3. Big Banyan Tree (Dodda Alada Mara) (Mar 23, 2014)

Place: Big Banyan Tree
Distance: 36 KM (From BTM Bus Stop)
Participants: Srinivas |Naresh
Bike(s): FZ-S
Route: BTM Bus Stop > Bannerghatta Road (left turn at Jayadeva) > Bangalore - Mysore (NICE Ring Road) > Raja Rajeswari Collage (right turn onto Dodda Alada Mara road) > Dodda Alada Mara > Same route on return
Cost per Head: 100 /- (Incl. Toll Charges 23/- + 23/- = 46/-)

(story yet to complete)

2. Omkar Hills (Jul 7, 2013)

Place: Omkar Hills
Distance: 20 KM (From BTM Bus Stop)
Participants: Srinivas | Malli | Naresh | Nanda | Krishna | Pradeep | Pradeep (Rajana)
Travel: Bus
Route: (BTM Bus Stop > Madiwala)/Forum Mall > KR Market > Nayandanahalli Bus Stop > Rajarajeshwari Nagar Arcade > BEML 5th Stage > Omkar Hills > Banashankari > Jayanagar 4 Block > BTM/Forum Mall
Cost per Head: 73 /- (Rs. 60/- daily bus pass cost if you don't have monthly pass, not incl. food etc. + Rs. 13/- for auto)

IN SHORT:
Omkara Ashrama, a religious and spiritual place, and a temple called 12 Jyotirlinga Temple are  located on the top of Omkar Hills. 12 Jyotirlinga Temple has 12 Jyotirlingas (with the description of God's name and the location on a board) inside and each one having its own Gopuras (see below pic). A big clock made by HMT which sounds "Om" each and every 1 hour is said to be biggest clock in the world (even bigger than Big Ben at UK). (wiki)

PLAN:
I chosen this place bcz of two reasons - this place is very nearby and well connected by BMTC buses (not many buses through!). After our last trip to Shivagange, my brother Malli, cousin Naresh and I decided to visit this place on next Sunday (Jul 7). By journey time some of Malli's friends Nanda, Krishna, Pradeep and Rajana also join us.

JOURNEY:
We three, Malli, Naresh and I, woke up at 6.00 h, got ready by 7:30 h and had breakfast (Idly) and Green Tea. We started from room at around 8:30 h to Madiwala Bus Stop (its 10 min walk from our room at BTM) and got bus to KR Market at around 8:45 h. We reached at around 9:20 h to KR Markrt. All other guys started around 9:00 h from Forum Mall and reached KR Market at 9:40 h. Now our target was to get, as we found on internet Bus # 225, #227 will go through Shrinivasapura from KR Market which is nearby Omkar Hills, any of #225 or #227 buses. But we couldn't find any buses with these nos...:( We asked about Omkar Hills to some conductor, he said #225A will go there. No luck... we couldn't find this #225A either... Finally we got into some bus which was going to BEML 5th Stage and got down at Nayandanahalli Bus Stop. We thought, there was a short-cut from there. But, no short-cut, so we have to catch #225A or some other bus which will go via Srinivasapura. As we couldn't find any buses to Srinivasapura, I opened my mobile GPS to find the way and distance. Oh! I couldn't understand it properly, it was showing some turning mark and 1.2 KM on the screen, I understood it was only 1.2 KM in total, and I said to every one its walkable distance and we went by walk up to 1.2 KM. Hahah... we understood distance showing on GPS was up to the next turning only not total distance! Still we have to go nearly, 5 KM ...:P By the way this turning point was Rajarajeshwari Nagar Arcade. Every one was fed-up with journey as many didn't take breakfast. There we found autos, but they were asking high price to take Omkar Hills. We decided to go up to BEML by bus and then walk or by some other bus to Omkar Hills. So we got in to same number bus from which we got down at Nayandanahalli Bus Stop and reached to BEML at around 11:00 h. Now no buses runing from there to Omkar Hills, so we took two autos and paid Rs. 90/- to them for 7 people. Now we were at Omkar Hills. Forgot, we all having bus pass except Nanda, so he brought ticket while going and coming back.

