October 24, 2008

I wound up work early at office and left for home at 530 in the evening. The weather looked fine; It was raining for the past week. It invariably rains when we have to leave for home, doesn’t it? It looked like th is day was an exception. Taking advantage of the weather, I reached home safely (as in, I did not get drenched in the rain).

It was about 1 ½ months ago when Bhavana told me that Gowri was getting engaged, and that the engagement would happen in Sirsi. Bhavana had already been to Sirsi once with Gow ri, and she was just describing the places she had been to – it all seemed too exciting. She had been to Yana and a “super falls” [later I got to know that the actual name of the falls was Vibhuthi falls]. I did a quickie on google and it returned something I hadn’t imagined of – waterfalls all around Sirsi and some exciting places. That was when I had decided that I would go to the engagement irrespective of whether or not I am invited. Bhavana, Hema, Vinay and myself were all set to visit Sirsi in the last week of October. And, this day was something I was looking forward to from then.

[for those who do not know the characters – I used to teach Bhavana & Gowri when they were doing their CS Intermediate. Bhavana was later a colleague of mine, and both of us used to chat up frequently with Gowri. Hema is one batch junior to Bhavana, and was later a colleague of mine. Vina y was also my colleague at JSA]

I then completed my packing – Usually, I’d carry only a back-pack for a 2 day trip. Thanks to all the excitement and the “thind pothu” Bhavana with us, this time I ended up carrying a kit back alongwith the back pack. If you are wondering what the Back pack contained, well, no points for guessing this – it contained only eatables. And mind you, Bhavana also had a full bag of eatables. Thinking of it now, it looked as if the food in the bags would last atleast a week!!

The KSRTC Bus to Sirsi was due to depart from Majestic at 1025PM and reach Sirsi at 730 the next day. Gowri had earlier asked us to reserve in VRL Semi Sleeper, but I decide d on KSRTC because it was a Volvo and more important, it cost me 300 bucks less than VRL, per person. You know, sometimes it pays to listen to experienced people (Gowri), you’ll know why sometime later. It was 715PM, and that’s when it started raining heavily. Hoping that the rain would subside, I waited till 815, it was then 830 and then 850, with no signs of the rain subsiding. I decided to leave then, for, I was almost sure that I would miss the bus if I waited any longer. Bhavana and Hema had decided to Board at Navarang. Oh, did I forget to mention this – Vinay who was to come with us, cancelled at the last moment – All of us were furious; But we had a nice time sending all our plans for the trip and irritating him. I got a BTS bus to Majestic. By the time I reached KG Road, I realized that I would never reach Majestic. Though I was sure that with the weekend rush, and added to that the rain just subsiding, there would be a traffic jam, what I saw was something I hadn’t foreseen. There was a traffic jam right from the Mysore Bank signal. The driver took a deviation and tried to reach the Bus Stand, I was forced to walk quite a distance to reach the Bus Stand. Thank god, I reached 15 minutes in advance, and didn’t miss the bus. Bhavana and Hema joined at Navarang, and we were all set. What can more irritating than a traffic Jam? When we reached the outskirts of Bangalore (Nelamangala) it was almost 1230 AM; Instantly, I was convinced that we would never make it to Sirsi on the scheduled time.

We enjoyed some breathtaking greenery on either side of the road between Shimoga and Sirsi the next morning. It was 830 AM when the Meghadoota (with the AC failure) ultimately reached Sirsi. We hired a rickshaw to their house, with Bhavana guiding the Auto Driver to Gowri’s “Pete mane”. The moment Bhavana said that she knew the way, both Hema and myself were convinced that we would lose our way!! Ultimately we did reach Gowri’s house without much trouble. We were welcomed by her dad and uncle. Our “package car” was ready. It was one of Gowri’s uncle’s brother who’d take us round the town. We freshened up and were ready by around 945. I think it was quite an achievement with two girls in the party (or should I say, with only one guy in the team ;) !!)


