One day trips in and around bangalore

LALBAGH FLOWER SHOW




My DH moved to Blore almost 4yrs ago..Lalbagh main gate is just 3/4 kms from our place. And we pass through lalbagh main gate many times. Still we never went to Lalbagh. True we dint have a reason to go Lalbagh. As most of bangaloreans would know, its turned into more of a Lover's park than, a botanical garden. (But we cannot deny it has a good count of people who go there for jogging ONLY early mornings). Well, as usual there was flower show arranged for Independence day. And this time, i insisted that we go...


We dint want to go on August 15th, as it would be much crowded. We decided to go next weekend...Flowershows are arranged for almost 3 weeks. 1 week before and after of Independence day, and republic day every year. This year's theme was India gate..


It was sunday, as usual we woke up late. (Never feel like getting up early in week-ends after watching back to back movies previous nights.. Also we need break from early mornings and hurrying to office stuff which are common in a week-day ) By the time we reached Lalbagh it was around 12:00pm

Did you know that Lalbagh the Red garden, was originally commissioned by Hyder ali, the ruler of Mysore, and later finished by his son Tipu sultan... Lalbagh is spread over 240 acres and has 4 gates, West,east, north, and south.. Each gates leads you to different areas altogether.. We had two good hours watching rare and colurful flowers and enjoy its beauty.If you Love flowers, and you are in Blore, dont miss this Annual flower show

 

TEMPLES IN BANGALORE

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Here are list of some temples, we visited different evenings on weekends.

ANNAMA TEMPLE ( MAJESTIC)

Annamma temple is said to be bangalore's main deity, also called "nagaraa devate", almost every place in bangalore has functions in summer, where utsava murti of this temple is taken in procession and people offer poojas.Unlike other temples, where shiva is main god and nandi is in front of lord shiva, this temple is exclusively for the worship of Nandi, lord shiva's vahana. The temple was built in 1537. Dodda Basavana Gudi is said to be the biggest temple dedicated to " Nandi" in the world.
BULL TEMPLE 1. (BASAVANGUDI)


DODDA GANESHA TEMPLE 1(BASAVANGUDI)
Sri Dodda Ganapathi Temple is located in Basavanagudi. The monolithic Ganapathi is about 18 ft in height and 16 ft in width. The most famous is the butter coating the idol. More than 100 kg of butter is used for this purpose.This ancient temple is found just next to Bull temple.


GAVI GANGADHARESHWARA TEMPLE (GAVIPURAM)

The ancient temple was cut out of monolithic rock probably in the 9th century. It is dedicated to Shiva Main shrine is Shiv Linga, in the front of the temple there is also nandi sculpture. The temple contains also a rare idol of Agni, the God of fire.Thousands of devotees come in middle January every year on makara sankranti Day to this cave temple. This is a special day when the sunrays fall on the shivalinga for one hour as it passes between the horns of the nandi.


ISKCON TEMPLE (RAJAJINAGAR)

Sri Radha Krishna-Chandra Mandir or ISKCON blore, temple is a famous vaishnav temple of Lord krishna & Radha. is the largest ISKCON temple in the world.



RAGI GUDDA ANAJANEYA TEMPLE ( J.P NAGAR)

The Ragigudda Anjaneya temple is a temple dedicated to Hanuman .Ragigudda temple also has a Shivalinga and the Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Hanuman shrine in the same precinct. The temple is situated on a hillock.




SHIV MANDIR ( AIRPORT ROAD)

This magnificent Shiva Temple is situated on the old airport road. Behind Total mall is the grand Shiva temple.This is open 24 hours a day and is a good place to visit while in Bangalore. There is also a giant Ganesha statue in the temple.The Shiva statue is around 65ft high and is considered to be one of the highest in India. The background is made to resemble Kailas mountain and give a feeling like in Himalaya. They also have a small tour of different Shiva pilgrimage centers across India made into a miniature exhibition.


