Golden Temple
This time we had two holidays in hand and decided to go somewhere far. So we got flashed in our mind the place called Coorg. The place known to beautiful nature and estates. So on 15th Jan we gathered in Udupi and left to Coorg in one TT. We were nearly 12 persons in our journey. We reached Coorg at noon 1.00pm since we left Udupi early. We decided to check for a room for us to stay the night in Coorg itself. We got a room and we dumped all our bags, got freshen and went to see Raja seat,which was near to our room too.
After that we planned to go to tibetean golden temple, Bailhongla. It was very lovely temple to be frank and very nicely maintained by lama's. After seeing the temple we had lunch there and decided to move towards Abbe falls.
When we reached Abbe falls it was already evening. We were disappointed when we reached Abbe falls since nobody was allowed to get into the water,we could managed to see the falls from far and took the snaps and came. It was already dark when we reached our room.
Abbe falls
We three guys went to see the Omkarashwara temple there. The architecture of the temple was different compare to our places. Later we thought of having some sweet stuffs and asked for honey cake and coffee.
Omkareshwara temple
Night we had arranged for a campfire somewhere outskirts. We got one person to arrange for the same :)
We had nice dance over there,it was a nice time pass and we had our dinner over there itself. We went back to our room around 11.30pm and had a nice sleep.
Morning we vacated our rooms and dumped our belongings in TT and moved towards Kaveri nisargadama.We saw few animals there. Later we went to Dubare,the place was famous for elephants. There we got many info on elephants.
We skipped few places in Coorg. We thought of doing trekking in Brahmagiri/Pushpagiri but we couldn't due to lack of time, didn't go to Iruppu falls,bagamandala,thalakaveri. It was our two days journey and we had planned to visit Halebidu and Belur too,So time didn't permit us to see few places,only we could visit few main places.
Halebidu Hoysaleshwara tepmple Belur Gopura Belur chennakeshava temple
We left Coorg and headed towards hasan. It was a dirty road through out our journey and that made us to skip many places. When we reached hassan it was noon and we had lunch there. After our lunch we headed towards halebidu. The temple known for its sculpture. A gem of Hoysala temple architecture, the Hoysaleshwara temple of Halebid is ornamented with a plethora of exquisite carvings and sculptures. It was built by Ketamalla, a minister of Hoysala ruler Vishnuvardhana, in the 12th century AD. It is believed that the construction of the Hoysaleshwara temple never reached completion as the Hoysala rulers were forced to relocate their capital in the face of attacks by the rampaging armies of Malik Kafur.
The Hoysaleswara temple enshrines the deities of Hoysaleswara and Santaleswara, named after King Vishnuvardhana Hoysala and his wife Queen Santala. The composite structure of the Hoysaleswara temple comprises a pair of identical temples, each with its own east-facing linga sanctuary opening on to a hall and a screened porch. As the two halls are joined together to create a spacious columned interior, the temples function as a single monument.. Its very sad thing that few of the monuments were spoilt. The more sadest thing was the present generation people carved their names on Nandi idols and many more places. Which was real painful to see.
We left Halebidu and headed towards Belur since we were running out of time. The road from hassan to Halebidu was ultimate and from Halibidu to Belur also too good. So these two roads were only the good roads in our journey.
We reached Belur in the evening, The first thing that catches one's eye, is the beautiful ornamental Gopuram of the Channakeshava Temple. It stands tall , giving a feeling that one is entering a grandiose royal court. As one steps onto the temple's sacrosanct platform, in a corner of the vast courtyard are tossed a golden horse and a temple chariot. The winged figure of Garuda, Lord Vishnu's carrier, stands at the entrance, facing the temple, its palms touching in homage. The main structure of the temple, which is a stellar, stands as a homogeneous architectural unit on a raised platform.
We left Belur and moved towards moodigere and took the charmadi ghat way. The ghat was real spoilt at that time and it took 2hrs to reach Ujire.
Travel distance:nearly 300kms
The route(first day):Udupi-->Mangalore-->Madikeri
The route(second day):Madikeri-->Hassan-->Halibidu-->Belur-->Ujire-->Udupi
