Yipee!!! Made it to TOP 100!!!

The Credit for placing us on the TOP 100 list goes to our Parents and Friends. Our boat has crossed the first level and sailing towards TOP 9 list. Keeping Fingers Crossed.....

Cheers!!! to GDC for providing such a lovely Podium.

A much deserved break – Coonur

Coonur has been on my to-do list for 16 years now. My Uncle and Aunt stay there and the last time I visited them was 16 years back. Ever since they have been inviting me over and some how the trip never happened till 19th Jul 2009.

It was an impromptu trip. Decided last minute, called and confirmed with my aunt, booked tickets and I was off. My sisters were coming with me so I expected to have a good time. While Ashraya was travelling with me, Akshaya would join us in Ooty a little later.

Though we had heard about roads being blocked due to heavy rains, our journey was uneventful till Ooty. About 8 kms from Coonur a fallen tree lead to the road being blocked for an hour. Eventually we reached Coonur by 8:30 am.

We were greeted with sumptuous breakfast of Appam, Stew, Egg Bhurji and Toast. We quickly polished off most things on the table. We then decided to rest for a while. Restless souls that we are, within 30 mins the urge to do something started to nag us.

We decided to explore Sims Park. This turned out to be a wise decision. The park has some exotic trees, botanical names of which I can’t pronounce. We also spotted lots of birds that I had not seen before. The main attraction for us was the Rudraksh Tree; we searched the whole park for it and but couldn't find it. Finally by lunch time we gave up and headed back.
Lunch again was delicious spread. Must say my aunt is a terrific cook. The plan after that was to drive to Ooty to pick Akshaya up. Since we arrived early we decided to explore the Wax Museum that a friend of mine Akshata had mentioned. All I can say is that it’s a good attempt. Next stop was the Thread Garden opposite the Ooty Lake. I was amazed how they could make it look so real and that too by just using thread, very impressive.Once we picked Akshaya up we shopped for some Ooty chocolates at King Star (Oldies in the business) and headed back.
The dinner was another memorable experience. We went to a place called Blue Hills, the signature dish here is Wellington Parota (a must try). Having stuffed our selves here decided we had done enough for the day so headed home for some good night’s sleep.

Day 2 – to be continued…

Plea for votes….Heave friends under one shelter.

Sending mails, Hours on conference call with friends, knocking each desk at office and our close friends running around there friends circle and at office for votes. What all we didn’t do to get Votes!!!!
Thanks to all my Friends, Relatives and to all who supported us. It Feels great crossing 1000 mark :)

The Plea for votes brought group of friends under one shelter celebrating and partying. One of my closest friends KV campaigned for us at his office and friends circle. Mail chain used for getting votes…was also used as a plinth for party. After ages all those friends on the mail chain planned to meet up. They even invited me….despite the fact that they don’t know me : ) they say the credit goes to us for getting them together. It was immense pleasure to see these people Greeting, Sharing and enjoying every moment on the party day.

But all I say is “The Credit goes to GDC for making it happen”.

Our Travel Plan - GDC

We had a tough time sketching our circuit on Google map. Finally after lots of break ups on the Net, combating challenges on Google map and grinding our brains…We Got the right circuit and right places on the screen… : ) Ultimately feels Great: )

We Googled and researched so much on the travel, stay and the exact distance, that My friend after seeing this plan commented
“Mate; If you had spent so much time on your project works…believe me you would have been my manager” Quiet a compliment and felt weird as well.
Never mind, I have always been utilizing my time. Its just I go deep into subject of my interests…obviously its Travel, Music, Dance and Adventure.

Here comes our Travel plan and circuit detail.

Travelites: Deepak and Aishwarya
Travel Circuit: Mumbai – Goa – Mangalore – Pune - Mumbai
Total Number of Kms to travel: 3000 kms
Planned Circuit Kms: 2700 Kms…Will explain on this bit: )
Number of kms per day: not more than 350 Kms
Stay: Mentioned at end of each day
Google Travel Map:

http://maps.google.co.in/maps/ms?source=s_d&saddr=Mumbai&daddr=Guhagar,+Ratnagiri,+Maharashtra+to:Goa+to:Om+Beach,+Uttara+Kannada,+Karnataka+to:Kundapura,+Udupi,+Karnataka+to:Mangalore+to:tirthahalli+to:chitradurga+to:Ranibennur+to:Kolhapur,+Kolhapur,+Maharashtra+to:pune+to:mumbai&geocode=%3BFYfECgEdJtRcBA%3B%3BFXuK3QAdTBBuBA%3B%3B%3B%3B%3B%3B%3B%3B&hl=en&mra=ls&num=10&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=109967319542418289792.00046ebe5a42ec4a0f545&z=6

Note: Explanation on the Planned Circuit Kms
We have kept a reserve of few Kilometres…which would include travel with in the destinations mentioned in the plan and for local sight seeing. On Day 8 and 9 we plan to explore the culture of hidden villages (distance for which we are not aware of).
But again as said “Promise to complete 3000 Kms at the end of the journey and bring you some unseen photography and videos” Watch out.