SHANMUKHA TEMPLE (RAJARAJESHWARI NAGAR)

This temple is located in the small top hill rock mountain. This temple dedicated to Shanmukha. (Subramanya)
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TRIP TO NELAMANGALA, VIJAYA VITTALA TEMPLE


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It was a long time plan to visit this ashrama, since my bro and parents also had not seen this place, we all decided to go together. It is around 35Kms from our place, we reached there in 1.5 hours. ( Luckily dint get struck in traffic).The Vishwa Shanti Ashram is located in Arasinakunte village, Bangakore in Tumkur highway near Nelamangala town, It is spread around 20 acres of land. Vishwa Shanti Ashram is run by a Trust. The founder of this ashram is Sadguru Sant Kesavadas and Co-founder is Guru Mataji, successor to the Sadguru Sant Kesavadas.

As soon as we entered the Ashram, we saw a big statue of Vishwa Vijaya vittala.We then visited Gayatri devi, Santoshi Ma, Lakshmi-Narayana, Ashalakshmi & Anjaneya temple.


Lastly we went to the main attraction of the ashram, i.e a meditation centre,which has grand statue of Lord Vishnu with all 10 incarnations, also known as " The Vishwa Roopa" , as revealed to Arjuna by Lord Krishna . It also has faces of lord Shiva & Ganesha. This meditation centre was very calm and gives a pleasant experience. This big statues impresses the visitors, we sat for a long time observing different faces of god..... Mom explained us about 10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu as 1. Matsya 2. Koorma 3. Varaha 4. Narasimha 5. Vamana 6. Parasurama 7. Lord Rama 8. Lord Krishna 9. Balarama 10. Kalki

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Once you come out of the Meditation hall , you can see big statue of Gitopadesha Chariot. Gitopadesha, said to be the knowledge of Bhagvad Gita, given to Arjuna in the battle field of Kurukshetra . The Chariot here, is very well designed by the Shilpi(sculptor) Kasinath from Shimoga district in Karnataka. And an Statue of Sapta Matruke, representing seven rivers – Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Saraswathy, Narmada, Sindhu and Cauvery. We took some snaps & started from there, as it was about to close.Temple timings are 8am to 12.30pm & 4 pm to 7.30pm
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DAYS TRIP TO KOLAR & KOTI LINGESHWARA

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Destination 1: Chikka tirupati

Its been a practice to visit Koti Lingeshwara every year in Karthika masam from 2005, the time since we(My parents) installed a Linga in Koti Lingeshwara, Kolar.. This time My husband ramesh and my brothers family also joined us.... So we decided to include few places to visit on the way to Kolar....We all started, early morning around 7:00am to cover more places...


We reached Chikka tirupati around 8:30 am. It is located in Malur taluk of Kolar district. The main attraction here is Sri Prasanna Venkateshwara, where the main idol is made from Krishna shila (black rock), about three-and-a-half feet tall and is perched on padma peetam. Priest narrated us this story, when i asked about the Sthala Puranam. The temple is linked to the great epic Mahabharata’s Kandava Dhana Kandam. Agni, the fire god, during the incineration (dahana) of khandava vana (the forest of herbs) causes burn injuries to the serpent god Takshaka. Takshaka bestows Agni with a curse that he lose his power. Agni on Learning that, only Lord Vishnu, can free his curse, he performs a penance and pleases Vishnu and gets the ‘shaapa-vimochana(free from curse). Grateful Agni installs Lord vishnu in this place, and Lord here is aptly know by name Sri Prassana Venkateshwara.. All the festivals that are held at Tirupathi are also held here. We had the darshanam, & stopped at Kamat restaurant for breakfast, then headed to next place. Timings are 8.00 Am to 12.00 Pm & 5.30 Pm to 8.30 Pm.


Destination 2: Antaragange:

Anthargange, rocky hill range is situated at about 1226 Meters (4021ft.) high in Kolar district. This has lots of caves formed out of small rocks. Anthargange is the best location for light trek, Rock Climbing and Trekking.One has to climb half the way of the hill to reach the temple, (trekkers can trek further after the temple). The monkey’s are quite menacing, it was really scary, as we saw it plucking bags from visitors.(we had baby(Bro's kid) and its stuff with us.) . Once we reach the temple, we can find a small pond kinda thing, which gets water flowing from Nandi or Basava’s mouth. The flow is surprisingly thicker like almost 1 inch. And villagers said, throughout the year, it never gets dry, infact villagers, carry drinking water from here... It was so pity thing to hear they need to climb those many steps everyday n carry water.Theres a small temple of devi, we took darshan and spent some time in water, and headed to next place..



