Liquid - Thursday Theme

Last month we have been to Denver,Colorado. I could see the city surrounded by mountains especially covered with snow. It was a pleasant sight to the eyes. When my husband told me that we are going to climb the highest peak in Denver, I was damn excited.

I almost forgot that its LIQUID thursday theme. I could go on telling about the place forever. Let me put some pictures of the same place.

 On the way...ice melting and flowing  in small streams.

Water puddles formed from the melting ice. As summer has already started, we can see small streams all through the road.  It was a beautiful sight.

See you next week on Thursday Theme. Have fun till then.

Pikes Peak Colorado - Skywatch

For the first time I am participating in the Friday - Skywatch  photo challenge. Its interesting to watch people take different variations of sky photos.

To watch more photos click on the image below.

Shadow Shot Sunday -Bikers

Its summer and now we can see many bikers on road. I like the appearance of bikers with helmet,sound system and funky style. They look cool somehow.
Caught this snap on the roads of Denver,Colorado.

This post is part of the Shadow Shot Sunday.

Summer and snow mountains

For the long weekend we went to Denver,Colorado. It was mainly to visit a friend of ours. They had a baby and went to see him. We got the chance to visit the Pikes Peak mountains. They are 14110ft high above the sea level. I could view the whole Colorado peaks from that summit.
Here is the view of the summit view from the bottom of the mountain.

I loved to see the curved road ends from the summit. Aren't they lovely and interesting??

With winds at a speed greater than 40mph, I was almost flying away.

With more posts to come in future...

PS: This post is part of the Scenic Sunday Shots.

Sunrise

 This photo was taken while going to New York from Boston. I loved the colors in this pics and the sunrays popping out slowly.

This is taken a little after the first one. The bright orange and yellow color of sun is simply awesome.
For more pictures of skywatch... look at Skywatch

Kollur & Agumbe - Karnataka

After Murudeshwar, our next destination was Kollur - Mookambika temple. Believed to be one of the powerful goddess. We were traveling on the highway 206 and the roads are pretty horrible.
On the way... view of the ocean from highway.

After taking a diversion on the highway, our journey was pleasant with many bends.
Could see clouds passing through the western ghats range...

Finally we reached the temple around noon. Precisely that was the time when temple will be closed. We had to do some timepass till it opens. We went to a nearby water stream and enjoyed there.
Pics of the same here :)

 Temple entrance...

After the darshan, we decided to go to Davangere while covering Agumbe. We were very hungry and went to a small hotel. We ordered for Dosa's and it was damn yummy. Try any hotel on that route and one can enjoy the food over there. Its not at all sweet incase someone is wondering, as coastal area food is sweet compared to other areas.

We reached Agumbe just after sunset and the place was chilling already. There was fog everywhere and we couldnt see anything. We wanted to stay there for a while but we had a train to catch. On the way we had a terrible experience with leeches.
That ends my Karnataka trip. It was wonderful!!!

Murudeshwar - Karnataka

Our next destination was Murudeshwar. It was getting late and we decided to stay over there for the night. We had to go through the tough ghat roads for hours together to reach Murudeshwar from Jog falls. The journey was exciting with many bends and lush greenery. There are not many villages through the route and consisted of small houses. People lived very simple in those places.
Here are few snaps of the ghat road section.

 View of the river from the ghat road section.... This is the same river from the jog falls. I am really not sure of the river name :(

We reached around 10pm in Murudeshwar and it was totally occupied with all the tourists. We found it difficult to find accommodation. We stayed in a 3 star hotel at the end putting aside our budget limits. The waves sound was awesome from the room we got. 

Here are few snaps of the place. 

This is the view from our room. It was a terrific sight. 

Early morning sight of the beach.

stones and waves :)

temple, shiv ji and our hotel standing together. This is the view from the beach :)

In the water.

Shiv ji...

That ends our Murudeshwar trip and we started to visit another place, Mukambika temple at Kollur.

Jog falls - Karnataka

Our next destination was Jog falls, in Shimoga district. This place is around 30kms from sagar towards the western ghats section. Our journey was pleasant in the ghat roads and all through the 1 hour it was drizzling. There was complete greenery and road side vendors were selling pineapples which was most commonly grown. One can savour it and continue the journey.
The best time to visit Jog falls is to go during the months of July to September. Its good to reach the falls before 5pm. Once it gets dark it would be impossible to catch the view of the falls. There would be dense fog and  would have to wait for hours for the fog to get cleared.The falls consist of 4 streams.The detailed description is given in the wiki pages.
Here are few of the pics of the beautiful falls... [to view images with bigger size...click on the images]

the four streams of water falls

just another view....

Another water fall beside the four streams...

with base seen...

The dense fog covering the falls. It was drizzling all through our stay there... and it was just amazing
Karnataka is as such amazing place for exploring and spending weekends. Planning is required to cover places as such.

Sigandur - Karnataka

As part of my Karnataka trip, our next place was Sigandur. This place is about 30kms from Sagara. The place is formed by the backwater of a river. Its surrounded by thick forest and is the abode for many wild animals.
There is a famous temple called the Chowdeshwari temple. Assumed to be much powerful goddess and re-incarnation of Durga maatha.
Here are few of the pics taken in my frens camera.

 This is on the way to Sigundur temple.

 Ferry to be taken to reach the temple place.

Small islands formed by the back water. The distant seen land is where the goddess dwells.

