Spontaneous Serendipity

After missing last year’s IPL-1 Opening ceremony, I had made a resolve not make the same mistake again… so we were there, the entire family – enjoying one of the most breathtaking international entrainment package India has showcased in recent times – Champion’s League Opening Game/Ceremony. And as expected, Neiv had a gala time in enjoying the laser lights, music, sixes and of course firecrackers.

The entire ceremony was pretty engaging, Dance mix theme of east meets west was good and performed well. I think Jamilia singing her hit single “Superstar” was a high point of the ceremony. Shaggy was also there but he has kind of become stale and I personally would have preferred some Indian star to perform there instead (Rehman or Sukhwinder would have been great!)

Being a hard core supporter of Royal Challenger’s Bangalore team… I loved each and every shot hit by Uthappa or Tyler but seeing Dravid hit a six was high point in the evening and was worth every Rupee spent on the tickets Too bad the home team lost in the end… thanks to amazing batting by Duminy (99 not out!) but a close game with last ball finish under flood lights and near capacity crowd ensured that the Spirit of Cricket was the real winner!

All in all, it was a thrilling game, entertaining ceremony and a joyful evening!

Pictures have been uploaded here.

Club Mahindra Resort

The plan to go to Coorg was made within minutes when Angshuman & Shipra came up with a brilliant proposition to make bookings at Club Mahindra Resort for all of us. The idea was to just go there, relax and enjoy the rains… and we ended up doing exactly the same!

We originally planned to reach the place around noon but due to pathetic road condition in the fag end, we got delayed by over two hours. Initially, we were really surprised by the excellent road condition between Mysore and Khushalnagar (80kms) but the road thereafter, for the last 26kms, could be best described as “barely motor-able”.

We had a late lunch at the resort on day one, followed by some game activities in the “Fun Zone”. Neiv liked the children play area but rains played spoilsport for him. It continued to rain the entire evening and we decided to call it a day and have a quiet relaxing evening at our room. It continued rain the whole night.

In the morning we enjoyed an elaborate breakfast at the resort and then headed for Abbey falls, which is around 10kms away. The road to falls is a single lane, mountainous and very scenic.  As it hadnt stopped raining we waited for the rains to slow down before heading out towards the falls. Neiv was specially very excited while going towards the falls. We later realized that all the excitement was as he actually expected to see Dinosaurs in the forest/near the falls

Abbey Falls

The falls, which are about 300m away from the parking area, were in the full glory at this time of the year with +9% extra rainfall being blessed in the state of Karnataka this season. However, due to the increased water flow, access to the falls was restricted.  Seems you could sit under the falls during summers, when the falls are just a trickle.

We again spent the rest of the day indoors, enjoying the rains and few games of “dumb charades” while Neiv watched his Fav show “Tom & Jerry” on the DVD.

Next day, we started our return journey immediately after breakfast and though we had planned to make a stopover at the Buddhist Monastery @ Khushalnagar,  as Neiv dozed off enroute, we decided to skip it and directly head home. We reached Bangalore/home at around 5PM after almost a non-stop drive with just one coffee break.

Summary: Coorg disappoints you as a tourist place… all the sight seeing place are scattered far away from each other and the connecting roads are pathetic. But I would still rate the trip as a good one as it was a relaxing trip at a nice resort with excellent food and the entire trip was planned & executed without hassles

How to Reach Coorg From Bangalore: Bangalore – take SH17 to – Ramanagram – Chennapatna – Maddur – Mandya – Srirangapatnam – Mysore – Take right at Ring road towards Hunsur – take right/merge into SH88 – Hunsur – Khushalnagar – Medikeri (Kodagu/Coorg).

Road Condition:
- SH17: Excellent, 4 Lane, pothole free
- SH88: Excellent, 4 Lane till Hunsur and 2 lanes till Khushalnagar (80kms), pothole free. Thereafter the road becomes pathetic, 1 lane, mildly mountainous and full of potholes.

Thanks again to Angshuman and Shipra for giving us company (& of course for the free stay!).

You can check the pictures here.

Cheers!

Alternate heading: Absolute waste of Time and Money

I had extremely low expectation when we visited the heavily advertised “Fun” spot – ‘Innovative Fun City’. And on reaching the site, I was amazed to see that I had to stoop my expectations even lower than I ever thought was possible.

About:
1. Location: It is very very far from Bangalore… 15kms ahead of Wonder La… It is in midst of Bidadi Industrial zone… whoever gave them the permission to base a children’s park next to Toyota Factory?

2. Entry Fee: The total package is of Rs 800/- per head or you may choose to pay Rs. 50/- as one time entry fee and individually pay for each attraction. Each attraction is between 100-200 bucks. They charge/extort Rs. 100/- for Still Camera entry fee!

3. The place: Even though the structures built are magnificent but serve no purpose and overuse of concrete makes one sweat and thirsty in the already warm & dry climate of Bidadi industrial zone. Inside, you see some branded retail shops, eateries and star attraction scattered around and most of them are still under construction.

4. The attractions: I just liked the Dyno park that they have built, rest is overcrowded, unclean, too expensive, not-worth-it kinds. You can get details of each from the official site here.

5. The questions: Why is everything so expensive? 100 bucks for camera entry, 50 bucks for a glass of Cola! Why couldn’t there be some trees to make things cooler and greener?

You can check the Picture Album here.

