[chaitanyakrish]

Originally Posted by chaitanyakrish

I will be starting from ECity area.

Option 2 is Bangalore - Kurudumale Ganesha Temple - Lunch at Woody's - Bangalore and squeeze in any other temples en route.

Are there any good breakfast options other than Woody's, before reaching kurudumale ?

Please Suggest

[mashmash]

Originally Posted by ajithbr

Where stayed in Yercaud?

We stayed at Sterling. Absolutely lovely place to stay with an excellent view of Salem town.

https://www.sterlingholidays.com/resorts-hotels/yercaud

MaSh

[ampere]

Originally Posted by chaitanyakrish

Option 2 is Bangalore - Kurudumale Ganesha Temple - Lunch at Woody's - Bangalore and squeeze in any other temples en route.

Beyond Woodies you do have Adigas and Maiyas (At Highway star). And there are many others that I have seen.

[gadadhar]

Did a day trip to Lepakshi on a Saturday. It was a 4 hour drive in the morning from JP Nagar including breakfast @Sri Krishna Garden near the airport on the highway. It was very pleasant drive with less traffic and weather was lovely when we reached around 11 am, we did a photoshoot at the Nandi first, this is among the largest monolithic Nandi's in the world. Then we proceeded to the new parking lot, you have to take a right turn before the Jadayu park to reach the parking lot. Parking fee is INR 50 for cars, I found this lot more convenient than the narrow street at the temple entrance. I have found the place mostly empty during my earlier two visits, but was crowded this time. We got a guide after checking with the guard. He was very knowledgeable and explained the temple history in the next 1 hour, his name is Virupanna for anyone visiting the place. There was a big crowd around us listening to the guide and we had to struggle a few times to ensure we got the best spot for viewing and listening. This was not the first time this has happened and generally the crowd disappears when it is payment time. But here many people paid him a few hundreds and we added five hundred. Virupanna speaks Kannada, Telugu and a bit of English, but no Hindi. Language was never a barrier since most of us understand Kannada. I would recommend anyone visiting Lepakshi to use the service of a guide to understand the history. Our guide even refused to tell the charges quoting it is for God, but was rewarded well by everyone for the quality of his narration.

We left the place around 1.30 pm, and had lunch at Sai Delicacy Restaurant before Nandi hills turn. It was very bad traffic and it was 6.45 pm by the time we reached back home.

Some snaps from the trip

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by gadadhar

Did a day trip to Lepakshi on a Saturday.

Had visited this place about in March, it was hot and humid then. Did you manage to take the pic of the floating pillar in the temple? I had carried a newspaper to check this and found to be true. The Jatayu park is not worth visiting as they had closed the approach to the statue. Its a good half a day trip.

[gadadhar]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Did you manage to take the pic of the floating pillar in the temple? I had carried a newspaper to check this and found to be true. The Jatayu park is not worth visiting as they had closed the approach to the statue.

Yes, but missed the missed the floating pillar in the post. You would have noticed that one corner is touching the ground and the paper doesn't glide through that part. Legend says Britishers tried fiddling with the floating pillar, and the whole temple structure got disturbed since the balance was on the floating pillar. We were shown by few other pillars that had lost the alignment during the ordeal by our guide

We skipped the Jatayu park, it was open and there were a bunch people on top of the rock

[ankan.m.blr]

Malappa Konda

Malappa Konda is a small hill around 120 KM from Bangalore. It is located very close to the tri-state ( KA, TN, AP ) border meeting point. The main route to Malappa Konda is via Hosur, Shoolagiri and then take a left exit before Krishnagiri toll. Google map always shows the shortest route, please find the correct route below (which is 2 KM longer than the Gmaps route). From NH exit, we need to pass through some villages and then a small forest area near the tri-state border. There is a brief ghat section to climb with a few gentle hair-pin bends. The ghat road is in very good condition with concrete surface at the hair-pins.
There is no designated parking area at the top although ample area to park. There is a small temple where devotees offer Puja. At the peak of the hill, there is a giant 'Shiva Linga' and a viewpoint. We need to trek a bit to reach there. I have visited Malappa Konda quite a few times (always on weekends) and never found too many crowd there.

Please note : 1. You need to carry food and water as there is no shop on the hill
2. There is a public toilet on the hill but I found it is not maintained properly.

Here are a few photos and a short clip of my travel to Malappa Konda.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWJWDLX_exU

[TorqueyTechie]

For a family of 4 (2 adults + 2 toddlers), what is a good place for a day outing? Prefer a place which has lake/park so that kids can play. Can start from home by around 6:30 AM and prefer to be back by 8 or so in evening.

[ankan.m.blr]

Originally Posted by TorqueyTechie

For a family of 4 (2 adults + 2 toddlers), what is a good place for a day outing? Prefer a place which has lake/park so that kids can play. Can start from home by around 6:30 AM and prefer to be back by 8 or so in evening.

You can visit Krishnagiri dam park. There is designated parking area, park for kids to play around, lots of places under tree for picnic and the dam. Just be aware of monkeys while eating food in the open.

[TorqueyTechie]

Last Sunday, we had to visit Abbur for a function and thought of visiting Kanva reservoir which is on the way. I put Kanva reservoir in maps and it directed me to a viewpoint next to a temple. View from there was really good and also no one was there so we had that place for ourselves for sometime. Returned and went to the correct place after asking around. Again we were the only ones at the place and enjoyed the calm atmosphere with the weather also being good. Drive and the place both were good.

Originally Posted by ankan.m.blr

You can visit Krishnagiri dam park. There is designated parking area, park for kids to play around, lots of places under tree for picnic and the dam. Just be aware of monkeys while eating food in the open.

Visited the dam and the park last Saturday. Thanks for the recommendation. Place itself was not to our liking though. Water was not released and so not much to see there. Park was good with lot of shade and to play around but it was not maintained with all the plastic, liquor bottles and other things strewn around. Relaxed for an hour having the packed food and kids played around for a while and we returned.

[mazda4life]

Originally Posted by TorqueyTechie

Last Sunday, we had to visit Abbur for a function and thought of visiting Kanva reservoir

Abbur ?? that is awesome as it has the brindavana of the great saint also, did you trek to the Parushurama gudda / cave ?

[TorqueyTechie]

Originally Posted by mazda4life

Abbur ?? that is awesome as it has the brindavana of the great saint also, did you trek to the Parushurama gudda / cave ?

No we just went to the mutt for the function and returned. With 2 kids (< 3 years) going to the cave was not an option at all.

[chaitanyakrish]

Went to Nandi Hills Yesterday to avoid weekend rush

Nice blue sky with a green contrast looked excellent and relaxing.













Had Lunch at Nandi Upachar before climbing the hill and while returning back, had excellent Sambar Vada (Dip) at Nandi Upachar again.

The Sambar was so tasty, hot and spicy, we do not require a cup of tea to activate our senses.

[ajithbr]

Originally Posted by chaitanyakrish

Went to Nandi Hills Yesterday to avoid weekend rush

Do we need permissions or bookings before visiting Nandi Hills?
Any specific timings for entry and visiting now?

[chaitanyakrish]

Originally Posted by ajithbr

Do we need permissions or bookings before visiting Nandi Hills?
Any specific timings for entry and visiting now?

We do not require any booking to visit Nandi Hills.

In case, if we want to stay there overnight and watch sunrise and sunset, there's a KSTDC operated Hotel on top, which has some rooms available.

https://www.kstdc.co/hotels/hotel-ma...p-nandi-hills/

There is no specific entry timings also, however on weekends and during early hours of the day, there will be traffic; to avoid that, we went on a weekday and afternoon.