Stay @ Rippon Mount Resorts, Wayanad

During last October we with other couple went to Wayanad . We initially thought to stay at Green Paradise Resorts. As we did not get Kabani cottages in Green Paradise, we choose Rippon Mount Resorts for our stay at Wayanad.

Our decision to choose Rippon proved to be correct. The whole experience at Rippon Mount resorts was awesome except the journey to the resort.

It was almost 6 or 6.30 pm by the time we reach Meppady. We did not estimate that it would be dark by that time. It was too dark added to that it was heavily raining. We took lil halt in Meppady as it was dangerous to drive in that heavy rain. Then we started our journey to reach the resort enquiring the localities about the route. We are almost reached the resort with the help of localities and Resorts’ sign boards.

There we saw a mud road with no proper way; it was a sharp slope and was very difficult to take reverse or U turn. As it was dark, rainy and no proper road ahead in that forest area and could not see any one else in that place we thought we missed the route and landed in the deep forest. Thankfully we had our Airtel signal, then we called resort enquiry twice and they came till our vehicle with torch lights to take us to the resort. These torch lights are like sun rays some timesJ. This was a thrilling experience

By the time we reach the resort it was almost 8.30 as it was too dark we did not adventure to see the surrounding places. We had good dinner in Kerala style and took rest.

We wake up lil early in the morning and went to see surrounding places with our Cams. The Resort is on top of the Rippon hill facing the famous Soochipara waterfalls. The view is breathtaking from the suicide point.... it’s really nice to see the mist moving around and the sky touching the mountain, where the mountains are partially seen.

We took many photos in the resort and ventured to walk outside the resort for some time. This forest walk was a nice experience. We could hear live screaming, roaring of many animals from long distances during our walk. After walking for some time we came back to the resort had our breakfast and started back our tour from resort to see other places in Wayanad

I will write a Travelogue on This Kerala Trip soon. And check http://www.ripponmountresorts.com/ for more details on this resort.

Siddara Betta - Trekking and Cave Exploration

Our Project team was planning to go out from long time.. finally the day has come... we checked with many options like Wonderla etc.... I suggested trekking... then we googled for some good place ... after reviewing some blogs we finally decided Siddara Betta as it has trekking, temple and most importantly Caves.

The Place...

Siddara Batta is a rocky hill 3660 feet above sea level. It is Sacred Place where many sadhus/Holy spiritual men made meditation and worship of Lord Shiva. We can still see some sadhus meditating here and some more are in samadhi state. Here is a famous temple situated at the Top of the Hill. Though the major crowd which visits here are pilgrims, this place is also interests for trekkers and other nature lovers. The main attractive spot here is the Lakshmi Cave, which is more than a kilometer deep and a visit to this cave is an adventure in itself.

The Plan...

Our Team members - Ramesh, Kharibam, Mahesh, Preetam, Swapnil, Kowsalya, Vinod, Kavya, Sachin and me planned to meet in office near Mekhri circle on Friday, 10th Dec 2010 @ 7.15 AM. Other team mate Rimple missed this as he was on vacation. We all met at the office by 7.45AM. Mahesh arranged a Tempo Traveler for this purpose. We all get into this and started our journey.

The Route…
Siddara Betta is around 12 Km from Koratagere in Tumkur district and is around 85 km away from the Bangalore (Mekhri circle).

We had our breakfast in Kamath hotel in Tumkur road on the way to Siddara betta. Nice Idly Vada and Dosas available there. We enquired for rice to parcel for lunch at hill top; we knew that there are no hotels available around Siddara betta. But it was not available at that time. So we started our journey back hoping to get lunch parcel in some daba on the way. We reached the flyover before Tumkur in a short time and started enquiring this place.

Important confusing fact is that there are two Siddara bettas .. One near dobhaspet and one near koratagere. Our destination is Siddara betta near koratagere. We need to take service road at this flyover (this place name is Dobhaspet) and take right turn to reach koratagere and then Siddara betta. We reached Siddara betta around 11 AM. We did not get food on the way. We checked for the food at the base and ordered at a small hotel to have it after coming back from trekking.

The Trek…

There are steps till the temple. We started going in that route to the hill top, meanwhile we met a localite/guide he said there is another way to trek which pass thru many other places of hill. Then we hired his service (for `400/-) for our trek and started trekking with him. The trekking was thru steep hill rocks, there is no path and it is lil slippery. On the way we saw some small cave and spent some time over there. Then we started our trekking again and in middle the guide forgot the route, after searching for 5-10mins we were in the right way and joined the steps path to the temple after almost 1 hour trek.

