Approximate distance
9th Oct Bangalore – Sirsi – 425 kms
10th Oct Sirsi-Yana – 35 kms / Yana-Gokarna – 35 kms / Gokarna-Sirsi – 70 kms
11th Oct Sirsi-Sahasralinga – 17 kms
12th Oct Sirsi-Jog Falls - 60 kms / Jog Falls – Bangalore – 375 kms
Sirsi Hotels:Hotel Panchavati , Phone Number: 08384-236755.
Tariff: Dbl occupancy Rs. 350/- (w/o TV) & Rs.450 (with TV)
For many many years, I had been wanting to take Anand & Pavithra to Sirsi – North Karnataka (where I did my schooling up to
class 6).
After exchange of few emails between me & my sister, the itinerary was finalized & my brother-in-law Ganeshanna booked the bus from Bangalore for our group of 16. But we were in for a shock when rooms were not available in Hotel Shivani, Madhuvana & Samrat. Quickly booked rooms at Panchavati & sent an advance payment of Rs.1,500/- to the hotel for reconfirming the booking.
Pavithra, Anand & me started from Chennai for Bangalore on the 8th Oct. We had decided to alight at K.R.Puram on 9th morning. Since the TT had told us that the train will reach KR Puram at 4.30 AM, we set the mobile alarm at 4.15 AM. But the train reached the station in advance. Not realizing this, Anand suddenly woke up to go to the loo and when he noticed that the train had stopped at KR Puram, he rushed back and rudely woke us. We quickly pulled out our luggage (5 bags !), and jumped out of the train holding our shoes in the hand and by then …..the alarm was on! I was only hoping that we had brought with us the right suitcase & not someone else’s in a hurry. What a great start that was for the trip ahead !
9th Oct'10: Reached Rekha’s (sister) home quite early – Ginger, their pet dog, woke every one up before we could ring the bell. Took rest for some time and after that it was hectic – 10 of us had to get ready. The colourful mini bus picked up Kala akka & Nirmala akka’s family & then picked us up.
Bangalore-Sirsi route taken is via Tumkur/Tiptur/Shimoga (because of our plan to visit Jog Falls enroute Sirsi) – road was generally not bad except in a few places. Alternate route is via Davangere (a better route as per Kiran).
Getting out of Bangalore, as usual, is not easy what with the traffic snarls. The CD that I had brought with good dance numbers didn’t work. But that was not a problem, we had so much to talk & laugh – we were all getting together after nearly a year.
With people like me (who loves to munch) & Muralianna (who loves to have tea regularly), how can we travel for long without any break? And our first break was at Agarwal Bhavan, Bangalore – delicious food, neat restaurant & clean toilets. From here, our travel continued & on & on it went – with lunch break in Arsikere– average food in a very average restaurant. By now we realized that it will be late to reach Jog Falls. We were also toying with the idea of going to Chaudeshwari temple – somewhere beyond Shimoga. This also didn’t work out because of time constraint. The bus was going in a very average speed & we decided to drive to Sirsi & visit Jog Falls on the return.
Having lived in Shimoga for around 5 years, we were trying to figure out some familiar places. We were excited to see our School – Mary Immaculate.
Since we didn’t have good lunch & snacks during tea break, we were already thinking of having good dinner. Dad called up
Hotel Panchavati in Sirsi to check if dinner will be available by 11 PM – got a negative answer. We decided to have dinner in a hotel in Sagar – all of us had good dinner (though service was not quick). Finally reached Hotel Panchavati, Sirsi, by around 11 PM. Though it was a long journey, we were neither bored nor tired – pleasant weather throughout. Hotel Panchavati – good rooms considering the small town that Sirsi is. However, their restaurant didn’t have much choice of food & was open only from 8 AM.
10th Oct’10: After breakfast, proceeded to Yana. The ideal vehicle for trips in and around Sirsi is Jeep – though I had read about this in many blogs, I didn’t realize the importance till we reached Yana. We had to stop our bus around 3 kms before the Yana Rock Temple – which means 6 kms of walk up & down ! Jeep/Car/small van can stop the vehicle just half a kilometer before the temple.
