nothing to block. But inspite of this, the drivers drive it so proffessionally. If you are afaid of height, then better not peep out of jeep.After the final destination of jeep, again you need to climb down by foot for 10-15 min. The falls is untouched by humans and hence not much safety things are done. The moment you step in there, you could hear the hissing sound of the falls. The snow white falls was visible through the trees. It so ferousious.

The reach to the falls is also not easy. The step are so steep. Only 2 people can walk in parallel, its so thin pathway. But after you reach the falls, you will feel its worth the strain.

Just managed to reach the water pool in front of falls. Water so cold but was ok after some time. Had a good play in water and we returned to Panamara.

Soochipara falls

Back in resort we played the shuttle, kids were also enjoying the cycling. The resort is nice one with many indoor games and good place for spending your holidays.

Back to ente veedu

On the way back, we saw a accident of tourist bus in the NH212. Seems like he dashed straight to the tree on that curve without noticing the curve. May be slept???? No clue.
Bus & Tree :(

Tree house in the forest

Spoted a young tusker

On the way back to Nanjungud

Reaching Bangalore in dawn

Trip Details

Route -> Bangalore - Mysore - Nanjungud - Gudulpet - Sulthan bathery - Kalpeta - Panamara.
Mode of transport -> Heard there are many buses plying from bangalore to Kalpetta. People also take train to calicut and reach here through bus / jeep. But you will really enjoy if you drive through there.
Places to visit -> Pookote lake, sun rise valley, Chembra peak, edakkal caves, soochipara falls, Meenumutty falls and many more...
Stay -> Welcome to Ente Veedu. There are many others too like Vythiri etc.
Expense -> 2000/night, 150 for lunch/dinner + travel.

Cheers
MJ

Visit to Kamakura, Japan

2007-07-29T19:49:00.000-07:00

I was in Japan during July 2007. I was staying in an Apartment in Oimachi, near Tokyo. I also had couple of my friends staying in same apartment. One weekend we decided to go to Kamakura and near by beach. So, we got ourselves ready in the morning and took the train towards Tokyo. We need to change line in Shinjiku to get on to a different train.

Short holidays in KL, Malaysia

2007-03-29T04:25:00.000-07:00

Around March 2007, I had just 3 days of vacation in Malaysia. I stayed in my friends house in KL. Since it was weekdays, they were busy in their daily activities. Anyway, I managed to have some nice trips within KL on these 3 day. I suddenly planed to make a visit here during my return to India from Japan. Since this was not pre-planned I did not take any visa from India.

Anyway, its easy for us to visit Malaysia on transit. If you have a confirmed return ticket, you can enter Malaysia without any visa. Once you enter the Immigration, you can go to the special counter where they issue transit visas for Indians. Max time you can stay is 120 hrs or 5 days. If you show them the confirmed return ticket, they will issue you with this visa. No fees for this.

I reached in the evening in Airport and my friend came to receive me there. We went to the house and had some rest. Late evening, we started out for seeing the night life of Malaysia and had dinner on the way back.

Next day we took the Car to visit the Petronas tower.

Me and my friend was roaming around the Tower. We went little late and hence could not ty to get in to the Tower. While we were having our photo session, I asked Siva (my friend) to stand in front of the tower. There were 2 girls crossing us and hence I waited to shoot the picture. Suddenly one girl went behind him and asked to picture. Umm, I dont want to make her sad, so here it is... Hey girl, are you seeing this? :)

Then some more from the surroundings.

KL Tower

Later in the late night, we started out in our car.

We just went to some hotels and it was almost 1am and we had a flat tyre. :( Luckily the Stepny was good and replaced it and started back to Home.

Since we did not had much time for the vacation, we decided to roam around the place in car, the next day. Some of the pictures when we visited Putra Jaya and around.

Next day afternoon I started back to India. I took the below KL Express (No no, not the same one, its just a prorotype. Lol... )

Oh, I need to leave KL...

Bye KL, Will be back soon to meet you.

Roaming around the streets of Boston on a Weekend.

2006-09-29T03:58:00.000-07:00

It was the month of September 2006. Once the training got over in Malboro, I was about to depart from US from the Logan Airport, Boston. Since the departure time was on a Sunday noon, I decided to vacate my hotel from Marlboro and check in to Boston hotel. I did this on friday evening so, I could spent some time around Boston during saturday.

As usual, googled for the sites around. I found that there are so many packages for the tours. I decided to do a take a casual trip in to the center of Boston. I planned to do the trip through the MBTA. I took the train fro my hotel and got down in Park street station. Got out of the station on those lovely day.

