Quick tour of Lepakshi and Nandi Hills

Trip members: Karthik, Murugan, Sanjeev, and SG
Trip date: 12th and 13th Sep 2015
Trip Plan: Chennai - Lepakshi - Nandi Hills - Chennai
Trip Route : Chennai - Arcot - Chittor - Kolar - AH 43 - Lepakshi - Nandi Hills - Hosur - Chennai

About Destination

Lepakshi in Andhra Pradesh is located at a distance of 390 km from Chennai and around 125 km from Bengaluru. Lepakshi is famous for its beautiful sculptures and a temple relating to the epic of Ramayana.  We planned to visit Nandi hills as well which is midway between Bengaluru and Lepakshi on the Asian Highway AH43. We planned this as a quick weekend trip - 2 days and 1 night with a night stay in Lepakshi.

Started on 12th Sept morning around 5:45 from Tambaram and planned to reach Lepakshi by 1:30. We were on time to start as per plan and had a pitstop for breakfast at Hotel Sakthi Ganapathy near Kancheepuram. The route of Ranipet - Chittor - Palamaner was full of truck traffic and terrible to drive! It took close to 2 hours to clear this 77 km of stretch. Then, we hit the NH4 towards Kolar and relished the drive. We took SH96 to connect to AH43.

Asian Highway 43 (AH43) is a route of the Asian Highway Network, running 3,024 kilometers (1,879 mi) from Asian Highway 1 in Agra, India to Matara in Sri Lanka. The road was just great like a runway and any vehicle would just fly. At any point in time, there is a visibility of around 5-7 km of the highway. Drive through this highway is more than memorable.

We reached Lepakshi around 1:30 PM and checked-in at the A.P. Tourism hotel - Haritha. We paid Rs.900 for an A/C Double bedroom. The rooms were spacious, very clean, and well furnished. The hotel is located just in front of the historically popular monolithic Nandi sculpture. After having a simple and decent lunch for Rs.80 at the A.P. Tourism hotel, we visited the Nandi and then the temple.

The monolithic "Nandi" sculpture is said to be the biggest monolithic Nandi in India. It is 4.5m high and 8.23m long. This is on the main road of Lepakshi and about 200 meters from the Lepakshi Veerabhadra temple.

Lepakshi temple is significant with three shrines dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu, and Lord Veerabhadra. The temple is known for paintings of the Vijayanagar Kings depicting the Ramayana moments of Jatayu and the history around it. The paintings are so fresh and have modern designs - saree and bed cover designs.

One can understand the history of Lord Rama and Hanumantha consecrated Lingas in the temple and Aghastiar mamuni has performed his meditation here. One can feel the greatness once you visit the temple. The specialties of the temple are shrines of Lord Vishnu and Shiva just opposite to each other, a pillar that almost hangs without any support, monolithic sculptures of Linga with the snake, the unfinished Kalyana Mandapa, Sita Patham, and serene views from behind the temple prakarams. The temple is maintained very well and clean.

Another amazing thing about the temple is, the stones are stacked over each other and not really built. The temple had sloppy shades for rain and sun just through stones - amazing engineering !!

Sita Padham

View from behind the temple

Pillar with almost no support

We also visited Hindupur and witnessed an amazing sunset on the way. There is nothing special in Hindupur but, just a cool breeze evening drive. We returned back to the hotel to have a good dinner at a very surprisingly cheap rate for the quality of foods - Pulka, Dal, Sabji, Jeera rice, and curd.

Day-2:

Day-2 started with hot idlis at the A.P tourism restaurant and decided to visit Nandi hills - a quick plan on the way back to Chennai. Nandi hills were 92 km drive from Lepakshi. The hill drive with sharp and steep hairpin bends is 3.5 km. Many people do cycling and hiking in this stretch. Nandi hills is a place where one can easily spend 1 full day, There are several places to stop by and enjoy the grand view. Bangaloreans just fled here for a weekend. Rs.100 is collected as charges for a car. and there is space to park the car around the hill.

The grand view is a very cool and time killer. There are restaurants there and activities too. After spending a couple of hours, we decided to return back to Chennai only through highways and definitely no SH - this led us to Bangalore - Hosur route and, though we ended up driving extra 60 km, we had a good time driving.

Serene Alleppy (Alappuzha)...

