This weekend it was already planned to visit Dodda Aalada mara near Kengeri. I finished daily routine and started at around 10:00AM on a Sunday morning. This time I took bike to visit the place as bus journey was quite time taking. Also you may need to take 3 buses to reach there. Along the travel I stopped at many places to take snaps. This is advantage if you make your own arrangements. Of-course I went alone.
Since it was Sunday, traffic was smooth even at peak time. It was around 11:30 AM when I reached the place. Late since I stopped at many places en-route. There is not much to see here except the big banyan tree which covers around 3-4 acres of land. People visit here just for change from city environment. Some pictures en-route. Most of the pictures in auto-mode did not produce the lane markings due to haze. I had to under-expose (2/3) and adjust shutter speed to get clear picture.
ROAD LEADING TO DODDA-AALADA-MARA
ONE MORE PICTURE EN-ROUTE
Some of the details as mentioned in placard:
1) Maintained by Horticulture department of Karnataka Government 2) Situated at Kethohalli village, Tavarekere Hobli, Bangalore South Taluk 3) It has history of about 400 years. 4) Spread around 3-4 acres of land 5) Around 400 to 500 dangles are growing in the tree.
There are benches for resting and you can have view around the tree for some time. For visitors there is parking space outside the area. There are many eating outlets outside with reasonable price. Muneshwara temple is situated inside the premises. Watch out for the monkeys when you sit for eating. However they did not seem to be aggressive. This is place is to enjoy for few hours not entire day. I presume some good places can be found near by too. Just check internet for details
How to reach:
The place is situated 23 kms from main city (may be from Majestic). However it took around 30kms for me from HSR BDA. One has to travel along Mysore highway and cross Kengeri. 2-3 kms from Kengeri town, you reach a small junction near Rajarajeshwari Dental College towards right. Take the right turn and travel along the beautiful road for about 7kms to reach Dodda Aalada Mara. The place is along the main road and there is no need to take any deviations. You may feel to be lost due to inadequate sign boards but do not worry; local people do guide you well. Watch out for nasty humps. There are many en-route. They are unscientific and neither have sign boards nor markings on it as indication. The humps are present especially in village area and curves.
There are buses from K.R.Market and Majestic. Better to reach Kengeri so that you can get ample buses. I assume that bus service is infrequent (most of the buses were over crowded). Watch out for the interceptors en-route along Mysore SH-17. Do not cross speed limits [60kmph for 4 wheelers and 40kmph for 2 wheelers]. Also traffic personnel will be checking your documents even so do not break rules [wear helmet].
This is my first time lapse video. It is not something like fastening up the video but taking images at intervals and rendering them as video. The images have to be very much steady to have better time-lapse video. It is good to use a tripod, make adjustments and start taking pictures.
So how did I do it? I own Canon SX 210IS. Using CHDK available for canon cameras, I used intervalometer script which captures the images at pre-defined rate without user intervention. I am not writing on CHDK. Please refer links below for details. The images were taken at the rate of 1-image per 2sec. So I captured around 69 images and put them up in KDENLIVE to create a video. Since I did not have tripod, the video came out bit shaky. Kindly bare with it :-). Next time I will take better one.
A simple slideshow creation in KDENLIVE will do the rest. I created slideshow with 3 frame drops with 29.97fps and 720 progressive scan rate. I am not sure about the exact calculation of frame drops. If you are interested please refer wikipedia entry on SMPTE timecode (see references below).
Enjoy the short time-lapse video of Dose making. Of course I heated the Dose for long time to have better detail [put the gas in sim :-)]. I am optimist of posting such videos often [That is why the title numbered 1 :-)].
Watch my other videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/nakumar85/videos
References:
1) How to Install CHDK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYOaspc4Ohw 2) SMPTE code: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMPTE_timecode 3) Creating Time-Lapse video in KDENLIVE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVqrxNV5Y_s
Finally the day had arrived to visit Bannerghatta National Park (Further will abbreviate as BNP). It was on Sunday 13-May-2012, we planned to visit BNP along with my elder sister and my nephew. We started pretty much late (around 9:00AM) from Koramangala and reached Majestic at 10:00AM. There we had to wait for some time for the bus. 15 minutes past we got a VOLVO bus to BNP. We reached BNP arounf 11:30AM. BMTC has a fine terminus in BNP that looks really posh as of now.
