Hoysaleswara Temple of Halebidu & Chennakeshava Temple of Belur are the architectural marvels of the erswhile Hoysala Empire. Lord Shiva is the main deity of Hoysaleswara Temple and Lord Krishna as Chennakeshava is the prime deity of Belur Temple. These temples were constructed in 12th century AD during the the reign of King Vishnuvardhana. Halebidu, which was the regal capital of Hoysala Dynasty, is located about 200 km from Bengaluru. We reached Halebidu in the afternoon as we spent some time visiting Sravanabelagola, a famous jain pilgrimage. Upon arrival at the temple few people approached us saying that they are official guides and can explain about the temple and its architecture. I wanted to try one of them as a guide and I must admit that the guide proved out to be very useful in our understanding of the temple and the reliefs carved on it.

The Belur and Halebidu temples are both built on raised star shaped platforms. The architectural style is a mixture of both North and South Indian styles. Hoysaleswara Temple has two temples – Hoysaleswara (dedicated to King Vishnuvardhan) and Shantaleswara (dedicated to Queen Shantala Devi). There were two Nandis each facing both the shrines respectively. The large Nandis were housed in mandapas which are supported by lathe turned stone pillars.

The carvings on the outerwalls of the temple were made of schist or soapstone. The soft nature of the stone should have been very useful in the sculpting delicate ornated statues. We were amazed when the guide has passed a thin wire and brought it out through the tiny holes of the jwellery of the dvarapalas. The dwarapalas on either side of the entrance are so intricately carved which leaves one in wonder.

The outer walls of the temples are decorated with reliefs in bands. There were stories from Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagavatam carved out on the reliefs. There were various animals like elephant, horses, peacocks, swans, lives of people during that time etc were carved on various bands.

The larger sculptures at a higher level above the continuous band reliefs at the bottom were representative of various Hindu Gods, Godesses and Avatars (Incarnations) of Lord Vishnu. The images of these sculputures speak more profoundly than my words. A trip to Halebidu will leave a person with artistic sense very much contended.

The distance from Halebidu to Belur is less than 20 km. The temple similar to Hoysaleswara Temple was built on a pedestal. Once can trace the architectural similarities but I felt that Hoysaleswara Temple has more intricately carved sculptures and reliefs.

The surprising element which I noticed here was the 40 ft free standing pillar which is just placed on the platform. The pillar has stood so for decades or rather centuries.

Apart from the main shrine there were two shrines deicated to Shridevi and Bhudevi. It had become dark early due to winter and we could not spend much time at Chennakeshava Temple unlike the Hoyshaleswara Temple as we had to return back to Bangalore.

On one of my visits to a cousin at Bengaluru, I made up my mind to go for a one day tour to Shravanabelagola, Halebidu and Belur. We first arrived at Shravanabelagola. Sharavanabelagola is famous for world’s tallest monlithic statue of Gomateswara or Bahubali. We need to hike up a hillock to view the Gomateswara Statue which is about 58 ft in height and was built in 10th century AD. The ascent is a bit steep with some 600 odd steps and on my way I could see some old jain pilgrims from north India being carried up through cane chairs (dolis). This made me realise that this is one of the main pilgrimage place for Jains. Chandragupta Maurya was said to have meditated on these hills during the last years of his life after embracing Jainism. There were some inscriptions in Prakrit at the base of the Bahubali statue.

According to the legend, Bahubali is the second son of the first Jain Tirthankara Rishabadeva. After Rishabadeva relinquishes his kingdom, Bahubali fights with his brother for the kingdom out of which he emerges victorious. Despite his victory, Bahubali abdicates the throne for search of absolute knowledge and undergoes penenace and deep meditation. It was evident from the statue that prolonged meditation of Bahubali in the standing posture has caused the climber plants to twirl around his legs. The statue of Gomateswara symbolises the tenets of Jainism like peace, sacrificing worldly possessions and simple living.

I make instant decisions when it comes to travel. Visit to Borobudur is one such trip. We (about 7 of us) went on a one day trip to Yogyakarta (Indonesia) from Singapore to visit the Borobudur Temple. I first came across Borobudur in my school history text book wherein a photograph was shown covering the full view of the temple. The pictures in my school social textbook have sown seeds required for my travels. We reached Yogyakarta on Saturday night and booked a taxi at the airport. We explained our one day plan to cab driver and he agreed to stay with us the entire day and finally drop us at Surabaya airport on Sunday evening. It was raining heavily and we reached the hotel around 2:00 am. Some of us lied down to have atleast 2 hours sleep. Myself and two other friends did not sleep the entire night. Our worry is whether the rain would subside by morning or else all the money we spent for the visit would go waste as we planned the visit for only one day. We started for the temple in the rain around 5:00 am and on the way to temple we bought raincoats at Indomart supermarket. The rain finally stopped except for a little drizzle when we reached the temple.

