The bridge, the ocean and the city

 

SFO

San francisco as seen from the Golden gate bridge. 

Golden Gate

This place is awesome!!! A very very beautiful place. The bridge may be an engineering marvel, but what strikes you is the natural beauty around. San Francisco city, the bay bridge and the alcatraz in the background make the picture complete. 

Three things I didn't have a year ago - Car, wife and US trip :)
Last year has been good, Huh!? 

Enclave Apts, San Jose

My apartment complex in San Jose. Very good apartment, but very far from groceries and good hotels. 

Mazda 6

Mazda 6 parked in front our Apt building. This is the first car I drove in the US. 

Enchey monastery

Next stop in our city tour is the Enchey monastery. Its a 200 year old monastery built on the site blessed by Lama Druptob Karpo. Lamas perform religious masked dances for 2 days at this monastery. This dance is called "Chaam" and is performed around the month of january.
 

Day 1 in Gangtok starts off with the city tour.

First destination - Flower show. 

Teesta

The river Teesta is called the lifeline of Sikkim. This river is a tributary of the mighty Brahmaputra. 

Coronation bridge

This bridge is built on river Teesta in West Bengal. This bridges links northern parts of Bengal to Assam. This bridge can be seen on the way to Gangtok from Siliguri. 

Somanathapur, Talkad, Shivanasamudra, Srirangapattana trip

Travellers : Goutham Tholpadi, Guru, Amith and self.

Day 1 - Aug 13th, 2005
=================
Left Bangalore by 12:00 in Tholpi's car. 4-laning of Mysore - Bangalore road is nearing completion. It looks really good. Got caught in a traffic jam at Ramanagara. We lost more than half an hour here. As soon as the jam cleared and we started moving, we were hit by a Santro from behind. Minor incident, but, the rear bumper was broken. Lost a few more minutes here.
Stopped for lunch at kamat Lokaruchi. Had a sumptuous lunch. Also, we saw Narayan Murthy there. We reached Srirangapattana by 4:00. Went to Sangama first. I had never seen so much water there. We went for a ride on the "teppa". Got to know from the local people that the day 1 lakh cusecs of water was released from the KRS (Aug 1st), the water level here was about 15-20 ft higher.

Then we hired a guide to show us around the fort. We saw Sultan Batery, an elevated place on which a flag used to be hoisted on a very long pole. Used for signalling the presence of Tippu in the capital. One can see Mysore, KRS, and Kunti betta from this place. Then the guide showed us around the ruined fort. We also visited the Sriranganatha temple. Finally we saw the Jamia masjid. Looks very much like a temple with minarets on it.

We left for Mysore soon after. Had Dose at Mylari and curd rice at Kafe Mallige. We spent the night at my place.

Day 2 - Aug 14th, 2005
=================
Amith joined us for this day's trip. So, we had the luxury of travelling by Fiat Palio. Reached Somanathpur by 9:30 in the morning. If U want to appreciate the scrulpture here, a guide is a must here. This 700 year old Keshava temple was built by the Hoysalas and has 3 Garbha gudis. Both the interior and the exterior of the temple has some very fascinating peices of architecture. Along with this one can see the damage caused by barbaric muslim rulers like Malik Kafur. The British have also looted many of the idols from this temple. The idol of the main deity, Keshava, is now in some musuem in London. What you can see in Somanathpur is only a replacement.

The road between Somanathpur and Talkad is pretty bad. Reached Talkad by 12:30. Again hired a guide. Saw the vaidyanatheshwara temple and had lunch. Lots and lots of people around. Talkad was being hit by a huge wave of tourists. After lunch we visited the other temples - PataLeshvara, Veerabhadra, etc. All the temples have been excavated out of the sand by ASI. Many such temples are being excavated now. The guide said that there is a city underneath the sand. Reminded me of Hampi. Visited the river front after this. Lots of people playing and bathing in the river. Again we ventured out on a teppa. Just like Srirangapattana, there is a lot of water here also. Kaveri looks so beautiful when its full.

Met TC and family just before leaving Talkad. I realized that many many people from B'lore/Mysore will be touring these places on that day. Bumping into someone I knew was not at all surprising.

From Talkad we went to Shivanasamudra. The landscape becomes even more beautiful as we near Shivanasamudra. We first visited Gaganachukki falls. Its not very broad, but the force of the fall is stunning. The spray formed by the falling water forms a thin wall and we could actually see the wall of spray moving downstream. It started raining when we were here and it added to the beauty of the scene. Bharachukki is probably the broadest waterfall I have ever seen. The span of the waterfall is probably more than a kilometer. We went down to the bottom of the waterfall and took a few snaps.

Kerala trip - a list of Pure vegetarian hotels

I am just coming back from a trip to Kerala. Visited Thekkady, Kaladi and Guruvayoor. The trip was great, but food was a problem at times. Mainly because of the fact that Kerala has very few Pure Veg hotels. Here is a list of Pure Vegetarian hotels I happened to visit (or see). Hope someone will benefit from it.

Guruvayoor - Most of the hotels near the temple are Pure veg.
Trissur - There are a few Pure veg hotels in the city. I found Hotel Pathans near the temple quite good.
Angamalai- Hotel woodlands (NH 47)
Perambavur- Hotel Aryas
Valencheri- Hotel Ambika (NH 17)
Pala- Hotel Ambadi, Hotel Aryas
Kumily- Anand Bhavan, Arya Bhavan
Muvathupuzha- Hotel New Aryas

Disclaimer : The information may not be accurate or up to date.

Mysore - Thekkady

Travelled from Mysore to Thekkady on 11th Nov 2004. Had we gone via Coimbatore, it would have been shorter and faster. But we were misguided. :(
Anyway, here is the route we happened to take:

Mysore (Left at 8:00 AM)
-> Sultan Bateri -> Calicut (13:00)
-> Valencheri (had lunch here. Hotel Ambika)
-> Kunnamkulam
-> Guruvayur (16:00 - 18:45. Visited the temple and had coffee & snacks at India coffee house)
-> Trissur -> Angamalai
-> Kalady (the temple was closed by the time we reached there. So, we covered while coming back)
Perambavur
Moovathupuzha
Pala
Kanjirapalli
Mundakayam
Peermede
Kumily

Click here for a list of Pure Veg hotels we happened to visit or see.