Trip to Hogenakkal Falls

Hogenakkal is a famous waterfall in Southern part of India. It is located on Kaveri river in the Dharmapuri district of Tamilnadu.  The distance of Hogenakkal Falls from Bangalore is approximately 180 kms. Whenever we get long holidays or weekends, we prefer to explore new places and spend time in the lap of nature. Everyday we struggle with our city life so we need some break and go for relaxation! In the month of July we planned to visit Hogenakkal.

Though we are staying in Bangalore for few years now however we never visited the place.We decided to start our journey early in the morning so that we can reach our destination on time. But we could not start before 8 o'clock in the morning. After taking the Hosur road we stopped for our breakfast in a drive in cafe & eateries. It took almost 3 to 3.5 hours to reach Hogenakkal Falls. It was peak season and we had go front and back for 20 minutes to park our car. We took minimum luggage with us (drinking water, energy bars and few dry clothes).

After getting down from the car we had walk half mile to reach to the ticket counter and book a coracle ride. Coracles are nothing but small round shaped boat. They resemble like vegetable basket.This was something new to me. Coracles are made of bamboo and the back side was coated with tar. I was wondering how that coracle is going to help us floating in this deep river. There are specific individuals who have the license of driving coracles.

A man with his Coracle

You have to purchase ticket and stand in a long queue to collect the safety jackets. I would suggest one person can stand in  ticket counter and other can stand in life jacket queue so you can save your time. They promise to take a complete round of almost one hour. If you want to take bath, they will take you to the bathing point and wait there (they charge extra bucks for that). I was excited as well as scared to sit in coracle. Somehow I managed my scared heart and started our journey in coracle. It took us to the nearby distance and dropped us because now we have to get down using steep staircase.

Sailing Shop

Our drivers took those heavy coracles on the head and started walking along with us. After getting down quite a number of stairs now again we got into our coracle and now the real fun-ride started. Now we were amazed to see the beauty of nature and my worries were vanished. We were spellbound with nature's beauty and was thinking why did not we visit Hogenakkal till now. Our driver took us just beneath the fall and we were all wet completely.

Then he took us around the places and we could see how river has made curves on the rocks (looks like sculptures). He took us to a far island we clicked some pictures and came back to the starting point through the same route. Thus our one hour thrilled coracle ride came to an end. We did not take bath as we already got wet under the falls. There are no proper restaurants so we had some local food in small eateries. If you are picky and particular about foods, you should carry some foods along with you. We had a nice trip to Hogenakkal Falls and returned to Bangalore on the same day evening.

When to visit: It is better to visit during rainy season so that you can see the real beauty of the falls. However, if it is raining too much coracle ride is not allowed as told by our coracle driver. We visited in the month of July.

Do not forget to watch this live video of Hogenakkal Falls...

On the way to Los Angeles

When we planned our USA trip we had to keep our daughter's request in mind. The little angel's request was to meet her favourite characters Mickey and Minnie! Yes you guessed it correct. Anyhow we had to keep Disneyland in our trip though it was far from San Francisco. We planned a road trip to Los Angeles by car. According to our plan we started early in morning ! Loaded our luggage in car and the journey started. Scenic beauty was really awesome!

I think if we would have gone by flight it would have been a smooth comfortable journey however, we could have missed some real beauties. It was journey we really enjoyed forgetting all our worries and tensions. I think this is the reason people just pack their bags and go for a vacation. This was the first time I realized that long drive is so therapeutic for mind.

Another reason we chose our journey by car is to relax in the famous Santa Barbara beach. We started early morning (around 5 am) and after driving for few hours through US- 101 we thought of taking a break and have our breakfast. We reached a wonderful place named Pismo Beach! It was a sunny morning and we didn't miss the opportunity to pose in front of  camera.

There was a mall and we also did some shopping. If I get a chance to visit there for the second time I will definitely plan a night stay near pismo beach.