The first stop was for breakfast. We went to Hotel Madhuvana and treated ourselves to some Idli-Vada and Poori. Gowri had recommend Pudi Chutni Dose at Hotel Satkar. Though we were eagerly awaiting to taste that, hunger took over and we quickly finished our breakfast.

Before we came to Sirsi, I actually did extensive research (?? !!) on the internet for the places nearby. Since we had only

one day for sight seeing, I thought it would be better if all were along the same road. Shortlisted by me was Yana – Vibhuthi Falls, Unchalli Falls and Burude Falls along the Kumta Road, Benne Hole and Waate Halla again on the Kumta side, Sahasralinga – Shivagange Falls on Yellapur Road, with Jenu Kallu gudda for Sunset, Magod Falls and Sathodi Falls again on the Yellapur Road with the sunset at Jenu Kallu Gudda, Jog and Honnemaradu on the Siddapur Road. Wh en we proposed this to Gowri, it looked as if she dint even consider what we said. She had her own list of places, places that I hadn’t even seen on the websites. It was initially Unchalli Falls, Sarkuli Hole and Hurugar Hole and Bheeman Jari (for sunset). Then somehow Sarkuli and Hurigar were chucked out and Gulle Honda was in. Somehow, the way she explained these places, we were all enthu. Especially, the “concept” in Gulle Honda impressed me. The more you shouted or made noises, the more “Gulle” or “bubbles” would get created. It was not mere ripples, but actual bubbles.

We then enquired where we would be our first destination. It was Gulle Honda, which was about 25 to 30 kms from Sirsi. We were told that there may be some leech-like creatures there, and that we could apply something to prevent them from getting on us at his aunt’s place. We stopped over at his aunt’s place, and two more people from there [collectively the hosts ;)] accompanied us to Gulle Honda. The entrance was from the front yard of the aunt’s house, into their fields and from there into the forest. Their field contained Vanilla plants, Beetle-nut groves, and lot of other spices. We had to cross a small stretch of water and get on to the other side. We created water splashes by throwing huge stones into the water, and it looked so beautiful. We continued having fun dropping stones into the water and watching the ripples and the splash that it created.

We got to the other side of water and started a ‘mini trek’ in the forest. After some time, the enthusiastic ‘hosts’ stoned a tree to get us some gooseberries, and when the tree relented, one man was already up the tree fetching us a bunchful. We continued the walking when he asked, “iddhanna nodeedheera ?” (have you seen this). Thinking it would be something spectacular, I turned back to realize that he was holding a leech in his hand (yuck). He then ‘explained’ us that it was not a leech, though it belonged to the same family. It was called “umbla”, and the only difference between the two I could see was that this was smaller in size.

This was the time I realized that we had to be careful. I was already dreading the leeches before I even left Bangalore. Gowri had advised us against the Yana plan saying that the place would be infested by leeches, and so I immediately presumed that the places she suggested would be free of their infestation. With no protection (i.e, not applying any diesel or coconut oil with turmeric etc) I was in this place, just waiting for a leech to get on my leg and suck all my blood. The thought itself was so sickening and pukey. I was just hoping and praying that I wouldn’t get bitten by them. But, destiny had something else in its mind – thinking of it now, the bite was not so painful. Apart from the bite, I think there were about a dozen more that got on to my legs and all I could do was take a stick and try getting it off my legs.

At last we reached the place where the bubbles got ‘created’. The hosts clapped their hand and small bubbles started appearing in the water. I tried to capture them on the camera, but couldn’t do much justice. We shouted together a couple of times but dint see very big bubbles either L We learnt that the scene would have been better if we had come in a bigger group. We spent sometime there and got back to the aunt’s house, carefully ensuring to get the leeches off our clothes and legs all along. We got treated to some majjige (butter milk) as if we had trekked a lot !! All said and done, it was definitely refreshing. Since it was getting late, we politely declined the offer for lunch and decided to leave to Unchalli Falls, which was about 25 kms.

