Weekend Getaway: 16. B.R Hills

Date: 29th Aug 2014 - 30th Aug 2014

Travelers: Arun, Shilpi, Harsh and Aarush


Route: Bangalore - Kanakpura - Malavalli - Kollegal - BR Hills

Distance: 160Km one way.

Road condition: Good all the way.

First stop at Halaguru for breakfast.

2 Plate dosa (8 piece) 1 bonda 1 tea - You can get these many for 48 Rs.

Dosa and groundnut chutney was very good.

Next stop shivanasamudra. Reach early to avoid the crowd.

Gagan chukki in full flow.

In kollegal ask someone for BR hills via odanthur. You can skip Yelandur in this route. Route is good. Saves 12 Km.

Road to BR Hills.

Trees, Trees and Trees everywhere.

What can you see in BR hills?

Beautiful trees, colorful clouds, majestic mountains and nothing else.

 Jack Fruit tree near the hotel

 Kids enjoying on the empty roads

 Getting high ;)

Flowers at the guest house.

Stay: Rajathadri hill villa

Initial reaction was "ohh this place is bad" but after seeing other hotels in that area i upgraded the rating of the guest house to good.

The owner Ramseh babu was a nice person.

Guest house has 8 rooms with a small garden behind

No hotels in the hills but the food at the guest house was very good.

Home made food brought from owners house and served very hot at the guest house.

1500Rs per person per night for 2 cot room. Small room with a bathroom. Room not so great but its ok.

Road to Biligiri Rangaswamy temple. Not so great but just few hundred meters. You can choose to park the car down and walk.

Parking fee 20Rs.

Beware of monkeys.

Gigantic slippers presented by local tribes.

View from sunset point near the temple.

There are couple of places from where you can see sunset so ask someone.

Not sure when you can see sunset as its always cloudy :)




Nice cultural program by local tribes at the guest house.

Road to K.Gudi. 20 Kms from Guest house.

Safari at 3:00 PM and 6:30 AM. Only one jeep available so reach there first.

400Rs per person. Free for kids.

We reached there at 6:00 AM. There was no other visitors. The officer said the jeep has not come and 8 people are already waiting. I was wondering where? then he said they came last evening but couldn't go because of rain.

We decided to wait and at 6:20 the Jeep came but no one showed up till 6:30.

Patience pays dividend ;)

The officer said we need minimum 3 people to start safari so if you pay for 3 you can go.

We paid 1350 and took the ride. First time a Jeep safari and only 4 of us.

There are few Jeeps available but only for guest at JLR.

Only one Jeep available for outsiders.

Start of safari. Only these jeeps can handle this route.

1000 times worse than my daily route to office but enjoyed it so much :)

 First the Indian Gaur.

No luck this time :( just the pugmark of a tiger :).

Spotted couple of barking deer too but could not capture pic.

Wild Boar

Way back to guest house after the safari.

So lucky it started raining just after the safari got over.

This is what you can expect early in the morning.

Fog covering entire area.

Go prepared.

Its 9 AM in morning.

Visibility less than few meters.

Must visit place if you want to 'see nothing', 'do nothing'.

Only thing to do here is talk.

This was just a bud last evening and in the morning had turned into a beautiful flower.

 Buffet breakfast outside the room.

Acres and acres of sugarcane and rice fields on the way.

Nice dosa at setty upahara darshini in kollegal.

Rating:

Room: Average.

Food: Very good.

Weather: Extremely good.

Overall: Very good.

Kanyakumari

Date: 15 Aug 2014 - 16 Aug 2014

Travellers: Arun, Shilpi, Harsh, Radheshyam, Usha

Stay: Hotel Tamil Nadu. Twin cottage.

Rating:

Food: Average food at the hotel. Lot of small hotels to eat near Bhagavathy amman temple but average.

Stay: Awesome. Scroll down to see why.

Weather: Hot and humid.

Travell: SRS Travells.

Bus condition was ok. 15 Hrs travel.

Road Condition: Very good 4 lane highway till nagarcoil.
SH till Kanyakumari is ok.

Ferry to go to Swami Vivekananda rock and Thiruvalluvar statue.

One learning in this trip: Money can't buy everything but it can buy all needed comfort ;)

34Rs per person for ordinary queue for ferry. Crowded like crazy because of leave season.

169Rs per person for special line for which was free and no need to wait in long line.

Good thinking. These white line keeps the walking path cool on the rock.

 At Swami Vivekananda Rock.

 Compass

 Calendar

View of Swami Vivekananda rock from Thiru valluvar rock.

Thiruvalluvar statue. The ferry first drops you at Swami Vivekananda rock and then takes you to statue. You can skip this if you want as you can take pics from shore.

Not sure why they did not connect these 2 rocks  with bridge. Many skip the valluvar statue because they need to wait for ferry again.

View of twin rocks from shore.

On the way to Kumari amman temple.

Here too money did a good job (which i am not so proud of ;) ). The priest took us directly inside skipping all queue for 100 Rs.

Shirt and vest not allowed in the temple.

Electric vehicle ply between the temple and sunset point often. They charge 10-20Rs based on the distance.

 Mahatma Gandhi Memorial

Perunthalaivar Kamaraj Memorial.

 At sunset point

 Sunset

Sunrise between Gandhi Memorial and Kamarajar Memorial

 Crown on Gandhi memorial.

Ultimate Peacock dance. For the first time in life have seen this.

There are more than a dozen peacock in the hotel compound. 

 Harsh and Shilpi feeding biscuit to peacock from room balcony.

Another peacock dance. 4 peacock's gave us this majestic show.

 Back view.

This is the reason i had mentioned the stay as awesome.

Took half day tour from hotel travel desk. 900Rs for half day.

First stop at Ramar temple.

 Next Shirdi Sai Baba temple

 All statue made of marble at the sai baba temple.

Suseendram temple.

Again no shirts and vests in this temple.

Specialty of this temple is the musical pillars.

Find any priest and ask them about musical pillar. They take 10Rs per person and will show you the pillar.

Really was surprised by the pillars. You can really hear music from some 5 pillars.

There are small stone pillars kept in particular angle and space between them that was creating music.

This is a must see, sorry must hear.

Next Shri Datta Temple. Situated in the middle of a coconut farm. The temple has a dome and a marking at the center. Sit under that and clap your hands and you can hear the clap echoed back.

Next Vattakotai. Not much to see hear. If you can too tired you can skip this. 

View from Vattakotai.

Last stop Vivekananda exhibition. Pictorial exhibition of swami vivekananda.

There is a 3D image at the entrance. Stand on one side and look at the feet. Then without taking your eyes of move to other side and you can see the feet moving with you.

 Shops on the temple street.

Dry fruits and spices shop.

 Sea shells.

 Made of coconut shells.