We scaled Kumaraparvatha

Kumaraparvatha Trek is known as mother of all treks in Karanataka. There are two routes to scale the peak, one from Kukke and the other from Somwarpet. We (I, Panda, Dinesh, Gourish) decided to scale from Kukke. Our plan was to leave to Bangalore on 22nd December around 10 pm. Everything was decided in a single day. Unfortunately we didn’t get tickets (supposed to book 2 weeks in advance). Then we decided to take a bus till Gundya and from there to Kukke. But there weren’t many special buses to Dharmastala. Usually there will be 25-30 special buses to Dharmastala, but on that day there was only one special bus. Then we looked for alternatives. An agent of private transport approached us. He took us to booking office. We relealised that it is a catch, they were charging rs.400 per head (more than double). We came back to KSRTC bus stand, were approached by another agent of different transport. He promised us 250 per head tickets, but 4 seats were not available. So we decided to book 4 cabin seats. The bus which was supposed to depart at 10.30 pm, came to majestic around 11.30 and departed at 12 midnight.

This took 45 minutes

The journey was okay till Sakleshpur. After that the condition of NH-48 is horrible. We saw a toppled lorry at one place. Sometimes bus was moving at an angle of 45 degree. We had heart in our mouth, thinking that fate of our bus might be same as that of toppled lorry. After crossing two tough hair pin bends, driver realized that one of back tyre has got punctured. The replacement of tyre took about 45 minutes. After all happenings we reached Gundya check post around 8 am. As soon we got down we got bus to Kukke. We reached Kukke around 8.45 am.

At Kukke

At 10.30 am after darshan and breakfast we started our trek. Initial part of trek is through deep jungle. The ascent is steep. I was exhausted in first 2 km itself. Too many trips and treks were showing effects. This was third trip/trek for consecutive weekend. My energy levels were really low. Further my luggage was too heavy, because I was carrying food items and extra pair of clothing.

With the help of my trek mates I managed to reach Bhatta’s house. After lunch and 1 hour nap we started our Trek to Kallu Mantappa. We reached there by the time of sunset. Gourish and Panda had collected firewood and set up campfire. (My enthusiasm was low and had slight fever also.) We had chapattis and other food items. At 8 pm we slept setting up sleeping bags and ground mats. There were many groups sleeping in 100-200 m radius. The place was like ‘mini Bangalore’.

Time to sleep

Next day(24th Dec) we woke up at 6 am. After half an hour we started our ascent to the peak. I thought my condition would have improved after sleep. But it was same as previous day. After taking sufficient break I finally managed to reach peak at 9.30 am. I did it in spite of so many obstacles. At peak we had biscuits and chocolates as breakfast. Later we had brief photo and video session.

At Peak

We started our descent at 10.30 am. Initially we lost the way. After backtracking we came back to the actual route. My mates had expected me to be faster while descending. But I was dead slow, memories of Savandurga made me cautious. I managed to reach Bhatta’s house at 2 pm. After lunch at 3 pm we started our return trek to Kukke. The blisters on my feet slowed my speed. Somehow I reached Kukke around 5.30 pm.

First we booked tickets to Bangalore. We got last row seats in 9.30 pm special bus. Later we bathed in Kumardhara. The bus departed at 11 pm after all confusion. The journey was horrible as we were sitting in last row, it was like experiencing a earthquake of magnitude 8.0. At 5.30 am we were back in Bangalore.

Before concluding I want to say thanks a lot to Gourish, Panda and Dinesh, without their cooperation I couldn’t have completed this trek. I learnt many things from this trek. One of them is not to schedule trek/trips in consecutive weeks, because it results in low energy levels and therefore low enthusiasm.

Snaps of this Trek are shared at
my picasa album

A weekend in Honnemardu.

Last weekend(16th,17th Dec) I had been to Honnermardu. Honnemardu is supposed to be a village submerged under the Linganmakki reservoir in Shimoga district. On the way to Jog Falls one has to take deviation from a village by name Hiremane (2 km from Talguppa). A drive of 10 km from Hiremane will take us to Honnemardu, where there is Indian Institute Adventure and Application (IIAA) run by S.L.N Swami.

For Booking Contact:
The Adventurers - A Wilderness School
# 142, 69th Cross, 5th Block,
Rajajinagar, Bangalore – 560 010
Ph: 080 3409712/3305508
Fax: 080 3324338

Distance: 392 km.

Route: Bangalore->Shimoga->Sagar->Talguppa->Hiremane->Honnemardu.

This was my second visit to Honnemardu. Last time I had been there with my engg classmates in Dec 2004. This time it was with my colleague Harish Malleshappa and his friends. I managed to get Manish and Naveen(Ande)on board. Totally we were 12 people.

