[mohansrides]

Originally Posted by smartcat

Like everybody else, we thought we would be celebrating Diwali holidays at home by lighting diyas and launching solid-fueled rockets. However, my wife remembered that last 2 Diwali holidays aftermath was not exactly a great experience. Thanks to all the smoke, my son suffered from bronchitis (cough/ phlegm) that lasted for at least a week on both the occasions. So at the last moment, we decided to flee Bangalore city....

smartcat......As usual, a wonderfully detailed travelogue from you about your thoughtful life choices. I especially enjoy the tone of your narratives - neutral and sober and yet interesting. Lovely photographs too. Lots of clarity and lots of information. I love history and historical sites. Looks like Karnataka has a bunch of stuff for me to see. My parents live in Mysore. So, I make it a point to bookmark your travelogues in the hope that I will be able to take the family along to these sites one of these days when we are visiting them...!!

Incidentally, it is good that you approached Diwali differently. At my house, we have not burst crackers in the last 3 years. Too much money goes up in smoke. This Diwali, a spark from one of those rockets caused a fire in the balcony of the top floor flat in our society. Luckily, it got put out in time and the whole episode served as a good lesson for the society. When all of us (around 700 at least) were standing downstairs looking up at the firemen working, I'll bet everyone was thinking about how differently things could have turned out that day. Really, these crackers serve no useful purpose for modern day living. They need to be gone.


P.S.
It is good that you choose to not write a literal account of your travels wherein the emphasis is on the chronological order of things rather than on information that could be more useful to readers. I have read travelogues here that, though wonderful, make liberal usage of phrases like “...then on Monday morning...”, or “...we wanted to reach by the 12th...”. There are two primary problems with such an approach.

1.) Travelogues about long trips (spanning multiple days or weeks) take up multiple pages here. They take a long time to read and require commitment from readers. Whether someone does it in one sitting or in multiple sittings, the truth is that a reader typically loses all sense of time as it unfolded for the traveler/s. This makes chronology less useful; and sometimes it is downright cumbersome. I mean, if readers have to make sense of a sentence like “... then on Tuesday..”, they will first have to remember which day they are reading about currently, not to mention summon up to mind the exact calendar details of the trip till that point in the write-up. This is really hard to do; and quite unnecessary because...

2.) Readers typically are a.) looking to connect with the experience that the travelers had, and/or b.) looking for useful information so that they can plan a similar trip.

So chronological mentions, while factually correct, offer very little value otherwise. In my opinion, the emphasis in any travelogue must always be on the emotion that the traveler/s experienced; and on information like travel arrangements, costs, weather, etc.

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by srishiva

My Hometown ! Nice pictures.
It used to be a textile city. Unions screwed up the entire thing and there are not many left now. Now its mostly education thats the main business. Good thing is most of the roads inside city are of concrete. Guess you didnt try Khara Mandakki, Masale Mandakki and Mirchi plus the common Benne Dose?

Originally Posted by dailydriver

Ah, Davanagere!

Wow! As soon as I read that word ‘Davanagere’ in the thread title, all my memories with this town started gushing down to my mind! I am born and brought up in this city and lived there until 2001. My sister still works there (and lives in Chitradurga). Therefore, I keep visiting this place, even if we do not own any property or such things there! Moreover, I have made up my mind that my retired life will definitely be spent either there or Chitradurga.

Originally Posted by srishiva

It used to be a textile city. Unions screwed up the entire thing and there are not many left now.

Originally Posted by dailydriver

The erstwhile textile town often referred to as the Manchester of Karnataka.

My father worked in one of these mills for more than 30 years and hence I have seen how these things happened in front my eyes. In fact, we lived for more than 30 years in one of the (free) quarters provided by the mill. Therefore, I can never forget those days.

Originally Posted by dailydriver

A place that is almost at the center of the state and hence, according to many, the place fit to replace Bengaluru as the capital of the state.

I agree, even we always used to wonder why Davanagere is not made capital city.

