Visit to Hogenakkal

After reading a number of blogs on Hogenakkal, it was always in my must to visit list. So on second Saturday of this month I visited Hogenakkal falls with my wife and relatives. I booked a Tavera from Geo Travels in Marathalli and service from them was very good. Our cab was arrived at time and we started from our house at seven in morning. After two and half hour of drive, we took our break and had tea on a roadside stall preparing tea in a boiler stove. Just before Dharmapuri we took right and after that the road is picturesque. At ten and half we reached Hogenekkal and then the real fight begun for hiring a boat.

Bargaining with the boatman was tough as they started asking for a four hundred fifty and some how agreed for two and fifty per person. Hogenekkal is having a number of falls and you have to go for a long distance in the local made boat called coracle. The flow of Kaveri river is huge here and surrounding hills and forest makes this place a beauty. The boatman will take you upto waterfalls where you will get wet in drizzle coming from falls. At most of the places, water from falls hit the rocks below and comes out as smoke. In between all of this, we had lunch which we took from home.

After this, we went up to main falls and had some awesome photoshots there. The main falls is one of the beauty and scary in itself. After that we started for going back. The only thing which was not good about Hogennakal is its designated bathing area is worst and so its better you have bath in the river somewhere else. So we also went in river near main falls only and enjoyed a lot in water. There is also a hanging bridge and with some minimal charge we had a different view of falls from there. The full day for us was for boating, falls and feel of river running. At three we started back for Bangalore after having a very good and memorable trip.

Team outing to Guhantara

It was again the team outing time of the year and we were looking hard to decide a good place to go around. Under all constraints and possibility, DNC suggested the Guhantara Cave Resort in outskirt of Bangalore which I was skeptical about but got agreed upon.

Last Sunday, we with our family visited Guhantara Cave resort. First thing I observed is that this is not a cave at all but you can try to feel that you are in a cave in deed. Also it is very crowded during lunch and dinner. This is like a big basement hall with cave architecture and a scenic falls, a good place to have some good pictures. As this has some indoor and outdoor game facilities available, so it makes a good fascinating destination for people. We enjoyed beach volleyball, cricket and swimming; and ladies tried their hands in archery. We tried tug-off war and French cricket too. Few of us also enjoyed the rain dance. We had a whole good day and we wrapped it up with a good Tabla performance by Aditya.

A hot day in Delhi

Fifteenth July was one of the hottest day of the season and we were in the capital after a visit of Shimla. This was a sudden change of at least fifteen degree temperature and for a Bangalorean it’s too enough to say no to go anywhere. I was in Delhi before, stayed here for a year but never visited any place so thought of visiting few this time. Seema was in Delhi for the first time but it was hard to convince her to go out.

We visited three places and Akshardham temple was the first one. Just situated near the Commonwealth Khel Gaon, this newly built temple is a jewel of Delhi and must to go for any one coming to Delhi. Security there is very strict and even a photography is not allowed.

It has very big campus, catching ambience and marvelous temple. We might have spent some more time but due to hot we left soon from there.

The next place was Humayun”s tomb. This is again very good and shows the Delhi’s Mughal history. The architecture of this palace is same of Tajmahal. This place is well maintained and visited by local as well as foreign tourists in large number. From there we went to Maharauli to see Qutub Minar. We read about this in our text books in our childhood and now had a chance to see it.

The next and final stop for us was a shopping mall GIP in Noida. Here we felt very good as it was air conditioned. In whole day, this is the only place where we felt cool. We had shopping and left for my brother’s house by splendid metro train.