Dream comes true …

After spending some weekends idly, I was thinking of another trip around Bangalore – rather South India. As told previously in another weblog, I along with three friends made a trip to Coorg, so I was reluctant to visit any other hill station just now. I was thinking of a trip to beaches like Pondicherry after listening to one of the fellow trainees experience to that place. But as Chennaites told that the mercury was souring high there, I dropped the idea. Other friends came up with ideas of going to Munnar and good old Ooty as well. But the idea of visiting Shravanbelagola suddenly came into our mind and we settled on that.

I had always dreamt of visiting this place when I used to look at the photo of the giant monolith of Bhagwan Bahubali back in my home. But in 2004 when I was in Bangalore for the first time, this could not take place. So I did not want to let this chance go astray. And since other two places – Belur and Halebeedu (known as Halebid also) were nearby; we included those two places as well. All three places are in Hassan district (222 Km west of Bangalore).

The day begins …
We started our day early on Saturday as first bus to Hassan is at 6:30 AM. So we got up at around 4:30 and started for Majestic at around 5:45. As always happened and will happen in future, no sooner we arrived at Majestic than we managed to board a bus. The morning weather was a little bit cloudy and we hoped that it will remain the same over next two days of our journey.
Unlike our journey to Coorg, the bus just rolled thru Mysore Road. In the course, thanks to getting up so early, I slept for almost 1.5 hrs and got up only at Kunigal. I could not relate one of the information written in one of the websites which said the scenic beauty beside the road is breathtaking. But I thought this was a pure case of exaggeration until the bus crossed Yadiyur, when the bus halted for the first time, and for that matter for the last time (you don’t need more than one halting station for 3.5 hrs journey). From then on the coconut or sugarcane plantations would glisten with the sunrays on both the sides of the road with blue Western Ghat in the background. I had got a local man from Hassan just beside me and he made the journey much more informative. I knew many a things before even I had set my foot in Hassan.
At around 9:00 the bus reached Hirisave which is just 10 KM from Shravanbelagola, our supposed first stop-over. But by that time we had changed our plans, thanks to Deepak - which resulted in pretty good decision. We now planned to visit Belur and Halebid first and then only visit Shravanbelagola. Oh yes... another change in plan was to lessen the duration of the tour from two days to a single day as Sujit had his presentation scheduled on Monday which was yet to be prepared - this also proved to be useful. So we carried on with the same bus to Hassan. At around 10AM the bus reached Hassan bus stand. There a bus was waiting for us for Belur. It left within 5 mins and after one hour of journey thru picturesque geography we were in Belur (40 KM from Hassan) by 11 in the morning. The temperature was quite nice till this point of day.

Belur
There first of all we completed "pet-puja" in the bus stand itself and set for the famous Channa Kesava Temple – also termed as “the Taj of South India”. The Vishnu temple is just seven-eight minutes by walk from the bus stand. As I had read in some website that you will wonder as you approach the temple that "why you have chosen to come here, what is so special about it?" Yes all of us were thinking the same. And it was also said that "After reaching there you won’t think that." Yah... that also we did. At the first sight, it seemed like a dull temple that does not match with our traditional concept of a temple structure - but a flat top temple. But when we went closer to it we found it full of marvels. The color of the structure has changed into bluish (like Angkor Bhat in Cambodia) - reminding that it was built in 1100 AD. The marvelous works on soap-stone also justified the time taken by the temple to be completed ... more than a century... 103 years to be exact ... the temple rises from a star-shaped plinth, one of the hallmarks of Hoysala building design. From the base upwards, there is an extraordinary wealth of decorative detail; every available inch is crammed with intricate carvings. Line upon line of friezes form bands around the temple, each depicts scenes from Hindu mythology. In the base frieze, 650 elephants jostle one another in a continuous line.
Apart from the temple, in the premises there is Narasimha Pillar standing all by alone - there is no support to this pillar.

And Halebid …
As the mercury was rising, we decided to move to our second destination - Halebeedu or Halebid (17 KM from Belur) meaning 'ruined stones' in Kannada. We started at around 12:40 and reached the place at 1:10. The place was the ancient capital of Hoysala kings before they moved to Belur when Delhi Sultans invaded their kingdom. This abandonment may lead to such name of the place. The signs of Sultans’ destruction can be seen on the defaced sculptures, absence of idols from places etc. There is a Lord Shiva metal idol (yes, metal - in this place of curved stones!!) in the temple. There is an adjacent garden as well adding mystic charm to the place. The sun had become so hot that while making “Parikrama” we had to search for shadows to keep our feet. Learning: If you are visiting these places in summer do wear thick socks to avoid blisters in your foot. We returned from Halebid to Hassan at around 3:00 PM.

