Pyramid International Valley, Bangalore

6-May-2012

Sleep is unconscious Meditation.

Meditation is conscious sleep.

Pyramid International valley, the word vibrated my ear drum a quite many times. My wish to see the spectacular place was touching the upper threshold.

Pyramid valley, located almost 35 Km from city center and almost 25 Km from JP Nagar, is famous as a meditation center and also considered as one of the 7 wonders of Bangalore. Pyramid is considered to be the most stable structure which have high concentration of energy. The energy concentration rises more when it is a full moon night.

In the Pyramid valley village.

It was another aimless weekend. Started as usual with a lazy attitude where most of the day time gone in washing cloths and arranging for some feast. Late in afternoon my friend told me that he will be going to pyramid valley since it is a full moon night and also Budhha purnima. I did not gave another thought. Full moon night falling in weekend was the coincidence would be tough to repeat again.

I started biking from 7PM since 8PM the program would be starting in Pyramid valley. It would take one hour to cover 35 Km since it is on highway, I guessed. I slipped in my biking gloves, helmet and my jacket, filled petrol on the way and headed toward pyramid valley. As soon as we crossed the city limits and entered village side, pleasant breeze of air and a full moon night made the journey awesome.  Stopped at some hotel to refuel ourselves and started again. We took some snaps on the way. The smell of village soil in Harohalli made us feel that our destination is near.

At the entrance of Pyramid valley

The program and meditation was arranged in night. There were good number of people we could have ever imagined since it was far from city. We took time to roam inside the valley. A few minutes walk from main gate was located the mouth gaping Pyramid structure. It was looking unbelievably beautiful. We took time taking snaps from different angle.

We were curious to go inside the pyramid. It was big spacious pyramid and almost 200 people can sit inside at a time. There was a elevated spot made in the center of pyramid and was named as intensive meditation center. If you are going on top of elevated place you must meditate for 30 minutes. It could accommodate almost 40 people at a time.

We came out and tried to explore some more places near by. One aged person was sharing some of his ideas on meditation and was discussing the benefits and methods of doing meditation. We were not much interested in that. So we went inside pyramid directly and sat on the intensive meditation stage. We sat continuously for almost 2 hours. Watch was showing 1:30AM when we came out. the appetite rose again. We found one small shop just outside the premises to munch something.

We were thinking what to do now. It was almost 2am. We went inside pyramid again. The pyramid got unexpectedly over crowded. Baba's talk on meditation was over and whole crowd moved inside pyramid. We looked for some place to stay in night but got nothing.

We had no choice but to drive again in moon lit night. 2AM with no one on the road, holding bike accelerator at maximum all the way was again a nice moment of driving. Only unpleasant experience was our street dogs barking and giving a threatening look as soon as we drew near our house. It was nice trip, nice meditation experience and nice biking experience indeed.

Hogenakkal and Yelagiri Trip

Hogenakkal and Yelagiri trip

Hogenakkal : Located in Tamilnadu, India. 200 Km from Bangalore. 

How to go: Bus, Car

Yelagiri: Located in jolarpettai, Tamilnadu. 150 Km from Bangalore.

How to go: Bus, Train, Car

Hogenakkal A spectacular view

The reunion of PRAN was going to happen and R of PRAN did not left any stone unturned to make this trip memorable.We all were going to meet first time after college days i.e. after almost five years. The motto of trip was nothing but to relax, do some campfire, sightseeing and of course updating ourselves on our last 5 years events.

As usual R only did managerial job of pushing us to book all the important thing like car and hotel. 

We all were excited and we all also wanted to take a break from staring at glowing screens. Car and hotels were booked as per plan.

Towards Yelagiri

The plan was set. On Friday after office we will leave for Hogenakkal fall and then rest day in Yellagiri. Sunday night we were supposed to be back in city to attend one college friend's marriage.

One member of PRAN was no more single. Also one of our close friend of PRAN group joined so together we were 6 in this trip. As per plan we started for the trip, around 8 in night. It was Bangalore rush on Friday which took almost 2 hours to reach out of city limit and enter in Hosur. 

