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Bhayya Muddumalai and Bandipur National Park kya ho kar aaye, mere beti ghar mein sabka naam animals per rakh diya hein. Myself “Dinasour”, my daughter Navya “Chhoti Dianasour”, Bete Ujjwal ka “Chhota Deer”, meri niece Aditi ka “Elephent”, Meri wife Dimpi ka “Monnkey”,.mere bade bhai ka tiger, meri bhabhi ka peacock, friend ka Camel. And on top of that, she calls us by these name, watching it on TV a tiger chasing deer, she says, “Tau ji is chasing Bhayya”, I want to take a ride on Sanjeev chacha (Camel).

Well, we 5, me, my wife, my niece, my son and daughter, drove to Masanagudi, Tamilnadu, it is 290 KM from Bangalore, we took Bangalore-Mysore highway, and then towards Ooty/Bandipur. From Gundelpet, there are 2 roads to Ooty, 1 via Bandipur and another one is a Ooty/Coimboter highway. I realised this while coming back, otherwise I was wondering if this is the main route to Ooty. For about 60 KMs, road is not good, there is hardly any road on few patches. We reached Bandipur in the afternoon, had lunch and crossing Bandipur Jungle we moved towards to Masangudi.

Drive is pleasent through the jungle, we saw few deers, langoors, and a traffice jam. Why traffic jam, are bhai, elephent baby and his mother were standing on the the main road, and no body dared to honk to push them aside the road. Watching so many people staring at them, mother elephent secured the child elephent and pushed him on the other side of the road, wow, we are in Muddumalai national park, Tamilnadu. My camera was back in the trunk and I was not able to capture that. We reached Muddumalai city in 30 minutes and inquired about our GlenView Resorts (www.glenviewresorts.com). It was further 15 KM on Ooty road. When we reached near resort, there was no road, I called the resort manager and asked for the directions, he said just follow the road, I said there is no road man, he said, this is the only no-road to reach us. Driving slowly, we found ourselv in a jungle, foothills of Blue-Hills in Nilgiris. There were few other resorts on the way and our resort was the last one. We reached there around 4:00 PM, met resort manager Suresh. Resort was pretty nice, inside the jungle, he allocated us a room on a tree, which was quite big for 3 adults and 2 kids.

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Me and my kids always gets excited whenever we make plans for Bannerghatta National Park and we have already visited 5 times in last 1 year. Actually this was one of the negotiating attractions for my kids when we are planning to move from Seattle to Bangalore. While in Seattle, my son always kept asking, “Does Bangalore has Seattle Center”, No, hmm, “does it have snow in winters”. No”, “Rains”, oh Yes, comparable to Seattle, “ a Zoo”, oh Yesss, It has Bannerghatta National Park, which hosts Lions, Tigers, Bears, elephants, dears, bisons and a butterfly park too.

The very first time I visited Bannerghatta National Park (BNP) in 2001 with Nandan and Our latest visit was in 1st week of March 2008, while my cousin visiting Bangalore. We planned to start early so that we reach there by 10:30-11:00 covering around 35 KMS from Whitefield to BNP. Morning is a good time to see most of the animals as after breakfast they love to spend time outside with their family and an “after breakfast nap” (Kya thaat hein, apna to breakfast ke baad BLR ki roads per hi time jata hein). If you reach say by 2:00-2:30 then chances are high that all tickets would have been sold out due to holiday rush.
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June ka achha mausam tha aur hamara bhateeja Ayush Ghaziabad se aaya hua tha, kahi ghoomne jane ka man tha aur din tha 1. To socha chalo bachhe ko Mysore hi ghooma do. Nai Car ki long drive bhi test karni thi, to 1 Sunday subah nikle Mysore ke liye. Is baar agenda mein tha Tipu Sultan ka Srirangampatnam, Mysore palace aur Brindavan garden. Whitefield se Mysore Road pakadne mein 1.5 ghanta lag gaya, aur 2 ghante mein ham pahuche Srirangampatnam.

Waha per 1 guide ne hamko lapet liya aur bola ki bahut kuch dikhaoonga, hamare paas samay tha kam, hamne kaha 2 jagah hi dikha do?

Pehle usne hamko dikhaya Tipu ki jail, aur uske baad dekha Tipu Sultan ka “Mrityu Sthal”, raaste mein aage chale to guide bola, wo dekho Tipu ka “Lal Mahal”? hamne kaha ki bhai kaha hein, wo bola ki ye jo toota huan khandar hein wahi “Lal Mahal” hein, hmmmmmm? Hamne kya aab kya dekhe, wo bola ki chalo Tipu ki kabr per? Waha pahuche to wo “Dargah” type thi,

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Bahut dino se plan kar rahe the ki Bangalore ke aas paas kahi jaya jaye. Finally 1 Sunday ko ham log nikal liye Nandi Hills ke liye, saath mein tha apna friend Pracheer and his family. Nandi Hills ke liye hamne Outer Ring Road pakdi towards North aur uske baad liya NH 7 to Hyderabad. Road shaandar thi till Devanhalli Airport, 60 KMS ka pata hi nahi chala, uskebaad 1 village road li for next 12 KMS, wo road typical village road thi, and then another 8-10 KMS pahadi chadhai.

Nandi Hills ke pehle padao per pahuche, aur waha per 1 ticket liya aur fir thoda aur upper chade. Weather thoda cloudy tha, lekin bahut achha tha. Car parking mein thodi fight hui lekin 1 jagah mil hi gayi parking. Sochatha ki thodi bahut hiking hogi, lekin aisa kuch nahi tha, thoda chale, 1 Nehru guest tha, waha koi serial ki shooting chal rahi thi. Thoda aage chale to 1 bahut shaandar Vista point aaya, neeche ka najara kaafi shaandar tha. Kuch bandar ladai kar rahe the aur decide karna mushkil tha ki kaun sa bandar apne ko sikandar samajh raha hein.

Thoda aage chale to 1 mandir aaya aur mandir se thoda aage 1 aur Vista point, waha se 1-2 hills dikh rahe the aur najara bahut hi shaandar ban pada tha. Kisi ne bataya ki Nandi hills Tipu Sultan ka summer time spend karne ki bhi jagah hoti thi. 1 restaurant per foster beer ka board laga tha, man machla ki chalo thodi beer pee jaye, lekin biwi ne aankh dikha di ki abhi wapas car chalani hein.

Thoda patelgiri kari aur kuch pictures li, fir socha
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