My sunset snaps.

Sunset at Hampi

Sunset at Kudal Sangama

Sunset at Kudal Sangama

My daughter calls the below photos "Circle of Life" as in Lion King

On the way to Belvadi near a sunflower garden

North Karnataka Heritage Tour Part-4 - Back to Bangalore

Date: 31-Dec-06
Route: Badami – Banashankari – Ron – Gajendragad – Kushtagi take right to NH13 - Hospet - Kudligi - Jagalur - Chitraduga Take a left to NH 4 - Hiriyur – Sira – Tumkur - Banglaore

Next day morning we started back to Bangalore by 9:30am. Reached Chitradurga only by 2:00 pm (that is 220 kms in 4 and half hrs). In between we stopped at the watermelon farm and a sunflower farm – on request of my daughter.


Then we hit NH4 and that was a great drive – the remaining 220 kms in 2 hrs 15mins.

Lessons learnt:
1. Locals are willing to help and generally give very useful tips (not sure how non-Kannadigas find it).
2. Never ask direction from girls / ladies. When asked, twice we were shown the opposite direction with full confidence.
3. To know the place better – engage a guide. We spent just 5% of the trip amount on guide …. By doing this we are supporting a whole economy. Always ask for Approved Guides from Govt of Karnataka – Dept. of Tourism.

Points to ponder:
1. At Badami the Cave temples are made in sand stone – it is going to deteriorate. I didn’t see any thing the archeological dept has done to prevent this. Nor has the access to these priceless sculptures been restricted.

2. At Pattadakallu, the guide showed us a stone that has history etched into it. It is kept like a stone that we keep at our backyard. This is something we should preserve well. When will we wake up?

North Karnataka Heritage tour Part-3 - Badami

Date: 30-Dec-06
Hospet – Badami
Soon after this we started to Badami as it was just 140kms away. But we under estimated the traffic (truck traffic). By the time we got out of the jam it was 8:00pm (1.5hrs and just 15kms). But after this it was adventurous.

Routes:
We have 2 routes (one the local route and the other specified by the tourism dept. which is slightly longer).
Local route: Hospet – Kustagi (take a left at the junction) – Gajendragad – Rajuru – Mushigeri – Jalihala – Belur (not Belur Halebidu J) – Banashankari – Badami (Very involved if you don’t get help from locals)
Or
Hospet – Kustagi (take a left at the junction) – Gajendragad – Ron - Banashankari – Badami (fairly easy but around 10kms more than the above)

Tourism Dept Route: Hospet – Kushtagi – Aihole – Badami (atleast 45Kms more than the above)

As we knew the local language and my wife turned adventurous, we took the local route (1st one). It was pitch dark with trees on both sides and occasionally a village passing was hinting at life. The discussion we had, turned on the “Signs” that you get in life. We reached Badami by 11:00pm. Badami Court was booked, so we went to KSTDC hotel and got a room for a night. The staff there was very courteous and arranged for food too. The food (the Veg fried rice) was really good.

Next day the first task was to get a room for the night. Lucky, we got in the same hotel. At 9:15 am we hit the road. We reached the Badami Cave temple (hardly 1km) and engaged a guide (she asked for Rs 150 and we settled for Rs 100). This is also known as Vatapi because the demon Vatapi and Ilvala were believed to be living there. The caves are in 4 levels. The first level is Shiva, then Harihara (Shiva and Vishnu), then Vishu and finally Mahaveera (Jain). This signifies that the rulers, the Chalukya dynasty, used to treat all the followers equally.

There are no joints in any of the temples as it is fully carved in the mountain!!

Badami Cave Temples

We had a nice look of Agastya tirtha and Bhoota natha (Shiva) temple from the last cave.

Agstya Tirtha

We went to Bhoota natha temple. The approach is really bad. The temple is not very impressive to look when we go near.

Bhoota natha temple at Badami

So I won’t recommend this place (unless they get the locals around out of the place and improve the place). There is a museum nearby which is worth a visit if you are interested in old carvings and sculptures.

Then we had lunch and we proceeded to Pattadakallu. But on the way we got enough “signs” to goto Banashankari temple. This was on the way. The best way to take care of Monkey menece

Pattadakallu (Pattada = Throne, Kallu = Stone Place where the kings crowning ceremony is done) is considered to be auspicious place as the river Malaprabha flows from South to North – no other river in India flows like that. It was 1:00 pm when we started and reached by 2:00pm.This is supposed to be the College for sculptures as they have tried out different types of temple architectures (North Indian, South Indian style etc.).