On the way we saw a beautiful restaurant named "Dhabba". We all were hungry so we stopped there. It was almost empty. The interior of Dhabba was really nice. We lied down on chowki kept there and ordered some food. After having nice dinner we got in our Innova and started again.
 Soon we left main road and started moving in small roads connecting village. the aroma of village soil was pleasant. After 30 minutes of snaking through "trees banked" road we reached Dharampuri, Tamilnadu. Then we crossed Pennagram which was 15 km from Hogenakkal. The road from Pennagram to Hogenakkal was through forest and mountains. It was late in night when we reached Hogenakkal. We had tough time finding hotel we booked. Anyhow we found our hotel, wake the receptionist and got settled in our room.

There are many bursts of waterfall in Hogenakkal

Next morning when few of us were getting ready, we got time to go for a walk to feel the Hogenakkal air and to find the scope of breakfast . In first glance it looked nice place. Coffee and tea was easily available. The fall was also very near to our hotel. There was a small market also at the bank of the river.
Everyone got ready to enjoy the natural beauty of waterfall. We had tea and coffee in the market near fall. We paid Rs10 per head to get on the hanging bridge from where we could see a very beautiful view of waterfall. It was widespread waterfall and a proper place was made for people to take bath. Although tourist were taking bath where ever they found water flowing.
Our camera jumped into action. We took multiple snaps and then moved on the other side of bridge which was full of rocks. We roamed around and took photos from different angle. The shower of small droplets from waterfall was very romantic.

On the way there were row of vendors who were selling fried river fishes and some soft drinks. Roasted rice flakes and packed snacks was also available there.

The fall was spread in wide area. Some part of fall was in Tamilnadu and some in Karnataka. There was one tower in the middle where you can climb by paying Rs5. It was spectacular view from up there. The falls were all around and one side was silent river on which were flowing few coracles(round boat made of bamboo sticks). Now coracle became our next treat of our trip. We immediately came down and started talking to some boatmen. Ultimately deal was done on Rs900 for 6 pax. We started sailing in that round timid looking coracle. One of our friend was little scared. It was fun 2 hours smooth ride. Seeing the small waterfalls from below and sailing between rocks on the both side was nice experience. Some eagles and water birds were hovering for their brunch. 

On the way we stopped at one point and the boatman lifted the coracle to the other end of river. On the way walking to the other end we saw falls which was in Karnataka. Again having almost 30 minutes of boatride he left us to the end from where our hotel was nearer.

By 1 afternoon we were back in our hotel room.  We took our luggage and started for our next destination. 

Yelagiri

After almost 1 and a half hour of travelling we reached to our destination Yelagiri. Yelagiri is up on mountain not somewhere similar to Ooty or Kodaikanal but a nice place near Bangalore which can be covered in 3 hours. You can reach Yelagiri also by getting down at Jollarpettai station and taking some bus from there which will take you uphill. 

We landed in our hotel at Yelagiri which was indeed one of the most beautiful hotel of the city Hotel Landmark. It was a nice and cool place to relax and we were happy on our decision. After getting fresh                 we landed in the hotel's dining hall. There was a buffet arranged on which we satisfied our apatite. Later after a small chit chat we moved to our room for a nap. In evening we decided to go for a walk in the silent cool streets of Yelagiri. Small shops and restaurants were on both the sides of street. We stopped at one restaurant and munched something. 

In night our hotel arranged a campfire. We did some chit chat and some games till late night. Next morning we got up late in relaxed mood.  There was a water fall near by but no one was in mood to visit waterfall again. We went to artificial lake near by. It was a beautiful lake and few couples were enjoying pedal boating.

 Although we opted to go round the lake instead of going for boating. After spending almost an hour there we started back to Bangalore. 

On the way there was big McDonald restaurant on highway. We stopped there for sometime and then landed in Bangalore. It was fun and cool relaxing trip.