Around the Sound (Öresund)

Having watched ‘Dekha ek khwaab to e silsile huye’ while growing up and later DDLJ, travelling in Europe and that too by train has been a fantasy! The very scene of train gushing through snow clad alps or the green fields or the colorful tulip gardens was something that I always wanted to cherish and enjoy!

The Oresund Bridge

‘Around The Öresund’ a ticket valid for two days, provided by ‘Skånetrafiken’ entitles you one round of journey around the Öresund Strait including train, bus and ship journeys. This provided a wonderful opportunity to travel through the ‘Skåne’ county of Sweden, cross to Denmark by a ship, travel through the coastal lines of Denmark, visit Copenhagen and cross back to Sweden via the famous ‘Öresund’ Bridge. All in two days, with a shoe string budget.

Öresund in Swedish and Danish, literally meaning ‘The Sound’ in English is a strait that separates Denmark from Southern Sweden. It has the shortest width of around 4 kms at a narrowest point between ‘Elsinore’ in Denmark and Helsingborg in Sweden.

Our journey started in Helsinborg, a town south of Gothenburg. Helsinborg is a scenic coastal city with many old buildings. ‘Kullagatan’ the main pedestrian shopping street here is one of the attractions apart from historical fortress and many churches. This being the point nearest to Denmark, the ship journey takes you to Denmark in a jiffy. Being first timers in the ship, it was really very interesting to see, the huge trucks, cars along with fellow homo sapiens boarding in the same ship.

Kronborg Castle

The ship was a huge one with bars, restaurants, a deck, a huge parking place to accommodate big trucks, cars, two wheelers and bicycles alike! Quite spacious seating areas and a lovely view of sea!

After the cross over, you will reach Helsingör (Elsinore in English influenced by Shakespeare). This quiet city has ‘Kronborg Castle’ which William Shakespeare has immortalized in his famous play Hamlet.  This city offers quite beautiful views of the sea, the strait and castle!  After spending quite some time here we boarded the trains in Denmark and continued our journey towards Copenhagen. One sharp contrast we noticed between trains in Sweden and Denmark were the Danish trains were quite colorful with colors like purple, orange and pink as compared to their sober counterparts in Sweden!

At Hellerup

With the ‘Around the Sound’ ticket you could get down anywhere in the coastal line of Denmark and hop on-hop off to any bus or train. Got down at Hellerup, got see the some of the modern Danish architecture along with ‘Experimentarium’, a museum and science center which are activity based. With a brief break here, we headed towards Copenhagen!

A stone art in Hellerup

Copenhagen is a harbor town and has a lot of historical significance. This is a crowded city and it just reminded me the port of Bombay! The city has historical, religious and modern stuff as well for a tourist to enjoy.  A couple of days or rather few hours in day cannot do justice to Copenhagen, but in the interest of time we decided to stick to a plan and headed towards ‘The Little Mermaid’.

The little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid is a statue near the shore and is one the most visited landmarks in Copenhagen. Based and built on the ‘Little Mermaid’ fairy tale, this statue (or a copy of it) stands (or sits) today with a good deal of history surrounding it.  

The next item on the menu was ‘Gefion Fountain’ featuring the large scale group of animal figures driven by Legendary Norse Goddess ‘Gefjun’ a mythological Goddess of Nordic regions. ‘Gefjun’  is a Goddess associated with ‘Ploughing’ and it is believed that Gefjun ploughed away lake Malaren (now a lake in Sweden) , thus forming the island of Zealand (to which Copenhagen belongs now). Coincidentally I found a lot of striking similarities between our Hindu mythical Gods, Lord Balarama who always has a plough in his hand and Lord Parashuram who reclaimed the land from the Sea. Aren’t the mythological characters similar? 

The Anglican Church

 Next destination was Saint Alban’s Anglican Church commonly referred as English Church, inaugurated in 1887, during which most of European nobility were present including the Prince and Princess of Wales, King and Queen of Denmark and Greece, Tsar and Tsarina from Russia. This church stands tall amidst lot of greenery as well near the harbor.

A street in Copenhagen

The most admiring part of this city is that, if you have a map and you know about the places, you can just walk around if you have energy!  Walking around the streets of Copenhagen you can see a lot of old architectural buildings. ‘Nyhavn’ (New harbor or port) road is one such place, lined by brightly colored 17th and 18th Century houses, bars, cafés and restaurants. 

Sand Art at Nyhavn

Amalienborg Palace

Next pit stop was Amalienborg palace, which is the winter home of the Dutch Royal Family. This consists of the four identical buildings forming a circle. The change of Guard ceremony of the Royal guards in front of the palace is believed to be a real treat to watch! Unfortunately this happens at noon and we had to miss it. Nevertheless we had a pleasure of watching the Royal guards in action doing their duties.

Marble Church

With almost tired and retired legs we headed to Marble Church (Popular Name) also called as Frederik’s church. This church boasts of the largest dome in Scandinavia with a span of 31 meters. It is believed to be inspired from St Peters basilica in Rome. This magnificent church stands tall towards the west of the palace. Needless to say it was all tranquility inside the church and I was really impressed by the large dome and the magnificent interiors of the church.