We departed from Bangalore on 15th Dec around 12 midnight in a Tempo Traveller. Manish joined us on the way at Bhadravathi. We reached Honnemardu around 8.30 am. Before starting activities, we were asked to fill a form providing details such as name, address, phone no, declaration etc. Then we had introduction round followed by do's and dont's. Our instructors were Nagaraj and Chidanand.

After intro it was breakfast time. We came across stupid rule that we have to get our own plates. Last time when I had been there, plates were provided by them. Further a lady at the institute showed too much attitude (saying "How will you eat now ??"). We somehow managed by sharing 5-6 plates given by them. After breakfast we started our activities.


Campus walk:
I feel this activity was there just for time pass. We were taken to different locations in the institute. One of them was a view point of Linganmakki Dam. We had photo session at the same place.

Linganamakki Dam

Swimming:
The reservoir is some 80KMx50KM and you can see water until your sight gets lost. The water is pretty clean and left virtually untouched. After an initial 'how to use' session with life jackets, we were on our own swimming to a nearby island, of course with our jackets on. You can literally float without any effort and that was the reason for all our faces getting tanned. For some of the guys, it was the first time experience with swimming.
While swimming I relaxed for 2 minutes because of cramps. when I was about to start again I realised that I am back to place where I started !!!. The same happened with Praveen(Chote miya) and Sanjay. But Harish, Jatin, Praveen(Bade miya) managed to reach the island. Other people gave up at 3/4th distance.

After swimming we had a heavy lunch. Many of them had sound sleep. I tried to do some R&D with photography. Here is one of results of it.

Result of my R&D

Coracling:
Evening time was 'Coracle' time. 'Coracle' (Teppa) is a big round tub like thing with seats. Two people row it. We went to a nearby tiny island for the night's stay. Ande(Naveen) had gone to Talguppa to make some emergency official call. By the time he came back we had already left for the island. So after dropping luggage at the island, me and Nagaraj(instructor) coracled back to pick up Ande. This gave me oppotunity to capture many landscape-shots which wouldn't had been possible if I had stayed in island.

Captured while Coracling

Night Stay at Island.
We collected firewood, pitched our tents, made the campfire, had food and chatted, sang, danced away to glory. After dark, we could see the beautifully lit Linganmakki Dam. It was a sight to watch (though our cameras could not capture it).

Campfire

Day 2:
Next day morning we coracled back to the mainland. There were heavy winds blowing and we had to coracle against the winds/waves and after much struggle we reached the Mainland. Coracling against the tides is pretty difficult, infact our coracle almost toppled twice near the starting point itself with 6 ppl in it. Then Nagaraj accompanied us with totally 4 in it. It took around 1 hr to reach to mainland. For entire one hour we had heart in our mouth. I couldn't capture any of these moment as I had kept my cam in Nagaraj's bag, which he had left in the island.

Few of our friends were struck in the island, so Harish and Jatin with the instructor coracled to the island and got remaining people back.

Canoeing:
Next in the store was 'Canoe'ing. Canoe is the normal rowing boat. We Canoed till one of the Islands(which we are supposed to reach by swimming on Day1) and returned back. This was the best part of the trip for many of us.

Manish and me Canoeing

After finishing lunch, tea we left the place around 4pm. we were back in Bangalore on Monday morning by 3 am(18th Dec).

To conclude, eventhough this was my second trip to Honnemardu I was not even bored for a second. Honnemardu is the place which one can visit 'n+1' times. One of major difference to previous visit is that I have started blogging. The result is the post which you are reading. I also found lot of change in attitude of caretakers of Institute. They showed too much attitude will booking the slot and also for the new rule "that we have carry our plates". These things were not there 2 years back. Anyway the experience was different and adventurous compared to all the trips/trek.

According to Harish "if one is looking out for luxuries, then forget, Honnemardu is not the place for you". We literally have to do all things by ourselves, wash dishes, carry our tents, get firewood etc ... Music, cigars, drinks, non veg and plastic are not allowed in Honnemaradu. Food and accomodation is pretty bad, but it is worth a place to visit and experience all the activities.

Thanks to Harish Malleshappa for organizing this trip and also to contributing to this post.

Snaps are shared at
my picasa album
Pravin's yahoo album

FAQs (added after comments from Darshan)
* Do we have to hire an instructor and move.. : No need to hire an instructor. Our instructor was a student of the institute.
* wat abt the food and accomadation: Food will be provided by the institute. Don't forget carry your own plates. Accomdation doesn't matter as the night activity is camping in the island.
* do we have book in prior and if so by how many days : i am not sure about this .. important thing is that the slot should be available .. we had booked 2 weeks in advance.
* how many days do we require to cover Honnemardu properly : 24 hrs is sufficient for all main activities, but as per new rules a group has to book for 2 days minimum.
* wat are all the stuffs that we got to carry on : 2 pair clothes, shorts, plates, tumbler, spoon, torch etc.
* roughly the expenditure cost per individual please: our expenditure was Rs. 1730 per head (including Rs.1000 paid to the institute.).

