Blogs from Karnataka, India, Asia - page 147

You may never imagine what it takes when a few old pals regroup themselves for a wild weekend trip. sply when the destination to be is equally unknown with only a few pieces of information available. so, when we started for GOKARN, a 12 hours drive from bangalore, we were basically banking on hopes armed with kulti's multiple assurance and dham's 2 page print-out, which wud rather scare us as it told you what a spiritual site that place is! the hearts sank and so did kulti's chance of coming back as prodipto was determined to dedicate his roommate to the sea-god in case the place turns out to be a flop! bhnuri alias adhikari was given the role of the predator while kulti was the unanimous choice for the victim's! and our other organsier guha ... read more

Happen to visit Bangalor for one day. Went shopping in Kemp fort shopping center whose exterior is a copy of the 'Excalibur' casino, in Lasvegas. At the back of the shopping mall there is this Shiva temple with its gigantic Shiva and Ganesha statues. Rather unsual scene comparing to other normal hindu temples. It will be the tower of the temple which will dominate the archetecture but here it is the Shiva statue which takes the prime attention. ... read more

We were heading north but did not want to go via Goa and Mumbai (former Bombay), so we had to find our way inland. A direct bus to Bijapur would have left one hour later, so we decide to go there by changing bus. The first part was perfectly ok, a local bus as usual, but in the meantime we had got used to this means of transport. Then we made the mistake (afterwards you always know better) to take an express bus. It looked good to us, with far more comfortable seats and more leg freedom. We took seats in one of the front rows, but were immediately ushered to the back because the other seats were reserved. We thought this a sham because this had never happened to us so far, until we found ... read more

Hullo There! We had three camera in our last trek; this album is from one of them. The other two albums I'll send in the coming weekEndz. pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/prashantjanis/album?.dir=/6c20 Have a look at some of the later snaps - with calf of an elephant and all that exciting stuff. Kamlesh with baby-ele (see the photo) Essentially our tour was devided in three logical parts: 1. Hard-core trek - Thadiyendamol - Highest peak in Coorg! 2. Visit to an elephant training camp called Dubare Forest & Resort. 3. Visit to 'Nijyang' (I'm not sure about the name) Monastery. 1. Trek was good but the climate was very hot. You can say "who asked you to go for a trek in middle of March!" But then that's how I'm - "Spirits high, flesh (might be) weak". We started at ... read more

The train from Bangalore took us to Hospet, the nearest railway station to Hampi. Although it offers more varied accommodation than Hampi, we decided to establish ourselves as close to the attractions as possible. Hampi is a mecca for backpackers, without the tourists the village would not even exist. There are no hotels in the strict sense, only a couple of private houses, which offer rooms on the upper floors. We chose the best one (everything is relative) with private shower since we were not in the mood for a shared bathroom. To all the foreigners who are fed up with Indian cuisine, Hampi appears like paradise, offering Italian pizza or pasta as well as American and Israeli dishes. You can find almost everything, apart from fast internet or shower gel. Hampi was once the seat ... read more