I’m already exhausted even though we took frequent intervals, as it was taking time for me, so I asked other team members to go ahead with the trek. I took almost 15 mins rest and started trekking again. Meanwhile other team members reached temple had bath and completed puja (it’s good to carry another pair of dress). By the time I reached the temple they were in Cave exploration. I had Quick darshan and hired other guide service (for `50/-) to join the team members inside the cave. There are many guides available near the cave. It took just 5-10 mins to meet other team members in the cave. Then we all started the Cave exploration.

The Cave ...

The cave is starts from the temple (near the Shiva linga) and ends outside the temple. The cave was long and the cave exploration was thrilling. There are some Samadhis of sadhus inside the caves who meditated here some time back.

We started to move inside caves. The passage was very small at some places; the rocks were quite slippery and sharp. At some places we need to cross big rocks... there were some real low rise rocks where we had to literally crawl to pass thru ...It was awesome !!

We also reached a few open areas with vegetation. One of these areas housed large roots which are good enough to be a nice swing. We had some group photos over there... and finally we manage to reach end of that cave after passing thru some bees :-(. It is good to carry Torchlight with you that helped us a lot in these caves.

There are many monkeys around this hill like in many other places which take away if you carry any plastic bags (i think it’s a nice way to reduce the usage of plastics :-) ).

From here we can trek to the hill top where we can see another temple and some meditation points and good 360 view of surrounding places.

But we could not go there as it was already 3pm to start the journey back to Bangalore. This time we used the steps to come back to the base unlike the trek path we used while going to the top. On the way we went to a place called Pyramid where two sadhus are still meditating. We did not disturb them and came down to the base and started our journey back to Bangalore. On the way we passed thru the Elevated expressway in Tumkur road that was newly opened on that day, which saved almost one hour of our journey.

Other places to see nearby - Devarayana Durga and there is a hill nearby with a fort at the top

Accommodation – no accommodation available, you need to carry tents if you want to stay night

Food – Kamath Hotel and some Dabas available on the way in Tumkur road. But no food is available at Siddara Betta. Good to carry from Bangalore.

Transportation - Self

Sadhasiva sanyasi from Khaleja

Movie - Khaleja
Lyrics - Rama jogayya sastri

Nandi hills and surrounding places

It was a long pending trip with entire family. As my youngest brother coming from Hyderabad to Bangalore for holiday we asked our parents also to come here so that we go somewhere around Bangalore

We initially thought to go to Nandi hills but later thought about other places too, after thinking of many places and searching in internet and blogs we decided 3 places – Nandhi hills, Bannergatta National Park and Sivasamudhra. Ha.. finally freezed to the initial place Nandhi Hills as it is nearby from my place, Sahakara Nagar. We decided to go early morning to see sun rise @ Nandhi hills and then visit to Bogha Nandheeswara Temple, Mudhena halli and Devanahalli fort.

We started around 4.30 am from home and reached Nandi hills by 5.30 am. It was butiful and my parents could not come out of the vehicle as it was too cold and totally covered with fog. We waited in the vehicle for some time as the ticket counter was not yet opened to go to the top of the hill. It was 6 am by the time we reach th top of the hill after getting the ticket.

Just after coming out of the vehicle, we went to the back side of KSTDC's Hotel Mayura Pine Top for proper view of Sun rise... But as we are not sure of the sun rise view point we came back to the initial enquired for the Sun rise view point after having hot tea. They said it would be 7.00/7.30 Am by the sun rises. So we had an hour or so to roam around before the sun rise. We left our parents at a hotel as they were feeling too cold in that environment and went across the temples and parks. We could not see others/places clearly as there was too much fog.

It was almost 7.30 am, but still no sun rise... so we had our breakfast and then waiting for sun rise... Around 8.00 am we could see only partial sun rise. It was Okay. We waited for Sun rise at Tippu drop till 10.30 am, but still no luck. Then we decided to go back... We went to Yoga Nandhiswara temple and Tippu Summer Palace while coming back to the base. Check some more snaps below.

Bhoga Nandhiswara temple is in Nandi village which is around 8Km from the base of Nandi hills. This is historical temple with high architecture values. This temple constructed in ninth century in Dravidian style and upgraded by 5 kings in different periods of time. The courtyard surrounding the temple is huge and the temple itself has several separate areas with small temples. During our visit, surroundings were too oily may be because of Karthika Pournami festival. The main complex of the temple houses a statue of Shiva and Parvati in the same stone with a intricately carved Kalyana Mantapa in front and lots of pillars; the Kalyana Mantapa in front of middle temple looks similar to the Belur/Halebidu built by the Hoysalas with micro carvings. A separate area has a dance platform and a place for the king to sit and watch the performance. The large peaceful tank/Kalyani is in the next area. There is good garden maintained outside the temple. You can spend at least half a day here visiting temple and enjoying the nature outside the temple.