Since it was sunday, BNP was jam packed. We could get tickets easily however had to wait long time for safari ride. There was huge crowd waiting for safari ride. The resting place is really good. When our turn came, it was around 12:30PM. The buses are arranged by KSTDC and had protection cover also. The helper told us that safari ride is around 15kms. There was deer safari, bear safari, lion safari, tiger safari and peacock safari. Huge trench surrounds each safari so that animals do not cross. The animals are manually fed. The white tiger is isolated from usual tiger since they fight. The travel through safari is really scenic and has three or four water bodies along the way. Fortunately I got the front seat beside driver.
BNP Entrance
We could see all the animals along the way. We had close look of deers, tiger, lion, bear and peacock. Peacock was visible earlier closely however as we neared him, it ran away. I managed to get some good shots and also the driver took very good shots for me. Most of thw animals were resting on the right side of the road and I was sitting on the left side of bus. However, driver helped me to get good shots. Between every entrance of Safari, huge gates are erected to prevent animals mixing up. The driver and helper were too good. Whenever animals were spotted, the driver stopped vehicle for considerable amount of time to have view and take snaps.
Safari Bus
Collage of animals in Safari
After 30-45 minutes of safari ride, we came back to national park, had lunch and visited zoo. The zoo is well maintained and has small park for children to play. It is not as extensive as Mysore Zoo but wonderful to watch. The only problem is, there is no proper instruction or walk path boards to guide you as in Mysore-Zoo. Nevertheless, it seemed intuitive. You can also have elephant ride with some cost.
Crocodile
Some bird
Leopard
King Cobra
It was around 3:30PM the sky opened up and started pouring heavily. We reached bus stop before it started to rain heavily. Due to this we could not visit butterfly park. The buses towards bangalore were ample, however there was also ample crowd. Every bus was jam packed and we finally found a private bus towards K.R.Market. We got down at Jayadeva to reach home.
How to reach:
From Majestic, you can catch VOLVO or ordinary BMTC buses which will take directly to BNP. The cost of volvo is Rs.50/head. We thought we would not get seat, if we start from Jayadeva. It is not true since there are buses originating from places like Shivajinagar (AC-4), brigade road (G-4) which go via Jayadeva. You can catch from Jayadeva too. If you are travelling via KR-Market area, you have private buses which directly go to BNP. You can also travel till Bannerghatta and take an auto. Even though distance is only around 3-4kms auto people may charge more. If you own four wheeler, it is best option. You will also need to pay parking charges. however there is ample parking space.
Food:
There are hotels and ample snack outlets nearby. However they charge more. Everything is costly here. Better to carry own food and drinks rather than buying. Even inside zoo you can find snack and ice-cream outlets.
Timings:
PARK + ZOO: 9:30AM to 5PM SAFARI: 10AM to 4:30PM (Depending on tickets available, timings may vary) WEEKLY HOLIDAY: TUESDAY
Expenses (In rupees):
Still Camera: 25 (Not sure whether same is applicable for Butterfly park) Video Camera (Handycam): 200 (Not sure whether same is applicable for Butterfly park)
Safari:
Adult: 210 Children: 100 Senior Citizen: 140 [The same ticket can be used for ZOO entrance also]
Zoo:
If you want only to visit ZOO, here are the charges.
Adult: 60 Children: 30 Senior Citizen: 40
Butterfly park: This requires separate ticket. Not sure about price since we could not visit.
When to go:
Start early. Atleast reach by 10AM so that you need not have to wait for SAFARI. At around 11-12 (AM-PM), animals will be resting near-by road. You can have good look at them. BNP is completely plastic free zone.
Some Negatives:
1) People were seen throwing plastic waste on to the floor despite having ample dustbins around. The dustbins were really good and well maintained.
2) The patrol people had to really struggle to maintain discipline. Some people were seen sneaking into the queue despite good patrolling. It is really annoying that educated people do such things.
Just a request for people who visit not to spoil these places.
The Video!!
At the end the SAFARI video. The video is composition of Safari ride as well as still images of animals. There are no videos of animals. The video was created using KDENLIVE. I initially chose HD-720p with 29.97fps. Since the video was distorted 25fps was chosen with same progressive scan rate. H.264 encoding was used with 12k bitrate and AAC 384kbps. The video is bit shaky but still watchable. Enjoy the video!
It has been years since I came down to bangalore. I have been looking at Ulsoor lake for quite some time. Even though I made up my mind to visit the place many times, I could not due to various reasons [most of them invalid of-course :-)]. Finally I stepped into the lake side on a fine summer clear saturday 05 May 2012. The lake view is good but lake is not quite clean. Leave that apart. I took some snaps and a boat ride. The boat ride was quite nice and costs Rs.25 per head. There is no fee for either camera or entrance. Lots of people took the ride on the day since it was weekend. The boat was pretty much old but in good condition. Here is the video I took during boat ride. No music this time. The video is focused on lake and lake view rather than at passengers on board and boat itself. Hope you will enjoy the video.
