Bike ride to Nandi-Hills

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.

Hope you will enjoy the video!

MUSIC: FLOATATION BY ULRICH SCHNAUSS

Travel to KAUP from BANGALORE at night in SWIFT DIESEL

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

Tracking Bangalore-Hassan direct rail line project

I and my friend went for joy ride towards newly laid four lane along NH-48 on 12-Feb-2012. In mid of journey my friend recalled the Bangalore-Hassan rail line construction project that is under progress. The project currently has stopped near Solur which is 18 kms from Nelamangala. From Bangalore to Nelamangala the rail line is already in place.

JALAHALLI CROSS ELEVATED HIGHWAY

4 LANED NELAMANGALA-MANGALORE HIGHWAY

Let me brief on the project. Bangalore to Hassan has multiple rail routes. However all of them are lengthy routes. The first one is via Mysore and the other one via Tumkur. The road way is direct route via Nelamangala and Kunigal. The Bangalore-Hassan direct rail line project is also on the same lines as road to connect Hassan in a shortest path. The rail path from Shravanabelagola to Hassan is completed while from Nelamangala to Shravanabelagola new rail line has to be laid out.

So what is the use? This basically gives faster rail access to Mangalore. The journey from Bangalore to Mangalore will be matter of 7-8 hrs. Current time duration is 12hrs via Mysore and 10-11hrs via Tumkur. Faster access to port city means, faster goods transport. This also saves money for railways as well as vendors who directly or indirectly depend on port facilities. It also saves time for people who are commuting en-route. This also reduces congestion along Tumkur as well as Mysore rail links. The section of rail line is also highly profitable since it connects port city and capital city in faster manner. Also the fares are very minimal in railways.

What is the progress? As per railways standard! Lethargic, as always. The progress is only in terms of earth work and that too some patch work in between. We saw that there was no progress after Solur except awkward dig-up. Some of the works in between like a bridge near Nelamangala is still not complete. Also in most of the places the civil equipments were not seen. Here are some pictures of the project.

ABANDONED WORK NEAR SOLUR

RAIL LINE RUNS PARALLEL TO NH-75 NEAR SOLUR

Only in some areas civil work was progressing. The work is not even properly commenced from Nelamangala. It is really sad that railways is so much lethargic on this new rail line. South-Westrern railway is one of the profit making division under railways and even then railways is giving a step-motherly treatment to this line.

COMPLETED EARTH WORK NEAR SOLUR

ONE MORE VIEW OF COMPLETED WORK

WE RODE ALONG THE RAIL LINE

MINOR BRIDGE

ABANDONED WORK

CIVIL WORK NEAR LAKE PROGRESSING

Why is this? There are basically few main points

1) Bus-Lobby: The major show-stopper is bus lobby. There are hundreds of buses running from Bangalore to coastal areas of Karnataka. If a direct train runs, it will have large impact on their business.

2) Land-acquisition: This can be major hurdle too. However railways do not require much area other than stations. It can be sorted out amicably unless residential areas occur in between.

3) Political-Influence: The people representatives of the entire region also seemed to have no interest on the project. This may be direct influence of (1) stated above. It is also believed that some are owners of buses too which makes it impossible to have their attention.

4) Funding: Railways are not funding properly too. Every year project cost is increasing however the fund allocated is far too less for the project. This is again direct result of (3) which is related to (1)

5) Lack of Interest: People or press also seemed to have interest in these matters. The press which always breaks unnecessary news never bothers to broadcast people friendly reports. If at all the press had an active role, the project would have completed far early.

When will the project be commissioned? As per the current progress, it may take more than 50 years!! People will have to really come forward to accelerate the project. While coming back we were very much annoyed to see the progress. We went along some of the rail paths too. The earth work seems to be good however has seen many rainy days since it was completed (we could see long grasses). Some rail lines are very close to NH-48. This is also bad idea keeping in mind that future the path may be 6-laned [Forget doubling of rail line :-)]

Thanks to smart phone of my friend because of which we could access even corner roads and locations using google maps. That really helps if you have healthy mobile network in the area. The maps guided properly along state highway as well as in village roads along the construction path. We did not take any help from villagers for traversing the path. The google map is pretty much accurate and up to date!

