ghumakkar.com

This might not actually fit into a “travellogue” per se, but its worth a mention. The first time that I am actually writing about a specific area in chennai :-). Whats it all about?

City of Chennai, bustling with activities right from 4AM till about 12 midnight. The silence of the early morning broken by devotional songs and the clutters of the milk containers as they are carried by the Milkman doing rounds of the houses. Sounds pretty much like a village story , rite? Well..Thats one part of this landmark place in chennai called “Mylapore” aka “Mylai”.

Mylapore is one of the religous landmark in Chennai. If you happen to be here early morning during any of the festive season, you can see colorful “Kolams” (Similar to Rangoli), of varying sizes, in front of houses. During special days, the deity is taken in procession on the adjoining streets (commonly known as “agraharam”).
(more…)

Balmuri (Bal=towards right and muri=curve)

Situated near the village-town of Srirangapatna, this place is well known as a film-shooting spot. Many a kannada movies have been shot here. This makes a good 1-day visit. Leave Bangalore in the morning and be back by nightfall.

How to get there

This place is close to Srirangapatna, which is between Bangalore and Mysore. Take the
Mysore road , drive all the way to Srirangapatna. As you approach Srirangapatna, there is a diversion towards the right. Sign boards will help you get to Balmuri.
(more…)

Yercaud needs no introduction, but for the benefit of all, here’s a small intro. Yercaud is a quaint little hill station in the district of Salem in Tamil Nadu.This is often referred to as the “Poor man’s OOTY”. I cannot quite see the logic for this. Yercaud is not as crowded as Ooty, and at the same time, it offers all that is expected out of a hill station.

Facts
Yercaud is aprrox 235 kms from the city of Bangalore. The distance can be covered in 4.5 to 5 hrs. The route is Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri-Salem-Yercaud. The last stretch (Salem to Yercaud) is 30 kms out of which 25 kms are climbing the hill. This 25kms has 20 Hairpin bends , most of which(19) are near the top.
(more…)

Wonder what this is? This is what the signboard reads as you start to head out ot Bangalore city towards Mysore.

Imagine this for a moment. Covering a distance of 120 kms in a little over 3 hrs. sounds interesting? Not quite right? Well.. this is how the Bangalore-Mysore road used to be couple of years back. A plethora of vehicles racing on the narrow 2 way stretch, and ofcourse the road-widening activity, the hold-ups etc. I always used to think twice, thrice before I got myself to drive down that road on weekends.

Then it all happened.

Well, it did not happen in a night, but when it happened, it happened for good. The narrow 2 way stretch gave way to wider, four-lane fast lane. What used to take a painstaking 3-3.5 hrs was considerably reduced. Now, one can cover the distance of 120 kms between the 2 cities in 2 hrs. Hows that ?

(more…)