Weekend Getaway 43: Srikalahasti Temple, Srikalahasti

Date: 14th May 2017

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi Aarush, Radheshyam, Usha, Sourav and Harsh

Fee: Rs 50. Free available as in all temples. The price for Rahu Ketu pooja varies from 300-5000.

Main Deity: Lord Shiva

Srikalahasti temple is the only panchabhoota sthala present outside of Tamil Nadu. Other 4 panchabhootha sthala are

• Thiruvanamalai - Fire
• Chidambaram - Space
• Kanchipuram - Earth
• Thiruvanaikaval - Water

Lord shiva in this temple represents wind (vayu). This temple is famous for the rahu ketu pooja and we saw various places offering the pooja service at varying cost. As always the low cost one was crowded and pooja was performed in a hall. The 2500Rs one was performed inside the main shrine and were only limited people. There were poojas for 500 and 1500 as well. The temple is around 1500 years old and its the only temple in India which is not closed during solar and lunar eclipse. There is a smaller temple on top of the adjoining hill for Kannapa nayanar. He was one of the 63 nayanars. The legend says he was ready to offer both his eyes when he saw the blood was oozing from the shiva linga. Shiva moved by his devotion stopped him and gave him back the eyesight. 

The temple was bit crowded when we reached but it was moving fine. There are many smaller shrines inside including Ganesha and Karthikeyan. We climbed up to the kannapar temple on the hill to get the full view of the temple. The view the beautiful and it would have been even pleasant if there was water in Swarnamukhi river. 

Also Read Sri Venkateswara Temple, Tirupathi

Few pics from the place.

One of the famous Hindu temples dedicated to lord Shiva and a must visit place.

Things to remember while visiting Tirupati

We visited Venkateswara temple in Tirupati on 13th May 2017. In this post we tried to give some information that one needs to remember while visiting the temple. The temple gets 50K to 100K visitors everyday. This increases on special festivals. With so many people visiting, the rules are strict and needs to be followed at any cost to not cause any inconvenient situation.

Few things to remember.

Tickets:

Book the tickets online from the ttd website.
Make sure you provide the correct ID proof and make sure to carry the same.
Kids below 5 years does not need any proof. Kids between 5-12 years need to carry ID proof to get free entry. Adults need to carry the exact same ID proof that was given during ticket booking. You can select any time slot as per your convenience. Tickets can also be booked on behalf of others.
Carry the print out of the ticket.

Dress code:

Kids are allowed with pant. Adults are supposed to wear full pant or dhothi. There are people selling dhothi outside and they tell trousers are not allowed and try to sell you their stuff. We saw men wearing jeans and was allowed inside. However it will be good if people went in traditional dress.

Security:

No luggage is allowed inside. There is cloak room in multiple places and all the belongings can be deposited in there. No electronic device allowed inside. Mobile, camera and footwear should be deposited and slip collected. The luggage can be collected from the common area. All the things are transferred from ATC cloak room in small lorries. If you do not wish to click pictures of the temple outside leave the mobile and camera in car else leave it in cloak room so you dont have to walk back a lot.

Check post:

Stop the car, let other passengers to go through the security check. Driver needs to be with the car. Need to open the trunk as well as the bonnet of the car and let the security inspect it.

Drive:

Do not stop the car while driving up unless you spot a really big place to pull over. Since its one way the vehicles turn very fast in the curves. There are many speed breakers (but small ones) while coming down so do not speed. There are few designated parking areas but the hill is too big and there are many places to park on the road side.

Crowd:

It is going to be crowded any day of the year. Make up your mind to wait atleast an hour or more. If you can get darshan before that then you could be really lucky. As in any place where its crowded in India do not expect people following queue.

Others:

You are allowed to carry water bottle. Sometimes the wait gets too long and definitely people need water. The water bottles are allowed in a bag.

You are Welcome.

Weekend Getaway 42: Sri Venkateswara Temple, Thirumala Tirupati

Date: 13th May 2017

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi Harsh, Radheshyam, Usha, Sourav and Aarush

Fee: Rs 300 booked from the temple website. Toll Rs 30.

Timing: I guess full day. Cars are not allowed up from 12 midnight to 2 AM.

Main Deity: Lord Venkateswara, incarnation of Vishnu.