Originally Posted by dailydriver

they are no longer what they used to be and therefore clearly overrated. Even the famous Kottureshwara hotel has a new clone just next to its outlet, with the taste of dosas and alu palya not much different.

I may have to slightly disagree with you here. I am sure you must have tasted Benne Dose at Ravi Benne Dose near RamCo circle. I think they still maintain the same taste.

Finally, thanks to smartcat, I am able to find couple of guys from my hometown. srishiva and dailydriver, let us get connected offline?

[ARAY]

Lovely blog , liked the sprinkle of sarcasm thrown in. Historical places like these are devoid of guides in certain scenarios , however the depth and details you have shared is enough to keep one engrossed in the thread.
Keep traveling and sharing such wonderful blogs.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by mohansrides

So, I make it a point to bookmark your travelogues in the hope that I will be able to take the family along to these sites one of these days when we are visiting them!! Readers typically are looking for useful information so that they can plan a similar trip. In my opinion, the emphasis in any travelogue must always be on information like travel arrangements, costs, weather, etc.

One more thing: If there are ladies with you on the trip, remember that there are no petrol pumps with clean toilets and no restaurants on the way to these monuments. So you need drive back to Davanagere after visiting one place. Actually, all these places are pretty close to each other. If there are only males in the group, they can do this circuit:

Originally Posted by ARAY

Historical places like these are devoid of guides in certain scenarios , however the depth and details you have shared is enough to keep one engrossed in the thread.

Yeah, no guides. But on the bright side, you won't find any tourists either!

We do this:

1) Before visiting the place, I read up some travel blogs on the monuments. After coming back home, I read them again.
2) If the destination is an old temple, there will be a Pujari there and he doubles up as a guide. But you need to ask the right questions (which my wife does) because they are not trained as guides to talk continuously for 30 minutes. After the Aarti is done, we drop a Rs. 100 note on the plate.

[scorpion_blore]

Excellent travelogue, loved the way you brought out the key points in short sentences with nice photos! It is easy on the eyes for checking a quick review about what a place has to offer.

I've been to Davanagere so many times, and seriously had no idea that it has so much to offer. Whenever someone talks about Davanagere, few things that come to mind are Chitradurga Fort, Harihara Temple, Tungabhadra river in Harihar, and the famous "Benne Dose". Hope you had the chance to savour the famous "Benne Dose" when you were there.

Since you have been there and visited so many places around Davanagere, how many days trip would you recommend to cover all these places?

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by scorpion_blore

Hope you had the chance to savour the famous "Benne Dose" when you were there.

Sadly No. I know Benne Dose and Mandakki Oggarane thanks only to Davanagere Bhpians on this thread! Next time then

Whenever someone talks about Davanagere, few things that come to mind are Chitradurga Fort, Harihara Temple, Tungabhadra river in Harihar, and the famous "Benne Dose". Since you have been there and visited so many places around Davanagere, how many days trip would you recommend to cover all these places?

Since you have already been to Chitradurga Fort and Harihara Temple, 3 day trip from Bangalore should be ideal. We wasted some time trying to find Karanji Mantapa and we also visited Honnali. So things were a bit tight for us.

Day 1: Get up early, drive down to Davanagere from Bangalore (4 to 4.5 hrs depending on where you stay). Dump bags in hotel, have lunch and drive down to Karanji Mantapa in the afternoon. Spend an hour there, have roadside chai or coffee and drive down to Sulekere lake (16 kms from Santhebennur). Spend 30 mins to 1 hour and drive back to Davanagere hotel.

Day 2 : After breakfast at Davanagere hotel, drive down to Kalleshwara Swamy Temple, Bagali. Spend an hour there and get back to Davanagere for lunch. After lunch, drive down to Katte Basaveshwara Temple, Hale Hadagali. Spend 30 mins there and drive down towards lakeside Bheemeshwara temple (30 kms from Hale Hadagali) at Neelagunda. Perhaps you can watch the sunset against the lake backdrop before driving back to Davanagere. However, as I mentioned before, there are a couple of deep ruts on the road which you might not be able to spot after sunset.

