Amsterdam Visit

I visited Amsterdam during Feb this year and that happened to be the coldest climate they have faced for last 10 years.  The whole of Europe was chilling in cold and at Amsterdam it was -13C.  That was the coldest I have faced.  The whole city was filled with snow and it was the first time I am in such a place.  It was a wonderful experience.  I had earlier visited Sugar Mountain in North Carolina where I had been among snow, but that was nothing compared to what I saw here.  I was with some collegues for a business meeting here and in between we took time to visit some key places in Amsterdam.  The climate was a deterrent to venture out for longer to get a good feel of the city.

Snow filled ground with Van Gogh Museum in the background

We visited the Van Gogh Museum which is an art museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, dedicated to the works of the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh and his contemporaries. It has the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world. The museum had 1,600,300 visitors in 2011. It is the most visited museum in the Netherlands and the 23rd most visited art museum worldwide.

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Amsterdam is famous for many other museums among which the Rijksmuseum is the most famous.  It is the Dutch national museum dedicated to arts, crafts, and history. It has a large collection of paintings from the Dutch Golden Age and a substantial collection of Asian art.

The streets of Amsterdam were a treat to eyes with buildings lined along the neat streets all in Amsterdam's Renaissance Architecture.  The buildings are one of the icons of the city and is very recognizable due to their unique elevation.

Cruise Boat on a Frozen Canal

Amsterdam is famous for the canals which are in the heart of the city. These canals were built in 17th century to help in transportation and defense of the city. 

Canals are built around the center of Amsterdam in a circular shape.  Commercial and residential buildings are situated on the banks of the canal.

During this time, most of the canals were frozen and hence not usable.  We were told that they haven't frozen for last 10 years.  We found locals and tourists playing on the canal bed by skating and playing ice hockey.  It was a good thing to see while terrifying with the thought about what if the ice slab breaks.

Queen's Palace, Dam Square

The Royal Palace at Dam Square is used by Queen Beatrix. The palace was built as a city hall during the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century. The building became the royal palace of King Louis Napoleon and later of the Dutch Royal House. It is situated on the west side of Dam Square in the center of Amsterdam, opposite the War Memorial.

Madame Tussauds Museum, Dam Square

Dam Square also host other important buildings like Madame Tussauds Museum, War Memorial etc.

Amsterdam Central Station

Public transportation in Amsterdam is mainly through buses, trams, Metro and long distance trains. The Amsterdam Central is the main station where you can get into any of them. 

Heineken Museum

We also went to Heineken Museum in Amsterdam, even though we couldn't take a tour.  The tour for the day was closed, so we visited the museum shop and picked up some souvenirs.

Bicycles Parked Near Canal

Cycling as a mode of transportation is very popular in Amsterdam. Due to cold and snow, most were parked on the roadside. We saw more cycles than people on road.

Dutch East India Company Ship

Lepakshi Veerabhadra Swamy Temple, Andhra Pradesh

While returning from Belum Caves (Read about this in my previous post), we stayed in Anantapur at Hotel Sapthagiri Balla.  It is a very good hotel in this town with attached veg (Chutnees) and multi-cuisine (Spice) restaurants.  After a nice rest, we had breakfast at the attached Chutnees restaurant (buffet breakfast was included in the room charge), we started towards Lepakshi.

Lepakshi is a small village located in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.  It is around 120km north of Bangalore.  The Veerabhadra Swamy temple dedicated to Lord Shiva is located here.  The temple is built in Vijayanagar architecture style and has excellent sculptures built by Vijayanagar empire artisans.  The temple also has a repository of mural paintings of Vijayanagar kings and gods.  A reference to this temple is made in the 'Skandapurana' as one of the hundred and eight important Shiva temples. This temple is a visual treat to anyone interested in historic sculptures and architecture showing the skill of the our predecessors.