6 year ago we were pushed, pulled, crushed, waited for 4 hours and finally came out without worshiping. 6 years later it was the same except that we stood only for an hour and finally had the blessing of Lord Balaji. We had booked for 4 PM slot on 13th. We reached haritha hotel in kalahasti at 11:45 AM itself. The hotel is bit faraway from Tirupati. We rested for couple of hours and started at 1:30 from the hotel. We reached the base at 2:00 PM. After the checking at the toll we drove up the thirumala hills. The good part about the drive is its a separate route for climbing up and down. The view from the hills was beautiful but there are very few places to stop. The view especially while coming down in night is breathtaking. The view of tirupati under light was truly mesmerizing at while coming down after sunset. We struggled a bit to find the ATC parking area where the Rs 300 ticket holders need to report. We parked the car a near the Indian coffee house and walked to the parking area. We had few pain moments and a separate post on what to do and not to do coming up soon. After we got our tickets checked we joined the line. We kept moving at slow pace but we thought its fine as long as we move. We were expecting huge crowd as it was saturday evening and holiday season. We managed to get the darshan of Lord venkateswara in an hour and half which was not bad. We had more trouble in the crowd while coming out than while going in. The exit was closed for 15 min for the uthsavar to be brought in. This caused more people to be gathered to get out and it became unmanageable. The door is small and either people can go out or come in. The guard block one side and let people in and then block other and let people out. Harsh and I came out first but other got stuck and came out after 10 min. One thing i regret is leaving phone in car. The temple was decorated beautifully with serial lights. We did not have any phone to take pic. We could have deposited the phone in the cloak room and took it back after coming out. Anyway we came out had some snacks and again made a long walk back to car. We reached the hotel around 9:45, had dinner and fell asleep immediately.

Also read about Srikalahasthi temple near Tirupathi.

Few pics from the visit.

Expect the pushing, shoving and squeezing. If you do not like it just don't go instead of cribbing.

Weekend Getaway 41: Activities @ Inn the Wild

Date: 11th ad 12th Feb 2017

Travelers: Arun, Shilpi and Harsh

More info about the place in previous blog. We went for the nature walk with the property naturalist Muthu. At the start he told us that today we will surely not see anything. There was another group of 5 adults and some 6 to 7 kids. He said with these many kids shouting no animal will come out. Later he said Sir come at 6:30 next morning and most only adults will be coming in at that time and we will go bit deeper. So we did not hurry and try to see anything we just went around the property for a casual walk. We saw a langur and few wild boar. At one place Muthu started running saying he saw an wild dog. We could not follow it and i could only see something running faster inside. Then we came back to the reception and played badminton for some time. We went back to the room and waited for the safari to start. At 7 PM sharp the safari jeep came. Again muthu was our guide in that. The safari was also around the same property only but most animals will come out and we expected to spot something. Muthu said us that previous batch saw a herd of bison and took us straight to that place. The timid animals had already moved out. We could not see any bison. I stood back in the open jeep and the terrain was too rough. It was too hard to hold the camera and to balance in the jeep. We saw a bird sitting in the trail. We shooed and put light on it but it refused to move out. Finally muthu got down and went closer to the bird and it flew away. Next we spotted plenty of deer. A wild rabbit ran inside the bushes hearing the jeep noise. Everyone except me spotted a porcupine. We tried to chase it inside the bushes but i could not see it. The safari ended after 30 min. We had a nice dinner and sat across the camp fire for a while. We got dropped to the room around 9 PM. Thus ending the day at Inn the wild.

Some pics from the trip.

Orange color bird. Not sure of the name.

Moon during the safari.

Wild Rabbit.

The bird that refused to move out.

Spotted deer spotted.

Camp fire in front of the reception.

Buffalo killed by a tiger few days back and left near the tree house.

We initially thought the buffalo was dead. Lot of birds were sitting on it and picking something. We informed the person at the resort and he said the owners will come and collect it if something had happened. After some 30 min it got and walked slowly. We still think it was wounded.

Weekend Getaway 40: Tree house @ Inn The Wild

Date: 11th and 12th Feb 2017

Tourist: Arun, Shilpi and Harsh.

Costs: 9900 per night for 3. All inclusive.

After the back breaking drive from the check post to the resort we checked in and completed the formalities. Shibu the manager explained us about the stay and activities for 1 day. He explained ours is tree house (harsh came to know only now its tree house stay) and located bit away from all other rooms. The tree house was facing the water body located in the property. We can roam around the property as we wish from 6:30 AM to 6:30 PM. He asked us not to wander out or get down from the tree after it gets dark. We could understand that as we went around the property. We saw elephant dung at many places around the resort. There were wild boar and deer grazing around as the sun started setting down. We went to the tree house and we expected harsh to be super exited. He was happy but was not very exited as we expected. He said Appa what's this it looks like a room only. There is bed, table fan, bathroom with gyeaser, wash basin everything looks like room. I explained him we need all these to use and only jaggu can stay without any of these. He slowly started liking the room. We sat in the balcony looking at the small  pond. We saw only buffaloes. We freshened up and went to the dining hall. It was a buffet lunch with soup, rice, fulkha, 2 non veg, 3 veg gravy and 2 sweets. Harsh liked the gulab jammon so much that he had 5. The nature walk was planned at 4:30 and we had plenty of time. We went back to the room, i slept for a while and Harsh and shilpi were sitting in balcony and talking. I woke up and joined them in their some meaningless talk we saw a beautiful black bird with orange chest. We saw a parrot with dark red beak just flying across.  We realized jungle is not only about the big animals but also the other life. Above our balcony came a woodpecker and racket tailed drongo. It was our first sighting of the drongo or may be first time we paid some attention to the birds. We saw an owl and another bird during safari that we dont remember the name. We went for the nature walk in evening and safari in night and came back to the room. We were asked not to come out after dark so a jeep came to pick us for the safari and they droped back in room after dinner. Night we heard some noise like some one was climbing the steps. Harsh has gone into deep sleep. Shilpi and I was bit nervous. We heard the sound couple of times but we decided to ignore it and slept with the lights on. I woke up around 4:30 AM and it was i guess one day before full moon day. I open the window screen and could see the beautiful moon just above my head. It was an amazing sight.

