Marina Beach To Marine Drive

Marina Beach To Marine Drive

“Beautiful thing in the world is of Course the world itself.”

My first travel blog is about my travel across western ghats of India along with my friend. Yes, we are only two.  The only agenda of the trip is to reach Mumbai on the 8th day  to catch the train for which we had booked a return ticket back  to Chennai, the remaining 7 days are all ours. As far as we can reach Mumbai on the 8th days , we are free to go anywhere. Cool!!! Isn't it??

 Travel preparations/decisions are

• 5 days vacation leave from office (Mon-Fri) sandwiched by two weekends, gave us 9 full days to roam around.
• Return ticket from Mumbai to Chennai.
• Hogenakkal was fixed as our first destination , rest can be decided at the end of each day with the help of Google map.
• Different forms of public transport is our only mode of transport.
• No non-veg to avoid unnecessary stomach upset.
• No expensive gadgets other than our smart phones, At any point of time we shouldn’t carry more than 1500 INR with us , for obvious safety concerns.
• One basic model back-up mobile fully charged, to use in case of emergency.
• Spend as low as possible. (if succeeded,that will motivate us  to travel more frequently)
• Our attitude was to take whatever that comes on our way.

  On July 10 , 2015, we started  from Chennai CMBT, boarded  a bus to Dharmapuri. As soon as we entered the bus it started raining heavily. Probably we would have boarded the worst maintained bus in TN.  Partially closed window , leaking roof,  bent knees, back bones in attention … that’s how our travel started.

Day 1

After a sleepless horrible night travel , we reached  Hogenakkal (via Dharmapuri) around 8 am. We refreshed ourselves in a road side water pump. As soon as we finished our breakfast, a stranger (a local masseur) started planning our stay in Hogenakkal. After a slight hesitation we decided to go by his plan, since we don’t have any plan on our own :P

 As per his plan, every tourist will do oil massage before taking bath in falls, later a parisal (Coracle in English) ride in river Cauvery. We started believing him as soon as we saw many people massaging on the river side under big old banyan , peepal trees sitting over oily rocks. It was really a good massage for INR 500 for two people + 50 for oil.  We took turns to take bath in the falls , as one has to escort our bags. Note that we didn’t checked-in to any room. By the time we finished a  walk over the rocks  across river Cauvery, we felt sleepy, thanks to the children’s park(entry Rs.5) on the river bank where we took a nap with our bags as pillows.

Overall time spent in Hogenakkal was good and a big thanks to the stranger (masseur). We met lot of such stranger during the course of our travel (On a funny note, we later named them as  Guardian Angels who were guiding us throughout our travel).

 On the course of the day, we decided to go to Mysore for night staying. Then comes the first dilemma, two routes were presented by local people to reach Mysore.  One through Hosur, Bangalore  > Mysore and other through Mettur , Mahadheshwaran malai > Mysore. We decided the latter because we can peep through the window on Mettur dam as well (and we did).  From mahadheshwaran malai, we boarded a karnataka bus to Mysore, after 2-3 hours of roller coaster ride across hills which is equally horrible as Dharmapuri bus, we were asked to get down at a town called Kollegal in Karnataka, later we found that bus is not at all destined to go Mysore (misunderstanding because of language barrier). Fortunately we got a room there for INR 400 with TV as well and we halted in Kollegal. Later we found that Kollegal was one of the host places for Veerapan

Dharmapuri> HOGENAKKAL >  Mettur > Mahadheshwaran Malai > Kollegal

Day 2

Our next destination was Somanathapura, Chennakesava temple .  We managed to reach Somanathapura through Narsipur around 10 am. We finished our breakfast in bus with the fruits bought at Kollegal. River Cauvery accompanied us in our travel. Somanathapura is a town in Mysore district, (looked like village though). Short walk from the bus stop took us to the marvelous temple that I have ever seen.  As Wiki Says

“The Chennakesava temple is one of the finest and most complete examples of Hoysala architecture and is in a very well preserved condition. The temple is in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India as a protected heritage site.”

