Category: South India

  • Udupi & the nearby Malpe Beach of Tulu Land, Karnataka

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    If you are aware of the South Indian cuisine restaurants present everywhere in India, then Udupi would be synonymous with them, BUT If you have travelled there, then like me… when you hear Udupi, you would think of Krishna temples, Malpe beach and what not. I travelled there a while back and then wrote very…

  • Pongal Photo Blog, India Festivals

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    Spent two Pongals in a really traditional setup. This was at Isha Yoga Center near Coimbatore. Pongal is the harvest festival. It is celebrated as Makar Sankranti in most other parts of India. Apart from the difference in the name, the way of celebration is also very different.          

  • Anegundi – A Photologue & the search for Kishkindha

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    Priyanka Dalal
    in ,

    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    Continuing from the last post where I wrote about my adventures in Hampi – I took a moped and rode off to a village called Anegundi to check out some Kishkindha ruins from the time of Ramayana! Anegundi was a surprise. I entered this village chowk on a sultry afternoon with just a few people around.…

  • Anegundi – The Ruins of Kishkindha, Ramayana #Hampi

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    I spent 3 days in Hampi. 1 and half day I spent working on my laptop. All the hotels there have wifi. They have to, because neither Tata Photon nor Vodafone have connectivity. Its a heritage place and so the government hasn’t allowed any mobile towers there. I was wondering what to explore when I…

  • River Rafting in River Kali, Dandeli

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    Priyanka Dalal
    in ,

    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    After the hype of the last post, I am going to have to disappoint you a little bit. The gypsies were very much there…. not ethnic Romani people but peasants and villagers from around North Karnataka. Lots of them had gathered at an ancient Shiva temple located near Dandeli for the full moon of the…

  • To Dandeli & Back – Rejuvenated

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    Dandeli. Yes I know, if you are from Mumbai and other northern areas of the country you don’t know what I am talking about. If you are from Bangalore its been a family trip weekend destination forever! It is namma Dandeli for you. I went Mumbai – Dandeli – Bangalore – Mumbai and I have…

  • Bucketlist: Tour the Lighthouses of India

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    What do you think of Lighthouses? Do they transport you to some mystical, adventurous & raucous age-old ship voyage with sailors swearing at each other but with a die-hard exploration spirit blooming in their hearts? Ships, wrecks, explorers, discovery of new lands, exotic stuff, tribals, talking parrots or have I just read too many books…

  • SkyWatch: Venugopalswamy Temple, Behind KRS Dam, Mysore

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    I love taking sky photos – twilight time when the clouds get pink, orange colored hues from the sun makes a picture perfect shot! I landed at the Venugopalswamy Temple in Mysore around 6ish. Glad it wasn’t later cause I wouldn’t have gotten the full effect of this magnificent structure! This temple has a very…

  • Travel Pic of the Week: Hoysala Lion at Halebeedu Channakesava Temple

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    If you have seen any Hoysala empire architecture then this Lion will seem very familiar. Folklore suggests that a courageous lad called ‘Sala’ killed a Lion bare handed to save his Jain Guru. ‘Hoy’ means strike and thus the empire was named HoySala. I really like how ornate the lion is. A beautifully, detailed mane and…

  • A Brief Guide To Hampi – A Traveller’s Delight

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    “After 6 months of travelling, this is the most beautiful place I have visited in India” “It’s one of my most favorite places on Earth” “You have to go to Hampi, its awesome” These are the kind of raves I have been hearing for a while now from travellers for Hampi. I got a chance…

  • Travel Pic of the Week: As still as the Crocodile @ Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    Lovely boat ride in the Ranganathittu bird sanctuary near Srirangapatna, Mysore. Saw lads of crocodiles basking in the sun. They camouflage so well one can easily miss them! As still as the rock. I went and sat on the water bank for a while, later it struck me that the crocodile could actually come from the…

  • Travel Pic of the Week: Kerala All Women Petrol Pump

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    What a happy sight, a petrol pump ‘man’ned entirely by women! Saw this All Women Petrol Pump in Kerala on my way to Kochi from Kanyakumari. Another two supposedly ‘male’ professions taken up by women in Kerala (& Karnataka) are, bus conductors & drivers – was amazed to see a woman bus conductor in Mysore…

  • Travel Pic of the Week: The “Magic Babas” from Hampi (& entertaining Con Artists)