FUN! Actually, Nanda wanted to wait for direct bus #225A at two stops, KR Market and Nayandanahalli Bus Stop but Krishna and of course we people haven't listen him and got in to some bus which goes via Nayandanahalli as Pradeep knows this area and was on the way to Omkar Hills, bcz of this all other consequences happen....:) We enjoyed some funny talks between Nanda and Krishna throughout the trip... :)

TIME: 11:10 h

OMKAR HILLS:

We got down auto at the bottom of the hill (actually it was not a hill, a small sloppy way, but if you can see city nicely from Omkara Ashrama). Our first impression was Omkar temple, so we right away went towards temple. It took nearly 2 min to go there from the bottom. We left our shoe near temple (we paid Rs. 2/- per head for shoe) and went in to the temple, it was good. We visited 12 Jyotirlingas and sat there for a while.

CLOCK TOWER:

Time: 11:40 h
Our next step was towards clock tower, clock was really big made by HMT company but not working. Surprising thing was that even it was not working, it was making "Om" sound at each and every hour. We observed 12 times "Om" sound at around 12:20 h when we were at Omkara Ashrama.

OMKARA ASHRAMA:

TIME: 11:50 h 
Next we went to Omkara Ashrama located behind the Omkar temple, nice place. We visited temple located there and had some snaps! Here one can find many Gods belongs to different religious.

 

BACK TO THE ROOM:

TIME: 12:30 h
We left from Omkar hills around 12:30 h and went to the bus stop. There we realized that many direct buses there to Omkar hills from Banshankari Stn/Jayanagar 4th Block (Bus #375). So we stongly suggest to some one who wants to go Omkar hills to catch bus from Banshankari Stn/Jaya Nagar 4th Block. We got into Bus #375 and got down at Jaya Nagar 4th Block at around 13:15 h. We had nice lunch at Nandhini Palace at Jayanagar 4th Block and back to the room, Naresh, Rajana and I (BTM) at around 15:00 h. Rajana went to his room at Marathahali from there. Other guys went for shopping in Jayanagar.

We also plan to visit Shanmukha Temple which is near by Omkar hills (need to catch another bus), but due to some reasons we couldn't.

Have a nice time.

1. Shivagange Hills (Jun 29, 2013)

Place: Shivagange
Distance: 50 KM (~60 KM via Dobbaspet)
Participants: Srinivas | Malli | Nanda
Travel: Train + Shared Auto
Route: Bangalore City Railway Station (SBC) > Yeshvantpur (YPR) > Dobbspet (DBS) > Shivagange Hills
Cost per Head: 50 /- (we paid 10/- extra which includes, otherwise 40/- for travel, not incl. food etc.)

IN SHORT:
Shivagange Hills is one of the main tourist attractions near Bangalore. This is a hill area, looks like the shape of  the Shiva Linga from one of its sides (see below pic), which houses many temples (Gangadhareshwara temple, Olakal Teertha, Nandi Statue, Patalagange) and is known as Dakshina Kashi. The area is also a popular site for rock climbing. (wiki)

PLAN:

Initially I planed this trip a week before by bike riding, but somehow it got flopped (Tamilarasan, simply "Tam", my great labmate not interested in this place! He already visited and had some memories - bike accident, but safe... :P). Then we, my brother (Malli) and I, decided to go by train. One of Malli's friends Nanda also wanted to join us, so we decided to go together by train.

JOURNEY:

Train is at 7:50 h from City Railway Stn and will reach at 8:01 h to Yeshvantpur Stn. I woke up at 5:30 h and got ready by 6:30 h and had some dry fruits and Green Tea (I like it very much!) in my room. Around 7:10 h, I started to YPR Stn, it's walkable distance from my room. On the way I had breakfast (of course, Idly Vada). I reached YPR Stn by 7:45 h, brought one water bottle and waiting for train. In between, I called to Malli, he said they were at SBC Stn (their room is near to Majestic) and brought ticket (each costs Rs. 10/- to Dobbaspet) for me also. Train was late, it started at around 8:10 h from SBC and reached at around 8:30 h to YPR Stn. I got into the the bogie where other two were there. Finally, train reached Dobbaspet at around 9:30 h. There we found many shared autos to Shivagange Hills (cost per head Rs. 10/-, but we paid more 30/- per head, keep reading some twist at the end!). It took nearly 15-20 min to reach Shivagange Hills and we paid Rs. 90/- for 3 people.

