The Bhoot bungalow trip – ACMCC Trip II
The last time around I had a Bhoot Bungalow experience was in June 2009 when Sangeetha and I went for a trek into the core area of the Parambikulam wildlife sanctuary in Tamilnadu. Since it was right in the middle of the monsoons, camping in the open was ruled out and we had to spend [...]
The shore temples of Mahabalipuram
In early 2007, we had to go to Chennai over a weekend for a family function; this was the first time that me and Sangeetha were visiting Chennai together. After the function we had some time on hand and post lunch we headed out to Mahabalipuram, which is included in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage [...]
Andaman & Nicobar, Port Blair & Havelock Island – 2009 Big trip – Part I
This is Part I of the 2009 Big trip – covering Andaman & Nicobar, Port Blair & the Havelock Island trip Part II of the 2009 Big trip where we covered the Temples of Tamilnadu is at this link It was time for one of our annual holidays and the planning started from the first [...]
5 years with the Xing…
Our Santro ‘Xing’ completed 5 years and 1,00,000 kms in 2010. . . 5 really pleasurable years! I don’t think a very detailed ownership report is required since there are 100s of reports out there for the Xing. So just a small note on the experience so far. During all our trips, not once did [...]
Chandragiri – Relics of the fallen empire.
In south India, tales of Vijayanagara – Hampi and Krishnadevaraya are part and parcel of our cultural initiation. Be it through stories narrated by our grandparents, through our history text books or through Chandamama & Amar Chitra Katha. What we normally get to hear or read about are just some glimpses from history, a high-level [...]
HAL Aerospace Museum & Heritage Center. Bangalore.
Gave the Xing for service. After a ‘not so good’ experience with my regular service center last time, I decided to head over to the Advaith service center in Whitefield for this service. Left home post breakfast and reached Whitefield by around 10.00am. Gave the service rep a list of stuff that needed to be [...]
My brush with the ‘Yamdoot’ :-)
There are bikes that I love, there are bikes that I hate… and then there is a bike that I respect – The Yamaha RD350 aka the Rajdoot RD350; or the ‘Yamdoot’ as it was nicknamed in India. The RD350 is not something that you can buy off the shelf, it is a part of [...]
An incomplete guide to Hoysala temples ;-)
From the preface of the “Complete Guide to Hoysala temples” by Gerard Foekema: “For me, enjoying Later Calukya and Hoysala temples is one of the great pleasures of life. I love these temples because their plans are so logical and natural, because their architecture is so ingenious, and because their execution is so rich…" We [...]
Flying High – Ballooning @ Jaipur.
26.10.2011, Jaipur was celebrating Diwali… and we celebrated it in a different way. We went Ballooning ! There are very few places in India where Ballooning happens regularly; luckily Jaipur is one of them. Since Ballooning requires favorable wind conditions and relatively plain land to operate safely, it is a seasonal activity and is conducted [...]
Abhaneri, Rajasthan – A Sunday Drive from Jaipur…
Step wells (Baoris) are fascinating. In the days past, not only were they sources of water; they were also used as rest houses by weary travelers, as temples and as community centers. Gujarat and Rajasthan have some of the best step wells in India. We had seen some amazing ones at Adalaj, Patan and Modhera [...]
Chamundi hills, the big Nandi and Lalitha mahal palace
This is a trip from the 9th of Feb, 2008. It was just another lazy weekend when we decided to head out towards Lokaruchi for a leisurely lunch. During lunch we were discussing about Chamundi hills and the big Nandi… on a whim, we decided to drive up to Mysore post lunch. There wasn’t much [...]
Brahmagiri , Irpu falls – A trip and trek.
The trip/trek was done on the 8th Feb 09. Brahmagiri is a hill in the Western Ghats (1608 mts). It is situated in the Brahmagiri wildlife sanctuary on the border between Wayanad District of Kerala and Kodagu district of Karnataka. The Brahmagiri wildlife sanctuary is a restricted area, featuring a rich variety of wildlife including [...]
Tirumala, Tiruchanoor, Vellore and Sripuram.
Parkinson’s Law goes something like "Work expands to fill up all available time" and so it had been for the last couple of months. With work often spilling over into the weekends, we had not gone out for any serious long drive after our Hoysala Temple trip in March 09. It was also around two [...]
Hampi – The city of victory…
Over the past couple of decades, both Sangeetha & me have been to Hampi several times – as part of our school trips, during our college days, with family and friends… But given the fact that there is so much to see, you can go there on multiple occasions and each time you’ll see something [...]
Internet can be FUN !
Check out my small video first . . . Internet is FUN ! Especially if you are on a reliable and efficient network. A network that follows, wherever you go… Our story is from a few months ago; December 2011 to be precise. It was more than six months since we had [...]
Chembra Peak, Meenmutty waterfalls, Himavad Gopalaswamy betta.
This is a trip from March 1st & 2nd 2008, which I dug up from the archives. Infact the main reason why I started to write these travelogues is that within a few months of a trip, the memories slowly begin to fade and the story behind each pic gets fuzzier and fuzzier. I also [...]
Melkote and Srirangapatna, a day trip.
We made a quick trip to Melkote and Srirangapatna on the 31st of Jan 2009. My inlaws wanted to visit a Narasimha temple (Their ‘family god’) on the eve of their wedding anniversary and the only Narasimha temples we knew of outside Bangalore are in Sholingur (TN) and Melkote (KA). Having been to both these [...]
Mysore, Byalukuppe, Madikeri, Bhagamandala, Talakaveri, Dubare.
It was our wedding anniversary over the weekend and another reason to head out somewhere for a long drive! Initial plans were to drive towards Kerala / Wayanad areas, but the news of all the recent forest fires led to us having second thoughts and we veered towards Kodagu. Route taken (in terms of the [...]
Trekking in the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Thoovanam Waterfalls.
One fine morning, opened my inbox to see our old friend Chandrashekar’s mail proposing a weekend trek for the 4th & 5th of July 09. This time the destination was the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS). Fired up the browser to check out what Chinnar was all about… I had heard about Chinnar sometime in the [...]
Masinagudi, Ooty and Coonoor.
Map Source: Google maps. Just Google around and you’ll find 1000s of travelogues about Ooty. If you are in the southern part of India, Ooty is considered as one of the ‘must see’ places on the tourist circuit. Now, is Ooty actually worth visiting? Does it live up to all the hype?? These are questions [...]
