Gokarna is also known as Kashi of the south. This place, though located at an offside, not easily accessible by road (by which I obvisouly mean tar road) still sees throngs of tourists. The place is named thus based on the story that Lord shiva had emerged from cow’s ear. A walk through the main streets of the town would give you the opportunity to shop at the various local shops varying from clothing to pooja items.
After two days of car driving, we had decided to take it easy today. So, we got up in a lateback manner at about 9 am.We are staying at a place called Nimmu’s house – rent of the good rooms here is 1200 per day, checkout timing being 10 am, irrespective of your check in timings. The rooms are good, with amenities like TV provided. Hot water is available only between 8 to 10 am. The house is owned by a family so it does not give the restaurant feeling, but you can see the family going about their activities. There is a restaurant nearby to the house – called Mahalakshmi roof top restaurant. This is so far the best place to eat in Gokarna, with good food at a cheaper price. The only drawback is that it takes a little longer to get your food, so don’t come to this place when you are at the peak of your hunger. Come a little early, and enjoy the roof top view of the Gokarna beach, while muching your food or drinking your drink. A note to all – this restaurant is purely veg and does not serve any alcohol. If you fancy a beer or anything else, you would need to go to Hotel Gokarna International, which has a downtown restaurant & bar. If you have a family with you, it is better that you forsake that beer since the place looked a little shady to me to take your family along.
We started our morning by visiting the Gokarna beach, which was like 2 min walk from our guesthouse. The sun was scorhing hot and the sand hotter. The beach is good, and people interested can go for a swim. I, suddenly, remembered my childhood days and started collecting the shells washed ashore by the tide. Supratim watched me collect these and dump into his pocket, wondering where would these shells end up in our house. We walked for sometime on the shore and when we could not bear the heat any longer, went into a nearby hut café to have a cool drink and soothe our throat.
By the time, we had finished with our drinks and had come out, the sand had grown hot, and was burning our feet, so we had to run towards the water where we could have the cool water laping at our feet. We came back to the guesthouse for a afternoon nap.
At 2.30 pm, we again went out for our next expedition – Om beach. This beach is around 6 kms from Gokarna police checkpost, if you wish to go by the road. There are also boats which leave from Gokarna beach towards Om beach, Kudle, Paradise and half moon beach. If you are going by road, take care that where you want to park your vehicle. As soon as you start seeing the 3 km sign, look out for the start of the parked vehicles. It is better if you keep your vehicle here and have a trek till the beach. If you make the mistake like us to park the car as close as possible to the beach, you would have a hard time coming back. The road is very narrow that 2 cars can pass each other barely. Now imagine one side of the road with parked vehicles – Yes, that is the only place from where you can come and go. So, it is possible that you reach close to the beach when you come, but while going back you would have a hard time to take a u-turn. Thanks to the Auto drivers here, who help out a lot by solving the traffic jam problem. I wish we had these people in Bangalore – it would make life so much easier. But alas, the same auto-drivers in Bangalore are the reason of most of the traffic jams.
Om beach is named so, due to its shape. If you can click a photo of the beach from above, you can see the shape of the beach which is like the “Om”. The beach is strewn across with rocks, mangroves providing a little of shade, and café serving food and drinks.
You can spend your evening here watching the sunset and the tides lapping at the shores.
Overall, it was a very relaxing day for us. Tommorrow, we would be off to Yana and Jog falls.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Mangalore to Gokarna – NH17
Today our plan was to go along the west coast from Mangalore and reach as far as possible. We had breakfast at our hotel Poonja International, and left for Ullal beach. Someshwar beach, Ullal is around 13 km to south of Mangalore. – You can take a turn from Mahaveer circle of Mangalore - We had gone in the morning before 10 am, and there were not many people around. We could not find the main entrance to the beach, however we did find a parking place for our car and an offside entrance to the beach. The road is very small and fishermen’s houses surround the road towards the beach. The backside of their houses overlook the beach. We could see the locals cleaning their net in preparation for the day.
Empty bottles, plastic was thrown across the beach. And this place was not even where the tourists would usually come, so I can imagine how the main entrance beach would look like. The tide was really high, and my feeling is that the water was deep even towards the shore. The vast ocean, length of white sandy beach and palms at the end of the beach - overall it made a nice picture. Far away we could see some boats, maybe locals on their way to catch some fish.
From Ullal, we took the NH17 road and started our way towards Udupi. Our plan was to visit Surathkal beach on our way – this is supposed to be the most cleanest in Karavali, however Mangalore’s “best kept secret” remained a secret. We had assumed that since Surathkal hosts the regional college of engineering, it would be easy enough to find. However, I was amazed, when we went on the highway and realized that the place which should have at around 17 kms from Mangalore, never came. I do not think we missed out any sign which mentioned Surathkal, but guess better luck for you guys out there having out heart set out for that beach.
Our next halt was Kaup beach, around 35 kms from Mangalore. The beach is considered very notorious for its huge waves and statistics for claiming lives of the people who venture out to dare the sea. The way to the beach is very properly marked with Karnataka state tourism boards, but beware of the 1km sign of Kaup, which is located exactly at the place where you need to take the left turn. The turn itself is very small, so keep looking out for the signs. Kaup beach,like Ullal, is badly strewn with chips packets, soda bottles and whatnots. The only soothing thing you get to see is the ocean, which never ceases to amaze me. I can go to every beach and still not get bored looking at the ocean, looking at the small sand cards running helter-skelter, though I admit I am scared of them. The sandy beach is obstructed by a 130 ft high lighthouse, emitting light for 26 nautical miles.
We walked along the beach for some time, and when it started getting too hot for us, started for our onwards journey.
