The Great South Indian Roadtrip : Tanjavur

The final stopover of our south India roadtrip was the ancient city of Tanjavur. And this city is predominantly famous for the temple which has entered into the UNESCO world heritage site. This temple along with 2 other temples in the vicinity are collectively known as Great Chola Living temples, "living" because these temple are still functioning unlike majority of other Indian temples which have the  UNESCO tag. We decided to visit only the temple within the city, known as Brihadeshwara Temple or known simply as The Big temple. And yes, it does live up to its tag of the "Big Temple" , because this temple was HUGE !!!!!.

Outer Walls and Nandi 

We visited the temple in the evening. Hence we got the day and the night views which were both spectacular. There are many huge temple complexes in India, but I had never seen the main temple to be of such size and proportion. The main temple houses a huge Shiva Linga under the gigantic gopuram. Everything is of enormous size here, glorifying the legacy of the Chola empire. This 1000 year temple has 3 layers of outer walls, each having a spectacular gopuram to enter. There is also a huge Nandi statue right in front of the main temple. By nightfall the temple is lit by huge halogen lamps giving it a completely different feel. One of the must visit places in Tamil Nadu for sure.

Darbar Hall

The following day our next stop was the Maratha Palace. Prior to visiting Tanjore I was unaware of the fact that the Maratha Kings had conquered so far south. There are a lot of places to visit around the palace, and it is worthwhile to visit these places only once. First we entered the Saraswathi Library which housed a lot of old manuscripts and had a pretty good collections of books, paintings, coins etc. Second was the Darbar hall, which was not maintained as it should have been. There is a museum. Some sections of the museum were pretty decent, but the other sections had completed gone to the dogs, especially the hall housing the huge skeleton of whale. There is a huge bell tower and unfortunately one is not allowed to go up. Sadly there was graffiti everywhere and it was heartening to see the off limit areas free from these pests.



We left Tanjavur and started our final leg towards Bangalore. But not before we made a detour to Srirangam near Trichy. Srirangam is one of the largest temple complexes in the world, second only to the Angkor Wat and that makes it the worlds largest functioning temple complex. Moving from one of the largest temple in the world to one of the largest temple complex in the world :). The temple has 7 concentric walls which needs to be crossed to enter the temple. But even though the sprawling Vishnu temple was huge , there was no wow factor like the Brihadeshwara temple in Tanjore. There are temple after temple inside this complex and the whole architecture seemed a bit haphazard and not grandiose. And having been already saturated with an overdose of temples during this trip, we didnt spend more than an hour at this place. And finally it was a long drive all the way back to Bangalore , with the some good roads enroute !!!!

The Great South Indian Roadtrip : Rameshwaram

Rameshwaram was the showstopper of our South Indian road trip. If given an option to cover just one place during this trip, then it definitely would be this place and this did meet our expectations. The good thing about this place is that the journey to this destination and the destination itself are top notch. We took the Kashmir- Kanyakumari Highway till Tirunellveli and from there took a diversion towards Rameshwaram. The roads are totally deserted in terms of vehicular traffic, a complete contrast to the highways through Kerala. Yet it was quite scenic with endless salt fields on both sides of the highway. Eventhough from google maps it looks like the route goes along the sea, one hardly gets a chance of driving with a sea view. Unless , ofcourse you reach the great Pamban bridge !!!!

Pamban Bridge

Pamban bridge is one of the most circulated images within India for the purpose of tourism and it does have those elements which makes it picture perfect. Legally speaking no one is supposed to stop on top of this bridge, with multiple boards advising the same, but we saw a huge line of vehicles parked and this temped us to do the same. We stopped only for 5 mins before a police patrol car came in and ordered the vehicles to be cleared. Fortunately by this time we had already experienced the view from the bridge. Shouldnt the Govt make provision for the tourists to view one of the best scenes in Rameshwaram, I hope they do some arrangement in the future.

Offroading through the Marshlands

The first thing we did was to go to the main Ramanathaswamy temple, which was huge, supposedly has the longest corridor in the world. It seemed like we walked atleast a km from the temple entrance to the main deity :P. The temple interiors were very good and interesting. There are a lot of holy theerthams in and around Rameshwaram wherein one is supposed to take a dip to get blessed. We saw a lot of pilgrims doing the same. After exploring the temple we proceeded to our hotel (Jiwan Residency), a recommended hotel to stay in Rameshwaram.