Trip members: Karthik and family
Trip date: 1st and 2nd August 2015
Trip Route: Chennai - Alleppy - Kumarakom - Alleppy - Chennai

Day 1:

We reached Alleppy from Chennai by Alleppy Express. This train reaches by 10 AM to Alleppy. We had some good breakfast in the train on the way - Aapam and Idli with Kurma, Kadalai curry.

We had a cab waiting for pick-up. We had booked to Backwater House boat Cruise through a good friend of mine - Mr.Suresh Mathew - who runs a travel house called Trip Enticer.

The Boat Jetty is around 7-8 kms from the railway station. The House boats start from a location called Pallathuruthy. The check-in time for House boats are around 12 Noon. We went there by 11 AM and boarded the boat in 15-20 minutes time. There are several house boats with different sizes and amenities - 1 BR, 2 BR, 3 BR and even 4 BR. All come with a kitchen, dining place, attached bathrooms and a balcony. Many house boats are 2 levels, which have a balcony on the top. This is awesome for the great breeze and a grand view.

We rented a two level 2 BR house boat. As we boarded, we were welcomed with a welcome drink - lemon juice. The boat is normally accompanied by 3-4 people - a driver, a helper and a cook. They ask us for food options - veg/non-veg and plan accordingly. It is good if we could let them know what we want while we book.

The package includes the welcome drink, great Lunch, 4 o'clock tea and snacks; dinner & next day breakfast. All are perfect on time. The boat is anchored when any food is served as the troupe also has food. The Kerala hospitality is awesome and they would just shower you with their love. The food was very tasty and served in plenty with vegetables and fruits.

The boat stopped around 1:30 PM in the Vembanad Lake. There is a long pillar like structure in the mid of lake; where every boat stop for lunch. The view is very amazing and beautiful. If there are mild showers, I think, it is best to have in the trip.

After 1 hour stoppage for lunch, they started again and drove around until 17:30. We enjoyed the Kerala backwater cruise through canals towards Vembanad Lake. The evening stop is on the opposite side of where it was started and we are free to roam around. Few take autos and go to Alleppy beach and some wander around the Paddy Fields and the areas around; some prefer to stay in the boathouses. We just wandered around for 45 minutes and then came back for dinner - again a great spread of 4 curries. rice and chappathis; and amazingly cut pineapples.

The overnight sleep was just homely and pleasant. The moonlight added to the awe of travellers and gave a topping to the trip! Morning, one cannot resist to see the Sunrise and the morning view is also stunning. It is simple; yet awesome.

Day-2:

Breakfast was served around 07:30 - hot idlies, sambhar and chutney. Then, the board starts at 08:30, goes for a short round trip of 30-45 minutes and drops us back at the same place where is started - around 09:30 AM.

We had a plan to goto Kumarakom and see the views there and complete the trip at Alleppey beach. Kumarakom is 37 kms from Alleppy. We reached there around 11 AM and stopped at the Kumarakom - Vembanad Lake view point. The Alleppy boat cruise 80% covers various canals around Vembanad lake and 20% on the lake; whereas, the house boats in Kumarakom spend almost all the time on the ocean like Vembanad lake.

As we spent few minutes in the view point, very heavy downpour started. The driver drove us to the Kumarakom bird sanctuary. We waited along with the patient driver in the car for close to 30 minutes for the rain to stop. But, it looked like it would take hours-days to stop. We could not get out of the car for the heavy rain. The bird sanctuary is a thick forest-like area and there are no hideouts to wait in rain. So, we decided to move ahead and return to Alleppy. Had some good tea on the way and reached Alleppy beach by 12:30.

The driver helped us by guiding to a good restaurant - India Coffee House - just opposite to the Alleppy beach, He had a quick lunch and spent close to 2 hours in the Alleppy beach and the park near by the beach. The Alleppy beach is very beautiful - clean and white sand - gigantic waves and a broken iron bridge in the beach - a great spot for photography.

We then reached back to the railway station to start back to Chennai around 3 PM.

A must visit place once in life time. Venice is Europe's Alleppy !

Trip Enticer - Mr.Suresh Mathew - Mobile - +91 9142311171, (0) 9961466495

Wild..Wild... Masinagudi..Bandipur !