Shravanbelagola
Our next destination was Shravanbelagola, the place which means – “Monk of the White Pond”. We took a bus to come to Channarayapatna from Hassan. And there are lots of buses from this place to Shravanbelagola. After we reached there we got to know from localites that the gate for the temple closes at 6:30 and it was already 5:45 PM. That means we had to rush. And there were 700+ granite steps to be conquered. The slope was very steep. (Though it was a great decision on our part to visit this place at afternoon as I thought what would have happened if we decided to come here under scorching sun). Perhaps we hurried a little bit more because of this timeline and it took around only 20 minutes to conquer the steps. But I got damn tired (I was on paracetamols as well) and I had to take a 6-7 minutes break before I could proceed again. But when I reached the top where the 58 feet high monolith statue of Bhagwan Bahubali is located, I was simply awed by the greatness. The face reflected eternal bliss and peace.
The monolith considered to be the world's largest, built by Chamundaraya, a general of king Gangaraya. The base of the statue has inscriptions in Kannada, Tamil and the oldest evidence of written Marathi from 981 AD. The Marathi inscription on the base of this thousand-year old statue is a tribute to King Gangaraya from his general Chamundaraya who had funded the construction of the statue. Every 12 years, numerous monks and shravakas (from this word my caste - “Sarak” has evolved. Click to join Sarak community in Orkut if you belong there) congregate here to perform the Mahamastakabhisheka, a spectacular ceremony where the thousand-year-old statue is anointed with milk, curds, ghee, saffron and gold coins.
It was already dark when we started descending from the hill. The sunset was worth watching from the top. Facing Bindhyagiri, home of Bhagwan Bahubali monolith, is Chandragiri where Chandragupta Maurya’s “Samadhisthal” is located along with Bhagwan Bahulbali’s brother Bharath’s statue. But we could not visit Chandragiri because of time constraint. Anyway its only 3 hours journey from Bangalore!!

Back to Bangalore …
So with a plan to revisit this holy place again, I left Shravanbelagola for Channarayapatna at 7:30 PM. We boarded our bus to Bangalore at around 8:30 and reached IIM-B hostel around 12 PM completing a very pleasant visit to places with great emotional values to me.

More snaps from this tour can be seen at

http://picasaweb.google.com/mahadeb.patra/BelurHalebidShravanBelagola

Coorg Trip

Four of us were spending our summer of 2007 in Bangalore as part of the MBA programme. After two weeks we got bored of the city life (rather could not find a place to explore in the city) and decided to enjoy amidst nature. And planned to make a trip to Ooty.

But as the words go – “Man proposes God disposes” (Okay, the blame should not go only to God, We had played our parts really well by not planning the trip earlier and by planning it on a longer weekend when the world would love to pour into Ooty’s blissful paradise), our plan crashed on night before our journey. Yah, night before – coz we could not book our tickets to Ooty because of the heavy rush. (I don’t know how wise it is to keep everything open till eleventh hour though). But fortune God smiled on us from the time we changed our destination from Ooty to Coorg.

So on the morning of our trip we decided to go to Coorg. Since this was an impromptu decision, could not make much RnD on net. But one of the group members – Deepak G had made a long list of our probable places of visit which came really handy later. On 28th April 30 we set out for the trip @ 7:30 AM. The team consisted Deepak ‘Ever-Smiling’ Garg, Baldeep ‘Dude’ Paaji and Sujit ‘Trick-Photographer’ Saha apart from me. We took an auto, and took it in right time thanks to Deepak, from IIM-Bangalore to Majestic Bus Stand. As told earlier, we had no idea of timings of the buses leaving from Majestic to Coorg. But we could reach JIT and got into one bus with only four seats left for booking. In the mean time we had our breakfast with fruit salads and biscuits. The bus left from Platform # 5 at 8:40 AM.
Coorg and Madikeri have something uniqueness about their names. Both having more than one name - Coorg (also known as ‘Kodagu’ meaning Mother Kauvery) is the district and Madikeri (also known as ‘Mercara’) is its main town.