After spending almost an hour at Pismo beach we resumed our journey towards LA (Los Angeles). From Pismo beach to Santa Barbara was not far away. We reached to the most happening Santa Barbara beach just after one and half hour drive. I just had one word to describe it and that's 'Wow' 'Wow' and 'Wow'!

The place was so well organized and maintained in an attractive way that you will fall in love with that place! People have come from various places with their vanity van to spend some quality time with their loved ones.

Again we couldn't resist to flaunt in front of camera! Actually the place is so beautiful we wanted to capture its beauty from all the angles. However, it is very difficult to capture nature through camera lens, its the eye lens which captures and keep in your memory forever and ever.

We wanted to spend more time but the clock was reminding we might be late for LA. Again we started towards LA and in the evening we were entering LA. Suddenly from a relax mood we reached into a busy city with high rise buildings around and slow movements of cars due to heavy traffic. We headed towards Anaheim where we had booked our hotel.

Life Under The Sea ---- Monterey Bay Aquarium

Our readers are very much patient! Thank you so much for waiting so long for the next part of my travelogue.. After the first two parts here I will share my experience about life under the sea which I came across in Monterey Bay Aquarium. If you are first time here then go through these articles ---  Thrill of Crossing International Date Line and Golden Memories of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is located in Monterey, California. You can enjoy and experience the marine life here. From Milpitas or San Jose, it is almost 1 and half hour drive. The drive is awesome with scenic beauty. Once we are near the Monterey the cottages are so beautiful and well decorated.

It resembles like picture perfect. We parked our vehicle in a parking slot and choose to walk through the road for almost a mile. There are lot shops on both the sides of the road and one place is specially dedicated to eateries, specifically Seafood specialties. We decide to visit the aquarium first followed by some seafood lunch.

We started with Jelly fish.. Our daughter wad really very excited to see all the sea creatures..There are varieties of Jelly fish---starting from small, medium, big, tiny and many more.

Never thought that the life under the sea is so colorful and adventurous. We saw almost all types of fish including different types of sharks like Hammerhead shark, leopard shark, tiny shark and many more. We also observed corals, seahorses, Octopuses, Giant Lobster and Crab, Penguins, etc.

Even you can touch and feel certain sea creatures like star fish, snails, etc.. No I am scare of these creatures I didn't take a chance but two animal lovers in my house did not miss this opportunity to touch and cuddle (That's what our daughter said, they needed cuddling :P) them.

A tour is never finished without tasting food :).. So as we planned before entering the aquarium we went to a famous seafood restaurant and relished some real seafood. I am allergic to shrimps but still I tried as I couldn't stop myself  and there was no allergy this time! Lucky me :)

On the way back we decided to go through 17 mile drive and pebble beach. It is a scenic road through pebble beach and Pacific grove. Just before the sun is setting down we were driving through this beautiful path.

The beauty of the nature will bring out the romanticism in the most unromantic person. Yes! I did not have any other words to describe this beauty. We went to the beach but the water of Pacific was ice cold so couldn't stand more than half an hour..

Golden Memories of the Golden Gate Bridge

Thank you everyone for appreciating my first post on Thrill of Crossing International Date Line. I was really overwhelmed by the response. Your encouragement always give me positive energy. These days I am bit busy however I squeezed sometime to sit down and write my second post on USA visit.

Once we arrived at SFO, first thing I adjusted my watch time. Outside climate was sunny and was quite similar to our Bangalore. Roads are wide enough and properly marked. Big city but less noise because traffic rules says no honking!! We couldn't avoid the jet lag symptoms and initial few days are gone in timing adjustment. :)

Over the weekend we had planned to visit Golden Gate Bridge. We were really fortunate to have a lovely bright day. The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge which connects San Francisco Bay area and Pacific Ocean. Check out the facts and figures about the bridge here in the picture.

The beauty of Golden Gate Bridge is mesmerizing and we were astonished seeing the creation of human being. We walked across the bridge and it was an awesome experience and good exercise too :).  

