Travel Postcard - Salem

On our way back from the 1008 Lingam Temple in Ariyanoor we found this field. Thought it was really beautiful so click went the camera.

Near Ariyanoor - 1008 Lingam Temple

1008 Lingam Temple

This 1008 Lingam Temple is located at Ariyanoor near Salem. At first I could not believe there could be that many lingams in one place.

The main temple is surrounded by 107 lingams ( they are numbered ) and I presume the main linga is the 108th one amidst all these at the main temple, It is a huge linga !!! Really big.

I found the temple beautiful and the colors on the lingam gopurams vibrant. The people at the temple guided us too. At first we are asked to enter the temple area and give our names and money for the archana. After that a very small puja and aarthi are done and we get to see the main big lingam. Then we take the aarti ( buy the red cord if we want ) and come out. Then we are free to see the entire temple at our leisure.

There are 1008 Shiva Lingams present in the temple with the holy cow Nandi in front of them all over the hill on which the temple has been built. There is an enormous Ganesha statue at the foothill too.

Another old lady showed us the temple at the top where we took another darshan and then explored the temple. We found the temple peaceful. May be b'cos it is a big one or there were not too many devotees - I don't know. We sat near the main temple for quite sometime soaking up the calm serene atmosphere. From  the area around the temple one has a view of fields and coconut groves - so can linger there for a while too.

Main temple gopuram

Lingams at the top of the hill

More lingams 

Mettur Dam

Mettur Dam was not as developed as I expected it to be. The main highlight was being able to walk on the dam itself and see the gates. The reservoir itself was far and the area for bathing was behind the dam. Did not look inviting so we skipped it.

Mettur Reservoir

We can walk on the dam that can be seen from this vantage

Place where people bathe

Place where people bathe

Hogenakkal Falls

I had seen the circular boats that are used in this place eons back in some travel mag. Ever since I had been keen to experience the same !! These round boats are made from bamboo and are carried by the boatmen.

In monsoon Hogenakkal is not open to the public because it seems all the rocky areas are covered with water. We went in December and we could enjoy the boat ride.

We were lucky in that - we did not meet obnoxious touts. In fact I was beginning to wonder if we were in the wrong place for a while before I saw the boats ! :) It took just one talk and we got a boat.

Similar to Dubare - the first stop by the boat can actually be reached by a small bridge and as expected the boatmen are to be found before that. If you do go in further - you can find the bridge that can take you to the first hop where you can get fish fry / chips / drinks etc and a boatman too if you have not already booked one.

You will find masseurs and a place where you can stand so the water comes on you with some force to wash away the oil - if that is your interest.

The boat man will then take you to the actual Hogenakkal falls area - "Hoge" in kannada means smoke and "kal" means rock - so literally smoking rocks. There is a lot of spray from the falls.

The boat man will do the following

• Take you beneath / very close a fall so you can get drenched in the water and enjoy the spray
• Do a very fast spin that makes the boat go round in circles !
• Take the actual boat ride between the rocky outcroppings
• An area where you can play in the water and have your food / picnic

We enjoyed the boat ride. This is not well known but there is a way to this water way from the Karnataka side too. However this not developed and I am not sure boats ply in the opposite direction. They mention that the entire ride takes about 1 hour.

You can get fish fry on the boat to eat too ! :) There are boats which sells items like soft drinks / chips etc too :)

Tips :

• Our boatman did not hurry us up - but we did reassure him that we would pay for any extra time we took and I think this made the difference.

• I found the people in general friendly and not obnoxious so not sure of the truth of touts in this region.

Round boats

Round boats being carried by the boat men

Hogenakkal falls

The boat ride goes beneath the falls

Hawker selling snacks and soft drinks 

The water way between rocks

View from boat

View from the Karnataka side 

Boats propped against trees

Yercaud

I had been to Yercaud long time back. It had been an office trip for a day. I remember it being very green. Perhaps it is my hazy recollection that caused me to be disappointed this time but I did not find Yercaud green or a charming cosy hill station.

In any case Yercaud has the regular things to do - a lake, boating [ pedal / rowing / motor ], horse riding, view points for sunset, a falls [ that has about 100 - 150 steps to go down to !!! ]. There is small deer park next to the boating area which is a nice walk. There are 3 - 4 deers here and a few birds.

The view from the points also were not that great. Could see urban buildings so did not appreciate it. Had expected the drive also be to be nice but - even that was not good.

So all in all - I did not consider this a great place to go to. May be it was the time of the year - December !

The deer park has plenty of swings and they don't mind adults using them either so I liked that !