Statues and decoration in the temple left us speechless and it looked as perfect as a digital 3D printing of 21st century . Hard to believe that the temple was built 800 years ago. After spending enough time around the temple we searched for our next destination and Shravanabelagola it is. Upon inquiring through sign language and gestures) ,local people asked us to get a share auto to Banur, and then from there catch a bus to Srirangapatna and from there buses are available to Shravanabelagola, with these information we moved on.

We reached Srirangapatna around 3.30. We had good karnataka meals in Srirangapatna for just Rs.45. In search of the nearby bus stop, we roamed around the place for a while and we found few things historical. (later we found that srirangapatna itself is a historical place. Tipu sultan Palace ,  Grave of Tipu sultan,Hyder Ali , Sangama – amalgamation of Cauvery,Kabini and Hemavati river , War memorial) . Though we don’t know that we were missing these many places in Srirangapatna  during our travel, felt very  disappointed later when we found it.

Then we reached Shravanabelagola at 7 pm , travel to Shravanabelagola from Somanathapura was fun, enjoyable ,lot of sightseeing , travelling along with fellow people belonging to different culture itself is a different experience  and I feel that as the biggest advantage of travelling in public transport, , you have lot to observe both inside  and outside the bus. There we met another stranger(he did his part to be an Angel :P) who told us that temple premise will be closed by 6pm and he invited us for dinner in the bhojanalaya and we can stay in the nearby dharmastala.

Here I couldn’t resist sharing a funny event ,  we followed him into the bhojanalaya (Place to eat) . But we were not sure whether the food is chargeable or free of cost since annadhanam (rough translation is ‘Offering Free food’)  is quite common in pilgrimage. But we were not able to confirm it because of language barrier. This bhojanalaya is like a regular village side residence ,  filled with photos of saints / monks and a old man watching Ind Vs Zim cricket match in tv , in short it wasn’t looking like either a hotel or a place for annadhanam, they started serving us (papad , chapati,dhal,tomato stew , rice,pickle). We decided that it was free and the logic behind this guessing was “in hotels they ask what we want, in annadhanam they will server what they have”, after finishing our dinner we left the place, one of the old man stopped us and said ‘Rs.140 Sir’ :D,  Though we managed to give the amount immediately , we mocked at our logical reasoning skills. We denied the offer of staying in dharmastala (because of our bhojanalaya experience :P) and  checked in a nearby room (INR 500)  and stayed. That’s the end of day two.

Kollegal>Narasipur>SOMANATHAPURA>Banur(auto)>Srirangapatna>Channarayapatna>SHRAVANABELAGOLA

Day 3:

Shravanabelagola is an important Jain pilgrimage destination famous for the statue of Gomateshwara Bahubali ,one of the largest monolithic statue in India. Statue is located at top of the hill and we climbed the hill and reached the top at around 7 am. We witnessed some of the  Jain way of worshiping there, we could see lot of people from north India climbing through the hill , loudly saying ‘bhagavan bahubali’ , till that moment we don’t know that it is the statue of Bahubali. (we knew only about the movie Bahubali) :P  After taking few photos we came back and checked out of room  and moved to Channarayapatna(that’s the nearby town) by  a local van service mostly used by school kids and teachers. Our next destination is Chikkamangalore , boarded a bus  , with few apples to eat. Again after a fantastic ride through green hills and terrains we reached the our next spot.

  We finished our lunch immediately after getting down at Chikkamangalore . As per Google images this place was cold,green hill station, but we ended in Chikkamangalore town where sun was shining brightly and we don’t know where to go. Only if you know a spot, you can ask for the route. We wanted to inquire some nearby tourist spot and route to reach there, which is a pretty difficult task with knowing Kannada.  We tried our luck with random strangers in English, but it didn’t worked as nobody understood us, we didn’t understand them as well. There comes another stranger Angel, this time in disguise of an auto driver. He made a deal for INR 800 for a round trip to nearby falls and another sightseeing place, again after a confusion and lot of bargaining  we decided to go with him and finalized the deal for INR 600 up and down. Then we asked the name of the falls we are going (to check the distance in maps), the reply was ‘Jerry Falls’. We couldn’t find any such falls nearby in google maps!!!!!!! :( Still we believed him and started the ride.  He stopped for a while in nearby mosque and asked us to wait. (he is in his fasting prayer) . Mind voice says religious guy hence he should be harmless (you know about our logical reasoning skills :P). Then he continued the ride uphill. Climate / landscape everything got changed drastically with 10 mins of ride uphill, Rain, Fog , Clear , Mist..  everything it was a  fantastic sightseeing, we asked him to stop and took some pictures on the way. Finally he stopped at a spot , pointing at a downhill path, he instructed us to trek down the way and we can find the falls within a kilometer and he will be waiting there till we come back.

