Three days trip to Hyderbad from Bangalore

The journey to Hyderabad from Bangalore is around 10 hrs by bus and by train it would be around 14 hrs. We left here on a cool and breezy Saturday night. Our tight budget allowed us to choose a govt owned Airavat -Sleep like a baby bus with multi-axle. The advantage of this bus over the regular airavat is that it has an extension as the foot rest(rather a thigh rest) there by which you feel like a sleeping baby in the mom's cuddle.

The bus reached at 8 AM in the MG bus stand. We did not have a clear idea as to where to take the suite for stay - which made things worse. We were attacked by a big no. of auto drivers on descent from the bus asking various questions like where do we go, where we came from, if we required hotel, lodges, eateries etc. The driver of the bus had suggested there is a certain Nandini hotel nearby. We thought of walking until Nandini but then ditched the idea and took an auto. Nandini Deluxe was full and auto driver waited for us to return so that he can take us to hotels where he gets money in return. I have written in my previous posts about my husband's affinity to Udupi hotel and hence we rejected a few of the hotels shown by the driver and took one in Nampally - Shalimar Gardens.

The hotel guy arranged for our trip to Ramoji and other sight seeing places. When the tickets were delivered to our room, only then we realized how big a supply chain management it is. First the auto driver, then the Hotel guy, then the travel agent who arranges trips, then the bus owners, drivers, guides all linked one to other.

Well, Never bother about how people suck your money out. You like it or not, they manage to keep you spending.

Our first day began with Ranoji Rao film city. This is situated on Kurnool road after the ring road junction. You have to go to Ring road that connects the Hayathnagar to the main city. By bus, it may take around an hour and the timing is 10 AM to 8 PM  When we reached, there was no much crowd and we collected our tickets(which our hotel guy+tour agent) had already booked. We were mesmerized by the enormity of the site. Inside the film city, there was a gate opening ceremony at 10. We enjoyed the celebration of the cultural dances and the Jai Hind at the end. Then we took a red bus that takes us around the film city showing the studios, the sets and the artificial gardens. The bus had a guide who showed us the card board set houses, airport, ramayan/mahabharat studio, fake cities and gardens, railway station that were used to shoot in the movies. This particular tour was an  eye opener to changed the way I would watch movies from now on. Then we watched the stunt show which showed how the fights were fought for real in movies. There is a show on how the movie is made using Sholay and Basanti. Also we get to see a lot of nice gardens. Dil Se is a good restaurant to hand out. All in all, the day ended with exhaustion and some good  memories of the lively Ramoji Rao Film City.

The second day, again our hotel guy had arranged for a city tour which in fact we ditched by mid afternoon.
First he took us to Birla Mandir and then to Nizam's museum which housed the Nizam's gifts. Then we went to Salar Jung Museum. This is one of the treasures of Hyderabad and also a must see. If you are a history lover, then obviously it requires 3 days to visit all the places in the museum. We also saw Chow Moholla palace and headed for lunch after which we stopped touring and napped until evening. In the evening, we went to iMax and watched "English Vinglish" and dined at Palace Biryani. This is the best place in Hyderbad where you get yum Hyderabadi biryani.

On the third day, we started on our own to Char Minar. It is a beautiful monument though dirtied now a days by ignorant tourists. In front of it is Mecca Masjid. One thing I liked about is the pigeons and photographing them. We then shopped in the Chudi Bazaar and headed to Golkonda fort. Golkonda is a beauty in its own. Its too vast and there are around 200 steps to reach the top of the palace. There are a no. of guides available at the site, but I prefer you buy a book on Golkonda for 10 Rs and read it on your own. It was too sunny when we started our climb. But managed to be there in just 20 min. There is also a temple on the top. We saw the shooting site of pokiri/Wanted movie on our descent. After returning from Golkonda, we headed to NTR gardens where we saw NTR's grave. We also saw Hussain Sagar. What a pity it is for the Buddha standing a midst the dirty waters of Hussain Sagar? We reached Snow world and experienced snow in Hyderabad and headed to Sukh Sagar, dined, went straight to our suite, vacated it and took back sleeper bus to Bangalore.