Udupi is around 15 kms from Kaup. It is impossible to miss the grand entrance of the town. A set of celestial divine figures adron the threshold of the town. And you feel as if the temples are beckoning you on. The name Udupi means Lord shiva who wears the moon and it also means a place situated on the edge of rice fields. We went in search of the Krishna temple, and after a long set of directions and roundabouts, we finally reached the temple. There are three temples on the Car street – Chandramoulishwar, Anantheshwar and Krishna temple. The Krishna temple has the most biggest queue of all. A shade has been created in the form of a queue to provide protection from sun for the devotees. We were not even able to see the end of the queue and decided not to go inside the temple. After all, god is omnipresent. Based on the recommendation of the outlook traveller book, we ate Outlook Masala dosa in Mitra samaj restaurant near the temple. Let me warn you, the dosa is almost 3 feet long so beware before ordering it. Our plans of eating gadbad went for a toss, since we were full after eating and wasting the dosa.
After having our lunch at a right time of 1 pm, we decided to move forth in our journey.
Next to Udupi is Malpe beach, you can go to St Mary’s Island from a ferry here. We skipped this part of the tour, and went towards Murudeshwar.
Driving on the NH17 highway watching the ocean waves is a delight in itself. Best of this is in Maravanthe. You cannot miss this stretch of the road on the highway. Jagged rocks and rushing waves of the Arabian sea to your left and Sowparnika river’s calm waters to your right complement each other in a beautiful way. We stopped here for awhile and the picture has been etched in my memory like a photo.
Going towards Murudeshwar, around 35 kms from Maravanthe, the ocean was not visible but instead the view was replaced by lush green fields and hills.The 500 ft Shiva statue is visible from the road and you know that you have reached your destination. Parking is available freely and easily at the base of the statue, once you can cross the thongs of people below waiting to go to the beach. RN Shettyland has built a theme park of mythological statues at this place. The park depicts Arjuna sitting in his chariot and Krishna explaining him about why war is required. On one side, is Ganaptu sitting with a acharya (unfortunately I do not know which). At the front is Ravana and behind it is the towering statue of Lord Shiva and Nandi in front of it. The status of Lord Shiva is mentioned to be the tallest idol of Lord shiva in the world. The details of the statue have been carved amazingly. At such a point, I marvel at the work of the artists who made this statue, rather than the person who asked to build the statue. There is a temple at the top and also a small cave created which depicts some statues and the story of how Ravana, after obtaining the atmalinga, giving invincibility, was tricked by Ganesh disguised as a young boy, and the atmalinga was entrenched in the ground at Gokarna – Mahabaleshwara.
After taking a last look at the towering statue, we decided to get on with our journey and reach Gokarna.
The access road to Gokarna from NH17 is not marked by the karnataka tourism boards. So, once you have reached around 62 kms, start asking for directions from the locals. Thankfully, almost all the highway from Murudeshwar goes via small towns and villages and the locals are ready to help out.
Today being 25th Dec, a holiday, we were not able to find place to stay in any hotels. Ultimately, we found a place called Nimmu house, near Gokarna Main beach. We got a room at 1200/- for the night. The place is good to stay, but does not serve food. However there is a restaurant nearby to have dinner, lunch or snacks.
Supratim, after a long journey is tired and I have thankfully completed my second day travelogue successfully.
Visting Gokarna ….
Empty bottles, plastic was thrown across the beach. And this place was not even where the tourists would usually come, so I can imagine how the main entrance beach would look like. The tide was really high, and my feeling is that the water was deep even towards the shore. The vast ocean, length of white sandy beach and palms at the end of the beach - overall it made a nice picture. Far away we could see some boats, maybe locals on their way to catch some fish.
From Ullal, we took the NH17 road and started our way towards Udupi. Our plan was to visit Surathkal beach on our way – this is supposed to be the most cleanest in Karavali, however Mangalore’s “best kept secret” remained a secret. We had assumed that since Surathkal hosts the regional college of engineering, it would be easy enough to find. However, I was amazed, when we went on the highway and realized that the place which should have at around 17 kms from Mangalore, never came. I do not think we missed out any sign which mentioned Surathkal, but guess better luck for you guys out there having out heart set out for that beach.
Our next halt was Kaup beach, around 35 kms from Mangalore. The beach is considered very notorious for its huge waves and statistics for claiming lives of the people who venture out to dare the sea. The way to the beach is very properly marked with Karnataka state tourism boards, but beware of the 1km sign of Kaup, which is located exactly at the place where you need to take the left turn. The turn itself is very small, so keep looking out for the signs. Kaup beach,like Ullal, is badly strewn with chips packets, soda bottles and whatnots. The only soothing thing you get to see is the ocean, which never ceases to amaze me. I can go to every beach and still not get bored looking at the ocean, looking at the small sand cards running helter-skelter, though I admit I am scared of them. The sandy beach is obstructed by a 130 ft high lighthouse, emitting light for 26 nautical miles.
We walked along the beach for some time, and when it started getting too hot for us, started for our onwards journey.
Udupi is around 15 kms from Kaup. It is impossible to miss the grand entrance of the town. A set of celestial divine figures adron the threshold of the town. And you feel as if the temples are beckoning you on. The name Udupi means Lord shiva who wears the moon and it also means a place situated on the edge of rice fields. We went in search of the Krishna temple, and after a long set of directions and roundabouts, we finally reached the temple. There are three temples on the Car street – Chandramoulishwar, Anantheshwar and Krishna temple. The Krishna temple has the most biggest queue of all. A shade has been created in the form of a queue to provide protection from sun for the devotees. We were not even able to see the end of the queue and decided not to go inside the temple. After all, god is omnipresent. Based on the recommendation of the outlook traveller book, we ate Outlook Masala dosa in Mitra samaj restaurant near the temple. Let me warn you, the dosa is almost 3 feet long so beware before ordering it. Our plans of eating gadbad went for a toss, since we were full after eating and wasting the dosa.