Trip to Belum Caves, Andhra Pradesh

During this year end, we were looking for nearby places to visit in a day or two.  We were planning to travel with a friend and family and this place was suggested by them.  It is surprising that we never heard of this place before.  Belum Caves is the second largest cave in Indian subcontinent and the longest caves in plains of Indian Subcontinent, known for its stalactite and stalagmite formations. It have long passages, spacious chambers, fresh water galleries and siphons. The caves reach its deepest point 120 feet from ground level. Belum Caves derives its name from "Bilum" Sanskrit word for caves. In Telugu language, it is called Belum Guhalu. It has a length of 3229 meters, making it the second largest natural caves in Indian Subcontinent.  The cave was restored by APTDC and was open to public in 2002 for 1.5 km stretch.  Around 3.5km of the cave have been explored so far. (Information from Wikipedia)

Malaysia Visit - Petronas Twin Tower, KL

Taken from the foot of Twin Tower

I do have a bag full of blog posts pending with me to be written due to the obvious reason - work which pays me.  My hope is to get some time to offload lots of memories had had in the recent past which I couldn't put down in this blog.  Let this be a start of my regular write-ups.  At least I hope so, like the guy who says this is my last cigarette.

Trip to Malnad - Kuvempu Memorial

We had several plans in mind for this year end holidays. Nothing worked out due to various factors. One of them was a trip to Delhi. The ticket costs were prohibitive and we dropped that.  At the end it turned out to be a good decision after reading flight delays and diversion in Delhi due to fog for last few days. At the last moment we had to decide on a getaway and we decided to visit my cousin sister in Mangalore. On the way we planned to stay somewhere in Malnad and see some places there. I searched for homestays and found a reference from one of my colleagues about Bananki Homestay in Tirthahalli.

We started in the morning from Bangalore and took Tumkur road.  We then took NH206 from Tumkur towards Shimoga. Till Tumkur it was toll road which was excellent. NH206 was not as good but a descent road. But it is far far better than the road I was to travel in the later parts of this trip. From Shimoga you have to take NH13 to go to Tirthahalli which was a narrow but good and scenic drive.

We reached Tirthahalli around 3PM and Bananki Homestay was around 8km from the town towards Koppa on NH13. The homestay is run by a couple and their parents. The house is in the middle of a farm comprising of Aracanut and rubber cultivation. Aracanut seems to be a big crop and business in the Malnad area and you can see it everywhere you turn.

Bananki Homestay at Tirthahalli

As soon as we reached there, lunch was served to us. It was typical home made Malnad cuisine and very delicious. I later found out that it was for food many travelers choose this home-stay and they continued service excellent food to us till we left. After taking some rest we inquired about nearest places to see and decided to visit Poet Kuvempu's house which was around 6km from the home-stay. Kuvempu (Kuppali Venkatappagowda Puttappa) is a noted Kannada writer and poet.  Since I haven't visited such memorials before, we decided have try.

Trivandrum Trip Part I - Valiathura

It is long time since I spent time this long in Trivandrum. It is such a wonderful place as it brings in lot of my good memories during childhood. I re-visited many places in Trivandrum during last month to revitalize my memory and take some good photographs. This post is part of a series of articles I would be writing about Trivandrum.

Trivandrum or Thiruvananthapuram (as it is called in Malayalam - തിരുവനന്തപുരം) is located on the west coast of India near the extreme south of the mainland spreading over a total of 2,192sq.km. This capital of the state of Kerala is a beautiful seaside city built on seven hills. Trivandrum is an ancient city with tradition dating back to 1000 BC. The city became the capital of Raja (King) of Travancore in 1750. The city gets its name from the word, Thiru-anantha-puram, meaning the city of Anantha or the abode of the sacred Serpent Anantha on which Lord Vishnu, the preserver of the Hindu trinity, reclines. More on the city can be found on wikipedia link on Trivandrum.

When you are writing about Trivandrum, you have to start with Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple in the heart of the city. The temple is the reason for the city's name. I will write about the temple in a subsequent post. This post is about my trip to Valiathura. Valiathura is a beach side in Trivandrum adjacent to the famous Shangumugham beach.

