October 2013 – Santiago the Shepherd

Another Saturday, another short trip… this time to Nandi Hills.

The idea popped up during lunch and in half an hour we were on our way.

Nandi Hills is a popular hill station near Bangalore, which used to be a summer retreat of Tipu Sultan and the British.

There are plenty of useful information on this place in web

There are clear sign boards once you hit NH-7 and navigating to this place is not at all problem.

Take care not to miss the left diversion at “Rani Cross(Nandi Cross)” while cruising through the High Way, this place is around 10km from the International airport diversion.

From Rani cross, Nandi Hills is 22 km away and the road was in very good condition.

There was hardly any traffic and the route was pretty scenic.

We reached there by 6 and wasting no time we moved towards Nehru Nilaya.

The horticultural department has maintained a very good garden around the historic bungalow.

Sun was about to set by the time we reached the temple premises and we were treated with an extravaganza of colors.

Behind the temple, we can have the best panoramic view of the valley, especially the airport and NH with thousands of electric lights.

Here, we felt like the sky is upside down.

As always, I felt, I should have started early and we could have spent some more time exploring the place.

Okey, let’s go to Nandi Hills again when an opportunity comes, it’s worth it.

Bangalore

In and Around Bangalore: Sri Champaka Dhama Swami Temple

October 12, 2013February 14, 2015 Sreejith Nair

Bannerghatta National Park is a must see place in the check list of most of people who visits Bangalore or a weekend destination for those who resides here.

Living in Bangalore for the last ten years, I have visited this park a number of times, the Big Cat safari, Zoo and the Butterfly park all being some attractions.

But, there was something I missed for all these years, the Champakadhama swami temple at bannerghatta town.

Every time, while taking a left turn at the junction to the park I used to see the temple tower on a small hillock on right side.

Thinking of exploring the temple on my way back, I used to proceed straight to the park, but never stopped while coming back.

Last week, we planned to visit the park again with my brother and family, but started off pretty late than planned.

By the time we reached Bannerghatta it was cloudy and light started fading, instead of the left turn I took the right one towards the temple.

We were greeted with the sight of a magnificent Temple Tower, it’s surpassed our expectations.

and there was plenty of action around for our cameras to capture.
Devotees, Priests, Monkeys… lot of subjects…

Taking a walk around the temple compound wall I met a few kids, they were planting “Sampige Tree Saplings” .

There was one person, Mr. V Anand who was leading the activity. We had a lite chat and I came to know that, the name of the temple came from the Sampige flowers offered to the main deity, one of many forms of lord Vishnu.

They were planning to plant 101 saplings around the temple.

The architecture of the inner sanctum is somewhat different from other temples of same era.

I found some valuable information from web following http://ramubangalore.blogspot.in/2013/02/suvarnamukhi-and-call-of-wild.html

After exploring the temple and trying to capture some monkey business, we moved to the Laxmi Narasimha temple behind on a hillock.

This temple was renovated recently and the best part was the panoramic view we get from the temple premise.

It was cloudy in patches and drizzling, sun was setting behind the Ramnagara hills and on one side we could see the high rises of Bangalore.

We spent some great time there just savoring the ambiance and felt pretty relaxed.

How To Reach: There are frequent buses plying to Bannerghatta town from Kempe Gowda bus terminal, Majestic, Bangalore. You can catch Bus Number 365 or 365J from Platform No.17.

Please find the driving directions from city center to Bannerghatta below, the temple gate could easily be found on the right side, once you reach the town.