A journey to the ghats...
A hello, and a happy new year to my (ir)regular readers.
For those who have been looking at this space with nothing anew for a while, the dearth of anything interesting to share on this blog has kept me from posting. I've thought about a ton of things though, but some topics were more personal than this blog could handle, and others just not personal enough.
I've finally hit upon that just-personally-right topic, so here I am.
For those who know what I did in the past holidays, you guessed right...it's a travelog (travel-blog? trablog? tlog?). For those who don't know, I went home to India last December, and went on a tour of the western ghats in Karnataka. This was my first time in the ghats, and I loved it. It was mostly a temple tour, and I present here some pictures from one of our various pitstops.
My Mama, mami, and I set out in the evening on 30th Dec from Bangalore to Kollur. It was an overnight journey through most of the ghat section and the journey itself was quite an experience. We had the last seats in a "not-completely-insulated-from-the-outside" bus, which is typically how most Indian buses (and trains, unless ACed) are. Though the ghats are very close to the equator, it does get chilly. The roads being what they were, it ended up being a 10 hr roller coaster ride. As a result of both, I was awoken many times. I'd take a peek through the curtained windows and find that the sky was pitch black, studded with millions of sparkly stars. I caught sight of the big dipper many a time. It was a sight to behold.
My last napping session ended shortly before dawn, by which time we were so deep into the ghats that one could see only mountains and valleys all around. The sun peeked out from behind some mountains, and we quietly exchanged greetings. The road was unusually rough for me to take any decent pictures and so I didn't try. I just soaked in the crimson red colours of dawn with my eyes till it was too bright for me to do so. You'll find that a lot in the albums. Entire evenings will be missing because I didn't want to be chained to the camera.
Around 6 30 in the morning we reached Kollur, and we set out to look for a decent place to shower before heading out to the Mookambika temple. It was December in India, and it does get cold (though not as cold as here in Oregon) -- but we had a cold water bath (because that's all there was!). It was chilly but awesome still. A hot cuppa chai (and the best ever through the whole trip) later, we set out to pay our obeisance to the Goddess.
It was a small, beautiful temple, built in what I thought was a Kerala style. The temple was unusually crowded for a weekday and I was surprised at that. It turns out that end of December is the time when millions of people flock to an Ayappan temple in Sabarimalai in Kerala. I'll research and write about that another day. Anyway, back to the point...these pilgrims stop at any temple they can find along their way. And Kollur is definitely in the way. As a result, we waited in line for about half an hour before we were able to get into the inner sanctum. There are many legends related to the origins of the temple, and you can read them in the wiki entry here. It was much hurried for me to register much about the inner sanctum, but I remember distinctly a silver plated snake on the rear wall of the temple. Mookambika sets out on a temple tour twice every day, and we were witness to her morning perambulations. The photos speak for themselves here. I don't have more detail to add to it. At a later (leisure) date, I'll perhaps write more about it.
Among other reasons, I was here in Kollur because I was curious about Adi Shankara. I believe in Advaita in its most basic form, and this trip was partly an effort to learn more about the person. So right after the temple, we endeavoured to set out to the Kodachadri hills, where there is (yes you guessed right!) another more ancient temple. There is also a shrine of Adi Shankara on the mountaintop (though we didn't go there).
The journey to the hills is where the reality of the western ghats hit me. A friend had once contrasted the western ghats with the US forests, and surmised that though thick, the forests in the US are somewhat tourist friendly, as there are many markers along the trails. I think he was right for, as we were driving to the hilltop, I was able to see nothing but thick forests *everywhere*. If one were to waver from the well-trodden paths, I'm not sure if they'll ever make it back to the right track. That said, I found it amazing that Adi Shankara had almost 1200 years ago travelled the entire length and breadth of India on foot, not to mention the numerous unsung and unheard-of trekkers.
We went atop the mountain on a nearly-unmotorable path, spent some time communing with nature; and turned back. That's pretty much all we had time for at Kollur; and we headed out late in the afternoon. Where to, you may ask. I'll save it for the next post, with a teaser -- we had had our dose of religion for the day, it was now time for some party. ;)
I've put up pictures from Kollur here. I hope you enjoy it!
