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Goa is India’s smallest state in terms of area and the fourth smallest in terms of population. Located on the west coast of India it is a very popular tourist destination. Renowned for its beaches, Goa is visited by hundreds of thousands of international and domestic tourists each year. Goa is also known for its temples and world heritage architecture including the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa.

A set of 36 photographs taken by me during a visit to Goa is available at Flickr. Some of them are shown below:

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Yercaud, popularly known as “poor man’s Ooty” is a hill station near Salem, Tamil Nadu, India in the Servarayan range of hills in the Eastern Ghats. It is at an altitude of 1,500 metres (4,920 feet) from mean sea level. The town gets its name from the lake located at its center - in Tamil “Yeri” means “lake” and “Kaadu” means “forest”.

Yercaud is known for coffee plantations and orange groves. It also has an orchidarium run by the Botanical Survey of India.

The highest point in Yercaud is the Servarayan temple, which is situated at a height of 5326 feet. Hence the Yercaud hill area is called Shevaroy Hills.

Yercaud is only 230km from Bangalore and you should be able to reach there in about 4-5hrs if you leave early morning.

Have a look at the Wikipedia page for some great photographs of Yercaud.

Belur was the early capital of the Hoysala Empire. With Halebidu which is only 16 km away, this is one of the major tourist destinations in Karnataka, India. Belur is located in Hassan district. According to inscriptions discovered here, it was also referred to as Velapuri.

The main attraction in Belur is the Chennakesava temple complex which contains the Chennakesava Temple ( dedicated to Lord Chennakeshava , meaning handsome Vishnu) as the centre piece, surrounded by the Kappe Chennigraya temple built by Shantaladevi, queen of king Vishnuvardhana.

I’ve uploaded some photographs I took at Belur at Flickr. You can read more about Belur at Wikipedia.

Golconda is situated west of Hyderabad, and was the capital of ancient Hyderabad state (c. 1364–1512). It was later one of the five Muslim kingdoms of the Deccan known as Deccan Sultanates until its capture by the Mughal Aurangzeb’s forces in 1687. Aurangzeb besieged the fort for nine long months. Had it not been for the treachery of an official who opened a side gate, Golconda would have held out longer. Its stones breathe eternal defiance.

You can see some wonderful panoramic views of the fort at 7 Wonders of Hyderabad. If you visit Hyderabad, make it a point to take half a day off your schedule to visit this fort. Its worth it. Some photographs that I took during my visit to this fort is available at Flickr. One photograph is shown below:

Halebidu is located in Hassan District, Karnataka, India. Halebidu was the regal capital of the Hoysala Empire in the 12th century. It is home to one of the best examples of Hoysala architecture in the ornate Hoysaleswara and Kedareswara temples.

Halebidu is just 16 km away from the one more historical place Belur (which I will cover in a separate post shortly). It is well connected by road and rail to Bangalore, Mysore and Mangalore. There are regular buses to Hassan. The distance is 149 km to Mysore and 31 km to Hassan.

Some photographs that I took are shown below. I hope you enjoy it. All these photographs can be downloaded from Shareapic.

Hoysala Temple

Jain Temple

You can read more about Halebidu at Wikipedia.

I had written a few days back about a weekend trip to Wayanad. Here are some details about the place: Some background information about Wayanad first. This is from Wikipedia:

Wayanad , in the north-east of Kerala, India, was formed on November 1, 1980 as the 12th district, carved out of Kozhikode District and Kannur District. Though the word Wayanad is believed by some to have originated from Vayal (paddy) and Naad (land), ‘Land of Paddy Fields’, some scholars disagree. The region was known as Mayakshetra (Maya’s land) in the earliest records. Mayakshetra evolved into Mayanad and finally to Wayanad. There are many indigenous tribals in this area. It is set high on the majestic Western Ghats with altitudes ranging from 700 to 2100 m.

The 275km distance from Bangalore to Sulthan Batthery, Wayanad was covered in about 7hrs by bus. We stayed at Issac’s The Resort. Some photographs from the trip are shown below. You can see all the photographs at Share-A-Pic.

I’m off to Wayanad this weekend. You can expect some photographs and reviews about the place in the coming week.

Here is a small writeup about the place to let you know upfront about what and where Wayanad is!

Wayanad , in the north-east of Kerala, India, was formed on November 1, 1980 as the 12th district, carved out of Kozhikode District and Kannur District. Though the word Wayanad is believed by some to have originated from Vayal (paddy) and Naad (land), ‘Land of Paddy Fields’, some scholars disagree. The region was known as Mayakshetra (Maya’s land) in the earliest records. Mayakshetra evolved into Mayanad and finally to Wayanad. There are many indigenous tribals in this area. It is set high on the majestic Western Ghats with altitudes ranging from 700 to 2100 m.

The Wayanad district has a lot of tourist attractions ranging from caves, water falls, lakes, wild life, etc.

I wrote about Yahoo! Maps India a few days back, and I got the driving directions from Bangalore to Wayanad using the site. Click on the image to get complete details.

Are you staying in Bangalore and want a quick one-day gateway from the city? Visit Nandi Hills.

Nandi Hills, 65 Kms from Bangalore and 1,478 meters above sea level is Bangalore’s own hill station. It was Tipu Sultan’s summer retreat and Tipu’s fort walls still stand as testimony to history. A flight of 1,175 steps lead from the base of the hills to the top. A popular hill resort of the Bangaloreans.

A great deal of information along with a lovely collection of photographs is available at the Wikipedia site for Nandi Hills.

The tourist attractions at this place are:

• Tipu’s Drop the place from where Tipu Sultan made his prisoners fall.
• Tipu’s Summer Residence a beautiful palace on top of this hill. This palace is closed to the general public
• Temples: There are temples dedicated to Sri Bhoga Narasimha, Sri Ugra Narasimha and Sri Yoga Narasimha.
• Rivers: The rivers Pennar, Palar and Arkavati originate from these hills. Most of the sources have dried up.
• Brahmashram: It is said that Sage Ramakrishna Paramhamsa meditated here. Its a cool cave
• Muddenahalli: The home town of Sri M.Visveswaraya, the architect of modern Karnataka. Muddenahalli is just a few kilometers from Nandi Hills. The house of this genius is now a museum.

The photograph above is a view of Nandi Hills from Nandi town at the base.

This post was inspired by a comment I received for the article on Yahoo! Maps. Its about a website called RouteGuru which is aiming to do something similar to Yahoo! Maps, except that it currently has routes only for Delhi - NCR and no other cities.

To be fair to them, the website is currently in “Alpha”.

Nonetheless, I gave it a try to see what directions it gives from Connaught Place, New Delhi to Lotus Temple, New Delhi.

The results were quite good, except for the fact that there are no maps shown. It would be nice to have a map displayed just like Yahoo! Maps.

What was a plus point for them, is the fact that the driving directions can be sent as a text message to your phone.

The challenge that all such websites for Indian driving directions is going to face is to cope up with the numerous changes done to handle road traffic — one way roads, two way roads, roads completely dug up, etc!