Was impressed very much with the environment and so my cam was doing a lot of over time. I did a short stroll and ended in the tourism office. I could see a lot of crowds around there and they were planing for the "Freedom Trial". It is one of the best way to get to know the Boston history and culture in the 2.5 mile walk.

Since I dont want to follow any groups and keep walking as I like, I decided to roam around the streets myself. I am happy that i decided to do that, since it was so enjoyable exploring the unknown streets.

I will let the pictures do the rest of my work!!!

Fountain in the Park.

"Guides" for the Freedom Trail

Ducks on the Road!!! - Boston Duck Tours

Some Street performance

Its time to go to hotel.

This is was taken from the University.

University Building.

Cheers...
MJ

Sailing in Boston, USA

2006-09-29T03:39:00.000-07:00

I visited Boston during the month of September 2006. It was an offical trip to our Marlboro office. My manager lives in Boston and we just got together on one of the weekend. We here is - Me, My boss and other friends who came for training.

We went to the "Courageous sailing center". Since my manager was a member in there he got the sail boats. We are ready with our life jackets. This was my first experiance in sailing, since there are almost nill places in South India for these activities.

Initially I was scared and just staring the way my Manager started the show :) After couple of minutes, I got little courageous and started to enjoy those thrilling events. Thats when the above picture was taken. The water was so cold and splasing on us.

"WE - Bob, Anthony, Me & Karen"

Anthony signing the formalities for renting the sail boat. And me posing for the pic :)

We kept sailing in the bay. The airport was very near to the bay. A flight landing on the airport.

When we were sailing, there are also other giant sail boats that keep crossing all over. Sometimes its scary too. The waves from this big brothers were making our sail not so smooth. It has to be experianced than me explaining.

Bob - No, not the builder!!!

Myself - Trying for a heroic pose. Did I succeeded??

It was such a memorable and thriling event. Should thank my manager for taking us here (Also for inviting for the training in Boston... he he he...)

Visiting the Statue of Liberty - Part - II

2006-09-04T03:12:00.000-07:00

Here we are, in the streets of New York. We reached the bus station, came out and was much excited. We had no plan on where to go, what to do and where to stay. But we were there.

Picked up some maps from the tourist information center in the station and started to walk. We started to walk in the street.
Me looking @ the maps!!!

Oh, we are tired. Even in that excitement we could feel we are tired. Ok, lets refresh ourselves. We looked around. And the it is. A Starbucks. How can one miss this in US :) So, had some refreshments, hot coffee and started to walk briskly. While walking, we noticed this Madame Tussaud's New york Wax museum and here goes the photo session.

Then we moved to the Empire state building. We could not make it to the top since it was little late and kept it in the plan for the next day. We have heard that seeing the Statue in night would be very pleasant surprise, we decided to head to that first. but still, what's a visit without pictures. So, here is the Empire State Building.

As we were walking around, we realized that it was late evening and almost 8pm. Bala started to return to Edison for the stay in our friends appartment. But I dont want to miss seeing the night beauty of the NY and statue.

Bala: Its late evening, we need to go back to station.
Me: No, i will not, unless I see the statue.
Bala: Ok, lets go to the island.

but to our surprise we saw a huge crowd waiting for the ferry. We could get the ticket only in the last trip. I was thinking to take this.
Bala: It would be late if we take this.
Me: No prbs. i will sleep in station, but not msis this.
Bala: Man, you are killing me. We will miss the last train.
Me: Let it be.. but we are going.

Since Bala had no option (He knows me from my childhood. Lol), he went ahead and booked the ferry. We waited for sometime out turn. And finally we got the ferry and I dragged him to the ferry. Since he knows he has no other option, he starts to enjoy the trip. (May be cursing me inside him...)

We took some photos of those lovely night scene. I loved those. imagine moving in a slow ferry in the river, and night has just started with colorful lights on those sky scrappers and bridges. WoW, Awesome.

Time flies like anything if you are involved in something you like. Same happened to us here and we realized that it was near mid night and we had no option to stay any where.

So, we returned to the station as fast as we can. It was just past 11pm when we entered the station. We were shocked like anything when we saw the board. The board reads like "Last train to EDISON is @ 11:10pm".

Ohhh, we have just few minutes. Where to get the tickets, where is the platform. We had no clue. Kept wandering and got the Vending machine for the ticket.

OMG.. its so many menus & option. It will take hours to unerstand and figure out what the are and details and get our ticket. Suddenly a old man comes to rescue..

Old man: Where u want to go.?
We: Edison.
Old man: Here you go, click this, this , this and you got it.
We both were starting at each other adn surprised. This man should be the one who designed this :)
We: Thanks a lot.
Old man: Fine, but any change for this homeless?
We: Oh sure..