Yercaud Lake - Boating

Yercaud Lake 

Deer at the deer park

View 

View

Travel Postcards - Orange flowers on the road Pune to Bangalore

We were travelling from Pune to Bangalore in the month of October 2013 - fourth week of the month. And I was amazed at seeing the orange aster flowers that were so abundant on the sides of the roads. There were many places where the entire hillside would be this vibrant color due to these bountiful flowers.

I did not stop the first few kilometers thinking it would get over soon enough and we were in a hurry so just enjoyed the view until finally I could no longer stop myself. We stopped at one point and would you know it ? Ofcourse it was the place where the flowers were not that abundant !!! :)

Anyway took a couple of snaps and thought to post them here. And as the way life happens - just at the next bend when the car had started to move fast - I found a huge hill full of the flowers ! :)

Orange Aster covering hills

Just rows and rows of these flowers

Travel Postcards - Road

I take a lot of snaps and I belong strictly to the "point and shoot" variety ! :) Sometimes some of the pictures come out really well so I thought to start adding them to my blog posts. While most of the posts in this blog have pictures in them, some pictures may fall out of the category and I can post them under some other general section.

There will be multiple such posts of course since this is an ongoing collection of snaps. So with a new label "Snapshots" I will be adding them to my blog. Details of each shot will be below each picture.

Golden Quadrilateral - Near Kolhapur

Golden Quadrilateral - Near Kolhapur - Sugar cane fields - Love this pic !!!!

Enroute Mangalore - State Highway after Dharwad

Fields on State Highway towards Mangalore

Fields on State Highway towards Mangalore

Travel Postcards - Maravanthe Beach

We keep passing Maravanthe Beach when we drive from Pune to Mangalore. This time we saw the beach on a rainy day and passed it on our way back during sunset so took some shots.

Rainy day dues at Maravanthe Beach

Rainy day dues at Maravanthe Beach

Rainy day dues at Maravanthe Beach

Sunset at Maravanthe Beach

Sunset at Maravanthe Beach - I liked the footsteps in the sand, the lone figure walking to the water and the sun :)

Sunset at Maravanthe Beach

Siddhivinayak Temple Visit

Siddhivinayak at Prabhadevi

We went to Siddhivinayak Temple last weekend. A Saturday. Left Pune around 11:30 am and reached Mumbai around 2:00 pm.

I had been wanting to go to this temple for about 6 years or so. I had always thought I would be able to tag along with someone who was planning to go there but it did not work out and finally I went with my hubby .. an atheist ! :)

The drive itself was uneventful - we used google maps and reached the temple. The police have blocked the road that leads to the temple for security reasons I guess. On asking, a policeman told us to park anywhere in the road perpendicular to the approach road and go to the temple. The irony - that road had more "No Parking" signs that parking places.

We were then approached by a tout who said that he would find us a parking space provided we got the pooja items from his stall. Well, we went with it.

He found a place close to the temple alright - the other approach road and with "No Parking" signs ! We asked him if it was okay to park there but he said it would be fine.

Then he was dismayed to find that we planned to eat before we went inside the temple. Hey we had driven from Pune and our child was hungry. He asked us to give him our car keys !!! Well ... ! We did not give them of course !

After coming back from lunch which took about 30 min he complained saying we took too long. In any case we took the pooja items from him - for 150/-. Then he asked us not to take too long in the temple. Really ! Isn't it dependent on how long the queue would be ?

When we went inside there were lot more shops asking us to buy pooja items. We already had them so did not bother to check how much that would cost.

The queue seemed long but after the first batch - we were let in. And we got the darshan pretty fast.  Yet that tout said we were late. Finally we realized he was just as anxious as we were about the "No Parking" rule. No wonder he kept on saying we were late. He could have had about 4 people come and go by now it seems instead of just guarding our car !!! It so happened that when my hubby was putting on his shoes a policeman stopped next to our car !! Good we were ready to leave and he could see us putting on shoes.

So out we drove and we got caught by a policeman who warned us about the tint on our car. We had had that checked here in Pune and we had been told it was not a cause for concern since it was light colored and not too dark that one could not see inside. Anyway after we finished paying the fine I had this bright idea to go to that Worli link bridge !!!

Paid the toll ; I was not much impressed by the bridge ! I mean perhaps I expected it to be longer or more spectacular - the half girders after the full length girders did not look good I thought. The view is good and if we could stop on the bridge it would be better ! It would also be good to have a vantage point to view the complete bridge - there must be one. Since we did this last minute we could not go to it.

Came to the exit from the bridge and then .... again another policeman caught us for the same reason !! Phew !!! Anyway we showed him that we had already been penalized for the same item and he let us go !