We started moving as per his instruction, it was a thrilling fun filled trekking experience. Suddenly we started hearing the sound of the waterfalls and we started following the sound. It looks like a no man’s land,  we couldn’t see anybody and finally the sound leads us to one of the wonderful falls I have ever seen. I have been to lot of large / crowded falls with all man made fences around but this one is exceptional, compact(neither large nor small) , wonderful , nature will be at its best when it is undisturbed by humans . Main reason for our excitement is its emptiness; it looks as if the water is falling only for us. We couldn’t hear any other sound other than smoothly flowing falls. 

After a fun filled natural shower, we started moving back.  Suddenly I noticed a bleeding in my buddy’s leg, it was a leech. We fought hard to pull it out and moved, and then my leg is bleeding, later we are shocked to see leeches everywhere in our slippers,hands. We tried hard to pull out one by one and took a hard run out of that place.(Later I heard from my buddy that leech bite won’t create pain and it stops blood clotting for a while). Climbing through the hill become so hard this time, it wasn’t enjoyable at all to climb. After reaching the auto, the driver inquired about the leeches and we were slightly angry because he didn’t warned us in prior.(anyway we forgive him, after all he is one of our Angel) Later he said that it is quite common and not harmful ☺. He took us to another man made falls (water overflowing from some dam like structure), sightseeing spot with tea shops. A cup of tea , bread omelet , few snaps and we are back on our way to the town. As promised, our driver dropped us back to town, right on the bus stand and directed us to our next spot Shimoga. (We gave additional Rs.20 as tips – how generous we are!!!:P ). It was a long journey to Shimoga for about 4 hours with only one seat available for us to sit and we managed to reach by 9 pm .  Checked-in for Rs.500/dinner/short-walk in the city of Shimoga, that’s the end of day three.

SHRAVANABELAGOLA > (van)Channarayapatna > Chikkamangalore > (auto) JERRY FALLS >Chikkamangalore  > Shimoga

Day 4

We decided on three spots in/around Shimoga, they are Koodli,Wild life Safari,Jog falls. We were about to leave to wildlife safari , fortunately  we noticed that safari is closed on every Tuesday. Hence we moved to Koodli (a place where Tunga and bhadra river joins together to form the river Tungabhadra). Bus dropped us in a junction from where the village Koodli is about 2.5 Km. Though autos are available, we decided to walk so that we can observe a lot about the village. The 12th century Rameshwara temple in Koodli built in hoysala structure adds beauty to the origination point of river Tungabhadra. There is a Narasimha temple behind the Rameshwara temple , and it is believed that it is raised and worshiped by Prahlad. People were doing lot of ritual and playing their part in polluting the river as well. We returned to the Shimoga to head towards Jog falls.Yes! That’s our next destination!!

Shimoga>Sagar>Jog Falls. Jog falls is the second highest plunge waterfalls in India. It is view only falls, visitors can have very good view from the well maintained viewpoint, accompanied with park. Mesmerized by its height , a closer look on the water falling from such a height will take you to a different world. Later we discovered that water level that we saw is very minimal and it will be visual treat to watch it in its full flow during the peak season. It was really a very long ride to/fro jog falls, we came back to Shimoga by 8pm. We  have to choose our next destination, it should be at least a night long by bus  from Shimoga and hence...... Goa it is!(no other reason :P). I noticed the word ‘Panaji’ from  departure list board and managed to recall ,  Goa – Panaji – the capital of Goa. (studied during school days :P). Again we boarded a uncomfortable bus, out of no other choice.  End of day 4.

