Last year my hosts in Bangalore took me on a great trip south to Talakadu (or Talakad). Talakadu is a small town about 87 miles (140 kilometers) south of Bangalore and about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of Mysore. From Bangalore, you take the Kanakapura road south, go well beyond Kanakapura and well into the countryside. It is a pleasant drive.

Talakadu is famous for its temples, and for the temples being buried in the sand. In a conflict in the early 17th century, a curse was put on Talakadu that led to it being covered in sand. Wikipedia covers it well as does this story from the Deccan Herald.

Several of the temples have been excavated from the sand. These are actively used for worship and are being maintained and restored. This is the Sri Vaidhyanatheshwara Temple.

A wide view of Sri Vaidhyanatheshwara Temple

Here is another view. The lighter colored carving is new work replacing stone that had worn away in the intervening years. I have been unable to find the date when these temples were originally built.

The lighter stone is new construction replacing worn away stone

The interior at the back is beautifully carved and decorated.

The interior is quite pretty

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In March of this year, I had the opportunity to visit Matheran, a ecologically preserved plateau a couple of hours drive from Mumbai. It was a wonderful trip. This post will mostly consist of a small subset of pictures I took on the trip. I cannot thank my TCS colleagues enough for arranging the visit. I do not include any individual pictures except myself to preserve our team’s privacy.

The trip was to Matheran, an ecological preserve and resort area about 55 miles (90 kilometers) from Mumbai. It was a several hour drive in a nice bus. Here is an aerial view of the plateau of 2500 feet (500 meters) altitude that makes up Matheran. I was lucky to get this from a flight from Bangalore to Mumbai during the same trip.

Aerial view from a Jet Airways flight of Matheran

Look below the fold for many more pictures and detail.
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On my most recent trip to India, the team organized a visit to Kanheri Caves, located in Sanjay Gandhi National Park in the northern part of Mumbai. The caves are a large complex of rock cut shrines and living spaces that were made from the first through the eleventh century AD.

Kanheri Caves were created for Buddhist worship. There are 110 caves ranging from small, plain living spaces to large temples. The larger caves are chaityas, the place of worship of the Buddhist community. The small ones are viharas or monasteries, they consist of single and multiple celled where the Buddhist monks resided. Individual cells are 10 foot square living spaces with a bench cut into one side for sleeping.

It was quite hot, so I recommend starting your visit early in the day. I was also told that it was very nice to visit during the Monsoon.

Here are some photographs I took during the visit. This first set is of a Chaitya.

Chaitya Interior

Chaitya Columns

Column Top Carving

Chaitya Exterior Carvings

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In May, I posted about my visit to the temple in Lepakshi, in southern Andhra Pradesh. The following week, after a brief delay due to a hurricane (or cyclone if you prefer) we made our way to Bhubaneswar. Since we had lost the planned weekend visit due to the cyclone, we had blocked out the late morning through afternoon for some sightseeing.

We left from the airport, heading south on the road to Puri. There was a fair amount of construction on the road as they work to support the Ratha Yatra festival which brings many people to the area.

After passing through Puri, we headed north on the Puri-Konark Marine Drive. This is a very pleasant road that runs through forest and then along the Bay of Bengal before turning north to Konark. Crossing the Dhunua river, I got a nice picture of a man fishing with a net.

Fisherman on Dhana River, taken from Puri-Konark Marine Drive

We stopped at the beach, but the real goal was the Konark Sun Temple. This is a 13th century temple built like a chariot and covered in remarkable carvings. It has suffered damage over the years due to its large size and the unstable ground (this area has a very high water table). This is an official Indian Heritage site and has been very well restored. Restoration work is still in process.

Following here and below the fold are pictures of the temple. The entrance to the temple has a simha-gaja sitting on an elephant.

Statue near the entrance to the Konark temple

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On a trip to India last fall, I had the opportunity to visit the Veerabhadra Temple in Lepakshi, a small village in southern Andra Pradesh. It is about a two hour drive north of Bangalore.

The temple is in good condition, with much of the stone artwork in good shape and some ceiling frescoes with good color and detail. One note: If you are to visit, I recommend an early morning arrival. You must go without shoes and I imagine it would get very hot on the feet in the afternoon.

It is hard to get an overall picture, but here is a view of some nice carvings behind the main temple area

Outside the Temple

Detail of these carvings:

Lepakshi Temple Detail

More below the link….

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Back in March, I spent two weeks in India (that was the main reason I missed my monthly post last month). When I was in Bangalore, my host took me to the Heritage Winery. The Winery is located about half way from Bangalore to Mysore along the Bangalore-Mysore Road.

We had a pleasant drive down to the Winery, without bad traffic it being a Saturday morning. The turn off to the winery is well marked, but it is a dirt road. The facility is clean and well maintained. This is the main entry sign.