Day 3: There is this Fort near Davanagere (that we haven't visited). You need to do some Google research though.

Name: UCHANGIDURGA FORT
Distance from Davanagere: 30 kms
Google Maps link: https://goo.gl/maps/hVWjWLk7c6v
Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uchangidurga







After lunch, you can drive down to Bangalore. If you do happen to visit these places, post some pictures here - especially destinations that I haven't been to!

[redcruiser]

Hi Smartcat,
Good TL. Excellent writeup.
You bet the pollution was such that the Air Purifier at my home was Red (indicates worst air quality) almost deep into the night.

[deehunk]

Originally Posted by smartcat

Like everybody else, we thought we would be celebrating Diwali holidays at home by lighting diyas and launching solid-fueled rockets.
But it's only when you dig deeper into the search results, you find that Davanagere district has pretty much everything that a typical tourist loves - lakes, historical monuments, forts, parks etc

I am happy to see a travelogue on Davanagere, have lot of childhood memories with this town. My farbror lived here in early 80's, while my father was working in Chitradurga. So they both used to exchange visits every month till we moved out of Chitradurga. I got lost with my memories of 1980's on the banks of Tungabhadra river.

[SmartCat]

Gents, look what I found -> Year 2009 Davanagere travelogue by Bhpian Hotstuff
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...am-823kms.html ('Xing'ing around ! - 5am to 5am, 823kms.)

Photos of Unchangidurga Fort (from his thread):

[alphadog]

That was a great travelogue, short sweet n succinct. Thanks for sharing.

I for one have only heard of Davengere in relation to educational institutions. Interesting to know that it has many historical gems to offer. Amazed at how these temples and buildings have stood the test of time for over a 1000 years. The precision and work on them is truly great.

How did the Honda perform?. What is your ownership experience of the car??. My parents are contemplating changing their car and this is one of the shortlisted ones.
Keep traveling and sharing.

Cheerio!

[digitalnirvana]

Wonderfully written travelogue @smartcat. I was in Bangalore for several years and remember my colleague waxing lyrical about the famous Davanagere Benne Masala Dosa. Sadly I never got around to visiting. Your writing has a factual yet interesting style, which is rare. Keep writing, and thanks for sharing your story.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by alphadog

How did the Honda perform?. What is your ownership experience of the car??. My parents are contemplating changing their car and this is one of the shortlisted ones.

That's Honda BR-V petrol automatic. Will keep it short again:

Pros: Strong acceleration and braking, sharp steering and handling, punchy speakers, good boot space with 3rd row up, not too shabby fuel economy, nice transmission characteristics and finally high ground clearance for tackling village roads.

Cons: Bendy sheet metal, plastic bits falling off inside, important features missing, stiff ride because of raised suspension, not-so-great seat comfort on long drives, poor noise insulation (engine noise/transmission whine/tyre noise/wind noise) and narrow middle row seat

I frequently keep posting updates on BR-V thread:
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offic...review-67.html (Honda BR-V : Official Review)

For your parents, wait for the new Ertiga launch before taking a decision. Mahindra Marazzo is priced at par with Honda BR-V diesel and seems like good value.

[CarNerd]

There is a newly constructed Glass House in Davangere which is the biggest in India. Although it is not yet completed, It has some really good collection of unique trees & plants from different countries. It's located close to NH48 Highway & entry is free as of now.

[Samba]

Great to see a travelogue on Davanagere. Great coverage.

The first time i heard about this place was in an Indian news channel covering the most haunted places in India. They told about a lady who can be seen in a white saree in the night and this highway was very prone to accidents.

Later on while i was driving to Goa from Bangalore, we were crossing Devanagere in midnight and i was feeling a bit scared by thinking, if that news comes out to be true!
That was the first time i crossed this place. Later on i crossed Davanagere many more times but never entered the city. I never knew this place had so much to offer. Thanks a lot for sharing.