Nandi Hills - Sunrise above the clouds

If you're a Bangalorean, you might have visited Nandi Hills about a dozen times. Same goes with me, but things changed when my friend showed me a picture of the sunrise from the hills. I'd seen the sunset from the hills but never the sunrise. Those pictures pretty much convinced me to want to go and see it myself.

It's a 1½ hour drive from the city if you go early morning and avoid traffic. We started off at 4am, and reached the base of the hill by 5.30am. Now don't expect things to go smoothly as there are a million people wanting to see this place on a weekend just like you which causes a huge queue of bikes, cars and buses. The faster you reach, the earlier you'll be lucky to see the sunrise. The gates to the hill open at 6am, and there's also a huge rush of people near the ticket counter. After I got my ticket I literally had to run to get a glimpse of the already late sunrise, that I really didnt want to miss out on. Thankfully it wasnt cloudy and dull and I got the view I intended to see!

After the sunrise you can have breakfast in one of the restaurants present on top of the hill itself- pure south indian breakfast is what we chose to have.

If you have a couple of hours to spare then you might consider exploring around the place, something I hadn't done before. A couple of things to see would be:

• Tipu's drop

• Tipu's summer residence

• Nandi Temple