Dakshina Bharat Tripaa
Last week was “Family Week”. My entire family finally decided to take a much needed vacation after a long, long, reallllllllly long time. I have just recently completed a project and needed a break. Normally I would simply fly back to Mumbai, spend time with family, eat lots of fish and rest. But this time around I wanted it to be a little different. The credit goes to my sister for convincing my parents to take a vacation to some place where all four of us can go together, somewhere other than Goa.
Arriving on the destination was pretty much easy. My sister had never been to Down South, my mom wanted to see her son and check out his current dwellings, my dad wanted to take a break from his schedule and as far away from Mumbai as possible and I, by default, was already present in Bangalore. So the trip of South India was arrived upon without much difficulty. The itinerary was pretty simple – arrive in Bangalore, drive down to mysore and ooty and visit the ancient temples in sravan belagola, bellur and halebid before arriving back.
The travel bookings from and to Mumbai were made in advance, mom had booked rooms in the Canara Bank Holiday homes in Bangalore and Ooty. Wherever we didn’t have bookings, we decided to go and check into any hotels directly. Explaining each and every detail in this blog would make it too long so I will try and keep it short by just describing the highlight of each day.
Day 1 – May 2nd – Arrival in Bangalore – My parents got a first hand experience of the chaos that is also known as the ‘Bangalore Airport’. They arrived in the evening rush and it took them some 40 minutes to finally get out of the terminal. We booked a taxi and took them to Jayanagar where the Holiday Home room was booked. The rain had made the outside temperature really cool and my mom and sister were amazed that it was summer time in Bangalore. We than sat and chatted while I jumped onto the prawns and bangda fry that my mom had brought for me. Later we walked a little distance to Uphara Darshini and dined and closed the day watching the Delhi Daredevils beat the Chennai Super Kings.
Day 2 – May 3rd – Mysore – Our Qualis arrived as expected by 7 am and we were on our way to Mysore. The initial plan was to drive straight to ooty, but it was changed when we came to know that ooty was too crowded by the arrival of Abdul Kalam that weekend. On route to Mysore, we stopped at Srirangapatnam which is the home to Tipu Sultan. We checked out his summer place which is quite magnificent. After a bit of reading I realized that Tipu Sultan was only 49 when he died and though he is well known for winning battles against the British, he was also a great administrator and lover of art and literature.
On arrival in Mysore we checked into Hotel Abhishek. In the afternoon we drove upto Chamundi Hills. Chamundi was the goddess who apparently killed Mahisasura, the demon and is worshipped as the goddess who protects Mysore. There is a great view of Mysore from atop the hill. Our next stop was the Maharaja’s palace. What can be best described as ‘massive’ from outside is even more enormous from the inside. The great hall reminded me of the scene where yesteryears heroine Madhubala danced to the “Pyaar Kiya to Darna Kya” song. There were open courts from where I assume the maharaja would sit and watch over the entire front yard and garden. Almost at every corner, they had placed great mirrors to showcase the architecture, which has been termed as Indo-Sarsenic (mixture of hindu, muslim and rajput). Unfortunately these mirrors were adequetaley been used by the public to make sure their hairstyle was still in place and they still looked good in the dim light.
Our last stop for the day was the Brindavan Gardens, well known for the film shootings this massive garden is built on the foothills of the Krishna Raj Sagara Dam on the Cauvery river. We watched the musical fountain that runs there every night and retired to bed.
Day 3 – May 4th – Ooty – Enroute to Ooty we stopped over at the Bandipur National park and took a trip inside the forests in search of some wild animals in their natural habitat. Unfortunately we only got to see deers, monkeys, elephants and peacocks. We than drove upto to Ooty (now known as Udhagamandalam in Tamil) and proceeded to the highest peak in South India – Doddabetta. I had been to Ooty some 11 years ago with Ashu tai, aunt and uncle and each of the spots in ooty brought back nostalgic memories of my last visit there. Due to the extreme rush in Ooty we drove ahead to Coonoor. Located some 20 Kms away it is like ooty’s little cousin. It is also home to a Sim’s Park which is like a mini botanical garden. The highlight of the day however was the visit to the tea factory where we saw how the tea leaves were processed into the tea powder for which India is so well known.