For more information check this link.

Tirupathi, Tirumala Trip.

I had been to Tirupathi last weekend with my colleagues. Bhupathi was the organizer and he got 25 people on board. Our plan was to reach tirumala by 5 am and to have special darshan.

We departed from Banglore at 5.15 pm (8th Dec) by boarding APSRTC 'Sapthagiri' at Tin factory KR Puram. The seats were reserved in advance. We were delayed by half an hour because of one person as we have to hold on bus 2-3 km after tin factory. After all tu tu main main bus departed and the journey was on.



At 10.30 pm we reached tirupathi and started walking towards entrance of footpath. 25 people walking on the road seemed like a procession. After walking 2 km we reached entrance of footpath. Here we had tea and photo session. Every one removed their footwear and put it in their bags.

Ascent

At 11.30 pm after breaking 2-3 coconuts we started our ascent. Initial 5 minutes was normal, then steep ascent started. Many people started panting. Ravi, Chethan and me (G3) were in sync. Bhupathi and Sundeep were slogging ahead of us.

We (G3) took rests at regular intervals. At some points the view of Tirupathi town downhill was awesome. I tried my best to capture it and was partially successful.



After completion of half steps, the frequency of steps decreased. At some stage there is one step for every 10 metres. we(G3) read aloud Govinda mantras written on the pillars. There was one deer park next to footpath. After that we came across Tirumala-Tirupathi road passing above the foothpath. After walking 10 min we came across 30-40 feet tall Hanuman statue. We sat in front of it for a while and continued our ascent.

There is abrupt discontinuation in footpath. We(G3) thought we have lost the way but we continued our walk on the road towards Tirumala. After walking for 10 minutes we found steps next to a gopura. Now last 1000 steps were remaining. The legs started paining. Finally we completed ascent (3650th step) at 2.15 am. We walked further to find Bhupathi and Sundeep. They were relaxing and waiting for us. They left for finding accomdation and asked us to wait for other people. In the mean time I did R&D with photography and managed to take a decent snap at the place which we were sitting. By 3 pm everyone came.



As many of us were feeling hungry, we decided to had Idly and Dosas at some shop.
Later we walked towards Karnataka choultry and where Bhupathi and Sundeep were waiting for us. We got 3 rooms in choultry for bathing. It was already 4 am, we had get ready by 5 am. Hot water was not available. we(G3) and some others decided to take bath in cold water. Others were not so flexible, they didn't agreed to take bath in cold water. Because of this we were late by 1 hour. In the meantime I took snaps of temple gopura from balcony of the room. We had brief photo session at the same place.



Darshan

Finally we left at 5:45 am. Bhupathi had managed get entrance to VIP entrace as he had contacts. Before entering one person in our group revealed that he is carrying a mobile !!!. Inspite Bhupathi telling "No mobile phones and cameras" 10 times, he was still carrying it. If I were to be in Bhupathi place I would have blasted that person like anything. Complements to Bhupathi he was as cool as cucumber by saying "In a big group all these small things happen".

At 6.15 am we managed to enter thru VIP entrance. At 7.00 am we had darshan of Lord Venkateshwara. This place has some special power. one can't stare into eyes of lord. the naama is so prominent. one can feel power of the place. for this reason the temple attracts thousands of visitor each day.

After darshan completing darshan at 7.30 am we came back to our room. Our train to Bangalore was at 9 pm. Now we had see other places. Bhupathi asked us to form small small groups for local sight seeing, as too many will be difficult to manage. So we(G3+sundeep) formed G4.

Sight Seeing

First we had breakfast at Mayura Restaurant(not the KSTDC one) near Karnataka Choultry. The food was not so good. After breakfast as soon as we came out of Restaurant a driver approached us for local sight seeing. He said Rs. 550. Then we asked him to show places in Tirupathi also. Initially he said Rs. 1200, we bargained to Rs.1000 and our sight seeing trip was on. Coincidentally name of the driver was Bhupathi :) (I am referring him as Bhupathi-2 from here on).



Places which we saw in Tirumala
- Sri Varipaadalu : First we went to 'Sri Varipaadalu', it is watchtower. There is pada of Lord Venkateshwara. I shot some panaromic views of landscape.
- Rock Garden: Here is there is 'Shila Torona' a unique geological formation. It is believed that Lord Venkateshwara appeared from here as Swayambhu.
- Sanctum Sanctoirum View, Gogarbham Dam, Venugopal Temple, Akashganga : nothing special to mention about this places.
- Papavinasam: Here we went to isolated place relaxed for half an hour.