Travel Details:

Our Cedia sports will tap on our Music at these places along our travel.

Mumbai -Alibag - Murud - Guhagar- Ganpatipule -Ratnagiri- Bhatye -Malvan -Tarkali -
Panjim -Karwar - Om beach - Honavar - Murudeshwar- Bhatkal - Udupi -Mangalore -Thirthahalli - Chitadurga - Hubli -Kittur -Pune -Back to mumbai

The Journey Begins….Vroom Vroom Vroooom!!!

Day 1
Head out from Mumbai to Alibag which is about 96 kms. Alibag is popular for beaches around it and the Kolaba fort. While we are there we will also visit Nagaon Beach, Akshi Beach and the 150 years old Magnetic Observatory which is also supposed to be worth a visit.

Next comes Murud which is 51 Kms from Alibhag, while we are here we intend to visit Janjira

The next destination would be Guhagar 216 Km from Murud. This will be our first pit stop for the day
http://www.modyvilla.com/

Day 2
After exploring Guhagar we will head out to Ganpatipule. This is about 146Kms from Guhagar. This place is also famous for a 400 Year Ganapathi Temple. For here we head to Ratnagiri and hope to stop at beaches like Bhatye, Malvan, Tarkali and Calangute. On Day 2 we intend to stop over at Goa and enjoy the Goan food and lifestyle
http://www.cidadedegoa.com/

Day 3
Explore beaches of Goa and its history. From here we will head to the next set of destination Karwar and then Gokarna. This would be around 350 Kms. The places likely to be covered are Rabindranath Tagore Beach and Warship Museum at Karwar, Mahabaleshvara Temple and Om Beach at Gokarna.
The break in the journey that day will be at Gokarana
http://www.ombeachresort.com/

Day 4

We plan to leave early and reach Kumta which is 32 kms from Gokarna. Kumta houses one of the longest beaches in India. And then see the sights around Honavar and Murudeshwara temple a famous Shiva temple a scenic mountain that has breathtaking view of Arabian Sea.
The break in the journey that day would be either at http://www.nivalink.com/turtlebay/ or at Kundapur.

Day 5

Today we will explore places around kundapur like Kollur, Agumbe. And if possible Varaha electrical plant. Many more places around kundapur.

The break in the journey that day would be either at http://www.nivalink.com/turtlebay/ or at Kundapur

Day 6
Again, We start this day early to reach Udupi 32 Kms for breakfast and to stop by at the Krishna Temple. On the way stop by at Saligrame and visit another ancient temple. Our next destination would be Bekal-Fort which in 130 Kms from Udupi. From here we head to Mangalore and then to our next pitstop Tirthahalli.
We would want to stop here and stretch our legs at Kavishila home of the Legendary poet Kuvempu

Day 7
After finishing local sight seeing at Tirthahalli we head out to Shimoga which is about 62 Kms. The plan also includes stop at by at Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary. We will stop over at Chitradurga (about 175 kms) and drive another 102 kms and we stop at Ranibennur for the day.

We would stay at forest guesthouse situated in the buffer zone of the sanctuary called Gnagajala Read more: http://www.itslife.in/2008/12/ranebennur-blackbuck-sanctuary#ixzz0LKiuWK2q&C


Day 8
We start our Micedz and head towards Hubli which is about 105 Km. We stop at Kittur to walk through the fort there. Explore few of the village life around Kittur and Hubli.

Then head towards Kolhapur explore the food and culture of this part of Maharashtra.
Our day would end at Kolhapur and we would stay in Hotel Shalini Palace, Kolhapur.

Day 9
Heading towards Pune, Today we like to build some awareness about HIV and Pollution. We would like to visit rural areas and explore the food, culture of villages along with the awareness programme.

Our day will end at Pune and would stay at any good hotel provided by GDC.

Day 10
On Final day , We would like to explore parts of Pune, lonavala, kandala and head towards Mumbai (155 Kms) and if time permits and we are left out with few more Kms...We would like to explore Mumbai as well.

The Time, Our Hearts, Our Brains and Our Souls are ticking and getting excited every moment. The Big Day is nearing!!!!!

Note: We haven’t incorporated much information on the places we visit. Watch out for our blogs about this places during our travel. : )

Shinning Red Hot Micedzzzz

Taking you for a ride AROUND Cedia Sports. Still waiting to go on ride IN Cedia Sports:(

Here Comes the first look of Micedzz ( Mitsubishi Cedia sports ) at southern motors - Bangalore. After long waiting week to get a look of Micedz we finally got to see it. However still waiting for the test drive... :( the showroom test car has met with an accident and they are still in process of replacing it.

I did not find any car at southern motors except pagero. Agent took us to the garage behind the showroom to show us Cedia sports. The reason : waiting for the latest Sporty version of Cedia sports..sounds weird ain't it.."Sporty Version of Cedia Sports" Actually he meant..newer version of Cedia sports has few stickering on the body and few more added features to it to make it look more sporty. So he will place the King car ( Cedia sports ) inside the showroom , after this features are added to the car.

King Cedia sports Car was hidden under a sheet, he opened the car cover... and my eye balls poped out seeing the gorgeous Car..its here "Mistubishi Cedia Sports"

"Love at First sight" is what i felt after seeing this red hottie.