Destination 3: Koti Linga:

The Lord Kotilingeshwara Temple is situated in Kammasandra Village in Kolar district.The main deity of this temple is Lord Kotilingeshwara. This Temple was constructed by Swamy Sambha Shiva Murthy . The largest Linga is 108 feet (33 m) tall and Nandi is 35 feet (11 m) tall.There are millions of Lingas being installed surrounding the temple by the pilgrims since 1980 spread over an area of 13 acres, here anyone can install a Shiv Linga in his/her name, it is said to be as good as constructing a temple, you can find famous personalities like Rajnikanth, and many ex/present Karnataka/Tamilnadu ministers installing Linga's in there name...It was around 12:30 by the time we reached Koti-linga. As a regular practice, we fixed a priest to do Abhisheka's to Linga installed by us. After the Abhisekam, we went around the temple offering prayers to all gods here including Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu ,Lord Maheshwara, Lord Venkataramani Swamy, Goddess Annapoorneshwari, Lord Panduranga Swamy ,Lord Rama, Lakshmana & Sita , Lord Anjaneya , Goddess Kannika Parameshwari & Karumaari Amma and Lord Panchamukha Ganapathy. After visiting all sub-deity in Koti Lingeshwara, we had lunch & headed to next place.


Destination 4: Avani Betta:

It was around 4:00 pm, when we reached Avani, a small village located at 35 kms from Bangarpet and located in Mulbagal Taluk of Kolar district in karnataka. We first visited Rama-Linga temple, found @ foothills of Avani betta. We were then supposed to trek the avani or lava-kusha hills, Mom dint show interest in climbing as she had already seen it , Infact we (me, my parents n bro) have visited this place couple of times. Later reshmi (sis-in-law) also decided to stay back, as she had kid. So me my hubby, dad n bro started trekking. One can witness below places on the way to hill.



1. Valmiki Ashrama.
2. Place where Sita used to wash clothes.
3. Place for keeping lamp carved in the stone.
4. Big Foot prints, believed to be of Hanuman, Rama and others.
5. Place where Lava and Kusha tied the Horse. People put the grass over here.
6. Place where Sita lived.


This is pretty amazing. There are several holes in the roof said to be served as storing place for grains and even for heating water. The anda (for heating water) makes sound very much that of an empty vessel. We tapped our hands and were amazed by this. Everything was as usual and the entire rock was made upside down by Hanuman considering that people will spoil it. On the top of the hill is the Sita Devi temple. This temple has the idols of Sita devi and Parvathi devi. This is considered the place where Sita Devi went to inside ground with her mother after handing over Lava and Kusha to Rama. This is a must see for everyone.




Destination 5: Kurdumale:

By the time we came down the hills, it was 6:00 pm, we rushed to our final destination of the day. Kurudumale, a place in kolar, famour for vinayakar temple built by a famous scuplture jackanachari under vijayanagar kingdom..

It was 7:00pm, when we were on the way to temple, when asked for directions, localites suggested its not that safe to travel further during late evenings, but coming all the way, we dint want to miss this, so we decided to continue, as we went further we realised its not in-habitated by people and very dark n scary with no street lights along. Somehow praying Lord ganesha in our minds, we reached the place safely, and to our surprise, we saw our(parents) EX-Tenant as main purohit there, he got us the darshan of Lord, and told us this story..

Kurudumale was actually ‘Koodu-Malai’, a Tamil name meaning ‘meeting hill’. It is called so because this place is supposed to be a meeting place of Gods for the purpose of recreation.The idol is very big and huge, Ganesha is 13.5 ft in height. It’s believed that Brahma-Vishnu-Maheshwara, the Trimurthis, themselves installed Ganesha here to bless the land with prosperity. It’s said that the Trimurthis performed the pooja for Ganesha here as well.



I felt very divine after seeing huge Ganesha, automatically mind was filled with joy and peace..We sat there for a while, seeing the lord, then started, as it was getting late.. From there we straight headed to blore, and reached blore around 10:00, had dinner in a restaurant near my house, and went our houses..

 

Iskon temple is in West of Chord Road.. Near by to Majestic..