Before the tour, you can watch an informative video on the company, wine making in general, and Heritage’s products. Their primary product is fortified wine. They purchase most of their grapes, ferment the grapes in stainless steel containers, and then blend the wine with grain alcohol and sugar to get to the desired taste and 16% alcohol content. The also make a “fizzy wine” which is a carbonated wine. They are just beginning to produce varietals. I tasted a cabernet, a shiraz, and a chenin blanc while I was there. All three were decent.

Here is the video presentation area with a big picture of the founder.

Introductory video explaining wine making and Heritage’s products

The tour takes about 20 minutes. You get to see the production facilities (they were doing a bottling run while I was there). No pictures were allowed inside of the facility. Here is a picture of our tour guide and the general manager.

Our tour guide and the manager of the facility

After the tour, we visited the vineyard at the back of the facility. While they do purchase the grapes for their wines, it wouldn’t be much of a winery tour if you didn’t get to see grapes.

The vineyard at the Heritage Winery facility

The grapes were nearly ripe and quite tasty.

Grapes in the Heritage Winery vineyard

The vineyard had a couple of dogs wandering around in it. One of the employees was also walking around banging a pan to keep away the birds.

The vineyard is guarded by some not-so-fierce dogs

After the tour and our walk about in the vineyard, we had a very nice lunch. They a planning on expanding the facility and to offer more food and entertainment. The new facility is under construction and looks like it will be very nice.

New facility under construction

On our way back to the highway, we saw a group of goats and there was a very cute little goat. Who doesn’t like a cute little goat?

Who doesn’t like a cute little baby goat?

As my earlier posts from this summer indicated, I have been doing a fair amount of travelling for work. My most recent trip was to see our service provider Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Mumbai. Wednesday of the first week I was there was a national holiday for Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. Being the fine group they are, the team organized a trek (we Americans would call it a hike) to Lohagad Fort.

For purposes of personal privacy, I won’t name any individuals or post any personal photographs. But the team that came along were great sports, we had a fine trek leader, and it was extremely well organized. I cannot thank the team there enough.

Lohagad Fort is about 117 kilometers or roughly 70 miles from where I was staying in Mumbai. The drive was about three hours. It is located just off the Mumbai to Pune Expressway. Lohagad, meaning “iron fort,” and Visapur are a set of two forts build on large rock formations and separated by a saddle pass between the two. Lohagad is the easier hike, although it was plenty of work for me.

We parked a mile or so past the Malavali railway station on south side of the expressway. The trail is mostly a dirt road, not in good condition for driving, but fine for trekking. Once one gets a ways up the road, you get a good view of the destination.

Lohagad Fort seen from the trail

Trekking shortly after the monsoon and in a season with some rain makes for a very pretty hike. There are many little waterfalls and everything is very green.

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In late February and early March, I traveled to India for work. I visited our service provider Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Mumbai and Sony ORMC in Bangalore. I was fortunate to be hosted on two day trips over the weekends I was there.

The first weekend, I was in Mumbai. At my colleague Kunal Mittal’s suggestion, we visited Nashik, northeast of Mumbai and an emerging wine producing region in India. Kunal and his wife are producing some wonderful wine up in Paso Robles under the LXV Wine label, and this drove his interest in visiting this area.

We had a pleasant drive out. Our first destination was the Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple in Trimbak, west of Nashik. We used Google Maps to navigate from the main Mumbai — Nashik highway. It was amazingly accurate as it took us down through small villages along single-lane dirt roads. My hosts from TCS were often concerned about being lost, even stopping for directions, but it took us very accurately across the countryside. This time of year the land is dry. One often sees herds of goats, farming, and other agricultural activity.

A goat herd being tended on the road to Trembakeshwar

As anywhere in India, people play cricket everywhere.

A cricket game being played outside of Nashik

We had a very nice visit at the beautiful temple of Tremakeswar. I do not have any pictures as cameras are not allowed.

From there we proceeded to the Sula Winery which is just west of Nashik. Sula was founded in the 1990s by a former Oracle executive. It has produced some award winning wine. The quality of Indian wine is increasing rapidly and it is becoming a popular drink in the country. Sula has a very nice tour, showing the tanks for fermenting, crushing units, some actual crushing since it is harvest time, and wine tasting, of course.

Visitors can stomp grapes if they’d like (no, these grapes are not used for wine). You can see the vineyards in the background.

Grape stomping at Sula Vineyards

I was able to see some grapes just before they were crushed.

I hold some grapes just before they are put into the crushing machinery

After a fine lunch at the winery, we drove south to Pandav Caves. These are a series of 30 caves carved in the rock of the hillside on the southwest corner of Nashik over the last thousand years. It is a steep climb up to the caves, but they are quite impressive.

The work in the rock is quite extensive.

Large entry to temple in Pandav Caves in Nashik

There are many beautiful, detailed carvings.

Carvings in Pandav Caves near Nashik

There is a very nice view of Nashik from the hill where the caves are located.

View of Nashik from Pandav Caves

This concluded our visit to Nashik. We headed back to Mumbai. I cannot thank my hosts at TCS enough for their hospitality.