Going to the temple was exciting – greenery around, Vibhuti river – where we spent some refres
hing time & then after walking for some more time, we could see these 
gigantic rocks – awesome ! Before going to the rock temple, all of us quenched our thirst – I recommend the Cocum juice sold in the entrance with the gingery flavor – yum. The priest in the temple narrated the history of the temple & after the pooja/rituals, asked us to go around the temple for pradakshina/circumambulating, which according to him took 15-20 minutes. Fortunately Mom & Dad didn’t join us. It was adventurous as well as arduous. The rocks & stones were sharp & walking barefoot was painful. We hadn’t imagined the 15-20 minutes of Pradakshina to be so strenuous, nonetheless exciting. 
Had another round of thirst quenchers & started on our way back to the bus. Now it was becoming very difficult to walk with the road ascending & descending. We were puffing and panting & lo, it started raining – the afternoon looked as if it was late evening – cool and dark & so very nice to walk in the rain in that nice surrounding. Finally, we reached our bus. Too much of a walk for us city dwellers - We all burnt lots of calories & shed some blood !!! – this place Yana is infested with leeches.
Vibhuti Falls is very close to Yana but after travelling a little we realized that it is not possible to go up to the Falls by bus – very narrow path. Some of us jumped out of the bus to walk up 1.5 km to the Falls. The more and more we walked, we could only hear the gurgling sound of the water – all we could see was dense forest around. Here too, it was not an easy walk but the sudden sight of the beautiful Vibhuti Falls made us forget our tiredness. Spent
some time in the falls & returned to the bus for onward journey to Gokarna. We didn’t carry with us any eatables and were hungry – it was well past lunch time. Had lunch in a place near Hoskambi – very small hotel & we were told that they had only 4 meals available & some snacks.
Proceeded to Gokarna after the so called lunch break early in the evening. Gokarna is a bustling small town. Anand & I liked the temples 
and the mansions. Visited the temples in Gokarna after which some of them went to the beach while the rest of us proceeded for shopping. Since it was dark, we were not allowed to go too close to the beach – the children were highly disappointed. Had dinner & proceeded to Sirsi. Great sleep after the grueling day.
11th Oct’10: Visited Marikamba Temple this morning – nice big temple. The deity looked beautiful. Also visited Gopalakrishna temple nearby – this te
mple was visited by Sathya Sai Baba in the year 1968 (or 1967?). The priest who was then a youngster narrated to us the details of Swami’s visit. From here we headed to Sahasralinga – had a good time in the water & some fun moments posing for photo. We had
lunch in Hotel Madhuvan – better choice & tasty food. The day ended with lots of saree shopping in Gajanan 
Stores, passed by Dr.Kala Bhat’s clinic where Kiran was born, visit to Chowkimath Road (where we had stayed for some years), St.Anthony’s School (our first school), Zoo (funny memories of my 
childhood) – we were visiting Sirsi after 30 years. Showed hubby Anand, the house where we had stayed, friends’ houses and our play area where we played Lagori, kabbadi, gilli dand, marbles. Got to meet one of our friends Mallika – a pleasant surprise for her & us (though she is settled in Hubli, she had come to her mother’s place just then).
12th being Dad’s birthday, all of us wished him at 12 AM followed by cake cutting after which there was some impromptu entertainment from Muralianna and Ganeshanna which was HILARIOUS.
After
breakfast, started on our return trip to Bangalore. Visited Jog Falls – seeing the falls from far without much water was not exciting. Lunch in Hotel Jewel Rock, Shimoga, - good hotel & good food (good service though we reached at the close of lunch time). Reached Bangalore very late in the night.
After so many years of talking about travelling to Sirsi, finally we visited Sirsi.
Now I am dreaming of travelling to Sikkim while Anand wants to travel to Ladakh first – we are squabbling on this & the argument continues……
9th Oct Bangalore – Sirsi – 425 kms
10th Oct Sirsi-Yana – 35 kms / Yana-Gokarna – 35 kms / Gokarna-Sirsi – 70 kms
11th Oct Sirsi-Sahasralinga – 17 kms
12th Oct Sirsi-Jog Falls - 60 kms / Jog Falls – Bangalore – 375 kms
Sirsi Hotels:Hotel Panchavati , Phone Number: 08384-236755.
