DAY 3:BHAGMANDALA

Driver suggested us, to b ready @ 8:00, as we had to go place called Bhagmandala, and return back by 2:00 p.m, as we had bus @ 4:00 back to blore...

Bhagmandala:
Cab was on time and  we started towards  bhagmandala, we first stopped at Bhagmandala, and visited Bhagamandaleshwara, this was temple dedicate to shiva, temple was built in kerala
style.  There is a small kalyani also, where people were taking bath, it is a belief that it is sacred to take bath and worship shiva as this place joins 3 rivers  Cauvery, Kannike and Sujyothi Rivers and forms  Triveni Sangama. We  just sprinkled lil of water on our head, and visited temple, and  started to next place, Talakaveri.

TalaKaveri.
 Talakaveri is a considered to be source of  river kaveri. The temple here is dedicated to Goddess Caveriamma.It is located in the Brahmagiri hills of Coorg. Localites there told thousands of pilgrims flock to the river's birthplace to witness the rise of the fountainhead..

Bramhagiri Hills:
We then decided to trek Brahmagiri Hill, which is 1608 m height,  hoping to find  temple there, it was breathtaking steep climb, i had to sit  many places take rest, and again trek before reaching hill, we dint find any temple there thou, but had a nice view point..

We returned back to home stay from talakaveri, had lunch, and started back to Blore.. Over all it was a pleasant and much needed time out for us as, both myself and Ramesh were involved in project work for the last 3-4 months and couldn't even go out on week-ends.

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DAY 2:KUSHALNAGAR

 We got ready by 8:30, aunt gave us breakfast , something similar to idli, not sure of name, it was really tasty thou. Cab driver was on time, and we started our second day's  journey towards kushalnagar. One the way, driver stopped @ estate and showed us coffee, and pepper plants.Coffee and spices are very famous in coorg.We also found a small falls on the way, and stopped for a snap. It was a pleasant drive all the way from madikeri to kushalnagar, very smooth, winding up like a snake thru the dense greeneries with coool breeze & excellent climate.....

DUBARE:

 Dubare is a place on banks of  a river cauvery surrounded by a forest camp, where elephants are trained. One can go for trekking, elephant rides and river rafting.  Around 10:00 we reached  Dubare, we had nice time playing in river cauveri, took some snaps, then went on for rafting (Charges 100rs per person).  It was 11:00 by then, people there told us, had we been there @ 9:00 a.m could have seen elephant bathing,eating n stuff..We missed that , and thot will atleast go for elephant ride, but  Coz of dassara all elephants were taken to Mysore. and only 2 elephants were there. We had to return back seeing long que...

Chikkole dam:
We then left to Chikkole dam, view from dam was superb, But it was too hot, Kushalnagar's climate was exactly opposite from that of madikeri, it was really hot. I was hesitating, to walk all the way to bridge(it was almost 1 km) in hot sun, but had to join ramesh, as he started walking, we started just walking along bridge of dam, it was very steepy to get down, and finally we took some courage, and slowly got down that steepy stones, and reached the water, it was awesome to feel water, after walking long in sun, spent some time there, and left towards  Tibetian camp.

Tibet Camp:
Kushalnagar has a place where the refugee Tibetans have a settlement locally called as Tibet Camp. We reached the place around 12:30, we had lunch @ restaurant there, and walked inside the camp.  Place was very calm, and had good shopping. The golden temple has a 60ft statue of lord Buddha, and  two other equally grand images of Buddhas. Walls of  temple had colorful drawings,  was not sure of what was drawings about, but it was very colourful and attractive....From there we left to place called Nisargadama.

Nisargadhama:
Nisargadama  is an island formed by river cauvery.  We took tickets, and walked along nisargadama  and we  saw deers,rabbits, a small information musueum, and finally reached  the natural island of cauveri, i have no words to describe the place, it was so romantic, with water flowing, trees bent till rivers, cool breeze, awesome.... we took some snaps, and spent some time in water. I wanted to spend some more time, but had to return as  they close place @ 6:00.....

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DAY 1 - MADIKERI

We had  bus @ 7:00 a.m, from Bangalore satellite bus stand, my dad dropped us there, right on time. But bus arrived only @ 7:30. It was so  chill in morning, i could manage to get some sleep in bus.. And got up only, when he stopped for breakfast @ some restaurant.