There was cool breeze and on a sunny day you feel like standing on the bridge and stretch your eyes as far as you can towards the San Francisco City.

If anyone has problem in walking they can hire bikes (bicycles are known as bike there) and ride across the bridge. Some visitors are jogging and burning some extra calories over the weekend. I felt those fitness freaks often come there.

A day well spent and it was a great start of our weekend trip!
                                                                                                 
                                                                                               More travel stories on coming posts...
                                                                                                              

Thrill of Crossing International Date Line

As I promised my readers I will share my travel experience and now it's time to keep my promise..I was quite irregular in my blog for past few weeks and I apologize for this... Is there anyone who doesn't like to travel?? I think the percentage is very low and that to may be due to some health issues or financial constraints or some other reason!! There are certain people who just ignore all these obstacles and just pack their bags for their trip..

I consider myself lucky because my father is a passionate traveler..Every alternate year after our exam we used to have a long trip. We are fortunate enough that we have visited many places of Northern India (including Kashmir) at our early age. Later I came to Southern part of India for my studies and Western part of India for work. Now I am staying in Southern Part of India. One more time I consider myself lucky to have a husband who also likes travelling. We visited many places in Southern part of India. Though we could not go for long trips because we use long holidays for visiting our native.

I have visited so many places but never went for a foreign trip..Finally the opportunity came this year..My husband often visit USA for official trip, but this time we also packed our bags! I was really excited... It was my first foreign trip and I am going to cross the International Date Line ("An imaginary line on the surface of the Earth which runs from the north pole to the south pole. It demarcates the change of one calendar day to the next" wiki). I don't know whether anybody had the feeling of excitement while crossing this imaginary line but I had it.

Hong Kong Airport

It was one month trip and our destination was San Francisco, California. Basically, we were travelling from one Silicone Valley (Bangalore, India) to the other Silicone Valley. Our route was via Hong Kong. Early morning our flight touched Hong Kong Airport. I was sitting next to the window seat and witnessed the breath taking view of Pacific Ocean before our flight landed on Hong Kong airport. What a lovely airport!!

Hong Kong Airport

After few hours we boarded in the next flight to reach our final destination and now the journey is really long. Initially, I watched some movie and daughter was busy watching all her favourite cartoons. Later husband and daughter slept but I was awake and eagerly watching the route map of our flight. It was flying over the Pacific ocean and then through the cold bay. Finally, it crossed the imaginary line and when we landed surprisingly we earned a day despite travelling for almost 22 hours. That's the significance of International Date Line. We reached SFO safely and was waiting to explore as much as we can in next one month..

SFO Airport

I will come up with more stories till then keep visiting my blog...

Coorg: A Spicy Trip to the Place of Spices

Coorg is a famous holiday destination in the state of Karnataka. Coorg is a district, it is also known as Kodagu. Coorg is known as the Scotland of India. As I mentioned earlier post this summer we visited Coorg and it became a special memory in my heart. It was a 3 day 2 night trip but we enjoyed to the fullest.

We started our journey on 20th May, 2016 (Friday). We all were ready on time but our vehicle came late so we started almost an hour late than scheduled. We took Mysore road and stop after half an hour for breakfast. Finally, almost in the afternoon we reached near Madikeri and decided to finish our lunch instead of going to our cottage. Madikeri and Kushalnagar are two important places in the Coorg district where you will get most of the home-stays. After finishing our lunch we started our sight seeing and first visited Golden Temple (Namdroling Monastery).

Our next point was Nishargadhama Forest. We had members of all ages starting from preschoolers to senior citizens.Though we started early in the morning but till evening we were energetic. We had to walk over a hanging bridge and walk through the forest almost one km. Nishargadhama has a beautiful deer park, elephant ride and some pretty rabbits. Kids were very excited for the elephant ride..

