Coorg-Mangalore : My Dasara Getaway

It was Dasara 2016 and our college gates are closed for the next 10 days. So,what was our plan? Prepared for the exam? No, instead we packed our bags to Scotland of India.

DIGGING DEEP :

WHY MADIKERI FOR DASARA?

Folklore has it that the people of Madikeri suffered from a disease many years ago. The King of Madikeri then decided to start Mariamma festival. Then on, the Mariamma festival is said to have been celebrated. The festival starts the day after Mahalaya Amavasya. Hence Dasara starts off with four Karagas.  Also, the crowd here is less compared to Mysore. It is the second-most famous Dasara Festival in India after Mysore Dasara.

MY STORY:

DAY 0:

ITINERARY FOR THE DAY: Bangalore- Kushalnagar

DISTANCE COVERED: 250 KMS

We are totally six in number Myself, one from Yeshwantpur (Erram), one from Goa (Aaron), three from Mangalore (Gavin, Sumanth, Lester). We planned to leave Bangalore at first light. Except the one living in Yeshwantpur all were living close to each other. I was ready and waiting for my friends. They came around 6 A.M. to my place and left to Yeshwantpur around 7 A.M. This time it was not zoomcar but my friend's Swift. We had our breakfast on our way and reached friend's place around 8:30 A.M. We spent some time at his place because his mom was preparing Biryani for our lunch. We left his place and started our drive to Kushalnagar. We took NH 275. Then, around 1 P.M. we stopped the car to have our lunch. The biryani was so good and made us speechless!

Enroute Kushalnagar

We continued our drive and reached Kushalnagar around 7 P.M. We were late because we spent some time searching for our friend's place in Kushalnagar. As soon as we reached our friend's place we spoke to his parents and two of his brothers. Then he showed us our room and around 9 P.M. we had our dinner and slept.

DAY 1:

ITINERARY FOR THE DAY: Kushalnagar- Bylakuppe- Dubare Elephant Camp- Harangi Backwater- Kushalnagar

DISTANCE COVERED: 54 KMS

We started of early in the morning and started off to Bylakuppe. This is 11 kms from Kushalnagar. This is a Tibetan settlement. Monasteries, Golden temple are the main tourist spots.There are many monasteries but, we managed to cover three. We first visited the Golden temple and Namdroling Monastery. It is the prominent monastery and you can see about 300-400 monks doing rituals at the same time. The paintings on the walls and models were also good. The visitor timings for the place is 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. everyday.

The chief attraction at the Golden Temple is the gilded Buddha statue. Early mornings before the tourist buses arrive is the best time to spend quiet, meditative moments at the shrine

Model of Tibetan Settlement kept at Golden Temple

Inside Monastery

So, that's it about the place? No! don't forget to try the momos here especially the beef momos. Bylakuppe is one of the must try place if you are a momo lover.After the exotic meal, I inspect the bazaar. Shopkeepers are all very cordial, but no bargaining is allowed due to a certain Tibetan code of business honesty. As a rule of thumb, everything is cheaper here than in the shopping complex opposite the Golden Temple.

One of the most popular dishes at the eateries in Bylakuppe is the momo, served with fiery chilli sauce.

Then we drove to Dubare Elephant camp which is 16 kms from Kushalnagar.The place is so scenic located on the banks of river Cauvery. If you are looking for some adventure activities in Coorg then this is the place. You have river rafting (seasonal), zip line, Elephant safari,etc. This place also has cottages for tourist accommodation. You have to reach the camp through boat and boating costs around 100 rupees. Timings for this place is 8:30 P.M. to 5:30 P.M.

Ferry ride to the Elephant camp

                                                                    Cottages at Dubare

On our way back to Kushalnagar we went to Harangi Backwaters which is 12 kms from Kushalnagar. The place is a grassland and best for camping. I bet you can fill your Instagram here.

Harangi Backwaters

DAY 2:

ITINERARY FOR THE DAY : Kushalnagar- Bhagamandala- Talacauvery- Kushalnagar

DISTANCE COVERED: 150 KMS

Early in the morning, we had a nice breakfast at Banu's place and drove to Bhagamandala which is 66 kms from Kushalnagar. Bhagamandala lies at the foothills of Talacauvery. Triveni Sangam or Bhagamandala, symbolizes merger of three rivers, Kaveri River, Kannike River and Sujyoti River. One can take a holy dip in the sangama. The temple serves food for all the visitors. Timings for the temple is 6 A.M. to 7 P.M.

