Day 3 - 6th Feb 2008
Let me start by saying that today was eventful but the least productive day of the trip. We started off at 8AM, not very early, but we did not have much of a choice as appa did not want to get up early. We had breakfast at Shanbog, the place where we had beer a couple of days ago. Then started the adventure or the misadventure. We started driving towards Badami. I was all excited and thought we could see everything in a day.
We went to the Tunga Badra day. It was very beautiful to see so much water. We could hardly see land at the end of the horizon. A cheeky policeman allowed me to taje some pictures too. He told me, "Who told you can't pictures but please don't take it in front of me, Sir." Funny, ain't it?
We continued towards Badami after this brief break. Unfortunately our luck ran out. What could be worse thing to happen on a highway? Puncture!!! We started hearing some hissing sound from one of our tires. I was cruising at 120 kph when this happened. Not wanting to take any risk, I immediately stopped the car. This is when we had the classic Dad-Son moment. Guess what? We didn't have a spanner in the car. We played the usual game of blaming each other for not getting the tool kit. Thankfully for us a helpful officer and a villager on a bike came to our rescue. They went to their village and got a spanner, thankfully it fit prerfectly. He even changed the tire for us. 30 minuted down the tube, or rather the tire. We went to a puncture shop ahead and we were in for more surprise. There was no puncture in the tire. Thats when I realised what exactly is the worst thing that can happen on an highway? A fake puncture!!!! We have still not yet figured out where the hissing sound came from. May be it was just excess air coming out of the tube as we filled in air just before we got onto the highway. Another waste of 30 minutes.
Then we proceeded towards Kudala Sangama Deva, as we thought it came on the way to Badami. We reached Kamath Hotel at Kudala Sangama Deva by 1:40pm. We had one of the best Rotti oota there, though the waiter claimed that the Rotti oota at his home town was much better. The we saw Sangameshwara and the beautiful Basavana Vedike. But I felt tat we would have been better off not visiting this place. I was not exactly on a religious pilgrimage and it did not have much to offer with regards to architectural beauty, bad piece of advice from my brother who asked me to visit this place.
After missing our way once and also due to the winding village roads, we ended up at Aihole at 4:20PM. The KSD detour proved to be very costly with respect t0 time. I still had hopes of seeing Aihole and Pattadakal by the end of the day. But one walk through the Durga temple at Aihole proved it to me that this was not possible. We needed a guide desperately . On inquiring we found out that we would get guides only from tomorrow morning.
So we figured that the best thing to do was to call it a day and see all these places the next day, so that we could see everything in peace. We then drove to Badami, the road was quite smooth and nice. Pretty amazing for a village road. Looking forward to a active day tomorrow. We drove to the Mayura Chalukya Hotel, Government place but very decent accommodation. After some driving around the town to buy to buy some soap, mosquito repellent etc, we came back and had a very nice dinner. Almost like home food. Will miss all this food in US. Looking forward to tomorrow, tired as usual.
Let me start by saying that today was eventful but the least productive day of the trip. We started off at 8AM, not very early, but we did not have much of a choice as appa did not want to get up early. We had breakfast at Shanbog, the place where we had beer a couple of days ago. Then started the adventure or the misadventure. We started driving towards Badami. I was all excited and thought we could see everything in a day.
We went to the Tunga Badra day. It was very beautiful to see so much water. We could hardly see land at the end of the horizon. A cheeky policeman allowed me to taje some pictures too. He told me, "Who told you can't pictures but please don't take it in front of me, Sir." Funny, ain't it?
We continued towards Badami after this brief break. Unfortunately our luck ran out. What could be worse thing to happen on a highway? Puncture!!! We started hearing some hissing sound from one of our tires. I was cruising at 120 kph when this happened. Not wanting to take any risk, I immediately stopped the car. This is when we had the classic Dad-Son moment. Guess what? We didn't have a spanner in the car. We played the usual game of blaming each other for not getting the tool kit. Thankfully for us a helpful officer and a villager on a bike came to our rescue. They went to their village and got a spanner, thankfully it fit prerfectly. He even changed the tire for us. 30 minuted down the tube, or rather the tire. We went to a puncture shop ahead and we were in for more surprise. There was no puncture in the tire. Thats when I realised what exactly is the worst thing that can happen on an highway? A fake puncture!!!! We have still not yet figured out where the hissing sound came from. May be it was just excess air coming out of the tube as we filled in air just before we got onto the highway. Another waste of 30 minutes.
Then we proceeded towards Kudala Sangama Deva, as we thought it came on the way to Badami. We reached Kamath Hotel at Kudala Sangama Deva by 1:40pm. We had one of the best Rotti oota there, though the waiter claimed that the Rotti oota at his home town was much better. The we saw Sangameshwara and the beautiful Basavana Vedike. But I felt tat we would have been better off not visiting this place. I was not exactly on a religious pilgrimage and it did not have much to offer with regards to architectural beauty, bad piece of advice from my brother who asked me to visit this place.
After missing our way once and also due to the winding village roads, we ended up at Aihole at 4:20PM. The KSD detour proved to be very costly with respect t0 time. I still had hopes of seeing Aihole and Pattadakal by the end of the day. But one walk through the Durga temple at Aihole proved it to me that this was not possible. We needed a guide desperately . On inquiring we found out that we would get guides only from tomorrow morning.
So we figured that the best thing to do was to call it a day and see all these places the next day, so that we could see everything in peace. We then drove to Badami, the road was quite smooth and nice. Pretty amazing for a village road. Looking forward to a active day tomorrow. We drove to the Mayura Chalukya Hotel, Government place but very decent accommodation. After some driving around the town to buy to buy some soap, mosquito repellent etc, we came back and had a very nice dinner. Almost like home food. Will miss all this food in US. Looking forward to tomorrow, tired as usual.
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