After having our lunch at a right time of 1 pm, we decided to move forth in our journey.
Next to Udupi is Malpe beach, you can go to St Mary’s Island from a ferry here. We skipped this part of the tour, and went towards Murudeshwar.
Driving on the NH17 highway watching the ocean waves is a delight in itself. Best of this is in Maravanthe. You cannot miss this stretch of the road on the highway. Jagged rocks and rushing waves of the Arabian sea to your left and Sowparnika river’s calm waters to your right complement each other in a beautiful way. We stopped here for awhile and the picture has been etched in my memory like a photo.
Going towards Murudeshwar, around 35 kms from Maravanthe, the ocean was not visible but instead the view was replaced by lush green fields and hills.The 500 ft Shiva statue is visible from the road and you know that you have reached your destination. Parking is available freely and easily at the base of the statue, once you can cross the thongs of people below waiting to go to the beach. RN Shettyland has built a theme park of mythological statues at this place. The park depicts Arjuna sitting in his chariot and Krishna explaining him about why war is required. On one side, is Ganaptu sitting with a acharya (unfortunately I do not know which). At the front is Ravana and behind it is the towering statue of Lord Shiva and Nandi in front of it. The status of Lord Shiva is mentioned to be the tallest idol of Lord shiva in the world. The details of the statue have been carved amazingly. At such a point, I marvel at the work of the artists who made this statue, rather than the person who asked to build the statue. There is a temple at the top and also a small cave created which depicts some statues and the story of how Ravana, after obtaining the atmalinga, giving invincibility, was tricked by Ganesh disguised as a young boy, and the atmalinga was entrenched in the ground at Gokarna – Mahabaleshwara.
After taking a last look at the towering statue, we decided to get on with our journey and reach Gokarna.
The access road to Gokarna from NH17 is not marked by the karnataka tourism boards. So, once you have reached around 62 kms, start asking for directions from the locals. Thankfully, almost all the highway from Murudeshwar goes via small towns and villages and the locals are ready to help out.
Today being 25th Dec, a holiday, we were not able to find place to stay in any hotels. Ultimately, we found a place called Nimmu house, near Gokarna Main beach. We got a room at 1200/- for the night. The place is good to stay, but does not serve food. However there is a restaurant nearby to have dinner, lunch or snacks.
Supratim, after a long journey is tired and I have thankfully completed my second day travelogue successfully.
Visting Gokarna ….
Friday, December 25, 2009
On way to Mangalore – NH48
We celebrated our last christmas and new years on north india tour – visiting places like Delhi Lucknow
This year, I could not get the week off to go very far, but instead I took 2 days off and combined it with the christmas holidays to go on a west Karanataka tour. Our plan was to start visiting places from Mangalore towards Karwar – whatever is possible and then come back to Bangalore
Mangalore is around 350 kms from Bangalore
In order to avoid traffic at Tumkur junction on NH4, we left from our house by 7.30 –which was actually late, as per our normal standards. However, by our luck, we did not get too much traffic. Reaching Neelmangla was a achievement in itself. The road from Bangalore bangalore
You can see Café coffee day on the highway and can stop over to refresh yourself and have a cup of coffee and breakfast. After all,”a lot can happen over a coffee”. J
Once you cross CRPatna, the road becomes wider and is really good till Hassan. From Hassan there is a turn to Chikmangalur and another goes on towards Mangalore. There are boards which mention the information about the turns at various intervals.
We travelled non stop from Hassan to Sakleshpur. From Sakleshpur to Mangalore, the national highway authority has decided to test everybody’s driving skills by giving the best test that they can give to the drivers – how humans would need to drive if they go and live in a colony on the moon. The NH48 highway has huge “craters” on the “road”!!
My in-laws live in a remote village on the outskirts of Jharkhand border, and I still remember my first visit on the NH7 highway from Kharagpur to Zharkhand. There was a 10 km patch on the highway, which almost did not have any road at all. The village had better roads than that road patch. The speed limit of the car had to be in between 0 and 20 in order to cross that highway patch. I was amazed at how a national highway can be in such a condition, however small km patch it may be,. This time, when I had the chance to go on the NH7 again, the entire road from Kharagpur to our village was in a very good condition. Today, when I saw the NH48 road to Mangalore, I remembered that visit to Jharkhand. Whenever, I mention Jharkhand, people think it is so very remote and inaccessible – today I felt like telling all those people – Jharkhand is better accessible than Karnataka’s “city” Mangalore. On this NH48 highway, not 2, nor 10 – entire road from Sakhaleshpur to Mangalore is in a bad state – which is about 100 or so kms. The ghats are the best among these – the best patch of road in the ghat is one where the car’s tires can rest on tar road and the body is suspended over the road pit. Almost everywhere else, the pits are so huge that they can goble up a Maruti Alto. We could see the Volvo busses, passing by us, with an amazing suspension but the bus wobbling like a child on the road. We took around 2 hours to cover almost 30 kms in the ghats. In ghats, we did get some concrete roads, but it was like giving a toffee to a kid and then taking it away as soon as he tries to eat it. We travel on concrete road for 100 meters when it suddenly dips down to a normal “tar” road. Somehow, after a long drive we finally reached Mangalore at about 4.30 pm.
If you have plans to come to Mangalore by car, do have lunch at or before Sakhleshpur, since once you cross Sakhlespur, you would not see any proper restaurants and would have to wait till Mangalore to eat something like we had to do.
We searched for CCD again in Mangalore and had burgers and coffee here. Since, we did not have any reservations, we called up some hotels and checked if they had any rooms available. Once we had confirmed this, we checked with the locals about which beach we can go to watch the sunset. They mentioned Panambur beach and gave very lousy directions, making us go in a circle after which we came to know that we had to go in the opposite direction from where we had started. After a lot more directions from different people, we finally reached the beach. Though we had missed the sunset, there was still light and the beach was worth a visit.