It was lunch time and Bhupathi-2 took us to Woodside Restaurant. The food was too good. It really quenched our hunger. After lunch we started our journey to Tirupathi.

In Tirupathi we went to Zoological Park. Here we saw many birds and animals such white tiger, sloth bear, leopard, elephant and many variety of birds(can't recall their names). There were too many peacocks(more more mores). We spent more than 2 hrs at this place.



After seeing zoo we went to Padmavathi temple for darshan. After this we decided to end our sight seeing and said good bye to Bhupathi-2. He demanded more money as we made him to wait for more time at some places. Finally he agreed for Rs.1150. He dropped us to Tirupathi Railway station.

It was 6.30 pm. Still 2 more hours to do time pass. We roamed around railway station. Had tea, light dinner and coconut water. At 8.00 pm we went inside railway station. Around 9 pm we boarded train. At 9.45 pm train departed and we decided to sleep immediately as we hardly had slept for last 24 hrs. At 8 am(10th Dec) we arrived at Bangalore City Railway Station. train was delayed as it had halted for an hour near KR Puram Railway Station.

So it was end of piligrimage trip. Thanks to Bhupathi for organizing and bearing with blunders committed by some people. Managing 25 people is damn tough.

Have a look at my picasa album for more snaps.

Dhoom Again ?? Not Really ...

Dhoom:2(D2), everyone was awaiting for this movie for months. The main reason for this was the trailer. I feel it is one of the best trailers(promo) of a bollywood movie. Marketing team of YRF(Yash Raj Films) made sure that the promo had everything in it to create craze among people.



My expectations about D2 had reduced after listening to the music. For this reason I didn't even bothered to see the movie in first weekend itself, as I had to go to Kudremukh: Trip n Trek ( see my previous post).

Seena was after me to book tickets for this movie. He was chanting Dhoom2.. Dhoom2... like mantra for the entire week. Since the movie didn't get released at PVR because of some profit sharing issue, we (me, ande, raveesh, seena, chethan, ajaysimha) decided to go for Saturday evening show at Urvashi.

The movie like the predecessor is chor-police kahani packaged with stunts, special effects, songs. Jai(Abhishek) and Ali(Uday) try catch an International thief Mr.A(Hrithik). Heists take place all over the world from Namibia, Mumbai to Rio De Janeiro. Mr.A is accompanied by his fan/follower Sunehri(Ash). Can he trust her completely ?


Plusses:
- Hrithik Roshan: He has carried the entire movie on his shoulders. Without him D2 would have a been a ordinary movie.
- A few action scenes are good: I liked roller skates sequence where magnetic field is used by Mr.A to escape from the cops.
- Chemistry between Ash and Hrithik: The pair looks good on screen. The bullet scene followed by smooching is one of the highlight of D2. Thanks to Suzanne for giving smooching lessons to Hrithik [ref 4]. Relax ... it's just chemistry, please don't expect biology :)
- Makeup: Hrithik in 15 different get-ups looks awesome.
- Fresh Locations: D2 is first bollywood movie to be shot in Brazil.

Minusses:
- Story/Script: you're making a biryani and you've got the meat, you've got the spices, you've got the salt and the potatoes, but you forget the rice [Rajeev Masand].
- Music: Apart from 'Dhoom Again' number rest are ordinary. What surprises me is that the same Pritam who scored music for Dhoom:1 and also for this year's musical hits Gangster, Woh Lamhe.
- Overdone action scenes: I had expected action scenes to be good. I am sorry majority of them are substandard especially Tunnel chasing scene in climax. Unfortunately scenes are not good enough to beat RajniKanth's stunts.
- Special effects: Done by Tata Elxsi VCL are not upto the mark. I feel special effects in Krrish were much better.
- Some Thefts are hard to believe: Cinematic liberties are taken for granted.

To be frank there are many minusses but marketing of YRF and the peformance Hrithik has masked all of them. D2 has already been declared a SuperHit by trade pandits.

Finale:
- Don't sacrifice anything for watching this movie.
- In case you decide to see the movie, go early to theatre as you may miss out credits song 'Dhoom Again' (because at single screens movies start on time).
- Dhoom 2's scorecard: Physics -10, Chemistry 90, Biology N/A.

References:

[1] Wikipedia: Dhoom 2
[2] Indiafm - Taran Adarsh: Review. 4 and 1/2 star.
[3] CNN-IBN: Masand's Verdict . 3 star. Dhoom 2 is a perfect example of what's seriously wrong with big-budget Bollywood movies.
[4] Bollywood News and Gossip: Dhoom 2 - Movie Review
[5] SurjoDas: PVR vs YRF