Our next destination was Mudhena halli which is around 5Km from Nandi village. It is the birthplace of Sir. M. Vishveswarayya. His ancestral home, where he was born, has been preserved for public viewing. There is a small museum with the items he used. We can see his Bhata Rathna medal in this museum. And there are many photos of him with historical leaders and kings of that time. And Vishveswarayya's samadhi is also nearby.

Initially we thought to go to some small waterfalls near Nandi village while coming back as pointed by my younger brother. But as we are not sure of the route for this waterfalls plan and started journey back to Devanahalli.

Devanahalli fort is a small fort with only huge walls covering small village. We can just go to the top of these fort walls and spend some time over there. Then while coming back to Bangalore we visited Tippu's birth place near by the Devanahalli fort.

Jonnawada

Jonnawada is a temple town 12 km Nellore in Andhra Pradesh. This is famous for Sri Mallikarjuna swamy and Kamakshi amma temple. In tretayuga Mahamuni Kasyapa Brahma performed yagna and pleased Lord Mallikarjuna Swamy thus this place is named as ‘Yagnavatika Jonnawada’. Sri Mallikarjuna Swamy Kamakhsi tai grant to the innumerable devotes their desires, as their God head. Since then he continues conferring boons and his blessings on his devotees. This temple is constructed in the year 1150( Tretayuga). The goddess Kamkshi is belived as an incarnation of Shakti. A ‘Sri Chakram’ was installed here by Sri Jagadguru Sankaracharya. Brahma Rushi Sri Kashyap Mahamuni visited Bhoolokam (The Earth) and wanted to perform Yagna and chosen north of vedadri as Yagna Vatika (place to perform yagna) After successful completion of the Yagna a bright light appeared. It has spread over the whole bhoolokam. Later Lord Eswara appeared as Lord Mallikarjuna, who came out from fire of Yagna.

Kalyanotsavam puja for Mallikarjuna swamy and Ammavaru was long pending for us. So we thought to go over there to perform the puja during the Karthika masam(during November).

The puja at temple was around 10 am so we started early from Gudur around 7 am. Jonnawada is around 50 km from Gudur. Our in-law's family also joined us for this trip.

We reached Jonnawada around 8am and went for dharshan and Kshirabisheka for Mallikarjuna swamy. It was around 9 am when the dharshan was completed. Then we spent time on verifying boards available in the temple about Dhwadasa (12) Jyothirlinga temples dedicated to lord Shiva and Astadasa (18) shakthi peethams dedicated to Ammavaru. I counted and wondered to see that I have already visited almost one third of them. Mean while Amma and wife lit Karthika deepam in the temple.

Then the Kalyanotsvam started. It took around 1 hour to complete the puja. Then we went around seeing Pennar river. It was hot afternoon so we did not go to the river for the dip. Then we started our journey back to Gudur. We initially thought to go to Nellore city to have lunch at Murali krishna Hotel. But due to time constraints had lunch at a hotel in Reliance petrol bunk in the highway. The food was just Okay, not upto the expectations.

Accomodation - Average - Some TTD Managed rooms are available

Food - Below Average except Temple's Annadhana facility

Transportation - Self, No regular buses available. Some Autos are running from Nellore

Other places to see nearby - Narasimha Konda is another temple dedicated to Lakshminarasimha swami is around 3 to 4 km from Jonnawada. We could not visit this place this time. I visited this place long back during 1999. It was a nice experience to trek this small hill. Even a road is available to reach the top of the hill.

Vedagiri Lakshmimarasimha Swamy devastanam came into being nearly 500 years ago, on the summit of Narasimhakonada. According to the rock inscriptions, this temple was built by the Pallava king Narsimha Varma in the ninth century. Legend goes that the sage Kasyapa established the temple on the bank of Pennar. And the Vedic scripture “Brahmapurana” reveals that the Saptarishis performed “yagnam” on the top of Narasimhakonda.

Jokes again

One gud joke

There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed a desire to become a “great” writer.

When asked to define “great” he said “I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, wail, howl in pain, desperation, and anger!”

He now works for Microsoft writing error messages.