Few pics from the resort.

Jeep drive to the resort.

Tree house that we stayed.

View of sunset from the balcony.

View of the watering hole from room.

Inside the room.

View of the mountain.

Steps to the tree house.

Dining hall.

Tribal home.

Weekend Getaway 39: Masinagudi Trip

Date: 11th and 12th Feb 2017

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi and Harsh

Distance: 265 Kms one way

Fee: Toll at Nice road.

Road Condition: Very Good.

It was Harsh wish to stay in a tree house. After seeing a tree house in Chotta Bheem he was asking he too want to stay on a tree house. We found Innthhwild resort which offers a tree house. Since there was only one tree house it was always booked. We booked it a month in advance though their website. Shilpi and I did not tell him about the stay. We had said him only that we are going to forest and stay in a room. We started at 6 AM in the morning on 11th. As usual there was slight traffic on Mysore road. Once we took the ORR in mysore the traffic magically disappeared. It was a 6 lane ORR (Did not repeat the mistake of narrow Bangalore ORR). It was long since we went to any trip on the nanjangud-gundalpet road. Our past experience was a narrow road with lot of pot holes. Based on that i had informed the resort manager i will be reaching around 12:30. All my plan fell flat but in a good way. The road was widened and made 4 lane with divider little after nanjangud. After that till gundalpet the road was two name but very smooth and the traffic again was very less. After Gundalpet there were couple of sections where the road work was still going on but it was not bad. We reached thepakadu around 10:20. We did not want to go very early to the resort. We went 5kms towards gudalur and came back. This was the first time we did not see an elephant or a bison in Bandipur and Mudumalai. The trees were totally dried up. The trees closer to the road was all burnt. We saw plenty of spotted deer and monkeys. As usual at some point we stopped clicking pics of the deer and monkey. We then took the turn towards masinagudi. The google maps was showing a left turn but the turn did not look like a road. Decided to drive further and we reached masinagudi. We called the resort manager and he guided us to reach Singara check post. He said his man is already waiting at the check post for us. We reached the check post and inquired the security or may be police about the resort. He said park the car on the side and they will come and pick us. There were two cars parked already. I was confused and parked the car and saw a jeep waiting. I went to the driver and asked him about the resort and he said yes sir another jeep will come and pick you and leave the car here. Then came an open jeep and we shifted to it. It was a 3Kms drive from the check post and it was one hell of a ride. Thank god i did not follow google maps. I wouldn't call that a road and we dont blame it as its not a official road. Its just a path that was created by resort and estate owners probably. All our body parts changed place for a while and we did enjoy the ride. Finally we reached the resort. We gave both our ID proofs and filled up the forms.

Few pics from the drive.

Forest road.

Gray Langur.

Spotted deer allover.

Crossing the state border.

Chital with big antlers.

Another shot of the road.

Still Harsh doesn't know we are staying in a tree house.

Bisle Ghat Viewpoint

Date: 23rd April 2016

Travelers: Arun and Shilpi

Distance: 272 Kms one way.

Route: Bangalore - Kunigal - Chanrayapattana - Holenarasipur - Bisle ghat view point.

Route condition: Very good till last 8 kms. Could not go beyond 25kmph in last 8 Kms.

Not much to do over the weekend so Shilpi and I planned to visit Dharmasthala and Kukke subhramanya. Harsh is enjoying his vacation with grandparents and this was our first trip without him. We planned the trip only on Friday evening and all temple accommodation in Dharmasthala was full. We booked hotel in Subhramanya. While looking for the direction in net i saw few pics of Bisle ghat. The pics looked beautiful so we added Bisle ghat in last minute. The place was beautiful. When we reached there was no one else. The view of the western ghats was breathtaking. The place is secluded, plan your trip during the day. Also avoid mid day if you want to get decent pics.

Some pics from the trip.

Last good section.

Last 8 kms on the small pot holed road.

Entrance to the view point.

View point.

Majestic western ghats.

Few more click of the beautiful mountain and forest.

View point.

Path from entrance till view point.

Selfie

We continued to subhramanya through the same ghat road. After driving for 3 kms a lorry driver coming in opposite informed us that the road is blocked further.  We went back to sakleshpur and drove to subhramanya.