ISKCON Sri Radha Krishnachandra Temple,
Hare Krishna Hill,
Chord Road,
Bangalore 560010,
Karnataka,
India.

It has some shopping and great food joint....

 

DAYS TRIP TO TALKAD & SOMANATHAPURA..

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DESTINATION 1:- TNARSIPURA

• Agastheshwara Temple
• Gunjanarashimha Temple

March 19th 2011, It was not only a full moon day but super moon day.Mom insisted that it would be auspicious to take bath in Triveni Sangama (where three rivers meet) and visit a Shiva temple. Luckily it was Sat, both me and my hubby, dint have to put leave. So what next, we searched for Triveni Sangama,near by blore & found this place T Narsipura, also known as Dakshina Kashi.

TNarsipura, is a town in mysore district of karnataka. River Cauvery, Kabini and Spatika Sarova, forms a sacred sangama here,place is referred by Tirumakudlu.Its around 135Kms from blore We knew Talkad and Somnathapura is near by to that place.So decided to visit all 3 places.

As planned earlier, we were able to start @ 6:00 a.m. We stopped @ Maddur for breakfast. (Dont forget to eat Maddur Vada there, its famous for it). One can visit Somanthapura first, if your travelling from Blore, but we decided to hit T Narsipura first, as we wanted to take bath in Triveni Sangama before visiting temples..We reached T Narsipura town around 8:30a.m. From there you need to travel almost 45 mins to reach Tirumakudlu.

AGASTHESHWARA TEMPLE

We reached tirumakudlu @ 9:30, one has to use boat(20Rs per head) to reach triveni sangama from the bank of the river as the 3 rivers meet in the middle. We took bath and visited near by Agasthyeshwara temple, which is on banks of river. In the temple, I noticed a part on the front side of the Shiva Linga missing, and saw the priest getting us holy water from Linga as theerta, i asked him about that, and learned the Legend associated with this temple.


Rishi Agasthya, had once visited this place, and was enamoured by the confluence of the three rivers - Kaveri, Kapila and Spatika Sarovara. He wanted to install a Shiva Linga there & asked Hanuman to get him a linga from Kashi. Hanuman failed to get Linga within auspicious time, so sage created a sand linga himself & consecrated it. Seeing this, insulted Hanuman, cut off the top portion of the sand linga consecrated by Agasthya, From then, the top portion of Linga , the Spatika Sarovar (Spring )started flowing. It flows out even today and is offered as thirtha (holy water) to the pilgrims. Was surprised witnessing this. Purohit also told us, holy water doesn over flow, and neither gets over.

Next, we went to Lord Gunjanarasimha Swamy, (5 mins from Agasthyeshwara temple) which is located on the right bank of the Kabini river.The legend associated with Gunja Narasimhaswamy Temple is that Lord Narasimhaswamy appeared in the dream of a washerman telling him that, his idol is lying beneath the stone, on which he washed clothes everyday. The Lord told him to build a temple, and asked him to look for gold coins beneath the stone, which could be used for the construction of the temple. When the washerman expressed his wish to visit (Kashi) Varanasi on a pilgrimage, the Lord told him that, the construction of a temple has earned him (washerman) an additional punya (blessing) of about a gulaganji (seed of a twig tree) than that which accrues by visiting Kashi. Thus, the name tag Gunja came into usage with name of the God Narasimhaswamy..


DESTINATION 2:- TALKAD

• Pataleshwara & Keerthinarayana Temple
• Marleshwara & Vydyanatheswara Temple
• Mallikarjuna Temple

PATALESHWARA & KEERTHI NARAYANA TEMPLE

From there we left to Talkadu, Talakadu is known for its temples burried under the sand dunes. Vaidyeshwara, Arkeshwara, Pataleshwara, Maraleshwara & Mallikarjuna forms Panchalingams.
We have to walk in hot sand to see these temples, we took a guide, as it would be helpful to understand more about the place, he first took us to Pataleshwara temple..We then saw Keerthi narayana temple,which was recently found. (Was buried in sands), and Chowdeshwari temple.