How to Reach: 
By Bus: Almost all private bus operators, KSRTC and APSRTC buses available during 7PM to 11PM in the night - Takes around 10 hrs
By Train: Check out the Indian Railways portal - Takes around 14 hrs
By Flight : bookings can be made from online flight websites - Takes around 1 hr

Places for site seeing:
1. Ramoji Rao Film City
2. Golkonda fort
3. Char Minar
4. Mecca Masjid
5. Salar Jung Museum
6. Nizam's museum
7. Chow Mohalla place
8. Hussain Sagar lake
9. Birla Temple and Birla Planetorium
10. NTR garden
11. Lumbini Garden(optional as Hussain Sagar water is dirty)
12.Nehru Zoological Park
13.State Archaeological Museum.

Best time to visit: Avoid summer to visit Hyderabad as summers are unbearably hot in Hyderabad

Pondycherry - two day trip from Bangalore

Planned to visit Pondicherry for a two day weekend outing with hubby. I booked the KSRTC volvo club class multi axle bus on Thursday and we left on Friday night. Our bus was from St.John's and we had a tough time searching for the KSRTC pick up point. We had a nice plate of chitranna and curd in the bus stop and boarded the bus for a short peaceful journey to Pondy. What I had thought was a short journey took almost 10 hrs.

After landing, we were told that there is good accommodation near the bus stand area. My husband is the kind of person who searches for Udupi bhavan/ hotel everywhere he goes. We searched for a good number of hotels and resorts before we got one next to the Udupi bhavan on the main streets of Pondicherry and we checked in for a cozy twin AC suite.

It has become a hobby that when we land on a new land in the mornings of the journey, we roam on the streets of the city after a cup of hot tea. So once we checked in we dumped the luggage in the hotel room, we had hot watery tea in the Udupi bhavan. The tea was sick. The search for other tea shops which sell good tea was not very fruitful.

I noticed that the whole of city was dirty on that sun risen morning. There were bars across every second building and people were happily littering, loitering, puking in front of the bars. There were tea stalls on the gutters. Some kerala parota stalls were lined up the road where white dough is knead near garbage junks. One scene took me by shock. A man was peeing to the high lamp post that stood at the center of a large bus stand. In the midst of 2000 people, 200 buses, 50 tea shops, how one could take out to pee without any embarrassment is what I wonder about.

The day was too sunny. The breakfast was a little better than the morning tea from Udupi bhavan. We took a share auto to go to the rock beach. The idea of going in the share auto was to know people and their life styles. At the end of the caravan, all we got to know was that, the people are too rude and no body understands a single syllable if its not Tamil.

The rock beach is a sweet place to be. We imagined that the place will have tides where we can touch waters and take a dip. But it turned out that they have cut short the shore area by throwing stones at the sea. Its breezy and lots and lots of shopping options are available for sea made items. Plenty of eateries are also present which sell french pasta, Chinese momos, manchurian, Modhak(they call with tamil equivalent), peanuts, sweet candy, bhel puri, vada, bajji etc etc..

Out of heat and humid weather, we were exhausted. We had fish for the dinner at Annaporna hotel. The specialty of Pondy hotels is that they don't serve any dish with spoon. You insist on getting a pair of spoons and it comes to you probably after you complete eating the dish.

Next day was very eventful. We took a early rise to catch the sun rise at the beach. The rock beach was not all that peaceful. There were people jogging, hogging here and there. After a long time the sun rose and it was a stunning scene. Some pics follow below.

We booked a taxi and visited Aurbindo ashram, Ganabadi temple(yes, its pronounced as Ganabadi and not as Ganapathi), Narasimha temple, Govt Museum, Auroville, a beautiful and handsome church near the railway station. All this took around 4 hours. For the afternoon we settled for the Auro beach. The water was too good for anybody to refuse it. We got wet and played all the possible sport on the beach. There were French men and bikini clad women. The bikini women, as usual had a great bunch of followers, fans and admirers. They term them all as stalkers.