We stopped at Heggarani, where we had lunch in a Canteen. Nothing special, the food was not at all bad. I had slept the entire way to Unchalli, and it was only when Bhavana woke me up, I relaised that I was hungry and that I wanted to eat. Unchalli is another 5 kms from Heggarani. The road takes you almost close to Unchalli, from where you’ll have to trek about half a kilometer. I always wonder – when you visit a waterfall, u need to get down – that’s when you’d be excited and have all the strength to do that. But when you return, you have to hike a steep path and its quite a distance; and that too, when you are completely drained out!!! I know all of you would be laughing by now, but why don’t one of you give me an answer?


If you have watched the Tv serial FRIENDS, you would follow this – remember Janice and her three favourite words? (and also, the tone in which they are told). “Oh My God” (albeit, in a different tone!!) – this was the only thing I could manage to say when we reached the Observation point. The view was awesome, breathtaking, enthralling … and you could add in more words of a similar description. Though these pictures could give you a fair idea of what it looks like, you must see it to enjoy it. Another thing about Unchalli Falls was the sound – you could hear the waterfall from a very long distance. And when you are actually near the observation point, you need to literally should if the other person must hear you. Our driver- uncle told us that this place is also referred to as “keppa Joga” (or the deafening Jog).


From the observation point, there were a flight of steps that took us closer to the falls, and the noise also got louder. From that point, we got a better view of the falls, and it was even more exciting. The water fall formed a rainbow around it, and the beauty was description less. We stood there for sometime, each of us enjoying a good view standing on top of the parapet. Luckily, there were no leeches at this place. Then we posed for photographs that were to be clicked from various angles.

I managed to get a photograph of the water falling into the bottom. When I saw the photo later, I had to compliment myself for my excellent photography skills!! (you can see the shadows thoughL ). The three of us just wanted to stay there forever enjoying the falls (but we knew we had more promising places to visit J)



The trek back to the car was really tiresome. We managed to walk upto the parking. The next (and the last) stop for the day was at Bheemanjari –a sunset point. When I did a google search for this place, it returned no results. So I was a bit apprehensive about the place. The car could go upto a particular point on the mountain, and from there, we had to trek to the top to get the sunset view. The path to the top looked as if we were on a trail for a treasure hunt or something like that. It was simply awesome.

While we were planning much ahead of the trip, Bhavana (the ‘thind pothu’) suggested that we should carry with us onions, tomatoes and some Bhel puri Mix, so that, at one if the exotic places that we were visiting, we could make some nice Bhel Puri and eat. It happened exactly according to what she had planned. So, we were here, at Bheemanjari, around 530 in the evening, eagerly waiting for the sun to set, so that we could capture the beauty on the camera; and the sun wouldn’t set until 6PM, and so, this was the perfect time for the Bhel Puri.




That’s the story of Vinod becoming the chef for the evening. I must admit, the Haldiram Bhel Puri was really tasty. And adde d to the taste was the beautiful sunset. We enjoyed the Bhel Puri and in between clicked some nice photos. The way the sun was setting, we thought that we would not get a good view because the mountain tops were already covered by the clouds. After we had almost given up, the clouds began to clear and we could click a few better snaps.












we returned to Sirsi, it was around 7PM, and it was very dark. Dark because of a power cut. Gowri’s uncle had warned us that there would be a power cut till 8, so we had to spend time outside till 8, when we would get back home. We went to the Marikamba temple – the premises was huge, much like any ancient temple in Tamil Nadu.

Exhausted that we were, we went home straight to hit the bit. Struck a little bit of conversation with the uncle and thereafter had a nice sleep till 830 the next day.

Sunday was Gowri’s engagement. She’d arranged for a car to pick us up from the “pete mane” [the house in the town] to their ‘thumbe mane’ [the name of their house amidst the forest]. Her brother picked us up and we reached thumbe mane, and treated ourselves to a nice breakfast. Idli, Vada, Sambar, Chutney, jiggery syrup, butter, and “kashaya” (spice extracts with milk).

And then, Bhavana’s dear friend from Bangalore arrived (with her husband), and we had some nice timepass. It was soon lunch time, and the lunch was awesome.