Day 4 – May 5th - Ooty
Finally it was time for us to visit the world famous Botanical gardens in Ooty. It is quite an amazing place and just like Sim’s Park in Conoor, it houses some ancient species of trees which are almost extinct now. It also houses trees that are only found in vegetations abroad. Most of the names like ‘corpus narspicca’ would hardly make any difference to us, so we simply walked through the vast garden, stopping for photos wherever we felt like.
Next stop in day 4 was the Pykara Boat House. We were told that ooty lake is quite dirty and hance all tourist visit Pykara for boating purposes. Pykara is on mysore road, some 24kms from ooty. We packed our bags and headed for the boat club. We rented a small 4 seater peddle boat for around 30 mins. By the time Gauri and I had got a hang of how to steer the boat, we were already in the middle of the little area of the lake marked for peddle boating and had already dashed our boat into a couple others who were also trying to figure out the same thing. Finally we did a good job of steering the boat without any further dashing. The cool water underneath us provided a great reprieve against the sun that was beating down that day.
After Pykara, we headed straight fro Mysore, stopping over for a while at the Mysore Sandal Oil factory, where we saw how sandal oil is extracted from the wood. We checked into the Holiday home in Mysore and signed of the day watching the Royal Challengers of Bangalore put up another pathetic performance against Preity Zinta’s Kings XI Punjab.
Day 5 – Srvan Belagola, Bellur, Halebid
We were up early on day 5 and headed straight for Sravan Belagola. Located about 80Kms from Mysore, it is home to the largest monolithic statue in the world – the 18feet tall statue of Bahubali. A religious abode to the Jain community in India, the statue can be reached only after a 600 step steep trek. I knew it would be difficult for my mom, so we took our time and rested at various points along the way. Finally when we reached the top after that effort, we thought it was really worth the while. The massive statue overshadowed everything in its vicinity. Though there was no limitation, I restricted myself to only a few photos, in order to maintain the sanctity of the holy place. The climb down was much easier and the ‘nariyal pani’ we had in the end was the perfect thirst quencher we were looking for.
Next stop was the ancient temple in Bellur. This Star shaped wonder was carved out of stone during the Hoysala Empire and is dedicated to lord Shiva. The carvings on the outside left us amazed at the skill of the craftsman that built it. The carvings depict various stages and battles fought by the Hoysala rulers and almost narrate their story to you as you walk along the outside. There is also a large pillar which balances on a stone using the ‘Centre of Gravity’ principle. My dad told me that during his last visit there, some local guys actually passed a large sheet of paper right through the bottom, proving that the pillar was not attached to the stone below. Our exit was slight delayed by a marriage caravan that was just exiting the temple. The band played their drums to the ‘Dhoom2’ tune as the shy groom sat on his horse and followed.
Last stop was the Halebid temple. Quite similar in architecture to the Bellur Star temple, the halebid version was decorated by a massive garden surrounding. On the outside there was an entire row of elephants carved on the stone. There were some thousand elephants carved there, each one different from the other. We than had a grand lunch in Hassan and headed back to Bangalore.
Day 6 & 7 – Bangaluru
Both these days were marked as rest days. I borrowed hemal’s car and showed them around south Bangalore. We drove to Electronic City, made famous by the IT industry thriving here in the Silicon Valley of India. We dined in Samarkhand restaurant and relished the famous chicken biryani that all of us enjoyed.
On the last day we dropped Gauri to her friends place in Jeevan Bhima nagar, since she was extending her stay for a week and bid farewell to my parents at the airport.
