One more weekend, and a very unique plan. We decided to make a trip to the temple town of Melkote, which is about 130 kms from Bangalore. We decided to drive down in my ME 8992 and there were 5 of us who were travelling.
As scheduled, we hit the roads early in the morning with the primary intention to avoid the weekend rush to Mysore and we did manage to avoid the maddening crowd. Our first stop was at Bidadi which is a place very famous for tatte idlis (idlis which are almost double the size of the normal idlis and softer as well). Bidadi is generally the ‘pit-stop’ for breakfast for people travelling to Mysore.
Post breakfast 3 of the 5 were fast asleep. So was left to the pilot (myself) and my co-pilot to steer the team to Melkote. Once we were off the highway into the village roads, there was a change of guards and the most latest driver in the group, Bipin, did a pretty decent job and even managed to steer the car thru a gap between the pavement and another car !!
Before we could reach Melkote, on the way we accidentally spotted a lake. It was pretty huge and very refreshing as well. Some of us actually got into the water just enough to get our feet wet and after the brief halt at this wonderful lake, we headed to the temple.
As scheduled, we hit the roads early in the morning with the primary intention to avoid the weekend rush to Mysore and we did manage to avoid the maddening crowd. Our first stop was at Bidadi which is a place very famous for tatte idlis (idlis which are almost double the size of the normal idlis and softer as well). Bidadi is generally the ‘pit-stop’ for breakfast for people travelling to Mysore.
Post breakfast 3 of the 5 were fast asleep. So was left to the pilot (myself) and my co-pilot to steer the team to Melkote. Once we were off the highway into the village roads, there was a change of guards and the most latest driver in the group, Bipin, did a pretty decent job and even managed to steer the car thru a gap between the pavement and another car !!
Before we could reach Melkote, on the way we accidentally spotted a lake. It was pretty huge and very refreshing as well. Some of us actually got into the water just enough to get our feet wet and after the brief halt at this wonderful lake, we headed to the temple.
At Melkote, our first stop was the Cheluvanarayana Swamy temple. After the darshan, we decided to begin our ascend to the other temple – Yoga Narasimha temple which is situated on top of a hill. The distance to cover is not too much but the steps are a tad too steep.
After the darshan, we had a short photo session, taking snaps of the village from a bird’s eye view. On the way down we had some very fresh tender coconuts, the ones you don’t get in cities !!
By the time we left Melkote, it was time for lunch. We had decided to have it at one of the dhabas outside Mysore, till a huge billboard caught our eyes. This was a place called “Young Island”, just about half a km from the mainroad. Now, coming to the place “Young Island”, it is a private property with cottages and a huge common dining hall (with a pool table as well on the first floor). About a few hundred meters from the entrance, are some of the cottages and few steps to climb down … there’s a river .. This was indeed a great sight, the cottages were actually on the river bed and even though the main road was pretty much visible from the cottages, there was hardly any pollution and the sound of the river gushing down was clearly audible. After spending some moments in the river, we decided to have our lunch. It was a pretty lazed lunch that went on for about 2 hours.
We had one other small break for ‘chai’ at one of the local stalls on the highway. Actually, there were some eatables at that stall that were really colourful (all shades of brown and orange) but no one was courageous enough to even have a small bite of these.. ;)
It was then time to head back – after a hectic day of driving and shooting (pictures I mean.. ;)).
