Spontaneous Serendipity

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.

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.

This weekend turned out to be one of the most hectic one ever since I’ve come to Florida. Bipin was visiting for 2 days and wanted to cover as many places as possible. Here’s the weekend in brief:

1. Friday
a. 9:30 PM Bipin arrived
b. 12 AM midnight to Five AM – Miami Beach (Clevelander, Gloria Stefan’s Mangos, Irish Pub, etc)

2. Saturday
a. Afternoon – North Miami Beach
b. Late afternoon – Lazy time spent on Miami Beach Ocean Drive Boulevard sidewalk. Man that is a lovely place!
c. Sunset – swim at South Beach – where Bips tried twice (and failed!) to get drowned and be rescued by the life guard   babe (but I had to save him instead!)

3. Sunday
a. 6:00 AM start for Key West Islands
b. 9:30 AM arrival amidst heavy thundershowers on the route
c. Around Noon – Sightseeing, Pirates of the Caribbean Museum, Southernmost point of US (90 Miles from Cuba), etc
d. Afternoon – Boat ride deep inside the ocean
1. I was swimming and seeing coral reef underwater for 2 hours
2. Bips and Abraham were enjoying their time by having beer on the boat deck!
e. 6:30 PM Return from Key west
f. 10:30 PM arrival back in Sunrise
g. Midnight – Fort Lauderdale beach

4. Monday
a. 8:35 AM – Bipin went back