While walking on sand to visit next temple, Guide told us this story, associated with this place. Tirmula-raja or sriranga raya the representative of the Vijayanagar family at srirangapatna, being afflicted with an incurable disease, came to Talkād for the purpose of offering sacrifices in the temple of Vaidyeshwara. His wife Rangamma was left in charge of the Government of Sringapatna. After hearing that her husband was on the point of death, she left to Talkād handing over Sringapatna to Rāja Wodeyar of mysore. Rāja Wodeyar had been desirous of possessing a costly nose-jewel which was the property of the Rāni. He sent an army to seize all her jewels. Learning this Rāni Rangamma drowned herself in Mālangi, with all her jewels.At that moment she cursed “Talakadu managali, Malangi madwagali, Mysooru arasarige makkalu aagadirali” which translates to “May Malangi become a whirlpool, talkad turn into a desert and the Rajas of Wadiyar not beget male heir”. Its so surprising that till today whatever she has said stands true.

MARLESHWARA & VYDYANATHESWARA TEMPLE.

We then went to Marleshwara temple and vidyanatheswara temple

MALLIKARJUNA TEMPLE

Lastly we went to Mallkarjuna temple , which is on a hill, we have to climb few steps to reach temple. View from hills is awesome, and once you climb up top of hill, you find Lord Mallikarjuna and few other gods...

DESTINATION 3:- SOMANATHAPURA
Finally we reached Somanathapura around 3:30 p.m. Somnathapura is a small village situated 30 Km from mysore on the left bank of the Cauvery River. The most stunningly carved , stone temple dedicated to Lord Keshava / Vishnu is built here. The Keshava temple built in Hoysala architecture is the only attraction in this village. But its worth visiting..

Keshava temple is built in three celled (Trikutachala) structure, which consists of 3 Garbha Grihas, & has statues of Venugopala, Kesava and Janardhana. The walls, ceilings, the pillars, the doors and the idols are amazing. Hatts off, to the creativity and patience of the artists, each and every carving is of unique design and very meaningful. But unfortunately no pooja is performed in the temple as it is desecrated by the Moghuls.

Could not stop myself, going around temple many times. Spent lot of time seeing each and every wall n pillar, which depicits story of Ramayana, Mahabharata, and kings.. It was 5:30 p.m by then so we had to start. (Closes @ 5:30 p.m). We were the last people to come out of temple that day. Our one day trip ended with mind blowing place...On the way back , we all were appreciating about, Creativity, patience and dedications of Shilpi's (Sculptor). .. Carvings on Celings..

 

DAYS TRIP TO RANGASTALA & LEPAKSHI



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CLOSE UP OF PAINTED STORK

DESTINATION 1:- CHIKBALLAPUR


It was a long week-end, for Ugadi festival. Our initial plans was, 2 days trip to Mysore, but later coz of few commitments we had to limit ourselves to 1 day trip. As usual, while browsing for near by places to bangalore, found this amazing place called Lepakshi. Lepakshi is small village in Anantapur district of Andra pradesh which is round 125 kms from Bangalore.


ANJANEYA TEMPLE :

We started from Bangalore @ 7:00 am. We took NH 7 route, which connects all the way to Lepakshi (our final Destination of the day). The roads were unusually empty, and we hit Chikballapura around 8:00 am. We first visited Anjaneya temple which is on the main road (Since it was Ugadi festival we wanted to visit any temple, before having our breakfast ). The temple is really big, built by Balagangadhara nath swamiji, i should add,we got handfull of tasty sweet pongal prasadam .


RANGASTALA TEMPLE:

We then stopped by Kamat Restaurant, had breakfast and reached Rangastala ( for which one has to travel 5 kms on Gauribidanur road from Chikkballapura bus stand). We reached temple @ 9:30 am. There was power cut in rangastala, we could see the lord only in dim lights of our cell phones and lamp lighted in front of god.. Purohit explained us that, temple was built during Vijayanagar period. But the outer compounds are recently renovated.



Rangantha swamy idol, here is built of single Sali grama stone, which is four and half feet in length with Bhoo devi and Neela Devi sitting near the leg. Lord is in Yoga Nidra position, and his Shesha (Snake) is spreading his five hoods like a Umbrella. Purohit also said idols's at Srirangam, Srirangapatana and Sri Rangastala all were installed on the same day and same time. We took some snaps & headed to our next destination. Temple Timings are 8.00 Am to 11.00 Pm & 5.30 Pm to 8.30 Pm.