It was overall an enjoyable experience. I wanted to describe each moment in greater detail, but the blog has already gone on for too long. So I would like to end it here with the link to some photos that were clicked along the way.
http://picasaweb.google.com/prasan.sh/SouthIndiaTrip
Arriving on the destination was pretty much easy. My sister had never been to Down South, my mom wanted to see her son and check out his current dwellings, my dad wanted to take a break from his schedule and as far away from Mumbai as possible and I, by default, was already present in Bangalore. So the trip of South India was arrived upon without much difficulty. The itinerary was pretty simple – arrive in Bangalore, drive down to mysore and ooty and visit the ancient temples in sravan belagola, bellur and halebid before arriving back.
The travel bookings from and to Mumbai were made in advance, mom had booked rooms in the Canara Bank Holiday homes in Bangalore and Ooty. Wherever we didn’t have bookings, we decided to go and check into any hotels directly. Explaining each and every detail in this blog would make it too long so I will try and keep it short by just describing the highlight of each day.
Day 1 – May 2nd – Arrival in Bangalore – My parents got a first hand experience of the chaos that is also known as the ‘Bangalore Airport’. They arrived in the evening rush and it took them some 40 minutes to finally get out of the terminal. We booked a taxi and took them to Jayanagar where the Holiday Home room was booked. The rain had made the outside temperature really cool and my mom and sister were amazed that it was summer time in Bangalore. We than sat and chatted while I jumped onto the prawns and bangda fry that my mom had brought for me. Later we walked a little distance to Uphara Darshini and dined and closed the day watching the Delhi Daredevils beat the Chennai Super Kings.
Day 2 – May 3rd – Mysore – Our Qualis arrived as expected by 7 am and we were on our way to Mysore. The initial plan was to drive straight to ooty, but it was changed when we came to know that ooty was too crowded by the arrival of Abdul Kalam that weekend. On route to Mysore, we stopped at Srirangapatnam which is the home to Tipu Sultan. We checked out his summer place which is quite magnificent. After a bit of reading I realized that Tipu Sultan was only 49 when he died and though he is well known for winning battles against the British, he was also a great administrator and lover of art and literature.
On arrival in Mysore we checked into Hotel Abhishek. In the afternoon we drove upto Chamundi Hills. Chamundi was the goddess who apparently killed Mahisasura, the demon and is worshipped as the goddess who protects Mysore. There is a great view of Mysore from atop the hill. Our next stop was the Maharaja’s palace. What can be best described as ‘massive’ from outside is even more enormous from the inside. The great hall reminded me of the scene where yesteryears heroine Madhubala danced to the “Pyaar Kiya to Darna Kya” song. There were open courts from where I assume the maharaja would sit and watch over the entire front yard and garden. Almost at every corner, they had placed great mirrors to showcase the architecture, which has been termed as Indo-Sarsenic (mixture of hindu, muslim and rajput). Unfortunately these mirrors were adequetaley been used by the public to make sure their hairstyle was still in place and they still looked good in the dim light.
Our last stop for the day was the Brindavan Gardens, well known for the film shootings this massive garden is built on the foothills of the Krishna Raj Sagara Dam on the Cauvery river. We watched the musical fountain that runs there every night and retired to bed.
Day 3 – May 4th – Ooty – Enroute to Ooty we stopped over at the Bandipur National park and took a trip inside the forests in search of some wild animals in their natural habitat. Unfortunately we only got to see deers, monkeys, elephants and peacocks. We than drove upto to Ooty (now known as Udhagamandalam in Tamil) and proceeded to the highest peak in South India – Doddabetta. I had been to Ooty some 11 years ago with Ashu tai, aunt and uncle and each of the spots in ooty brought back nostalgic memories of my last visit there. Due to the extreme rush in Ooty we drove ahead to Coonoor. Located some 20 Kms away it is like ooty’s little cousin. It is also home to a Sim’s Park which is like a mini botanical garden. The highlight of the day however was the visit to the tea factory where we saw how the tea leaves were processed into the tea powder for which India is so well known.