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    Spent three days in Hampi a few days back. Saw these Magic babas roaming around, was curious, I thought these might be real black magic folks so was wondering whether to try and get some dope (not literal, pls I am not hashish mata!) get some dope on black magic rituals maybe even be able…

  • The Small town of Kapu Lighthouse, NH 17, Beaches of Karnataka

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    The small town of Kapu or Kaup is located very close to Udupi on the NH 17 highway of Konkan Karnataka. Inter-city buses and local buses to & from Udupi/Mangalore – inexpensive ones as well as AC volvos pass by Kapu. One of the popular Mariamma temples in this town is right opposite the bus…

  • Balaram Temple, Malpe

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    Malpe is a small beach town near Udupi. Its like a suburb of Udupi, just some 6 km away. Amongst stuff to see in Malpe there is the superb beach, fishing wharf, ship cutters factory and an ancient Balaram temple. Balaram is the brother of Krishna and also a big sage/god or something. The Balaram…

  • Kanyakumari First Impressions, Solo Woman Travelling!

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    On my month long trip this January I reached an impasse, I had been on the road for 20 or so days and then reached Bangalore. From Bangalore I had no idea where to go. I planned to go to Pondicherry but there was some Aurobindo event and hence all accommodations were full. Finally got…

  • 4 Photos of NH17: Udupi – Malpe – Kaup

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    A week back I was on my to Bangalore and stopped over to experience the small town of Udupi a religious place due its very old Krishna temple. I also visited the nearby Malpe Beach and Kaup Lighthouse. The highway was a scenic, beautiful drive with lush greens everywhere. There is specifically a stretch called…

  • Photo Story & Travel Route – 1 month on the road, South India

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    Finally finished my photo compilation of my 1 month long road travel in Jan, 2013! I traveled around South India in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and a little bit in Kerala! The final route looked like, Mum – Madikeri (via Mangalore) – Mysore (with Isha Yatra covered: Halebeedu/Belur, Gomatgiri, Nanjungoud, B.R.Hills and more) – Coimbatore (Isha…

  • My Peep into the Kochi Muziris Biennale 2012

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    Half a day! Half a day was all I got to see the Kochi Biennale in my month long road trip in South India! It was not enough at all… but what I did see really impressed me a lot! It was actually thought provoking and so engaging, I am amazed! These two videos are…

  • Multi-religious Coonoor Mornings

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    I remember the mornings in Coonoor! I didn’t do anything particularly, I went there in January and it was too cold to get out of bed early. So I slept tell at least 8.00am! The most unique thing however was the hodge-podge of the three main religions – Muslim, Hindu & Christianity! One of the…

  • At a Coffee Estate Home Stay – Madikeri, Coorg

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    I would like to write in detail of my thoughts about home-stays, coffee estates and Madikeri, as this was my first encounter with all three! This post however is about what is most vivid about the place in my experience…. BIRDS! I have a little past in ornithology. I have done a few bird watches,…

  • The Bylakuppe Adventure – Tibetan Settlement, Coorg

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    I was quite excited to go to the tibetan settlement at Bylakuppe in Coorg since I found out about it sometime back. I visited it about 10 days back. The Golden Temple is a tourist attraction and a very extravagant tibetan temple! My adventure however started as an uncle dropped me at the gates of…

  • The Errant Cow – Travel Animal Stories

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    While surfing I came across Ailsa’s travel blog, where she has weekly theme posts! This week’s theme is animals. I remembered one incident with an errant cow in Mysore that I thought I can make part of her theme. Its actually quite funny. Generally domestic animals are afraid of human contact but the cows on…

  • Where the laundry guy disappears – Crazy Travel Tales

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    This trip of mine to Cbe-Mysore-Shravanbelagola-Bangalore was filled with some crazy encounters! One of the prominent ones being my laundry clothes debacle. Well it started with me, I was rushing off somewhere on Saturday morning and needed to drop off some clothes at a laundry. The big ones at that time were all closed so…

  • Auroville and Matri Mandir, Pondicherry

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    Priyanka Dalal
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    contact me at inspiritualityblog(@)gmail(.)com for personalized pilgrimage planning for a powerful spiritual experience

    15km from the city is the Auroville. This is also where the Matri Mandir – an intriguing meditation complex made by the Mother and Aurobindo is located. My first view of this center was a sense of lot of ‘disjoint’ communities working together. It probably felt disjoint because the different building complexes are some distance…