For those who have been looking at this space with nothing anew for a while, the dearth of anything interesting to share on this blog has kept me from posting. I've thought about a ton of things though, but some topics were more personal than this blog could handle, and others just not personal enough.
I've finally hit upon that just-personally-right topic, so here I am.
For those who know what I did in the past holidays, you guessed right...it's a travelog (travel-blog? trablog? tlog?). For those who don't know, I went home to India last December, and went on a tour of the western ghats in Karnataka. This was my first time in the ghats, and I loved it. It was mostly a temple tour, and I present here some pictures from one of our various pitstops.
My Mama, mami, and I set out in the evening on 30th Dec from Bangalore to Kollur. It was an overnight journey through most of the ghat section and the journey itself was quite an experience. We had the last seats in a "not-completely-insulated-from-the-outside" bus, which is typically how most Indian buses (and trains, unless ACed) are. Though the ghats are very close to the equator, it does get chilly. The roads being what they were, it ended up being a 10 hr roller coaster ride. As a result of both, I was awoken many times. I'd take a peek through the curtained windows and find that the sky was pitch black, studded with millions of sparkly stars. I caught sight of the big dipper many a time. It was a sight to behold.
My last napping session ended shortly before dawn, by which time we were so deep into the ghats that one could see only mountains and valleys all around. The sun peeked out from behind some mountains, and we quietly exchanged greetings. The road was unusually rough for me to take any decent pictures and so I didn't try. I just soaked in the crimson red colours of dawn with my eyes till it was too bright for me to do so. You'll find that a lot in the albums. Entire evenings will be missing because I didn't want to be chained to the camera.
Around 6 30 in the morning we reached Kollur, and we set out to look for a decent place to shower before heading out to the Mookambika temple. It was December in India, and it does get cold (though not as cold as here in Oregon) -- but we had a cold water bath (because that's all there was!). It was chilly but awesome still. A hot cuppa chai (and the best ever through the whole trip) later, we set out to pay our obeisance to the Goddess.
It was a small, beautiful temple, built in what I thought was a Kerala style. The temple was unusually crowded for a weekday and I was surprised at that. It turns out that end of December is the time when millions of people flock to an Ayappan temple in Sabarimalai in Kerala. I'll research and write about that another day. Anyway, back to the point...these pilgrims stop at any temple they can find along their way. And Kollur is definitely in the way. As a result, we waited in line for about half an hour before we were able to get into the inner sanctum. There are many legends related to the origins of the temple, and you can read them in the wiki entry here. It was much hurried for me to register much about the inner sanctum, but I remember distinctly a silver plated snake on the rear wall of the temple. Mookambika sets out on a temple tour twice every day, and we were witness to her morning perambulations. The photos speak for themselves here. I don't have more detail to add to it. At a later (leisure) date, I'll perhaps write more about it.
Among other reasons, I was here in Kollur because I was curious about Adi Shankara. I believe in Advaita in its most basic form, and this trip was partly an effort to learn more about the person. So right after the temple, we endeavoured to set out to the Kodachadri hills, where there is (yes you guessed right!) another more ancient temple. There is also a shrine of Adi Shankara on the mountaintop (though we didn't go there).
The journey to the hills is where the reality of the western ghats hit me. A friend had once contrasted the western ghats with the US forests, and surmised that though thick, the forests in the US are somewhat tourist friendly, as there are many markers along the trails. I think he was right for, as we were driving to the hilltop, I was able to see nothing but thick forests *everywhere*. If one were to waver from the well-trodden paths, I'm not sure if they'll ever make it back to the right track. That said, I found it amazing that Adi Shankara had almost 1200 years ago travelled the entire length and breadth of India on foot, not to mention the numerous unsung and unheard-of trekkers.
We went atop the mountain on a nearly-unmotorable path, spent some time communing with nature; and turned back. That's pretty much all we had time for at Kollur; and we headed out late in the afternoon. Where to, you may ask. I'll save it for the next post, with a teaser -- we had had our dose of religion for the day, it was now time for some party. ;)
I've put up pictures from Kollur here. I hope you enjoy it!