Shivaganga, a sunday in the sun.
First the basics: [1] This is a good one-day weekend trip from Bangalore. Total distance from Airport road to Shivaganga and back was 142kms on the odo. [2] Only equipment needed will be a pair of sneakers for a comfortable walk [people even climb up barefoot or in normal footwear], caps, sun-glasses and a liter [...]
Adalaj, Modhera, Patan & Sidhpur – Vav, vav – Wow!
* Vav = ‘Step-well’ in Gujarati. Once upon a time, when Doordarshan was the only channel on TV, I had seen a Gujarati movie on a Sunday afternoon. It was Ketan Mehta’s "Bhavni Bhavai"- starring Naseeruddin Shah & Smita Patil. Based on a Gujarati folk tale, some significant scenes from the movie were shot in [...]
Hathi Singh Temple, Sidi Saiyyed Mosque & a Haveli in Ahmedabad.
Ever since I landed on the IIMA campus in April 2010, life has been mostly following a regular pattern. A normal day revolves around the classroom, dining hall, syndicate-room and the hostel-room… An occasional ‘highlight’ in the routine would be a visit to the Big Bazaar @ Himalaya mall. After stumbling through yet another hectic [...]
Angsana Oasis Spa & resort.
A couple of weeks ago (Feb 2009) I had been to Angsana Spa, on Doddaballapur road. This was no pleasure trip though… it was for an offsite training and team meeting. Angsana is located in a residential gated community called ‘Northwest Country’, a Prestige group property. There are a couple of villas in some of [...]
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 [...]
Search for the perfect sand dune – Osiyan, Khimsar and Nagaur trip.
Till we actually moved to Jaipur and explored Rajasthan, any thoughts of Rajasthan would evoke visions of Camels, Sand dunes, Forts and Palaces. While finding Camels, Forts and Palaces is quite easy, finding a Sand dune is not so easy. Especially dunes that look like the ‘perfect’ ones shown in movies… While researching on [...]
A Long walk, Monsoon, Leeches, Wildlife & Railway History.
We went on a trek in the Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary, Kerala, over the weekend of 6th & 7th June 09. We travelled in a Tempo Traveller, with a group of friends and friends of friends! Left Bangalore at around 8.30pm Friday evening and returned back at around 5.00am on Monday morning. The trek was along [...]
Trainspotting at Dudhsagar.
A quick little travelogue – This was not a ‘Xing’ drive, but a TT-trip & a weekend trek. We started from Bangalore at around 8.30pm on the evening of 6th Nov 09 and came back into Bangalore at around 5.30am on the morning of Monday the 9th Nov 09. Trip outline: Trek to Dudhsagar falls: [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Belum Caves, 1 day , 700kms.
This is a trip from 2007, dug up from the archives. I lost quite a few pics and videos from this trip when my laptop hard-disk crashed and only a few pics could be retrieved. Going on to the travelogue: Ever since I moved to Bangalore in 2001, I have been doing the Bangalore-Hyderabad route [...]
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 [...]
Little Rann of Kutch Wild Ass Sanctuary & Rann Riders resort – Dasada.
IIMA had organized a Leadership Development workshop for the PGPX students over the weekend of 3rd and 4th October 2010. The venue was the Rann Riders resort in Dasada village, Gujarat. The village of Dasada is a few minutes drive from the entrance of the Little Rann of Kutch Wild Ass Sanctuary. The Rann Riders [...]
IIMA Campus – Nature Walk.
On Sunday I went to the old campus for some bird watching… and saw quite a few of em.. Birds of the feathered kind I mean. Honest! It started with a mail… ” Prakriti – The Nature Club of IIMA is organising a nature walk to observe and appreciate the beauty of flora and fauna [...]
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 [...]
Pranlal Bhogilal Vintage Car Museum – Autoworld
Trrrrriiiinnngg… Trrrriiinnnggg… Doc: Hello SG: Hello Doc, I was thinking of visiting the Pranlal Bhogilal vintage car collection tomorrow morning (Saturday 10th July 2010)… Doc: Hmmm… I too was planning to go there sometime. I drove past this place a few days ago when I was going somewhere, it is around 30 – 40 minutes [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
The legend of the Golden Garland – Gandi Kshetram
Route map: " Sri Anjaneya at Gandi Kshetra … On the right bank is the temple of Veera Anjaneya situated in serine atmosphere presenting a picturesque scene. The legend of how the temple of Lord Anjaneya had come to being here is very interesting. During the Ramayana period Sri Vayudeva was on mediation here. Sri [...]
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 [...]
