The fourth cave temple in Badami is a Jain temple and this was a total surprise. I know very little about the Jain religion. It’s my ignorance, but Karnataka has a rich history with respect to the Jain religion; Sravanabelagola in Karnataka is one of the most important centres of Jain religion being the home…
Tag: Travel
Stone compositions in Badami 👑
Cave 3 in Badami is the largest and the most elaborate among the four cave temples. An inscription on the wall of the cave details that the cave was created under the auspicious of the king’s (Kirttivarman I) brother Mangalesha Chalukya in 578 CE. The cave is dedicated to Lord Vishnu and the sculptures and…
Looking back on a memorable stay at the Gateway Chikmagalur💐
We checked out of Gateway Chikmagalur and reached Hampi by evening and while having dinner at the new hotel, we were surprised by a call from the Taj staff asking if we reached our home safely !? That was nice !! It must be a SOP (standard operating procedure) for them, but we felt wowed…
Vishnu avatars in Badami 🛕
The caves 2 & 3 in Badami are dedicated to Lord Vishnu. The pattern of the caves are the same as cave 1 – outer verandah, pillared hall and inner sanctuary. Cave 2 first. Boar is the symbol of the Chalukyas and here were are presented with a sculpture depicting the Varaha (Boar) the third…
Shiva stories from Badami 🔱
Cave 1 in Badami is dedicated to Lord Shiva; it consists of a an open verandah, a pillared hall and an inner sanctuary. Our tour of Cave 1 in Badami began with the above spectacular sculpture of Shiva, the Lord of dance, in a cosmic dance pose. Shiva here is depicted with 18 arms, nine…
Badami: Stories sculpted in stone 👑
Badami (formerly Vatapi) was the capital of the Chalukyas who ruled the land between the 6th -8th century CE. The major monuments of interest in Badami are the 4 cave temples with their beautiful sculptures dating back to those periods. The lake in the middle called the Agastya lake divides the area into the South…
Hampi to Badami: Road trip 🛕🚙
Badami : 8 hours drive (to and fro) for 2 hours of sightseeing ⁉️ It was on a Sunday that we decided to head out to Badami, a four hour drive from our hotel. While Hampi lies in the Bellary district of Karnataka, Badami is located in another district called Bagalkot. Badami, formerly called Vatapi, was…
Red Earth🎈🌳 (Part 2 of 2)
I had mentioned in Part 1 that we were staying at the Hyatt Place hotel which is located within a JSW residential layout in Toranagallu town of Bellary district in Karnataka 👉 Red Earth🌳🎈 (Part 1 of 2). Our agenda here was to visit the nearby historic towns of Badami and Hampi. The residential layout…
Red Earth🌳🎈 (Part 1 of 2)
In Chikmagalur, we woke up to sounds of birds chirping; in Hampi, we were awakened by the sounds of whistles from trains. Goods train most probably ferrying raw material and finished goods to and fro from the JSW Vijayanagar Steel Plant in the vicinity. Our hotel, the Hyatt Place was located in a town called…
Chikmagalur to Hampi🚩: A scenic road trip from south to north Karnataka
Chikmagalur is along south west of Karnataka and Hampi is on the north eastern side. The change is scenery was dramatic. You’ll see !! 11: 00 am. From Chikmagalur we took the NH 173. It’s a 6 hour drive 🚗💨 Crossing Chitradurga, we were on NH 48, part of the Golden Quadrilateral for a short…
A peek at the tallest peak in Karnataka – Mullayanagiri: Chikmagalur ⛰
After the Jhari Falls, our next stop was Mullayanagiri. We reached the base by 5:00 pm, the roads are narrow and winding. The sights are spectacular !! The misty blue green mountains are a glorious sight. Mullayanagiri is the highest peak in Karnataka (approx. 6400ft). The mountain ranges are called Chandra Drona ranges due to…
An itinerary for Chikmagalur 🌳
When I told my mom that we were in Chikmagalur for Christmas, her first association with the place was “That was Indira Gandhi’s constituency !” Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh was always the stronghold of the Congress party and Indira Gandhi’s home constituency. But after the Emergency rule, she lost the elections from Raebareli in 1977…
Bangalore to Chikmagalur: Road trip 🛣
So here we are off on a trip to the Land of Coffee ☕️. Chikmagalur!! 🚗💨 Getting out of Bangalore city makes you realise how vast the state of Karnataka is actually. And the roads, always straight roads; the fact that you can see the tarmac stretching for miles in front itself is a spectacular…
People of the Pepper Kingdom 👑
Accompanying me on this trip to Kerala is the book “Eating India” by Chitrita Banerji. Borrowing a line from the book on Kerala… “A state tourism brochure proclaims: ‘With the Arabian Sea to the west, the Western Ghats towering 500-2700 meters to the east and networked by forty-four rivers, Kerala enjoys unique geographical features that…
An evening by the Vembanad lake🌅 @Grand Hyatt, Bolgatty, Kochi
“Kochi, one night? No problems, will get you a shack on the waterfront.” hubs trying to be funny. “You will love the views” he said. Hubs was not kidding. The waterfront view was pretty spectacular !! And I must say, the shack is pretty grand. There was this after the rains kind of stillness everywhere,…
Musings @ 32,000 ft ☁️ ☁️
It suddenly struck me that, one of the things that I have been missing for over a decade or so is claiming the window seat in an airplane. Once you have kid(s), the window seat becomes their privilege and you settle for the middle or aisle. Its nice to get the window seat. I was…
Punalur – A (road) trip down the memory lane (guest post)🚂
So far our road trip from Bangalore to Kerala was uneventful; we sped along the empty highways crossing Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and finally arrived at the borders of Kerala. After 8 hours of non-stop driving and a ½-hr pitstop, it was the Tamil Nadu-Kerala interstate check post at Aryankavu which was proving to be a…
Bee an Angel (guest post) ➰🐝
I was comfortably seated in the cool ambience of an Audi Q3 Quattro. The Q3 moved and behaved like a king on the road; in the 650-odd km run to my home, I was constantly aware that no other vehicle overtook it. The cruise control served like a charm on long stretches, and the sporty…
A glorious afternoon at Church street, Bangalore 🎋
It’s been over a month since we stepped out of the apartment and it was high time. The kid’s mid-term exams were over, festival holidays were underway and we were yearning for a change in scenery. It was late morning on a Sunday and we drove over to MG Road. The shop fronts were decorated…
Stalk and the Bean 🍃 (guest post)
Our appetite for coffee took us further north (a gruelling road trip 300-km long) to the heartland of coffee plantations in Chikmagalur district of Karnataka state where a homestay, Nature Nirvana was arranged. Genuinely located in the lap of nature, this was a place for which Google could not find travel routes. Instead, we had to rely…
Miles and smiles 
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