Ooty - The Queen

It was a quick weekend trip on 26th and 27th of June.
Left Whitefield at 4 in the morning.Reached Mysore at 6.30 AM. Had a quick breakfast at Kamath Madhuban. After breakfast, drove towards Ooty via Nanjanagoodu, Bandipur, Masinagudi and Kalhatti. It was cloudy weather all the way. The road we took has 36 hairpin bends and steep climb.
We reached Ooty at 11 AM. Checked in to Hotel Ponmari Residency on Conoor Road. If you want a review about this hotel, it only 5 letters 'AVOID' !!!!!
Visited Botanical garden, Lake and rose garden on 26th. Botanical garden had some leftovers of Flower Show in May. Those leftovers left me wondering how beautiful they would be during the flower show!!!!!. Visited the Lake and skipped boating. A shop there serves steaming hot baked peanut chat. It has heavenly taste, may be because of the cold weather.
Rose garden was full of colourful roses. Spent most part of the afternoon here. Its huge and consumes more than 3 hours to see all parts of the garden. Took a lot of photographs and returned to hotel.
Now it was time to have dinner. Went to Hotel Saravana's for dinner. Great vegetarian food.
Purchased some homemade chocolates and returned to the hotel.


Second day started at 7 AM. Drove to 'Doddabetta' peak, which is towards Conoor and 6 kms from Ooty. reached the peak at 7.30 AM. It was foggy and chilly at the top. Spent some time there. Try hot tea, chilly bajjis, fresh carrot and peanut chat on the top.
On the way back to Ooty, we visited tea factory and museum.

After that, drove to Mysore. On the way, we visited 'Himavad Gopalaswami Betta'.
Reached Mysore at 4. Spent some time at relative’s house there and reached Bangalore at 10 PM.

Details:
Route : Bangalore -> Mysore -> Nanjanagoodu -> Bandipur -> Masinagudi -> Kalhatti -> Ooty
Distance : ~ 280 Kms one way

Note: If you are planning to drive down to Ooty and do sightseeing, best idea is to leave behind your car at hotel and take an auto to visit the tourist attractions. We did the same on Day 1 and it saved us from headaches like finding the correct route, finding parking place etc.

Ranganatittu and Kanva Dam

A Quick trip with lot of incidents and a few of my first “Bird in Flight” shots.

Left home at 6.30 with one bar in the fuel indicator and 450 rupees in the wallet. Thought of withdrawing some cash from SBI ATM, entered three different wrong PINs and successfully blocked the card. My only other card had Rs 200 Balance. Thought that we can fill fuel with the Credit Card and continued the journey. Stopped at Mysore road BP and asked him to fill diesel worth Rs 200 and started again. After Bidadi, I was driving at ~80 Kmph and a stone few like a bullet from tyres of car in front and chipped my front windshield. Wow!!! What a start.

Next stop was BP Petrol Bunk with Kamath Upchar in Chennapatna. Had a breakfast and went to fill the fuel. Before telling ‘Full Tank’ asked the attendant “Anna, card tagoLthira?” and he promptly replied “Card Illa saar!!!!!!! “. Low fuel warning was on! Asked him to fill for another 250 Rs and continued. Checked with wife, total cash we have now is 200 Rs + Some change + 200 Rs in my other account.

Saw and ATM, thought of withdrawing the last 200 Rs from the other bank account and pulled over. Entered the ATM, withdrew 200 Rs, feeling all time low collected the slip and walked out. While walking back towards the car, gave a casual look to the slip. Voila!!! It said, available balance is 1257 Rs instead of expected 57 Rs. Life is all blooming flowers again, could feel the beautiful fragrances. Walked back to the teller, took out Rs 1200 and drove straight to Ranganatittu,

Reached Ranganatittu at 10.30 AM. Entry Fees for car + 2 adults + camera was Rs 105. Went in, roamed around the sanctuary and hired an independent boat. One can opt for boat ride in two ways, 30 Rs per head in a large boat or 250 Rs for a small boat. We opted for a small boat. He took us for a beautiful boat ride of around 30 minutes and showed the birds available in the season. Some of them were open bill stork, painted stork, white ibis, night heron and some other birds. We also saw two baby crocodiles.

It was 1 PM when we left the sanctuary. We started driving back to Bangalore. En route we had lunch in Adiga’s after Maddur. Tasty and simple vegetarian lunch. After Adiga’s, when we were approaching Ramanagar, we saw a board on our left side indicating “Kanva Dam – 8 Kms”. Without thinking twice took that road and reached Kanva Dam in 20 minutes. There was nothing to see except a medium sized dam, which was almost empty. The place was very deserted.

