This was the time when we shifted back to Kaup from Bangalore prior to my father's retirement. The videos are pretty much old, however composed now. The clarity is not so good since most of them were shot inside the car. The video is maintained for memory. We started at around 11:00 AM from Bangalore and reached Kaup only by 11:00PM at night. We had to start late since we had to fit carrier for our car to accommodate excess baggage. We spent around 2hrs in bangalore city due to traffic mess. It was around 1:00 PM we reached Yeshwantpur. From then we took only 10hrs to Kaup inspite of taking 30minutes break for dinner at Uppinangady and deadly stretch of Shiraadi ghat. At that time, Shiraadi ghat road was tortured so much that we could hardly notice bitumen on the stretch. Adding to that, our car headlight lacked distance and hence we had to drive carefully. It always happens that the stretch between Ballupet and Gundya gets destroyed during every monsoon and repaired only by march. This is the story every year and no permanent solution is on the cards. Bangalore-Mangalore section is one of the beautiful tracks to drive due to the fact it covers plains, malnad, ghat and coastal areas. If the shiraadi ghat section is well maintained, this stretch is heaven for enthusiastic drivers.
The video is composed using KDENLIVE under UBUNTU. Help and support free software. The video is dedicated to free and open source community as well as people who love to drive along MLORE-BLORE stretch.
Everyone knows TWITTER. Even I have an account from many months. However today I have started writing something into it :-). If you have small things to share you can always TWEET in TWITTER. TWITTER is also called micro-blogging site(140 chars at once only). TWEET is the common terminology used I feel. Consequently, I have five tweets for today. Feel free to follow me ;-). My id is: nandakumar85. Feel free to re-tweet even ;-). I am open to flames also :-).
This was the first time I traveled in Shatabdi express. I believe it is the fastest train in India (citation needed). The shatabdi was bound to MAS (Chennai) from MYS (Mysore). I had to travel till SBC (Bangalore). The train usually leaves at 2:20 from MYS and reaches SBC by 4:20. This was accurate the day I traveled. There are no crossings or halts in between for the train. The next stop for train is SBC itself :-). The interiors are good with push back seats. The sitting area is wider and is comfortable. There are also eating tables attached to seats. The train men serve mineral water and some snacks. These snacks are not enough at all [for people like me :-)]. Unfortunately even outside vendors are not allowed. You may have to carry extra food with you. If you are commuting in this route by VOLVO, you can even try Shatabdi since fares are almost near (Of-course Shatabdi has more however comfortable and no traffic heck).
Horrible part was some children pelting strong stones at the window of train near Kengeri. Some windows developed cracks because of this and there were marks of the past incidents too. I do not understand why people want to harm public property. Summing up, the journey was really enjoying and pleasant.
Here is a small video of the journey.
Shatabdi (means centenary in Sanskrit) trains travel at speed of 100kmph and some trains powered by WAP-5 engines even touch 160kmph. Wikipedia page has more details on Shatabdi trains.
MUSIC: Ulrich Schnauss "Monday Paracetamol" Hope you will enjoy the video.
Last week of 2011 we had shutdown in office. Hence we went for a small to trip to Uttara Kannada district. We started on 27-12-2011 and returned on 28-12-2011. It was around 600 kms of drive in span of 2 days. We covered Gokarna, OM-Beach, Sonda, Sahasralinga and apsarakonda. Undoubtedly Uttara Kannada district is the most beautiful district in Karnataka since it is unexplored. Beautiful beaches, temples, the hilly regions, lot of water falls, rivers like sharavati, kali, aghanashini, shalmali, kali, landscapes, konkan railway tunnels, western ghats near coast is mesmerizing to watch. The beauty is because most of the places are not explored as tourism spots. There is not much industrialization too.
We started at 7AM from KAUP and had to reach Gokarna by 12PM otherwise temple would close and re-open only by 5PM. So we throttled our alto to the max and even touched 120kmph at times in two lane highway. Due to this we could reach Gokarna by 11AM i.e. we took 4 hours for 200kms including half an hour of break at Kundapur for breakfast. We could have reached earlier if the road was clean between Murdeshwar and Honnavar. (The potholes are really nasty)
One has to take deviation from highway towards west for about 10kms to reach Gokarna. The scene in between is fantastic with beautiful backwaters and hills. However, Gokarna seems to be crappy with lot of garbage around. Also foreigners make such holy place so much ugly. At least they should realize that it’s holy place and respect the sentiments of deities. OM-Beach is around 6 kms from Gokarna. The look atop of view point resembles that of OM-symbol. Hence the name given to beach as OM. Lots of tourists visit OM-Beach. Here are some pictures.