After that, the route that we had to take to come back to Pune went around Siddhivinayak again ... LOL .. ha ha it was funny ... we did not get a chance to go around the idol inside the temple - it would have broken the incoming line ... so God ensured we were forced to do it ... albeit a bigger round.

We took the route suggested by google and again saw the same first policeman !!! Jeez !!! However we were not stopped and my hubby's phone lasted long enough for us to reach the express way and then it went dead due to no battery ! :)

Still a wish fulfilled and another too - had wanted to see the Worli link ! :)

Tips :

1. The touts near the mandir may say they will get a parking place but this is just a place on the other road to the temple and it has "No Parking" signs. It is your choice if you want to give you car keys but we did not !

2. The line at this temple is not as efficient as the line at Tirupati. Here once we enter the sanctum area it is like a free for all !!! In Tirupati due to the dividing line each person gets to go in front of the diety even if it is for just a glimpse. Here you can be in the sanctum and people push you out of the way and it is difficult to get back once you are pushed out.

Added to it - the line suddenly splits into two at a couple of places and one is suspicious if that will make us get the darshan faster or slower !!!

Road Trip 2013 - Someshwar Beach, Mangalore

Someshwar Beach was not a part of our itenary but when we were in Mangalore we wanted to see an uncle's tota ( plantation ) and this beach was close to his tota so we went there after seeing the coconut plantation.

The beach is divided into two areas by a rock and the there is a path to climb onto the rock. One can view the sunset here provided the horizon also agrees to be non-hazy ! :)

The sands are fine and clean. Did not get into the water but enjoyed the sunset views.

Tips :

1. Sunset looks beautiful from this point. So you may want to plan accordingly.

2. Do have churmura upkari at this place. It is a local bhel which is made from murmura, grated carrot, tomatoes, beetroot, mangoes ( you can opt out of any veggies ! ), onions and lime juice and masala. Yummy ! :)

Chikoo 

Just flowers

Typical Coconut Grove

Jackfruit tree

This is called the "Rath" flower since it is shaped like a temple rath

Someshwar Beach Rock and way to it

View from the rock

One side of the beach

Deepening hue of blue as the sun set

Blue

High tide and lovely hue

Road Trip 2013 - Madikere

During our stay in Coorg we went to Madikere Town and saw a few tourist spots there.

1. Abbey Falls
2. Raja's seat 
3. Cauvery Nisaragadhama

Abbey Falls : I found this a nice place to visit. There was plenty of water and a hanging bridge from where we could view the waterfall easily. Nothing really stood out for me - it was pleasant.

Raja's seat : This is a great point in Madikere. Lovely views from here ! So I would put it as a must visit if you visit Madikere. See pics below ! :)

Cauvery Nisargadhama : This was a fun place ! We enjoyed boating here and the walk around the the entire area. There are stops on the walking route so you can catch a breath. Log huts on trees give a differenct view. We ended up spending about half an hour in one since it started raining heavily. So with the dripping roof on top of a tree and the rain ... hmmm it was a very nice time. Just needed some hot tea ! :)

There was a swing beneath the tree - so we spent some time there too. Elephant rides can also be availed from near the Deer Park area.

Outside of the nature resort there is horse riding ( they charge a lot !!! ) and a play area for kids. All in all perfect for a family outing !!

For us the main attraction was the deer feeding ! :) The deer turned up their noses when we tried to feed them leaves ! :) They wanted cabbage and cucumber instead ! :)

Cousin's plantation : We were able to go to my hubby's cousin's plantation in Madikeri so have added some general pics of that place for a feel of the hinterland. We also got to see cocoa tree, a rubber plantation and pepper of course ! :)

Tips :

1. Do go to Raja's seat. Wonderful panoramic views from this point. There is supposed to be  water show too but we did not get to see it since it was closed.

2. Cauvery Nisargadhama is also a lovely place for families. Do feed the deer - cucumber and cabbage ! Climb on the log huts too.

Abbey Falls

Snail ... we waited for this to cross the road .. since it looked like the traffic on the foot trail to Abbey would quash it !

View from Raja's seat

View from Raja's seat

Boating at Cauvery Nisargadhama

Deers 

They turned up their noses at leaves but liked cabbage

Just another view of the deers

Cucumbers were fine too !

Elephant riding start

Halt on the walking route inside the Nisargadhama

A very high up view area still under construction

Rubber Sap

Rubber plantation

Cocoa ! :)

Brinjals

River in the back area of cousin's plantation

Bamboo hanging bridge

Still waters ...

The road to his cousin's plantation ... very very green