Borobudur is one of the Indonesia’s UNESCO world heritage sites. This temple was constructed in 9th century AD during the reign of Sailendra Dynasty. There seems to exist the influence of some Indian architecture. It is a Mahayana Buddhist temple with hundreds of buddhist statues. The temple consists of nine platforms with each of them connected through stairs. The central dome stupa is located at the highest platform. The walls of each platform are decorated with relief panel carvings. The reliefs on the wall depict Jataka stories. I wish I could understand them more. What one can appreciate is the grace of the carvings. Another unique feature is a particular scene of the story was carved in numerous panels and even a single character is not carved mostly in a single panel.

On the top platforms around the central stupa, there were many smaller perforated stupas. From the temple information, I could get to know that there were 72 such stupas around the main stupa all in all. There was a Buddha statute is all these inverted bell shaped perforated stupas. You could view the buddha statue inside through one of those holes in the stupas. In some stupas the Buddha statues were exposed.

While we are circambulating the platforms we saw Buddhist monks saying their early morning prayers. The clouds hovering at lower lever against the mountaneous background with a bit of drizzle was a perfect sight to the nature lovers. There were many Indonesian school kids groups who came up for the visit. They wanted to take a snap with us and we were even happy with it. We could see some volcanic mountains from the temple with the crater shape visible. Infact I read that after its bright period the temple was abondoned for many years under the volcanic ash and the forest until it was again restored to glory during the colonial rule. We went around the temple to get a snapshot of the entire temple like what I had seen in my school text book. The temple was so massive that we had to walk considerable distance away from it to capture the entire view in a single shot. But due to unfavourable light, we could not manage to get a good shot of the entire temple. Our legs were tired by the time we completed walking around all the platforms and the temple. On our exit we were give a maroon coloured stoll as a memoir from the temple.

After our first high altitude trek in Malaysia, we planned to go for such treks once in a while. We also thought that we should choose different terrains and countries if possible. In 2017, we planned to trek any easy peak in The Himalayas during winter to experience the snow on the trek. We googled and found out reviews that Kedarkantha (in Uttarakhand) was one of the simple Himalayan Winter Treks. Kedarkantha falls within the Govind Wild Life Sanctuary and National Park. We booked for the trek through Thrillophilia. The only thing we were not yet sure of was whether we would be able to see snow during our trek which was around Christmas.

The height of Kedarkantha peak was 12500 ft above mean sea level and the trek lengthabout 20 kms which was to be completed in 4 days. Compared to the Kinabalu trek with distance of 16 km which we had completed in 2 days, this trek was an easy pace one. We were picked up by the tour operator at Dehradun and it was about five o’clock in the evening by the time we reached Sankri. Enroute to Sakri we stopped at few places for photographs and and a dip in the chilled waters of Yamuna. The bath in Yamuna waters was like that of an ice bucket challenge. Sankri was a small place and was flocked by many tourist trekkers during this season. The next day morning we were taken to the trek starting point.

The first day was pretty cool. It was a trek of 4 kms and we ascended upto an altitude of 9100 ft from 6400 ft. We camped at a place near the lake called Juda Ka Talab. The lake was not yet visible from the campsite. There was ample snow all around the campsite and our tents were laid out in patches of land which were cleared of snow. This was one of our wishes come true. We went crazy taking pictures but later soon went into the tents to fresh up. The next four days we were not going to bath and we have to just manage with wet wipes and talcum powder. We had a short stroll around the camp site. After dinner we slipped into our sleeping bags. Early in the morining about four o’clock, I woke up for a nature’s call and was amazed to look at the sky. The sky was clear, cloudless and filled with bright stars. The dark pine trees around are adding beauty to this scenery. There was no background light like in cities and therefore you could see a very dark sky.