It was a nonstop drive back from there and we reached Whitefield at 5.30 PM.

Route: Bangalore -> Ramnagar-> Mandya -> Srirangapattana -> Ranganatittu

Photos :
 

Wayanad

We were on three day trip to Wayanad last weekend (16th to 18th of April 2010). We stayed at “Rain Country” resorts at Lakkidi, which is the highest place in Kerala. Our stay was booked by Aravinda’s “Crimson Holidays”.


Day 1:

We left Whitefield at 5.45 AM on 16th. First stop was at Kamath on the left side of Mysore road for breakfast. After this I lost the the number of stops we had – for fruits, other essentials, fuel, tender coconuts and photographs. We reached the resort at 1 PM. Road conditions range between fantastic to good. The final 3.5 km leg of the journey to the resort is via steep, narrow and winding roads.

The resort is surrounded by tea plantations and thick roads. Approach road is not tarred and nothing to worry about. Almost all cars will be able to make it without any issues. It has some independent cottages and villas built in authentic Kerala architecture. Each and every cottage is well insulated from other cottages, which gives the great feeling of being in an isolated place. The restaurant servers Kerala Style food with some additional North and South Indian delicacies. Breakfast and the dinner are buffet. Snacks and coffee can be ordered at any time. Being Veggies, our options were reduced a little bit. But considering the fact that we were in Kerala, there were plenty of vegetarian food options.

The environment changed drastically after 6 PM on the first day. It started as a drizzle and was a full blown rain in 30 minutes. Slowly the clouds started descending and our cottage was surrounded by clouds within no time. We settled in the comfortable wooden ‘easy chairs’ and watched all this drama of nature from our verandah for a couple of hours. Sounds of the forest were at its best during the dusk.

Day 2:

Went to Pookoot Lake and Edakkal Caves on day 2. Pookoot Lake is nothing but an overcrowded holiday spot on holidays.

Edakkal caves have some drawings carved in the inner walls and these belong to the Stone Age. To reach this place, one has to park their vehicle in the designated parking lots and take the Jeep service to the top. Jeep will take you to a place from where you have to climb 200 meters to reach the caves. Even this place was crowded as we went there on a Saturday.

Returned to the resort by 7 PM and spent time again watching nature’s drama.

Day 3:

Left the resort at 11.30 after breakfast (Puttu & Kadala, Chana & Batoora, Bread Jam and Upma).

Had lunch a Kamath Madhuvan at Mysore at 2.45 PM. The restaurant was overcrowded and staff was least interested in serving people. After all possible chaos, we left the hotel at 4. Traffic conditions were worst and we reached Whitefield at 8 PM.



Route:

Bangalore -> Mysore -> Nanjanagud -> Gundlupet -> Sulthan Bathery -> Kalpeta -> Vythiri -> Lakkidi

Trip Meter: 730 Kms (Bangalore to Bangalore)

Photos:

Car: Ritz VDi. With this trip, car completed its first 10000 Kms within 4 months. Except the rattling sounds here and there, there are no major issues.

Wish list: Better Brakes, some solution for the thick A pillar which blocks the view, tilt steering, lumber support.

Sripuram - Vellore

Avi came on Saturday night to spend his semester holidays with us. Now the question was that how to kick start the season?
The answer was found in few minutes with the help of an old article in Taranga and some googling - SRIPURAM shrine. This is a temple near Vellore, TN which is completely covered in gold. Here is the Wiki link - SRIPURAM .


Trip log :
Started from Whitefield at 5.40 AM. First and the only stop over was AAB (Adyar Anand Bhavan) between Hosur and Krishnagiri at 7 Am for breakfast. Had delicious Pongal and Medu Vade with coffee. Reached Sripuram by 9.30 AM.


There was a huge crowd of devotees in the temple and a very long queue for Darshan. We opted for special darshan at the cost of Rs 100 per head and that saved us precious 2 hours. We were out of the temple premises after Darshan at 10.45 AM and out of the parking lot at 11 AM . Again we stopped at AA for a quick snack and we were back home at 2 PM.


Highlights : Fantastic Roads all the way, Beautiful Gold Shrine, PHOTOGRAPHY and Mobiles are NOT Allowed.

Route:  Whitefield -> Varthur -> Srajapur Junction -> Anekal -> Hosur -> Krishnagiri -> Ambur ->
Vaniyambadi(By-pass) -> Pallikonda Toll Booth -> ( after 1.5 ~2 Kms)Take right towards Sripuram -> Sripuram


Trip Meter : 420+ Kms up and Down
Mileage : 18 Kmpl
Mode of Transport : Ritz VDi
People : Myself and Avi