The Coffee Luxuriance !

Some pictures at:    

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drprithviraval/sets/72157638501527114/

A weekend trip with friends to the Balur Estate, about 25 Kms from Mudigere on the Kalasa road took us to the Coffee Luxuriance around Western Ghats of Karnataka.  Surrounded by quiet picturesque wooded trees and the silhouettes of mountain tops to the western sun, a little windy road takes you up on the Ghat section.  The silence is further enhanced as except BSNL telephone, nothing works!  No TV, but served with excellent food from time to time and unlimited coffee!

The staffs were kind and helpful.  The lady cook was too good. In the evening we had a Bon fire light and sometime went star gazing.  

Balur Estate Link: http://linger-at-balur.in/

Had a quick tour of the Coffee estate and some 400 acres are maintained well.  One could see how the coffee taken from the plants were brought the dried beans stage ready for the auction.   

Returned on Sunday evening, back to the hustle bustle of the city !

Bangalore – Hassan – Belur – Mudigere – Pattaduru – Balur = 290 Kms

Left:  Saturday,   6.00 AM Shoppers Stop Bannerghatta Road

Arrived:  12 noon with one stop

My Avenger 40 Kms / litre

Getting There:

Nelamangala > Hassan > Belur

At Belur, turn left towards the Belur Temple/Mudigere towards Mudigere Handpost

(2 kms)

At the Handpost, at the circle, you need to take a left towards Kottegehara. ( 9 Kms)

*Make a call to Balur Estate

At Kottegehara take the road going towards Kalasa,

At Balur Village, take the left "U" hairpin - still towards Kalasa/Kudremukh about 2 Kms

There's a small fork going left towards a gate and a bungalow (behind trees) - this is Balur Estate.

Madurai - Kanayakuari

Happy Diwali to all.  We had a lovely trip to Kanyakumari and back; Zarryl Lobo and myself.  As per my calculation, we did 1429 Kms on my odometer and I got 44 Km /litre for mileage.  

Some Pics are at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drprithviraval/sets/72157632006999260/show/

 On 10 November 2012, we left around 5.30 AM and were in Madurai by 1 PM.  Spent the evening walking around and visited the famous Madurai Meenakshi Temple.  It was absolutely fantastic.  Some history below if you need. Then next day we proceeded to Kanya Kumari, at the Southern tip of India.    We stayed at the Tamilnadu Guest house and visited the Vivekananda rock, the Kanyakumari temple. Ah, we missed the sunrise and the sunset, cloudy weather. 

 Next we went to see an old classmate from the dental school, at Kulasegaram.  It was pleasant and caught up on old memories with him. Returned via Madurai on Tuesday 13 Nov. by 4 pm.

      It was a nice trip and NH highway route 7 is good. But, real boring to hit a straight patch for some 25 hours + !

Some History:

 

     Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple or Meenakshi Amman Temple a historic Hindu temple located in the southern banks of river Vaigai in the temple city of Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is dedicated to Parvati who is known as Meenakshi and her consort, Shiva, named here as Sundareswarar. The temple forms the heart and lifeline of the 2500 year old city of Madurai. The complex houses 14 gateway towers called gopurams, ranging from 45-50m in height, the tallest being the southern tower, 51.9 metres (170 ft) high, and two golden sculptured vimana, the shrine over sanctum of the main deities. The temple is a significant symbol for the Tamil people, and has been mentioned since antiquity in Tamil literature, though the present structure is built during 1623 to 1655 CE. The temple attracts 15,000 visitors a day, around 25,000 during Fridays and gets annual revenue of sixty million. There is an estimated 33,000 sculptures in the temple and it was in the list of top 30 nominees of the "New Seven Wonders of the World". The annual 10 day Meenakshi Tirukalyanam festival celebrated during April–May attracts 1 million visitors.

Meenakshi is an avatar of the Hindu goddess Parvati - the consort of Shiva. She is also one of the few Hindu female deities to have a major temple devoted to her.

Thirugnanasambandar, the famous Hindu saint of Saiva philosophy, mentioned this temple as early as the 7th century, and described the deity as Aalavai Iraivan. The temple was believed to be sacked by the infamous Muslim invader Malik Kafur in 1310 and all the ancient elements were destroyed.  The initiative to rebuild the structure was taken by first Nayak king of Madurai, Viswanatha Nayak (1559–1600) under the supervision of Ariyanatha Mudaliar.

At Kanyakumari:

The Kanya is still waiting for Shiva to come and marry her, just close by at Suchendram.  A clever mishap conducted by Narada Muni so that the virgin Kanya could kill Banasura the Demon. She is still awaits Lord Shiva.

The small ride to the Vivekananda rock was serene, quite and calm.  The adjacent rock had the statue of Thiruvalluvar, the famous Tamil poet.    