Church

The following day it was time to explore Danushkodi. It is famous as the Rama Setu which according to mythology was build by Rama in order to reach Sri Lanka. The roads from Rameshwaram are very good till a check post wherein we had to abandon our private vehicles and had to get into rickety 4x4 vehicles. This vehicle takes a semi solid terrain route via marshlands which cannot be crossed by normal vehicles to reach the "Ghost" town of Dhanuskodi. But there were 2 surprises in store for us. First, was that there was a perfect all terrain road all the way to the town, but apart from the locals no one was allowed to use it. Looked like a collusion to force tourists to buy tickets to the 4x4 rides. And second being that Dhanuskodi is no longer a ghost town and is being inhabited. Dhanuskodi is infamous as the town which got washed away in the cyclone of 1964, which also included an entire train.

Danuskhodi Beach

The beaches of Dhanuskodi are gorgeous and we had a great time exploring the ruins of the village, including church, post office, railway station and so on. It was a fun ride through the marshlands. This excursion to Dhanushkodi took close to 4 hours of our time, but it was totally worth it. From Dhanushkodi we started to search for the infamous floating rocks of Rameshwaram. First we went to the Gandamadana Parvatham in search of it. But alas we couldnt find it here, but we got some good views of the entire Rameshwaram island. Next stop was the 5 faced Hanuman temple. It was here we stuck gold, with the floating stones. But the fact is the floating stones are nothing but porous pumice stones covered with corals, which gives it the ability to float. But the touts at this temple were making a quick buck selling poojas to the gullible .

Overall Rameshwaram is certainly a must visit for not just the religious, but also to the wanderlust junta trying to discover interesting parts of India.

Rameshwaram Temple Competing with the Rameshwaram Tower :)

The Great South Indian Roadtrip : Kanyakumari

Kanyakumari is a bit of a letdown considering the aura it projects across the Indian subcontinent, such as the southernmost tip of mainland India, the place where all the 3 major water bodies meet (Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal). There are only a couple of places where one can visit. They are the Kumari Amman temple, the Vivekananda Rock memorial , the Thiruvalluvar rock statue and the sangam beach.

The first place we visited was the temple. Frankly speaking this was the least impressive of all the temples we had visited during our South India trip. It was small, hidden in some back alleyway, with no spectacular gopuras or intricate carving. But the best thing about this place is you get some good  views of the Vivekananda memorial and Thiruvelluvar statue.

From the temple we went to the docks, from where ferries are run to and fro the rock memorial. The time taken is hardly 10 mins and after some recent tragic incidents, they have made it mandatory to put on life vests. The Vivekananda rock memorial is a pretty interesting place to visit . The place where Swami Vivekananda had come to meditate before making his way to Chicago. There are a lot of memorials of the saint and the best part is the meditation room. Visiting this place was quite soothing, with it being surrounded by sea in all direction. Entry to the Thriruvalluvar statue is banned due to choppy seas. Don't know whether this has been done recently with the onset of monsoons , or whether its a permanent affair. The last time I was here was close to 20 years back, and I clearly remember visiting the memorial like it was yesterday. How time flies :).

The best and the unknown part of Kanyakumari not to be missed is the huge farm of windmills along the Kanyakumari-Kashmir National Highway. It was a very pretty sight driving along this deserted highway. Next stop Rameshwaram :).

Kodaikanal, With A Stopover At Madurai

Silent Valley Viewpoint

This trip was more of an impromptu trip without much of a planning involved, thanks to the long weekend for Dasahara. But I had one of the greatest enlightenment of recent times, "Never to visit a traditional travel destination on a long weekend especially during the school vacations". Kodaikanal does fall under this category of a "traditional holiday destination" and hence we had to endure the wrath of an overcrowded place , going totally against the concept of vacation wherein one is expected to relax and unwind. Further it was my second innings to these hills, after a gap of nearly 6 years and I could see drastic changes everywhere. Since I was the only one on driver duty it was decided to split the journey into smaller manageable legs and hence we left for Salem once I was back from office.  We rested for the night at the Raj Residency at Salem which was a well maintained service apartment. It was big. It was neat. It was totally worth the money spent.