Panambur beach is around 8 – 10 kms from the main city towards Uddpi. The beach is very clean and has a proper coast guard who whistles on seeing people going deeper in the waters. It was a high tide and the waves were looking really good. I was too tired to get wet in the water, and we just wet our feet in the waves.
We left the beach at about 7 and came back to Mangalore city to check in into our hotel – Poonja International. The hospitality of the hotel is not that good, making customers (not just us, we saw people before us also) wait while they take their own sweet time to check in and fill good knows how many forms and all. Once we were checked in, we had a quick bath and some snacks. Supratim started watching his match (IN – SL ODI) and I sat down to complete my first day travelogue, of a long weekend.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Eggouting
After a long time today, I met Praj in Bangalore itself. The occasion was to watch the movie "Avataar" - the biggest blockbuster movie for the decade. We had decided to have only one plan at a time - so movie was the first step.
Avatar is a must watch - amazing movie, and you must watch it in 3D only. It looks specatular, the special effects and animation used is too good. After the movie, we started feeling our world as dull - no floating mountains and self inducing lights from plants.
After the movie, we decided to watch the Nilgiris cake show - which was hosted at St Joseph Indian school playground on Kasturba road, near Mallya hospital. The cake show was a flop for us, but the mela at that place was good. And we could lighten our husbands pockets by some amount.
By the time we were finished with our mela shopping, we were hungry and Sheetal mentioned this place - "The Egg factory", where you get really good food. So off we went.
The restaurant is located on St. Marks road, on a small side road. It is not too jazzy and bright. Fitted with wodden benches and normal chairs, it looks like a small town restaurant. But, look at the menu, and you are amazed. It was a really long time that I was seeing food prices in two digit numbers, and I was not so sure that it would be good. Going to these over expensive restaurants, I had developed this thinking that if it is not expensive, it cannot be good. But wow, I was in for a big shock. The menu or rather I would call it a "manual of eggucation" - in the restaurant's own words, mentioned fajjitas, frittatas, pastas, omlettes. The menu is made like the manual, with itmes mentioned in chinese (or is it japanese) language also.
I never knew there were so many types of omlettes - Plain, masala, cheese, irish, hungarian, chili, spanish, greek and so on ... They also served bhurji, scrambled eggs, bun omlette and a lot of other varities of eggs. You would be amazed at the different recipes that can be created using eggs. You order anything here and it would be containing eggs.
We all ordered different kind of dishes - I ordered a frittata in tomato sauce, it was yummy. It contained a little scrambled eggs. Supratim ordered eggxotica - Eggs Florentine containing soft boiled eggs on a bed of spinach and creamy sauce, topped with Parmesan. This was filled with cheese - which I should have stayed away from, but could not stop myself from taking a few bites.
Praj ordered a Eggxhilarative snacks - Bun omlette, which consisted of a bun filled and topped with yummy bhurji. Jatin ordered a chilli omlette, which everybody shared and ultimately he had to order another dish for himself. Shhetal ordered a pasta. All the dishes were served with garlic bread. Guess what the bill came out to be for 4 couples - .... 1350!!! Not beliveing your eyes? You have to go there and eat to belive that sometimes even a stone can turn out to be diamond once it is polished......
And I almost forgot to mention - do check out the restroom of the place. It is made for people who have the habit of writing on the walls of the loo. They have a blackboard in there along with a chalk. If you wish to show your creativity, do not dirty the walls with your graffiti, instead use the blackboard. That's innovation at its best.The inner door of the loo has 4 handles - 2 for children and 2 for adults. Each handle has a figure drawn next to it - so 2 handles are for men and 2 are for women. I can understand if the door contained 2 handles - 1 for children and 1 for adult. We could not figure out what reason could it be for giving 2 handles each - what is it that made them want to distiguish the men from women handles. If you get to the bottom of this mystery, do let me know too !!!!!!!
Avatar is a must watch - amazing movie, and you must watch it in 3D only. It looks specatular, the special effects and animation used is too good. After the movie, we started feeling our world as dull - no floating mountains and self inducing lights from plants.
After the movie, we decided to watch the Nilgiris cake show - which was hosted at St Joseph Indian school playground on Kasturba road, near Mallya hospital. The cake show was a flop for us, but the mela at that place was good. And we could lighten our husbands pockets by some amount.
By the time we were finished with our mela shopping, we were hungry and Sheetal mentioned this place - "The Egg factory", where you get really good food. So off we went.
The restaurant is located on St. Marks road, on a small side road. It is not too jazzy and bright. Fitted with wodden benches and normal chairs, it looks like a small town restaurant. But, look at the menu, and you are amazed. It was a really long time that I was seeing food prices in two digit numbers, and I was not so sure that it would be good. Going to these over expensive restaurants, I had developed this thinking that if it is not expensive, it cannot be good. But wow, I was in for a big shock. The menu or rather I would call it a "manual of eggucation" - in the restaurant's own words, mentioned fajjitas, frittatas, pastas, omlettes. The menu is made like the manual, with itmes mentioned in chinese (or is it japanese) language also.
I never knew there were so many types of omlettes - Plain, masala, cheese, irish, hungarian, chili, spanish, greek and so on ... They also served bhurji, scrambled eggs, bun omlette and a lot of other varities of eggs. You would be amazed at the different recipes that can be created using eggs. You order anything here and it would be containing eggs.
We all ordered different kind of dishes - I ordered a frittata in tomato sauce, it was yummy. It contained a little scrambled eggs. Supratim ordered eggxotica - Eggs Florentine containing soft boiled eggs on a bed of spinach and creamy sauce, topped with Parmesan. This was filled with cheese - which I should have stayed away from, but could not stop myself from taking a few bites.