Journey to Madikeri:
After the journey started, the bus started to literally crawl till Kengiri for almost 45 minutes along Mysore Road. But from then onwards it started to roll along Bangalore Mysore Expressway, thru Bidadi, Ramnagaram. Around 11:15 AM, at Muddur it settled for a hiatus. Being very hungry, we just prowled upon Idli-Vadas there and unaware of the fact that break is only for 10 minutes we ordered for two plates each. So we had to just gulp down second plate of those ‘burning’ delicacies when honking by the bus-driver directed to us started.

Then the bus crossed Mandy and Sree Ranga Patnam before halting at Mysore KSRTC terminus for 10 minutes at 12 noon. There hawkers were selling very juicy and fleshy and whatever you say, Green Grapes for only 10 bucks per packet. It helped me and Deepak, especially, to keep our stomachs calm till our next halt at Hunsur at around 2 PM. But there were stark difference from Bangalore to Mysore Road – which was smooth and one-way and from Mysore to Belawadi (situated in between Mysore and Hunsur) – which was dusty and bumpy. But from Hunsur onwards road was quite good. Apart from road, the weather and landscape also changed drastically. Till Mysore the weather was nice and greenery aplomb but from then onward it became hot and arid. Trees became scarce. The bus stopped for the last time at Kushal Nagar, from where the weather became cool and soothing greenness started again, at 3:15 PM before reaching our destination.

First Day at Coorg:
We reached Madikeri at around 4 PM in the afternoon and immediately started searching for a Hotel as we planned to see the sunset at Raja’s Seat. After a little bit of fiasco we could manage a nice hotel for us and being fresh in a record time, we rushed to Raja’s Seat. In this place, the kings of Madikeri used to spend their evening to enjoy the scenic beauty of Western Ghats. It provided us with breathtaking views of the valley through which the road descends to Mangalore, hamlets in the green and the blue ridges in the horizon. We shot a hell lot of photos there including one where Baldy and Sujit was trying to make Deepak's visit memorable by bumping him in front of some 100+ audience. Unfortunately we could not see the sunset there because clouds had already crept in. After visiting Raja Seat, we planned to visit another landmark of the town – Omkareshwara Temple. In the mean time it had become dark and we were feeling very hungry. So we had Set Dosa and Coffee in one of the cafes. There observed a unique thing about Madikeri hotels – they serve both Cold and Hot waters to the customers. It might be because of Coldness in the weather. After having food we strolled towards the temple in complete darkness because of load shedding. After quite sometime we could locate the Temple. This Siva temple was built by Lingarajendra in the early-19th century. The temple is built in Indo-Saracenic style, with a dome framed by turrets. There were lots of mythological paintings on the walls. I and Deepak got our confusions about difference between “Ardha-Narishwar” and “Shankar-Narayana” clarified from a South-Indian aunty. The whole day journey and the serenity of the place compelled us to spend some 30 minutes beside the lake just in front of the Temple. Then we started our way back to hotel as the cool breeze was going past us.
After having fruit salad we finalized our itinerary for Day 2 and hired one Cab for that. Baldy succeeded for the first time in his negotiating skills after he could lower the charge by Rs. 50. Once we returned back to Hotel we went to sleep early as we had planned to set off at 7 AM next morning.

