A Day Trip to Vellore & Sripuram

Good Day Reader :)

My parents were here in Bangalore after a long time for a short vacation and we decided to take them to Vellore. We decided to do only two destinations here, Vellore Fort and Sripuram - Sri Lakshmi Golden temple.

We started around 11:30 am from Bangalore after having a heavy breakfast here. We had hired a private taxi for this trip.

After crossing the Karnataka State Border we stopped in for the lunch around 2 pm at a roadside dhabha. I am not mentioning the details here as I did not like that much.

Once we were done with the lunch we set off to Vellore Fort. It is around 230 KM from Bangalore. We could reach there around 04:30 pm in the evening.

The Vellore Fort has a temple with beautiful architecture. The main deity is Lord Shiva and the temple is called as Jalakandeswarar Temple. Apart from the temple, there are a couple of administrative offices in the fort now.

The fort is surrounded by the water body where once crocodiles use to swam and catch anybody who was an intruder.

The architecture and views from the fort are very beautiful. We enjoyed the evening, took lots of pictures to have a cherishable memory.

View on the way to Vellore

Jalakanteswara Temple History

Temple from the side view

Temple Gopuram

Temple Surrounding

Temple Surrounding

One of our fun click

sculpture in temple

sculpture inside temple

View from the fort

Water Body surrounding the fort

Then we set off to Sripuram Golden temple. It took us around 30 min to reach the temple and find the parking spot. The temple campus is well maintained and surrounded by Queue complex structure in the lush green landscape. The main sanctum is in Gold situated in the center of a Star-shaped base surrounded by water bodies. 

We wanted to see the temple view both in the daylight as well as the decorative lights. It has intricate carvings and built nicely. The reflection of the golden temple in the surrounded water is nice. 

The phones/cameras are not allowed and hence could not click any pictures. Temple premises also have a lot of shops that sell silk sarees, handicrafts, and temple related things. There is also a Venkataramana temple on the premises. 

We spent close to 1.5 hours in the temple and headed back to Bangalore. On our way, we stopped at a place called Aryaas Vegetarian Restaurant and the food, ambiance and the service is awesome here. The Dosas and Chutneys are must-try here.

It was a supper for us and then we directly crashed to bed once we reached home in the night with lots of memories to cherish.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Tripping :)

An Evening at Kapu Beach

Good Day Reader :)

I along with my team from my workplace had been to Mangalore  for the office work for two days. We were accommodated in Infosys Mangalore DC - ECC. The campus itself is a holiday place during monsoon. During our two days stay we hardly saw the Sun. It was raining continuously. The view and the walk in campus was just awesome. 

Infosys-Mangalore DC

On Day 1 our work was finished earlier than schedule close to 4 pm in the evening, so we decided to go to some beach. Our friends suggested us to visit this Kapu Beach as we can get on top of light house on the beach. 

The visit was worth it. The beach had amazing view. I believe this is not meant to play in sea water as it had wild waves and rocky sand. But we did play and got little. Definitely we had fun.

The Beach

we tried making sand home

The Light House

View from the light house 

View from the light house

Steps to go up the light house

Narrow way at the top of the light house

We enjoyed sometime at the top. We learnt how the lighthouse are operated and got down. 

We had some snacks from the street food vendors there as it started raining. Those Indian Chats were delicious with the Coastal Rains. 

We had an awesome evening and with lots of memories we headed back to our rooms.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Tripping :)

Kerala and TN Hill station : Waynad - Calicut - Ooty : Day 03 & 04

Good Day Reader :)

This is in continuation of my previous blog where we had reached Calicut, finished our dinner and had a good sleep after long journey from Waynad to Calicut. It was good drive with an awesome view. We had also spent few minutes at the view point right after you exit Waynad. Also expect some traffic jams on this ghat section.

view point en route to Calicut from Waynad

Day 3:

We got up early in the morning and the first thing that we did was Kozhikode beach. It was awesome early in the morning with cool breeze and no crowd. So it was kind of private beach. We spent all our morning there till 11:30 am and had our breakfast on the way back to our hotel


Once we were ready we checked out from the hotel and not to forget we did lots of shopping for foot ware. It's just a off beat but we actually got good deals there.

fun at the beach

Fun at the beach

Then we started our journey to Ooty. Being in IT industry for last 8 years I have realised that you can have no holiday peacefully. I got a call from office that we had one critical issue in our Live system and it is going to be a financial loss for our client. So that needed to be fixed immediately. During our lunch break on the way to Ooty I was working where rest of my friends were enjoying their delicious meal.

Being the hilly region I was not getting proper signal both in phone as well as for internet. But a big thanks to my team here back in Bangalore they handled it very well and issue was resolved soon. Then we continued our journey again. In between we had couple of breaks for photo session and tea. View was mesmerising.


When we reached Ooty it was already dusk and when we checked in into this beautiful resort - Space 4 Resort it was already dark and temperature was so cold, it was a drastic change for us from Clailut to Ooty. It was around 3-4 degree Celsius.

We got a very good 2 of 2 bedroom and a hall cottages for 8 of us with an awesome view.

Camp fire at the resort

Our Cottage in the resort

we did some shopping in Ooty and had dinner in the resort itself. At night resort had arranged for a bonfire. Dancing around the warm of bonfire in the chilled temperature of Ooty was the highlight of the day.

Day 4:

Next morning we quickly finished the buffet breakfast in the resort and started to the famous Botanical Garden. Its a nice experience to see old and well manicured plants.