On a Sunday morning I started out with my Brother on his bike. There was two reasons for the outing. To buy fish and to take some pictures. We went to the Valiathura beach which is around 15 min drive from my place at Karamana. On reaching Valiathura, we went straight to the Valiathura Pier to take some photos. This is a very old harbor no more under active use. The locals use the pier for fishing and the pier itself is in a precarious condition due to not maintaining.

Valiathura Pier

You can see the old harbor office nearby and also a warehouse used to store goods when the harbor was active. We were told that the warehouse is partly used and is in a very bad conditions. A passersby mistook us for press reporters and mentioned that there are anti-social elements using this place as their hideout.

Old Harbor Office Building at Valiathura


Notice Board on the Harbor Building depicting charges to use the Pier


Abandoned Warehouse at Valiathura

We then went to the pier. It was opened in 1956 by the P.S. Rau the then adviser to the King of Travancore (called Rajpramukh after independence). The pier goes deep into the sea and it provides magnificent view of the Indian ocean from within the sea.

Pier in damaged condition

When we walked on the pier we could see the destruction of the structure due to age. Many of the side walls were broken and some side steps were totally destructed with a slabs broken.


You can see old railway tracks on the pier used to transport goods coming through ships. We found many localites doing fishing here. The view from above the pier was excellent and I could take some good pictures.

Boat in the sea taken from the Pier


Fishermen on motor boat


Valiathura Beach as viewed from the Pier

After taking some pictures we got down from the pier and went underneath it. The view from below the pier is excellent with multiple columns of the pier visible in concentric squares.

View from under the Pier

If you go to Shangumugham or Valiathura in the morning, you will be able to see the fishermen catching fishes from the sea. There were a group of fishermen pulling their catch to shore. They go in boats to deep sea and put the large nets in the sea. The net is then pulled to the shore by groups of fishermen. There will be very long rope tied on both sides of the net and two groups of people pull them from the shore.

Group of men pulling the fish net

If you are interested, you can also join the fishermen to pull the net. We both also got into the job and helped them pull the net. You will be able to experience the effort taken to catch the fish. Some times if they are not lucky, after so much effort there will be very less fish in the net. Or sometime only very small fishes will be there.

Fishes inside the net

The net which we pulled to the shore had the same fate. There were only very small fishes in the net and the fishermen were very disappointed to see their effort yielding minimal result.


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Releated News: http://www.hindu.com/2008/07/03/stories/2008070361260300.htm

ISKCON Temple, Bangalore

It is a very modern temple which a futuristic architecture. The ISKCON Temple is situated in North Bangalore near Mahalakshmi Layout and Rajaji Nagar. It is around 7 Kms from Majestic. They seems to have plans to build a new one in Kanakpura Road.

The temple is on a hill top having magnificent view of the surrounding which includes few other temples. Camera is not allowed inside the temple and hence some of those views (especially in the dawn and dusk) are to be seen directly. Before entering the temple you have an option (yes, you can bypass this) of going through a 108 stone passage chanting Krishna praise. Then you go up to the temple where there are some supplementary deities and they are simple and beautiful to see. Passing this level you reach the majestic center hall of the temple. The roof of the temple is decorated with paintings from Krishna's life. The deities are made of gold (I guess plated) and are beautiful to see. The enclosure is also covered with Gold. (Update provided by an anonymous reader: The deities of Sri Sri Radha-Krsna Candra; Sri Sri Krishna Balaram and Sri Nitai Gauranga are made of Panchaloha with brass outer layer.)

You can also see the statue of the founder of ISKCON and get to buy a wide range of literature on Krishna including the famous Bhagavat Gita is many languages.

Night view of ISKCON temple

Once you come down after darshan, the feeling of visiting a temple ends and you enter into a miniature "Mall" with all kind of shops selling artifacts, souvenirs and food. You do get different items to buy here normally not available in a shop outside. They also run a charitable organization towards which many of the sale proceedings go. When you get down from the temple, you are provided with a bowl of "Prasadam", normally very delicious porridge.