DESTINATION 2:- ANANTPUR, ANDHRA PRADESH

LEPAKSHI TEMPLE:

After an hours drive we reached Lepakshi. The temple is very big and calm with mind blowing architecture. The main god here is Veerbhadra swamy, & Durga devi.



After wandering few minutes around the temple, I fell in love with the place. I could just not stop clicking pictures.This temple is again an added credit to Vijayangara dynasty..Especially people like me; who are in love with history of places should visit this place once. One can find hanging Pillar, great scupltures on each pillars and roof.We can find best mural paintings here on the walls of temples, which include many Hindu gods,
musicians, painters and some other famous personalities (kings) in the history.



And as per the Wiki, the story goes that the temple was built around 1500 A.D. by Virupanna Nayak, the chieftain under the Vijayanagar king Achyutharaya. The temple of Veerabhadra is claimed to have been constructed by Saint 'Agastya' himself, but it was developed into the present exquisite shrine by 'Virupanna', the treasurer of the Vijayanagar Kings.He conceived the idea as he found the image of Veerabhadra. He executed the plan in the absence of the king and used the treasure when he was away at Vijayanagar. When the construction was almost finished the king returned and found the treasure empty. The king ordered, as a punishment, that he should be blinded. The treasurer being a loyal person carried out the punishment spot with his own bands. Even today one can see two dark stains upon the wall near the 'Open air Kalyana Mandapa', which are said to be the marks made by his eyes, which he himself dashed against the wall. The builder did not survive for a long time and the village is called "Lepa-akshi Lepakshi", i.e., a village of the blinded eye.

Priest told us the story associated with the place.It is believed that, when Ravana kidnapped Sita, the brave bird Jatayu fought against the ravana, it lay wounded, with its wings cut off by Ravana. Jatayu held his breath till Rama-Lakshmana’s arrival; informed about Ravana and died. Rama seeing its last breath, with greivance, exclaimed “ley pakshi (pakshi=bird)” and hence the name. One can also find sita mata's paadukam(Foot prints) here...


Opposite to lepakshi temple, about less then half km, we can find Nandi statue facing towards
Lepakshi temple. Nandi here, is made out of a single granite stone which is 15 feets tall and 27 feets high, it is the largest monolithic Nandi in the world. After taking some snaps, we started to next destination.



KALYANA VENKATESHWARA SWAMY TEMPLE :

It was 2:30 pm, we decided to have lunch and then head to our next destination, Nandi hills. But the next two places we visited was totally unplanned and was not on our list..

On the way back from lepakshi temple,we stopped by, to ask route to Nandi hills. We saw a venkateshwara temple, which was under construction. Attracted by the Pancha mukhi Anjaneya swamy idol @ entrance, we decided to go inside the temple and it turned out to be big temple with 3 Main gods Lord venkateshwara, Saibaba & Durga ma.



Also had idols of Ashta lakshmi and Jyotir Linga's, & huge hall where Anna-poorneshwari idol was placed. Priest througly gave details of each and every idols there and gave us some puliyogre as prasadam... It was already 3:30 by then, and we realised there were no restaurants around, & have to reach Chikkballapur main road for restaurant. We could manage with Puliyogre prasadam n some snacks which we had packed from bangalore..



VERRAPURAM BIRD SANCTUARY:

While driving back to our next destination, i saw a statue of two painted storks and got down from car to take a snap, villagers told me that there is a bird santuary in half a km. It was already 4:00 & we wanted to visit Nandi hills, so my parents & ramesh wanted to skip this. I was able to convince them, saying we can just take some snaps n return soon.


And it turned out to be a good decision, we got to see rare, colourful Painted storks , Villagers told, this birds migrate from siberia, and make this little village their home during summer months (April -June) every year... Painted Stork is a massive bird with a yellow, long and heavy bill, slightly curved near the tip. We could find as many as 10-20 nests on a single tree. There is also a small lake near by, we could find some more birds there.We spent some time taking snaps and freshened up, by washing face in the lake n then left to Nandi hills .


