An Odyssey!

Its always good to capture memories of a journey and what better way of doing it ,than by writing a blog. Recently (16th April 2011) three of us visited one of the renowned national parks in India called the Bandipur national park.Situated 226 kilometers from Bangalore , Bandipur boasts of a variety of flora and fauna.
Super excited ,Abhishek and I reached Bangalore in the early hours of Saturday at 6:30 am.We boarded a travel bus (HBK travels) from paradise(Hyderabad) to Kormanagala(Bangalore).Bangalore known for its fast life and vibrancy was moving at a snails pace in the early hours and neither of us spotted any mirror crackling material in the morning :-).As planned kranti picked us up at FORUM(a buzzing mall) . After finishing our ablutions at kranti's place we started our journey to Bandipur by car at 9am.It being a weekend ,roads in Bangalore seemed narrow and can imagine what it is on a weekday. We drove onto the Bangalore-Mysore highway after an hour of unending traffic and extreme humidity.Kranti lived up to the reputation of a reckless driver :-)and kept us interested in heaven each time a lorry or a bus passed by.The tinge of hunger,killed the excitement of drive a couple of hours later and after lot of cribs and cry's ,we banked upon KAMAT hotel for breakfast.The hotel was unique in ambiance,with the theme being a typical village house.Men in dhoti and women in Saree greeted us with least attention and after waiting for 10mins ,a man finally approached us to take the order.The wait made us ravenous ,which eventually led to a heavy breakfast.We skipped our lunch for the day to make up for the loss of time and finally reached the Bandipur check post at 3 PM.
Road from mysore to Bandipur was in excellent condition and most of the time we hit 110 kmph ,occasionally encountered villages and four lane roads. The road from Bandipur check-post was ensued with flora on either side ,giving the illusion of a cave.The excitement of travelling in a forest started right here and reached to a next level when we realized , we had traveled with absolutely no plan and none of the resorts (including private and government) could accomadate us for the night.The audacity of our bachelorhood :-) made us decide to spent the rest of the night in the car ,until we came across COUNTRY CLUB. It seems we were greeted in Kannada ,which Abhishek and i had no clue.The staff in the club were polite ,while the rates for the stay was really harsh.(2500Rs per head for a non-member and 1800 for a member).Yet again there had to be a savior and this time the savior was Ashwin. Thanks to number of sittings at country club ,ashwin immediately revealed his membershipID and we settled into a farm house near by the club.The farm house was surrounded by mountains ,which was habitat for Deers,Elephants ,Rabbits,monkeys .. and innumerable number of birds.It was thoroughly fenced and yet deers sneaked around .
It was a typical night in the club.There was born fire in the night ,drinks and couple of games conducted for the families, by the club authorities. As usual we did not participate ,for the games seemed to be too girlish and we went around the club.Night events were supposed to be followed by either trekking or Safari at 6:30 am in the morning.We tried neither, for our morning started at 7:30am. We climbed on to a tower,where we could get the trace of mobile signals and ensured that our families were informed about us being alive.Mind you ,the signals are absolutely nil in the forest.I ensured i updated my Facebook also,from the tower :-).
we were lucky to spot a couple of elephants while on safari.Deers were like the most common animals ,that crossed roads ,just as dogs cross roads in the city.One would not require an alarm in the morning .The squeaking of birds ,forced us to get out of the bed.Mist and Clouds prevented the view of the mountains around ,making the world around the most scenic place to live in.

One important note for anyone travelling to Bandipur is to carry currency ,as, credit ,debit cards would not be accepted.If one does not carry currency then he/she is forced to travel for 28kms to withdraw cash from an ATM ,which is really a pain and the only negative aspect of our travel.
After having our breakfast at 10am in the club we headed back to Bangalore on Sunday.This time we took a different route via the "Nice" which was really nice. Yet again we took turns to drive and finally reached Bangalore at 4PM Sunday.Our bus to Hyderabad was scheduled at 9 PM. So we had time to encounter Mirror crackling materials at FORUM which made our trip even more memorable.It would probably take more than a couple of years again for three of us to meet or we may never meet again .But,until then the memories of the trip would remain in my blog:-).

Just before i close i would like to remember a special character named "Puli" ,a so called marketting manager in country club who lives in the same farm house where we were accomadated.

cheers
kaushik