The dome, from inside

Most of the our Copenhagen, the Sun God didn’t show mercy on us to take good photographs, but nevertheless it was worth seeing a lot of historical places and learn a bit about the European history. Dragging our feet we boarded on to a train towards Malmö. The train passes through the Öresund Bridge. Commissioned in 1999, this 8 Km bridge connects the Danish capital Copenhagen and Swedish city of Malmö and primarily serves as major link for road and rail networks connecting Nordic countries to central and western Europe.

Turning Torso from Malmo Beach

Malmö Capital of Skåne County is known for its Green Initiatives and Good Living. We were really impressed to see that most of the public transport here runs on Bio Fuel and most aptly the buses are colored ‘Green’. It boasts of some excellent parks and also called as City of Parks, which reminds me of our own ‘Bengaluru’, once upon a time. The main attractions are the turning torso and white sandy beaches.

Art at a park in Green city Malmo

One heartening fact to take away is that, this is one city where whole of sustainability is preached and practiced right from eco buildings, waste management, public transportation, use of renewable energy etc etc. I hope other cities will draw some lessons from it and start going green.

With an unfulfilled desire to spend a evening or morning watching the Öresund bridge we left from Malmö for a 3 day birding trip towards southwestern tip of Sweden and guess what? Our two day ‘Around the Sound’ was still valid!!! Till we reached the Town of Falsterbo. Read more about Birding experience at Falsterbo here!

Bangalore to Agumbe – Road Trip

As we packed our bags post Xmas vacation, the choice was very clear and it was Agumbe. We had two choices for our road journey, Take NH 206 and reach Agumbe via Shimoga or Take NH 48 and reach Agumbe via Hassan and Chickmagalur. Having already travelled once via NH 206, we decided to choose the later one mainly because we would be traversing through Bharda Wildlife Sanctuary.

The Drive:
Although leaving Bangalore very early and reaching Aagumbe was one of the options, we preferred to leave Bangalore the previous evening and stay somewhere in between. We left Bangalore at around 5 PM and and stayed at Kamat Yatrinivas. Kamat Yatrinivas( near CR Patna) offers a decent stay with double occupancy bedrooms and dormitories at affordable rates. We left CR Patna at around 6 AM in the morning and headed towards Chickmagalur, it was a cold winter morning with a lot of mist around , needless to say it was one of memorable drives. Route from Chickmagalur till Agumbe is pretty scenic with almost entire stretch covered with Coffee and cardamom estates. We reached Agumbe @ around 11 AM in the morning and headed straight to Doddamane.


Drive Info:
Route : Bangalore- Kunigal – CR Patna– Hassan- Belur – Chickmagalur – Aldur – Balehonnur – Sringeri (Outskirts) – Agumbe
Distance: ~ 350 Kms
Time taken for Journey: ~ 8 Hours with couple of breaks in between.

Stay and Food:
Doddmane is world famous in Agumbe :-) . Just on the road side, this was home to "Swami and his friends” of Maludi days fame. Kasturakka and family were our hosts and I must say, this was home away from home for us. As Kasturakka was preparing delicacies day after day, I was in a no mood to venture outdoors. Stay and accommodation was pretty good, it was as if I was at my Grandama house.


Kasturakka hasn’t fixed any rate for all these, but accepts whatever comes out of the way! Dragging her to a conversation, she reveals how this was started, who were the esteemed guests at Doddamane , what is keeping here running this show etc. From the money that is generated, she also supports the poor and under privileged children in their education. In fact Doddamane is home to several of them.

Places Around:
ARRS: We had plans to visit Rainforest Research Station at Agumbe, we were infact very lucky to meet Gowri Shankar at Doddamane. It was very kind of Mr. Gowri Shankar for taking us around and explaining what they do.

Kundadri Hill: Another picturesque spot where we had a great experience of the rising cherry from the mist clad hills of Western Ghats. Along with Ravi (Kasturakka’s Son in Law) we started at around 5 AM in the morning and I was confident of driving up all way myself. As we started driving up, the hairpin bends were too sharp and it was full of mist with little or no visibility at times. I almost felt, I shouldn’t have ventured into this adventure with my Alto. Nevertheless, we made to the top in time and got simply lost in the nature after that!!!!

Sunset Point: Well.. Can you miss the wonderful sunset from Sunset point, I remember seeing this secluded place during my childhood. Sunset was great, except for the crowd around me! There is a beautiful lake nearby and offers paddle boat rides as well.

Jogi Gundi, Barkhana and Onake Abbi water falls are must! and a trek to Narasimha Parvatha can also be planned. Next plan is to visit Agumbe during the peak monsoon and just enjoy the rain, eating Kasturakka's delicacies.

Sarpass Trek- 2009

Finally Mission Accomplished!!!!