Praj ordered a Eggxhilarative snacks - Bun omlette, which consisted of a bun filled and topped with yummy bhurji. Jatin ordered a chilli omlette, which everybody shared and ultimately he had to order another dish for himself. Shhetal ordered a pasta. All the dishes were served with garlic bread. Guess what the bill came out to be for 4 couples - .... 1350!!! Not beliveing your eyes? You have to go there and eat to belive that sometimes even a stone can turn out to be diamond once it is polished......
And I almost forgot to mention - do check out the restroom of the place. It is made for people who have the habit of writing on the walls of the loo. They have a blackboard in there along with a chalk. If you wish to show your creativity, do not dirty the walls with your graffiti, instead use the blackboard. That's innovation at its best.The inner door of the loo has 4 handles - 2 for children and 2 for adults. Each handle has a figure drawn next to it - so 2 handles are for men and 2 are for women. I can understand if the door contained 2 handles - 1 for children and 1 for adult. We could not figure out what reason could it be for giving 2 handles each - what is it that made them want to distiguish the men from women handles. If you get to the bottom of this mystery, do let me know too !!!!!!!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Trip to South-West Karnataka: Belur, Chikmangalur, Halebid, Shravanbelagola
Chikmangalur: around 250 kms from Bangalore, NH4 till Tumkur, NH 48 via Channarayanpatna, Hassan. Via Belur to Chikmangalur.
The thought of a long weekend always brings about this question in my mind - "Where would be our destination this time?" Since IPL season is on, Supratim was not much interested to go out of the house, leave alone a 3- day tour to any vacation spot. Finally, to keep me from cribbing about, we had decided to go to Ranganathittu bird sanctuary for a day trip on Saturday - 2 May 09.
On Wednesday, I heard from a friend that they were going to go a place called as Mullayangiri peak in Chikmangalur district and were going to stay at a homestay. Last year also, we had planned this trip to Chikmangalur but it had not materialized. So once again, I tried convincing Supratim to check if we can get a homestay in Chikmangalur and visit that place. We tried at some homestay but being a long weekend, all of them were booked up. Finally after a lot of search, we came across a name "Eco Tours" - after calling them up, they mentioned they had a room free and could accommodate us on the weekend.
Day 1
We left Bangalore at 6 am to avoid all the traffic en route and were off on the NH4. The road till Tumkur was under construction and very congested with all the trucks and Lorries on the highway. We had to follow the NH4 till Neelmangala – which is about 27 km from Bangalore. From the highway, we took a turn to the left for the NH48 – it is a very big turn and hence impossible to miss (at least till now when there is no construction on that road). And followed NH48 till Channarayanpatna. The road condition was pretty good so we did not face any problems. We had our breakfast at “Kamat Upchar” a few kms on NH48 just after crossing CRPatna. The restaurant is pretty good and one can enjoy their hot dosa/idli/vada with a nice cup of tea/coffee. The restaurant was packed with all Bangalore public making their getaway to vacation destinations.
After crossing CRPatna, there would a major left turn just after an Indian Oil petrol pump and Govt Polytechnic board, which one would need to take, and since there is no signboard mentioned it is confusing. In case of confusion, you can ask around. We followed the highway till Hassan, from which we need to take a detour to Chikmangalur via Belur.
Belur temple is definitely worth a visit while going to Chikmangalur. It is only 2 kms away from the main road and thanks to Karnataka Tourism has proper signboards guiding the travelers.
Belur – Chenna Keshava temple
This magnificent shrine built of stone is a creation of Hoysala Dynasty and is dedicated to Lord Vijanarayan. The temple construction had commenced in 1116 AD by King Vishuvardhana and later his son and grandson. It took about 103 years to complete the masterpiece of Hoysala architecture. The temple is carved out of soap stone (steatite) quarried from Tumkur, about 200 kms away. This stone is extremely easy to chisel but attains iron-like firmness when exposed to atmosphere. To maintain the shine of the temple, the stone is treated with a chemical wash and then wax polished once in ten years. The main temple enshrines an image of Chenna Keshava. This is the only functional Hoysala temple with pujas being performed. The main shrine is surrounded by smaller shrines – Veer Narayana temple to the west and Saumyanaki temple to south west. in the surrounding. The temple is beautiful and definitely worth a visit.
From Belur, it is around 1/2 hour drive to Chikmangalur.
We were staying at a place called as “Avathi”. The rent of this place is 1600 per night per person. The place is pretty new and around 35 kms from Chikmangalur. The road leading to the place is not very good – do not expect a proper tar road in some places, but it was manageable. It was a 40 minutes drive to the homestay.
We had lunch here, and in the evening a short walk in the coffee estates.
Day 2
We left for Mulliayangiri at about 9 the next morning from the homestay. In order to reach Mulliayangiri peak – about 18 kms from Chikmangalur, one is required to travel towards Kaimala for about 8 km, and then from Kaimala take a left turn and after about 6 kms, there is a U turn to reach towards the peak. Karnataka tourism boards guide the tourists all the way. The road for some distance is very good, but gets bad as we progress upwards. The last 2-3 kms road, I would rather not call it a road. I would not recommend a novice driver to travel there. At some places, when you have to give way to oncoming vehicles, I was very scared since we were on the edge on the cliff. The last stretch is pure mud where the road is very uneven. Finally after the scary ride to the top, we found a proper parking place for the vehicles at the bottom of the peak.
Mullaiyanagiri
This is the highest peak in Karnataka.Its 6000+ feet height is mostly used to watch sunsets. We had to climb up a lot many stairs to reach the top of the peak. The scene from the peak was amazing. We could see the whole mountain range from atop. There is a small temple also located here.