The next day morning we started off to reach the base camp by afternoon. From here on we cannot proceed with our shoes for the trek as the snowy surface was slippery. We had to put on the clamp-ons to walk on the snow and avoid slipping. It was a bit of inconveniece initially to walk with clamp-ons but got adjusted within no time. After about 15 minutes from the camp we came to Juda Ka Talab. There awaits another first time experience of walking on a lake (which was frozen). I ventured out with the help of my guide to walk on the frozen lake. There was always a thought at the back of my mind : What if the ice cracks? This did happen next day though not to us but another party of which one of the guy fell into the lake. He had to be brought back to Sankri as his condition was critical. These four days we were cut off from the world with no mobile signals. We are just in the lap of mother nature. There was an air of silence around which was infrequently interrupted by some birds and stream waters.

About three in the afternoon, we reached the base camp which was about 11000 ft above mean sea level. This place was damn cold even in the sunny afternoon. We were just wondering what would happen to us at night or early in the morning when we have to start the trek. Some of the trekkers were making snowman. We walked around the place after lunch and slept at a place for a while in the sun. The weather beacame too cold in the night. With all our winter wear we still did not understand where from was the cold air leaking. The demand that night was for hot water. Bonfire was not allowed in the forest area therefore we gathered, taking turns, around the fire which was used for cooking. The flames of the fire touched our feet and palm but we did not sense the heat. That was a bit of uneasy sleep in the the night at base camp and we had to wake up early for the peak.

The treks to the peak were always planned to view the sunrise from the peak. This was something which I never liked. We started off a bit late like about 4:30 to 5:00 am, so we were sure we would not be able to reach the peak to view the sunrise. After the inital half an hour part of the trek, I lost contact with my team and the tour guide. I was just walking along alone enjoying the sceneries. After a while I was so thirsty and realized that the water bottle was with my team mates. I just tried aksing few people but of no avail. A young chap in mid twenties came down to me giving his water bottle. This was a huge relief for my dry throat. I was feeling that this peak trek was the most longest and a bit demanding part of the trek. While on the way to the peak, I could already see the sunrise at the horizon.

With intermittent breaks to catch up breath, finally reached the Kedarakantha peak. The panoramic views from the peak cannot be expressed in words. On one side I could see the mountain ranges overlapping each other in blue shades just like a beautiful painting with shades of blue and black. The view on the other side showed the snow clad peaks of Himalayas. This was one view which I felt would be like once in a lifetime experience. At the peak , my head started to ache terribly from the sunlight but when I tried to take the shelter in the shade of rocks it was chilling cold. The peak was crowed with lot of trekkers and it was very difficult to spot any of our trek guides or fellow trekkers. I went around the peak to look for friends but finally resigned and sat near the Lord Shiva temple. Received some prashad from a different trekking group. After waiting for about an hour at the peak, I decided to go down along with some troup to Hargoan camp as I lost our trek batch. After about five minutes of my decision, I saw our trek batch slowly coming up towards the peak. This was a huge relief for me as I would not be having any water or snacks if I had to go down alone. I once again went along with my friends to different view points to take snaps. The cold is biting, my head was aching terribly however I knew that all these will be soon gone but the visuals of this landscapes will be a treasure for life.

After spending ample time at the trek, we had to start our decent. There was some unexpected surprise in our decent. We had to just slide down from the peak on the snow. There was excitement and some fear-about the snow getting into the dress and what if our bum hits some rock during the slide. Once my turn came to slide it was just time to have fun and leave the rest of the uncertainities to destiny. The slide was pretty fast and I gathered a lot of snow in my dress. I loved this decent. We kept sliding whereever we got a chance. After the initial slide we never bother to empty the snow off our dress. Some petty solid rocks kept hitting our bums but due to the cold pack effects of the snow we never realised the pain. On the way to Hargoan camp, we had noodles at a small shop. I took a nap for about half an hour before started for our base camp.

This was the last day for our trek from Hargaon base camp to the starting point of our trek. The night before people played Anthakshari in the camp and we had some chat with other trekkers from the troup. There was a sense of achievement in everyone and this can be felt at the camp that night. The next moring before the start of our decent we had group pictures with the entire troup. We reached the Sankri around afternoon and had our lunch. The next day we travelled back to Rishikesh for our two days stay there.

          From the top of Dhofar mountains I was amazed by the site of vast dry desert lands on one side and lush tender green mountains on the other side. This is the magic that monsoons do to Salalah every year. This second largest city of Oman was packed with tourists during the Khareef season. We got longweek weekend and my friend Polarao, along with his family, drove me to Salalah for the holidays. It was quite a monotonous drive for about 11 hours from Muscat except for few mountains till Nizwa. The landscape looked like limitless desert landscape until we reached Salalah. The moment we reached Salalah we could see the fog and it was drizzling. Wow !! from hot arid climate to monsoon showers.