The CAR parking fee is Rs.10/- and they do security check before allowing people inside the temple. There is no religious affiliations required to enter the temple and people of all religions are welcomed there.

ISKCON also conducts a charity program called "Akshaya Patra". I came to know about the full scale of operations recently and was impressed at this. They do noon meal program for scores of school children in and around Bangalore. Meal for lakhs of children are prepared in very modern hygienic environment.

Read more on this at MustseeIndia.com

US visit after 2 years

I went for a one week business trip to US (San Jose) during the second week of June. It was almost 2 years ago, I returned from US after a good long stay. And it was my first trip to the west coast.

I flew by Lufthansa. Not the greatest of the experience, but not bad. At least better than Northwest and Air India. I had flown by Lufthansa before when I returned to US after my marriage. The travel time was less with direct flight from Bangalore to Frankfurt and then to San Francisco. There was only 1 hr 40 min gap at Frankfurt.

I reached SFO (San Francisco Airport) on time at 12:15pm. Since I was told that the best way to get to San Jose was by taxi, I hired one. Taxi was pretty costly. There are other modes which are cheaper and more interesting (like the local train). I would have rather rented a car which would have been cheaper and convenient. But I was not sure if I can drive in US after the gap of 2 years. That was proved wrong when I ultimately decided to rent a car during the end of my trip.

I was staying in Staybridge Suite. Not a big brand, but it had pretty good facilities. It was a kind of full service Suite with complementary breakfast, dinner, laundry, Internet with all other amenities one would expect. The complementary dinner is something I have not seen anywhere else. The hotel is walkable from Cisco campus building 24.

It was spring time in US and the evenings were long. The Milpitas Ranch area was near to the hotel and it had all those shops I used to visit when I was in US. I went to Walmart, Ross, Best Buy, Micheals and refreshed my memories. It is true that in this part of the world every city looks same and very little difference I could feel between Charleston and San Jose when it comes to shopping and restaurants. Did some purchases and also had Chalupa (one of my favorites on the road) at Tacobell. I did not get chance to eat outside since the hotel was serving dinner and we had business dinners the other days.

By Friday when the business meetings were over, I rented a car with Hertz. I booked a compact (to be environment friendly) but they gave me a mini van. After a brief familiarization drive within the city, I drove to San Francisco. The car had "Hertz never lost" GPS system. It is the first time I am using one and it turned out to be a very good experience. It had voice prompting and is very precise in giving directions. It made the trip like a cake walk. Indeed you would never get lost with such a facility. I went to the Bay area and visited Pier 39. The Bay bridge was good. City was less crowded compared to what I had expected it to be. It was very cold there, bit different from San Jose. I wondered how the climate could change so much in 60 miles. The climate was dull and not a good day to take photographs.

On Saturday, I drove the car to SFO airport and caught the flight back home. It was good to be back home.

Kotilingeswara Temple, Karnataka

Updated: 29 Dec 2009 after a subsequent visit.

It is stated that there are 87 Lakhs (8.7 million) Shivlings in this temple. They are looking at 13 Lakhs (1.3 million) more to reach one crore (10 million) shivlings at this temple. Devotees can sponsor installation of Lingas.

The Kotilingeswara Temple is situated at Kammasandra near Kolar Gold Fields in Karnataka. You can reach here by taking the Old Madras Road from Bangalore. Follow the OMR till BangaKolar when you have to take diversion just before Kolar towards Bangarapet. After crossing Bangarapet (around 6 kms) the road will split to Kolar Gold Fields (right) and Kotilinga Temple (straight). Follow this road and you will see the temple on the right side after 3-4 kms. There is also Karnataka Tourism direction boards along the way at many places. The distance is around 115Kms from Bangalore. On our second trip on Dec 29th, we saw the roads are getting widened and the traveling distance has reduced by an hour. It took us 3.5 hours to reach the temple with ample breaks in between. You can also reach here by train to Bangarapet station and then by taxi/bus.