Just droped couple of dollars to him and again Runnnnnnnn

Now, where is the damn platform?? There... both of us showing the hand in very opposite direction :)

Finally we are right in front of the train. Happy that we are going to board the one last train for Edison. Then comes the difficulty. Where is my coach? Oops,. its in the other end. I hate this.
We always get this whenever we are in hurry. we started run again, then we heard the loud horn. Oh, train is going to start. Get in any coach. When we were about to change the mind and jump in to nearest coach, the doors started to close.
Nooooooooo..
We run to the gate. The gate opens. We are surprised and thanking god for this. Then we realized that, there was a couple who were also trying to get in, but one got in and not the other. So the person inside obstructed the door and so the doors opened again. Whatever, it looked it happened just for our sake.. Thanks to god.

Again, search, search and get to your seat. Atlast, here we are heading to Edison.

I was thinking, did we ever thought that these 2 buddies will fly all the way from a small place in India to these place and that too running for the last train to Edison?

Umm, who knows what happens next. Anyway, time to relax.

End of Part - II

Contd...

Visiting the Statue of Liberty - Part I

2006-09-04T00:42:00.000-07:00

It was month of September 2006. I was in Marlboro for a training. I was staying in the Holiday Inn. Since the training was 2 weeks, I had a full weekend in between. So, what to do? I was thinking of roaming around near by places. Then finally decided to go to New York City.

Ok, called my friend who lives in Illinois.

Me: "Hey, how are you?"
Bala: I am doing fine and how are you man?
Me: Ya, good. Just trying to see if we can meet up for this weekend.
Bala: Sure. Where?
Me: No idea, but thinking of going to NYC.
Bala: Wow, cool. I would love to do that. What's the plan?
Me; No idea. We just go there.
Bala: Whats it you are planning to see?
Me. No idea, lets meet up and then decide.
Bala: ok. So, how do i meet you and where?
Me: Ok, you fly to Boston, I will meet you there. Then we can rent a car and rest, lets see when it comes.
Bala: Done.

So, I was waiting for the D-Day, and finally it arrived. I had my Friend (Karen) from Armenia. He was staying with me in the same hotel. He has rented the car. He said he will drop me to Airport and he had other plans. So, not joining in NYC visit. Bala has sent me all detials about his travel and flight information in mail and I had it in my Laptop. I decided to take my Laptop with me and hence did not give much attention to the detials. Anyway I have it handy to check, so why tension.

So, now me & Karen start to Airport. Karen asked me why I am taking the laptop all the way to NYC. it sounded good to me, why should I take this heavy stuff with me? So, i droped the laptop in my room and got into his car. There we go, we went to the Airport, parked the car. Now time to meet my friend. OMG, which flight is he coming? Who knows? Since i was thinking of taking my laptop with me, I have not noted teh flight details.

Ok, no problem. All i know is, he is coming from Illinois on a AA flight. So, we decided to go to the terminal and checked with guys for arrival of such flight. There was not 1, but many :) I dont remember the time. So, we just decided to wait at the arrival lobby.

We are waiting and time is running. I dont see this guy. Ok, let me give a call to him. I did not had any phone at that time and so he cannot reach me. Searched for coins. Oops, very little change. Good for 1 or 2 min of conversation from Public phones. Dialed his number and here he is. Bala picked the phone and started talking. I told "Listen, i am running out of change. Just find your way to the arrival lobby and we are standing near it. Please.. " Oops, its gone. Phone was asking me to put some more change to continue. Where would I put? I had no more coins. Ok, lets hope he will figure out and come soon.

Waiting for this guy to come. Suddenly I saw a familiar face, but not sure of if it was him. My friend was not so fat. I turn back and start to search. There comes a voice from behind.

"Hai, mahe", surprised i turn back. There I see the same person I saw a couple of minutes back. Man, he is my friend. America's burger and french fries had made him so burgy.. Oops. bulky. Lol.

So, next step is to find a rented car. Since we did not do any reservation and its weekend, we could not find any car. Ok, we dont want to waste time. Lets take the greyhound. Karen dropped us in the China town and we are here to take the bus to NYC. Finally we got the ticket and around noon we got into the bus.

Bus starts and we start to share our memorable days before he left from India. We keep talking and then bus stopped for Lunch. Lunch Time. Ok, we went to the shop in there and got the Mac. There you go, I know why this guy has put so much weight. he he he.

The journey continues again after lunch, same talks and finally we were there NYC!!!

Its become a lengthy post, so I will split it into parts. End of Part - I

Contd...