We left Salem in the morning after having breakfast at one among the innumerable "Saravana Bhavans" dotting the landscape within the city and its outskirts. It seemed that naming their eatery anything apart from "Saravana Bhavan" was a great blasphemy :P.  Also found that the servers at this particular restaurant were ladies, which was the first time I have experienced in a not-so-high-end restaurant giving a vibe that women are much more empowered in these parts of the country. Once you are out of Salem travelling towards Madurai which is at distance of close of 240km there is an immediate dearth of any decent eateries along the highway. The highway between these 2 Tamil cities was smooth and we reached there just in time, before the Meenakshi temple closes at 12.30 pm. Infact we were among the last few people allowed in and my wife was literally the last person allowed in. But one complain is that the streets of Madurai leading to the temple are narrow , congested and pothole ridden. It didn't make sense that they couldn't maintain or improve the infrastructure to one of India's most famous temple !!!!

The temple on the other hand was spectacular. Mammoth in size and even though the gates of the temple were closed, we were allowed to spend our own sweet time exploring the temple and no one forces you out of it. One of the unique feature of this temple is the usage of bright colors to decorate majority of the sculptures and not even sparring the roof from it. The inner sanctum can be accessed only by Indians and foreigners and strictly prohibited from entering this place. And a funny thing happened in here. There are entrance doors with different entry fee starting from 20, 50 and 100. So the general perception was that the higher you paid , faster the darshan would be since all these queue's would ultimately join the same general Q at some point. We took the 20 Re ticket since it didnt look like it was crowded in there and to our surprise there were more people in the 50 and 100 Rs queue than the 20 Rs Q :P. Had a good laugh seeing their surprised faces on seeing the much short er 20 Rs queue :D.

Silver Cascade Falls

After exploring the main sanctum, we explored the other parts of the temple which included the 1000 pillar Hall museum, the super tall gopurams and so on. Spent close to 2 hours exploring this place and then we left for Kodaikanal our main destination for this trip. The route from Madurai to Kodaikanal is a well maintained 2 lane highway. But at the checkpoint of the hills we were stopped by police officials, who basically wanted us to prove that we were husband and wife. Had some comical turn of events because of that, which I wont be describing though :). Had a small break at Silver Cascade falls which one encounters couple of KM before the town and is very gorgeous. We had booked rooms at Kodai Sunshine Hotel and had also got a good deal. Hence once we entered the town of Kodaikanal we first explored the area around the Kodaikanal lake. But thanks to the long weekend and school holidays it was a chock-a-block in the heart of Kodaikanal. Our hotel was in outskirts of the main town and it was very peaceful over there.

Upper Shola View

The next day we were to explore all the major sightseeing spots of Kodaikanal. But due to the tourist rush it was really a painful experience trying to navigate through jams on these hilly roads. We first went to Upper Lake view wherein one gets a good view of the entire town especially the lake. Following this we went to the observatory. Even though it was govt run organization it was pretty informative and I saw solar spot for the first time in my life . All the major sightseeing places of Kodaikanal are situated in a loop sort of road which begins and ends back into the town. After the educational tour we encounter the beautiful pine forest , but looks like due to heavy footfall there was a lot of garbage strewn across the place.

The Jam !!!!

Berjam Lake from a distance

The best part of being in Kodaikanal was the weather , which was close to freezing even though the plains were simmering with heat. Once we were fed up of navigating through the heavy traffic and we reached the Suicide view point we saw the board as the entrance to Berijam lake. This lake is highly restricted and "supposedly" only 25 vehicles are allowed in per day (But we saw a lot more during our 1 hr wait at this place :)). For those who cannot take their vehicle there are minibuses run by the forest department for every hour or so and we caught the last bus for the day at 2.30 pm. The tour lasts for a couple of hours and this was the most peaceful part of our sightseeing trip in Kodaikanal. Found some breathtaking view points inside this reserve forest, the most exciting among them being the Silent Valley view point. Other major stopovers are Caps fly and the lake itself. It is more like a guided tour and the driver provides some interesting background information regarding each individual places.

