On the way back from bandipur we dropped in at gopalswamy betta to enjoy the clouds.. i have decided this to be the smallest blog i write !! so guys just enjoy the videos :)
It is approximately 220 km from Bangalore and 75 km from Mysore on the Mysore Ooty road -10 km away from Gundlupet.It is also the highest peak in the Bandipur National Park.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Bandipur - Reunion with college friends
Bandipur Wild life santuary trip
Pandit messaged me on thursday that he was free on this weekend, santosh & syed would be in bangalore on sat morning and i had to plan a trip. I started to look into my database for short trips.. the question was do we go and enjoy at a resort in bangalore or we go somewher else... yercaud poped into my mind and was searching for good accomodations.. wasn't really into the place.. looked more like... honeymooners place :P.. i wasn't really keen on yercaud and i had this feeling to go to bandipur... couple of hits on google and there it was a decent looking resort ( atleast in the website :P )- Tiger Ranch ! Called them up and the sweet sounding lady named supriya answered the phone.. was satisfied with the information she gave and decided that we would go to this place. the cost was 880/- per head inclusive of 3 meals + taxes + resort facilities. ( not bad i thought). so withing next 10 mins it was decided we were headed to bandipur !!.. chandru had no problems with my plans ( he seldom does :P) .. santosh & syed just wanted some good place other than chennai :P
Saturday morning after all the pickups the guys picked me up from a cricket ground at 8AM. i had woken up early and decided to play to get some exercise. we took the nice road to join mysore road near kengeri and headed to bandipur. We stopped at Mc Donalds near maddur and had burgers. Not satisfied we had more snacks at New Maddur Tiffanys !! only maddur vade is good here... We reached mysore at around 11:45. Finally reached the bandipur checkpost by 1PM. I sighted a large herd of deer and urged the driver to stop. we had covered some distance and had to walk a couple 100 mtrs to get to the spot. There it was hardly 30-40 ft away from me a herd 20-25 dee. Had never seen so many deers at once.. ( This statement was to be proven wrong many times...)
Then we headed to Tiger ranch... which is about 3-4 kms left of the bandipur check post ( from mysore side). Road was terrible and had started to drizzle. The mud road was soggy..indicating plenty of precipiation before we arrived. 1:15 we reached tiger ranch and it started to pour.
We went to our cottage and freshened up and then started to explore the place. Each cottage wouldn't have cost the owner 100 buks to build :P ... entire thing was made out of bamboo had coconut leaves !! looked really shoddy..but we werent' concerned about the cottage much. we were here to have funn !! we had lunch, it pretty ordinary but managable.. meanwhile the rains looked like there was no shower handle to turn them off :P! we started to explore the indoor games at the resort !
God help me.. was the reaction of all the guys who saw the Table Tennis table.. hahah !! an old desk joined and probably fish nets made into a net !! height of cheapness.... the nails banged into the desks were still visible. We had nothing to do and started playing. TT Rackets were even amazing. I could bet that these were museum pieces used by 1950 Table tennis finalists at the TT world cup ..... the rubber...err cloth piece like some material .. may be rexin woven on a card board.. *!@# man can't even explain what it was like ! horrible is the only word for it. But we still managed to start play with defective sport equipments, a old tilted table /board and a leaky cieling. I was the underdog and won my matches against syed & pandit !! ( woohooo!!!!! )
We had trek plan put into our package only to find out that trekking is banned in bandipur. The owner cleverly evaded from the promise of a trek by stating rains as a problem, when the rains stopped elephant movement was the reason given...finally decided against it. Later found from the workers at the resort that trekking is banned in bandipur.
Rain had gone away and all the little jonies decided to play !! This time it was cricket :) the gully cricket. The pitch was soggy & slippery.. this time the sporting equipments were better :) . I decided we would go for the bandipur safari and tommorow may be go to gopal swamy hills. We wrapped up cricket by 4:30 and grabbed our camera/mobiles. There is a funny incident i must mention here... We knocked on our car doors only to find that driver wasn't around. the other 5 were near the car and i went searching for the driver ! i strayed into the worker's cottage area and a dog started to bark.. i wasn't scared and started to walk further.. The dog proably didn't think me as a friend and started to charge.. i wasn't scared then too.. but i really got scared when i saw couple more doberman's joining this chasing dog friend of mine..... since all of the other 5 people were brave like me... started to run helter scelter hearing me scream " dog...run...dog" along with the 3 dog barking effects....!! some one impulsively got hold of the cars door to find out it was open and all of us started to push into it.. some one actually didn't notice the driver who was sound asleep on the middle seat of the car ( tavera) and sat on him !! ehehhe... luckily those dogs stopped a good 15-20 ft from us. we were happy we found the driver and headed for the bandipur safari. On the way saw a lot of deeers... again !!
