There are different kinds of holiday travellers. Ones who prefer a very leisurely holiday and the other is like me - who likes to visit the maximum number of places during the travel. Even during weekends my wife gets so irritated with my early rising ( normally earlier than the weekdays ). My logic has always been its during the weekends that I get to do things of my choice. Why reduce the available time sleeping.
For such a person, a visit to Coorg with my parents was a test. It was a verrrrryyyy leisurely holiday with hardly anything to do except eat, sleep and loiter around the resort. We did go out but not the kind of trip I am used to. The trip to Coorg from Bangalore was a nightmare. It was a long holiday of 3 days ( I had taken 2 more days off and so it was a 5 day holiday ) and it was as though everybody had packed their bags and headed out somewhere. Mysore road was clogged with cars trying to get out of the city. It took us a good 8 hours to reach Coorg.
This long journey to Coorg made us look for alternative routes for the travel back to Bangalore and I sensed an opportunity. Our original plan for this holiday was to go to Chikmagalur but the resort of my choice was already booked. So we shifted our plan to Coorg. However I had a full length plan for Chikmagalur and used this opportunity to cover a portion of that plan.
People familiar with Karnataka route know that the Belur to Bangalore route is a dream. So what we did is to leave early after check out from Coorg and took a detour to Belur, have lunch at Hassan which is just 30 kms from Belur and proceed to Bangalore. It increased our travelling distance by about 75 kms but the route was far better and I get a chance to explore the place further.
The route from our resort to Belur was a combination of well laid out highways and also little known routes through forest areas. The place was reasonably green but not the kind of lush surroundings that I have known Karnataka for during the rainy seasons. Dont wish to give a political flavor. We passed through the banks of cauvery several times during the trip. The levels of water are much lower compared to what I have seen earlier. And during the 4 days in Coorg, it would have rained may be for about an hour or two in total which is next to nothing. This year, Karnataka genuinely seems to be struggling with their water levels and in my personal view though I am from TN is that their concerns are justified. However the SC knows it better. This is just a layman's perpective. Back to my trip - the last 25 kms stretch was through absolute broken roads sandwiched on both sides by extremely thick plantations and the sun was playing hide and seek which made the place look magical.
The destination which we were looking for was the famous Channa Keshava temple in Belur. The temple is an absolute architectural marvel in Hoysala Architecture built by King Vishnuvardhana. As your approach the place, you come across the huge Raja Gopuram and once you enter the temple you are greeted to the expanse of the temple with the main Channa Keshava temple right in the middle shining bright like the Sun in the solar system.
The carvings in the temple say a thousand stories and its a virtual ready reckoner of most of the mythological stories which you have read during the childhood. It may make sense to have a guide with you to understand the nuances of the carvings better but we were short on time and hence decided to do the exploration ourselves. Few photos from the visit.
From Belur we proceeded to Doddagadavalli Lakshmi Devi temple enroute to Hassan. More about that in my next blog.
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