SHIVAGANGE:

TIME: 9:50 h

After getting down, many people ask us to leave our footwear at their stalls before enter into the Shivagange Hills (through GOPURAM, see the pic). Then we went to a old man sitting there and asked for the entrance of Shivagange Hills (as we came here first time, we got confuse), he suggested us to visit first another temple opposite to GOPURAM (Koneru/lake pic below) and then Shivagange Hills through GOPURAM. We decided to visit another temple first. We left our shoe (a mistake!) near a stall run by a old lady (good Grandma! How good will see at the end of this post) and entered into the temple compound. We found a lake (KONERU) and many chambers around with 108 Shiva Lingas in a row. Also, there was a temple that we visited and came back to the GOPURAM (entrance to the Hills).

TIME: 10:00 h

When we were entering through GOPURAM, a man accompanied us and said some story/history for 2-3 min about the temple and hills and asked some money, we gave Rs. 10 /- and left. We found few monkeys at the beginning while stepping up. Fortunately, no monkey caught us. We visited all temples and start climbing hills slowly. On the way many food stalls were there, so no need to worry about missing the way! Soon after some time we realized that we did a mistake, that we left our shoe at the entrance. Small stones start bothering us, but we decided to go with out shoe as we can't go back and get the shoe at this stage. I suggest you don't leave your footwear at the entrance, you can leave footwear at each temple that you visit in your way. So go with your footwear.

TIME: 10:15 h

We keep going with few breaks. As I already read "Road trips - Bangalore." blog, we know our targets: 1. First Nandhi (on the way), 2. Shiva Parvathi statues (on the way near top), 3. Second Nandhi (at the top, our destination). We missed first Nandhi, as we could not find it on the way - after going certain extent, we realized that we had crossed it.. :( We had a break and continue towards Shiva Parvathi statues. Climbing went cool till we reach statues. Around statues there were 12 JYOTIRLINGAS, don't miss to see!

 

TIME: 11:00 h

We went bit away from the statues and got shock... :( Oops! we found steps to go top of the hill (our destination), but steps were not proper, mostly rocks and some what steep too! Other two were nicely climbing, but I took more breaks, nearly 6-8, to reach top of the hill. First we went to Nandhi statue and then temple. Fully tired, had "Bellpuri" (cost Rs. 15/- one must have, it's tasty - may be bcz of hungry, TIME: 12:00 h) and took some rest at two towers. Actually, I wanted to have one more Bellpuri, but Nanda suggested to have on the way back, yaa it's good idea! Destination reached! Now back to the bottom of the hills... :)

 

 

TIME: 12:45 h

So it took us nearly 2 h to reach top of the hills. We started from the top at 12:45 h and followed the same way. He had 2-3 breaks while climbing down and had, as I said before, one more Bellpuri, brought one water bottle (costs more! Rs. 30/-). Remember: one must carry at least two water bottles per head or at least one. We carried only one and got over in between... :(  Finally, we reached the bottom of the hills in less than 1:30 h.

TIME: 14:00 h

Have to go for lunch. We went to Grandma and collected our shoe and looking for a auto. Meanwhile, we had some chatting with Grandma and she asked about auto fare while coming to Shivagange, we said we paid Rs. 30/- per head. Then she got shocked and asked who is that auto driver, fortunately, he was there only that time. We shown him to Grandma, she called him along with some other auto drivers and she explained this to them. Everybody scolded him and ask him to drop us back to Dobbaspet railway stn with no auto fare (so Grandma is good! We try to give some money to her for keeping our shoe, but she refused!). He agreed and dropped us at a hotel in the Dobbaspet center (railway stn is near by that). We had nice idly there and walked towards railway stn, TIME: 15:20 h. Train was at 16:20 h, we took tickets and sat there. Finally, train came at around 17:10 h and we reached YPR at around 18:10 h. Nanda got down at SBC. Malli and I got down at YPR and went to my room in IISc. Oh! next day I have to shift my room, yaa shifted. Now staying at BTM.

Fun at railway stn: When we were sitting on the platform, one rail engine went towards Tumkur very fast, we were laughing at that bcz engine was very old but going very fast... :) Finally, we came to know that our train (for which we were waiting) engine gone bad and this engine going to pull the train. Fun right!

See you soon with another post. Have a nice time... :)