Each feature reflects the passion of Mitsubishi Cedia Sports. Lets take a closer look at mitsubishi Cedia Sports.

Sporty look

Amazing Sporty Styling combined with luxurious comfort inside...Wow feels like my bedroom;)

LCD screen & Navigation system

Built in GPS and LCD screen adds delight. Now we wont wander around searching for right path ...GPS helps us :)

Sporty Steering wheel

The Moment i put my hands on this sporty steering wheel, i felt kingsize and marvelous.

Lustrous Front Grill

Alloy Wheels and Fish Eye headlamps.

Few things to know about this powerhouse Cedia sports.

Great Performance
Red Hot's Engine is powered by 2 L petrol with advanced ECI Multi ( Electronically Controlled Multi-point fuel Injection).
5 Speed Manual Gear box----> Smooth, Controlled and Superior feel.
Higher Ground Clearance-----> Ideal for Indian roads.
Rally Proven suspension system.
Minimum Turning Radius----> 4.9m

Safety
Reinforced Impact safety Evolution provides car occupants in-built safety.
Dual Airbags and 3-Point Emergency Locking Retractor seat throws of fear from the passengers about safety.
ABS and EBD System make sure a smooth halt and safety too.

Cedia Sports Shades
White Speed
Black Flash
Rally red
Cyclone Yellow
Blue Streak

Lovely Color combination by HML, the cars used for Great Driving Challenge comes with 3 colors - Black,White, and Red. I would have suggested Cyclone Yellow instead white...it gives rally look...:) However still love Cedia..what ever color it is.

Got to know all the information about cedia sports, felt the lovely car and decided to drive back home.

But was reluctant to come out of the car... :( untill the showroom guy dragged me out of it.Everytime i hold the steering wheel..i try to ignite the engine and feels like running away with the car. I JUST LOVE Micedz...

Here's my Gloomy look...while the showroom guy dragged me out of the car....

All the way along...thinking of my love Cedia sports.. Cant wait to drive this Cedia sports, i could buy one but dont have enough money (11 lakhs). If i win GDC, i would buy..but again..committed to Charity, parents and friends. But one fine day will definetely own Cedia Sports.

However,GDC is offering a golden oppurtunity to spend time with my love...;) Cedia.. Hoping and praying to be 1 of 3 finalists....

Wait for Us...We are coming....

Winning Combo For Great Driving Challenge

We will make a Difference!!!!!

It has to be the Right Time and Right Place for Things to Happen....
We believe The Time is Now The Place is TGDC...
Presenting "The Winning Combo"

Our Route + MiCedz + Us = "The Winning Combo"

Struggle for Votes to qualify for Great Driving Challenge

The day we decided to register for Great Driving Challenge, Deepak was all excited and I was being pessimistic. The rules said the first round would be based on number of votes received, how would be do that was the question.

We sat together over a cup of coffee and decided on the action plan. The first targets were friends. We made a list of people we were in touch with, whom we could just drop a note and they would visit our profile and vote. That was the easy bit.

Then came people whom we had to get back in touch with, we spent hours on the phone as it felt weird to just call them and ask for votes. We also decided to post updates on Orkut and Facebook. Conferenced among friends and had long calls and thanks to our friends. Check out the Votes ticking high on the right hand pane.( If u havn't voted..Plz Vote!!!)

Some friends called us some messaged but votes started to pour in. Some friends went one step ahead, comments on their profile carried appeal for votes.

Soon realised that was not enough, our next step was to ask our colleagues. This was the weird and fun bit. We personally walked up to people at their desk and requested for votes. Some were people we had seen on the floor but never talked to. Some who occasionally acknowledge our presence. Our managers very good sports they campaigned for us. We soon had our number of votes moving on top gear.

And now that we are out of all strategies we are at our wits end thinking what else we can do… Will an ad in the radio help? It would I guess but who has the money?

On the whole the experience has been a good one. If not anything we made new friends and got in touch with some who were just a memory from the past.

However, We are still in process of Collecting votes...Incase, if you have missed voting or faced any problem in voting..Plz take some time out and plz vote..:)

The Good Old Nandi Hills

It was very early in the morning that Sunday. I still hadn't slept as I was at my friends place partying. Just as everybody started find a place to sleep, someone suggested we drive upto Nandi Hills. It seemed like a good idea to me. Having been in Bangalore for 10 years I had not once visited this place.After quickly freshening up we got into our cars and headed to Nandi Hills. Just 2 people knew the way. So we decided to follow those cars. The tough part of our journey was not finding the way but keeping awake.

Since we started at 5.00 am we missed watching the sunrise from the hill. Stopped at the base to take some shots. It was a pretty sight, the vineyard and the golden sun.When we reached the top a group of monkeys greeted us. One could see monkeys every where and they were creating a havoc.

Just to stay awake and get some energy we decided to first get some coffee and then walk around. There are lot of vendor selling cappuccino there. After gulping some hot coffee each of us headed in different direction to explore the place. I went with some bird watcher friends of mine. We found lots of different birds and spent time chasing them.We then visited the old temple and walked over to Tippu’s drop.