The climb down is equally challenging for the drivers.
Bababudangiri
From Mulliayangiri, we proceeded forward towards Bababudangiri peak. Look out for Dattatreya peeth on the tourism boards to proceed to Bababudangiri. The road to this peak is comparatively better. Atop there is shrine dedicated to
Bababudan and one can enjoy the scenic beauty. 3 kms ahead is Manikdhara falls. The road to this is distance wise less, but very winding and takes forever to reach. The view looks similar, only difference being a fall located. We saw a lot of people taking bath there, but did not have the patience to climb down stairs to reach the fall. People who had visited it and were walking back up were very discouraging. In my opinion, once if you have seen Mullayangiri peak and the scenery from there, Bababudangiri can be avoided.
Kemanagundi
From Bababudangiri, we started off towards Kemanagundi. The road towards Kemanagundi from Mullayangiri is very bad and I would recommend no one use this road. In Kemanagundi, one can visit Hebbe falls, which is 13 km away from the main road, Z point and Raj bhavan. By the time we reached Kemanagundi through that winding so-called road, it was already sunset, and we wanted to reach a flat land before dark, so we could not visit these places.
After visiting these places and travelling via these roads, I would recommend everyone to split their tour into two parts – Mullayangiri & Bababudangiri, and Kemanagundi. If you wish to leave out Bababudangiri, then leave early in the morning, visit Mullayangiri, climb down to flat land and then take a proper road to Kemanagundi. If you can split your visits into two days, then there is an another road which leads to Kemanagundi via highway. Proceed towards Lingadahalli from Chikmangalur which would be around 42 km away. Near Lingadahalli, there is a petrol pump, turn left towards Kemanagundi (or ask the road at the pump). This road is in a very good condition, and you would get only a 3-4 km bad stretch once you start reaching Kemanagundi. Hebbe falls road is complete mud road; there is not even a slight trace of tar on this road. Supratim had visited Hebbe falls sometime before, and he mentions it is worth a visit.
By the time we reached our home stay it was 9 pm and it was our good luck that we could reach the house properly. All the home stays are in remote locations, situated amidst coffee estates, which al look the same. So whenever you visit, keep a note of all the turns that you need to take – maybe note down the km readings and you can use these to get back anytime. It definitely worked for us.
Day 3
We wanted to avoid the Bangalore Neelmanagala traffic and so decided to leave early from the home stay. So after having a hearty breakfast, we left for Habelid, Shravanbelagola.
Halebid
Halebid is 37 km from Chikmangalur. We went along the Chikmangalur highway towards the Capital of Hoysala empire. While travelling towards Bangalore, you might be likely to miss the Halebid turn. There are Karanatak tourism boards at a lot of places before, but just when you have to take the turn, the signboard is actually in the opposite direction – so that people coming from Bangalore can see it, but not the ones from Chikmangalur. We had seen this while going to Chikmangalur and were on the lookout for the turn. But for others, I would like to mention that make a note of the signboard which mentions Halebid 37 kms. The left turn comes at around 22 kms from the signboard. From the turn, Halebid is 15 kms on the inside and the view towards the place is magnificent. The road has gulmohar trees on both sides. This time of the year they were all flowering with the petals falling on the road giving it a divine look. The temple is still incomplete but you would not notice this in front of the beautiful carvings.
This shrine is dedicated to Lord Shiva and is the largest of Hoysala temples. The construction of this temple was during the 1121 – 1207 AD period, and is very similar to the Belur temple. The temple complex consists of two identical temples with shivalinga and nandi mandaps facing the lord. The nandi mandaps have huge nandis carved equally beautifully. Outside the shrine are intricately carved figures from mythological epics – Ramayan, Mahabharata and puranic legends of beasts. The carvings on the outside consist of – elephants, Hoysala royal emblem of a man killing a tiger,lions, charging horsemen, epics sculptures and mythical beasts (from bottom up).
Outside the shrine, locals sell stone sculptures and panchdhatu handiwork. They try to con you by selling the crafts work at huge prices. Beaware of these, even though you would agree that the people are doing so much work for these sitting in the sun and polishing the stone to give them the required shape, shelling out your hard earned money and being conned is still not agreeable. Hence for these people – small Ganapati stone idol – 20 Rs, medium Buddha head piece – 50 Rs, Sitting lamps medium size – 10 Rs. Panchadhatu murtis – 40 Rs each. If you can bargain and get for less, well good luck.
Shravanbelagola
From Halebid, take the road further on to reach the highway again, it is not required to go back the same away again to reach the highway. Ask the locals for the road to Hassan and they would guide you. As you progress towards the highway, far off into the left you would be able to see the windmills of Hassan. Keep going on the highway till you see the signboard which mentions Shravanbelagola 18 km to the left. From the left turn it is a straight road, till you reach the town. You would be able to see the temple from far off to guide you to the base. This visit is not for the weak of the hearts. When you reach, you would realize the magnitude of what is required by you to visit the place.
Shravanbelagola is located between Indragiri and Chandragiri hills and is one of the oldest and important Jain pilgrimages. Shravanbelagola means “monk of the white pond” and is named after a belagola – white pond – which was created in the heart of the town by the milk used for the first mahamastakhabbhiseka of the giant statue of Gomateshwara or Lord Bahubali. The mahamastakhabhiseka ceremony is held once in 12 years. . The sacred shrine atop the hill is accessible via a flight of 641 stone steps. The climb is very steep and you have to climb without your shoes, though socks are allowed. Make sure that you do not sit down while climbing up, else it would be difficult to get up. Instead if you get breathless, stand for some time just breathing loudly, once your heart racing has slowed down proceed forward. Also make sure that you don’t drink water. However the climb is worth it when you view the tall statue.
