Short n Sweet trip - Part 2- SRINGERI & HORANADU

Started from Udupi at 10am for Sringeri. I have heard a lot of the route, it being adventurous. Only mini-buses and cars would go in that way. The entire journey was amidst dense forests covering some wildlife sanctuary. After 2 hours of journey, I found that our bus was exactly below a huge hill and we were ascending it. Hell lot of hair pin bends and narrow roads made that journey really terrifying and thrilling. Next destination was Agumbe, a small village that receives 2nd heaviest rainfall in India after Cherrapunji. It also boasts of being home to largest number of King Cobras in the world. But I couldn't find any hehe... In this village, the famous 'Malgudi days' serial was shot. There is also a sunset point from where one can see the sunset, the sun dipping into the Arabian sea. Proceeded to Sringeri. Reached the place by 12.30pm.

Sringeri is one of the four holy places in India where Sri AdiShankaraacharya establised four mathas (other 3 being Puri, Dwarka, Badrinath) around 1200 years ago. Had great darshanam of Goddess Saaradamba, and Lord Vidyashankara. The deities were gracefully decorated. The temple architecture is similar to that of traditional Andhrite style. The temple is on the banks of river Tunga. There was also a meditation hall on the opposite bank of the river.




Sri Vidyashankara temple, Sringeri --->





Had my lunch there in the temple. A modern, large dining hall was constructed for Annadaanam to the devotees. What made me amazing is that the temple was so clean unlike remaining temples elsewhere. Since I learnt that the temple would be closed from 2-5pm, I started to my next destination, Horanadu.

This journey was also so thrilling. The 3 hrs journey was breath-taking. Our bus passed through hills of western ghats covered with bamboo trees and coffee plantations. Tata coffee and Cafe coffee day had some contractors there for supply of coffee seeds and their name boards were present everywhere there. Also called as the Silent valley, Horanadu is a small village where temple of Goddess Annapurneshwari is well known. Had a nice darshan of the deity. The main attraction was that the temple is located in serene place with hills surrounded and clouds passing through them.







Picturesque location in Horanadu -->







Finally, got a bus from Horanadu to Bangalore at 9pm and thanks to less traffic on the ghat section, I reached Blore by 5am.

Really, this was one of the exciting journeys I ever had. I would recommend people to plan for these places on some weekends where they want to escape from this concrete jungle.


Tips for travelers:

• Plan to spend a whole day either in Sringeri or Horanadu as both are excellent places.
• From Horanadu, last bus to Sringeri is at 6pm and after that only 3 buses leave to Bangalore at around 9pm. So hardly you find any public transport after evening. So plan carefully.
• Kudremukh, a famous hill station is about 30kms from Horanadu. So your trip could include that too.

For more pictures visit www.picasaweb.google.com/murali132
I'll be uploading pics soon there.

Short n Sweet trip - Part 1 - UDUPI & KOLLUR

After a long period of 2 months of work in my college, I was planning to go out on a trip for a break. I was longing to go on pilgrimage. I planned accordingly as:
Bangalore - Udupi - Kollur- Agumbe- Sringeri - Horanadu- Bangalore.

So packed my baggage and started to Udupi, abode of Lord Krishna, all alone on saturday nite (29 Sept'07).

Luckily managed to get a last seat in Rajahamsa service to Kundapur that takes me to Udupi and it started at 9pm. The bus has to pass through the horrifying Shiradi ghats where the road was badly damaged and there was a traffic jam in the ghat section for about 2 hours. Finally reached Udupi at 9.30am.





<--- Main entrance of Sri Krishna Mutt, Udupi

Immediatley went to the world famous Sri Krishna Mutt, the temple after refreshing in a hotel room very closeby to the mutt. All gents are supposed to enter the sanctum-sanctorium bare chested. It was the time when they were performing the Maha Mangala pooja to the lord that I had His darshan. We have to see the deity through a small in window having 9 slots, called the 'navagraha kidiki'. The deity, Lord Krishna was just great with his divine presence there. The idol was black, small and was adored with lots of jewelery. I was so lucky that there was no rush in the temple even though it was sunday.

Lord Krishna deity at Udupi --->






This temple has keralite architecture that resembles the one in Guruvayur. I then had my lunch in the temple itself where they feed thousands of devotees daily at no cost. The traditional Udupi cuisine is world famous and the taste was awesome. Nothing to compare it with. We were provided Swamy's prasadam, plain rice with rasam, sambar, buttermilk all in a clean plaintain leaf. After long time, I had completely satisfying meal.

Next program was to go to Kollur, which is famous for Sri Mookambika ammal temple, about 80kms from Udupi.






<--- Kollur Mookambika temple




I started at 2pm from Udupi and reached there at 5pm or so. The road was horrible inspite of being a national highway. The location of the temple was great with mountains surrounded everywhere. Had a very nice darshan of the Goddess. This temple is visited by large number of Keralites apart from Kannadigas. I was told that the deity was installed by Sri Adishankaraacharya. Started return journey and reached Udupi by 8pm. Having read in many blogs about the famous Diana restaurant in Udupi, I had Puri-kurma there which was amazing. Great taste.Now proceeded to the mutt at 9pm. This time the temple had hardly any people, guess about 10-15. Mutt's head priest came and performed some pooja there. Finally I again had a chance to have my dinner in the mutt itself and then came back to room and slept happily. Next day I went to the Mutt at 7am when some pooja was being performed to the Moola Virat (idol without any alankaaram). I was lucky to have His Nijaroopa darshanam too. Haarati was being given there. I sat there in the temple premises before the Lord for half an hour. Don't remember how many times I stood in the queue and had His darshanam. It was raining heavily then. I managed to visit another mutt nearby and then proceeded to 'Mitra Samaj', the birth place of world famous Masala dosa, located in the temple premises. I had one and it was delicious. I packed my baggage and started to Sringeri.

Tips for travelers:

• Plan your program well in advance and start from Bangalore to Udupi in late evening so that you reach early there. There are plenty of buses (directly to Kundapur or Mangalore from where Udupi is about 50kms).
• Do carry umbrella as it rains frequently there.
• Have your meals in Swamy's Mutt. It shall be opportunity for a life time.
• Dont forget to have some snacks in Diana restaurant and Masala dosa in Mitra samaj