The return to Bangalore is another story – there were two crazy ones in the group who wer e kicked about traveling in a first class compartment, so we decided to get back to Shimoga and take the train from there to Bangalore. Since there was no direct bus at that time, we got a bus from Sirsi to Sagar and had to change to another bus to Shimoga from there. It took us a while to get a bus from Sagar, and we reached Shimoga ultimately around 830 amidst quite a bit of tension. Another reason to go to Shimoga was that ice creams were really cheap there, and you also get a good variety. We ordered ice creams, and struggled to finish them!! The train left Shimoga sharp at 10PM, and we were in Bangalore by 4 in the morning.

It has taken me more than 20 days to write this travelogue, and in between, I missed a trip to Goa. Otherwise, I would have been here, writing another piece, with Dudhsagar. Well, someday, I do hope to see Dudhsagar and write about it. Till then, ok baaaaaaaaay..
omething to prevent them from getting on us at his aunt’s place. We stopped over at his aunt’s place, and two more people from there [collectively the hosts ;)] accompanied us to Gulle Honda. The entrance was from the front yard of the aunt’s house, into their fields and from there into the forest. Their field contained Vanilla plants, Beetle-nut groves, and lot of other spices. We had to cross a small stretch of water and get on to the other side. We created water splashes by throwing huge stones into the water, and it looked so beautiful. We continued having fun dropping stones into the water and watching the ripples and the splash that it created.

We got to the other side of water and started a ‘mini trek’ in the forest. After some time, the enthusiastic ‘hosts’ stoned a tree to get us some gooseberries, and when the tree relented, one man was already up the tree fetching us a bunchful. We continued the walking when he asked, “iddhanna nodeedheera ?” (have you seen this). Thinking it would be something spectacular, I turned back to realize that he was holding a leech in his hand (yuck). He then ‘explained’ us that it was not a leech, though it belonged to the same family. It was called “umbla”, and the only difference between the two I could see was that this was smaller in size.

This was the time I realized that we had to be careful. I was already dreading the leeches before I even left Bangalore. Gowri had advised us against the Yana plan saying that the place would be infested by leeches, and so I immediately presumed that the places she suggested would be free of their infestation. With no protection (i.e, not applying any diesel or coconut oil with turmeric etc) I was in this place, just waiting for a leech to get on my leg and suck all my blood. The thought itself was so sickening and pukey. I was just hoping and praying that I wouldn’t get bitten by them. But, destiny had something else in its mind – thinking of it now, the bite was not so painful. Apart from the bite, I think there were about a dozen more that got on to my legs and all I could do was take a stick and try getting it off my legs.

At last we reached the place where the bubbles got ‘created’. The hosts clapped their hand and small bubbles started appearing in the water. I tried to capture them on the camera, but couldn’t do much justice. We shouted together a couple of times but dint see very big bubbles either  We learnt that the scene would have been better if we had come in a bigger group. We spent sometime there and got back to the aunt’s house, carefully ensuring to get the leeches off our clothes and legs all along. We got treated to some majjige (butter milk) as if we had trekked a lot !! All said and done, it was definitely refreshing. Since it was getting late, we politely declined the offer for lunch and decided to leave to Unchalli Falls, which was about 25 kms.

We stopped at Heggarani, where we had lunch in a Canteen. Nothing special, the food was not at all bad. I had slept the entire way to Unchalli, and it was only when Bhavana woke me up, I relaised that I was hungry and that I wanted to eat. Unchalli is another 5 kms from Heggarani. The road takes you almost close to Unchalli, from where you’ll have to trek about half a kilometer. I always wonder – when you visit a waterfall, u need to get down – that’s when you’d be excited and have all the strength to do that. But when you return, you have to hike a steep path and its quite a distance; and that too, when you are completely drained out!!! I know all of you would be laughing by now, but why don’t one of you give me an answer?


If you have watched the Tv serial FRIENDS, you would follow this – remember Janice and her three favourite words? (and also, the tone in which they are told). “Oh My God” (albeit, in a different tone!!) – this was the only thing I could manage to say when we reached the Observation point. The view was awesome, breathtaking, enthralling … and you could add in more words of a similar description. Though these pictures could give you a fair idea of what it looks like, you must see it to enjoy it. Another thing about Unchalli Falls was the sound – you could hear the waterfall from a very long distance. And when you are actually near the observation point, you need to literally should if the other person must hear you. Our driver- uncle told us that this place is also referred to as “keppa Joga” (or the deafening Jog).


