Bengaluru for Mo-bike Enthusiasts!

Go motor biking and Explore Bengaluru. Its very interesting to find that number of hits to my blog increases as weekend approaches with the increase in the number of motor bike enthusiasts who google for road routes to places around Bengaluru like Nandi Hills, Devarayanadurga, Mekedaatu and so on! This shows the increase in number of people getting enthusiastic about going motor biking everywhere in the city.

But a very few people consider going to the places with in the city. Few of them which I'd been to just before coming back from Bangalore are - Tipu's summer palace located in the City Market area, Vishweswarayya museum located near Cubbon Park and Lalbagh . Tipu's "Abode of Peace" located in the hustle-bustle of KR Market area is definitely a place to watch with the wooden carvings in the durbar area reflecting Islamic style. Everybody must have heard about the Vishweswarayya museum and Lalbagh Gardens but people don't tend to go there. I suggest you these places are worth visiting!

Very few people have a clue about the four watch towers of Bangalore. These four gates were built by Kempegowda of Magadi dynasty marking the ends of the town of Bangalore up to which it was predicted to expand. The South tower is located on top of a hillock inside Lalbagh. The North tower is located inside KG Tower Park near Mekhri circle. The West tower is located in Chamrajpet near Kempebudhi lake. There is a Kali temple near that lake and this West tower is located on a rock behind the Kali temple. The last and the East Tower is located on one end of Ulsoor near the Gurudwara. Exploring all these towers on motor bikes will definitely be loadsa fun!

And for more info about exploring places by having rides on motor bikes, there is lotsa info provided by Prashant in Payaniga.com. Go mo-biking, have fun!

Devarayanadurga On Bikes

Thanks to Payaniga for the wonderful photoshots of Devarayanadurga which made us enthusiastic to conquer that hill fort also, after the successful Nandi Hills trip. With the help of Google and fellow bloggers, we were able to find some info about how to reach that place.

As wiki says -

Devarayanadurga is a hill station near Tumkur in the state of Karnataka in India. The rocky hills are surrounded by forest and the hilltops are dotted with several temples including the Yoganarasimha and the Bhoganarasimha temples and an altitude of 3940 feet.

9th Feb 2008, Saturday:
Started at 4.30 in the morning and made our customary visit to nearest ATM (pockets total empty without any money even for petrol) and petrol bunk. This time the enthusiasts number increased to 7 - myself, laddu, hafeez, satish, compsri, raffi and the last moment entry naresh. And we were on 4 bikes - Pulsar 180, Unicorn 150, Gladiator 125 and Passion Plus 100, a great mix I must say.

We started sharp at 5AM for NH4 via Yeshwantpur - Peenya - Dasarahalli. We couldnt enjoy the ride on first few kms of NH4, the roads were narrow and dusty with lotsa trucks and buses. The roads got better but our luck went bad as the rain god decided to play a small game with us then. With the increasing downpour we decided to take a break in a petrol bunk when our trip meter started showing 40 kms. We didnt realize that the rain god was snickering at us when we ended our break after the rain stopped. The rain started again - may be a test of determination by the rain god and we succeeded. We dint take any break this time and went straight (rain ended after a short time) till the Toll Booth on the Tumkur road (NH4) and reconfirmed the route to our destination. The revised and nearest target was to reach Dobbaspet Bridge. On the way to Dobbaspet we had few photographs. And then people showed their talents on bikes by reaching 90-110 kmph as per their bikes' capacity. After a tea break at Dobbaspet, we enquired to find 2 different routes to Devarayanadurga.

• Route 1 - Take a right turn from under Dobbaspet Bridge.
• Route 2 - Go straight from the Bridge for few kms and take a right turn near Siddaganga Mutt.

We went ahead to take Route 2 - better roads - as per the suggestions of Dobbaspet lokis. But I still am not sure whether we took the actual Route 2 suggested by them or not. We took a right turn from NH4 (dont remember any landmarks on NH4), it was a very small road but a neat one. And on that way to Devarayanadurga, we explored a rocky hill with Jain stupa on top of it. After taking the diversion from NH4, we drove for around 15 kms via Urdegere. Roads were pretty cool, but be careful else you'll end up in sudden surprises (mud pits). It was a 5 kms drive from the foot of the hill to reach the hill top - roads well maintained not too many hair pin bends - where vehicles can be parked. Trip meter: 90 kms.

