Bangalore to Horsley Hills

This is a little known hill station in the southern state of Andra Pradesh. I think the location of this hill station makes it unknown. Its around 165Km Bangalore and makes it a good weekend getaway.

We started from banaglore at 11:30 AM. Took the Old Madras road towards Hoskote. From Hoskote there are two routes. One through Chintamani and another via national highway through Kolar. We decided to take the Kolar road as we had information from other travel blogs that Kolar road being a highway will be a smooth drive. That was wrong assumption. Well as we rode, we encountered pot holes and narrow alleys making our drive a bad experience. From Kolar take deviation towards Madanapalli. As we were carrying our lunch along, we stopped soon after Madanapalli and had a quick lunch. After Madanapalli on Anantpur route, need to take a left towards Horsley Hills. The turn very prominent with an arch with board clearly showing the direction. We were having a jolly time and very happily missed the turn. Nearly 8 km later we realized and had to take turn. Ascend of the hills is not so steep with only a couple of hairpin bends. May be some wouldn’t agree with me as my comparison was with the ascend of other hill stations like Yelagiri and Yercaud.

We reached the AP tourism guest house “Haritha” at 5 PM. Formerly it was called Punami guest house and still is better known as Punami than Haritha. It’s a well maintained and moderately priced guest house. Its safe to confirm the booking before you travel as there isn’t any other alternative accommodation available here. Booking can be done in any of the AP tourism Booking Office in your city. In Bangalore the office is located at Race Course road, above Mahesh Motors. The phone number is 080-41136373. You can check for availability by directly calling the guest house number 08571-279323

The AP tourism accommodation is very good as compared to other state. It caters to guests from moderate to luxury accommodation ranging from Rs 850 to 2000/-. These categories have very catchy names like Wild Winds, Whispering Winds, Wind whistles etc. The governor’s bunglow is located at the highest point and has beautiful view. The rooms are pretty spacious with a clean toilets and an airy balcony. The restaurant serves good south Indian and average north Indian food.

We rushed to the restaurant for some snacks and coffee. The onion Pakoda was awesome and the hot coffee was more than satisfied. Nights are chilly as temperature dipped steeply after 5 PM. Morning was misty even at 8 AM with some rays peeping out at 8:30AM. Breakfast is available till 10:30AM with a good blend of south Indian and North Indian at the buffet priced Rs 65/head.

There’s absolutely nothing to do here. But it has some good view points for Sunset and sunrise. One nearest is the spot behind the governor’s bungalow. Another is the last bend uphill on your way to Horsley hills. Apart from it there is a zoo with a handful of animals. There is a swimming pool and play area for kids. Unlike Kodaikanal, Ooty and Yercaud, Horsley hills its good for a lazy holiday with nothing much to see and do.

We spent the next day just roaming around the resort and taking rest. We then started at 11AM from Horsley hills and decided to go through Chintamani. The road was better than expected and we reached Bangalore at 2:30PM. Had lunch in a Chinese restaurant in Kasturinagar before we proceeded home.

Where to stay:
Haritha resort: 08571-279323
Book via AP tourism: 080-41136373
You will have to go to AP tourism office, pay cash and get the voucher for confirmation

How to Reach:
Bangalore->Hoskota->Chintamani->Madanapalli->Horsley Hills ( 165 KMs depending on from where you start in Bangalore)


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Bangalore to Pondicherry ( Puducherry)

The nomads again set out for another journey but this time it was a planned one!!!.
Well we have to do it as we have a little one.

Pondicherry was not a very preferred destination for me. We had planned to visit this place a couple of times before and always ended dropping the idea. We had a notion that Pondy (as its widely known) is haven for bachelors who would throng the place to enjoy a bay side drinking spree party. So we thought that it’s not an apt place for a couple or a family vacation. But my hubby was persistent that he has to visit it once. There was another point with which he was able to convince me that it’s a drivable 350 KM from Bangalore. So finally we set out for Pondy.

The routes to Pondy from Banagalore. :
Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Chengam-Tiruvanamali-Ginge-Tindvanam-Pondicherry

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We started at morning 9 am. Reached Hosur at 10:30 am and stopped for breakfast. After a quick stop we proceeded on NH4 towards Krishnagiri. While we were close to Krishnagiri, we were watched out to take the turn to the road to Chennai. We had to take the immediate right turn to NH66. If you hit the toll station then it means you have missed the turn. Well, I know this as we very promptly missed to take NH66. If you happen to miss the route then you can go via Tirupattur and meet Tiruvanamali. This road is not that bad but we had to travel an extra 55KM for the mistake.

As we took the Tirupattur route we were completely lost, there were no sign boards and we didn’t know where we were heading to. Then to our rescue came our new Asus P750 with GPS. Just sent an SMS to enable the GPRS needed by the Google Navigator that we had installed just before we started our journey. We could then locate ourselves heading towards NH66. My gizmo freak husbands PDA phone was of great help and he was short of words glorifying the technology and the phone!! He tried Google Maps first which was not as good as the Google Navigator. The all India city map from Satguid that comes from with Asus P750 is of no help once you are outside city limits.