Day 4 – May 5th - Ooty
Finally it was time for us to visit the world famous Botanical gardens in Ooty. It is quite an amazing place and just like Sim’s Park in Conoor, it houses some ancient species of trees which are almost extinct now. It also houses trees that are only found in vegetations abroad. Most of the names like ‘corpus narspicca’ would hardly make any difference to us, so we simply walked through the vast garden, stopping for photos wherever we felt like.
Next stop in day 4 was the Pykara Boat House. We were told that ooty lake is quite dirty and hance all tourist visit Pykara for boating purposes. Pykara is on mysore road, some 24kms from ooty. We packed our bags and headed for the boat club. We rented a small 4 seater peddle boat for around 30 mins. By the time Gauri and I had got a hang of how to steer the boat, we were already in the middle of the little area of the lake marked for peddle boating and had already dashed our boat into a couple others who were also trying to figure out the same thing. Finally we did a good job of steering the boat without any further dashing. The cool water underneath us provided a great reprieve against the sun that was beating down that day.
After Pykara, we headed straight fro Mysore, stopping over for a while at the Mysore Sandal Oil factory, where we saw how sandal oil is extracted from the wood. We checked into the Holiday home in Mysore and signed of the day watching the Royal Challengers of Bangalore put up another pathetic performance against Preity Zinta’s Kings XI Punjab.
Day 5 – Srvan Belagola, Bellur, Halebid
We were up early on day 5 and headed straight for Sravan Belagola. Located about 80Kms from Mysore, it is home to the largest monolithic statue in the world – the 18feet tall statue of Bahubali. A religious abode to the Jain community in India, the statue can be reached only after a 600 step steep trek. I knew it would be difficult for my mom, so we took our time and rested at various points along the way. Finally when we reached the top after that effort, we thought it was really worth the while. The massive statue overshadowed everything in its vicinity. Though there was no limitation, I restricted myself to only a few photos, in order to maintain the sanctity of the holy place. The climb down was much easier and the ‘nariyal pani’ we had in the end was the perfect thirst quencher we were looking for.
Next stop was the ancient temple in Bellur. This Star shaped wonder was carved out of stone during the Hoysala Empire and is dedicated to lord Shiva. The carvings on the outside left us amazed at the skill of the craftsman that built it. The carvings depict various stages and battles fought by the Hoysala rulers and almost narrate their story to you as you walk along the outside. There is also a large pillar which balances on a stone using the ‘Centre of Gravity’ principle. My dad told me that during his last visit there, some local guys actually passed a large sheet of paper right through the bottom, proving that the pillar was not attached to the stone below. Our exit was slight delayed by a marriage caravan that was just exiting the temple. The band played their drums to the ‘Dhoom2’ tune as the shy groom sat on his horse and followed.
Last stop was the Halebid temple. Quite similar in architecture to the Bellur Star temple, the halebid version was decorated by a massive garden surrounding. On the outside there was an entire row of elephants carved on the stone. There were some thousand elephants carved there, each one different from the other. We than had a grand lunch in Hassan and headed back to Bangalore.
Day 6 & 7 – Bangaluru
Both these days were marked as rest days. I borrowed hemal’s car and showed them around south Bangalore. We drove to Electronic City, made famous by the IT industry thriving here in the Silicon Valley of India. We dined in Samarkhand restaurant and relished the famous chicken biryani that all of us enjoyed.
On the last day we dropped Gauri to her friends place in Jeevan Bhima nagar, since she was extending her stay for a week and bid farewell to my parents at the airport.
It was overall an enjoyable experience. I wanted to describe each moment in greater detail, but the blog has already gone on for too long. So I would like to end it here with the link to some photos that were clicked along the way.
http://picasaweb.google.com/prasan.sh/SouthIndiaTrip
Comments
When I'm there next, we should plan a trip somewhere.