Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Chikmagalur

The plan was to celebrate my birthday in Udupi and visit other places around during Ugadi weekend, if thatha and nanamma had come. But, they didnt come. So, dad planned for a Chikmagalur trip for the Ugadi long weekend.

We started from home on 1st April at 7PM and got a BMTC bus to KGBS. All the roads were crowded and it took 45 min. to go from Corporation circle to Mysore Bank circle, which is lesstan 2 KMs. Most of the people got down from the buses and started walking.
After sometime, our bus driver got irritated with the traffic and said, he is not going towards bus station and asked the passengers to take another bus going to bus station. We had to switch to a different bus crossing all the traffic. After all the stunts, we reached KGBS at around 10PM. Our bus was at 10:30PM. We were waiting in KGBS and dad was trying to control me not to go near the buses. Finally the wait ended at 12:30AM, when the bus arrived on platform.

We reached Chikmagalur at 5AM on 2nd April. We had booking in Soundarya Residency near the bus stand. We checked-in into hotel and slept 7Am. We got ready by 8AM and had breakfast in the attached restaurent there. By then our cab was ready.

At 9AM, we started towards Mullyanagiri. Reached the place at around 10AM. Thought there was not much greenery due to hot summer this year, the road to Mullyanagiri was very scenic. We had to climb up to Mullyanagiri peak. This is the highest peak in Karnataka. There is a small temple on top of the hill. Though it was sunny, the wind was very cold and I started shivering.

Some photos near Mullyanagiri.

On the way:


At Mullyanagiri:


From there we went to Seetalayyanagiri. This is a very beautiful old temple.
At Seethalayanagiri:



From there we went to Honnamala falls. This does not look like a water fall. But is good place to enjoy sometime in water.



Dada hired cab for two days. But the driver seems to be in hurry and wants to go back to town early. We could understand his feelings as it was the big day for all cricket fans - 2011 world cup final match.

Then we headed towards Baba Budanagiri. This place was closed for some renovation, so we had to skip it. Then we went to Manikyadhara falls. This is near Baba Budanagiri. There was no water in fall and there was a board which says "anyone taking bath in the fall should leave their clothes there". So, we skipped it.







The cab driver was very happy that we didnt spend time there and came back early. Then he said, he would show rest of the places next day and took us back to Chikmagalur. There was no place to have lunch. So, we too wanted to go back to town and have our lunch.

We reached Chikmagalur by 1PM. Had lunch and then went to a muncipal park at 3PM.

The park is big and had a toy train too. They said they will run train only if they have enough people. So we were waiting for more people to come. A big family came at 4PM and we did a toy train trip around the park. Then raomed around the park sometime.





Reached hotel at 6PM.Took some rest and had dinner.


Day 2 [3 Apr]:
we got ready by 8AM and started for Kemmanagundi. We reached Kemmanagundi at around 11AM. Its a small hill station. It was not scenic as expected. Dad's photos of his previous trip [in May 2008 with his friends] had so much of greenery. Even he was disappointed with the look. We roamed around the place for sometime and headed to Kalathagiri falls.















The place was too crowded. There was some festival going on and no place even to stand there. Someone said, they were celebrating BCCI's [Its not Indian team] victory
in 2011 world cup cricket. Crazy people...

We could not spend any more time there and started back to Chikmagalur.

Reached Chikmagalur at 2PM. Had lunch and got our return bus to Bangalore. I didnt have anything from morning and was not feeling well and puked in the bus. The bus didnt have open windows and dad and mom had to pack all of it in their kerchieves... until they reached home.... yaaak.

Reached home from a not so good trip at 9PM .

Friday, April 1, 2011

3rd Birthday

Before I turn 3 years, I should get Aksharabhyasam done. So, on March 9th I wrote my first letters in Ganesha temple near the house. Hyderabad thatha has come to make me write letters.

My first letters:



I am 3 years now and become 3 times more naughty. I am disappointed that no grand parents, babai, mama, atha came for my birthday. There were only three of us - MOm, dad and me.

I got up early in the morning and got ready for photos.







Then I went to Ganesha temple.




In the evening I cut a cake.









Monday, February 28, 2011

Shanmukha Temple

After spending 3 weeks of holidays in Hyderabad and Nalgonda, I returned to Bangalore on 24th, Feb. Srinath mama came with us.
On Saturday we wanted to go out somewhere. After some discussions, we decided to go to Omkar Hills and Shanmukha temple in Raja Rajeswari Nagar on Mysore Road.

We started from home at 12noon and reached RR Nagar at 2:00PM. The traffic was too much and it took 2 hours for 20KMs. We had lunch at a restaurent and went to Shanmukha temple at 3:30PM. The remple was closed for lunch. It will reopen at 4:30PM. So, we went to Omkar Hills. Omkar Hills got its name from the big clock placed on top of the hill which make Omkaram (Oum) every hour. A big Dwadasha Jyotirlinga temple is being constructed there. Though temple was opened on 14th, still the finishing is being done. This temple too was closed till 5PM.











We just roamed around the place for some time waiting for the clock to make Omkaram at 4. Hmm.. at 4, the clock didnt make any sound.. seems its not working now :-).

We didnt want to wait there till 5PM as it would become dark by the time we visit other temple and go home. So, we started back to Shanmukha temple. Its around 4KMs from this place.











The temple was just opened when we reached there. We climbed up the hill and had darshan and started back home. We rached home at 7:30PM.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Kollimalai

This time we planned for a less known hill station in Tamilnadu.

Vinnu mama came from Hyderabad on 13th Jan. So we planned to celebrate Sankranti at Kolli Hills.


On 15th morning we (Me, dad, mummy, Vinnu mama, Sreekanth mama and Sangeetha atha) started at 12:30PM. The drive to Kolli hills was so scenic with more than 70 hair-pin bends. We booked accommodation in advance in a resort there. We checked in to the hotel by 1PM and ordered for food. The food came at 3PM :-(. The plan was to visit waterfalls on day 1 and see other tourist points on day 2.

After lunch we went to Akasagangai waterfall. We reached the entrance at 4PM and the guard there didnt allow us to go. He said, the falls entrance is closed by 4PM as it takes atleast 3hours to go and come back. We were very disappointed as all our plan is disturbed because of the lunch.

We visited the temple just opposite to the waterfalls entrance and then spent sometime at Mini waterfalls near the temple.


Returned back to hotel by 6PM and ordered for dinner. The dinner came at 9PM. There is only one kitchen and they prepare food as per customer's request. So it takes so much time to prepare food.

It was too cold. and we were not sure if we can get up early in the morning. It was very cold and got up in the morning at 7AM. Got ready and reached falls at 9AM. As soon as we reached falls, I got scared looking at the flow and height of the falls. Though its not a big one, It was the first time I saw one like that. I started crying to go back from there. Dad took me far from the fall and covered me with a towel. Mummy was with me and dad went to enjoy the falls. We spent two hours there and returned to hotel by 12. Checked out and started back.




We stopped at Rasipuram for lunch at 2:30PM. From there without any stop in between we reached home at 7PM.