Gurramkonda, Vontimitta, Siddhavatam, Brahmamgari matam.
Another ‘Blast from the past’ from my archives. This trip is quite recent though, from November 08. The main purpose of the trip was to attend my relative’s wedding in AP. Since we were driving into the interiors, we thought of visiting some lesser known places which are somewhat off the beaten track. Route taken: [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Is this most haunted place in India ? – Bhangarh, Rajasthan.
Just Google for ‘the most haunted places in India’ and Bhangarh features on almost all the pages and lists that pop-up. There are all sorts of stories on the net about ghostly encounters, visitors who disappeared and other paranormal activity at Bhangarh. Bhangarh had been on our list of places to see from quite some [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Temples of Tamilnadu – 2009 Big trip – Part II
This is Part II of the 2009 Big trip where we covered the Temples of Tamilnadu. >>>Part I of the 2009 Big trip – covering Andaman & Nicobar, Port Blair & the Havelock Island trip is at this link The long drive part of the trip started from the 24th of Sep 09. The route [...]
5am to 5am – Uchangidurga, Santhebennur, Shantisagara, Koolahalli, Bagali
Synopsis of the trip: Started from BLR at 5am on 2nd Aug 09. Returned to BLR at around 5am on 3rd Aug 09. Total distance covered on the Odo: 823kms Main places visited: Huchangidurga, Santhebennur, Shantisagara, Hallimallapura, Davanagere, Kulahalli & Bagali. With Sangeetha off to Chennai for a couple of days, I had planned to [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
The Elephant & the Tiger – Hathi Bhata & Ranthambore trip.
It was the 19th of December 2011. We had just come back from the big trip around Rajasthan. Vani & Aish had taken the flight back to Bangalore the previous evening. Sangeetha & me still had a few more days of vacations left and we scanned through our list of ‘must see places in Rajasthan’. [...]
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 [...]