GOKARNA TEMPLE
OM-BEACH
OM-BEACH
Then we travelled towards Sonda which is around 90kms from Gokarna. The travel from Gokarna to Sirsi is really marvelous. The first 20kms is the ghat section named as Devimane ghat. The look from one of the spot here is magnificient. Later part is sort of curvy road. Beautiful track to drive though. The ghat looked like layered region. It was around 5PM when we reached Sonda. The weather was too cold since we were right at the mid of Western Ghats. The next day we visited Sahasralinga where you find shivalingas mounted on Shalmali River. I am not sure about the mythology of the place. There is also a hanging bridge constructed near by where you can have look of the river. We could spot only few lingas and rest might have been submerged under water. It may be possible to have better look in summer season and during monsoon, you will see only water. Here are some snaps
SONDA VADIRAJA MUTT
To reach Sahasralinga, you have to travel from Sirsi along Sirsi-Yellapur Highway for about 15kms. From there, you have a deviation towards left to reach Sahasralinga. Its about 2kms from main highway. Watch for signboards after traveling for 14kms.
SAHASRALINGA
After Sahasralinga our next stop was at Aghanashini River near Kumta. The beautiful landscape attracts everyone. I took some snaps and we moved on. We again saw the beautiful Sharavati river in Honnavar. The rail bridge built across the river is longest along konkan railway route (spans for 2065m). Few kms from here is the apsarakonda falls and beach. The view from atop of the hill near is eye-catching. There are also good hang-outs atop. Due to lack of time we skipped this place. However I took some manual shots with 0.5 second shutter. Here are some pictures.
APSARAKONDA
Apsarakonda can be reached even before Honnavar if you are traveling from Udupi. It is about 4kms from Sharavati bridge. There are two routes. One leads to the small falls where you have a temple and other leads to Kasarkod beach. The signboards are not clear though. Both roads are very much narrow that there will be deadlock if two buses travel face-to-face. The road leading to falls is quite narrow and steep. From Kasarkod beach, you can climb up the hill to have magnificent view of apsarakonda beach.Kasarkod beach area is also very good and worth visiting.
APSARAKONDA
SHARAVATI RIVER BASIN, HONNAVAR
KONKAN RAILWAY BRIDGE ACROSS SHARAVATI RIVER, HONNAVAR
Undoubtedly Uttara Kannada is beautiful spot to visit especially during monsoon. It is because of beautiful nature and sea being close to western ghats, UK receives heavy rains during monsoon. Especially places like Bhatkal and Gokarna receive more than 500cms of rain a year.
It was around 5 PM when we left Apsarakonda. On the way back, we again had glance of beautiful Maravanthe beach near Kundapur. It was already around 6:30 in evening. We could not get down here due to poor light. The quote from Wikipedia says:
“One of Karnataka's most beautiful beaches. It is about 55 kilometres (34 mi) from Udupi. NH-17 runs right next to the beach and the Suparnika River flows on the other side of the road, creating a spectacular scenery and considered only one of its kind in India. The river Souparnika, which almost touches Arabian Sea here, makes a U turn and goes eastward to join the Sea only after a journey of more than 10 kilometres (6.2 mi), which is a geological wonder”
I never knew about last point the author has mentioned. Really marvelous. It looks as if river is teasing the sea or nature is showing human civilization that I have better design etc... so many things. The picture is pretty much old not the one taken during our travel.
MARAVANTHE BEACH, BAINDOOR, UDUPI DISTRICT
The road from Udupi to Honavar is OK but not even at many places. From murdeshwar till honavar there are really big pot holes in between. So be careful if you are driving. They are really nasty!! The road there after is also good. The road between Kumta and Sirsi is a state highway and has been completely relayed barring few hairpin curves where drainage work is under progress. The first 20kms is ghat section road while later part is curvy road. The road from Sirsi to Sonda is also good. The roads leading to apsarakonda, OM-beach and sahasralinga are very much narrow as stated earlier. Be careful if you are driving for first time or else you may end up in a valley. For experienced drivers it will not be problematic.
Most destinations bare Rs.10 maintenance fee. Sahasralinga, apsarakonda and OM-beach do have them. Due to lack of time we could not visit some of the places like Yana, some falls. Also jog-falls and gerusoppa is very near to Honavar and Sirsi. We skipped due to the fact that it was not monsoon season. Mid-way we also skipped Idagunji, Murdeshwar and Kumbhasi temples since we were getting very late.
Some tips from my side (non-exhaustive)
1) Make sure you have proper travel arrangements like camera (with fully charged battery) with large storage. I can assure that your storage will be over taking so many snaps :-).