Bandipur safari.. oficially one hour safari costing 95 rs/- . Was some what excitied and wanted to see elephants this time :).. safari started.. started spotting deers... after a while ..deers... then deers... believe me these deers were looking like street dogs to us. wouldn't like to say much but bandipur is really commercialized and all the animals looks so used to seeing humans.. they have no fear at all.. we spotted peakcock, a sambhar and herd of wild bison !! that was our safari. 95 rs in the drain !!! safari hardly lasted 30 mins !!... total rip off ! we didn't feel we were in the jungle by any chance. it was more like a field trip !!
We were back in the resort by 7 PM. Munching on snacks we had tea. Then we started with carrom. by then camp fire was arranged and gang of 10 already had gathered around it. so we decided to stay in the play area ! Then we went for a night walk around the resort. by 9 we had dinner and were back in our hut to play cards ;)
But the fun hadn't started until late at night !!! It was almost 11 and the power was about to turned down. we overheard couple of girls shouting.. we could make out they were drunk. The silence of jungle probably over emphasized their noises. We could clearly hear them and their talk.. couple of sentences from them and we could gauge that these girls were really drunk !!
One of them shouted..... where the hell is that @#&(%* we don't have the room keys.. and i wanna answer the nature's call !! we all went what the @*(#! what are these girls upto... the whole night we had to bear with these crazy neighbors. Lot of their conversation was typical junk talk which wouldn't be appropriate to mention here.. chandru couldn't sleep the whole night coz he was worried about these drunk neighbours :P hehehee...
The place Tiger ranch is a shoddy place with mediocre facilities. not really recommended as a family place.. but a great place for a large group of guys who want to have fun ! if you guys want to grab of beer cans and relax.. this may be a good place as the nature around the resort is pristine!! over all the resort accomodation was nothing to remember but i guess its the experience that counts.... and it was a great experience.... probably my last trip in india with friends before i head to the US for higher studies !!
Location: India>Karnataka>Chamarajanagar
Nearest Town: Gundalpet
Distances:225 Km from Bangalore
Route: Bangalore-Mysore-Nanjangud-Gundalpet-Bandipur
Next blog comming up soon .. - Himavad Gopalswamy betta :) ...
Pandit messaged me on thursday that he was free on this weekend, santosh & syed would be in bangalore on sat morning and i had to plan a trip. I started to look into my database for short trips.. the question was do we go and enjoy at a resort in bangalore or we go somewher else... yercaud poped into my mind and was searching for good accomodations.. wasn't really into the place.. looked more like... honeymooners place :P.. i wasn't really keen on yercaud and i had this feeling to go to bandipur... couple of hits on google and there it was a decent looking resort ( atleast in the website :P )- Tiger Ranch ! Called them up and the sweet sounding lady named supriya answered the phone.. was satisfied with the information she gave and decided that we would go to this place. the cost was 880/- per head inclusive of 3 meals + taxes + resort facilities. ( not bad i thought). so withing next 10 mins it was decided we were headed to bandipur !!.. chandru had no problems with my plans ( he seldom does :P) .. santosh & syed just wanted some good place other than chennai :P
Saturday morning after all the pickups the guys picked me up from a cricket ground at 8AM. i had woken up early and decided to play to get some exercise. we took the nice road to join mysore road near kengeri and headed to bandipur. We stopped at Mc Donalds near maddur and had burgers. Not satisfied we had more snacks at New Maddur Tiffanys !! only maddur vade is good here... We reached mysore at around 11:45. Finally reached the bandipur checkpost by 1PM. I sighted a large herd of deer and urged the driver to stop. we had covered some distance and had to walk a couple 100 mtrs to get to the spot. There it was hardly 30-40 ft away from me a herd 20-25 dee. Had never seen so many deers at once.. ( This statement was to be proven wrong many times...)
Then we headed to Tiger ranch... which is about 3-4 kms left of the bandipur check post ( from mysore side). Road was terrible and had started to drizzle. The mud road was soggy..indicating plenty of precipiation before we arrived. 1:15 we reached tiger ranch and it started to pour.