A day visit to KOLAR

Finally I made up my mind to visit kolar after so much obstructions in past. I had plans to go by bike however it would be too much tiring with hot sun out. If it was a four wheeler then it really makes sense for me.  So how did it start? On 19-Feb-2012, I started around 9:30 AM from majestic and reached Kolar around 11:15AM. My goodness, got bus early.  I could have taken the bus from KR-Puram however I would end up not getting seat. Same thing happened though as bus entered KR-Puram. The day was crystal clear and non hazy which makes it ideal environment for photography.

ROCK HILLS NEAR KOLAR

So what are the spots I visited? Through the blogs I read about Antaragange, Kolaramma temple and Someshwara temple. My primary intention was to visit these places and later ask the locals for others. As I alighted in Kolar bus stop, caught up an auto-rickshaw for 200 rupees to make me visit the places. This included waiting charges too. The driver of auto-rickshaw was polite and answered to my curious questions patiently. His name is Azim.

Antaragange is 4km from Kolar bus stop. It is in middle of rock hill. You need to climb around 100 steps to reach there. On the way you can find lots of monkeys so beware if you are exposing any eatables! (Better carry a long stick) As per driver, government feeds monkeys with MUDDE (a solid food made of raagi) every day (not sure about frequency).

ANTARAGANGE ENTRANCE

STEPPING TOWARDS ANTARAGANGE

BEWARE OF MONKEYS

The main attraction here is the water coming out from small outlet. It is believed that water comes from Ganga (not sure about mythology behind). There are three temples here. One is Ganesha temple in middle of small pond, the other is shiva temple while another is Navagraha temple. There are Nandi idols near the outlet where water comes out. It seems the water flows round the clock and 365 days in a year. There has been no instance of water being stopped flowing as per driver’s explanation. You could see people carrying loads of can to fill it with the flowing water.

TEMPLE PREMISES

GANESHA TEMPLE

The water is so sweet that you will be tempted to catch a bottle for you (I did taste it). If you don’t have one well no problem there are vendors selling bottle for 2 rupees near by temple. Don’t ask me about the cleanliness of bottles or their source. It is up to you to decide. If you are reading this blog definitely you will carry from your home. I presume that some people may carry so much water even to sell them (I saw water pouches similar to milk pouches in bus stand).

THIS IS WHERE WATER COMES FROM

PEOPLE FILLING WATER TO CANS

There is lot queue for the water. Some even take light shower near since Ganga is considered holy. I went another way to capture some pictures. On the way to AntaraGange there is a platform where you can take pictures of rocky hills. There are lots of honeycombs too. So beware!

After AntaraGange, the auto-driver carried me to Kolaramma temple. It is beautiful stone temple and very old too. The temple is protected by Archaeological Department of India (ASI) as heritage place. You can also enjoy beautiful sculptures on the pillars and walls. The place is well maintained. Here are some pictures and story about temple.

CLICK TO VIEW

KOLARAMMA TEMPLE

Next we went to one more heritage place called Someshwara temple. Similar to Kolaramma temple the place is also protected by ASI and there are warnings about tampering with the place. The temple is very close to Kolaramma temple. 

CLICK TO VIEW

SOMESHWARA TEMPLE

The main attraction here is Shiva-Linga which is faced by Nandi. There is a Kalyana Mantapa, Parvathi temple and a Yaaga Shaale. Outside the temple there is a chariot as well as a pushkarini (a small pond near temple is called pushkarini. In coastal areas, the people who do pooja in temple have to take bath in here before entering deity’s place). 

SOMESHWARA TEMPLE

MAIN ENTRANCE

Irony was with next day being Maha-Shivaratri not much celebration was seen here. May be restrictions by ASI? The photos speak about mythology and temple look. Again the sculptures and architecture is mind blowing.

