[karthi.stark]

A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you've been taking

-Earl Wirlson

Well, this was the exact purpose of this trip. Six months of only studies and nothing else is sure to tire a person out, no matter who it is. It's going to be even worse if you're in 11th!

An Intro?

Coming to myself, I'm someone who prefers travelling by road over any other means of transport. To be honest, I just love travelling by car. Why am I excited that I'm going out for dinner? That's because I'm going by car. Why am I excited to go for the weekend's athletic classes? Because I'm going by car. Why am I excited to go for my bro's annual day? Because I'm going by car. Ever since I was a kid, whenever my dad used to tell me that we were going out, my first question wouldn't be where, but how. And when he used to answer, 'by walking', I knew he was being sarcastic and we were actually travelling by car! That used to raise my adrenaline levels.

Nothing can beat the relaxed feeling you get when you sit on the passenger seat and listen to some awesome music while enjoying the beautiful scenery outside. But trust me, none of my friends would agree to this. They prefer to waste time and money at those crappy malls and are happy to remain amidst a concrete jungle rather than to explore the real jungle. Heck, I'm the only person among them who finds it absolutely boring to wander in malls. And when I tell them about the wonderful trips I've been on, they give me those non-inquisitive looks and tend to treat me as an inferior being! They consider themselves to be highly sophisticated whereas in reality they're the exact opposite. Just recently, our school had planned for a day trip. We were given the options of a resort and an adventure camp. Needless to say, I was the only one opting for the adventure camp! All my friends were happy to be in the resort. Reason? They want to 'relax' . "Then why the hell do you want to go to a resort and waste money?" (~Rs 1000 to be precise) "Why don't you just sit at home and do the same?" Well, obviously I can't ask these questions, as I'm sure to get stupid replies. So yeah, that's my condition, you see...

Apart from road trips, I just love cycling. For me, it's a huge stress buster. Cycling helps me to maintain in shape as well as provide me with a recreational activity in my tightly packed schedule. A Cycle is my daily mode of transport to school and coaching centre and back. At the end of the day, I would've cycled some 20 km. (Yes, you read it right) That would make up for my recreation everyday. Consider cycling to be a slow mode of transport? Think again. I've got friends who travel to my coaching centre from distances less than what I cover, but take double the amount of time to do so. Reason? I use a cycle, they use a cab. Ironic, isn't it? Well, that's the power of Bengaluru traffic for you! Now, something worth mentioning is that I'm so shocked to live in a society which considers wearing helmets to be a sin! There have been instances where strangers on roads have laughed in front of me, indirectly criticising me for wearing a helmet. Wear a helmet and go for cycling with your friends, and you're sure to be mocked at. Apparently, you're a kid to wear a helmet. What the heck! "So? Are the bikers who wear helmets while travelling 'kids'? Are the Formula 1 drivers kids?" It's also interesting to see that they even proudly proclaim that they don't wear helmets even while riding a bike or scooter. And guess what, they're considered to be the cool guys! Man, I just can't stop laughing at the present generation's logic. (that includes me as well, just to make myself clear)

Okay, so that's enough critcising today's society. In the end, yeah, I'm an unorthodox person in today's society. What these millennials consider stress, I consider pleasure and vice versa. Now, where were we?...Oh yeah! I was about to tell you guys about the amazing trip I had during my christmas vacation! This includes the planning, how far was the plan executed and what were the hurdles which came in our way. (yes, there's no denying of the fact that life is like that)

The Planning

Our initial plan was to visit Hampi and Vijayapura to have a look at the magnificent ruins of the ancient empires existing there. The plan also included covering Lonar Crater in Maharashtra as well. However, this entire plan had to be dropped as we realised it would require the entire vacation to do this trip. I couldn't be out for the entire vacation due to study constraints. Also, my dad didn't want to stretch beyond 300 km in a day. Furthermore, the lack of availability of accommodation in these areas due to the vacation time contributed to the dropping. (We were looking for accommodation two weeks before the trip!) Hence, we decided to leave that behind for some other time and tried to look for alternate options. A bit of research on Team-BHP and IndiaMike lead us to formulate the following plan:

23rd December 2017: Bangalore to Belur via Halebeedu. Stay at hotel Mayura Velapuri, Belur and visit Belur Temple in the Evening

24th December 2017: Drive from Belur to Kukke Subhramanya. Stay at Hotel Dwara.

25th December 2017: Visit the temple in the morning, have breakfast and start to Bhagamandala. Stay at Hotel Cauvery Bhagamandala.

26th December 2017: Visit Talacauvery in the morning, have breakfast and start to Ranipuram National Park in Kerala. Return to Hotel in the evening.

27th December 2017: Start to Bangalore via Mysore. Visit the Tibetian Monastry at Bylakuppe on the way.