We made some shopping in the Auroville and had good food to eat at the Adiyar Anand Bhavan. The evening tea was held at beach. We returned to catch the bus back to Bangalore.

How to reach from Bangalore:
By Bus: From Majestic, there are many buses that go to Pondicherry. Buses that go to Thiruvannamalai also go to Pondicherry. It takes around 7 to 9 hrs.
By Car: The route is via Hosur, Krishnagiri. Takes 6 hrs.
By Train: There is a railway station at Pondy.
By air: Airport is in Chennai and from Chennai it takes 3 hrs to Pondy.

Places to see: Aurobindo ashram, Auroviile, Thiruvannamalai temple, Ganabadi temple, Narasimha tempel, Church, Rock Beach, botanical garden, Auro beach.

Best time to visit: Oct to Dec

Kudteri Shantha Durga MahaMaya Temple

Kudteri Shantha Durga MahaMaya Temple

Recently I visited this place as this being our Kula Devatha place. Before visiting, I browsed to no end to know about the place and its surroundings. But there was no blog/site that would help to sojourn  in this place. Hence I decided to write about Kudteri Shantha Durga Mahamaya temple located in Ghudo, Avedem in Quepem(pronounced as Cafe as in Cafe coffee day). The devi is kuladevatha for Kamaths with Vochcha gothra. Kudteri is famous not only among Kamaths but among all konkanis with Vachcha gothra.

The temple is built recently - May be in the last decade. Inside the temple, there are two Goddesses. One Murthy is of Shantha Durga and other is of Chamundeshwari. The murthys are placed side by side in two different sancta sanctorum. The murthys are made of white marble stone and dressed with clothe and jewelry. There are different sevas available to be performed by the devotees which range from 20 INR to 2 lak INR. The temple also houses two - three storied lodges. The admission is strictly reserved for GSBs who have their family tress imprinted in the records of the Temple. So when you go there and want to reserve a suite, you tell a name of your ancestors and you get it booked. You can also update their records with your name and your children names in the family tree.

The accommodation is plush with a view of the forests in the backdrop of the balcony. I enjoyed being on the balcony where I could hear the birds chirping, croaking of frogs, clucking of chickens and whole lot of mysterious sounds which I could not identify. In the ground floor of the lodge, there is a canteen maintained by a certain Nitte uncle. He's been living in the temple surroundings for nearly 10 years doing seva to the Goddess by feeding the devotees. He is available 24/7 and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner along with coffee and tea during the evening times. All the temple goers visit him. His tariff is from 5 INR to 30 INR for two course meals of Dalitoy and variety of madgaNes. His Dalitoy is one of the authentic konkani delicacy that I have tasted ever. It was an ecstatic feeling.

It is believed that when the outsiders attacked on the temples of India to loot the treasures hidden in the temples, the Mahamaya temple associates safeguarded the shrine and transferred it to a remote village in Goa from West Bengal. There they hid the actual Mahamaya shrine and installed the Chamundeshwari shrine in the place of actual shrine. After many centuries, when India was independent of foreign rule, they resumed to offer prayers to Mahamaya shrine in the foreground along with chamundeshwari shrine.

Some of the pics taken here are as below:

Here is the address to reach the place:


Samsthan ShantaDurga Chamundeshwari
 Kudtarai mahamaya 
Ghudo, Avedem, Quepem, Goa - 403705
Ph: 0832-2662423
      0832-2663881
      09822131503


How to reach from Bangalore:

Train and Bus services are available to Mudgaon.
From Mudgoan, hire taxi to Ghudo, Avedem or Kudtarai(Both mean the same)
Show the above address to the taxi organizer and he gets you a prepaid taxi for 400 to 500 INR.
The ride is about 20 min(taxi) to 40(bus). The temple is a little interior to reach by bus. The bus stops at the main road and have to walk around 7 to 10 min to reach the temple.

There are no other attractions in the surrounding locations except for Mudgoan. Mudgoan is a world in its own - very beautiful with old Portuguese buildings. The beach is a nice place to visit but crowded most of the time.