Once we were back to the entrance of the this park the traffic had reduced and we proceeded with our traditional tour covering Pillar rocks and then back to the town. Since we had skipped our lunch thanks to Berijam lake excursion,  we were starving like hell and surprisingly none of the eateries were serving any food and it was just 6 in the evening. Finally we went to a Bangalore based restaurant "Woodys" and once they came to know that we were Bangaloreans they prepared food from scratch including chutney to serve us. In process they got all our gratitude and a fat tip :). Later we had shopping for home made chocolates to be taken back home.

Pillar Rocks

The following day after having our breakfast and checking out of our room we decided to visit the Bear Shola falls which is pretty much within the town limits. There was not much water flow in this particular falls and it was just ok. From there started our return journey back to Bangalore. The initial part of the return journey was good and we had a stopover at Salem for lunch. After that we got caught within the huge rush of vehicles trying to make their way back to Bangalore. We literally encountered a 2 km jam before the Dharmapuri toll gate. After this ordeal we checked google maps for the traffic updates and saw that there was a huge 4-5 km jam at Krishnagiri tollgate. Hence decided to take a detour and took the lesser used state highway. We took the route Dharmapuri-Rayakottai-Hosur hence avoiding the Krishnagiri stretch and probably saved fuel, toll fee and a lot a frustration. Reached back home after an exhausting drive back :).

Pushing My Boundaries: A Saga Of Cycling 210 kms !!!!!

"Why in the world do you want to cycle 200+ kms ????? "
"Because cycling 100kms is so ordinary and every tom, dick and harry can do it :P."

That pretty much is my cheesy answer whenever I encounter the above question, and believe me I encountered this question a lot, before the ride and during the ride especially from the villagers. This plan of riding 200km was in offing from a long time since I rode 150kms up and down to Nandi hills , way back in 2011. When I started cycling again in my adult life, 100km cycling seemed tough and 200km cycling seemed totally impossible, hence it was more of a psychological barrier. But instead of doing it solo I had come across this concept of randonneuring where a group of cyclists try to complete distances such as 200km, 300km, 400km, 600km, 1000km within a predetermined fixed time and with no external aid , hence forcing the riders to be totally self sufficient. Unfortunately from a long time I wasnt able to participate in this, since most of the brevet events would be conducted on Saturdays and with my Saturdays busy with my MBA classes, I had no option but to wait for the right time to attempt this.

A long Q of cyclists in front of an ATM in Hosur

Making Some New Friends

So fate had assigned March 8th 2014 as the day when I would be attempting my first brevet (a randonneuring event is called so). Initially me and Shashi were planning to do this together, but with an emergency at home, he had to drop out. The brevet was to begin at 6 am and everyone who wanted to qualify had to complete the 210 km of cycling in 13.5 hrs. The route was  Sarjapur Road(Bangalore)->  Bommasandra-> Hosur-> Malur-> Bangarpet ->Kolar ->Hoskote- >Chiktirupathi ->Sarjapur -> Sarajpur Road(Bangalore). Since I had never ridden such a distance , I was apprehensive as to whether I should ride my bike to the starting point and back, which would have increase the count to 240km !!!!!. Finally pessimism prevailed and I decided to take the bike in my brothers car to the starting point. The ride started exactly at 6 am with around 75 people attempting it. I arrived a bit late and by the time I finished the formalities it was already 6.15am, wasting 15 mins of precious time already. Anyway started the ride and caught up with my first fellow cyclist : Kumar from Chennai, who had specially come to Bangalore to ride in this brevet.

Some Bad Roads

Even though we were provided with the Que sheet, we missed the first ever turn towards Bommasandra and overshot it by around 2 km, before it actually dawned upon us that we might have missed it completely. Took a U turn and returned back to the cross. We knew that for every mistake we commit now, we would have to suffer its consequences in the latter part of the day. However this route was great, tree lined, very minimal traffic and I was riding at a good pace. There was a difference in the strategy I adopted on this day , wherein I cycled at a comfortable pace and not overexerting myself , which is what I usually do on my routine 40km weekend rides. Reached the national highway and for the first time I cycled out of Karnataka and into Tamil Nadu while I reached Hosur. In process got separated from Kumar and in Hosur we had to collect an ATM slip to show the organizers the proof of entering. After this rode solo for the remainder of the day, interacting with fellow cyclists every now and then.  Unfortunately there was a huge Q of cyclists in front of the ATM and by the time it was my turn the ATM crashed. Anyway took a selfie snap for proof and soon enough was back on the road. A lot of cyclists took a stop here to have their breakfast, but I was of the opinion that I should keep on cycling and cover good distance before the sun becomes too hot and for the other belief that having a heavy breakfast would just bloat me and slow me down. Hence for the entire day I survived on chikkies, snickers, electral water, biscuits, tender coconut which I used to have at regular intervals.  Even had a Thumbs Up for the sugar and caffeine content when I really needed it in the blazing afternoon heat !!!!!!