Sri Bhagandeshwara Temple, Bhagamandala

From Bhagamandala we drove to Talacauvery which is the birth place of river Cauvery. Talacauvery is 8 kms from Bhagamandala. You have a temple here. The premise is clean and sanctum. You need to wear full pants else you have to rent dhotis from the entrance of the temple to get the entry. There is a small kund which is strictly maintained for the pilgrimage  who offer worship and bathe in the holy water. To view the Kodagu district hills and valleys you can climb 200+ stairs and be on the top of the hill and experience the fresh cold air. Avoid visiting the place in hot summer afternoons. The timings for this place is 6 A.M. to 6 P.M.

                                                  Talacauvery during October

We drove back to Kushalnagar later.

DAY 3:

ITINERARY FOR THE DAY : Kushalnagar- Abbey falls - Raja's Seat- Madikeri Fort- Kushalnagar

DISTANCE COVERED: 74 KMS

Morning,  we left for Abbey falls which is 35 kms from Kushalnagar. As a nature lover I loved the place. There is a flight of steps leading to the falls from parking which is not very difficult to climb. As you go down, observe the nature. There is greenery all around coupled with the sounds of the insects and the waterfall. We spent time clicking pics and left to Raja's Seat in Madikeri.

Abbey Waterfalls

Water bridge near the falls.

Raja's seat is around 8 kms from Abbey falls and it is the most important tourist attraction of Madikeri. There is a view point here from where you can get complete panoramic view of Madikeri. It has high and low rise of mountains attired with mist.  It is believed that,  the kings  of Kodagu used to watch the setting sun, and spend time with their queens here. The place  also has a toy train which takes you around the garden at just 20 Rupees.

View point at Raja's Seat

Toy train that takes you around Raja's Seat

Later in the evening we visited Madikeri Fort which is not far from Raja's seat. The rathas for dasara starts from here. The whole town bops and hops around huge carnival floats for the music that is pumping out from the on-board music system. It is the only place where you can see the whole town turning into  a night club. Everyone has to move their body for their enticing mix of Kannada pop and Hindi rap. The party goes on all night. We barely slept that night and some of us just slept in car itself. Early in the morning we left for Kushalnagar.  Later from there we left for Mangalore the next day.

Carnival floats at night during Dasara

City's streets during Dasara. This was around 1 A.M. in the morning

DAY 4:

ITINERARY FOR THE DAY : Mangalore- Panambur beach

Mangalore is 170 kms from Kushalnagar and is a 4 hour drive. We reached Mangalore at 2 P.M. We put our things at Sumanth's place who is from Mangalore itself . Evening, we went to Pabba's Ice cream parlour which is at MG road. This is the famous parlour of Mangalore and a must try ! At night we drove to Panambur beach which is 9 kms from MG road. It is most famous beach here and crowded. We were there  till 1 A.M. playing near the waters.

Enroute Mangalore

Tiramisu- a must try at Pabba's

DAY 5:

ITINERARY FOR THE DAY : Swimming at Ferry road- Sultan Battery- St. Aloysius Chapel- Tannirbhavi Beach- Bangalore

Morning we went to Swimming at Ferry road. The place is well maintained and cotton shorts are not allowed. The pool is of Olympic standard and there is separate timings for females. The swimming is just 20 Rupees for 40 mins.

Later in the morning we also visited Sultan battery.Constructed by the Tipu Sultan in 1784, The Sultan Battery is a watchtower that is located in the town of Boloor which is about 4km from the Managlore city. The peculiar name arises from the fact that it was the Sultan’s watchtower, a place from where cannons were fired, hence the suffix ‘Battery’. This eerily beautiful place, however, has a dark and murky history, it was built from the stones of the 23 Churches that were destroyed by Tipu Sultan during his reign. The place was initially a blockage for the warships entering the river, built by the British, it was later reclaimed from them by the Sultan.

Sultan Battery

In the afternoon, we went to St. Aloysius Chapel. Located on the summit of the Light House Hill in the heart of Mangalore City, the St. Aloysius Chapel was built in 1885. The stunning architecture of the temple will certainly take your breath away and the frescoes will remind you of the Sistien Chapel which is located in Rome. The chantry will impress you to no end with stunning painitings such as Crowing of the Cock and numerous holy people. This Chapel was devoted to the St. Aloysius Gonzaga, a well off, effective, young fellow who surrendered common life to commit himself to the benefit of the destitute.

