Memories

Jog Falls :  The final leg of our journey was a long drive to Jog Falls with Amma, Puthith, and Guru.  It had always been Amma's wish to visit Jog Falls in monsoon, when the water flows at its fullest. In prepration for this trip and to make most of it, I had spoken to my uncle to get tentative dates for when the dam gates would open, so I decided to take some leave from work just in case.  We started early and reached Jog falls via Davangere by noon.  We went straight to the first viewpoint of the falls after reaching Jog. The view point was crowded and the falls was covered in mist, we could only hear the roaring sound of the water falls. After waiting for a while, the mist cleared and we got the breathtaking view of the water falls.  Next, we headed to the KSTDC hotel to check in, which is conveniently located right by the falls. The hotel was decent, and the highlight in our room was the Mysore sandal toiletries. A lot of construction was happening arou...

Guruvayur and Athirapalli Our next stop was Kerala, where our family of seven flew to Kochi for our first trip together. As always there is no fun without family drama :) and makes it more interesting when one starts recoginising the patterns. Namma Bengaluru airport T2 has a good covered parking for long term parking, it works out cheaper than cabbing from home to airport and back if it is a 2-3 day trip.  As we landed in Kochi, our taxi was ready, and the driver informed us that it had been raining continuously. Unfortunately, Athirapalli Falls was closed that day. We headed straight to Guruvayur and checked into The Temple Inn hotel, which was close to the temple.  We reached Guruvayur around 2:00 PM, but the temple was closed.  Since the rain had stopped, we decided to visit Chavakkad beach. We were the only family there, did some kite flying and took some photos. Later, only three of us went back to the beach to catch the beautiful sunset before returning to the hote...

This monsoon the rivers were in full flow and waterfalls were a sight. It was also perfect timing because I got my new SUV, which made these unplanned trips exciting. Initially, I planned to drive down to Guruvayur, but due to the floods, we had to fly.For Shivanasamudra and Jog Falls, though, we drove . The drive was amazing, Hyruder handled everything effortlessly. The car completed 5000 kms in less than 3months 😇.  Shivanasamudra We decided the night before to go on this trip, and to everyone’s surprise, we actually started early the next morning—a rare change from our usual pattern of being late. Our first stop was a small idli hotel near Thurahalli, where the breakfast was simple but delicious. On the way, we made a quick stop at Kalhalli for darshan at both Venkateshwara temple and Gudde Sri Anjaneyaswamy temple. I drove the car up to Kalhalli, and by that time, Appa’s excitement was building. He absolutely loves driving more than anyone I know, and after Kalhalli, he took o...