The statue stands tall at 58 feet and 8 inches and is regarded the tallest monolith in Asia. The amazing part of the statue is that it has been carved out of a single block of granite. The figure has 26 feet wide shoulders and arms stretching down.
After visiting Shravanbelagola, we proceeded back to home sweet home, Bangalore. The road till Neelmangala is good, but later gets worse when you reach Neelmangala.
If you are planning to visit these places,
Day 1 – Drive from Bangalore early in the morning, visit Belur on the way, reach Chikmangalur, have lunch and visit Mullaiangiri
Day 2 – Visit Kemmanagundi and places around.
Day 3 – Leave from Chikmangalur, visit Halebid, Sharavanbelagola and back to Bangalore.
The total trip is around 800 km.
Have a safe trip ahead.
The thought of a long weekend always brings about this question in my mind - "Where would be our destination this time?" Since IPL season is on, Supratim was not much interested to go out of the house, leave alone a 3- day tour to any vacation spot. Finally, to keep me from cribbing about, we had decided to go to Ranganathittu bird sanctuary for a day trip on Saturday - 2 May 09.
On Wednesday, I heard from a friend that they were going to go a place called as Mullayangiri peak in Chikmangalur district and were going to stay at a homestay. Last year also, we had planned this trip to Chikmangalur but it had not materialized. So once again, I tried convincing Supratim to check if we can get a homestay in Chikmangalur and visit that place. We tried at some homestay but being a long weekend, all of them were booked up. Finally after a lot of search, we came across a name "Eco Tours" - after calling them up, they mentioned they had a room free and could accommodate us on the weekend.
Day 1
We left Bangalore at 6 am to avoid all the traffic en route and were off on the NH4. The road till Tumkur was under construction and very congested with all the trucks and Lorries on the highway. We had to follow the NH4 till Neelmangala – which is about 27 km from Bangalore. From the highway, we took a turn to the left for the NH48 – it is a very big turn and hence impossible to miss (at least till now when there is no construction on that road). And followed NH48 till Channarayanpatna. The road condition was pretty good so we did not face any problems. We had our breakfast at “Kamat Upchar” a few kms on NH48 just after crossing CRPatna. The restaurant is pretty good and one can enjoy their hot dosa/idli/vada with a nice cup of tea/coffee. The restaurant was packed with all Bangalore public making their getaway to vacation destinations.
After crossing CRPatna, there would a major left turn just after an Indian Oil petrol pump and Govt Polytechnic board, which one would need to take, and since there is no signboard mentioned it is confusing. In case of confusion, you can ask around. We followed the highway till Hassan, from which we need to take a detour to Chikmangalur via Belur.
Belur temple is definitely worth a visit while going to Chikmangalur. It is only 2 kms away from the main road and thanks to Karnataka Tourism has proper signboards guiding the travelers.
Belur – Chenna Keshava temple
This magnificent shrine built of stone is a creation of Hoysala Dynasty and is dedicated to Lord Vijanarayan. The temple construction had commenced in 1116 AD by King Vishuvardhana and later his son and grandson. It took about 103 years to complete the masterpiece of Hoysala architecture. The temple is carved out of soap stone (steatite) quarried from Tumkur, about 200 kms away. This stone is extremely easy to chisel but attains iron-like firmness when exposed to atmosphere. To maintain the shine of the temple, the stone is treated with a chemical wash and then wax polished once in ten years. The main temple enshrines an image of Chenna Keshava. This is the only functional Hoysala temple with pujas being performed. The main shrine is surrounded by smaller shrines – Veer Narayana temple to the west and Saumyanaki temple to south west. in the surrounding. The temple is beautiful and definitely worth a visit.
From Belur, it is around 1/2 hour drive to Chikmangalur.
We were staying at a place called as “Avathi”. The rent of this place is 1600 per night per person. The place is pretty new and around 35 kms from Chikmangalur. The road leading to the place is not very good – do not expect a proper tar road in some places, but it was manageable. It was a 40 minutes drive to the homestay.
We had lunch here, and in the evening a short walk in the coffee estates.
Day 2
We left for Mulliayangiri at about 9 the next morning from the homestay. In order to reach Mulliayangiri peak – about 18 kms from Chikmangalur, one is required to travel towards Kaimala for about 8 km, and then from Kaimala take a left turn and after about 6 kms, there is a U turn to reach towards the peak. Karnataka tourism boards guide the tourists all the way. The road for some distance is very good, but gets bad as we progress upwards. The last 2-3 kms road, I would rather not call it a road. I would not recommend a novice driver to travel there. At some places, when you have to give way to oncoming vehicles, I was very scared since we were on the edge on the cliff. The last stretch is pure mud where the road is very uneven. Finally after the scary ride to the top, we found a proper parking place for the vehicles at the bottom of the peak.
Mullaiyanagiri
This is the highest peak in Karnataka.Its 6000+ feet height is mostly used to watch sunsets. We had to climb up a lot many stairs to reach the top of the peak. The scene from the peak was amazing. We could see the whole mountain range from atop. There is a small temple also located here.
The climb down is equally challenging for the drivers.
Bababudangiri
From Mulliayangiri, we proceeded forward towards Bababudangiri peak. Look out for Dattatreya peeth on the tourism boards to proceed to Bababudangiri. The road to this peak is comparatively better. Atop there is shrine dedicated toBababudan and one can enjoy the scenic beauty. 3 kms ahead is Manikdhara falls. The road to this is distance wise less, but very winding and takes forever to reach. The view looks similar, only difference being a fall located. We saw a lot of people taking bath there, but did not have the patience to climb down stairs to reach the fall. People who had visited it and were walking back up were very discouraging. In my opinion, once if you have seen Mullayangiri peak and the scenery from there, Bababudangiri can be avoided.
