[rockyb]

Lovely travelogue. Keep travelling and updating.

[SmartCat]

Yessir. Will do!

Pic 1: The Stone Chariot at the centre of the Temple complex. This chariot is not a fixed structure. It is an actual chariot - with wheels that turn.



Pic 2: The Maha-Matapa with the musical pillars. Visitors banging away on the pillars with sticks & stones have damaged some of them.



Vid 1: Tapping the pillars by visitors is not allowed now. Here, our guide uses his knuckles to demonstrate the tinki tinki sound from the pillars.

YouTube - Hampi Vittala Temple Musical Pillars

Pic 3: We decide to leave for Gokarna via Hubli. The Hospet - Hubli highway is the best road in India for pregnant women. All their iron requirements will be taken care of in just one trip. But for those who are not pregnant (like us), the drive was a nightmare. The fine iron ore dust (courtesy: mining trucks) gives the road a strange Martian atmosphere.



Pic 4: We stay in Hubli for the night, and then proceed to Gokarna via the brilliant Karwar highway the next day.



Pic 5: Karthic goes to sleep whenever we play Metallica or Megadeth at full volume. But he wakes up complaining about the music when the CD changes to Jagjit Singh or Kishore Kumar.



Pic 6: This Tata 407 Tempo driver uses slipstreaming techniques to get past the truck on our side.



Pic 7: Finally, we get the glimpse of the sea.



Pic 8 & 9: The kutcha road to the Om Beach. A few years back, Om beach was notoriously inaccessible. One had to trek over a hill (20 mins) to get to the beach - which explains the popularity of the beach among foreign tourists.





Pic 10: We stop the car when the road ends, and then take a hike to the beach.

[arindamray]

Originally Posted by smartcat

Have you two been to Badami, Pattadakal & Aihole? These are Karnataka's version of Ajanta Ellora, and all the three places are quite close to Hampi

All of them + Bijapur was covered by me last year. If interested you may look at the travelogue at http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...g-history.html

[Ranjan Sharma]

Finallyyyyy... took me 2 days (office working hours) to read this.... read each line.. err each one liner. Both meaning same

[MX6]

Iron ore dust. That explains the strange blackening of my windscreens between padubidri and mulki both ways on the leg between udupi and mangalore on the 28th of Dec during my long trip (close to the heart).
Damn!

[ampere]

I am not sure how the Hubli Ankola highway (NH63) is today? 10 years back it was truly brilliant. In fact one never knew, he/she was going through the ghats. The Seabird and Sugama private bus services (on which I used to be regular) from Karwar to Banagalore used to take this road. They kept swing between this and the shimoga routes depending on audience.

[ramsnavy]

Originally Posted by ampere

Wow! That photo of the snake is Chilling. Vizaag photos are amazing. Azure water. I have seen such blue water only at Mediterranean. In India only place is Dhanushkodi @ Rameshwaram.

Maybe once you visit Andamans, you will forget about the Mediterranean. The waters are very blue and the sand very soft [COLOR=black][FONT=Calibri][/FONT][/COLOR]

[ramsnavy]

I hope you do not forget to visit Jamnagar on the way. The city has a Bal Hanuman temple where Bhajans / Ram dhun are sung non-stop by the resident families of the city since 1964

[SmartCat]

All of them + Bijapur was covered by me last year. If interested you may look at the travelogue at http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...g-history.html (Travelling in history)

Bijapur looks good too. I will add it to my iternary when I decide to go there. Is there anything interesting in Gulbarga or Bidar? Might as well do a complete North Karnataka tour.

Finallyyyyy... took me 2 days (office working hours) to read this....

All of us are very proud of you!

Iron ore dust. That explains the strange blackening of my windscreens between padubidri and mulki both ways on the leg between udupi and mangalore on the 28th of Dec during my long trip (close to the heart).
Damn!

Iron ore mines are close to Bellary. From this small & dusty town, they are transported to Hubli. From Hubli, they go to one of the three ports - Mangalore, Karwar or Goa - for exports to China. So you can expect potholed red coloured dusty roads here during boom times.

Although Bellary is small, hot & dusty town, it is a great place to spot luxury SUVs like Audi Q7, Merc M Class, BMW X5 & Volvo XC90.

I am not sure how the Hubli Ankola highway (NH63) is today?

Took the NH63 four months back. The road is in an excellent condition. All the mining trucks have vanished, after the slowdown in China.

Maybe once you visit Andamans, you will forget about the Mediterranean. The waters are very blue and the sand very soft

I've been to the Havelock Islands on the Andamans. I can't upload more photos - it was our honeymoon trip

[MX6]

@ Ampere. NH63 from hubli to Ankola is belter of a track. You can easily keep 90. I did that 2 months back. Planning next weekend again. Surprisingly even NH17 from Ankola to Udupi was in great shape. Bhatkal region was a bit bad, but then that's 10 bad mins of a great drive.
Will let you know status of NH63 end of March.

@ Smartcat. I'm very tempted to ask. Pardon the devil in me. Who did you take in your honeymoon?
Him?

[SmartCat]

I don't remember who I went with on my honeymoon trip to Andamans - I think I had my wife with me.

Yes, definitely a girl! Sure Pakka!

[MX6]

Originally Posted by smartcat

I don't remember who I went with on my honeymoon trip to Andamans - I think I had my wife with me.

Yes, definitely a girl! Sure Pakka!

What a co-incidence. I had MY wife with me too on my honeymoon trip. But I took her to Manali. It's altogether a diff story. Will come with a travelogue on that.
The thrill of that trip was that no one in my family knew where we went, until we came back. Wedding over, next moment, bam. we vanished.

[ramsnavy]

I think thats the way it should be done, vanish and give no clue to the world as to where you are. When we said we are going to Kashmir for our honeymoon, all hell broke loose at both our homes. Took a lot of convincing, but in the end we had our way

[ampere]

Originally Posted by MX6

@ Ampere. NH63 from hubli to Ankola is belter of a track. You can easily keep 90. I did that 2 months back. Planning next weekend again. Surprisingly even NH17 from Ankola to Udupi was in great shape. Bhatkal region was a bit bad, but then that's 10 bad mins of a great drive.
Will let you know status of NH63 end of March.

Good to note that it remains the same. Plus right at Ankola there is a Kamat which is very well maintained. (I think its towards the Karwar side and not Udupi side. But very close). But definitely adds to the charm of Nh63-NH17 meeting point with hot steaming South-Indian snacks!

[MX6]

Originally Posted by ampere

Good to note that it remains the same. Plus right at Ankola there is a Kamat which is very well maintained. (I think its towards the Karwar side and not Udupi side. But very close). But definitely adds to the charm of Nh63-NH17 meeting point with hot steaming South-Indian snacks!

It's on the left side of NH17 when you drive from udupi to karwar.
From ankola, you need to take a left turn towards udupi on NH17 and proceed 2 - 3 kms and then keep a look out on the right hand side. If I remember, you'd see a big board of a petrol bunk which is more prominent than Kamat.
Anyway, the road in that stretch is slightly bad for 2 - 3 kms. So no one will come fast and cut you out. You go at 60 kmph and easily notice the kamat.