 

 

 

 

WADI DARBAT

         The next day drove along the Dhofar mountains. It was like a green carpet laid over the mountains. The fog was so dense even during the day and could not resist to step out of the car to feel the chill and snap a few pictures.  We reached the famous Wadi Darbat and took a boat ride in the waters. Rambled about the places and found few caves which are used for cooking food during picnics.

UNSECO WORLD HERITAGE SITES

       Sumhuram (Khor Rori), one of the UNSECO world heritage sites of Oman was next stop. Sumhuram was a wealthy port, which flourished between 3rd Century BC and 5th Century AD in the Land of Frankincense . A very active city existed here during 1st century AD. This port city had links with Mediterranean and India and was active in exporting the frankincense. Frankincense is the name of a tree from which a resin is tapped which when burnt generates a fragrant smell. Frankincense is referred in New Testament. The remnants of the city structures show that there once existed houses, temple and a city wall which opens to the port. After Sumhuram, visited Al-Baleed another world heritage site nearby. 

MARNEEF CAVE & AL-MUGHSAYL BEACH

           The Marneef Cave and Al-Mughsayl beach experience was a unique experience. It was rainy weather and there was dense fog all over the place. We could not see the beach or the cave until we approached it. Tried to get some snaps to capture the beauty of the fog with waves striking the shores. This location is famous for blow holes. These are marine landforms that your come across in geography text books. The sea waves erode the rocky shore bottom up to create a hole. Therefore, whenever the next wave strikes the coast the water gushes out from the blow holes like a fountain. Another location where I saw blowholes was in Bali at the Tanah Lot Temple beach.

ANTIGRAVITY POINT

             There were many cars at antigravity point waiting for their turn to bring the gear to neutral and let the car roll uphill without switching on the engine. It was surprise that objects can roll uphill defying gravity. The scientific temperament in me did not let me believe as this is contrary to what we studied in our high school. On the internet I found out that these are actually optical illusions which make a down hill look like an uphill due to the surrounding layout. I once again looked around if this theory was right. However, my eyes still did not stop to deceive me. Apart from the antigravity effects, there was a tree on the roadside which attracted my attention. The short tree with sturdy branches was are flat on the top. There were many people on the top of it and yet the tree was strong enough to hold them. I wonder how?

NABI UMRAN, NABI AYUB & PROPHET SALEH

Prophet Nabi Umran shrine houses a long tomb of the saint. After offering our prayers, we then proceeded to Prophet Nabi Ayub’s tomb. Nabi Ayub (Job) found reference in both Islam and Christianity was what I heard from a fellow tourist. The drive to the place was very scenic with hills on either side. At the shrine, beside the tomb building was the prayer place of the prophet. There was another place of religious significance where the foot prints of Prophet Salem’s came can be found.

Other attractions in the city were Salalah watch tower, Sultan Qaboos mosque and the fruit market on the roadside. Enroute to Muscat payed a visit to the Frankincense Park. Having come from cool Salalah we could not stand the heat in the park. Therefore we rushed back to car after walking for a while and taking snaps of few trees. We had a problem with the car battery on our way back to Muscat but there were friendly Omanis on the way who helped us rectify it.

                   Never looked into my blog after my  first introductory write up. Bali visit made me break my silence. Bali is an extravaganza of culture. Learned a few interesting things (while chatting with the locals and tour guide) out of this trip which I share here.

LUWACK COFFEE

                  Did you ever have a coffee from animal poop? Yes, you heard it right and it is called Luwack coffee in Bali. Luwack’s are caught from the wild when young and raised at home. Luwack is fed with raw Arabica coffee and after some 5-6 hours the    coffee seeds come out in the poop of the Luwack. These seeds are then cleaned in hot water, the top layer is peeled off and the seeds are fried crushed manually to make coffee powder. The coffee shops give you a tester of Bali coffee to compare the taste with Luwack coffee. No doubt the Luwack coffee tastes better than the Bali coffee. May be that’s the reason for Luwack coffee which actually originated in Bali to spread to other countries like Thailand, Malaysia etc.