A First: A selfie while riding a bike

The route was actually great. It was filled with rolling ups and downs and was a great route for cycling. Reached Malur and then took a right towards Bangarpet. The route from Malur to Bangarpet was simply awesome , being newly paved and with minimal traffic. The advantages of attempting a brevet just a month before the Lok Sabha elections :P. Ofcourse there were some bad patches too. Reached Bangarpet exactly at noon , went to the ICICI bank for the proof of entering and while I was at it, had a chat with a lot of curious onlookers and answering their never-ending questions. Initially they would think that I might be some alien and start conversing in broken English, but when I reply back in Kannada they would be mildly surprised :P. One roadside mechanic even went to the extent of calling me "The next Armstrong !!!!!", and it was my turn to be mildly surprised with his knowledge, leaving alone the controversy surrounding him.

Kolar to Hoskote Highway

The afternoon ride was especially painful and once I hit the treeless Kolar to Hoskote route the going was tough and slow in the blazing heat. All the problems of long distance cycling started to creep in, saddle sores wherein I had to constantly adjust my bum on the seat. Sore neck because of my semi-aero position. In order to counter this sore neck problem I came up with a new but a much riskier type of riding. Since the Kolar to Hoskote highway was a National Highway with 4 lanes, it did have a continuous white line running along its shoulder. So my strategy was to scan the next 200m of the road and then put my face down and just cycle ensuring that I am cycling in parallel to this white line :P.  Hence this provided some respite from the pain. Reached Emerald Isle Resort and with a quick snap thanks to fellow randonneur Mohan, was back on the road towards Chikkatirupathi. At this point the odometer was showing 155km and this was the farthest I had ridden in a day beating my Nandi hills ride. The ride through this country road was pleasant with some cloud cover and tree line. Reached Chikkatirupathi at around 5pm and met the father-son-attempting-brevets-together duo of Sanath and Manoj. I still had 26km to go in around 2.5 hrs. It now looked just like a formality to be completed. Was just hoping that I wouldn't get a flat during the ride and thankfully didnt get any.

Odometer 155: The farthest I have traveled ever

But after this I took a lot of breaks because of exhaustion. The going was slow, but I was sure that I would be able to finish within the designated time. Hit the congested Sarjapur town and then final sprint towards the end point.  As soon as I entered the Bangalore city limits there was an another headache of weekend traffic waiting for me. The stop and go traffic was a bit irritating especially when you have ridden 200+ km since early morning. Reached the end point at 6.45 pm, taking 12.5 hrs for the ride , but officially 12 hrs 45 mins since the start time is taken as 6 am. Had a great sense of achievement, but with a very bad case of saddle sores :P. During the drive back home had a hard time of keeping my eyes open due to exhaustion and somehow reached home safe and without any incidents. Surprisingly the next day I didnt have any body aches even after my body endured such a feat, however I had got a really bad case of sore throat thanks to riding all day in the sun and gulping cold water at every possible instance.

Now the wait starts for my brevet medal to arrive from Paris which usually takes around 6-8 months. So with a 200+ under my belt, whats next ??? A 300 brevet probably, but again not immediately and definitely not in a MTB. Have to upgrade to a road bike which obviously would take some time :). But till then I would be satisfied with my new title.... "Hell Yeah, I am a Randonneur !!!!!!"

[Shaky Cam Video of the Ride]

Trip 'O' Meter : 210 + 3 (getting lost :P) = 213 km

Time Taken -> 12 hrs 35 mins

Career Stats:

200's------------------------------>1 (213)
100's ----------------------------->3 (107, 150, 104)
50's ------------------------------>7 (70,55,86,91,55,81,57)

An Outing to the Blue Mountains

 "Lets go to Hyderabad!!!!"
"How many days does that require????"
"3 days minimum"
"Naah !!! We are short on leaves, lets go to a 2 day destination"
"Ok, how about Ooty"
"Naah, I heard it is not so good nowadays"
"Ok, how about Waynad??"
"Naah, there are only mountains and lakes over there"

Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah........ (goes on for about 30 mins....)

