Travel to Spiti Valley in Himachal Pradesh had been on my mind since few years. But it only materialized in June this year. I only had a vague idea that Spiti valley is similar to Ladakh, but perhaps a little less known than its more famous counterpart. I just jumped in and booked my travel with Spiti Valley Tours, without much research, and also well in advance (almost...
Learn MoreThe year 2018 broke several records for crazy rains. However, for me, it’s been a rather dry year in terms of travel. Several things have conspired to keep me in the city for quite some time now – sometimes down sick at home, otherwise shuttling between home and office. In the last couple of weeks, I managed a couple of journeys through the beautiful malnad (malenaaDu) region of Karnataka – thus I beat my travel drought.
Learn MoreA holiday on May 1 opened up a possibility of a 4-day long weekend. The high level plan was to visit coastal Karnataka (off season, less crowds) and Gokarna, Murudeshwara were high on the list. But after a tip from a friend and coercion from my wife, we visited this gem of a resort on a private island just off the Karwar coast – Cintacor island resort.
Learn MoreThis post is about our visit to Nongriat – a village near Cherrapunjee, Meghalaya. Accessible only via a foot path, one has to climb down 3500 steps from a village called Tyrna to reach Nongriat. But, let me start from where I previously left off.
Learn MoreUmiam lake, also called Barapani, is actually a reservoir – a man-made entity to harness the waters of Umiam river for generating hydro-electricity. We spent a day, staying at a boat-house in Umiam lake and explored the surroundings, also witnessing pre-monsoon showers in the process.
Learn MoreIn early January this year, I undertook a much awaited vacation to the Andaman islands. I was earlier slated to visit the islands in early December 2016, but had to postpone my plans due to the prevailing cyclonic conditions at that time. It was a memorable week spent in the Andaman islands. I could not have asked for a better, more relaxing way to usher in the new...
Learn MoreKovalam is a beach town, located just 14km from the city center of Thiruvananthapuram. There are 3 prominent beaches in Kovalam – the Hawa beach, Samudra beach and Lighthouse beach. The lighthouse beach is the largest among the 3 beaches and also the most sought after beach in Kovalam. A 30 meter lighthouse sits on the southern edge of the beach on a small hill-rise.
Learn MoreChitradurga is a fairly well known destination, specifically for the famous fort. On a visit earlier this year, we learnt about other nearby places which are less touristy and better – Jogimatti and Chandravalli. We made a mental note to ourselves about these places for a later visit. The visit to Chandravalli materialized last week, during the long weekend for Deepavali and Karnataka Rajyotsava.
Learn MoreVani vilas sagar dam is situated about 200km from Bangalore and close to the town of Hiriyur on NH-4. Its popularly known as Mari Kanive in Kannada. Imagine a body of water snaking amidst hills around, the dam cutting across the water in the heart of the valley. The hills have lush green cover draping them all around, giant windmills rest atop the hills harvesting the wind energy.
Learn MoreA 200 year old church, today lies in ruins at Shettihalli. About 20 km from Hassan, is the village Shettihalli – where, about 30 years ago, the agriculture-focused village was turned into a backwaters’ area with the commissioning of Gorur dam across river Hemavathi. The church is situated bang in the middle of a vast expanse of land, leading up to the Gorur dam.
Learn MoreFor quite sometime, there was tension within the extended family of not having been successful in getting everyone together for an outing. Some of us were getting edgy, not being able to get out of the city. Push came to shove, and we had to go ahead and plan a small getaway with only a subset of people. That’s how it is sometimes. Anyway, cutting to the chase, we picked BR hills as the destination and made the necessary travel and stay arrangements almost a month in advance – to kinda lock in the people who had signed up and not letting them slip away again. Now, we just had to wait for the travel dates.
Learn MoreThis past weekend, I had a wonderful opportunity to visit the Satpura national park in Madhya Pradesh and stay at Forsyth Lodge, where a few of us bloggers were invited for #TheForsythExperience. I had immediately jumped at this opportunity when it had presented itself. Visiting a previously unvisited state/place was not something I was going to pass on, especially when its a national park area we’re talking about. After having visited few of the Jungle Lodges and Resorts properties in Karnataka, I knew that any of the national parks would be beautiful. After the visit, I can say that “beautiful” is so much of an understatement.
Learn MoreHaving read about these places far too many times in the recent past, we planned a visit to Belum caves and Gandikota in mid November.
Learn MoreThe Lakshmi devi temple at Doddagaddavalli, is yet another, among a few of the lesser known Hoysala temples, situated near Hassan (wiki page). This temple was built during the 12th century when the ruler of the land was Vishnuvardhana. The temple is situated ~16 Kms from Hassan, off the highway to Belur. Below is the map with directions from Hassan. This temple is said...
Learn MoreThe Bucheshwara temple at Koravangla is a lesser known Hoysala temple. Situated about 12 KM from Hassan, and over 900 years old, the temple is at the edge of the Koravangla village.
Learn MoreHimavad Gopalaswamy Betta in Karnataka is a hill which is part of the Bandipur national forest area (“Betta” is the Kannada word for hill). The hill top is usually covered with fog almost through out the year. The nearest town is Gundlupet (situated 20 KMs away). The usual recommended time to visit the hill is early mornings. I had visited the hill back in...
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