31 July, 2013

A Perfect 10 day plan - Road Trip - Part II

Coorg is known as Scottland of India. I like Coorg when compared to other hill stations in South India like Kodaikanal and Ooty. You can see details of Part I of the trip here
Hope you loved my earlier post and here goes the second part..

Day 6 - Aug 14th: Abbey falls is a must visit, but you need to walk some distance. Don't go on a rainy day! We have a hanging bridge before the falls, which gives nice view of falls and it will be wonderful as water splashes on you :) Another famous water fall is 'Iruppu falls', it is difficult to cover both of these on same day, so you may cover it depending on your energy levels and interest to travel. One more beautiful place/ park is 'Raja's seat', where you can have fantastic view of valley. This can be visited in the evening by 4PM or so. Sunset happens early in Coorg, so, it's better to complete visiting places when there is light. 


Abbey falls, Coorg
Day 7 - Aug 15th: First of all, happy Independence day :) This might be a tiring day as it needs lot of travelling depending on the place where you are staying. If your accommodation is near madikeri, you may save some travelling time. First thing on the list would be 'Thala cauvery' which is the birth place of River Kauvery. Many people who visited Coorg mention that it is a must visit place here. This place has perfect misty weather always and it is at very high altitude, so, you will feel like touching the clouds. There is a small temple and there are many steps to climb to see an excellent view point. Bhagamandala is a place where river cauvery joins 2 tributaries named Kanake and Sujyoti. There is a temple of Lord Bhagundeshwara also here. While returning, you can visit Omkareshwar temple in the heart of Madikeri town.

Day 8 - Aug 16th: Since we have only 2 days left for our trip, you may take the decision of driving back by halting and taking rest for more time in Bangalore in the middle, or else, spend one more day in Coorg if you love adventure. There are many interesting activities in Coorg for adventure lovers. Few of those are - trekking in Kakkabe, madikeri, rafting in Dubare and rock climbing in kakkabe. This planning is completely dependent on weather. For others,who dont want to strain much, start to Bangalore after breakfast and reach by lunch time. You can plan for 'Nandi hills' which is a pleasant place that shouldn't be missed in Bangalore.
View from Raja's seat, Coorg

Day 9 - Aug 17th: Some of the good places to cover in and around Bangalore are Bannerghatta national park, Wonderla, Banshankari temple, Sanky tank and Shivasamudram falls. These may take more than a day, but depending on your preference, you can visit any of these. For example, A family with children may like Bannerghatta national park or Wonderla. 

Day 10 - Aug 18th: So, this is the last day of our tour. If you need enough rest so that you can go energized to office on monday, it is good to start early in the morning from Bangalore to Hyderabad. Hampi, A UNESCO heritage site is a village near Hospet in Northern Karnataka. This can be covered on the way to Hyderabad. 

Even though i visited most of the places mentioned in Part I and Part II of posts, i would love to visit them again. This trip can be extended to cover Coorg -> Mangalore -> udipi -> Goa, of course if you can get more leaves :) How do you like this trip plan? do let me know..

Until next time,



29 July, 2013

A Great Drive - entry for Michelin Pilot Experience by [Mahathi Ramya]

There are many memorable road trips by car. Due to some good reasons, we traveled to Warangal many times from Hyderabad by Car. This is about our first drive to Warangal.


            It was around 4 years ago. My husband and myself were excited about first long drive together. We were listening to FM throughout and enjoying the ride. Roads were not as good as they are now to Warangal, there was no 4 lane road at that time. There were many speed breakers on the way which used to pop up unexpectedly killing the speed :) So, overall it was bumpy ride throughout.


            It was the return journey to Hyderabad which was fun. We went to Warangal for weekend and planned to return by Sunday night. But due to heavy rain, we stayed on sunday night and started very early next day at 5Am to Hyderabad. After some distance, there was complete fog and visibility has reduced to almost zero. We were going very slow. At some point, we thought we made a wrong decision by starting that early. We didn't expect that much fog. Thought of stopping for sometime, but slowly fog cleared making the road visible. So, slowly confidence increased and we were driving fast. When we were driving with good speed around 120 / 140 km/hr there was an unexpected sharp turn, my husband just saw at the right time and controlled the speed :) Thank God! Tyres screeched like hell and gave big sound, but he could handle it well.
Warangal
Driving fast on known routes was never a problem, but sudden speed breakers and sharp turns on unknown routes are dangerous to handle with speed. Later, we went many times to Warangal, never faced any problem again. Now, roads are very good, we have 4 lane road till half of the distance,  which makes the ride a memorable experience.

There are many trips like this when I thought It's the best trip of my life. Some of the other good trips were to Bangalore and Srisailam by car from Hyderabad. Do you have any such memorable trip? do share in comments :)

There is a contest too to share these memorable road trips.. Here is the link :)
A chance to win a trip to Michelin Pilot Experience at BlogAdda.com

Until next time,


26 July, 2013

A perfect 10 day plan - Road trip - Part I

This is the plan for a road trip by car for 10 days from Hyderabad to Coorg. 
You may ask, how we can get that long leave, it’s impossible :) I suggest, Aug 9th to Aug 18th. Aug 9th will be a holiday for Ramzaan for most of us and as we know, Aug 15th is a holiday for our Independence Day. So, taking leave for 4 days will give us a holiday trip for 10 days :) what say?