St. Aloysius College (front) and St. Aloysius Chapel (behind)[/caption]

Inside St. Aloysius Chapel

St. Aloysius College

In the evening, we went to Tannirbhavi beach. It is famous beach and also not crowded.. If you want to have a peaceful and serene time at Mangalore amongst silence and lashing of the waves on the shore. If you are a nature lover, you will find the most peaceful time here! But be careful while playing in water because I lost my mobile into water there when clicking pics. So be warned!!!

Tannirbhavi Beach- Paradise of Mangalore

Later, that night we had our dinner at Mangala cafe at St. Joseph nagar and the bill was on Gavin since it was his birthday that day. If you like shady places, then you can hit this cafe. I liked squid sukka here. You also have smoking area. That night, We drove back to Bangalore.

TIP FOR THE TRIP:

• Stay in Kushalnagar as the place is less crowded and less price. Few homestays are cheaper than hotels.


• Avoid travelling at night during monsoon.


• Always carry an umbrella with you.

See you in the next post.

Happy Trails!

Savandurga - A Limitless Experience

It was around 4 A.M. in the morning when I heard Zingaat ( Marathi Song) playing loudly outside my room. Yes that, was my roommate (Vaibhav) style of waking me up to go to Savandurga. I woke up had a nice bath, a cup of green tea and delicious bread omelette prepared by my roommate Vaibhav. We were ready and waiting for other friends who went to take the vehicle booked. This time it was again zoomcar's scorpio but this time it's not 14 but 7 friends.

DIGGING DEEP:

^{The hill is considered to be among the largest monolith hills in Asia. The hill rises to 1227 m above mean sea level and forms a part of the Deccan plateau. Savandurga is formed by two hills known locally as Karigudda (black hill) and Biligudda (white hill). The earliest record of the name of the hill is from 1340 AD by Hoysala Ballala III from Madabalu where it is called} Savandi. Another view is that the name is originated from Samantadurga attributed to a Samantharaya, a governor under Ahchutaraya at Magadi, although there is no inscription confirming this. This was the secondary capital of the Magadi rulers such as Kempegowda. From 1638 to 1728, Mysore took over this place and Dalavayi Devaraja occupied this place with the palace at Nelapattana. In 1791 Lord Cornwallis captured it from Tipu Sultan's forces during the Third Anglo-Mysore War. Robert Home in his Select views in Mysore ^{(1794) shows distant views of the hill from Bangalore. He called it} Savinadurga or the fort of death. There were no steps to reach the hill top and it was covered by bamboos and other trees forming a barricade.

MY STORY:

My friends finally came around 5:30 A.M. and started our journey to Savandurga around 6:15 A.M. We started from the same place as before,Chikkabanvara in Bangalore. Savandurga is around 60 kms from here. The best route is to take NH 75 and later SH 3. NH 75 was filled with good views, so we stopped our car approximately after 35 kms and clicked pics.

Enroute Savandurga

We reached Savandurga's base around 8 A.M. The weather was good and not so hot. If you are planning here in summer, reach early else the climate would be hot and you can't complete your trek.We got to know that, there were no shops or hotel up. So, we got our lunch and some snacks from the base itself. There are two temples ,the Savandi Veerabhadreshwara Swamy temple and the Narasimha Swamy temple at the foothills of Svandurga. People usually go to temple situated there but we started trekking without going to temple as the place was bit crowded. The rocks can get quite hot during certain months and during certain periods of the day, so it is advisable to carry water and other refreshments to sustain one through the gruelling trek to the top.

Hill from the base

During our trek we stopped at certain places for rest and clicked pics. We also went to the fort there.According to the Imperial Gazetteer of India, this fort was first built in 1543 by Samantha Raya, an officer under the Vijayanagar Empire. Around 1570, the chief of Bangalore acquired the fort and the Magadi region. The area was the secondary headquarters for the Magadi rulers, especially Kempegowda. Then we trekked further and reached Nandi temple at the hill top. It took almost 3 hours for us to reach the hill top.

View from half a way

Can't walk further pose by Vaibhav

Reached the top

Nandi Temple- I guess he likes the view!

After visiting the temple, we ate our lunch which we bought earlier. We enjoyed the view for few hours and then started to trek down. It is always easy to trek down but be careful the rocks are slippery and one can't get proper grip. We reached the base after 1 hour. On reaching, we had some snacks and drove back to Bangalore.