PUSHKARINI NEAR SOMESHWARA TEMPLE

That’s it I was getting too much hungry. The auto-driver said, there are some beautiful temples atop the rocky hills. However I did not have time. I could have gone there if I had a private vehicle. Nevertheless I was satisfied to see the main places in here. Others I have made note to visit next time probably when I bring my own vehicle.

Only AntaraGange is bit far from town while the other two is within town limits. Many people visit AnataraGange while not much people were seen in other two temples. The auto driver showed me one more shiva temple in one of the streets. After that he dropped me in a hotel and I handed over the money. He was very polite to me throughout the journey and did not complain about the waiting time. I had some light lunch and left to bus stop to return.

KOLAR TOWN

Kolar as town is still under-developed. It seems that development is restricted to Bangalore only while the near by places are still backward. The only development here is the highway widening which runs as bypass to town. The roads were in deplorable condition too with too much dust around town. Other than that the rocky hills surrounding the town is really wonderful to watch. The lunch was also good since I was hungry.

Kolar is about 70kms from Bangalore (from KBS terminus). The ordinary bus fare is 50 rupees and varies where you catch up (may be it is bit less from KR-Puram). The road joins Chennai via Chittoor. The NH-4 runs outside the town. While it is 6 lanes from KR-Puram to Hoskote, it is 4-lane thereafter. Seems like highway was recently completed (the toll plaza is still not functional). For people who travel by taxis or private vehicles, there are lots of dhabas and restaurants on the way (KAMAT is also there).

One thing I forget every-time is pen and a scribbling pad to document journey as and when I visit places. I bought a pen and sheet of paper and documented inside the bus. So I started back at around 2 PM from Kolar and got down at KR-Puram to catch ring road bus. Thereafter I traveled to HSR BDA and reached home at 3:45 PM. The weather was hot but the memories are still persistent.

Driving through Monsoon rains near udupi at night

This video was taken during peak monsoon season of 2011 (around july). We went for some work to udupi and while returning to Kaup it started pouring down. This was taken along NH-17 (Now NH-66) near Udupi. Finally my father agreed to hold the camera while I was driving. I wanted to feel the monsoon drive :-). So requested father to hold camera for sometime. Here is the video. Watch and share if you like :-).

Music: Smooth Drift - Goaschuld

Digital display in trains

Yesterday I traveled to Mysore in Tiruchi-Mysore train. The thing I observed in Bangalore railway station was the introduction of digital LCD display on trains. Some trains had them including the one I traveled. Roghly I saw one display board per 5 bogies (not sure). This is very good move. It also shows en-route towns which train stops. This is on par with BMTC buses in Bangalore. Hope the display lasts for long time. I am really not sure their reliability during rainy days. I suppose they will be spoiled if water enters the board. Apparently no protection from water was seen. Anyhow I welcome the new facility by raiways. Hope this will last long. And as always here is the picture. (bit obscure though)

OFF-TOPIC

The picture was taken with (1/25)s shutter. With (1/50)s of shutter, the photo was not proper with some part of display not showing up. Then thought for while and recalled the LED animation we were covering in microprocessor lab. Basically the display has refresh rate and shutter is how fast you capture the picture. Hence if the shutter is more than the refresh rate obviously the photo will not contain some part of LCD display. Consequently you need to take picture which is slower than refresh rate of the display. From the above experiment the refresh rate of train's LCD display board is

50Hz < refresh_rate <= 25Hz [Small lab experiment :)]

Sorry I am not expert photographer. There may be better way of doing this. You can have similar experiment by taking snap of your desktop or laptop screen [of-course being powered on :). Seen in CRT displays though]. Usually refresh rate of displays is between 50 to 75Hz. So in order to have proper picture, you need to adjust shutter less than refresh_rate. Try it out :). Any corrections to explanation is welcome

Bangalore to Kaup drive

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.

Hope you will enjoy

MUSIC: "Monday Paracetamol" by Ulrich Schnauss

I have started TWEETING

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 :-).

First time travel in Shatabdi Express

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.

Travel to Uttara Kannada

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

Thank you for reading the blog!!

ENJOY THE JOURNEY AND LET OTHERS TOO ENJOY!!