The view from here is superb. The temple itself is a small one and doest have too many carvings on it.

Another thing that’s memorable about this place is the flowers ones finds all over. Some wild and some home-grown ones. They give a different charm to the whole place.

After spending some time here we decided to head back but not before eating some hot Maggie.

Remembering Forgotten Cultures and Traditions - Janapada Lok

Every time we stopped at Lok Rucchi for breakfast I have wanted to visit this place. If one travelled on the Mysore Bangalore Road he would notice sign boards saying Janapada Lok. I had seen it too and wondered what was special about the place.

So this time when we stopped at Lok Rucchi I decided to visit this place. After all it was literally next door.

After paying an entry fee of Rs. 10 at the entrance I walked towards the museum. I guess it was my lucky day; I was the first visitor for the day. As I walked in to the museum the care taker walked in and he was quite happy to give me a guided tour.

The first part of the museum stored items that are used in day to day life, the only difference was that these items were really old. The Founder of the place had collected it when he visited rural Karnataka. There was also written information about the all articles that were displayed.

The next building was filled with pictures of different tribes, their culture, festivals and ceremonies. Since we showed interest the caretaker took time to explain each one in detail.

The next building had musical instruments and things used in rural Karnataka for entertainment (leather puppets, life size dolls, games etc). The open space next to this place has sculptures recovered from some villages.

The last part that I visited was the livelihood section. Here one will find potter making pots, old jaggery moulds, equipments used by blacksmith, fisherman, farmer etc

The place is a good attempt to capture the fast fading charm of rural life and culture. It can take about 2 hours to really see the place and personally I think its time well spent.

Heart of India- Madhya Pradesh

My trip with Akshata and Sharan was for 11 days (24/Dec/08-3/Jan/09) covering a little bit of everything - heritage/history, geography, nature, wild-life, culture, religion as well as lots of food and fun! We travelled lots, interacted with people, listen to their story and ate lots of local delicacies. In truest of sense we felt the heart beat of "Incredible India". The trip was bifurcated into 4 phases:
Episode I - covered Western M.P Indore - places visited were in and around Indore
Episode II - covered Central M.P journey - places visited were in and around Bhopal
Episode III - covered part of Northern M.P - places visited were in and around Khajuraho Episode IV - covered another part in Northern M.P and small part in Maharashtra
Having seen some part of MP, visit to rest of this state is on my to do list....

Glorious Karnataka

When you have the passion to travel, you would normally start by exploring places closests to you. I guess that kind of explains why I travelled so much within Karnataka.

Having born and bought in Coorg I got to see the Scotland of India. I climbed hills, walked through coffee plantations, drove through dense forests and took dips in the rivers. And every time I went visiting one of my aunts I discovered another side of this beautiful place.

Mysore was the closest destination when we wanted to go on one day fun trips as kids. And even now when I visit Mysore I remember time when I was awed by 3-D paintings in the place, excited by the animals in the zoo and enjoyed the ride up Chamundi hill.

Dassera here is again something that I always remember.

Doing my graduation in Bangalore fuelled my passion for travel. It was here I made friends with people who shared the same interest. Whenever we got a chance we would go and explore places close by.

One of the first places we went as a group was Sravanabelagola, Belur and Halebid. The workmanship in the temples is unmatched.

The huge Mahaveer, the attention paid to details, effects achieved without any high tech gadgets, the perfect measurements, I continue to visit these places every now and then and they still mesmerize me.

Since it’s so close to Bangalore I normally advise people to take sometime and go here. And if I have the time I go along.

But this in not the only place where once gets to look at the past, Hampi is another destination that’s a must visit. Music from the pillars, the pinhole camera effect, and the amazing food one gets here just add to the feel. In one of my three day trip here I also stopped by at Badami, Patadkal and Aihole. Though they are all sculptures from the past each one is different from the other. I could spend days here going back in time.

Again the thing about Karnataka is that one is not limited to historical places. An overnight drive can take one to places waiting to be explored. I have been on many trips like this and seen the scenic side. Discovered hidden water falls, trekked up many a peaks, walked through dense forests and wildlife sanctuaries, sighted rare birds and camped at backwaters.


And that is not all, when I think I need a little more of sun and sand I head to costal Karnataka. I could eat seafood all day and lay in the beach, some well-known and some virgin ones. I also make these trips to costal Karnataka for religious reasons. Some of the oldest and well known temples are located here. My fun trips tend to be extension of the religious ones.Though I have travelled through Karnataka extensively I still feel there is lot more to see and I will continue making trips to explore the beautiful State.

Kanwa Reservoir

It had been a while since I had gone on a long drive. The travel itch had started again. I had to get out of the city and spend time away from the hustle and bustle.So I decided to drive to a destination called Kanwa Reservoir along with few of my friends.