"Uffff, too many constraints everywhere. Fine, lets go to Ooty itself"
"Finally. Ok"

After a frantic search for a family outing destination , we finally ended up going to Ooty against most of our wishes since for other destinations there was one or the other constraint involved. This was my 3rd trip to this Queen of Hill stations (looks like there are a lot of such Queens in India), the first as a kid in 1994, the second in an adventurous bike ride in 2009 and now it being a laid back vacation.

Opum Gangnam Styllleee !!!!

We left Bangalore in the wee hours of 1st Dec 2012. Ride along the Bangalore Mysore highway has become so routine, we might as well ride blindfolded :P.  Had breakfast at Kamat near to Ramanagara, our usual stopover on this highway. Reached Mysore , took the awesome ring road towards Ooty. Ride along this six lane ring road with not even a single vehicle was awesome :). But the joy was shortlived and the Ring Road abruptly ended and we entered a so called maze to find our way towards Ooty. The drive was eventless and in Bandipur we had some wild life sightings in terms of deers, peacocks and so on. Nothing spectacular in short.

After Madumalai we came to the crossroads, one leading to the famous and steep 36 hairpin bend route and the other normal bus route. Anyway we decided to take the bus route since I had remembered it to be very good if not the shortest . But presently it is in a bad state, littered with potholes. But the views started to get good. At one point we were surrounded by dense eucalyptus trees and it was here we decided to take a break. After we stopped it hit upon me this was the exact spot where I had stopped while returning back all wet, dirty and freezing during the 2009 trip. NOSTALGIA :).

My brother had already booked rooms in a resort name Delightz Inn on top of Tiger Hill, based upon trip advisor reviews. Even though finding this place is a bit difficult with it being around 4 kms from the city center, the views from this place is the best even when compared to some of the tourist frequented attractions of Ooty such as the lake, botanical park etc. But ya this comes at a price and only those with a private vehicle of their own wouldn't have a problem of reaching it. There is absolute calmness around this place which was surprising since Ooty is notorious for being an overly commercial hill station.

Delightz Inn

View from the resort

Our first destination in Ooty was the Botanical Garden. And boy it was such a huge disappointment. There were hardly any blooming flowers and probably this had got to do with the season. Anyway we spent some time in this place since the weather was very good, chilly infact and it was also sunny at the same time. So you get that cozy feeling :).  After this we went to the Boat house and took a relaxed boat ride in the overly commercialized lake till nightfall. Next it was the hunt for homemade chocolates of Ooty, and since I have a soft spot for them I was the one leading the charge to find the best place to get some. In the end we got some, everyone loved it and the next day we were back to the same shop to buy some more. You cant get enough of chocolates :). By this time the temperature had dropped to single digits and out came the thick woolens. Somehow I feel that Ooty in non-peak season is a decent place where one can just chill out. When we returned back to our resort there was death silence, as if I was on some trek. Absolutely loved that !!!!!

View from Doddabetta

The next day our first destination was to the Dottabetta peak. Standing at 2637m this is the highest peak in the Nilgiris and surprisingly it also has a "motor-able" road till the top. Before we started we had a good breakfast at the resort, soaking in the morning sun , with the weather being chilly. The drive to the peak is dotted with pine forests and after a half an hour drive in a not so good road we reached the place. Similiar to other tourists destinations of Ooty, I didnt expect much, but at this place I just said "Woahhh !!!!!!". There was clear blue sky and a layer of cloud below , covering everything in sight. A mindblowing view indeed.

family pic

 After this we had drive to Conoor, again went to the not so impressive Sims park and since it was already afternoon we didn expect any good views from Kottanad View point etc. So decided to start the return journey back to Bangalore. Were able to witness a wild herd of elephants in the Bandipur forest which was the highlight of the return journey. Hence even after expecting nothing spectacular from this Ooty trip, we were still amazed , the resort, doddabetta, chocolates, bandipur and so on :).