DESTINATION 3: NANDI HILLS

I had great time watching this rare birds. We finally reached Nandi hills around 5:15. Nandi hills is in Chikballapur District of Karnatka and located in close proximity to bangalore International Airport. It is an ancient hill fortress, where Tipu Sultan stayed during his visits to bangalore.
We took the tickets, and drove over the hills (2 wheelers are not allowed over hills). We parked the Car and started walking. It was a pleasant walk, with cool breeze and good view points from the hill. I would suggest, one to walk from entrance.(If you have more time).We first visited Shiva-Parvathi temple, its not big one and not maintained well, but prayers is still being offered. As we walked along, we saw a spot called "Tipu's Drop" where prisioners who were sentenced to death where pushed off this cliff.. (Sad to add, that these days it has become drop of Suicides and accidental deaths).

It was 6:20 by then, we walked to peak of the hill and waited for Sun-set,(Where lots of people were already waiting) around 6:40 we could see a spectacular sun-set, i felt like i am watching a picture on a postcard. After sun-set we took some snaps, and decided to move soon as its not safer to stay there in Late evening..



We reached Blore in next 1 hour, and ended eventful day with dinner @ Nandini before going home .
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INNOVATIVE FILM CITY


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[TD="class: tr-caption, align: center"]MAIN STREETS OF INNOVATIVE FILM CITY
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We had a days off for Kannada Rajyotsava. We discussed about couple of places, and finalized to go Innovative film city. As planned, we started @ 9:30am, and reached place by 10:15am. It was really a pleasant surprise to reach 30kms in 45mins, in this traffic & highway.

I had expected long queue for tickets, but unusually there were very less people. Tickets options are either you can buy a combo ticket or pay for each attraction as you visit. Individual attractions are priced on higher side and easily this will set you back by 1000Rs per head. So we decided to go with Combo(500rs per person). We bought combo tickets and camera ticket(100rs). As you walk in you get a feeling of walking on a royal street ,each attraction is designed as posh buildings in big street.

Teddy Museum: Here you will find lottttsss of lovable teddy bears, enjoyed taking snaps here.

Mirror maze: Very good. We couldn’t find the exit, & we had to come out through the entrance itself. This is dimly lit. We will be lost, But not to worry, people there will take you out.


Haunted Mansion: Very good, and very scary. There are very narrow alleys, stairs and again the whole area is dimly lit. Kids can skip this, and better to go in groups.


Dinosaurs world: They have good collection of Dinosaurs,some are really big, and they move their head and roar with great sound effects. Its a good walk in the park, with collection of different Dinosaurs species.


Fossil Museum: Collections of fossils, but there is no more collections..


Ripley Museum: Good visit, if you have the patience and time to go through all articles and read about them. we spent lot of time here trying to know lot of amusement facts.


Go Karting: This you have to pay extra amount of 250/-. Ramesh thoroughly enjoyed 4 rounds of speed driving in the 380m hill track, while i was busy taking his snap.


Mini 4d Theatre: This is a 10 mins show of some 4D movie. Good one, must watch..After this we decided to have lunch, dont have too much of expectations about lunch, half of counters were closed, the ones which were opened were not tasty... We bought some mini meals, and walked back to Cartoon city.


Wax museum: Here we can find lot of wax idols of famous actors/politicians and fairy tales... Enjoyed taking snaps here...


Horse Race Game: Since couple of attractions were closed, there was no limitations on games. We played horse race game thrice, and i enjoyed it a lot, yeah i also won once . .

Roller Coaster: This game is Little scary with its twists and turns in a great height. Even this we ended up playing twice..


ROLLER COASTER


Other than this we can find Innovative Bank, Airport, Police station and hospital, where we enjoyed wearing dresses of different professions, and taking snap..

Artificial Beach – Best place to relax and play in wave pool after a tiring day. We really really enjoyed a theme, where a hugeeeeee bucket is filled with water and pours on people standing under t

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And we spent lott of time sitting in a water tube, ramesh played a water slide from great height.(I skipped it as it looked scary. I could say this is one of my best time while @ innovative...(Don't forget to carry a spare clothes to play in beach).



Over all General maintenance of the place is Ok. But Restrooms are not well maintained, and most of the restaurants were closed. Few attractions is still under construction.If you have visited any other Film City, like Ramoji film city, you mite be little disappointed, but i would say its one of the best place to spend 1 whole day in blore.
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