Botanical Garden

Plant sculpture in the botanical garden 

India Map in the Botanical Garden

Tree Hut in the Botanical Garden

Then we had some quick snacks and set of to Doddabetta Peak. There was huge traffic jam on the way so we parked our cars halfway and walked till the view point, it was around a 1.5 km trek. But view was worth the effort again.

View From Doddabetta

Ooty from the eye from Doddabetta Peak

After Doddabetta Peak, we went to the famous Tea Factory and chocolate factory tour. In the tea factory you can taste various tea samples and do the shopping as well.

Then we went to tea plantations and tea garden for a long and awesome photo-shoot.

Tea Plantation

Our photoshoot

It started getting dark, we did not wanted to drive in the night so we went back to resort and spent rest of the evening there.

Next day early morning 4:30 am we started back to Bangalore with sweet cherish able memories.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Tripping :)

Itinerary for Day 1 & Day 2 is here.

Kerala and TN Hill station : Waynad - Calicut - Ooty : Day 01 & 02

Good Day Reader :)

We are bunch of friends who wanted to spend a couple of days out somewhere away from all hustle-bustle of city life, away from work or basically to go on a holiday. We decided to explore Waynad as we had heard about this place from lot of our friends. 

We had a plan for 4 days, so we decided to go to the queen of Hill Stations - Ooty as well. When we started looking for hotel/accommodation option we did not get anything in Ooty for our budget on the required date. As it was available on the next day we decided to visit a beach place - Calicut. I suggest you avoid Waynad if you are travelling with elders who can not walk/trek and infants, because carrying them for long time in the trek will be really difficult. 

Day 1:

We set off from Bangalore early in the morning around 04:00 am and reached Bandipur around 8:30 am. In between we stopped for quick tea and breakfast in Maddur. It was not so great place, as it was early in the morning we did not had any other choice.

In Bandipur we were welcomed by a scenic view of  forest, with lots of elephants and deer.

Elephants in Bandipura National Park 

Bunch of Deer in Bandipura National Park

We reached Waynad around 11:00 am and we checked in into the home stay. We got fresh up and set off to Edkal Caves. It was nice trek up to the hill to the caves. 

few steps while getting down from Edkal Caves

Inside Edkal Caves

on the way to Caves

When we reached down the hill it was already past lunch time we had a quick lunch in the nearby food joints and started towards Soochipura Water Falls. 

Soochipura Water Falls

Soochipura Water Falls

It was already 4:30 pm when we reached the falls. So we had to make it quick towards the fall. It is a walk close to 20 min down to reach the falls. But you will have to trek while coming back. 

After that we did some shopping for chocolates and called it a day after dinner.

Day 2:

After breakfast we checked out and started to Kurva Island. We need to take a boat ride to reach the island. It has very nice water stream where you can get into the water and play. There is around 20 min walk to reach there. We spent time playing in water till noon. 

Motar Boat ride to Kurvadweep  

Walk in the island

Water stream in Kurva Island

After Kurva Island we went to Pookode lake after lunch. We did the peddle boat riding in the lake. 

boat ride

Pookode Lake

After the boat ride, we had some snacks in the food joints near the lake and set of our journey to Calicut.

We went to Calicut only because we did not get accommodation in other places, otherwise you can really skip this time and make a separate trip there. It adds up extra travel and you can go only to a beach in Calicut. But the view on the way to Calicut is awesome. 

We reached Calicut around 8:30 pm, after checking in to the hotel we went to have a diner and called it a day. 

Watch this space for further travel. the Day 03 and Day 04 will be updated soon. 

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Tripping :)

Trip to Cultural Capital of Karnataka - Mysore - Day 3

Good Day Reader :)

This day would be the last day of our trip. We had planned for Talakad as we had missed it from our previous trip to Somanathapura, because of time constraints.

We started from Mysore around 09:30 am in teh morning. Talakad is a desert-like town on the left bank of the Kaveri River 45 km  from Mysore and 133 km from Bangalore. It once had over 30 temples, most of which now lay buried in sand. Now it is a scenic and spiritual pilgrimage centre. Here the eastward flowing Cauvery river changes course and seems magnificently vast as here the sand on its banks spreads over a wide area. (source Wikipedia).

Except for the Vaideeswara temple built by Raja Raja I, all the other temples were buried under sand dunes. Out of these, the temples of Pataleeswara, Maraleswara, Anandeswara, Arkeswara, Gauri Shankar, Kirti Narayana and Chowdeswari have been excavated by the Central Archaeological Department. These 5 temples together been called as Panchalingas and are believed to represent the five faces of Siva. The Panchalinga darshana is a popular festival held once in 12 years. There are only 3 Siva temples in Talakd, other two are in nearby villages which we did not get a chance to visit.

Now interesting part. Once you finish visiting the temple you will be welcomed by a river side where the eastward flowing Kaveri river changes course as the sand on its banks spreads over a wide area. It is a very good picnicn spot. You can take a coracle ride and play in a calm water. It is just a beach with no salty water.

There are few street food vendors on the bank of river, apart from that there is no place for a food till you reach Kanakpura town. Please plan ahead for food, better would be carrying your lunch packed from Bangalore/Mysore.

Please make sure you were good chappal as the place is fully covered by sand and makes it difficult for walking. Beware of monkey's. Follow Google maps for direction and take help frol localites.

We spent some time here and set off to Bangalore via Kanakpura Road. Had a stop over for lunch in between which was pathetic. Apart from this the trip was memorable. We reached Bangalore in the evening with a sweet memories of Mysore.

Hope the itinerary helps you in planning your trip.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Tripping :)

Iternery for Day1 is here
Iternery for Day 2 is here