In the end, this is how our route looked like:



Bookings were made at Hotel Mayura Velapuri in Belur for one night, Hotel Dwara in Subhramanya for one night and at Hotel Mayura Cauvery in Bhaghamandala for two nights.

[karthi.stark]

Day 1: Bengaluru to Belur via Halebeedu

We had initially planned to start at 4:30 am but ended up starting at 5 am. GPS showed a route around the city but we decided to travel through the city and then take tumkur road. (We live in the south eastern part of the city)

Just before starting, noticed this:


The traffic in the morning at 5 was quite reasonable for conventional bengaluru traffic. Reached the outskirts by 5:30 and only there were we greeted with lots of traffic. Everyone were trying to get out the city just like us. This continued for a few kilometres after which it was wide open roads.

Our original plan was to stop for breakfast at Adyar Ananda Bhavan which was on the way, but looking at the crowd inside, we knew it would be twilight before we could get our food. Hence, drove on and finally stopped for breakfast at around 8 AM. This Hotel is relatively new and hence did not show up on the map. We had to regret the decision of stopping here, as the service was absolutely pathetic! It took nearly 45 minutes just to get the food. What's more, only one waiter was present. This is where we wasted a lot of time. Thankfully for us, the Halebeedu temple opened at around 10:30 AM and we were just an hour away. Breakfast done, we moved straight to Halebeedu temple.

Truly, it was a sight to behold. Decided to take a guide to know the temple better. The person was very knowledgeable and had answers to every question of ours. The guide explained everything from the reason for building the temple to its destruction. Apparently, all the guides there are given a month of training from the archaeological department for guiding the tourists. They are trained both in English and the local language i.e, Kannada. We were charged Rs 300 for the guide. Overall, I must say it was worth it.

Some pictures:












Apparently, the Nandi at Halebeedu is proclaimed to be one of the most beautiful (forgetting the exact word told by the guide) Nandis by the Archaeological Department of India.

It was around 12 pm when we left. Took us another hour before we reached Hotel Mayura Velapuri in Belur, which was our first stop for the trip.

The beast could finally get some rest:



After freshening up, we had lunch, took rest for a while and then, in the evening, decided to go to the Belur Temple. I took the DSLR along with me, to get some really good pictures of all the ruins and of course, to post them here on Team-BHP! However, I must say the temple represented a pandemonium in the evening. We had students from all over the region coming to the temple in the evening. There were at least 5-6 schools' children present there. Here too, we took a guide who once again was outstanding. He could answer all our questions and explained to us the story behind all the finest details of the temple. The most mesmerizing part of the temple was the presence of different beautiful sculptures on the outside walls of the temple, with each of them having their own stories and depictions. There was also a Lord Ganesha sculpture, which is supposed to provide enlightenment for all the students in the studies. Apparently, many school children come there every year just before the start of their exams to seek the blessings of the lord. I tried to take as many pictures as I could, but with the skies getting darker by the minute, I couldn't get what I wanted. So, we decided to move back to the hotel and come back in the morning to take better pictures.

Let the pictures do the talking.

Here are those sculptures:





































The carvings are so fine that one can even notice the nails on the fingers. Must say, our ancestors were far more skilled than we are:


The carving on the left is the recent one and the carving on the right is the original ancient carving, and we claim to be more skilled than our forefathers:


The carving of a sandal, as worn by people of those times:


This is what which made me stare in awe; the design of the saree had been carved by hand!


After exploring the temple, we returned to the hotel and had dinner. That's when I realised something was amiss. Then, it struck me! I had forgotten about the El Classico, which was on that day! Quickly checked the scores and saw that Barca had won 3-0. That made me overjoyed, as they won at the Santiago Bernabeu, the home stadium of Real Madrid where they're supposed to be invincile. (Don't you think it has become our training ground over the few years?) At the end of the day, I could sleep satisfied with everything, something that has never happened with me for a long, long time. What's more, it was indeed a long and tiresome day.

[karthi.stark]

Day 2: Belur - Kukke Subhramanya

Got up at around 7 am, freshened up and then had a breakfast of pooris and idlies. (Yum!) After that, we visited the Belur temple once again to take better pictures of the ruins. The crowd in the morning was much lesser than the previous evening. Took good pictures of all the interesting stuff inside and outside the temple and was highly satisfied.

Here are some pictures taken in the morning:













One of the sculptures was taken away by the invaders:


The best shot of the temple:


These were taken the previous night:




One more, this is one of the sides of the temple:


The main entrance to the interiors of the temple:


The intricate designs on the pillars:




This is in the exterior:


Photo-shooting done, we returned to the hotel, packed up and then checked out. Our next destination was going to be Kukke Subhramanya, which was a 3 hour ride from here, or at least was a '3 hour ride' according to google maps. Thanks to the pathetic conditions of the road along the way, we ended up reached our place of stay i.e, Hotel Dwara, at around 4 pm after starting from Belur at 10 am.