Shimoga> KOODLI > Shimoga>Sagar>JOG FALLS > Sagar > Shimmoga >Panaji

Day 5

Early morning- Panaji bus stand - Public Shauchalaya(Toilet) -  Walk around the area in search of a hotel for breakfast and that’s how our day in Goa started. Goa , not only a place for boozing , its completely a different place altogether , still Portugese traces are seen everywhere. While we are still getting refreshed  a stranger , inviting us to a bar that early in the morning!! No.. he wasn’t our Angel this time. Another stranger introduced about a travel package which includes trip around either north or South Goa for a day for 400 /person. Fair deal. We thought of hiring a bike  and to travel on our own , but they are expecting original license, which we don’t have. Later a fully loaded fifteen seater van , came to pick us and I managed to get a seat near the gear box along with a 10 year old kid from Pune . All 15 people are from different places across India , none from southern part except us. The tourist guide explained us about every place that we were visiting but mostly in Hindi (we don’t have a clue). Places covered are.. A wax museum , Two famous temples (apologize!I didn’t remember the name) , Science exhibition , 3D  Film , Basilica of Bom Jesus church and a beach.

Basilica of Bom Jesus church famous for St.Xavier, whose body is maintained there and it is a UNESCO world heritage site.Body of St.Xavier is exhibited every ten years, rest of the time body is kept in a higher place inside the church as seen in the picture.

Travelling with fellow Indians across  the country – Visiting some culturally rich places – empty beer bottles at almost every corner of Goa – fantastic beaches , it was altogether a very different experience.  What next... Pune, Yeah that’s  the next destination which is a night away by bus from Goa.

   Here we experienced a very strange incident in search of a Pune bus. While we were checking a  board with list of buses and timing , a stranger(travel agent.. it seems) voluntarily offered us to get a bus to our destination, we said its Pune and  he called up another guy, he says the bus is ready and we are ready to board. He didn’t gave us any time to think or to get refreshed, he rushed us to the bus which is a good semi-sleeper parked in a isolated place. He gave a hand written ticket (looks like a parking token) and asked us INR 800 and We don’t have money with us. Ticket guy allowed us to go to nearby ATM with a escort , the escort took the money and gave us the ticket , when we came back, bus wasn’t there.  (shocked). When inquired , that  ticket guy is directing us to a spot and saying that bus is waiting there for us, We rushed and got the bus.(sigh of relief). Even though it looks strange, we got the bus, so we are just settling down in our designated seat. After 15 min, we were asked to get down on a highway ,  the conductor instructed us to wait after crossing the road , where another bus will come to pick  us up . We are clueless about the happenings around us. While we were waiting on the other side of the road with a feeling of getting cheated, our bus came to pick us up as said by the conductor!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And same seat is offered on a different bus!!!!!! Still we are clueless on what happened by then. Finally the day ended happily!!!!!!

Day 6

We were dropped in Pune outskirts at early morning 5am. We decided to go near Pune railway station, so that it will be easy for us to go to Mumbai through train the next day.  Yes we are nearing our final destination. We reached Pune railway station and first time we are witnessing the north Indian crowd (so far seen only in movies). But not a completely different scene as compared with Chennai central. The difference is... more of Pani puri – Vada pav – Pav bhaji that’s all :P ,  stunned when I saw people eating dosa with spoon !!!! :D Then we got a room , this time it is INR 1000 (After all it’s a city).

We started to ShaniwarWada , located inside the city. ShaniwarWada is a strong recommendation of the kid with whom I shared seat during Goa trip☺. Hence we headed towards it.  ShaniwarWada, a 18th century fort, well maintained. Walk inside shaniwar Wada while reading about the fort online, took me to King’s era, The fort has an fountain in midst of a well maintained garden surrounded by auditorium like seating arrangement. Very peaceful place for the locals to get a break.

  A Job interview  was scheduled for me when we were in Chikkamangalore– recruiters was not ready to reschedule the interview, even after revealing that I’m on a trip, out of no other choice I accepted to attend it online through a App named HireVue through my mobile. Interview was scheduled at Thursday 3PM.Considering this I wanted to stay within the city to get good 3G signal.