Here goes Part I of plan..

Day 1 – Aug 9th : Start early by around 5 Am to Bangalore from Hyderabad. You may reach Kurnool in 2 hrs or atmost 2.5 hrs, where you can stop for a breakfast. After refreshing, drive for a continuous stretch via Anantapur,.. you will reach Bangalore by afternoon, at most by 2 PM. Check in to the hotel, take sumptuous lunch and have enough rest till 4 Pm. You can visit ISKON temple in the evening after 5PM, which will be a pleasant experience that one should never miss in Benguluru. Head to famous Lord Hanuman temple near ISKON in Mahalakshmi layout.  Have some snacks after that, and head to Kemp fort, which is a Giant Shiva temple with exhibition on Jyothirlingas. This is an awesome place to visit in the evening.There are some nice restaurants around Kemp fort, where you can have dinner and return to hotel.

Day 2 – Aug 10th : If possible, start by 7 or 8 Am after breakfast, to Big bull temple in Basavanagudi and drive towards Lalbagh after darshan. Lalbagh botanical garden is excellent during flower show, which is in January month; else, it is not that great, so you may think of skipping it and covering Visweswarayya museum. Have lunch around this place, take rest in cubbon park for sometime. Covering Visweswarayya museum will be tiresome  to anyone as it needs a lot of walking.

Mysore Maharaja palace
Day 3 - Aug 11th : Must see attractions in Mysore are Chamundi hills, Mysore palace and Brindavan gardens. Start by 7Am from Bangalore to Mysore, have breakfast in the middle and reach Chamundi hills directly. After darshan, drive to Mysore palace, but have enough food, as it is a very big palace and needs more walking :) St.Philomenus church in Mysore is also a good place to cover. After lunch and some rest, head to Brindavan gardens by 5 or 6 Pm, as  it will be pleasant at that time. There will be laser show, you can roam, have snacks, do boating and take rest in the lawns. Laser show and dancing water fountains with colors are big attractions. 

Day 4 - Aug 12th : Srirangapatna is famous for Lord Vishnu (Sri ranganathaswamy) temple, which is around 22kms from Mysore. His magnificent idol made from black stone is excellent. Tipu sultan's summer palace is also a place to look for. Another lovely place near by is Balmuri/ Belmuri falls. It is not a huge waterfall though. There is also Ranganthittu bird sanctury near Srirnagapatnam. Depending on time, our patience and energy level, one can cover many places of these kind in and around Mysore.
Nisarga dhama forest resort

Day 5 - Aug 13th :Coorg is around 118 kms from Mysore, it may take around 2.5 hrs to reach. Orange county is a famous resort there, but there are also many  home stay options available which we can book online. Nisargdhama is a forest resort, which is an excellent place for natural beauty and there is an elephant safari just next to it. Don't forget to visit Tibitan monastery in Kushal nagar. There are many other good places in Coorg, which i will cover in next days of plan. Meanwhile, it is best to taste the traditional kodava cuisine. 
Budhist monastery

But one caution.. Rainy season may not be the best time to visit Coorg as it is difficult to visit places and trekking cannot be done. Best season to visit is Oct to Apr.
Part II of plan here..

Until next time,






written for indiblogger contest by Ambipur facebook.com/AmbiPurIndia




10 July, 2013

I saw, I learnt.....

I truly believe, we set a good example and we are first role models for our children. Every child learns good or bad from parent's behaviour , society , teachers and from situations and challenges that he/ she faces.

From childhood, i also saw and learnt many things from different people, places and situations. My dad prepares budget every month and calculates his expenses and discuss with my mom. Initially, i used to wonder why he need to note down every expense even though how small it is and what is the use of tracking all this information. But as i grew up, learnt that this small task makes a lot of difference on our style of living. When we track things, we know our spending pattern, where we spend more and where we spend less. It helps in planning, when we doesn't have enough money for any month due to any reasons. If we know we spend too much on shopping clothes every month, when there is a need to cut down expenses, we know that this is the area that we can cut down.

My mother has hell lot of patience and she always takes care of relatives/ guests with smiling face. Even though it is difficult to manage house hold work single handed, she wins accolades for her cooking, her patience and love. I couldn't embrace this quality completely but i try to imitate her :-p

I was always in top 4 ranks in school and never knew a failure in academics. But, once i failed in some exam, which i didn't remember now, it was a unit test kind of, which they conduct between quarterly and half yearly exams. Cried a lot for that, later, understood that this is not a big thing to worry about. These things happen, we need to rectify the mistakes and try again. Since it was the first time i faced a failure in academics, it made me worried. That's why i feel, failures are needed in life to enjoy the taste of success and to learn the importance of patience and hard work.

It is very important to teach simple things to children by showing as an example like switching off lights when not needed, not wasting water and food , talking polite, being cool in pressure situations etc., Children learn these kind of habits only from observation, either from society or parents. What do you think?

Until next time,


 





I am sharing what 'I Saw and I Learnt' at BlogAdda.com in association with DoRight.in.
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