At the Vivekananda rock, I liked the expression on ‘AUM’!

     AUM - Symbol of Absolute;  The essence of the Vedas, described by the Upanishads as the total human and divine consciousness; Recommended  by Swami Vivekananda as the great unifier of all Indian people; Praised by Sri Ramakrishna as a bridge between God with form and God without form.

Aurangabad – Ellora Ride

3-8 October 2011

I took the opportunity of  Dashara ( Dasha-Hara = Victory of Good over Evil ) holidays to ride out to Northern Maharashtra this time. It was a Solo ride and the purpose was to see the famous Ellora caves. 

Some pictures at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drprithviraval/sets/72157627728169783/show/

Since I left in the afternoon of Monday, I halted at Chitradurga 200 Kms, on NH 4 and continued my journey the next day on National Highway 13 and then 211. Preferred the  straight road up north  and country side roads. Deccan Plateau was very windy.  Roads are not so good from Chitradurga to Hospet. Unmarked speed breakers can kill your back and your bike shocks if you don’t watch out. The warning sign boards are almost next to the speed breakers ;-)   After that it is a 4 lane highway (under construction) up to Solapur. Though I had Ajanta on mind I could do only Ellora.  Ajanta would have taken me another day and a half.

The caves are a real treasure of ancient India and the kind of thoughts people  had, and  expressed it by way of architectural excellence and sculpting skills. There are Buddhist, Hindu and Jain carvings. The Kailash temple and the temple for Mahavira are really good. All these dates back to about 8^th century AD ! Enroute the Doulatabad fort is historic and from about the same period.  Interesting places to see in Aurangabad are the mini Taj Mahal, Aurangzeb’s resting place, naturally harvested water bodies, a sleeping Hanuman Temple ! Two days stay at Aurangabad was at ‘Tirupati Hotel’ with South Indian food ! The weather was good biking weather all through. Returned by the same route.

Route and some logistics:

(Overnight halt underlined )

Bangalore > Chitradurga > Hospet > Bijapur > Solapur > Taljapur > Osmanabad > Beed > Aurangabad > Doulatabad > Ellora > Aurangabad > Bijapur > Hospet > Bangalore.

Aurangabad - Hospet was 710 Kms my longest so far in one day.  

Total Kms : Home to Home :  1895 Kms :  

Aurangabad > Ellora Aurangabad was by AC/Cab ;-) and hence 60 kms not included.

Total Gas consumed:  41.25 Liters  = 45.9 Kms. The petrol rate was lowest at Beed, Rs. 70.44 per liter.

Aurangabad – Ellora Ride

3-8 October 2011

I took the opportunity of  Dashara ( Dasha-Hara = Victory of Good over Evil ) holidays to ride out to Northern Maharashtra this time. It was a Solo ride and the purpose was to see the famous Ellora caves. 

Some pictures at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drprithviraval/sets/72157627728169783/show/

Since I left in the afternoon of Monday, I halted at Chitradurga 200 Kms, on NH 4 and continued my journey the next day on National Highway 13 and then 211. Preferred the  straight road up north  and country side roads. Deccan Plateau was very windy.  Roads are not so good from Chitradurga to Hospet. Unmarked speed breakers can kill your back and your bike shocks if you don’t watch out. The warning sign boards are almost next to the speed breakers ;-)   After that it is a 4 lane highway (under construction) up to Solapur. Though I had Ajanta on mind I could do only Ellora.  Ajanta would have taken me another day and a half.

The caves are a real treasure of ancient India and the kind of thoughts people  had, and  expressed it by way of architectural excellence and sculpting skills. There are Buddhist, Hindu and Jain carvings. The Kailash temple and the temple for Mahavira are really good. All these dates back to about 8^th century AD ! Enroute the Doulatabad fort is historic and from about the same period.  Interesting places to see in Aurangabad are the mini Taj Mahal, Aurangzeb’s resting place, naturally harvested water bodies, a sleeping Hanuman Temple ! Two days stay at Aurangabad was at ‘Tirupati Hotel’ with South Indian food ! The weather was good biking weather all through. Returned by the same route.

Route and some logistics:

(Overnight halt underlined )

Bangalore > Chitradurga > Hospet > Bijapur > Solapur > Taljapur > Osmanabad > Beed > Aurangabad > Doulatabad > Ellora > Aurangabad > Bijapur > Hospet > Bangalore.

Aurangabad - Hospet was 710 Kms my longest so far in one day.  

Total Kms : Home to Home :  1895 Kms :  

Aurangabad > Ellora Aurangabad was by AC/Cab ;-) and hence 60 kms not included.

Total Gas consumed:  41.25 Liters  = 45.9 Kms. The petrol rate was lowest at Beed, Rs. 70.44 per liter.

