Karnataka Darshan!!

Went out on a 3 day trip in Dec 2009 during the Christmas vacation...Even though it was supposedly winter the weather was on hotter side..This was not the first time I was going to the same place but this time was different since we explored lot of unknown places..Definitely amazingly beautiful places were hidden for us to explore.. Here it goes
Day 1: We went to a 'Elephant camp' in Sakrebyle (Shimoga), here you can give bath to elephants and feed them. But you need to be here by 8:30AM to take the pleasure of giving bath to elephants..This place is open till 11:00AM..Each elephant was interestingly named and surprising the way people who work there remember their names since everything looked the same to me :)..There were all sizes of elephants here- right from baby elephant to the huge mother elephants...These elephants will give their blessings to you if their master tell them to do so..

Elephant bath

Elephant blessing

We then headed to Kuvempu's memorial in Kavishaila, Kuppali...Kuvempu is a renowned national poet.. His place is turned into a museum which displays all of Kuvempus's work and his awards that he has earned through out his life..The place spans over 1000 acres and govt has taken the responsibility in maintaining the place and needless to say they have done a really good job here...You can then do a small walk from the house up towards the view point where Kuvempu was inspired to write his work... You can even see his memorial here..

Kuvempu house and Inside view

We then headed towards Sringeri and on on our way we went 'Sirimane Jalapatha' and halted there for a while...Really beautiful falls..


We then went to Sringeri temple...The architecture of the place is magnificent..

Finally headed to Udupi where we halted in the night and next day we would resume from here..

Day2: Went to Shri Krishna Udupi temple for darshan in the morning..Very crowded and took a long time waiting in the queue...

Done with the religious stuff for the day n then we headed for some fun time...Went to St.Mary's island...You cant believe how crowded it was since it was a long weekend...We took more than a hour in the Q jus to get into the boat which would take us to the island and not to forget we spent 30min in the Q to purchase the ticket..





After whiling away time at the island we went to Malpe beach to play...After all the running around we went to a beach resort to have lunch... The much waited food since we were all starving to death... After some rest in the hotel we headed to Kapu beach in the evening...Saw the sunset,played in the water and took long walks on the shore... We were asked not to go to the light house on the beach since someone had committed suicide there sometime back...They believed it was jinxed..






There was Rathotsava in the night at the udupi temple...


After super tiring day it was time to take rest...

Day 3: Went to some backwaters close to a church...No one seem to know the name of the place but it was amazingly beautiful...Can you even imagine backwaters in Karnataka, I always thought backwaters was only in Kerala...But I was mistaken...Took an hour boat ride, could even spot some species of birds there...






Next headed to Vivekananda meditation center Krupa Kunj..It was a peaceful place...There was a very interesting 4D painting of Kali n in which ever direction you see it you feel the goddess looking at you..





Went to Kollur mookambika temple to visit the deity...After which we went to Chakra dam...Worth going there..I know most of them wouldn't have even heard about it..Even I hadn't until I went there...Also there was a fort on the way back.. Sadly there was no name plate put up there...





This trip was sort of eye opener for me..There are so many amazing places in our own country that we are unaware off..Feel sad that the tourism industry is not doing much to promote it..I plan to do it in my own small way by reaching people through my blogs..

Karwar n Dandeli

This is again a late post. I had gone to Karwar and Dandeli in Sept 2009. This was the most relaxed trip I have ever had..It was badly needed after the super hectic Ladakh trip..Stayed in Jungle resorts at both Karwar n Dandeli amidst nature..Spent most of the time exploring nature, its creations and hogging..Took long nature walks and this is what we found.
Enjoy the pics !!!






The artistic crab







Wild banyan tree


This looks like snake hood


Wild Mushroom




Cottages





We went to wild life safari in Dandeli but could hardly spot any animals :( The only setback during the trip was we couldn't do white water rafting at Kali river since it was dried up. But the irony is just a week after we left there were floods in the same place.