The next weekend, I was in Bangalore. My colleague and good friend Pankaj found an interesting destination for a Saturday day trip. Since business trips inevitably involve airports, hotels, offices, and restaurants, I always want to get away from the city and really see the country. The Galibore Fishing and Nature Camp was the perfect destination. Located about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Bangalore, it is a Karnataka state-run wilderness camp. While there is not fishing due to a regulatory dispute at this time, it is a wonderful drive there and a good destination for either a day trip or an overnight stay.

Again, we used Google Maps to navigate and they were very accurate. Perhaps too accurate. We found ourselves on a one-lane road with not turnarounds or room for two cars to pass if we met one head one for a mile at a time. As it turns out, we were directed through a nature preserve and would have been cited and fined if a ranger found us on the road. When we arrived a the camp, our wrong-way arrival was clear as the sign for the camp was facing the other direction down the road. If you do go, take Route 92 south from Kanakapura. It’s a dirt road for the last several miles, but well kept up and well marked. Google has been notified about this problem and will hopefully fix it soon.

The camp has 15 tents for overnight stays. The tents are under hard roofs, so rain is not a concern, and each has facilities. There is a common eating area for meals. There are places for children to play, guides to take you on a hike (or a “trek” as is common usage in India), and boating.

The tents look reasonably comfortable.

Tents at Galibore Nature camp with the common area in the foreground.

There are many monkeys in the area.

A monkey looks down from a tree at Galibore Nature camp.

They play a game at meal time with the staff. They sneak up as close as they can get into the cafeteria area and are then chased away by a staff member. This process repeats several times during a meal. Here is a monkey getting a bit close, soon to be chased off.

A monkey sneaking into the eating area — he was chased off moments later.

The camp is directly on and overlooks the Kaveri River and is very picturesque and restful. We took a trek up river for about a mile. We saw many cormorants fishing, some other birds, and some elephant dung. That’s the closest I’ve been to an elephant in the wild. We visited at low water. In late summer, the water levels are much higher and there is good rafting and running of rapids according to our guide.

The Kaveri river just south of Galibore Nature Camp.

After our hike and a good meal. We watched the river for a while. Then we had a 30 minute ride down river in a coracle. We started earlier in the day than recommended, but we were only on a day trip. Ideally we would have left around 3:30 pm and spent an hour or so floating gently downstream.

Here I am about to set sail aboard the coracle on the Kaveri river.

The view from the coracle was very pleasant. It would be perhaps a bit more exciting at high water, but it was very pleasant during our visit. As it was, we had a very nice trip down river, seeing more wildlife, including many birds and some deer. A pleasant end to our visit to the wilderness of Karnataka.

The Kaveri River seen from a coracle

I cannot thank Pankaj and his family enough for their hospitality and kindness. I was a successful trip from a business standpoint, but the trips outside of the city helped me to appreciate the people, sites, and beauty of India and made this a truly memorable visit.

And the Sun sets over the Bangalore skyline as my visit comes to a close, seen from my room at the Leela Palace Hotel.

Sunset over Bangalore seen from my hotel room at the Leela Palace.

In the middle of March, I had a very nice trip to India. I was welcomed both by our business partners and the people of India. Here are some pictures from the trip. Please click on the images to get a larger sized image. The detail is excellent.

First a shot of a major laundry area in Mumbai. Here is where people get their clothes cleaned, and it is done well and delivered to their homes.

We were able to visit the Taj Mahal, and here are a series of images from that trip. Our visit coincided with the Holi Holiday in India. Wild colors are painted on everything in a great festival of joy. This shot shows PC, our guide, and the colors on the ground next to a bonfire site made of cow pies.

Here is the Taj Mahal seen from the entrance garden.

Now a detailed shot of the amazing inlays in the building.

A wide shot looking to the east as the Sun sets.

Finally, two shots taken the next morning, looking from the Red Fort in Agra.

India truly is a dynamic country. Many contrasts and tremendous energy.

I just returned from a trip to Singapore and India. Overall it was a very productive trip and I got to see some cool things.

One was the Singapore zoo, which has a part of the zoo open at night with what they call the Night Safari. It is a great way to see the animals as they are awake and active at night. But that’s not the topic of this post.

Flying between Bangalore and Pune, we flew on Kingfisher Airlines. It is owned by the same company that makes Kingsfisher beer — kind of like flying on Budweiser Airlines. Domestic airline service in India is very good. Most flights are between one to two hours and there is full hot meal service in coach. Easy to get spoiled. The airlines compete on service. On the flight from Hyderabad to Bangalore on Jet Airways, the flight attendant took my jacket when I was sitting in coach. Very nice.

Kingfisher offers good service and good in-flight amenities. One of those amenities is a video screen in each seat. They have a variety of channels with entertainment and an in-flight map. But what was very cool was channel 2. It had a live feed from a camera on the front of the plane. You could watch as the plane taxied and took off. After take-off, the camera was pointed down and you could see the countryside move by. That is the coolest in-flight video I’ve ever seen.