Nandi Hills, Bangalore, Karnataka

Nandi Hills (also called Nandi Durg or Bull Fort/Hill) is situated around 60km from Bangalore City and is well connected by broad road. Gov bus also runs up to the top from Bangalore. This lies in Chikballapur District of Karnataka and located in close proximity to Bangalore International Airport. The road is smooth and away from the Bangalore hectic traffics.

Just after around more then 20km from NH-7 (after Devanahalli Town), left diversion on this road identifies the start of the hill which is around 15km from here to to top of the hill. This hill road is wide enough for two buses to cross each other but believe me it requires great skills as visually you can't say its that wide enough. Its prudent to stop for few minutes and enjoy the hill view and have some best photo shoots.

After 2 hours of the drive from Bangalore here finally I reached the entrance gate shown above. The entrance gate is not that big and secured as other forts are used to have (i haven't seen even the doors, so curious how it was secured?).Tickets per individual is Rs 5. An interesting thing is, two wheelers are not allowed beyond this point whereas four wheelers are (except Buses).

Cheerapunji

On My 9 Day trip to North East, Here comes the stop of Cheerapunji.  

I left around 8: AM from Shillong towards Cherrapunji a.k.a Sohra. Even though the distance is just about 56km, stopovers at many viewpoints enroute make the journey a prolonged one. From Shillong downtown, our car revved up the pinewood covered mountains which last all the way till head of Eastern Air Command (EAC) headquarters. The uneven landscape of Shillong city evens out after crossing EAC with farms on both sides of the roads, the busy city transforms into a beautiful laid-back countryside in not more than 10Km from its heart.

Our first stop, most tourists' for that matter, was at the Duwan Singh Syiem Bridge near which the forest department has made a view point. That is the first view of the Mawkdok Dympep Valley which extends all the way upto Cherrapunji. One has to be lucky to have a good view of the valley, most times it'll be obscured by clouds. For us the view was pretty clear with clouds kissing the top of the mountains. The name Meghalaya (abode of clouds) will be justified by just one look at this valley. There are shops selling food and handicraft near the bridge.

We went a little ahead of the bridge and stopped over for breakfast on the ridge of the valley. It was one of the most romantic breakfast I've ever had...seated on thin grass cover over the edge of the canyon we had delicious parathas and alu sabji. The panorama was breathtaking, a hazy valley in front of us with cloud-kissing-mountains in its backdrop. Our next stop was at Wahkaba tourist spot, but the visibility was very low and the valley was completely covered by clouds. We could hear the roar of the waterfall but see nothing, we hoped for a better weather on our way back and continued to Cherrapunji.

shilong

On 9 day trip to Nort East , here comes the stop of Shillong.

A city once known for its natural beauty - hilly location, fresh air, pine forests, blue skies and fleecy clouds. When I arrived at Shillong after a tiring journey from Guwahati,  I had a totally contradictory image about the city, I had reckoned it to be a laid-back town with few houses dotting the mountains, a very rustic kind of picture I had in mind, but it turned out to be just the other way round.

Elephant falls is located in upper Shillong, slightly ahead of Eastern Air Command (EAC) HQ. Somehow I felt it's over-hyped by the websites and local tour operators, I would rate the place very ordinary. They charge 10 bucks per person and 20 per camera, it's not worth a farthing. A faint stream fell down the rocks and formed a pool and I didn't feel it was touristy and worth visiting at all. I was wondering how many unnamed waterfalls I've seen in our Thirthalli-Sringeri region more elegant than Elephant falls of Shillong.

I went to Shillong Catholic Cathedral, it's gigantic but not very elegant, especially for me after having seen some of the most grandiloquent cathedrals in Mexico, I felt it was just a concrete structure with few embellishments. The design isn't that great, the blue paint makes it worse. Don Bosco museum in Shillong is definitely one of the must-visits. Just check for the regular power-cut timings of the city before you head to the museum, for they charge a lot more for switching on the generators. The best part of the museum is the power saving mechanism they've employed, they have person actuated lights - the moment someone enters the room the lights are turned on automatically. The museum explains everything about north-east not just about Meghalaya. There are arts, crafts, ruins, photographs, hunting & harvesting tools, house plans and everything one could think of about north-east in the museum and it requires more than an hour to see everything in detail.