I was told that it was a beautiful place about 70 Kms from Bangalore. The plan was to start at 6:30 am. We intended to reach there before it got too hot. But by the time the group got together it was almost 7:00. To save time we decided to take some short cuts only to find the roads blocked. Finally!! after navigating through barely existent roads we reached the Bangalore-Mysore Highway.
The journey from there was smooth; We drove along side children riding to school in cycles. We managed to reach our destination by 8:45 am. Beautiful sights greeted us as we drove towards Kanwa, lush green hills and tons of birds like bee-eaters, kingfishers, Indian roller, spotted dove to name a few.

As we stood watching the reservoir, an old villager offered us some tea made of jaggery. We decided to try it. It was very different from the normal tea one is used to. This had a strong flavour of jaggery and was very sweet. Given a choice I would not drink it again.

As it started getting hot we decided to leave but not before making plans to visit the place to watch the sunset. And when that happens I dont intend to forget my camera like I did this time.

Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary and the Stone Bridge

I was really exited about the trip that I was taking with 3 friends of mine. Arvind had mentioned about a submerged bridge somewhere near Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary. The bridge could be seen only when the water level reduced at Bhadra Reservoir. The plan also included a visit to the Wildlife Sanctuary and based on the blogs I had read I expected to spot atleast one of the cats.

The journey started early, the first pit-stop at Kamat on Tumkur Road for breakfast. After that

it was a long drive with another break near a lotus lake. The break was supposed to be a 5 mins one but after looking at the birds around the lake it extended to about 20 mins.

Finally at about 12:30 pm we reached the backwaters of Bhadra Reservoir. The view was breath taking; Even now I think that the cameras didn’t do justice to the place.

After couple of shots began our hunt for the bridge, we looked everywhere but could not find it. All we could see was line of tree tops. We decided to walk around a bit and investigate.

After walking 1.5 kms Arvind decided to call his friend and check if we were at the right place. Turned out that we were at the right place but the water levels were high. Later a local told us that the bridge was not seen for the last 2 years.

Disappointed we decided to head to the home-stay we had booked. The website had promised lots of things. As we drove through the coffee estate and arrived at the place we realised we had made a bad choice. The place looked crowded and the place was a resort and not a home-stay. The service was bad and our room even worse. After complaining for a while decided to make good with what was there.

The view around the resort was beautiful. One could see the part of the western ghats.

Tried fishing at the pond, played badminton, ate dinner and went to bed hoping the next day would be better.

Having spoken to the resort manager, we decided to drive to the wildlife sanctuary.

By the time we reached there the first safari had already left. Since the authorities refused to let us hire a jeep we had to wait till the first group returned. As the time went by our excitement started to dip. When our turn finally came all we saw in our trip were some barking deer, spotted deer and peacocks.

We headed back to the resort lazed around and left after lunch. On the whole it was one of those trips which didn't live up to my expectations. I am now looking forward to my next trip.

Fond Memories of MP - Bhimbetka

We arrived at Bhimbetka pretty early in the morning. Looking at the parking lot we didn’t expect too many people at the rock shelters. The first task for the day was to find a guide. This was one place where we made a mistake of not enquiring about it in the MPSTDC Office. We took the first person who approached us.

This turned out to be a big mistake. The so called guide didn’t know much except the obvious details. We ended up interpreting drawings on our own or listening to other guides who seemed slightly better.

The place as such is scenic. One can see amazing rock formation

along with ancient drawings. The paintings are said to be spread across 10 acres in different caves but 14 caves are cordoned off for the visiting tourists.

There is a good attempt made to preserve Bhimbettka, but there is no education among tourists about preserving this. While we were there a group of students were trying to chip of the rock corners. Worse still was the fact that their lecture joined them instead of preventing from doing any damage. And the so called guard just looked away. Considering the importance of the place I only wish they would be a lot stricter.

We were done with out sight seeing or should I say cave exploration by 2 hours and were ready to head to the next destination.

Tips: Stop at the MPTDC highway restaurant to get information about guides.

Siddarbetta and Blackbuck Sanctuary

Krishna took the initiative of planning for one day trek during the long Good Friday weekend. After looking at some options we finally agreed on Siddarbetta. Since it was just 4 of us we decided to take one car. Again it was Krishna who was getting the car (Balli ka bakara). Anyways he claims to love driving so I don’t think he minded.

We started at 6:30 from my place. The car that Krishan was driving was given by the TATA service centre since his car was under repair. It showed signs of over use. We had bald tyres.

The journey was smooth. We stopped at KAMAT on Tumukur for breakfast only to realise that we had missed the deviation that we had to take. Once we hit the state highway the bird watchers stopped every now and then to take pictures. The drive was beautiful, everywhere we looked we found trees that were in bloom.

We reached Siddarbetta by 10:30am. I was disappointed to see steps made all the way up. As it was Sunday there was lot of people visiting the temple at the peak. Our ascent was slow. Krishna was impatient with the pace we maintained. I was cursing my laziness to do exercise.

When we reached the top we hired the Bhel Puri seller to take us to the caves. Our first stop was of course the shrine. Just in front of the idol there is a water source which according to locals doesn’t dry up. We filled our bottle with this water and started with our cave exploration. There were some interesting

sights here like the grave of a saint, living quarters of another saint and wild grape veins formations. After crawling and doing duck walk for about an hour we reached where we stated. We walked around for some more time and started our descent.