Roads are top notch for the first 50 kilometres:




And then you're greeted by this:






This is by far one of the most dangerous stretches of the journey and continues for almost the next 75 km. It took us nearly 3 hours just to cross this stretch. On the way, we met a group of people on a Polo coming from the opposite direction and inquired about the condition of the road further ahead. They said the road was fine after a while. Little did we realise that the 'While" would mean 2 more hours. The road was too narrow and we had the local buses coming in opposite direction at really high speeds. No one even bothered to sound the horn on a turn. Wonder how those guys ever got their licences. At this one place we were stuck in a situation wherein the road was much more narrower than the other stretches and we had a bus coming in from the opposite direction. We couldn't reverse as well due to the long queue of traffic behind us. So, I had to get down and make sure my dad could make the beast pave way for the bus. It took nearly 20 minutes to get out of the situation. Just before we lost hope of reaching Kukke before the dark, this happened:



Me and my dad heaved a sigh of relief. Indeed, that was the most adventurous and dangerous roads we'd ever been on. Not to forget, both of us wondered how a Polo could make its way through that segment

Some snaps along the way:






Also stopped at a view point along the way. The view was absolutely electrifying:






We finally reached our hotel at 4 pm. The best part was all the adventure mood conquered our minds so much that we forgot that we didn't have lunch! Realising that it's useless to have lunch at 4 pm, we decided to aim for a heavy dinner. After Checking into the hotel, we freshened up and decided to visit the Temple just before dark.

Before that, we went to the banks of the Kumaradhara river, which was literally a two minute walk away from the Hotel. The conditions of the banks were absolutely pathetic: plastic bags thrown everywhere, People bathing in the water with soap, food packets slashed here and there etc. We just washed our feet in the water and decided to move on to the temple. Decided to take an auto for the same and they charged around 30 bucks. The temple was around 2 km from the Hotel. After visiting the temple, we had dinner at a hotel (Hotel Kumara Krupa Nxt) nearby the temple, returned to our rooms by auto once again and crashed in for the night.

The banks of the river in the evening:


Some snaps from the visit to the temple:

[karthi.stark]

Day 3: Kukke Subhramanya - Talacauvery

Woke up early in the morning at 5 in the hope of reaching the temple before the start of the morning darshan. Ended up reaching there on time and had to wait on the queue. However, we realised that something was amiss. The queue was not moving an inch even after the doors of the main Temple were opened. We grew suspicious, so my dad asked me to check out what's wrong. Only then did I realise that we were in the wrong queue! The queue in which we were standing was meant for some special pooja which was conducted by a priest for each family one by one, due to which the queue never moved. So we went and stood on the queue which was meant for entering the main temple. The morning darshan went on smoothly and we were out by 7:30 am. We had breakfast at the same restaurant in which we had dinner the previous day, as the food was fabulous. I must recommend that place to all those people visiting the Temple. After that we moved back to Hotel Dwara, packed our belongings and then checked out. Dropped my mom at the bus stand as she had to leave for Bangalore early for her new job appointment. Wished her good luck and we carried on with our journey. Our next stop - Madikere.

The Queue in which we initally stood:


Outside the Temple:


The road was absolutely beautiful to drive on this time, with no obstructions on the way. Reached Hotel Mayura Cauvery in Bhaghamandala at 1 pm. Checked in and had lunch. Then after some rest, we decided to visit Talacauvery, but were told that it would be closed at 6 pm. However, we decided to carry on just to marvel at the view from the top.

Road along the way to Bhagamandala:













Some pictures on the way to Talacauvery:






At Talacauvery:







Returned to the hotel at around 7 pm and had dinner. After that, we went to sleep with a plan to visit the temple early in the morning at around 6 am. I must say, this was one of the best days of the trip as we didn't have to encounter troubles anywhere.

[karthi.stark]

Day 4: Bhagamandala - Talacauvery- Ranipuram National Park - Bhagamandala

Woke up early in the morning at around 5 AM, freshened up and started to Talacauvery. We were expecting to see a huge crowd, but it so happened that we were the only people there. On enquiring with the priests, we got to know that the morning pooja would start at 8 AM. As we had already reached, we decided to explore the temple to pass our time.

We decided to explore Bhramagiri, a hill near the temple We were amazed to see such a scenic beauty at the top. 'Green, green everywhere' is what comes to the mind of a person at the top.

Me on the way to the top:


At the top:




After relaxing for a while, we found out that a tourist bus had just come in and all the tourists sprinting their way towards the hill. Decided to make our way down to avoid a pandemonium once again.
After that, there was nothing else to see and all we had to do was wait till the pooja started. We were the first people to take the blessings of the lord that day. (something to brag about, right?) Pooja done, we made our way back to the hotel and had our morning breakfast of idlies and masala dosas. We then left for Ranipuram National Park, which was on the other side of the border i.e, in Kerala. It was just a 50 km ride from here. Road leading to Ranipuram was pathetic, but one shouldn't be surprised considering the fact that these are roads inside a forest.

