Short Trip to Chikka Tirupati

This Sunday was again a good day for us as we could go for a short bike trip to Chikka Tirupati. In Kannada, Chikka means small and so it’s a small temple for lord Tirupati. This temple, also called as Sri Prasanna Venkateshwara temple is hardy 30 kms from  Marathalli. I with my wife and in-laws started at eight in morning. About 5 kms from hope firm circle, we touched the NH207 which took us up to the temple. Road throughout the trip was very decent except for few small patches. Drive in morning was excellent and it’s about nine when we reached to the temple. This place was small and very quite. We parked our bikes and car near to the entrance gate which is a colorful gopuram with a pillar. We took the pooja stuffs from a small shop there and entered into temple. There were not much people around and I like a temple at most if there is no rush inside. The temple is small as its name suggests but you will feel very pretty inside the premise. A metallic bronze pillar in front of the entrance of the temple makes it more beautiful. We entered the temple and had the darshan and pooja. After that we spent half an hour inside the premises and started back. Driving back was again good. In between we stopped our bikes and had the home made breakfast. We reached back to our home in next one hour.

Bike Trip to Nandi Hills

It was a Sunday again and I wanted to make it to good use. I had an idea of going to Nandi Hills since couple of weeks and finally last weekend we could go there. We started at one pm from Marathalli by bike and after fifteen minutes we could hit the Hebbal flyover. After that there was very less traffic. Roads were wide but construction was going on for most of the drive up to airport. After crossing toll, road was very nice and decent. We crossed Jain temple which was at hills and scenic. After some distance from there we left NH7 and entered Nandi road. In next fifteen minutes we reached to the checkpoint. Road was bend after that and went through number of curves before we reached to the top of hill. The drive to the top was exciting. Climate during the complete drive was good and a drizzling was going on always. In between we stopped twice due to rain. It was a total seventy kilometers drive and watch was showing three pm now. We took entrance tickets and entered inside which was Tipu's summer palace once. It started raining again and we went to nearby stilt area, waited for some time and fortunately rain stopped soon.

 We roamed on hills and reached to the cliff where we could see the panoramic view of valley. Sky was cloudy. We could have some great shots from our camera at that point. After spending some good time there we came down to parking area. We left early from there as weather was rainy. Drive back to home was amazing too. In next two hours we were back to home. On Nandi road we saw ladies of local villages selling grapes, not sure if there are grapes  farms nearby but whole area near to Nandi hills is awesome and it deserve to visit a number of times. 

A Day in Majestic Mysore

Last Monday was a majestic day for me. After being in Bangalore for last four years, I got a chance to visit Mysore now. It was a fantastic day roaming in this majestic city with my wife, mother, sister and her family. Actually I was waiting for this day that someone will come to Bangalore and I will take him to this place. Mysore makes a perfect one day gateway for Bangaloreans. We started in an Innova little late in morning at seven and half and faced the traffic. We took the Nice road to come out of the city and after two hours of drive, stopped at a Kamath hotel for breakfast. We all had Masala Dosa and Idli-Vada and it was delicious. It took another one hour to reach Tipu's summer palace in Srirangapatna. This was not very impressive but good to look back into history. From there we went to Rangnathaswami Temple. Temple was an ancient one and devoted to Lord Vishnu. We had darshan after a decent queue if not very long. Prasadam served there was very good. My nephew had a horse ride after coming out before we started for Mysore.

In next twenty minutes, we reached to Mysore Palace and the first view of the Palace was awesome. One of the best Palaces I ever saw. When we went inside, we were quite amazed with the architecture and the interiors of it. The ceilings are carved very creative and colored so beautiful that your eyes will start glittering. The paintings of royal family on exhibition look just livid. We took a number of snaps here before coming out. After having lunch, we went to Mysore zoo as I promised my nephew to take him there. He was really very happy to see lions, tiger, elephants and other animals live for the first time. He could see those in real now and relate them to the characters shown in the cartoons on TV. It was more than five of evening now when we came out and then we started heading towards Chamundi hills. Roads to Chamundi hills temple was very scenic and a panoramic view of Mysore could be seen from here. When we reached to the temple it was the closing time. Somehow we entered from exit gate and performed the puja to the goddess Durga. While returning to Mysore, we could see a huge Nandi statue on one hill. We started for Vrindawan garden now though it was very late. When we reached there it was five minutes to eight and closing time of garden. Musical fountain was ended up and people were coming out. I bought the tickets in hurry and entered in garden. Even in the dim light of bulbs, the view of garden was fabulous. I  can only imagine, how beautiful this garden must be. After having a short walk in the garden, we came out and started back for Bangalore. In between we had late dinner in Kamath and reached to home at one in morning. Completely tired, we went to the bed with remembrance of the day, just to make a majestic sleep.