mindmusings

There are some places that must be visited during the peak of their action- Udupi during Krishna Janmashtami (have done that and a blog will soon follow) or Jaipur during the Makara Sankranti Kite Festival or Mysore during Dasara. Though I've visited Mysore many times before, I'd never visited it during Dasara. For 9 days during the Navaratri, the entire city is filled with color, lights, people and celebrations. So last year i.e. 2015 I decided that it was the perfect time for a Dasara visit of Mysore. Though Mysore is just 145 kms away from Bengaluru, it takes no less than 3.5 hours to reach thanks to constant traffic. And there are eateries all through the way from Dominos to CCD to Kamath that your'e compelled to stop over to taste these foods. Inspite of all this, we did reach early and first headed to the flower show at Curzon Park organised every year by the Mysore District Horticulture Society and Horticulture Department. It wasn't even open and the guy a...

People go to Goa for various reasons. Obvious ones being its beaches, cheap alcohol, foreign tourists, night life and some to get away from the chaotic city life.. Well the list goes on. However, we went to Goa for one and one reason only- Scuba Diving.  There are very few deep sea diving sites in India. Andaman & Nicobar islands, Nethrani island (near Murudeshwara- Karnataka), Pondicherry (recently started) and Goa. A&N islands was out of the question as it was far, Murudeshwara has only seasonal scuba diving (as with all other places infact, but this is even more so) and not very popular, we were left with Pondi or Goa. Diving sites and visibility is not very great in Pondi and the prices were expensive too. So that left us with only Goa.  After a quick search on Google and reading some reviews we finalised on Goa Aquatics. Now I sure am glad we chose Goa Aquatics as they were very professional and I had a wonderful first time diving experience.  W...

While searching for 'Off beat things to do in Bengaluru' I had once read this idea of a breakfast marathon in Malleshwaram. Now I must say something about Malleshwaram. It is not just one of the oldest areas in Bengaluru but there are so many things that only malleshwaram can offer. Even the street names are so melodious- Sampige road, Margosa road. Music to the ears! It still has plenty of trees with IISc. just around the corner and the small streets offer so much for shopping specially during festival times that you feel like visiting the place just to absorb it's life essence. Malleshwaram was the residing place of many famous people before- poets, scientists and players alike and for all the music lovers there is Chowdiah Memorial Hall quenching the thirst of art and culture. Along with all other specialties, Malleshwaram has some of the oldest and best eateries. After reading that post about the breakfast marathon I felt it was an excellent idea. Now I need to t...

I had first read about Belum caves sometime in 2011 and it was on top of my travel bucket list from then. The only reason it couldn't materialise for so long was because of the distance. It is 300+ kms from Bengaluru. 700Kms in one day seemed a little too tiring and except for may be one or two blogs on BHP there wasn't much information as well on it. But then once the travel bug really bites you and you find the right companions, no distance is too far. One of our friends- Raju readily said that we can do it in a day and that we must! Now that it was decided that we will do it in a day's trip it was obvious that we must start really early. I caught a little cold the night before unfortunately and it proved costly for me later. We started out quite early and by early I mean around 5. As usual Google maps was our savior and we did not encounter any trouble. Take the NH-7 toward Ballary. Roads are good as long as your'e on the highway but once you take the turn near...

It is a belief that if we do good things on the first day of the new year we will do good things the entire year. Being a travel buff I wanted to start the year 2016 by travelling than do anything else! It was still one of those good winter days of Bengaluru and I wanted to take advantage of it by visiting some hill or fort and see the first sun rise of the year. After seeing many places Devarayanadurga seemed perfect. Distance from Bengaluru: Around 65 Kms Time taken: 1.5 Hrs approximately Route: Nearby to Tumkur. Google maps works flawlessly. Though we wanted to start really early (as every travel plan goes!) I guess it was almost 5.15 or 20 by the time we left. After filling petrol near KR Puram and giving nasty look to a guy for cutting the line on the first day of the year (ya, I'm one of those people ;-) ) Finally we started off and were zooming on the ORR and bam! there is a huge jam on the railway crossing near MES in Gorguntepalya (as always, may be from l...

Searching for new places around Bengaluru for a weekend visit has been my favorite past time for quite sometime now! Having visited the conventional (yet awesome!) places like Nandi Hills, Pyramid Valley, Big Banyan Tree (ದೊಡ್ಡ ಆಲದ ಮರ) I try to find out those hidden gems that neither attracts more crowd nor is well known. One such search led  me to Rosary Church in Shettihalli near Hassan. Courtesy: some blog on the net. At times I wonder what would I have done if other people had not written about their experiences. I could never have visited as many places as I have now. Anyways, this is a church on the banks of the river Hemavathi apparently built in the 1860s. It gets submerged during the monsoon and resurfaces as the water recedes. Around 200 Kms from Bengaluru it takes around 2-2.5 hours. Having slept late the night before, I somehow struggled and got up by 4.30 in the morning and by the time we left, it was almost 5.30. Thanks to Bengaluru traffic on both ORR and Tum...