the light baggage

Overview: Living in Bangalore and belonging to Southern Karnataka, its very difficult for me to explore the far away districts of Karnataka. Luckily because of a friend’s wedding I got a chance to explore Bidar. Though there are very limited places to see in & around Bidar, the places are very interesting and worth seeing. I explored the following 3 places in Bidar during my trip. Click on each of the place to view description: 1) Bidar Fort 2) Jharni Narasimhaswamy temple 3) Gurudwara Nanak Jhira How to reach: Bus/Train: KSRTC Volvo buses ply from Bangalore to Bidar everyday. Bidar can also be reached by train by 16594 Bangalore-Nanded Link express which leaves Bangalore City at 11pm everyday and reaches Bidar at 3:10pm the following day. The return train leaves Bidar at 12:30pm everyday and reaches Bangalore City at 6:10am the following day. By Bike/Car: The best route by own vehicle can by by taking NH 7 to Hyderabad, before entering Hyderabad, turn towards Zaheerabad to re...

This Post is a part of the Chalukya Trail. Please Click here to read the main post Overview: We started our Day 2 of our Chalukya trail early in the morning towards Degaon in Belgaum district. To reach here, turn left near Kittur cross, and the village roads lead to Degaon which is around 8 kms from the NH4. Degaon, or Devgaon is known for the Lakshmi Narayana temple built by the Kadambas which was taken over by the Chalukyas later. The temple is divided into 3 cells, the first one dedicated to Narayana, the second one dedicated to Lakshmi-Narayana, and the third one dedicated to Kamala. The doorways are very well carved and its really pleasure to watch the intricate carvings which goes into it. The ceiling is carved with lotus which is adorable.               Nearby places: Kittur: 8 kms from Degaon is Kittur, the capital of the legendary Rani Chennamma. It is known for the fort belonging to the times of Rani Chennamma ...

This Post is a part of the Hoysala Diary. Please Click here to read the main post Overview: A small village near Channarayapatna has a beautiful temple dedicated to Chennakeshava. It was built by the Hoysalas in the 10th century but there are not many carvings as seen in other Hoysala temples. One special feature of this temple is a Kalasha which is placed on the top of the temple. To reach Anekere, Travel on Bangalore-Mangalore road till Channarayapatna. At CR Patna, ask for directions to Anekere. Buses are not available to reach Anekere. Shared auto or Private buses can be hired from Channarayapatna.        Map: View Larger Map

To read Part-1, Please click here Day 2: Today we set off with another list of places in Wayanad. First up was the Kanthanpara waterfalls. This was even better than the other one we visited the previous day. We went to the top of the falls and sat on the rocks to enjoy the falls. The water was really cool and soothing. The main thing was that, it was early morning and there was no crowd at all which gave us complete privacy. We then went to the base of the falls and was really refreshing.       After a while at the falls we started towards the next point that was Chembra. We could only drive till a certain distance beyond which we have to trek for which we require a permit from the forest department. The trek is very popular among the youth and we have a heart shaped lake at the summit of Chembra Peak. The driver Senthil was very friendly and guided us all through the drive to Chembra. At the point where we parked our vehicle we could walk close to the tea p...

  To read Part 2, Please click here Overview: Weekend was approaching and we made a quick plan to visit Wayanad. As it was already Thursday and we were planning to reach there on Saturday, we could not book any resorts as well. All the buses were also full so no reservations. So either we had to postpone the trip or we had to make it more adventurous. We chose the latter option. We went to the Mysore road Satellite bus station in Bangalore hoping to get some seat in any bus. A KSRTC Rajahamsa bus was about to leave to Calicut which was full. The conductor also told that all the Karnataka KSRTC buses were full. We went to the Kerala KSRTC enquiry and were told that there is an ordinary bus at 11:30pm. We decided to take that bus. The moment the bus came to the platform, there was a chaos around and everyone was pushing each other to get into the bus. Both me and my wife managed to get seated together fortunately. The seats were also not very comfortable. No back rest and the seat...