It was evening so we decided to check in to our pre-booked home-stay. It was little bit inside but the view was breath-taking. It was on hill top surrounded with coffee estate and spice garden. I would like to give a special thank you to our tour manager (My Husband :P) who has booked this lovely home stay. The temperature was bit low in the month of May and so to warm up ourselves ordered some coffee and pakoras.. Rooms were pretty big and they have a lovely adjacent dinning.

Next day morning we finished our complementary breakfast and started towards Talakaveri , which is the origin of river kaveri. It took almost one and half hour and on the way our daughter had vomiting sensation. We managed somehow and reached to the venue. The view from the top was really awesome. Here the cloud comes down to kiss you which is an amazing experience. It was a sunny day and suddenly it rained ~ this is the specialty of this place.

Left talakaveri and had our lunch on the way and directly gone to another famous sight seeing, Raja Seat. Toy-train ride was fun-filled followed by a quality time with family in a cloudy weather and witnessing the nature's beauty sitting in the gallery on mountain's lap. Soon it was evening and we headed back to our resort.

Sunday was our last day of trip, so bit upset thinking that we have to return and get busy in our daily lives. We vacated our rooms after finishing the breakfast. We started at 10 o'clock and planned to visit Dubare elephant camp and later Mysore Palace and Brindavan Gardens.

We went to Dubare elephant camp but did not cross the river as it was over crowded. Few years back when we visited coorg during rainy season had been to the camp which was very nice. We left the place early as we have to cover places in Mysore and reach Bangalore.

Evening we reached Mysore palace and we could feel the temperature. It was tremendous hot and the place was crowded too. When we left palace and moving towards Brindavan garden we realized the rush in Mysore and that's why queue of vehicles throughout the road till Brindavan Gardens. Automatically we were late and managed to push the rush and enter to the Brindavan Gardens. Somehow we were tired souls by that time and eager to return Bangalore. Though we watched the fountain show but could not click pictures. Finally, we finished our dinner on the way and reached home safely.

When to visit Coorg: October to May is the best season to visit Coorg. However, if you plan to go in the rainy season you can experience a different scenic beauty.

How to go: You can book convenient vehicle according to the strength of your group. Otherwise you can book volvo buses from KSRTC or any other transport companies.

Where to stay: Coorg has the concept of home-stays instead of hotels. If you are going in season you should pre-book the home stays in well advance. We faced difficulties due to sudden plan and finally got one.

Things to Pack:  Umbrellas, Raincoats, some warm clothes especially for kids due to sudden weather change. Take some dry foods in hand and medicines especially ORS and medicine to avoid vomiting sensations. 

Visit to Bannerghatta Biological Park, Bangalore

Winter means Picnic, Winter means Day Outing and Winter means A trip to Zoo!

If you are not able to arrange a picnic or a day outing, at least you should visit to zoo with your little one. It will be a fun filled day and make you energetic and yes walking inside the zoo obviously will help to burn some calories :).

Actually, it is known as Bannerghatta Biological Park which is located in the southern part of Bangalore or Bengaluru. It has different units including Zoo, Safari and Butterfly Park.  This year we did not go for safari because we planned it little late so we visited the zoo and had a lovely time among various species of trees and animals.

Royal Bengal Tiger

Nilgai

Hippopotamus

Peacock

 White Peacock

Emu

                                                                  Iguana

                                                                     Turtles

I have shared few snaps, apart from these there are varieties of  animals ( Fox, Jackal, Hyena, Leopard, different types of deer,  Elephant, Monkeys, Iguana, Crocodile Snack and Turtles) and birds. You can go for safari and followed by a zoo visit and for that you can start early. Otherwise, one holiday you can plan for safari and next holiday you can plan for zoo. Whatever you plan at the end of the day you will see a happy face of your kid which is most important. They allow dry food items except any non-veg food (you can check this part with the authorities, as we carried only chips & biscuits and water).

Here is their official website, have a look: http://bannerghattabiologicalpark.org/

Google Map Directions 

Hope you enjoyed this post!