The MacLehose Trail – Hiking in Hong Kong
We were in Hong Kong & Macau during November – December 2011 as part of my IIMA PGPX exchange program with the China University of Hong Kong. While Googling around for interesting places to visit in and around Hong Kong, I came across the MacLehose Trail. Though the complete trail was out of question due [...]
Chennai and Kanchipuram
There was a wedding in the family and plans were made for a trip to Chennai. Not being much of a crowd person, I did have second thoughts about joining in for the trip… but the temptation of a long drive on the GQ was too irresistible and I opted in. We left on the [...]
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 [...]
Kotilingeshwara – A quick little trip.
On the 30th of March 2008, we were returning back to Bangalore from a family trip to Chittoor. Since we had started our return journey quite early in the morning, we were quite ahead of schedule and were driving back at a very liesurely pace. On a couple of earlier trips along this route, we [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Kadapa, Pushpagiri, Gurramkonda & Horsley hills.
We had just come back to Bangalore late on the night of 30th September 2009 after driving around for over a week in Tamilnadu and this trip was from the morning of 2nd Oct to the evening of 4th Oct… So two back to back trips. The main high-lights of this trip were visiting Pushpagiri [...]
A DIY (Damp It Yourself) story: DynaMat, FonoMat…Yoga-Mat ????
Normally I listen to music in my car with the volume set at ‘sane’ levels. But once in a while I get this urge to crank up the volume towards the ‘are you deaf?’ mark for a song or two. I don’t use a sub-woofer, but with a custom amp set-up and good speaker boxes, [...]
7 days of driving around Karnataka – Temples, Hills, Forests, Caves, Ruins, Forts and Highways
The three of us returned on 2nd Jan after another wonderful road trip! [Sanjay, Sangeetha & Santro ] We started out at around 7.00am on the 27th of December and parked back at 10.30pm on 2nd Jan 09, making it a 7 day trip around Karnataka.. 7 days of sheer driving pleasure. Day 1 – [...]
Kukke Subramanya & Kumara Parvatha; a drive and trek
We came back today (26th Jan 09) after an unforgettable trip spread over 3 days, drove 690kms from Bangalore to Kukke Subramanya and back… and trekked for a total distance of 26kms to the top of Kumara Parvatha. Kumara Parvatha (KP) is the second highest peak in Karnataka after Mullayanagiri and is considered to be [...]
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 [...]
Havelis & Mosques – Ahmedabad old city
Sangeetha was in Ahmedabad during the weekend of 26th & 27th June 2010. That weekend, we took some time off to visit a couple of places in and around Ahmedabad. After covering Adalaj, Modhera, Patan and Sidhpur on the 26th (That is a seperate travelogue), we went around to see a few places in Ahmedabad [...]
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 [...]
Belief – A trip to Kebre
“For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible."-Stuart Chase. A very good friend of mine underwent a brain surgery late last year. Though the tumor was removed, he has not recovered his vision even after 9 months. Initially the doctors were somewhat positive, saying that though [...]
Trek from Mullayanagiri to Bababudangiri… after 13 years!
This was our last trip/trek in 2009, done over 26th & 27th of December. It was again with our regular TT & driver Kumar and a group of friends. The itinerary of the trip was to… – start from Bangalore on the evening of the 25th Dec, – drive to Kundadri peak early in the [...]
Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Highforce waterfalls.
These are a few photos from a trip to the UK in 2004. I was in Newcastle for a couple of months with my team, working on a P&G project. We did manage to get some time off from our hectic schedule to do some sightseeing in and around Newcastle. Unfortunately this was a trip [...]
A weekend trek to Mukurthi Peak near Ooty.
Ooty seems to be the flavor of the season and this was a trek through the Mukurthi national park which is very close to Ooty. This was done over the weekend of 28th & 29th Nov 09. The park is named after the distinctive looking Mukurthi peak, which at 8,379ft is the fourth highest peak [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