We went to our cottage and freshened up and then started to explore the place. Each cottage wouldn't have cost the owner 100 buks to build :P ... entire thing was made out of bamboo had coconut leaves !! looked really shoddy..but we werent' concerned about the cottage much. we were here to have funn !! we had lunch, it pretty ordinary but managable.. meanwhile the rains looked like there was no shower handle to turn them off :P! we started to explore the indoor games at the resort !
God help me.. was the reaction of all the guys who saw the Table Tennis table.. hahah !! an old desk joined and probably fish nets made into a net !! height of cheapness.... the nails banged into the desks were still visible. We had nothing to do and started playing. TT Rackets were even amazing. I could bet that these were museum pieces used by 1950 Table tennis finalists at the TT world cup ..... the rubber...err cloth piece like some material .. may be rexin woven on a card board.. *!@# man can't even explain what it was like ! horrible is the only word for it. But we still managed to start play with defective sport equipments, a old tilted table /board and a leaky cieling. I was the underdog and won my matches against syed & pandit !! ( woohooo!!!!! )
We had trek plan put into our package only to find out that trekking is banned in bandipur. The owner cleverly evaded from the promise of a trek by stating rains as a problem, when the rains stopped elephant movement was the reason given...finally decided against it. Later found from the workers at the resort that trekking is banned in bandipur.
Rain had gone away and all the little jonies decided to play !! This time it was cricket :) the gully cricket. The pitch was soggy & slippery.. this time the sporting equipments were better :) . I decided we would go for the bandipur safari and tommorow may be go to gopal swamy hills. We wrapped up cricket by 4:30 and grabbed our camera/mobiles. There is a funny incident i must mention here... We knocked on our car doors only to find that driver wasn't around. the other 5 were near the car and i went searching for the driver ! i strayed into the worker's cottage area and a dog started to bark.. i wasn't scared and started to walk further.. The dog proably didn't think me as a friend and started to charge.. i wasn't scared then too.. but i really got scared when i saw couple more doberman's joining this chasing dog friend of mine..... since all of the other 5 people were brave like me... started to run helter scelter hearing me scream " dog...run...dog" along with the 3 dog barking effects....!! some one impulsively got hold of the cars door to find out it was open and all of us started to push into it.. some one actually didn't notice the driver who was sound asleep on the middle seat of the car ( tavera) and sat on him !! ehehhe... luckily those dogs stopped a good 15-20 ft from us. we were happy we found the driver and headed for the bandipur safari. On the way saw a lot of deeers... again !!
Bandipur safari.. oficially one hour safari costing 95 rs/- . Was some what excitied and wanted to see elephants this time :).. safari started.. started spotting deers... after a while ..deers... then deers... believe me these deers were looking like street dogs to us. wouldn't like to say much but bandipur is really commercialized and all the animals looks so used to seeing humans.. they have no fear at all.. we spotted peakcock, a sambhar and herd of wild bison !! that was our safari. 95 rs in the drain !!! safari hardly lasted 30 mins !!... total rip off ! we didn't feel we were in the jungle by any chance. it was more like a field trip !!
We were back in the resort by 7 PM. Munching on snacks we had tea. Then we started with carrom. by then camp fire was arranged and gang of 10 already had gathered around it. so we decided to stay in the play area ! Then we went for a night walk around the resort. by 9 we had dinner and were back in our hut to play cards ;)
But the fun hadn't started until late at night !!! It was almost 11 and the power was about to turned down. we overheard couple of girls shouting.. we could make out they were drunk. The silence of jungle probably over emphasized their noises. We could clearly hear them and their talk.. couple of sentences from them and we could gauge that these girls were really drunk !!
One of them shouted..... where the hell is that @#&(%* we don't have the room keys.. and i wanna answer the nature's call !! we all went what the @*(#! what are these girls upto... the whole night we had to bear with these crazy neighbors. Lot of their conversation was typical junk talk which wouldn't be appropriate to mention here.. chandru couldn't sleep the whole night coz he was worried about these drunk neighbours :P hehehee...
The place Tiger ranch is a shoddy place with mediocre facilities. not really recommended as a family place.. but a great place for a large group of guys who want to have fun ! if you guys want to grab of beer cans and relax.. this may be a good place as the nature around the resort is pristine!! over all the resort accomodation was nothing to remember but i guess its the experience that counts.... and it was a great experience.... probably my last trip in india with friends before i head to the US for higher studies !!
Location: India>Karnataka>Chamarajanagar
Nearest Town: Gundalpet
Distances:225 Km from Bangalore
Route: Bangalore-Mysore-Nanjangud-Gundalpet-Bandipur
Next blog comming up soon .. - Himavad Gopalswamy betta :) ...
