Shravanabelagola , Halebeedu-Belur and Chikkamangaluru

All of a sudden we decided to move out of Bengalooru on weekends.
This time it was a historic tour to Shravanabelagola , Halebeedu-Belur and

Chikkamangaluru.

Four of us left B'lore @ around 6:00 AM 28th July Saturday on the way 2 Hassan.
On the way u may find around 100 tourist boards provided by Karnataka Tourism to guide u .
Which takes u to Shravanabelagola almost 190 KM from B'lore...we reached there around 11 AM.U need to climb around 650 steps cut-out on rock, to reach One of 7 wonders of India n the Worlds Biggest Monolithic image(57 feet) of Sri Gomateshwara. This amazing piece of Architecture was build @ around 988 AD and still stands tall in its full glow welcoming each one. After reaching on top its time to take ur breath as u will be 470 feet above ground level.
Opposite to that hill u will find yet another hill(Chikka Betta) half the size of this. Here u may find lots of Jain Basadi and some caves here n there. It takes around 3 hours to climb and get back down.

From Shravanabelagola moved to Halebeedu which is around 70 KM from that place.
First thing that welcomes u here is Hoysaleswara temple which was build around 11h century. This place was the capital of Hoysala dynasty which ruled Carnatic zone for about 300 years. The Archaeological survey of India(ASI) has maintained the place in a very good manner n restored the temple beauty as it was 1000 years ago. Its best that u hire a guide, as n when he explains about the magnificent architecture we can just follow up with those art works n try to understand. This place is a must visit. In and around u may find some Jain Basadi, well one of the basadi has well polished 12 pillars where u can see ur own image on each pillar. The pillars has been lathed well that the images differ from one another.

Next @ around 5PM reached Belur which is around 20 KM from there. Here stands the
magnificent Chennakeshava temple. Even this temple was build by Hoysalas. Well we hired a guide here also. A guide will cost u 130 INR. And no entrance fees anywhere where we had visited upto now. ASI has maintained all these places superbly with no cost form the visitors........One of the specialties of Belur temple was all those 54 special statues around temple. One major thing to be visited here is a prototype pillar or we can call it an index pillar, the reason all most all the sculptures which u can find on the temple can be found on this single pillar. As it took more than 100 years to build such temple they had done a prototype of it on a single pillar. There is also a 42 feet gravity pillar standing on its own. This pillar is standing on its own weight for the past 100s of years on only 3 sides from the 4 side u can pass a piece of paper. (This is a great proof for Vastu calculation as at that point there is zero Earth vibration)

The Hoysalas had build around 54 such temples of which only 3 stand tall today Halebeedu,
Belur and Somanathpura (Which we coverd in our last tour to Mysore). We had covered almost all of those now so what next......we still had one more day left..........???? moved on to Chikamangaluru, 20 KM from Belur n halted that night u may find lot of Lodges here so its not a big deal for staying @ night.

Next day 29th July Sunday moved on to check out some coffee estates around Chikamangaluru.
At around 10 KM in any direction u may find coffee estates. But we were on the way to
Baba-budanagiri Hills (BB Hills) which was around 40 KM from there, so decided to check out this place. I had always heard about this controversial place in news. But let me tell u there is nothing much to see in BB-Hills just a cave where u will find datta peetha and darga in a single place so i think u got the controversy rite. But again its a must visit spot for all nature lovers as u can touch clouds and can find water falls here n there. 100% pure Oxygen is available here in nature absolutely free. Guys like us had some breathing problem as there was no pollution in air, this was the time v missed B'lore. But as i told u its a high sensitive area u may find cops almost everywhere. The temperature was around 10-15 degrees. And the visibility is around 10 meters so cant afford to drive above 10-15 Km speed. We stopped at every 10 KM entered some coffee estates....if u find some loopholes in fencing then u may check in some guys coffee estate n pluck some coffee seeds as {Prashanth did} but beware of DOGS.We enjoyed that place till 12 PM then headed back to B'lore. On the way to B'lore u will come
across Yagachi Dam(1 KM form Belur) spend some time here if u have not seen water for long time.
On the way there r lots of sunflower n marigold farms so again {Prashanth} found a loop hole n plucked some flowers for his girl. Well u will find Dhabas from Hassan so no problem for food.
Reached B'lore safe n sound @ around 7 PM to WOW greeted by nice traffic on Tumkur road and WOW what a polluted air. Finally feels good to b home.
From Historic monuments to Hill stations it was yet another joy ride.
The total cost of 650 KM tour was 750 INR inclusive of travel, stay n food.
Special thanks to Lohith for guiding this tour and for a special breakfast @ his house in Channarayapatna.
As usual our Driver Raghu for driving 650 KM for 2 days and Navigator Sheikh for his backup driving.
And special thanks to Mr.Satish Koppar for his 800cc Audi car.