The temple entrace. Photos are prohibited and it was raining continuously. So we couldnt capture many pics over there.
The uniqueness about this temple is that, one can wish any number of wishes infront of the goddess. The pujari will bang with some music instrument and pray to god.

The journey to the temple was excellent with greenery all over the place.

Ikkeri Karnataka

Recently I made my last trip in Karnakata. The place we first visited is Ikkeri. The place is around 3kms from Sagara which is in Shimoga district of Karnataka. We reached the temple around 9 in the morning and it was slightly drizzling. The view was very beautiful. I could just stand in the rain and watch the beauty of the temple over there. Its all green everywhere with only pujari chanting in the temple.
Here are the few snaps attached to it.

 This is the main temple entrance.... Its very unlike to other south indian temples.

This is the outside view of the temple.

 The temple walls with sculpture and they are high enough.

 The greenery in the temple surroundings.

 The Nandi statue right outside the main temple.

The sculpture on the walls of the temple.

The high entrance on one side of the temple. There are three entrances to the temple. The sculpture is unique for each entrance of the temple.

To know the history of the temple, read the wiki link.

Tungabhadra Dam

Tungabhadra river is one of the prominent river in South India. One of the dam is constructed on this river near Hospet. The view of the dam from the nearby hilltop is amazing.

The construction of the dam was started before Andhra was formed in 1942 t imeframe. It was completed in just 2-3 years in those days.There was not much of technology in those days but still it was done on such a massive river.  Attaching the engineer description for reference.

The river is surrounded by hillocks on one side giving the dam a more pleasant look. There is a beautiful government guest called Vaikuntam which was constructed during Madras State. It is one of the oldest and elegant guest houses available.

The image of the foundation stone is here :)

There is a beautiful park just beside the dam. Its mostly for attracting tourists. The dam is worth visiting when you are on the way to Hampi and Bellary.

The musical fountain in the park is good. Though the place is in Karnataka, you will find lot of population who speak Telugu and songs also being played in the same language.

That was my visit to Tungabhadra dam and the historical place Hampi. Karnataka state is worth exploring.
I will come up with few more trip later.
Till then adios!!!

road,car and bike story

Few days back I was travelling with my dad on bike on the roads of hyderabad. It was around noon and the area through which we were going was full of traffic.The area is Mehadipatnam.

My dad is a very cautious driver unlike me. He was explaning me how the city has changed through years and was showing his favorite places. I was wearing my new goggles which my brother got it from USA(showing off :P) and mind you it was sunny also(so not 100% show off).

I heard that someone was honking from behind our vehicle for long time. Actually I was focusing on what my father was saying. I looked behind and saw that a swift car fellow was honking continously. Actually there was no free space on road to give side to him. There were two fellows in the car. The one sitting beside the driver seat rolled down his glass and was saying something.

And then I shouted back in telugu..."aagatleda??"(which means "cant you control"??)
I know the usage is very bad.. but that car fellow was damn irritating and creating enough noise pollution.
He replied,"what the heck did u say??".
I said," didnt you hear?? And can you see if there is enough space for us to drive and give you side. No right?? then why did u honk unnecessarily??"
He gave a confused and shocking expression.
Then I said quietly," next time use bathroom and go for drive!!!!". At that moment I remembered Vimmuuu saying stories about bathroom incidents.

I had to cut down my laughs and imaginations.

The next moment my dad was saying something. I realized at that moment that I was thinking deep inside my mind saying all those things to that car fellow. And I came back to the real world.

I gave a nasty look at that car fellow and were on our own. Next time I will definitely teach such fellows a good lesson :)

september masti....

Wow... september... i enjoyed a lot during these 20 days. Had enough of masti that I haven't had in few months :)
Everyday I went to Lotus pond after work and enjoyed the mother natures creation.
Last weekend I went to Srisailam trip... which was nothing but awesome.
Also I visited few temples which I haven't seen in Hyderabad. One of them is the Skandagiri temple near PadmaRao Nagar,Secunderabad. Its the most beautiful temple of Subramanya Swamy and Durga devi.
Today I went to Barbeque nation restaurant and had fulto gala time :D

I want to say few things about Srisailam. Its a pilgrimage place where Lord Shiva resides. Its situated in between a dense forest and Krishna river. Actually at that place, Krishna river takes multiple turns and apears very beautiful. People say that Krishna river goddess is the most  proud and arrogant female in the purana's. Thats why I guess its so beautiful with different landscapes it has created during its journey. One should never miss the 80kms ghat road through the jungle. Its complete greenary and there are cotteges in forest as well. Btw the forest is called "Nallamalla forest". Recently our Chief Minister had died there in a helicopter crash.
I am attaching some of the snaps here.

this is the forest... we crossed all those mountains which you see in the snap... its a 80kms stretch... imagine... the largest forest terrain to be crossed... after 8pm vehicles are not allowed on that road...

I caught this beautiful sunset over there in my camera :)

 

This is the Srisailam dam over Krishna river where power generation happens

this is the view before the dam... with beautiful landscape.
One can plan for this trip over the weekend and enjoy the mother natures creation.

And not least my barbeque nation photograph... Our gang is having lots of fun in my new office. This is one such example for that :)

There was this African festival celebrations. We took part in that. The best part is that they were focusing on that theme completely and kept the mood all through the time. Also they took snaps of each and every table. They presented the copy of that photograph to us. Isnt it great!!! Thats why some of the restaurants are very popular..for their good hospitality :) Clockwise... me, Bindu, Rolee, Ravi and Ratnakar :)

Have a nice time folks!!!