Some Khart00ns

Song from Happy Days

పాదమేటుపోతున్న పయణమెందాకైన
అడుగు తడబడుతున్న తోడురాదా
చిన్ని ఎడబాటైన,కంట తడి పెడుతున్నా
గుండె ప్రతి లయా లోన నేను లేన
ఒంటరైన వోటమైన
వెంట నడిచే నీడ వేనా

ఓఓ మై ఫ్రెండ్
తడి కన్నులనే తుడిచిన నేస్తామ
ఓఓ మై ఫ్రెండ్
ఓడి దుడుకులలో నిలిచిన స్నేహమా
ఓహు ఒహోహ్ ఒహో ఓ ఊఊ
ఓహు ఒహోహ్ ఒహో ఓ ఊఊ
అమ్మ ఒడిలో లేని పాశం
నేస్తామల్లె అల్లుకుందీ
జన్మకంతా తీరిపోనీ
మమతలెన్నో పంచుతొందే
మీరు మీరు నుంచి మన స్నేహ గీతం
ఏరా ఏరా అల్లోకే మారే
మొహమాటలేని లేని కాలే జారువాలే
ఒంటరైన,ఓటమైన
వెంట నడిచే నీడ నీవె
ఓఓమై ఫ్రెండ్
తడి కన్నులనే తుడిచిన నేస్తామ
ఓఓమై ఫ్రెండ్
ఓడి దుడుకులలో నిలిచిన స్నేహమా

వాన వస్తే కాగితాలే పడవాలయ్యే జ్ఞాపకాలే
నిన్ను చూస్తే చిన్ననాటి చేతలన్ని చెంత వాలే
గిళ్లీకజ్జాలెన్నో ఇలా పెంచుకుంటూ తుల్లింతాల్లో తేలే స్నేహం
మొదలు తుడాలు తెలిపే ముడి వీదకున్డె
ఒంటరైన,ఓటమైన
వెంట నడిచే నీడ నీవ

Nagpur - Ramtek

My Brother DS is finishing his studies in Nagpur in this Year. So we thought to visit this place before April, as April and May will be too hot in Nagpur.

DN and I started from Bangalore. Our Parents and Uncle from Chennai joined us in Gudur.

It was around 15 hours journey to Nagpur from Gudur. We reached Nagpur around 11am in the morning. DS was waiting in the railway station to receive us. Then we went to Guest room in VNIT. After refreshing we just walk around VNIT seeing all departments and DS room in hostel.

It was 6PM, we just went for shopping near variety chouk, finished dinner and come back to VNIT.

We initially thought to go to Tadoba National Park from Nagpur. As our visit was during Holi Festival, it was holiday for the Tadoba. Then after searching about many other places near Nagpur, we finally zeroed to Ramtek to visit.

Ramtek is a small town, situated at a distance of 42 km from Nagpur city. It falls under the Nagpur district and is held in high regard by the Hindus. This is because this town is believed to be associated with Lord Rama. There is hill situated near Ramtek, known as the Ramgiri Hill. The hill houses a historical temple of Lord Rama, which is said to be more than 600 years old. This temple has greatly added to the travel attraction of the city. The legend also goes that Lord Rama stopped at Ramtek, along with His wife Sita and brother Lakshmana, while on his exile.

Another fact that adds to the attraction of the town, from tourism point of view, is its association with the Great poet Kalidasa. He wrote his excellent poem, Meghdoot in the hills of Ramtek only. Infact, it is often said that it was the beauty of Ramtek Hills that inspired him to write the poem.

We booked a cab to Ramtek covering some other places on the way. We First visited ‘Zero mile marker’ which is the geographical center of India (Actually it’s just a Traffic signal area :)) then started journey to Ramtek. On the way we had Maharastrian breakfast with Poha, dokhla rabri etc.

Ramtek is a fort Temple. It houses two temples one for Lord Rama and one of Lakshamana. Gopuras of this temple looks nize. See some of the snaps of this temple here.

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There are many Monkeys around this area. But unlike monkeys in Andhra or Karnataka, they look different. Check some snaps. There is a lake with Water sports nearby Ramtek. We could not go for the same as it was already noon and too hot. Then we started our journey back to Nagpur. On the way we went Ramdham. It is a temple having idols of Shiva, Durga etc which can be seen in different places across India. It also has big construction in OM shape. There are paintings and sculpture of Ramayana and Krishna leela in side this construction. There is another temple Krishnadham nearby this, we could not see this. Then we had Lunch in a Rajasthani hotel near Ramdham. And then we visited Dragon Palace which is a Buddhist Temple. Then we came back to Nagpur and started our journey back to Gudur. And finally check how passengers are travelling in this area Facilities available in Ramtek Accomodation - No Accomodation available Food - Below Average Transportation - Self Transportation

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