Our next programme was to have lunch at Madugiri (a slightly bigger village) and proceed to Maidanahalli (Black Buck Sanctuary).

About 4 kms from Madugiri we had a flat tire. The spare tyre had its metal showing. We decided to use it, and proceed till Madhugiri. Fixing the tyre took us nearly 2 hours by then it was 5:30. We decided to take a chance and visit the sanctuary.

There are no proper directions or boards to this place. We stopped every 5 kms to ask directions. Finally we managed to find the mud road that lead to the Sanctuary.

As we drove we started spotting the animals. They were very gracefully and pretty. The place is poorly guarded and maintained. But this is a place that I would classify as a must visit.

We headed to Bangalore at 7:00 pm. At that time little did we know what was instored for us. We asked for directions at a village and that guy directed us to the longest route to Bangalore. The road took us all the way to Dodbellapur and back. The roads were bad and never ending. The only good bit about taking this road was that Krishna spotted a Leopard. And just as we entered Bangalore we had a flat tyre again. Since we had used the spare one already we were in a fix. We deciced to drop the car at a friend's place and head home. It was 1:30 am by the time i slept. Over all a tiring but good trip

Fond Memories of MP - Bhojpur

When we arrived at Bhojpur early in the morning, through the mist we saw this half constructed temple. It was a lone structure amidst fields and rocks.

Bhojpur was a place that Sharan was determined to go. Every time we went to Shiva temple during our Madhya Pradesh trip he would say wait till you see one at Bhojpur.

It looked like we were the first people to visit for the day. It was quite and peaceful. As the sun rose we walked around to get our perfect shot. As I walked closer to the Linga (idol), I realised how huge it was. It was 4 times my height. And the Linga was made of one single rock. It was really amazing to see it.

The temple itself was half constructed and some parts of it had fallen off over the years. ASI was trying to build back the fallen pieces.

As we finished walking around the temple we remembered that the blue prints of the temple structure were said to be on stones near by. We walked around and could not find it initially. Just as were about to give up we saw a watchman walking up to the temple. We approached him to enquire and he turned out to be quite helpful. He took us to the spot and explained the drawings to us.

Just as we were about to leave he mentioned to us about an old Jain temple that was situated near by. This place had a tall statue and is said to be over 300 years old. Other than that the place didn’t offer much. We spent 10 mins there and headed to our next destination. On the whole Bhojpur lived up to the hype that Sharan had created

Fond Memories of MP - Ujjain

Ujjain was the only holy destination in our whole MP trip. After a heavy breakfast in Indore, we headed towards Ujjain at 8:30 PM. We covered 56 KMS in about one and half hours.

When we entered Ujjain it looked like there was a fair taking place. There were people everywhere. Looking at the crowd I was sure the queue for Darashan at Mahakaleshwar temple would be long. The thought of it was not appealing.

We started the day at Ujjain by booking our train tickets to Bhopal. Having seen the crowd when we enetered we didn't want to take any chances. We finished doing this pretty quickly and moved on.

From experience we knew that the MPSTC would have information about guides. So our next step was to look for MPSTC office. Only in Ujjain this turned out to be a bad idea. The people at MPSTC didn’t help much. So we decided to follow Rough Guide (a book like Lonely Planet) and see places on our own.

One temple that was a must on our list was the Kal Bhairav temple. The offering made here include alcohol along with the usual coconut, flowers and incense sticks. There was crowd at this place too. We were later told that it was new moon day and that since it was on a Saturday it was a special day for Shiva.

According to Akshata this was scariest of all idols she had seen so far. The stone idol had 2 sockets that looked like eyes and a crescent shaped mouth. Half bottle of the liquor offering is poured through this opening and the rest is given back to the devotee. The locals say the liquor that’s poured into the idol doesn’t flow out and just disappears. We never investigated that bit of information. Close by there was a cave that one had to crawl into to get darshan of another idol, but looking at the crowd we decided to give that a skip.

From Kal Bhairav our next destination was a village called Bhairavghad. We had read that 'Batik', a cloth dying art, originated here. It was very close to the Kal Bhairav temple so we didn’t have to travel too much. We went to Anwar Bhai's factory, the most popular according to the people. As we drove through the village we realised that almost all houses had ‘Batik’ cloth hung for drying. At Anwar Bhai's factory we were shown the process used for Batik design making. Luckily or unluckily for us he had some stock that was ready for sale and he volunteered to courier our purchases to Bangalore. We spent the next one hour shopping.

Our next stop was Sandheepini Ashram, this is supposed to be the place where Krishna, Balaram and Sudhama (Hindu Gods and their friend) received their education. There is a Shiva temple at this place and one can find Nandi in a standing position. This is not found anywhere else. We hardly spent about 15 mins here.

By the time we had completed all this it was time for lunch. Rough Guide suggested a place called New Raj Kumar .We went all around Ujjain looking for this place. People were so helpful that even though they didn’t know where we had to go they would guide us. Finally after about an hour we found the place. We were disappointed to find out that this place did not serve local dishes but only punjabi food. Since we were hungry we decided to eat here. The food was good. We had Makki ki Roti and Sarso ka Saag (Corn Bread and Mustard Gravy). Akshata and Sharan drank lassi (Beaten Yogurt) and I gave that a skip.

