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An impromptu monsoon getaway

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A Sunday in the month of September. A friend had invited to their home for their daughter's function. While we were there, our elder daughter expressed her wish to go for a long drive or an outing. We were all dressed up in traditional attire. We decided to reach home, figure out where we could take the kids & change accordingly. We started exploring options on our way back already. We had our direction figured out. We changed our clothes, packed another set and started towards Kundamala waterfalls.  It was a 40-min drive on the old Mumbai Pune Highway. The weather was good and on the highway we were met with a very heavy down pour. We got a parking spot right near the waterfall. Owing to the bridge collapse over Indrayni River last year, tourists are restricted in the area over the weekends. There was almost no rush. The water was very clear. We had a good time enjoying ourselves in the water. The views around were beautiful with white clouds, greenery ...
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Isha Foundation - Chikkaballapur

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While in Bengaluru, we decided to visit Isha Foundation at Chikkaballapur. It is founded by Sadhguru. We started from home by around 5 pm. It was 60kms away, roughly an hour and a half's drive. Once we were out of the city traffic, we took the highway towards Hyderabad. It was scenic view all through the way. We munched on the way and played a few games of Sudoku. We reached our destination by around 6:45pm. Isha Foundation houses a 112 foot Adiyogi(Shiva) statue.  There's a huge mahashula temple and naga temple as well at the entrance. Footwears need to be removed at the collection centre near the entrance which are then transferred to the other centre inside for easy collection. There's no entry fee to the foundation or for the light & sound show. We wanted to have tea. There were 2 restaurants inside. Only one of them was providing boiled tea. We finished our share of tea before settling down for the light and sound show.   There...
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Summer vacations 2026 - Bengaluru trip

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This year the summer vacations were a bit different than what they've been looking like for the past few years. Over a decade and a half back, I had been to Bengaluru (then Bangalore) for a day. The overall experience was pretty bad which told my mind I would never want to visit the city again. After having kept my promise for so long, the love and excitement bought me back to the city for a week during the vacations. I booked tickets for myself and my kids. The tickets were booked for Volvo bus which was going to be a first experience for my kids. Even for me a sleeper coach volvo was a new experience. The bus started 45 mins late from the origin and reached the destination late by over 2 hours. My kids were already bored as the bus was late for the pickup. However when we boarded the bus and the kids saw the coach, they were over whelmed. The journey started. We enjoyed the nature's beauty and a few games.  The bus halted for dinner around 11pm , a morning break...
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Year end annual trip 2025

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The annual road trip for the year ending 2025, was a 17-day itinerary covering 5 states , driving through various cities having a mix of temples, beaches, historical places, shopping, eating , nature walks and much more. The total trip from Pune to pune was ~4400kms(4388 calculated precisely).  Individual day blogs have been published already. This one is the merged version of all the days along with some more information. I've also included hyperlinks for each day as this blog in it's entirety could be very lengthy to read.  Day 1 Pune - Srisailam   We had packed and loaded most of our bags on the previous day itself. We targetted to start by 2 am. By God's grace and cooperation from the kids we could start by 1:34am.  We had to cover ~ 800kms and hence this midnight travel was much needed to skip the traffic.  The roads were very smooth making the drive pleasurable and convenient. We covered around 450kms before taking a stop for breakfast at arou...
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Kolhapur - Pune

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Day 17 Kolhapur - Pune Today is the final day of this road trip. The journey would start from Kolhapur and complete at our home in Pune with a de-tour towards Tapola road as we are already into the strawberry season and kids want to pick strawberries and have the famous strawberry cream. We had our breakfast at the hotel itself. He served one dish per person. All the dishes were freshly prepared and good in taste. We checked out from GaneshRatna Executive and started towards Tapola road at 8:50am. We had been to Tapola last year and had picked strawberries at various farms. The best one from that trip was the target for today. The map showed 190kms.  We reached Rahul strawberry garden on Tapola road at 1pm.  The same farm from last year. He had sweet charlie as well which was over last year when we visited. That's actually a very sweet and tender species.  We picked the strawberries directly from the ...
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Mysore - Kolhapur

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Day 16 Mysore - Kolhapur  The mahalaxmi maa in Kolhapur is the wife of sri Venkateshwara swamy in Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh. It is said, a visit to Venkateswara Swamy is only considered complete when you pay a visit to their wife Mahalaxmi maa in Kolhapur.  We checked out from The Paradise hotel in Mysore at 5:20am and started towards Kolhapur. The intent was to reach out accommodation in Kolhapur and seek blessings at the temple early next day. At 5:20am , Google estimated a travel of 695km to be covered in around 12 hours time. Three journey was smooth, with some bumpy rides near kolhapur. We took breaks in between for breakfast, lunch, re-fuelling and finally reached our hotel in Kolhapur by 5:30pm. While checking in, we enquired about the rush in the temple and the best time to have a quick darshan. The receptionist recommended going right away to avoid longer queues. We went to our rooms, showered and got ready to leave for the darshan by 6:15pm The te...
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Mysore outing

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Day 15 Mysore Outing Let's explore Mysore city again after 17 years. The first destination on the list was Chamundeshwari temple located on the Chamundi Hills. Google says darshan opens at 7:30am. When we reached the multi level parking at 7:35am, the parking was full and there were long queues already. We took a special darshan ticket for ₹50 and entered the queue at 8:15am. It took us 3 hours to reach the main sanctum sanctorum. We did have a nice darshan , however the guards there don't allow the devotees to stop there for even a moment. After the darshan, we had sugarcane juice from the stalls outside the temple, put on our shoes and walked back to the parking. We were able to exit the parking by 12 noon.  We then planned to have a tour of the Mysore Palace. We reached the palace's parking and got in the queue to purchase the entry tickets. You will need to remove your footwear before entering the actual palace premises.  The architecture, painti...
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