Second Day at Coorg:
We got ready by 7 AM next morning and the driver, Abbas arrived there in 5 minuets. We had planned to visit Tala-Kauvery (48 kilometers from Madikeri town - origin of one of the seven sacred rivers - Kauvery), Bagh-Mandalam (40 kilometers from Madikeri town - convergence of the rivers Cauvery, the underground Sujyothi and the Kanika. The Bhagandeshwara temple here has a distinct Kerala touch. Because of the three rivers, it is also called Triveni Sangama. The serene temple has intricate wood-carvings and a copper roof) and Abbi falls (7 kilometers from Madikeri town).
Soon we were on our way to Tala-Kauvery through the tortuous path along the hills. Since it was still early in the morning, the road was traffic less and our cab was just gliding thru it. The hamlets were playing hide and seek with us. En-route we could see spice gardens of Pepper, Cardamoms apart from numerous coffee plantations. God has dabbed the whole place with viridity. With this the Blue Mountains fading into horizon and the blue sky had made the scenes breath-taking!! We reached to Bagha-Mandalam at around 9 AM. After visiting the Bhagandeshwara temple (which was under construction - same was the case for Tala Kauvery temple and the path to Brahmagiri. I enquired Abbas of the prime tourist season there and came to know that it was March – October. I don’t know why Karanataka Tourism Department planned to go with construction work at this time.) After that visited Triveni-Sangama and after taking breakfast we started for our next destination. Now here I came to know why Abbas was telling us to keep camera memory reserved for this stretch – it seemed that Mother Nature had decorated this place with the selected jewels from her casket. Phrases like “Adbhut, Bichitra Prakriti” started to come to Ballu Paaji’s mind. The slope had become much steeper, the road had become more winding (reminding me of NFS) and whole environment was serene. The mountains were touching the clouds to bring romanticism into it. In between a few Coorg Honey Stalls could be seen here and there. At around 10 AM we reached Tala-Kauvery temple. We were bubbling with exuberance and explored the whole place before starting to climb Brahmagiri. But soon our energy level plummeted because of the steep cliff which we were climbing barefooted! But after reaching the top of the hill we could find another world altogether. It was as if we were engulfed by a lush green carpet. It was like anything non-green was forced to be alone here (“Joto dhusor sob eka ekhane” – in Bengali). We could even feel the moistness in the morning clouds hovering around. In the meantime Baldeep had climbed a mobile tower to pose for photo and Sujit was busy in inventing ‘artistic’ poses for Deepak. When I poured cool water on my feet after getting down from the peak, it felt really great. We started our journey back to Madikeri at around 11:30 AM.
We returned back to Madikeri at 1 PM and had the lunch. Then we reserved seats for ‘Rajahamsa’ and came to know that next bus to Bangalore is only at 9 PM in the night. So we extended our journey to few other places. And because of that we checked out from the hotel and headed towards Abbi Falls. The narrow road to Abbi Falls is a combination of steep ups and downs, twists and turns, wriggling through the green and dense foliage of surrounding coffee plantations. Situated on private property, a narrow pathway leads you downward to where the waterfall can be seen, though the sound of water striking rocks can be heard long before you see it. Abbas described that as various streams congregate in the mountains above, they swell with the monsoon rains and force their way down the mountain slope. This descends into a flowing stream to perhaps join with the River Cauvery somewhere in the vicinity. We also learnt from the notice sculptured at the entrance that “Many unwary people end their lives” at this place. Even there were two policemen inside to keep eye on over-enthusiasts.

We decided to make the day more eventful by exploring another route to Kauvery Nisargadhama and Bylakuppe. Nisargadhama is a wonderful picnic spot, on the banks of river Cauvery, near Kushalnagar. The hanging bridge, pedal boat center, tree top shelters, elephant safari, deer park is the main attractions of the place. Starting from Madikeri at 2:45 PM, we reached there by 3:30 PM and immediately booked tickets for Boating and Elephant riding. The Hathee Riding was a fun as I had never done this. When I stepped on the back of the pachyderm, it felt rock solid as I had stepped on the back-bone. But when I was taking the seat it felt much softer. The ride was so much swaying that I wondered why ancient Kings preferred this transport!! After boat riding for another 20 minutes we came out of the place at around 5:15 PM to go to Bylakuppe Monastery.

Bylakuppe is one of the largest Tibetan settlements in South India, it is known for its monasteries, handicrafts, carpet factories, and an incense factory. The landscape is dotted with several monasteries; the main one amongst these is the Namdroling Monastery. The first thing that will catch your eye is the combination of bright golden, blue, green and red/brown colors used to decorate the monastery. The Mahayana Buddhist University is also located here. The enormous prayer hall is a place to visit. Three enormous golden statues (one of Abalokiteshwara) dominate it apart from many colorful Tibetan paintings and sculptures.

Finally we decided to call it a day as it was already very dark when we came out of Namdroling Monastery at around 6:30 PM. It took another 75 minutes to come back to Madikeri bus stand. We were so tired that after the bus started some of us had opened their eyes only at Majestic bus stand. We came back to IIM-B hostel at around 5:30 AM. Here also the ‘Fortune God’ smiled on us as we could manage to get a city-bus to IIM-B gate directly from Majestic. All in all … I am thankful to God that I could spend two days at such a divine and blissful place called Coorg.

More photos can be seen @ http://picasaweb.google.com/mahadeb.patra/Coorg