Monday, June 15, 2009
The 50 Rupee Bike Trip
THE 50 Rupee Bike Trip !! Belur Halebid Revisited......
Chickmagalur, Small sleepy town with lot of coffee estates around. I was visiting it after a long gap of 2 years.. This time took 10 days vacation and wanted to enjoy. Sringeri, hornadu kalasa, kudremukh, kemmangundi , belur, halebid was on my list. After spiritual trip with family to sringeri horanadu kalasa kudremukh... took a days rest !! But couldnt' go to belur - halebid as planned due to health reasons ( food poinsioning :P hehee).
On sunday morning, due to some inspiring explanations of belur architecture got me excited and wanted to visit belur. So along with my uncle, i hopped on his bike and got going... Left Chickmagalur at 3 pm. To the picturequese country side and good roads was easily zipping to belur.
In about 30 mins we had reached belur. Could have driven faster if not for the lose breaks of the vehicle.
Around 3:45 we started exploring the temple. The chennakeshava temple in belur. I was back here after 5 years. had some wage memories of the place. This is a unique temple where vishnu's mohini form is depicted. The main idol has the body of a man but face of a woman. All the stories i had heard were going through my mind. Then i entered the main temple campus... good to know that there is no entry fees !!! I felt good .... i am tired of simply paying entry fees which is not at all used in the development of the these monuments. The reason for not having entry fees may be due to the fact that this is not just a monument but a temple too where daily pooja and offerings are made.
The majestic entrance was an indication of what would follow. The view inside the temp le complex was quite familiar with one main temple and the side temples. Symmetry was quite visible, especially the dwaja stambha *( flag post) was right in the center of the main temple complex and divided it equally 
On the left side of the temple was this unique pillar which seemed quite
ordinary from a distance. Then my uncle mentioned to me that this pillar stood on 3 corners !! i went what the @#*(# .. Civil engineering at its best !!! when i went near i could clearly see a 500-600 Kg stone structure standing..... err..made to stand rather on 3 corners... !!! Guys trying making a simple chair stand of 3 legs ;) !!
The main temple, surrounded by a group of subsidiary shrines, stands in the center of a rectangular, paved courtyard along the perimeter of which are ranges of cells fronted by a pillared veranda. The main temple has a pillared hall (navaranga). The extensive hall is supported by forty-six pillars, each of a different design. The Hoysala kingdom that flourished in these parts of ancient India between the 11th and 14th centuries is widely acknowledged as the 'crowning glory' in Indian architecture.
The temple has a pillared hypostyle hall-the Navaranga; a square vestibule-the Antarala and the sanctum sanctorum-Garbagriha. The original tower-Shikhara of the temple was destroyed during the Mohammedan invasion by Bahamani rulers the Vijayanagar ruler rebuilt the magnificent gateway tower, the Gopuram, which was also destroyed.
The extensive hall within is supported by forty-six pillars, each of a different design! The pillars were manufactured by rough finishing a monolithic block of stone and then mounting it in upright position on a wheel. The Narasimha pillar, it is said, could revolve on its ball bearings! The Mohini is also famous for the sublime expressions and posture of Lord Vishnu posing in the feminine form of Mohini. 108 deities are depicted in the miniature shrines and recesses of the pillars! However, nothing surpasses the finish of the four central pillars.
Here are some of the sculptures that adorn the temples
i) dancers in various poses
ii) One of the rare male figure
iii) Shiva parvathi iv) Voluptuous Dancer
It was almost 5 mins past 5 and we decided to drop into halebid too.. anywayz i have come so far... why not visit it again !!.. so set on .. halebid is about 16 kms from belur.
The name Halebid....literally means, 'old village' Belur. Halebid, famous for its Hoyasaleswara temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva. The construction of the Hoyasaleswara Temple was started in AD 1121 and continued for around 90 years, but never completely finished. Even in its incomplete form, this temple is the most remarkable example of Hoysala art and architecture. Every part of the walls of this temple is adorned by a continuing variety of Hindu deities, sages, animals and many other art forms. The temple is surrounded by a garden and there is also a museum nearby.
The interiors of the temple too are very detailed with fine carvings on the pillars. i bet you can't see such exquisite carvings even on wood !
The miniature carvings leave you without
words, But its disappointing to see them damaged. Here you can see the churning of the oceans by gods & demons, along with battle epics.
Shiva Parvathi :: Bramha Vishnu Maheshwara :: Ganesha in Nataraja like pose.