MASS CREMATIONS

                  People from a village who die are buried and later mass cremated once in five years or on some auspicious day. When you visit the Monkey Forest in Ubud there is a cremation temple where you can see the graves of the deceased. I was wondering how could the bodies not decompose until five years or so. Wayan (our driver during the trip) informed that in their village in West Bali they actually pick three fists of the soil from the grave and burn it to symbolize the ritual of cremation.  In central Bali, they however cremate the remnant bones from the grave. Main reasons for mass cremation in Bali is the high cost of cremation rituals. So the Balinese have come up with a community mass cremation concept. Great!

SILENT DAY OF BALI

               Balinese observe a Silent Day just the day before the their New Year. This falls in the month of March and coincides with Telugu New Year (Ugadi). On this day, no one should lit a fire at home (that means they fast), no walking, no entertainment, no lighting and no work. So no one can be found on the streets, tourist attractions or beaches of Bali. This day is meant for prayers and meditation. I was surprised when I heard that even the international airport would be closed on that day and there would be no flights in and out of Bali. The tourists who are in Bali restrict their activities to hotel premises. Emergency services and Hospitals are open though. I like this practice. Atleast a day in a year exclusively for soul searching in today’s world of smart phones and busy lives.

BALI SWING

             Bali swing brings your imagination of swinging in clouds to a close reality. The swing ropes dangle to the tall coconut trees which are standing on the edge of the Tegalalang rice terraces. The moment you swing up you are literally in the sky with the valley below. Age doesn’t matter, you must try this and test whether you can have a control on your screams of excitement.

BALINESE TEMPLES

                You have to chose which of them to visit because there are thousands of temples in Bali. More or less every house has a temple in the courtyard When you drive through the streets of Bali it becomes very difficult to distinguish a temple from a house. The spirit of the ancestors are worshipped in the temples at home along with other deities. One peculiar feature of the Hindu temples here is there were no deities in the temples. I found an exception to this at Goa Gajah, a cave temple which housed Lord Ganesha’s and three lingams symbolizing Trimurti ( Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara). Tourists are not allowed into the inner mandalas (ring) of the temples. You will have to wear Sarong ( similar to colourful lungi in India) to enter the temples. A dip in holy springs waters of Pura Tirtha Empul for spiritual cleanesing is akin to the belief of bathing of holy rivers like River Ganga. The iconic feature of the Bali Temples are the Meru towers with multi tiered (eleven, five or three storeys ) thatched roofs. The eleven towered Meru tower at Pura Ulun Danu Bratan against the scenic backdrop of dense clouds hovering over the mountains is a beautiful sight that could not be expressed in words. Pura Ulun Danu Bratan is dedicated to Goddess Danu Devi who is the lake Goddess. Split gates are found in almost all the temples. These gates make a good instagram worthy pictures.

                When we talk of temples in Bali we can go on endlessly so ending up with the Sad Kahyangan, the six holiest temples of Bali. Besakih Temple is the oldest, biggest and most sacred temple in Bali and of the Sad KahyanganWe could not visit it due to the recent eruption of Mount Agung. The temple stands on the foot hills of Agung. We visited two of the Sad Kahyangan Temples – Mount Batur (second largest temple of Bali) and Uluwatu Temple. Both these temples are located at scenic locations. Pura Ulun Batur from where you can have a glance of two volcanic mountains – Batur and Agung and The Uluwatu temple which stands on the edge of limestone cliff with the waves of the sea dashing the base of the cliff.  We had lunch enjoying the views of Mt Batur and lake Batur. Three craters are clearly visible on Batur indicating past eruptions. The lowest crater was from the eruption that happened in the year 2000. Black patches on the slopes of Mt Batur are the tracts where the molten lava flew during the latest eruption. All the Sad Kahyangan Temples in the past must have been built in recluse locations to aid the spiritual quest.

                Unexpectedly, one day has gone into visiting the Garuda Wisnu Kechana (GWK) which threw open to us the cultural shows of Bali. Garuda’s story from Adiparva of Mahabharatha is the central theme of the dance show. Barong Keris, Kecak, Nusantra and Balinese dances were presented at GWK. Apart from the dances, the Garuda Wisnu statue, the statue of Wisnu at the Wisnu Plaza and the statue of Garuda are other attractions at GWK. With eight nights in Bali, apart from the temple and cultural tour, visited only one water fall (Tegenungan Waterfall) and two beaches (Kuta and Nusa Dua). Bali surely deserves many more visits, but will surely visit atleast one more time to look into the adventurous part of it (trekking, waterfalls and islands).

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