We visited the Aircraft Trade show “Aero India 2009” on the final day. Angshuman & family were having some passes for the exhibition cum air show, we chipped in one ticket to get access for all of us.

We reached Yehalanka Airbase at around 10:30AM and by the time we could park and get to the main venue, it was already 11:30AM. The guy who had arranged for passes was generous enough to have us dropped in his car till the farthest possible point

Neiv was having a great time already as he had seen enough of low flying fighter planes enroute to keep him excited for the entire day! The sight of helicopters and sukhoi’s only energized him further. I was kind disappointed to not find any F16s or 18s in the display. I reckon they were a part of Air show only. Later we came to know that one of the F16 had a flat tire while landing after maneuvers.

At around 2PM we went out to have lunch, had couple of drinks with Subway Veggie Delites and coffee day sandwiches. Meeting Ruchir during the lunch was a nice surprise

We returned at around 4:30PM after the show was over and most of the exhibitions stalls had started packing up, reached home at around 7PM beating the evening traffic. Thanks to Angshuman for the passes and the free ride

Find the pix here.

After a very hectic work week… we went to the local amusement park “Wonder La!” with my Bro-In-Law Gaurav who was here for a week. It seems the place is also hit by recession as, in spite of it being a Sunday, it wasn’t much crowded (good for us!)

The main incident of the trip was about my camera being lost and then being found in the “lost and found” counter. Good to see honesty still alive!

About: Tickets are pricey at Rs 598/- per person on weekends, it includes all the rides. You cannot take edibles inside and the tickets are single entry so make sure you do not leave anything behind in the car! Food available inside is good and not expensive. Rides look dangerous but can assumed to be safe as claimed by the management Staff is extremely helpful and always available when you need them.

How to reach: Go straight on SH17 towards Mysore for around 50Kms. Take right into Wonder La! gate in to the village road. Reach Wonder La! after 5 kms .

Road Condition:
- SH17: Excellent, 4 lane without potholes.

Check out the pix here.

Wishes to all of you for the 60th Republic Day of India. We went down to our local community function. It included Flag Hoisting, cakes n’ refreshment and few fun games. Neiv was real happy on receiving the participation gift in the end.

You can find the pictures here.

This weekend we finally landed at the most sought after place by Neiv - HAL Aircraft Heritage Museum. Neiv had the best time as he was actually able to touch “Fighter Planes” and the “Helicopters” and could play with their “Fan” (in his words!).

I’m sure that looking at Neiv’s interest level, we would be visiting the place again soon!

About: Entry Fee for Adult Indians: Rs. 20/- and I think Rs. 25 for Still Camera. The place is clean and well kept with a collection of few interesting planes. Though it is unrelated to planes but one should not miss to check out the fish pond near the canteen.

How to reach: if coming from MG Road, It falls on the left hand side of HAL Road, 3kms ahead of the Old Airport entrance.

This must be our 6th or 7th trip to Mysore over a weekend and we finally managed to take the token tour of Brindavan Garden and Mysore Palace! I visited the same after 15 years and it was sad to note that there have been no improvements at all.

But it is always good to spend time with Yogi and Vivek in Mysore. The plan was also to cover Ranganthettu Bird Sanctuary but could never wake up on time

Click Here for the photos of the same.

This Satruday morning, we went on a short Road Trip to Hassan. Plan was to cover 3 important historic tourist attraction of Karnataka >> Shravanabelagola, Belur and Halebid.

We started at around 1PM on Saturday, reached Shravanabelagola at 4:30PM. The shrine is on top of a monolithic stone mountain. The Climb of 400 odd steps to reach the top was not so easy with Neiv jumping all over the place. But it was worth the effort with the peace that you get when you sit in front of supposedly “the largest monolithic statue in the world” of lord Mahaaveer. If nothing else, Neiv had a good time running around in the open space in front of the idol.

From Shravanabelagola we went straight to Hassan town for a night halt. The hotel that we took was pretty decent and not too expensive. Next morning we started to Belur, via the impeccable SH57, halting for few minutes to take some snaps in sunflower farms.

The Chennakesava Temple at Belur is definitely one of the rare and not to be missed place if you visit south India. You can get more details about it on wiki. From Belur we went to Halebidu, which is famour for Hoysaleswara Temple. Though it is more famous than Belur, it did not live up to my expectation, which were already set too high at Belur. But I should mention that the place is very well kept and the district admin is taking pains to make it a popular place.

We started back to Bangalore at around 4PM, beating evening traffic, we reached home at around 9PM.

How to Reach Shravanabelagola: Take NH4 Road towards Tumkur, go straight for 40Kms. Take left onto NH48 at Nelamangala, go straight for 100kms. Take left onto a village road towards Shravanabelagola, go straight for around 15 kms (all approx distances.)

How To reach Belur: Take NH4 Road towards Tumkur, go straight for 40Kms. Take left onto NH48 at Nelamangala, go straight for 150kms to reach Hassan. Take right to enter the town. Across the town, take right onto SH57. Reach Belur after 32kms. Take deep left turn to arrive at the temple.

How To reach Halebid: You can either divert for 20 kms to right on SH57 before reaching Belur or could choose to go directly from Belur.

Road Condition:
- NH4: Good, 4 lane, pothole free but usually congested.
- NH48: Good, 2 lane, Pothole free with moderate traffic.
- SH57: Excellent, 2 lane, Pothole Free with rare traffic.

Click here to checkout the photos of Hassan Trip.