There it was.. my cheapest trip.. just 50 bucks for Petrol :)
Chickmagalur, Small sleepy town with lot of coffee estates around. I was visiting it after a long gap of 2 years.. This time took 10 days vacation and wanted to enjoy. Sringeri, hornadu kalasa, kudremukh, kemmangundi , belur, halebid was on my list. After spiritual trip with family to sringeri horanadu kalasa kudremukh... took a days rest !! But couldnt' go to belur - halebid as planned due to health reasons ( food poinsioning :P hehee).
On sunday morning, due to some inspiring explanations of belur architecture got me excited and wanted to visit belur. So along with my uncle, i hopped on his bike and got going... Left Chickmagalur at 3 pm. To the picturequese country side and good roads was easily zipping to belur.
In about 30 mins we had reached belur. Could have driven faster if not for the lose breaks of the vehicle.
Around 3:45 we started exploring the temple. The chennakeshava temple in belur. I was back here after 5 years. had some wage memories of the place. This is a unique temple where vishnu's mohini form is depicted. The main idol has the body of a man but face of a woman. All the stories i had heard were going through my mind. Then i entered the main temple campus... good to know that there is no entry fees !!! I felt good .... i am tired of simply paying entry fees which is not at all used in the development of the these monuments. The reason for not having entry fees may be due to the fact that this is not just a monument but a temple too where daily pooja and offerings are made.
The majestic entrance was an indication of what would follow. The view inside the temp le complex was quite familiar with one main temple and the side temples. Symmetry was quite visible, especially the dwaja stambha *( flag post) was right in the center of the main temple complex and divided it equally On the left side of the temple was this unique pillar which seemed quite
ordinary from a distance. Then my uncle mentioned to me that this pillar stood on 3 corners !! i went what the @#*(# .. Civil engineering at its best !!! when i went near i could clearly see a 500-600 Kg stone structure standing..... err..made to stand rather on 3 corners... !!! Guys trying making a simple chair stand of 3 legs ;) !!
The main temple, surrounded by a group of subsidiary shrines, stands in the center of a rectangular, paved courtyard along the perimeter of which are ranges of cells fronted by a pillared veranda. The main temple has a pillared hall (navaranga). The extensive hall is supported by forty-six pillars, each of a different design. The Hoysala kingdom that flourished in these parts of ancient India between the 11th and 14th centuries is widely acknowledged as the 'crowning glory' in Indian architecture.
The temple has a pillared hypostyle hall-the Navaranga; a square vestibule-the Antarala and the sanctum sanctorum-Garbagriha. The original tower-Shikhara of the temple was destroyed during the Mohammedan invasion by Bahamani rulers the Vijayanagar ruler rebuilt the magnificent gateway tower, the Gopuram, which was also destroyed.
The extensive hall within is supported by forty-six pillars, each of a different design! The pillars were manufactured by rough finishing a monolithic block of stone and then mounting it in upright position on a wheel. The Narasimha pillar, it is said, could revolve on its ball bearings! The Mohini is also famous for the sublime expressions and posture of Lord Vishnu posing in the feminine form of Mohini. 108 deities are depicted in the miniature shrines and recesses of the pillars! However, nothing surpasses the finish of the four central pillars.
Here are some of the sculptures that adorn the temples
i) dancers in various poses
ii) One of the rare male figure
iii) Shiva parvathi iv) Voluptuous Dancer
It was almost 5 mins past 5 and we decided to drop into halebid too.. anywayz i have come so far... why not visit it again !!.. so set on .. halebid is about 16 kms from belur.
The name Halebid....literally means, 'old village' Belur. Halebid, famous for its Hoyasaleswara temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva. The construction of the Hoyasaleswara Temple was started in AD 1121 and continued for around 90 years, but never completely finished. Even in its incomplete form, this temple is the most remarkable example of Hoysala art and architecture. Every part of the walls of this temple is adorned by a continuing variety of Hindu deities, sages, animals and many other art forms. The temple is surrounded by a garden and there is also a museum nearby.
The interiors of the temple too are very detailed with fine carvings on the pillars. i bet you can't see such exquisite carvings even on wood !
The miniature carvings leave you without
words, But its disappointing to see them damaged. Here you can see the churning of the oceans by gods & demons, along with battle epics.
Shiva Parvathi :: Bramha Vishnu Maheshwara :: Ganesha in Nataraja like pose.
There it was.. my cheapest trip.. just 50 bucks for Petrol :)
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