From the observation point, there were a flight of steps that took us closer to the falls, and the noise also got louder. From that point, we got a better view of the falls, and it was even more exciting. The water fall formed a rainbow around it, and the beauty was description less. We stood there for sometime, each of us enjoying a good view standing on top of the parapet. Luckily, there were no leeches at this place. Then we posed for photographs that were to be clicked from various angles.

I managed to get a photograph of the water falling into the bottom. When I saw the photo later, I had to compliment myself for my excellent photography skills!! (you can see the shadows though ). The three of us just wanted to stay there forever enjoying the falls (but we knew we had more promising places to visit )



The trek back to the car was really tiresome. We managed to walk upto the parking. The next (and the last) stop for the day was at Bheemanjari –a sunset point. When I did a google search for this place, it returned no results. So I was a bit apprehensive about the place. The car could go upto a particular point on the mountain, and from there, we had to trek to the top to get the sunset view. The path to the top looked as if we were on a trail for a treasure hunt or something like that. It was simply awesome.

While we were planning much ahead of the trip, Bhavana (the ‘thind pothu’) suggested that we should carry with us onions, tomatoes and some Bhel puri Mix, so that, at one if the exotic places that we were visiting, we could make some nice Bhel Puri and eat. It happened exactly according to what she had planned. So, we were here, at Bheemanjari, around 530 in the evening, eagerly waiting for the sun to set, so that we could capture the beauty on the camera; and the sun wouldn’t set until 6PM, and so, this was the perfect time for the Bhel Puri.




That’s the story of Vinod becoming the chef for the evening. I must admit, the Haldiram Bhel Puri was really tasty. And adde d to the taste was the beautiful sunset. We enjoyed the Bhel Puri and in between clicked some nice photos. The way the sun was setting, we thought that we would not get a good view because the mountain tops were already covered by the clouds. After we had almost given up, the clouds began to clear and we could click a few better snaps.












we returned to Sirsi, it was around 7PM, and it was very dark. Dark because of a power cut. Gowri’s uncle had warned us that there would be a power cut till 8, so we had to spend time outside till 8, when we would get back home. We went to the Marikamba temple – the premises was huge, much like any ancient temple in Tamil Nadu.

Exhausted that we were, we went home straight to hit the bit. Struck a little bit of conversation with the uncle and thereafter had a nice sleep till 830 the next day.

Sunday was Gowri’s engagement. She’d arranged for a car to pick us up from the “pete mane” [the house in the town] to their ‘thumbe mane’ [the name of their house amidst the forest]. Her brother picked us up and we reached thumbe mane, and treated ourselves to a nice breakfast. Idli, Vada, Sambar, Chutney, jiggery syrup, butter, and “kashaya” (spice extracts with milk).

And then, Bhavana’s dear friend from Bangalore arrived (with her husband), and we had some nice timepass. It was soon lunch time, and the lunch was awesome.

The return to Bangalore is another story – there were two crazy ones in the group who wer e kicked about traveling in a first class compartment, so we decided to get back to Shimoga and take the train from there to Bangalore. Since there was no direct bus at that time, we got a bus from Sirsi to Sagar and had to change to another bus to Shimoga from there. It took us a while to get a bus from Sagar, and we reached Shimoga ultimately around 830 amidst quite a bit of tension. Another reason to go to Shimoga was that ice creams were really cheap there, and you also get a good variety. We ordered ice creams, and struggled to finish them!! The train left Shimoga sharp at 10PM, and we were in Bangalore by 4 in the morning.

It has taken me more than 20 days to write this travelogue, and in between, I missed a trip to Goa. Otherwise, I would have been here, writing another piece, with Dudhsagar. Well, someday, I do hope to see Dudhsagar and write about it. Till then, ok baaaaaaaaay..