See you in next post.

Happy trails!

Mekedatu - Unique Natural Wonder near Bengaluru

Things were moving fast, the temperature was around 32 degree Celsius,we were surrounded by dry lands.

Yes, that's right! I was in the car with my friends travelling towards Mekedatu . This was my first trip with my college friends. It's good weekend getaway as it is only around 100 kms from Bengaluru.

Digging Deep :

It's an age old story amongst the locals that once a herdsman from this area witnessed a goat, which was being chased by a tiger, leap across the gorge from one side to the other. However, the tiger did not make any attempts to cross the gorge and abandoned the chase thereby letting the goat escape.

Since this day, this place has popularly been termed by the locals as the Goats Leap ( thats why Mekedatu). Over the course of time, the narrow point from where the goat is believed to have jumped has become wide resulting from continuous erosion caused by the river Cauvery.

The mythological twist to this ancient story is that the locals believe that the goat which leapt across the Cauvery was Lord Shiva in disguise and the strange holes, which can be seen on both rocky cliffs of the gorge, can only be made by the divine goat.

MY STORY:

We left around 7 A.M. from our place at chikkabanvara although we planned to leave at 5 A.M.

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

We were 14 people (all boys) and got two cars from Zoomcar. One was Scorpio and other was Ford Figo.

We Started our trip from here

 After a drive about 40 mins we stopped for breakfast in a dhaba. After our Breakfast, we continued driving and on the way we stopped at Kanakpura-Sangama road for clicking pics as the view was good. If you are planning to go on summer as I went, start as early as possible because  the climate will be very hot during afternoon. Everything was good so far. After clicking some beautiful pics we started to board the car and this time my another friend Rohan wanted to drive the car. He started the car and guess what happened? To our surprise the car was going backwards even though the car was on first gear. What next? we called Zoomcar's helpline but unfortunately it couldn't be serviced instantly and had to tow it. Also, we couldn't get any replacement for that car because we were far from the city. Now car's issue was solved, then what about people of that car? how will they travel further? we waited for almost an hour but couldn't find any vehicle.

So, guess what we did????? Still no guesses??? Ok, what we did is we all decided to travel in one scorpio itself. Yes, you heard it right! 14 people in one Scorpio. I guess you people already started imagining. I'll tell you how we were seated. In front-left seat 3 friends, middle seats were occupied by 6 friends and rear two seats by 4 friends  and thank god driver's seat was for driver alone. All our windows were open, nobody can breathe properly and yes my friend Vinay who was driving couldn't even change gears.Atlast after some 20 mins we reached Mekedatu.

Pic from rear seat after all 14 packed up on one Scorpio

Mekedatu-Sangama

Not to lie but all the pain experienced was really worth. The place was really beautiful! It was too good for photographs with rocks surrounding the flowing river Cauvery. So, who would say no to photos on such a place? we started clicking photos of each other for first few hours. Later, myself and few of my friends decided to swim. Guys please swim there if you atleast know basic swimming tactis because the water is so deep and no supports nearby, also the rocks are very slippery. So be careful when you walk on it. You can also find caution boards here and there. After swimming for about an hour we guys gathered at a place and had a little chat.

Our group pic at Mekedatu- few friends are missing as they went back to car

It was around 2 P.M. and no one was in hurry to go back. So we planned to go to Chunchi waterfalls which is on our way back. It was some 20 mins drive and upon reaching the falls one has to walk for about 25 mins to reach the falls. Take water bottles with you as you can't find any shops on your way. We didn't know this fact and all our throats were dry. So, ya after reaching we enjoyed the view for a while and started clicking pics.

Chunchi Falls during Summer

It was evening and everyone was hungry as we didn't eat anything in afternoon. Not only that but also everyone was tired and dehydrated after all those swimming, walking nearly 25 mins in a hot day. Later after reaching near the parking we found a small shop where we drank water and bought some biscuits, few of them smoked too.

Me drinking water without giving to anyone after that long walk

After that we started our drive and all our eyes were on the road looking for any hotel. After some 30 mins drive we got a small vegeterian hotel where we ate Thali and drove back to Bangalore.

This was my first trip during my college days and this was the time when not only me but also all of my friends got to know each other well.

OTHER PICS FROM THE TRIP:

During the walk to Chunchi waterfalls

Closer view of Chunchi falls

Down the falls

See you in the next post.

Happy Trails!