Tariff: Dbl occupancy Rs. 350/- (w/o TV) & Rs.450 (with TV)
Hotel Shivani, Phone Number: 08384-237797, 70.
Hotel Madhuvana ,Phone Number: 08384-237799, 237759.
Samrat Guest House, Phone Number: 08384-236278.
Panchavati, Madhuvana & Samrat have only veg restaurants. Not sure about Shivani.
Panchavati, Madhuvana & Samrat have only veg restaurants. Not sure about Shivani.
For many many years, I had been wanting to take Anand & Pavithra to Sirsi – North Karnataka (where I did my schooling up to class 6).
After exchange of few emails between me & my sister, the itinerary was finalized & my brother-in-law Ganeshanna booked the bus from Bangalore for our group of 16. But we were in for a shock when rooms were not available in Hotel Shivani, Madhuvana & Samrat. Quickly booked rooms at Panchavati & sent an advance payment of Rs.1,500/- to the hotel for reconfirming the booking.
Pavithra, Anand & me started from Chennai for Bangalore on the 8th Oct. We had decided to alight at K.R.Puram on 9th morning. Since the TT had told us that the train will reach KR Puram at 4.30 AM, we set the mobile alarm at 4.15 AM. But the train reached the station in advance. Not realizing this, Anand suddenly woke up to go to the loo and when he noticed that the train had stopped at KR Puram, he rushed back and rudely woke us. We quickly pulled out our luggage (5 bags !), and jumped out of the train holding our shoes in the hand and by then …..the alarm was on! I was only hoping that we had brought with us the right suitcase & not someone else’s in a hurry. What a great start that was for the trip ahead !
9th Oct'10: Reached Rekha’s (sister) home quite early – Ginger, their pet dog, woke every one up before we could ring the bell. Took rest for some time and after that it was hectic – 10 of us had to get ready. The colourful mini bus picked up Kala akka & Nirmala akka’s family & then picked us up.
Bangalore-Sirsi route taken is via Tumkur/Tiptur/Shimoga (because of our plan to visit Jog Falls enroute Sirsi) – road was generally not bad except in a few places. Alternate route is via Davangere (a better route as per Kiran).
Getting out of Bangalore, as usual, is not easy what with the traffic snarls. The CD that I had brought with good dance numbers didn’t work. But that was not a problem, we had so much to talk & laugh – we were all getting together after nearly a year.
With people like me (who loves to munch) & Muralianna (who loves to have tea regularly), how can we travel for long without any break? And our first break was at Agarwal Bhavan, Bangalore – delicious food, neat restaurant & clean toilets. From here, our travel continued & on & on it went – with lunch break in Arsikere– average food in a very average restaurant. By now we realized that it will be late to reach Jog Falls. We were also toying with the idea of going to Chaudeshwari temple – somewhere beyond Shimoga. This also didn’t work out because of time constraint. The bus was going in a very average speed & we decided to drive to Sirsi & visit Jog Falls on the return.
Having lived in Shimoga for around 5 years, we were trying to figure out some familiar places. We were excited to see our School – Mary Immaculate.
Since we didn’t have good lunch & snacks during tea break, we were already thinking of having good dinner. Dad called up
Hotel Panchavati in Sirsi to check if dinner will be available by 11 PM – got a negative answer. We decided to have dinner in a hotel in Sagar – all of us had good dinner (though service was not quick). Finally reached Hotel Panchavati, Sirsi, by around 11 PM. Though it was a long journey, we were neither bored nor tired – pleasant weather throughout. Hotel Panchavati – good rooms considering the small town that Sirsi is. However, their restaurant didn’t have much choice of food & was open only from 8 AM. 10th Oct’10: After breakfast, proceeded to Yana. The ideal vehicle for trips in and around Sirsi is Jeep – though I had read about this in many blogs, I didn’t realize the importance till we reached Yana. We had to stop our bus around 3 kms before the Yana Rock Temple – which means 6 kms of walk up & down ! Jeep/Car/small van can stop the vehicle just half a kilometer before the temple.