With this round around journey we reached Tirunamamali at 2pm. As my daughter was hungry and we stopped at a hotel for idlis. As idlis were not served at lunch time, we just packed meals and left. Half past two we drove down to a shady tree across the road to gulp the packed food. Arunachalam Temple was in our list but planned to visit it on the way back.

Close to 4pm we reached Gingee, the fort town. One cannot miss the scenic view of the ancient Gingee Fort as we get a view of them on either side of the highway as we enter the town. With a short photo shoot of the fort we headed towards Tindivanam.

We reached Pondicherry at 5:30 as planned. As we enter this French colony we can see high raised dividers on the road. Our booking at Lotus Comfort was confirmed at 12 noon. This is a new hotel on Sardar Vallabhai Patel Road. Its location is good as it’s a 5 mins walk to the promenade and French colony. The rooms are small but with all amenities and well maintained.

Places to visit in Pondicherry:
The next day we set out to see the promenade. The promenade at Pondicherry would be a disappointment for those who want to splurge into the bay and enjoy. The view of the waves relentlessly surging to reach the rocks is just spectacular. Every tide of the sea has a tale to say, but ebbs away shying away from the invading world. A drive across the promenade is memorable.



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Next we set out to Chunnambar Back Waters. This was a much awaited destination as my one year old daughter is extremely fond of playing in water. It’s around 8 km from the city, on the Cuddalore road.

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This is an interesting place as we had to take a boat ride to reach the sun kissed beautiful beach. You may not fine much of a crowd here. The sea here is very fierce and you can find few guards watching you!! Pranathi was so excited that we had a tough time putting her swim suite. This is surely one of the best Indian beaches I have visited. Clean and not too crowded, just the one you are looking for.
On the way back visited the Anglo French Textile. It’s a good place to shop for cotton material.
Aurobindo Ashram Auroville seem to be a good place to visit. We did not visit either of them. One is suppose to keep silence in the Ashram and kids are not allowed.
The Aurobindo Paper Mill is another interesting place. Its situated on SV Patel road a few feet after Hotel Lotus Comforts. You can find a variety of hand made paper of good quality. You can also pick up some simple gift items from this place, all paper work!!!.

Foodies:
The French area has a few good places to dine. The Promenade is the best place for fine dine. It offers buffet as well as ala carta. If you go for buffet don’t miss the special desserts on the shelf. It’s a hotel of Hidesign group.
Pizza Hut again in the French area is good. But don’t expect a French touch to your pizzas. Pizza hut pizzas taste the same everywhere!.
Anand Bhavan in the market area is a good place for south Indian breakfast and snacks.
The restaurant attached to the Executive Inn is also a good place for buffet breakfast. They also have good rooms.

Places to visit around Pondicherry:
Chidambaram, the city of temples is 70 Kms from Pondy. But the more interested and fascinating destination for lens men like my husband is Pichavaram. Pichavaram the second largest Mangrove forest in the world, near the temple town of Chidambaram , is one of the unique Eco-tourism spots in South India.



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It’s a natural 500+ years old mangrove forest. The boat ride across the mangrove needs to be booked at the counter. As a single boat needs minimum 7-11 members you may have to wait for sometime. However if you can shell out some extra money then even a group of 5 can be arranged. The trip in the mangrove is appr 30 mins where he could show you a few canals and brief you with geography and history of the place. Again extra bucks can give you a longer ride deeper into the canal giving you ample opportunity for photography.
The government restaurant at Pichavaram provides one of the best lunches. We had a sumptuous lunch here for just Rs 35.
At 4 PM the Chidambaram temple doors open. It’s not the right time to enter here as the main temple in this temple complex opens its door at 4:45PM, just keeping us waiting. I was really disappointed here not due to the wait hours but every pujari is upto making contacts. As this temple run privately every pujari is busy asking you, where do you come from, give me your address so that we can send you the Prasad every month at your door step. Give them the address then comes the surprise: Rs 50/month. You can pay for one month upto one year!
The booking for accommodation at Chidambaram needs to be early as there are a few ones. Hotel Saradharam is a good hotel to stay.

Mahabalipuram is another bay bait for weekenders from Chennai. The shore temples are enchanting. However we didn’t visit there as we had already visited during our Chennai trip. But it’s a better option to visit if Pichavaram doesn’t fascinate you.


Back to Bangalore.

We started back from pondy at 9:30am. We reached Tiruvanamalai at 12pm. Tiruvanamalai, famous for its Arunachalam Temple is on NH66 between Bangalore and Pondy. Its very nice temple to visit and worship. The hill at the backdrop of the temple is good to view. We were out of the temple at 2 pm and set out to Bangalore with no more stops!. We were done and very tired due to the scorching heat. We reached home at 5pm.

We took back tons of memories and photos and the last word we had about the trip was “We love PPT (Pondy, Pichavaram and Tiruvanamalai) and will visit it again”.