A road trip to the land of mountains,beaches,temples and ancient civilization-Karnataka #Lockdown

So, the first place on our list is Mysore Palace-an Architectural Marvel.

The Royal Palace is known for its rich and marvelous architecture. You can easily fall in love with the beauty of this Palace.

Then we left the palace at around 5:30 pm and decided to go to the second place on our list i.e Chamundeshwari Temple . It is located on Chamundi hills which is approximately 14 kms from the main city. It is surrounded with beautiful trees and curvy roads. We took the blessings of Chamundeshwari Maa, clicked some photographs and left for the hotel as we were completely exhausted. While going downhill we stopped at a sunset view point which is just about 500 m from Chamundeshwari Temple. You can see the entire Mysore city from that point and the colors of sky at the time of sunset were mesmerizing. We finally reached hotel around 7:00 pm after having dinner and call it a day off.

After having breakfast at a local restaurant situated near the border of Karnataka State, we left the Bandipur Forest at around 9 am and started our journey towards Coorg. We took the state highway which passes through Begur district. Surprisingly, the roads were covered with trees and infinite farms on both sides which made that journey more blissful. We clicked some photographs of trees and farms, we reached Madikeri i.e Coorg around 4 pm in the evening.

After we reached Coorg, we knew that we could only explore two places due to time constraint, so we decided to visit Abbey falls and Mandalpatti Hills. Abbey falls is one of the most beautiful places in Coorg. It is located between the dense forest which makes it more beautiful. The waterfall sound amidst the forest is like honey to ear. Afterwards, we proceeded towards Mandalpatti Hills but could not explore as we reached at about sunset. So instead of going to the top and missing the complete sunset we halted in between where there was view of valley and the beautiful mountain range.We clicked some photographs, took selfies and then went back to our Hotel.

Day-3: 11-02-2020

So our next destination was Chikmanglur-The Coffee Land of Karnataka.

No wait, there are couple of places to explore in-between Coorg and Chikmanglur.

One is Namdrolig Monastry and another one is Belur stone Temple.

So we started our day early in the morning around 6:00 am and we reached Namdrolig monastery around 7.30 am. We were at the monastery for about an hour. The atmosphere over there was so tranquil that you wouldn't want to go anywhere. We just sat there doing nothing for almost 20 minutes and then we realize that we had a long way to go and started moving towards Belur.

It takes about three and a half hour to reach to Belur. It is a small town and is famous for the Chennakeshava Temple. The temple was built in 12th Century. We took a detour for the temple and then left for Chikmanglur.

Day-5 13-02-2020

On Day-5 we explored Gokarna's beach(s) and temples. We went to the Kudle Beach early in the morning to see the sunrise and enjoy the serene beach. The beach is clean and free from any kind of pollution. We went for a swim for about an hour. Then we went back to hotel, had traditional breakfast and went on to explore the city temples. We went to the Famous Mahabaleshwar Temple which is situated in the main city.

In the evening we went to Om beach. The beach is called Om beach because the seashore is shaped like the auspicious ॐ Om symbol.

Then we came back to Kudle beach to witness the sunset and clicked some photographs. And I must tell you guys, the sunset was just phenomenal and in that moment we were infinite. There is so much positivity around you that you just forget all your worries and live in the moment.

Day-6-14-02-2020

As we headed towards our last destination Hampi, we were a bit exhausted but more excited. We left Gokarna early in the morning around 6:00 am. As we left the Gokarna, we got to experience one of the most beautiful national highway of India. The highway is covered with infinite farms and windmills along the side of the road and above all the highway is made of RCC. I vividly remember that at one point of time we were going at a speed of 115-120 kmph on our bikes. And because of this we reached Hampi before time at around 3 pm.

Then as usual we went on to explore the city. First we reached the Virupaksha Temple and explored the ruins of Hampi. As there were lot of places to explore, we decided to explore the Vitthala Temple on the next day. At the end of the day we sat on a big rock to witness the sunset from the hills in the ruins of Hampi. We weren't expecting to see such beautiful sunset on back to back days.

Here are glimpses of Hampi:

We both knew that the last day of the trip was going to be a hectic one. We went to the Vitthala Temple early in the morning. We reached there by 6:00 am which is an ideal time to capture some amazing photographs. However, what is more beautiful is that the place is not at all crowded as we went early in the morning and we got to see the famous stone chariot and at that time I said to myself " What a way to end the journey" We explored the site; it not only includes Vitthala Temple, but other monuments of Hampi ruins as well.