We had to take steps from the point where we parked our bikes to reach the flat surface on the top of the hill. On the way to hill top, we found one board "View point", a carving of ram-hanuman-Garuda, lakshmi narasimha temple with a pond just opposite to it, a few rock arches, breathtaking views and lotsa monkeys. Through out the way to hill top our cam was making continuous sounds of clicks and whirrs capturing the locations as well as our creative poses. The view from the hill top was awesome - those greeny fields and small water bodies, rocky hills all around, the clouds and the humble appearances of the sun once in a while. Soon did we realize that we weren't still at the peak of the hill. On the peak of the hill there was one stony mantap like structure and a lamp post on a huge rock; and there weren't any steps to reach that place. We crawled, hopped, jumped and finally reached the peak. The feeling was ineffable; the view fantastic. Few more whirrs from the cam and we headed back. On the way down, we thought of visiting the temple but it was closed then (we waited till 10.30AM near the temple, though its supposed to open at 10AM everyday).

At around 11AM we started back on our bikes. Driving downhill was pretty thrilling, but dangerous too. Return drive was pathetic. We travelled more than half the distance without any issues. Later, we saw a crushed motor bike not sure what happened to the driver. After few kms there was a huuuugggee traffic jam and after reaching Yeshwantpur I missed the route and drove extra 10 kms amidst heavy traffic. It was 2.00PM by the time I landed up in CMH road for some food. All in all the bike ride was a success again, and the trip meter showed 170kms.

Bike ride to Nandi Hills

Last weekend I went to Nandi Hills along with 3 of my friends (Laddu-Satish-Raffi). Nandi Hills which is 60 kms away from Bangalore is famous as Tippu Sulthan's summer retreat. Its around 1200m above the sea level. Having read many blogs giving positive feedback about watching sunrise from the hill top of Nandi Hills, we planned to be there before the sun rises. With quite a good amount of preparation, checking out various blogs for the route and various other info, we started for Nandi Hills at around 3.30 in the morning. After filling up our wallets with money from ATM and our bikes (Pulsar 180 and Gladiator 125) with petrol, we were in the Old Madras road when the clock stuck 4.00 AM. We went to Hebbal and from there followed the NH7 road to reach Devanahalli.

Though we were protected well in our winter wear, the cold air was harsh enuf to make us shiver. And the air became much more colder as we moved towards Devanahalli, may be the effect of hilly areas. After reaching Devanahalli, we were not sure about the way to Nandi Hills. So we went lil ahead, taking the straight road, to find a shop selling snacks and cigarettes. There we had hot tea and asked him for the route. We then realized that we came lil ahead, so we had to go back a few kms and take a right turn. So the actual route to Nandi Hills is - after reaching Devanahalli go ahead a bit to find a turn on ur left with a board showing "Nandi Hills 26 Kms". If you happen to travel in day light, the board will be quite visible. And through out the ride the ultra cool four laned NH7 roads made our ride smooth, except for one speed breaker which we missed due to very low light in that place and that made our hearts miss a beat. The ride on the ghat roads with cool with all those hair pin bends challenging us. At times I was doubtful whether our bikes will be able to make it or not. But you know, we made it. It was 5.30 AM by the time we reached the hill top. We parked our bikes and stood in the queue to get our entry tickets. At around 6.00 we got our tickets and started moving to the hill peak to view the sunrise.


On the hill top we had fun with all the photographs while waiting for the sun to rise. Though the clouds obstructed us from viewing the sunrise, I must accept its a great feel to see the whole thing from the hill top. We had loadsa fun there with the sceneries and the sun rays, blocked by clouds, refracting and reaching the earth. Be careful with the stray dogs and monkeys on the hill. At around 9 we started back after lotsa photos and phun.


After getting down the hill, we stopped again to have some refreshments and started our ride back to Bangalore. One small wrong diversion in our return way led us to Chikballapur and a round about way to reach Devanahalli. There was this one particular blue colored bus (dint get a chance to capture it in my camera) which made me suffer a lot by blocking my way on the NH7 while coming back to Bangalore. All in all its an awesome experience, and the fact that I never got a chance to go even for a short trip along with my dear friends in the past 2 years made this more special for me.

Now am eagerly waiting for our trip to Devarayanadurga which we are planning in 2 weeks.