This is a unique temple where you see Shivlings everywhere you turn. The main temple complex has two temples, the main Shiva temple houses the first Shivlinga installed here and the other has Shiva, Vishnu and Bhrama deities. You can see many shivlings all over the temple complex.

There is an outer complex which is bigger and houses the remaining shivlings. There is a huge 108ft high Shivling (suppose to be the biggest in the world) and a 40ft high Nandi within this complex (picture above). There is also a temple housing Ganesha and Hanuman.

Free meals are provided to the pilgrims everyday in the noon. More details can be found at http://kotilinga.org/index.htm




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Hogenakkal Falls Trip

We had a three day holiday due to Ugadi and decided to go out some where. Since Hogenakkal was in news for all the wrong reasons these days, we decided to go there. We started out in the morning in our car around 8:45am and reached Hosur by 9:15 am. Hoganekkal is around 150km from Bangalore.

There are three ways you can go to Hogenakkal from Hosur. First Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri-Pennagaram and second via Roayakkottai-Palakkod-Pennagaram and third via Denkanikottai. The third route is suppose to be very scenic and the shortest, but the roads are very bad. We were advised not to take that route on our Maruti 800.

Kothagiri Visit

We went to Kothagiri over the weekend to attend my friend Vanith's marriage. Took my M800 and drove from Bangalore. Sathyamoorthy was also there who shared the driving. We took the Mysore-Ooty-Kothagiri route while going. This is one of the most beautiful long drives I have done. The route went through Bandipur forest and continued with ride to the top of Ooty hills. There was 34 hairpin bends which were really sharp. My car some how climbed up the top. I was wondering how much powerful is a Mariti 800.

Since our agenda was purely marriage, we didn't spend much time in sight seeing. Plan was to return to Bangalore the next day. We reached Kothagiri in the night. Vanith had arranged lodging for us. Next day morning we went to his marriage. It was in a temple on top of the hill. After the marriage and lunch, we started back.

While returning we came through Mettupalayam- Sathyamangalam-Chamarajnagar-Kollegal route. The descent to Mettupalayam was good. Since it is a bus route, the roads were wide and the curves where not as sharp compared to the one on on the Bandipur side. This route was one of the most remote routes with no human habitation for most of the route. It doesn't seems to be safe to drive through this route in the night. On the way, at Bellari, just before we enter into thick forest, there is a temple which was worshipped by Veerappan. It is said that the travelers used to pray to the God here so that they could be safe during the passage through the forest.

The road through the forest was very good and wide. We managed to cross the forest before dark. Beyond that, the roads were not very good. It passes through many villages before we reached Bangalore. Really nice and some what adventurous trip.

Elephenta Cave, Mumbai

Writing after a long time. In between lot of things happened while I am in India. Some what settled down and accustomed to Indian way of living with traffic and rush and so on. Currently in Mumbai on a project in CMC. First time in Mumbai. It is a big city and good too. Better maintained than Chennai.

During a weekend between my work at Jawaharlal Nehru Port, we went to Elephanta Island. You can reach here by going to Gateway of India and catching a boat to the island. It costs Rs.100 for a return trip. There are boats plying every hour between the two points. Once you get to the island, you need to walk up the hill to reach the Cave. There are lot of small shops selling collectibles on either side of the steps.


Once you get up to the top, you see a huge temple carved out of the rock. There is a huge Thrimurthi carving on the wall of the main hall. There are small temples inside. The Shiva temple being huge. Doesn't look like any pooja is being held there. We saw some flower petals lying near the huge shivling.


This temple should have been famous during old days. Now it is under Archeological Survey of India. There is a small museum related to the history of the cave. We also found lot of monkeys here.


I shot this on the way back to Gateway of India. You can also see the majestic Taj Palace Hotel. It is also the first time, I have seen the gateway of India. During the night the monument looks fantastic.


Bombay is beautiful. I could understand now why many of my Mumbai friends boast of the city like anything.