North India Style temple at Pattadakallu

South India Style temple at Pattadakallu

As always, we took a guide who did a good job of explaining the place. Worth seeing are the carvings of different hair styles, Ramayana, Mahabharata, etc. Most of these carvings are improvised by Hoysalas in Belur and Halebidu.

By the end, my daughter was thoroughly bored (pretty obvious). So we decided to go to Kudal Sangama. This is 60kms from Pattadakallu. We reached there at 5:00pm. As soon as my daughter heard of boating, she was wide awake. We went for boating and she was really exited. They take to the meeting point of rivers where 3 rivers meet (Krishna, Malaprapha and Ghataprabha). We had a very nice sunset view here too (with a nice halo around the sun).
Sunset at Basveswara temple at Kudal Sangama

Sunset at Kudal Sangama

I would suggest that you spend the rest of the evening here. There are lodges here that are good to spend the night. As we hadn’t got our luggage we headed back soon after this. Again a local gave the direction (a shortcut – but very good road). We reached Badami by 8:00pm. Had dinner and went to sleep.

North Karnataka Heritage tour Part-2 - Hampi

Date: 29-Dec-06

Hampi:

After a nice sleep, we got ready by 8:40am to start to Hampi. For breakfast we went to Malligi (tel: 08394 228101, malligihome@hotmail.com) restaurant. Guess what?? It took a long time and taste was not great. Hampi is just 11Kms from here. We missed a left to Hampi and we reached a beautiful lake.

We finally reached Hampi at 10:15 and engaged a guide. 3.5 to 4 hrs – Rs 500/-. That is the season price. Off season may be as low as Rs 300/- (during rainy season - Jul to Sep). Looking at the ruins we can imagine how beautiful the place would have been (of-course with the help of guide).

We went to the Virupaksha temple –don’t miss the “pin hole” shadow (the shadow of the Gopura falls on the wall upside down). Then we have the Hampi Bazar. No dustbin – that was very disappointing as the road was littered.

The Pushkarni and the water distribution method was a pleasant surprise.

Pushkarni at Hampi

Lotus Mahal has Air Conditioning concepts!!

Lotus Mahal
Finally we reached Vishu temple where we get to see the famous Hampi icon.

Chariot at Vishnu temple

This temple is also famous for singing pillars. There are different set of pillars about 2 feet tall which produce different sounds when you knock on them (Mrudanga, Tabla, Jaltarang, 7 musical notes …..).

We had heard that sunrise and sunset is really good. So we reached the Malyavanta Raghunatha temple on the mountain top. We were not disappointed. It is true that as the sunlight falls on the rocks they assume various shapes. We could see a human face, Ganesha, etc.

Sunset from Malyavanta Raghunata temple at Hampi

What is also amazing is the way rocks balance one over the other.

Stone balancing at Hampi

North Karnataka Heritage tour Part-1 - Chitradurga

Date: 28-Dec-06 to 31-Dec-06
Route was decided thanks to Outlook – 52 Weekend get aways and http://www.mapmyindia.com/.

Bangalore – Chitrdurga - Hampi:
We were in the outskirts of Bangalore at 11:00 am.

Route: NH 4 Banglaore – Tumkur – Sira – Hiriyur – Chitraduga Take a right to NH 13 – Jagalur – Kudligi - Hospet

9Kms to Chitradurga we saw a Reliance petrol pump and a restaurant (A1 restaurant). I won’t recommend this one. We reached here by 2:15pm. A multitude of windmills welcome you as you approach Chitradurga.

For going to the fort, ask for “Aane Bagilu” (Elephant Door). We reached there by 4:00pm and got a guide for Rs. 175/- (as it is peak season, else you can get one for 100 – 150/-). The fort is built from 600AD to 1000AD by the local rulers to Chalukya’s.

This fort is really good and worth a visit. There are some stones that are in shape of boat, elephant, Rhino, etc

What I appreciated was the planning they used to do even during those times. After the 7th level of gate the monkey menace is high. Be careful (a stone in hand will help to keep the monkeys at bay). Then we saw the Vanke Obovana Kindi. My daughter was a darling – she walked all the way.
We finished the visit by 5:45pm and started to Hospet. The roads are really good. Tired, my daughter slept off. As we reached TB dam area, the traffic, esp.the truck traffic increased and we were moving at 10kmph. We reached Hospet by 8:30pm and after asking around a bit reached Hotel Malligi by 9:00pm. We got a room for just the night. The rent was 1000/- + tax. Time for dinner and we ordered the Veg biryani and we got Chicken Biryani!! The taste too was not good. All in all not a nice place for food.