Pictures along the way:








The roads become better once you cross the border i.e, Karnataka-Kerala border:






We reached Ranipuram at around 11 AM. On reaching, we found out that it would take a minimum of 4 hours for the entire trek. Also, we weren't in proper trekking clothes (Me, my bro and my dad were all wearing jeans to be precise) and we didn't want to risk an injury for anyone that would leave us stranded. Fortunately for us, there was another peak which we could reach in just 45 minutes. Well, we decided to explore that peak, as something is better than nothing! We reached the peak and clicked some good photographs of the scenery.

That's where we intended to go in the beginning:


Pics from the trek:











At the top:










We even met a group of college going students who were at the peak. Some conversation with them passed the time for us. After clicking the photographs and taking a little rest, we made our way down the peak. Finally, we reached the bottom at around 2 PM. We decided to have lunch at our hotel itself, as surprisingly, none of us were feeling hungry. Also, we had brought a lot of snacks just in case we were hungry on the way. So, we drove back to the hotel and reached at 4 pm. Surprisingly, there were meals available at this time as well. So, had a good lunch and took rest for a while.

After the trek:


In the evening, we just took a walk for a while and decided to have dinner somewhere else, as we were bored of the same old food of the hotel. We discovered this small resturaunt which had parothas and egg curry. It'd been a while since we had parothas, so we decided to have dinner there itself. I must say, the food was fabulous. The hotel had no specific name, the signboard just read 'Hotel'. After that, we returned to the hotel and went to sleep at 9 itself, as we were tired after the long, long day.

[karthi.stark]

Day 5: Bhaghamandala - Bylakuppe - Bangalore

Woke up late in the morning, as we had no fixed time for departure. Had breakfast, packed our belongings and checked out of the hotel. We ended up starting at 10 AM. Our aim was to halt at Bylakuppe, visit the famous Tibetan Monastery and continue our way towards Bangalore. Reached the Monastery at around 12 pm. The Monastery was indeed a sight to behold. This was the highlight of our entire trip, even though it was on the last day.

Pictures from the monastery:




The main building of the monastery was under maintainance and hence wasn't open for the tourists. This was a big blow for us as this was the main place we wanted to see in the entire monastery.

Believe me, that's Mysore's outer ring road! It's the total opposite of what you find back in Bangalore:


We spent some leisure time around the Monastery and continued our way towards Bangalore. The rest of the journey was uneventful. We crossed Mysore at 2 pm and had lunch at Adyar Anandha Bhavan somewhere along the Mysore - Bangalore Highway. We had driven for almost 7 hours and finally reached home at 6 pm. That was the end of an amazing trip, especially when it was meant to be a getaway from daily routine.



Other points

• We had covered a total of a 1000 km in the entire journey, and had tanked up only once on the trip. We good a good FE of ~ 13 kmpl throughout the trip.

• We had spent a total of almost Rs 8720 at all our places of stay. The Breakup:
  1. Hotel Mayura Velapuri, Belur - Rs 2408 for one night (3 adults and 1 child)
  1. Hotel Dwara, Kukke - Rs 3312 for one night (3 adults and 1 child again)
  1. Hotel Mayura Cauvery - ~ Rs 3000 for two nights (2 adults and 1 child this time) I seem to have misplaced the bill from this Hotel, so gave the price from the site where I booked it. I'm really sorry for my carelessness.

• Most of the pictures were shot with a Cannon DSLR, some with an iphone 6 and some with a RedMi Note 3 (especially the pictures of the roads).

• Please excuse me for some typos/factual errors/poor image quality etc.

Cheers,
Karthi.stark

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing!

[palsaumik]

Extremely well written travelogue. I felt as if I was traveling with you all the while.

You know, its been ages since I too have been at any of the Bengaluru malls, they are just so static and monotonous, I cant quite accept them. Its nature's green that gives me the high and Belur, Haleibeedu, Chikmagalur, Coorg, Madekeri, Munnar, Wayanad are the best places best show what GREEN really means! I am glad you've brought back those same sweet memories when I visited those places sometime late last year.

P.S. - The main Monastery in Bylakuppe was closed when we visited in Oct last year. Surprised that its still undergoing repairs.

[majumon]

Nice write up buddy and liked your flair for writing , went through the entire log, good one also being your first one. Nice pictures and narration. Keep writing so we can get enriched.

[N4Nikunj]

Dear karthi.stark,

Very nice travelogue and awesome pics too. You have excellent writing abilities.


Thoroughly enjoyed reading your travelogue.