Going to the temple was exciting – greenery around, Vibhuti river – where we spent some refres
hing time & then after walking for some more time, we could see these 
gigantic rocks – awesome ! Before going to the rock temple, all of us quenched our thirst – I recommend the Cocum juice sold in the entrance with the gingery flavor – yum. The priest in the temple narrated the history of the temple & after the pooja/rituals, asked us to go around the temple for pradakshina/circumambulating, which according to him took 15-20 minutes. Fortunately Mom & Dad didn’t join us. It was adventurous as well as arduous. The rocks & stones were sharp & walking barefoot was painful. We hadn’t imagined the 15-20 minutes of Pradakshina to be so strenuous, nonetheless exciting. 
Had another round of thirst quenchers & started on our way back to the bus. Now it was becoming very difficult to walk with the road ascending & descending. We were puffing and panting & lo, it started raining – the afternoon looked as if it was late evening – cool and dark & so very nice to walk in the rain in that nice surrounding. Finally, we reached our bus. Too much of a walk for us city dwellers - We all burnt lots of calories & shed some blood !!! – this place Yana is infested with leeches.
Vibhuti Falls is very close to Yana but after travelling a little we realized that it is not possible to go up to the Falls by bus – very narrow path. Some of us jumped out of the bus to walk up 1.5 km to the Falls. The more and more we walked, we could only hear the gurgling sound of the water – all we could see was dense forest around. Here too, it was not an easy walk but the sudden sight of the beautiful Vibhuti Falls made us forget our tiredness. Spent
some time in the falls & returned to the bus for onward journey to Gokarna. We didn’t carry with us any eatables and were hungry – it was well past lunch time. Had lunch in a place near Hoskambi – very small hotel & we were told that they had only 4 meals available & some snacks.
Proceeded to Gokarna after the so called lunch break early in the evening. Gokarna is a bustling small town. Anand & I liked the temples 
and the mansions. Visited the temples in Gokarna after which some of them went to the beach while the rest of us proceeded for shopping. Since it was dark, we were not allowed to go too close to the beach – the children were highly disappointed. Had dinner & proceeded to Sirsi. Great sleep after the grueling day.
11th Oct’10: Visited Marikamba Temple this morning – nice big temple. The deity looked beautiful. Also visited Gopalakrishna temple nearby – this te
mple was visited by Sathya Sai Baba in the year 1968 (or 1967?). The priest who was then a youngster narrated to us the details of Swami’s visit. From here we headed to Sahasralinga – had a good time in the water & some fun moments posing for photo. We had
lunch in Hotel Madhuvan – better choice & tasty food. The day ended with lots of saree shopping in Gajanan 
Stores, passed by Dr.Kala Bhat’s clinic where Kiran was born, visit to Chowkimath Road (where we had stayed for some years), St.Anthony’s School (our first school), Zoo (funny memories of my 
childhood) – we were visiting Sirsi after 30 years. Showed hubby Anand, the house where we had stayed, friends’ houses and our play area where we played Lagori, kabbadi, gilli dand, marbles. Got to meet one of our friends Mallika – a pleasant surprise for her & us (though she is settled in Hubli, she had come to her mother’s place just then). 
12th being Dad’s birthday, all of us wished him at 12 AM followed by cake cutting after which there was some impromptu entertainment from Muralianna and Ganeshanna which was HILARIOUS.
After
breakfast, started on our return trip to Bangalore. Visited Jog Falls – seeing the falls from far without much water was not exciting. Lunch in Hotel Jewel Rock, Shimoga, - good hotel & good food (good service though we reached at the close of lunch time). Reached Bangalore very late in the night.After so many years of talking about travelling to Sirsi, finally we visited Sirsi.
Now I am dreaming of travelling to Sikkim while Anand wants to travel to Ladakh first – we are squabbling on this & the argument continues……