Kemanagundi
From Bababudangiri, we started off towards Kemanagundi. The road towards Kemanagundi from Mullayangiri is very bad and I would recommend no one use this road. In Kemanagundi, one can visit Hebbe falls, which is 13 km away from the main road, Z point and Raj bhavan. By the time we reached Kemanagundi through that winding so-called road, it was already sunset, and we wanted to reach a flat land before dark, so we could not visit these places.After visiting these places and travelling via these roads, I would recommend everyone to split their tour into two parts – Mullayangiri & Bababudangiri, and Kemanagundi. If you wish to leave out Bababudangiri, then leave early in the morning, visit Mullayangiri, climb down to flat land and then take a proper road to Kemanagundi. If you can split your visits into two days, then there is an another road which leads to Kemanagundi via highway. Proceed towards Lingadahalli from Chikmangalur which would be around 42 km away. Near Lingadahalli, there is a petrol pump, turn left towards Kemanagundi (or ask the road at the pump). This road is in a very good condition, and you would get only a 3-4 km bad stretch once you start reaching Kemanagundi. Hebbe falls road is complete mud road; there is not even a slight trace of tar on this road. Supratim had visited Hebbe falls sometime before, and he mentions it is worth a visit.
By the time we reached our home stay it was 9 pm and it was our good luck that we could reach the house properly. All the home stays are in remote locations, situated amidst coffee estates, which al look the same. So whenever you visit, keep a note of all the turns that you need to take – maybe note down the km readings and you can use these to get back anytime. It definitely worked for us.
Day 3
We wanted to avoid the Bangalore Neelmanagala traffic and so decided to leave early from the home stay. So after having a hearty breakfast, we left for Habelid, Shravanbelagola.
Halebid
Halebid is 37 km from Chikmangalur. We went along the Chikmangalur highway towards the Capital of Hoysala empire. While travelling towards Bangalore, you might be likely to miss the Halebid turn. There are Karanatak tourism boards at a lot of places before, but just when you have to take the turn, the signboard is actually in the opposite direction – so that people coming from Bangalore can see it, but not the ones from Chikmangalur. We had seen this while going to Chikmangalur and were on the lookout for the turn. But for others, I would like to mention that make a note of the signboard which mentions Halebid 37 kms. The left turn comes at around 22 kms from the signboard. From the turn, Halebid is 15 kms on the inside and the view towards the place is magnificent. The road has gulmohar trees on both sides. This time of the year they were all flowering with the petals falling on the road giving it a divine look. The temple is still incomplete but you would not notice this in front of the beautiful carvings.
This shrine is dedicated to Lord Shiva and is the largest of Hoysala temples. The construction of this temple was during the 1121 – 1207 AD period, and is very similar to the Belur temple. The temple complex consists of two identical temples with shivalinga and nandi mandaps facing the lord. The nandi mandaps have huge nandis carved equally beautifully. Outside the shrine are intricately carved figures from mythological epics – Ramayan, Mahabharata and puranic legends of beasts. The carvings on the outside consist of – elephants, Hoysala royal emblem of a man killing a tiger,lions, charging horsemen, epics sculptures and mythical beasts (from bottom up).
Outside the shrine, locals sell stone sculptures and panchdhatu handiwork. They try to con you by selling the crafts work at huge prices. Beaware of these, even though you would agree that the people are doing so much work for these sitting in the sun and polishing the stone to give them the required shape, shelling out your hard earned money and being conned is still not agreeable. Hence for these people – small Ganapati stone idol – 20 Rs, medium Buddha head piece – 50 Rs, Sitting lamps medium size – 10 Rs. Panchadhatu murtis – 40 Rs each. If you can bargain and get for less, well good luck.
Shravanbelagola
From Halebid, take the road further on to reach the highway again, it is not required to go back the same away again to reach the highway. Ask the locals for the road to Hassan and they would guide you. As you progress towards the highway, far off into the left you would be able to see the windmills of Hassan. Keep going on the highway till you see the signboard which mentions Shravanbelagola 18 km to the left. From the left turn it is a straight road, till you reach the town. You would be able to see the temple from far off to guide you to the base. This visit is not for the weak of the hearts. When you reach, you would realize the magnitude of what is required by you to visit the place.Shravanbelagola is located between Indragiri and Chandragiri hills and is one of the oldest and important Jain pilgrimages. Shravanbelagola means “monk of the white pond” and is named after a belagola – white pond – which was created in the heart of the town by the milk used for the first mahamastakhabbhiseka of the giant statue of Gomateshwara or Lord Bahubali. The mahamastakhabhiseka ceremony is held once in 12 years. . The sacred shrine atop the hill is accessible via a flight of 641 stone steps. The climb is very steep and you have to climb without your shoes, though socks are allowed. Make sure that you do not sit down while climbing up, else it would be difficult to get up. Instead if you get breathless, stand for some time just breathing loudly, once your heart racing has slowed down proceed forward. Also make sure that you don’t drink water. However the climb is worth it when you view the tall statue.
The statue stands tall at 58 feet and 8 inches and is regarded the tallest monolith in Asia. The amazing part of the statue is that it has been carved out of a single block of granite. The figure has 26 feet wide shoulders and arms stretching down.
After visiting Shravanbelagola, we proceeded back to home sweet home, Bangalore. The road till Neelmangala is good, but later gets worse when you reach Neelmangala.
If you are planning to visit these places,
Day 1 – Drive from Bangalore early in the morning, visit Belur on the way, reach Chikmangalur, have lunch and visit Mullaiangiri
Day 2 – Visit Kemmanagundi and places around.
Day 3 – Leave from Chikmangalur, visit Halebid, Sharavanbelagola and back to Bangalore.
The total trip is around 800 km.
Have a safe trip ahead.
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