2) Have some prior knowledge about the places so that you can explore more.
3) If you own car, drive yourself!! These are beautiful tracks to drive. Have proper solid and liquid reserves along with you. [not alcohol :-)]
It was around 8:45pm when we reached Kaup. The memories were still hogging me. It is difficult to understand the design of nature. We missed many places however we have made note of them to visit again. Request to visitors is not to garbage such beautiful places.
I am still amateur photographer and I hope pictures have given some impression to readers about the places.
Lastly, a small video of our trip. I have used Ulrich Scnauss “A Million Miles Away” music for the video. This is the third time I am using the music. Watch and Enjoy
In continuation of my travel video from Udupi to Bangalore, this is second video of return journey. We took rest in Mysore for two days and returned to Udupi via Madikeri along SH-88 on 26-Nov-2011. The road from Mysore to Madikeri is awesome while it is awful from Sampaje to Mani :-). We were really disgusted to drive in this section. The Sampaje ghat road is completely relayed for about 20kms [quality seemed to have compromised though :-( ] and around 10kms of relaying is still under progress. Father was bit tired and hence I drove for most of the distance. Consequently there are no videos after Sampaje. It was unusual weather though during this time of year with too many clouds covering the sky. It was too cold till Sampaje and the sun was rare sight. The environment turned tropical after Sampaje [sudden change :-)]. It became too warm as we neared Mangalore but pleasant. I did not find any good music than Ulrich Schnauss "A Million Miles Away" and I have used it again for this video also. Hope you will enjoy this video even.
People find Mysore as good hangout place during weekends. The most often visited are ZOO, Chamundi Hills, Palace, KRS etc.. However most of the visitors do not know about RAIL MUSEUM situated near Mysore Railway Station. Please visit this place also; It hardly takes an hour to watch.
There are lot of things you can find here. The legacy trains includes steam, coal engines and various equipments used for overhaul. Also you can step into those trains and have a feel of driver's cabin and ancient looks within. There is also a toy train for people to enjoy which is taken for 2 rounds. For children, there a small playground where they can rejoice for some time. There is a gallery which depicts the old events of indian railways. All of that being displayed have clear description nearby them. You can also have watch to the Maharani rail which was considered to be posh train in those days. This train was specifically meant for Maharani of Mysore. The Maharaja train is in Delhi museum as per placard.
The fares are very minimum.
The entrance fee is Adults: Rs. 5 Children (above 5): Rs. 2
The fee is separate for toy train Adults: Rs. 5 Children (above 5): Rs. 2
The videos and photos also come at minimum cost Still Camera: Rs. 10 Video Camera: Rs. 20
The MUSEUM is open all days from 9:30 A.M till 6:00 P.M without any breaks.
I hope you will enjoy the place. Here are some photos. Only few of photos have captions :-)
This is my first youtube video upload. We traveled on 20th November 2011 to Bangalore from Udupi along NH-75 (previously NH-48). This is fifth time we are driving in this section. The video is composition of the travel we had in our Maruti-ALTO. Myself and father shared the drive. Apart from 25kms of dreadful ghat section route, remaining part of the highway was smooth enough for driving. My favorite route is driving from Mangalore till Sakaleshpur which covers hilly, curvy and ghat roads with lot of ups and downs involving many bridges and rivers. Of-course we took 2 hours to cross Shiraadi ghat section. Driving from Kunigal till Bangalore along newly layed four lane highway is mind blowing. I picked Ulrich Schnauss "A Million Miles Away" tune for the video. It is very good travel music and I like it very much. The way Ulrich Schnauss composes such tunes is mesmerizing. On return we traveled via Sampaje ghat along SH-88 via Madikeri. The second video needs time for composition :). Hope you will enjoy the video.
I have started writing tech things in my new blog. The blog will consist only of technical things like programming, tech concepts, new software/OS release. Do not forget to comment on the articles and point out any discrepancies. Praises are also accepted ;).
The old pangala bridge built during British time is partially demolished now to pave the way for NH-17 four laning. The bridge was very narrow and was only used for pedestrian or two wheelers till now. May be for public use or heritage purpose it was preserved. Now brand new four lane(or two lane?) bridge will come up in that area and the foundation is almost over. The existing bridge will still be preserved as back up during calamities.
I just went to baraha site for updated software. Hey India's best multi-lingual software it has turned commercial. May be some people used it heavily for commercial purpose and gained credits. Also as a software developer I feel maintaining of software is not so easy without financial support. However the license price is nominal for large commercial organizations. For a user also I feel its not that much costly(Rs:900) when compared to MS-Office or other office suites. I did not see any write-ups on this and felt like writing one.