Trip members: Karthik, Murugan, Sathish Raja, Prashant, Vengadessan, Sriram
Trip date: 27-Jun-15 and to 28-Jun-15
Trip Route: Chennai - Mysuru - Masinagudi - Bandipur - Mysuru - Chennai

Day -1

We reached Mysore (Mysuru) by Kaveri express by 7 AM and hired a cab outside for Masinagudi drop. We had very good breakfast @ Hotel Kamat Madhuvan just as we exit Mysore. We hiring a cab for one way, thought was a good idea. However, for the cost and experience we had, I suggest one to have a cab for pick-up drop both ways. Mysore cab drivers would ask you for a pick-up from Masinagudi as per your time and drop you back at Mysore. So, make a deal for two-way.

Started the drive towards Masinagudi and we had few stops on the way seeing beautiful Sunflower gardens and quick tea on the way. We had booked our Masinagudi package with InnTheWild - TripAdvisor "Certificate of Excellence" and "BRAVO Award" winner. One needs to reach Singara post and then give a call to the stay and they would pick-up and take you through coffee gardens on a 4x4 drive! The room tariff included Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner (All buffets), pick-up/drop for Singara post, Welcome drink, 2 nature walks - very detailed and a night safari on jeep for wild sighting.

On the way to Masinagudi

Singara Post

On the way to InnTheWild

On the way to InnTheWild

@ InnTheWild

Our cottage...

We reached the place around noon and refreshed for lunch. The lunch was sumptuous and pretty good quality with soups, salads, main course (veg/non-veg) and desserts. After an excellent lunch we walked towards a pond, around 400m from the property and spent close to 90 minutes on enjoying the nature and relishing the photography skills. We returned back around 4 and got ready for the nature walk in to the forest. The place is part of the buffer zone on Elephant corridor and one can see lot of foot marks of different wild life. We felt the real forest by its colour, smell and silence. Amazing exxxperience...

Lake near InnTheWild...

On the nature trek...

The nature walk was guided by Mr.Siddharth, a naturalist of the cottage; he was knowledgeable enough to help you understand lot of things about the fauna and flora of the place.

We did understand the animal movement pattern and saw interesting things all along the nature walk. We returned back and had good tea and snacks and rested. Night safari started around 8 PM and we had sighting of deer and bisons (India gaur). The place had witnessed tiger, leopard and panther movements off-late and we had expectations to see more. Returned back to a great dinner and then rest!

Bison sighting in night safari...

A rare sighting of a rare reptile ... Some white giant moth !

Day-2

We stayed in one the jungle shacks towards the end of the property and saw a bear 10 feet from our cottage around 5:45 am! This was the most amazing moment witnessing wildlife in close proximity. My instinct made me run into the cottage and close the door rather than photographing or a selfie! which would have been the meanest thing in that moment !! :)

However, in a few seconds, the bear ran away and we did manage to click a witness!

Bear near the cottage

Time for morning jungle walk and cited interesting sounds of elephants, lots of birds and fresh food marks of Tiger and lots of bisons. We did walk through beautiful stretches of nature, mud, rocks and streams and saw Otters and plenty of butterflies! The fresh air and moisture was just amazing when you get out of city life.

WoW... Good morning...

Tiger !!!

Butterflies....

Otter...

Great breakfast and check-out. We decided to visit Bandipur. On the way to Bandipur, we cited lots of wild boars, deer, langurs and elephant.

Bandipur safaris are from morning 6:30AM-9:30AM and evenings 3:30 PM to 6:30 PM. The restrictions themselves spell out the heavy presence of wild life. We reached Bandipur by noon and had to negotiate with driver to stay put for the safari. And the safari was the best part of the tour !

We cited lots of deer, peacocks, rare eagles, bear, elephants and a leopard !! The safari is one hour trip and value is higher, if luck permits it, The weather was great, sunny and cool breeze with a slight drizzle all along. the weather was setting up so well, that soon we realized, the safari is going to be memorable. Leopard at 20 feet leads to only one thing - deep silence and freezing of limbs ! One has to just experience it! The big cat is just royally terrific ... and one can imagine nothing as one sees it AS IS !

There it is .. no zoom !!

Elephants...

 After an amazing trip, returned to Mysore by 6 PM and got down at Mysore palace for viewing the lighting of the palace. Quick dinner at railway station and back to routines !!