Post lunch I was keen to visit Mahakaleshwara Temple. This is one of the twelve Jyothirlings and is considered special because it is a Swayambhu (risen from the ground) ling. Another speciality is that it is south facing. Hence a lot of Tantriks (wizards) visit this place for worshipping.
Akshata and Me went looking for a special darshan ticket so that I could skip the queue and finish the visit fast. With the ticket I was able to come out in 30 mins. Though the temple is a really old one, it has been modernised and no longer had the charm of the ancient times.

From here we went to Ved Shala (Observatory). This place was built by Jai Singh. It is a very interesting place to visit and one can learn about calculations of time, occurances of eclipses, degree of the Sun etc. Since it was after 4 by the time we got here some of the instruments could not be used. We had an interesting guide by name Jagadish. He was an employee there and was passionate about sharing his knowledge of the place and astronomy. Since we showed some interest he spent lot of time with us.

From here we went to Chintamani Ganesh temple. This again is considered to be the biggest Swayambhu Ganesh idol. There was a huge crowd here as well. Sharan and Akshata decided to wait outside while I went in and came back. I managed to get out in 15 mins.

By now we had enough of temples and sight seeing. So we decided to go to Shipra (MPSTC Hotel) for some snacks. We relaxed for about 2 hours before boarding the train to Bhopal. This marked the end of our Western MP trip.

Amedikallu

I had heard about Amedikallu when I first started trekking. People had told me that the best of trekkers had given up and this was one of the toughest treks in Karnataka. Once before the plan to trek there had failed and when the group suggested we do this I was excited. All our planning was done through mails. Everyone was advised to carry 4 litres of water (a must); ready to eat meals, sleeping bags and sleeping mat. Aravind had taken on the responsibility to call the Guide (Chenappa- 9379081785). This turned out to be a difficult task, till two days before the trip we had not been able to get through to the guide. When Aravind finally managed to talk to the guide , he agreed to organize for breakfast and packed lunch from Vishnu Gokhale’s house. This was a good thing as we got some yummy food.
Our bus was scheduled to leave for Dharmasthala at 9:15 PM. 2 people were supposed to join us at Dharmastala as they were coming from Mysore. The trip till Dharmastala was uneventful except for bad roads. At Dharmastala we were to take a bus or jeep to Kokkada. We decided to take the bus. The conductor convinced us that he would drop us at the right stop. The distance, we were told, was about 7 - 10 Kms (its actually 15). But it felt like we had been in the bus for long. Aravind walked up to and checked with the Driver as well and he said the stop had not yet come. Finally after 15 more minutes the conductor realized he had passed Kokkada. He said it was just around the corner and asked to get down. Just around the corner turned out to be one and a half K.M walk.
At Kokkada we were told that since road construction was on we had to take a different route to Shisila (the village where the trek was to start). Decision was made to hire a jeep as the bus ride would take longer. 11 of us stuffed ourselves into a jeep that can seat 7. The driver was almost sitting out of the jeep and driving. Dhimoy was standing on the footboard at the back and was covered with red soil by the time we reached Shisila.We were dropped off at the beginning of the village since the road was under construction. Luckily Vishnu Gokhale’s house was hardly .5 KM away. He saw us walking and called out to us.


While we waited for our guide we were served yummy Idlies and tea. For someone who hates Idly I took second helping. We were also given our packed lunch
We started off from there at about 9:30 am. A jeep had been organised to drop us at the starting point.
The initial trek was through bamboo growth and then the forest starts. The humidity and heat got to some of us. We took lots of breaks along the way. Our first major stop was to be the waterpoint, the only one in the whole trek at this time of the year. It was a welcome break. We open the packed lunch (Chitranna) and finished it in a jiffy. After that we filled all our bottles and carried on. After this came the tough part, a steep climb and that too in the grasslands. There is no forest cover. The sun was beating down on us mercilessly. The only shade was between the rocks. I kept looking out for them and taking short naps wherever possible.
After the grassland came one more walk through the forest and then the rock climbing. By now mist had started to form and we could see clouds at a distance but not the camp site. Finally the first team made it to the camp site. By now our hopes of seeing a sunset had vanished. We hoped the clouds would clear out in the night and we could see the stars.We sat around for some time and decided we can eat at 8. The guide started the camp fire and Aravind became the cook. He boiled water for our entire ready to eats.Dinner done, each of us were fighting for a place to sleep. Most decided to sleep in the open. Just as we settled it started to drizzle. We didn’t know where to go for cover. The place around where the guide slept was already occupied. Some of us decided to brave the drizzle and take action only if it rained. Good decision coz later in the night the skies cleared and it was a beautiful display of stars.
We were woken at 6 to continue our climb to the peak and see the sunrise. This was a scary climb but well managed by our Guide. And guess what… the clouds were at it again. All we could see was clouds. We waited for a while only to be disappointed and we climbed down to get ready to leave. Just then, the sun came out and we saw an ocean of clouds. The hills at a distance were slowly becoming visible. After a photo session we started our climb down
For breakfast we were back at the water point and we cooked noodles. We quickly finished and started out decent. By 1:30 pm we were at the starting point. Initially since we could not get through to the jeep driver some of us took a ride on the Dumper Lorry that was working on road construction.We reached the village, had some tender coconut and walked to Vishnu Gokhale’s house. Hot lunch (Rice, Sambar, Jackfruits Palya and yummy Payasam) was served. After that all of us took bath, slept for some time and set out to Dharmastala stuffed in a jeep again.In Dharmastala some of us went to the temple and the rest loitered around. Dinner was at the temple. This was the fastest dinner i had eaten. In 10 mins after we had entered dinner was done.Took the local shuttle to go to the new bus stand, boarded our bus and was asleep. And next thing I knew we were in Bangalore. All in all it was a good trek after a long time. The only disappointment was that we didn’t get to see the Charmudi range from the peak.

