Been long since I posted...but then its understandable. Every weekend has been pretty interesting. Was out on trips in 3 of the last 4 weekends. Good to get back to travelling days. Wanderlust hits back with a vengeance!
So first weekend stop was to Agumbe. It almost didn't happen for me, as I was a last-minute entry and there was no place in the Sumo we were supposed to be travelling in. I had opted out but then, just as luck would have it, we somehow managed to squeeze me in. So, finally left Bangalore at 2AM on Saturday morning putting a tyre puncture and change of vehicles behind us. I generally don't sleep on journeys and this was no exception. Was awake and watching the driver skillfully manoeuvre the Qualis along the highway with reckless truck drivers and idiots driving on high beam always! Was just thinking thatb the Qualis should have been just about 3-4 inches wider. Would have fit in all of us snugly. Right now, it was just a bit less shoulder room. The driver drove continuously until we took our first break for tea sometime at 7AM at Aldur on the Chickmagalur-Sringeri highway. The greenery looked awesomely fresh and it was just nice to walk around there. We had our tea and set off to Sringeri. Reached Sringeri at about 10AM and booked into a room very near to the famous Sringeri Math (. It was a weekend so it was pretty diofficult to get a room but we managed to get ourselves a huge room capable of accomodating about 15 people. We then freshened up and had a bit of breakfast. After that, all of went went to the math (established by Adi Shankaracharya loong, loong ago!). The whole area was calm and serene compared to the cacophony just outside with all the vehicle drivers and shopkeepers blaring songs of different genre in different languages. The Math is situated right at the banks of the Tunga river. One unique feature here are the huge number of catfishes that swim at the banks. They are fed puffed corn by the thronging devotees. Some of the catfishes are so big, they could give even Garfield a complex. We sat at the banks for sometime and then visited the temple for the 'aarthi'. Then, we had lunch at the temple itself where they serve food for all the people who visit the temple. Though the food was just plain rice with sambar/rasam/curd, it was pretty tasty. There was even payasam as well. Its pretty mind-boggling to see the logistics that they need to take care of feeding thousands of devotees each day.
After that [i am bored now...will write some other time :-D].