Gujarat Ride Nov 2010

Kem cho (How are you?) is probably the I Gujarati phrase I came across in conversation.

Gujarat with its unique geological and topographical landscape, history, and its hospitable people, was my choice for exploring on my motorcycle this past Diwali week. Sabarmati Ashram, Dwarka, Rann of Kutch and Somanath were a priority on my list. At IFMR, my friend Rtn. Srinivas Babu who had not done any long rides said he would accompany me. He is a good and a safe rider and so it was an instant ‘Yes’ to him. He wanted to check out his endurance too.

Pics at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/drprithviraval/sets/72157625389321984/
Click on slide show
Equipment:
Prithvi: Bajaj Avenger 200
Srinivas: TVS Apache RTR 160

We booked our bikes with Gati to Ahmedabad around 22nd Oct. On Saturday 30th October, we flew down to Ahmedabad and picked out our bikes from the warehouse. It was well packed and there were no damages. We just had to fill in petrol and we were at to our hotel by 12.30 pm. We did some local sight seeing and visited the Sabarmati Ashram.

My friend, PDG. Rtn. Dr. Shasank Rathod (ophthalmologist) had invited some friends over and had organized a meet with his club Rotarians, Ahmedabad Metro at his home and later dinner at Manjuben’s house. It was full Diwali flavor on their sprawling lawns and hospitality genuinely at its best. The President presented us with their club banner. Met many Rotarians and literally it was Ahmedabad Metro that flagged off our ride! We cannot forget the enthusiasm of PDG Joitabhai Patel on giving us directions and PDG. Dr. Vyas’s presentation of Saturday night humor books. Thanks to all for a memorable evening of fellowship and friendship

We left early next morning and the route we took is below. Overnight halts are in Bold letters.

Ahmedabad > Gandhinagar > Modhera > Becharaji > Dasada > Patdi > Kharaghoda > (The little Rann of Kutch) Patdi > Surendernagar > Rajkot > Jamnagar > Dwarka > Okha > Bet Dwarka > Dwarka > ( 773 Kms) Porbandar > Somanath > Sasan Gir > Junagadh > Gondal > Rajkot > Bagodra > Nal Sarover > Bagodara > Lothal > Bagodara > Vadodara > (1635 Kms) Valsaad > Saputara > Nashik > Shirdi > (2170) Sangamner > Pune > Satara > Kolhapur > Belgaum > (2711 Kms) Chitradurga > Bangalore. (3218 Kms)

3218 Kms Traveled.

Observations:

1. Sabarmati Ashram: Salutations and respects paid to the outstanding Indian leader!
2. Akshardham: At Gandhinagar, visit to the temple. We were early and it was not open yet.
3. Modhera: 85 Kms NW of Amdavad, to see the magnificent Sun temple, 1026 AD, about 100 years older than the Konarak temple. (13th Century) The temple was built by King Bhimdev.
4. Rann of Kutch: It is awesome ! Literally a desert and we rode into it for about 12 Kms with a local. Had a cup of tea with the nomads who were working there sitting on a ‘charpai’ and the setting sun. We sighted some Wild Asses too.
5. Island of Bet Dwarka: A boat ride from OKA land's end is real nice. Dwarka itself has a beautiful temple and the Shankar Math, initiated by revered Shankara 9th Century
6. Somanath: The coastal ride to Somanath from Dwarka is superb.
7. Sasan Gir: We could not see the Asiatic lions at Sasan Gir, but the ride was nice.
8. Girnar Hill: at Junagadh, with Ashoka's inscriptions at the base of the hill. 250 BC

Had a flat rear tire at Rajkot and thanks to Srinivas, who was able to bring in a mechanic from 1 km down the road, to fix it.

9. Nal Sarovar and Lothal: From Bagodara each is located on either side of the highway. 2500 BC Harappan time excavations, takes you back in time to see the community’s rain water harvesting system !
10. Shirdi: Temple visit, not much crowds.
11. Kolhapur: Lakshmi temple visit and rode down to Belgaum
12. Home Stretch: Left Belgaum at 6 am in the morning, and reached home at 4.15 pm. (507) Kms. Some rain encountered on the way.
13. Gujarat Roads on average are very good.
14. Odometers: The accuracy to Odometers is another subject. Consistently the Apache Kms were more than my Odo. One test run of 1 Km on my Odo showed 1.1 on the Apache. That’s a 10 % diff straight away. Subsequently, I have checked my Odometer with the AGPS from my Nokia phone, and found it to be accurate on 3 diff readings.

“Aavo Padharo”, are the words of welcome in the language of Gujarat and true to it the people of Gujarat are gregariously friendly, inviting and will entice you to come again and again. Ever friendly and eager to give directions, at any intersection, three people would give directions at the same time !

Total Gas used: 76.56 Liters
Mileage; 42 Kms / liter