Fond Memories of MP - Maheshwar and Indore

The night at Mandu seemed to have passed really quickly, in no time the alarm was ringing and it was time for us to leave. To save time we paid our bills the previous day. We had to dig last bit of our money as we had underestimated how much we could drink and eat.

Having done all that to save time we reached rcar and found the driver sleeping peacefully. He had not set his alarm. It was half an hour delay before we started.

Originally we had planned to skip Maheshwar, but the guide had convinced us that it was must see. This place has the largest ghat for River Narmada. He told us that there was a short cut that we can use. Said the road was bad but manage able.

Little did we realise how bad it was… after a point there was no road. It was an abrupt end and the car had to get off the concrete platform to a path of just stones and mud. There was not a single soul around to ask if we were on the right track. Finally after an hour we managed to get to the main road and head towards Maheshwar.
At Maheshwar we asked the driver to stop at some place which served poha. He promised to take us to the best. We stopped at a small roadside shop. Our breakfast was going to be poha and jeelabis. Being a sweets freak I was hoping to eat only jeelabis for breakfast, but I was disappointed the jeelabis didn’t live up to the hype. The poha was good, AK who loves poha approved it.

From here we headed to the Ghat, wanted to be there before the crowd. Almost managed it. We walked around in our own pace taking pictures. It was peaceful. There were some temples and a fort to explore. But decided to do it after a short boat ride. Though we thought 100 Rs was too much for a short ride, we enjoyed it. It helped us get some good shots of the place.

The next bit was tiring. We had to go up the stairs to Ahilya bhai’s palace/ temple (She is worshipped in this region). The view from the top is nice. The palace itself was a disappointment. I expected more I guess.

But the best bit of the climb was that we saw a handloom factory and showroom called REWA. They manufactured Maheswari cotton and silk. We got permission to walk around the factory. It was an awesome experience. Both ladies, AK (non shopoholic) and me (the other extreme) went mad shopping when the guy confirmed that they accepted credit card. But when we finished and time came to make payment the cards wouldn’t work. After couple of tries he said we could try the ATM. The only ATM in this town and in the neighbour town wouldn’t work. So finally the people at the factory suggested that we make payment in Indore at their show room (Rarely you get to see ppl trust someone like this).

After a quick cup of tea in Laboo’s café (a café and hotel by the local prince) we were off to Indore.

The journey to Indore was dusty and tiring. We took short cut through villages and bad roads and finally we reached Indore. In Indore we did a quick stop at the Lal Bhag Palace and then checked into the hotel. The hotel was a good surprise. All of us were very excited about our rooms.

Quickly changed and headed to Chapan Dukhan (56 Shops). This was mentioned as a must visit for good food and sweets. It was a disappointment. Only thing that we liked was the shop that sold smoke work (a kind of embroidery). While we shopped Sharan went and paid at the REWA showroom closeby for our purchase in the morning.

From here we went to Rajwada Market. We had to walk, walk and walk. Suggestion would be to take an auto from Chatri. Only saving grace was Shikanli (drink like badam milk ) that we had. It was yummy and AK, who belongs to I hate sweets club liked it and drank a whole glass. The shopping complex is large and you have people at every 2 steps inviting you to their shop and willing to help. Shopped again and one more hole in our pockets.

We headed back to the hotel by now we had a better car; the one we used earlier had broken down because of the bad roads I think.

After some rest we were to head to the food street called Sarafa Market. AK backed out as her back was hurting. Sharan and I were off at 10:30 pm. This place is a paradise for junk food eaters. We started with Kachori and Samosa at the first shop. This place also had Garod (Tapioca) marinated, fried and serve with spices sprinkled a local delight and awesome tasting.

After we ate that we went looking for Bhutte ka kees (This is a dish made of grated corn). We were directed to a shop which was the best and featured on Times Now. Having tasted it we packed some for AK as well. The shop’s dahi ballas were also popular, Sharan tried it. As we walked we found sweets like Gajak, Malpua, Kulfi, Badam Milk, Jamoon, Icecream, all of which we ate. I am sure I weigh 5 kgs more after that.

Having stuffed ourselves we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep. Had another long day coming up.