. Breakfast was tasty...But after breakfast sleep was tooo far...Coz of traffic all over..bus was stopping every 2 mins....From blore, bus goes  via mysore to reach Madikeri  and coz of Dasara, roads were blocked, and was full of traffic, we were supposed to reach by 12:30.But finally reached @ 2:00..

We took an auto, to Home Stay which we had booked. (Only Phone Confirmation). And realized that, all  home stays were occupied coz of Dasara holidays...So we asked the auto driver to drop us to some Hotel, or  home stay if he knows any. Auto driver, Fareed took us to nice home stay. (1500 rs per day). Luckily  1 room was  vacant... It was 2:30 p.m, when we finally booked our home stay.

Home stay was owned by a couple, whose children were studying engineering in Blore. Fareed (Auto Driver) and home stay aunt recommended that we start immediately, so we could cover some place before it gets dark. We asked fareed to take us to all nearby places..(He charged 400 rs for 3 hrs)...So what next, we just dumped our bags, freshened up, and was all set,  to start visiting places. Home stay Aunt gave us some dosas(As it was 3:00 p.m and was too late to find  Lunch @ any Restaurants)


Below are Attractions in  Madikeri  (We could cover all these from 3:00p.m to 6:30p.m)

Abbey Falls:
 We first went to Abbey Falls, it was just  10 kms from our home stay...Auto stopped near gate, and we had to walk, 1 km to reach the falls...It was awesome,was kind of drizzling, but never saw anyone walking back. With water flowing and sprinkling all over, made it more cold..We had some photo sessions there, and spent some 30 mins.

Coorg Fort:
From there  we left to Madikeri Fort which is now turned to several Govt offices.It also houses a small museum with kodagu Soldiers & King's potraits, their weapons and few more things...

Omkareshwara Temple:

Fareed then took us to Omkareshwara temple,Omkareshwara Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva was built in 1820 by Lingarajendra Wodeyar II to ward off evil caused by Brahma Rakshasha. Localites there say,  that Lingarajendra killed an honest and pious Brahmin to fulfill his political ambitions. The Brahmin came back as 'Brahmarakshasa' to haunt the king. To ward off the evil spirit, a temple was constructed by Wodeyar.

Gaddige/Raja's Tomb: We then left to gaddige,It was 3 tomb's of  Kodagu raja's, in an open ground, there was no much information about that, even localites hardly  knew about that. It was unattended by tourism dept, with no paintings.

Raja's seat:Lastly we we left to Raja Seat, It  was  5:30 p.m, wind was blowing so fast, making it more chill..We were so hungry as we had missed lunch and had ate  just 2 dosas.  I was looking @ ramesh to see if he buys me chats there( Usually he never eats nor lets me eat chats/food on road side, say's its not clean and  it will upset stomach). Guess he too, was hungry, he bought us some hot  Masala puri  and gobi Manchurian(Not tasty thou, but yes was filling & clean to certain extent). Once stomach was  filled, we walked around, place was excellent with cool breeze, we took few snaps, Raja's seat has a view of the whole of Coorg hills. It is said that,  Mysore kings used to visit this place in summer and enjoy coorg's beauty... Every evening, musical fountain is played to the tunes of popular kannada and hindi numbers. We could see some kids enjoying this dancing musical fountain....

It was  6:30 by then, Fareed called us, and asked if we can return(as he had other pick up). On the way back fareed suggested us to book a cab for tommorrow, as we have to travel 30Kms from madkeri to Kushalnagar. We got one of his contacts & booked a cab.(1000rs per day). We returned to home stay, by then aunt had prepared some rice,rasam and some bhajiyas.

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MADIKERI - KUSHALNAGARA - BHAGMANDALA

This was our first Vacation after marriage.

I was planning for a break from routine work, and travel to some nice place, but ramesh, couldn't afford taking leave, as he had Build/Delivery Stage of Project..

The wait was finally over on Oct 15th 2010. We had taken a week's off, for my Younger Bro Shiva's marriage, so decided to include a trip with-in that vacation. After searching many places in google, i finally chose  Madikeri..

We booked Volvo bus(~1500Rs for round trip for 2 people).Thanks to KSTDC,  we had direct bus from Banglore to Madikeri..


DAY 1 - MADIKERI 

DAY 2 - KUSHALNAGARA

DAY 3 - BHAGMANDALA 


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