As always the video was composed using KDENLIVE. The video is also available in HD quality. The encoder is H.264 with 12k bitrate and 384kbps audio bitrate (AAC).
The boat ride is available from 10AM to 6PM.
Watch my other videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/nakumar85/videos
As name suggests the temple lies in mid of lake. The deity of the temple is Sri Mahavishnu. The beautiful temple is present in Kasargod district of Kerala. Not many houses around and almost people free zone except at temple sight. The temple was renovated in the year 2008.
The specialty of this temple is the idols of gods are not made of metal but of 108 herbal types. Since old icons had lost strength, in 1976 effort was made to develop metal idols. However, due to some incidents, it is believed that Lord Vishnu did not admire it and again the idols were made with herbals. This incident was quoted by temple worshiper. The sculptor was vaikom Shri Kailsh. It is believed that this temple is origin of Tiruvananthapuram Anantapadmanabha temple. Here in the temple Sri Anantapadmanabha is seated on serpent. Nearby there are idols of Sri-Devi and Bhoo-Devi. The Hanumanta and Garuda nod at the deity. There are idols of Nagakannike near by deity. Jaya and Vijaya stand as gate keepers. The temple is in mid of lake. There is small platform linking the temple entrance and deity's place. During heavy rains, the water in lake spills over the platform. Inside the deity's place there are mythology paintings. There is one more wall cover to preserve paintings.
The mythology of temple relates to devotee Bilvamangalatu swamiji. The devotee seems to be eminent as Bilvamangala in Bengal. While once swamiji was worshiping god, lord Vishnu disguised as a boy reached swamiji. It seems boy was too mischievous and interrupted swamiji's rituals. Irritated swamiji pushed the boy from his left hand. Furious boy disappeared near cave saying "you will see me again only in Ananta Forest". Later swamiji realized that it was none other than Lord Vishnu. Swamiji followed the way within the cave which lead to sea shore. From there it is believed that he traveled towards south to reach Ananta forest. Finally he reached Tiruvananthapuram where he had view of Lord Vishnu again. The same place is believed to be Padmanabha Swamy Temple of Tiruvananthapuram. Even today one can see the cave in north-east of Anantapura temple where Lord Vishnu disappeared. There is a well near the cave. The water for daily worship is pulled from this well.
Anantapura Temple in mid of lake
There is Lord Krishna temple towards south-west of main temple. The main attraction here is the crocodile present in the lake. Around 67 years back the British had killed the crocodile. However one more crocodile appeared next day. Nobody knows the source of crocodile since there are no rivers or lakes near by. The crocodile is harmless. Everyday the temple worshiper presents food to crocodile around 12PM. The name of crocodile is Babiya. If worshiper calls crocodile with its name nearby cave, the crocodile silently comes and have food. Worshiper told us that sometimes it comes out during evening time also.
Cave where crocodile Babiya resides
Specials:
1) "MOSALE NAIVEDYA" (Rice to Crocodile) is prominent offering here in temple. 2) Deities are served with free meals in afternoon.
How to reach:
If you are coming from Mangalore, travel towards Kasargod along NH-17 (NH-66) and stop at Kumble. Follow the signboards and you will reach Kumble-Badiyadka road. Travel towards east for four kms and towards right you have signboard for the temple. Then travel in the narrow road for 1km to reach temple. It seems like there are no public transport to this place. Better to come by private vehicles.
There are no guest houses near by temple. Stay in Kumble or Kasargod or Mangalore.
This was on someday at my hometown KAUP, we heard drilling sound. The sound was so powerful that we could hear it for many distance. I went curious about the sound. I thought that may be some house work was going on. However, the sound continued for long time past 6PM. Nobody works at that time.
My mother gave a clue that it might be wood pecker somewhere atop the tree drilling. Then I walked towards the tamarind tree nearby house where amplitude of sound was high. Aha! It was Mr.Wood Pecker which was making such huge sound. The quality of video is not so good but sound is really significant. It continued to make sound for many hours before resting for the day but I took only a minute of video. Amazed about its beak strength. Of-course it's standing position was just like a highly disciplined soldier.