I was a little apprehensive about the trek when Chandu rang me to inform me that he would not be making to this trek, and even his friend won't be able to make it this time. So throughout my journey to Kasol - the base camp site (around 40 Kms from Kullu) I was thinking about whether I will have a good company during the trek! But YHAI didn't disappoint me, It was indeed a great company, and for that matter I never felt that I came here to trek all alone during the entire trek! On the contrary now I believe that you should venture alone in to these youth hostel treks and make good freinds out there!

The trek indeed was one of the kind of experiences that you will ever have!!! The high points of the trek were

-> The bone chilling water bath in the Parvathi river and hot water bath at hotsprings
-> Tasting delicious and fresh MOMOS at a canteen in Kasol
-> The journey on the bus top till Manikarn and enjoying the view of the valley from the top of the bus
-> Waking up to see the snow capped peaks infront of you
-> Brushing your teeth at an altitude of ~14000 feet with chilling water
-> Liberty of having energy drinks at such an altitude which keeps your spirits soaring !!!!
-> Having experienced the snow at our camp site at Zirmi
-> Having weatherd a mighty snow storm for almost an hour before reaching our camp at Tila Lotni
-> Having seen the moonlit snow peaks on a beatiful night
-> Gazing stars and moon on a clear night sky with the company of snow peaks around you
-> The every tasty Maggie, Omlette and Tea at Tea and lunch points all along the trek route
-> Crossing the challenging cliff before the slide after we started from Tila Lotni
-> And the mighty snow slide after we crossed the Sarpass, this one scores amongst all !!!!
-> Finally the "Shahi Snan" at Manikaran

Well.. the list is end less... I can keep going on and on and on..... but unfortunately the only low point of the trek was unfortunate demise of fellow trekkers in the SP-1 Batch :(

Click here to view the snaps of new friends during this trek

Take a look at Sarpass view which is my fav shot!!(More to come later)

Vote for PaintedStork

The voting lines are open for the 2009 Photo blog awards.

Please register and vote for
PaintedStork and spread the word.

Ashtamudi – The perfect getaway!

After a monotonous, stressful couple of months during the fag end of 2008, we had decided to have a leisure trip to Ashtamudi and planned everything towards that. Come January! Series of bad news started flowing in! First the recession, then the uncertainty about being jobless  and of course a worry some future! But eventually we decided to move on since everything was planned well ahead and we thought it should be the perfect break in the midst of all happenings around us.

Hmm… I must say! Ashtamudi, the eight cornered/branched lake didn’t fail to deliver on this!. Approximately around 10 Kms from Kollam, Asthamudi is the second largest backwater lake in Kerala. The club Mahindra Backwater Retreat @ Asthamudi situated in the unique spot, offers the great views of the lake, the fishing nets , view of green coconut trees and the calm back waters of the lake.

As the motive was, not to move around too much we didn’t plan much to move around and decided to spend the time in the resort itself. The major achievement of this trip was that, first time in my life I played Scrabble with S and won them with my super natural abilities and divine intervention:-) . The nature around the resort is beautiful, that our evenings were simply spent by sitting near the lake shore, facing the cool breeze from the waters.

This time I also managed to do some fishing in the lake. As with Photography, fishing needs tones of patience, otherwise you will keep wasting your baits :-). The most difficult part was to fix the prawns as baits to the fishing rod. But nevertheless at the end I had 4/5 fishes in my kitty :-).

The resort really offers a fabulous view of the sunrise. Having missed the sunrise on the first day, we decided to go spot on the next day to see the sunrise. Believe me it was really one of the magnificent sunrises I have ever seen! Take a look at few wonderful pics of sunrise.

I must admit that the chef at the Resort is one of the best that Club Mahindra folks have and the food here really beats the likes of Coorg, Munnar resorts of Club Mahindra. The one thing that we gave a miss was the house boat ride in and around Kollam and to the confluence of the lake with sea offered by Club Mahindra folks. With around 16~18 hrs of train journey from Bangalore, I must say this was one exhilarating trips I had ever been to! Cyao!



Other important things to do: Overnight house boat ride to Alleppy, Candle light dinner on house boat, Ayurvedic Massage
Best time to travel: Right after monsoon till January
Useful Links: Club Mahindra Backwater Retreat

Hanumana Gundi @ Kudremukh

Enroute on a pilgrimage with my family, bumped upon this wonderful waterfalls near Kudremukh. Water gushing down from a height of approx 100 ft is really a treat to watch. Manned by Karnataka Forest Department, one needs to pay a nominal entre fee of Rs 20/Person to get to see the falls. To actually get in to water one has to climb down the rocky terrain a bit!



A word of caution though for the visitors, The entry and exit points of Kudremukh National park are monitored and one has to pass through the exit within two hours of entry.
Ofcourse, spending couple of odd hours at the falls is permitted, after showing the entry ticket for the waterfalls @ the National park exit.

Armed with my new camera I did some experiments, As I was hard pressed for the time, I could just take few snaps with the camera, and it was time to return back. I guess, it would be at its ferocious best and a treat to watch during Monsoon, except for the leeches :-). Any way I have already made up my mind to visit this during coming Monsoon season.



Location info: Inside Kudremukh National Pak, 30 Kms from Kalasa,
Best time to visit: October to March,