Next we decided to go to Aga Khan palace located well inside the city .Since we boarded a wrong bus We managed to  reach Agakhan palace, only  after a very long walk (>3Km). Only after reaching the palace we came to know that , it is the place where Kasturba Gandhi and Mahadev Desai(Gandhiji’s P.A) died and  buried , the premise also has the ash of Mahatma Gandhi, We never expected this palace would be of such historical importance before we reached. Mahatma , his wife, secretary  was kept under arrest in this palace following Quit India Movement. In the first place , Aga khan Palace is built to help  people from nearby village which got hit by famine . Such a historically important place. Its 3 PM , time for interview.  Somehow managed to attend the interview in the gardens of Aga khan palace (Thanks to airtel 4G) 3G didn’t help .

We came back to our room by 4.30 pm and Since we had enough time, we booked  for a movie in Phoenix mall, Baahubali (Tamil) it is… ☺ After a good movie, good maharashtra meals.. another bus , we are back to our room again. That’s the end of day 6 .

Day 7:

Started early from our room to catch the train to Mumbai by 7.30. It is a fantastic three hour journey through Lonavala to Mumbai. Anybody who have  traveled through Lonavala , can’t resist praising the beauty of that route, Lush green hills ,tunnels, random waterfalls , small rivers, what not .. everything is there. Unfortunately we wasn’t able to visit Lonavala. So now Mumbai It is.

We reached Ghotkapur, our friend was waiting there to receive us. Now you should get an idea on why we choose Mumbai as our final destination, and this time we made him as our Angel  :P

Mumbai , All that I have heard so far about Mumbai is - it is the financial capital of India, Sachin , Wankhede Stadium , Taj Hotel , Gateway of India ,C.Shivaji Terminus. Happy that I was able to peep through all of the above mentioned place during our stay in Mumbai. Being a guy from Chennai , really dumbstruck by the modesty of auto drivers, no arguments , pay the amount that meter says and get off. Well this time we(3 ppl now) started from Gateway of India to elephanta cave, one hour ride by boat into the Arabian sea will get you to elephanta Island. With an expense of 360 INR each, we reached the island .

Elephanta Cave, The caves and sculptures in the Island are so old in such a way that we don’t even know exactly who built it. It is also a UNESCO world heritage site. One has to visit there , to understand its historical beauty. Climbing uphill through the rock stair to the cave, left  us in hunger soon, After finishing our lunch in the island we reached back to Gateway of India by 4pm, Mumbai city’s skyline view from boat is awesome. 

 Next place is marine drive,  a very nice place to hangout for locals (On a funny note, from a Chennaites 's perspective it’s the Marina of Mumbai ). It’s 6:45 by now and still the sky is so bright and  here we dusted our geography skills to find  that since it’s the western part of the country sun sets later when compared to the eastern part. :P

After a dinner  treat (Finally non-veg ☺) in a good restaurant from our friend , we are back to his place. End of day 7.

Day 8:

We are in Mumbai on the 8th day as planned, happy that we managed do it without any major hiccups.  From unknown Jerry Falls to famous Jog falls, Gomateshwara Bahubali statue to the movie Bahubali , Somanathapura temple ’s perfection to elephanta cave ‘s imperfections , hogenakkal oil massage under tree to  job interview(successfully cleared ☺) in garden of aga khan palace , from remote village koodli to financial capital Mumbai ,  dinner in unknown bhojanalay to strange bus incidents in  Goa,  what did we left, nothing I guess. Excitement , fun , disappointment(on a lighter note) , random stranger Angels and lot more.

With all these memories and only 400(forget to withdraw money! :P) in pocket we boarded Chennai Express,with that amount we have to manage for the next 22hrs!!  meanwhile we didn’t failed to mourn in front of the  26/11 attack memorial built in Shivaji terminal.  We reached Chennai safely by 4pm the next day (Sunday), the overall expense per head for 9 days is 8300 INR only.!!!!

The memories are the one that will keep you alive while you survive.

Cheers !!!! Make Memories !! Pursue experience !! Happy Travelling

1500 Km Approx

--கண் போன போக்கில் கால் போகலாம் ,பார்வை சரியாக இருக்கும் வரை --

   

There we are

Disclaimer:Everything mentioned here are purely my view/experience. Apologize, for poor style of writing and for the possible grammatical mistakes.