Watch my other videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/nakumar85/videos
On 18-03-2012 I visited Mahalakshmi temple of Goravanahalli. We started around 9 from Bangalore in friend's car and reached Goravanahalli by 11:30. There was too much rush in the morning. You will enjoy the drive along NH-4 till Dabaspet and the beautiful scenery thereafter. The rocky mountains are beautiful sight to watch. On the way you will also feel the menace of cattle too so beware while driving. They are so much adamant that it is cumbersome to halt them.
Goravanahalli is around 80kms from Bangalore (majestic). It is located in Koratagere Taluk of Tumkur district. One can take buses from KR Market(private) or KSRTC bus stand. Direct buses are infrequent however one can catch bus to Koratagere and alight at Nagenahalli cross before Koratagere and take an auto. The auto is mass transport system i.e. accumulates until auto is full. It may cost around 15Rs per head. If you need to own an auto, it may cost you more (around 50 may be).
If you plan to go by personal vehicle, one has to take NH-4 route towards Tumkur, enter Dabaspet town (around 10kms before Tumkur. NH-4 runs on top of town) and take deviation towards right. There are directions, however they are confusing since you will find multiple paths. Ask local people and they will guide you well. It is about 37kms from Dabaspet. You will enjoy the nature en-route. However the roads barring few kilometers, are narrow and dug out. Be careful if you are driving for first time. The road till Nelamangala is 6 lane while it is 4 lane thereafter till Dabaspet. You will have to pay separate toll for both roads. For 6 lane take daily pass of Rs.20 if you plan to return on same day. For four lane it is bit confusing. It costs you Rs.29 two way provided you do not cross Tumkur. The second toll booth was really confusing.
Do not miss the fresh vegetables on the way especially radish and carrot. They look really good. You can find fresh items near the temple too. After around 30kms past Dabaspet you need to observe for sign boards towards right. From there follow sign boards for nearly 6kms to reach the temple.
Since it was rush we took special entrance ticket for Rs.25 per head. I am not sure about the mythology behind the temple. Lots of people do visit here. The temple and surroundings are well maintained. Also free afternoon meals are served from 11:00AM to 4:00PM. Few meters away, you can visit Teeta Reservoir whose water is used for agricultural purpose by local people. We could find considerable water here but not much since it was summer. Here are some pictures taken during visit. There was nice sunset too. I hope I captured at-least good snap not the best.
This was on 14-Feb-2010 when myself and friend decided to visit Nandi-Hills. I was visiting for the first time and also first time having long bike ride. Of-course I was pillion since I neither had two-wheeler nor I knew to ride bike. The bike was XCD-135. So it was wonderful ride covering NH-7 and small highway leading to Nandi-Hills. The up hill way is narrow, however cleanly laid. The curves had wider roads where four wheelers could negotiate smoothly. Total distance was around 70kms. It was clear day but nice weather since summer was yet to begin. There were lot people too visiting the place since it was sunday Place is good for trekking too I suppose. This place was also used by tippu-sultan during summer I feel.
You can find many more things here. It is just nature to watch here and roam around. There is also guest house here however need to book rooms in advance. People are not allowed after some time in evening except who have booked guest house. This is precautionary measure to prevent suicides which was frequent in early days. The sunrise and sunset is beautiful to watch. However we did not stay there till evening since we almost covered everything by afternoon. It was around 2:30 when we reached bangalore back.
The first part of video is bike ride which includes NH-7 and riding uphill. The second part is collection of photos taken in and around hilly area. The up-hilling part is 3.5x fast-forwarded to accommodate more content.
This is one of the older videos however composed recently. We went to kaup from bangalore at night on 04 Oct 2011. This is the first time I traveled at night in a private vehicle. I was awake till Gundya and later on could not resist sleep. So the video contains clips till gundya and later on no videos were shot. It was really amazing drive. The car was swift diesel and this was first time I really felt torque of diesel cars. The car was also very smooth and you never feel even if you are driving around 100kmph. We could easily cover the journey in 8hrs despite the horrible shiraadi ghat road and one hour break near kunigal where we had dinner. Hope you will enjoy the video!
Of-course video is bit noisy since it was shot at night. It is quite lengthy video too. I kept it lengthy to cover entire journey in a single video. The car is owned by my colleague's friend and he drove along entire journey. Please watch for entire duration when you get time. I have used three music for the video.
1) Ulrich Schnauss - A million miles away 2) Ulrich Schnauss - Monday Paracetamol 3) Linkin Park - In the End
I know I have been using first two are being used repeatedly in my videos. However I do not find alternatives even. Suggest me if you have good travel tune.
The video was edited and composed using KDENLIVE under XUBUNTU. Wonderful open source tool for video editing and composing.
Watch my other videos too: http://www.youtube.com/user/nakumar85/videos
