It was one of those weekends when I planned to do a lot but ended up watching the idiot box for whole of Friday evening (till midnight) and the same continued for the whole of Saturday…… surfing across news channels, national geo, travel n living and music and sports…the second ODI between India and Sri Lanka (which India won) …. By Saturday evening I had a strained eye and an overdose of useless information …. It was close to Mid night when of the blue I had an urge to drive my car (which was lying idle for the past many days as I take my motor-bike to office)…… and I started thinking of possibilities and after reviewing day trip alternatives like Mysore, Hogenakkal, We (my spouse and me) finalized Nandi Hills
. I have been to Nandi hills before but it was a year back and I missed the much coveted Sunrise as we (me and my pal) reached late in the afternoon, which is an absolutely wrong time to be there. So then all was agreed on! As we planned to leave early morning 4:00 am, I set an alarm for 3:00 am. We both got ready on time and started from home on dot.
I had hardly came out of my street and my eyes went out to the fuel meter which was dead zero!!! I went to the nearest petrol pump in HSR layout but then I realized that it was 4:00 am in the morning and most of the fuelling stations are not 24/7…. After a bit of struggle and a help from the night police-patrol team, I managed to fill my tank in a fueling station close to Madiwala Police station. Now with the tank full and spirits on top, we put on our favorite Music CD and were on the way toward Nandi Hills. We took the outer ring road all the way till Hebbal flyover and then connected to NH7, the roads were in a pretty good condition and the best part was minimal traffic. Occasionally found a long distance truck toddling on the right most lane at 30kms/perhr speed. Our eyes lit up when we saw a fully lit up highway, it was not the usual yellow light. The whole stretch from Hebbal flyover till the Devanhalli International Airport is well lit up with white light. Most of the vehicles in that stretch were the airport pickups which were fizzing over 100km/per hr, but me wanted to make it a cruze than a race so kept at a constant speed of 80kms. After crossing International Airport about 10kms a head we took a left diversion (there is a signboard which says Nandi hills 22 kms), however that signboard is not aptly placed, it is in one corner and we were lucky to spot it in the dark. To my surprise the two lane road was in an extremely good condition
(this snap was taken on our way back). It was a earry experience to be driving alone in that stretch of the road were there was no street lights neither any houses, except in two or three occasions when we hit small villages. Suddenly I could see many small things running at the corner of the road, my wife freeked out, at first I didn’t understand what exactly were those tiny things. After a while it happened again and this time I noticed that those were farm rats, hundreds of them lined up on both sides of the road, may be waiting for the moths / insects to feed on. The moment the head light falls on them they make a run to their borrows ….. we soon reached a dead-end (T-point) were we were supposed to take a left towards Nandi Hills. I parked my car next to a small shack were I found a big group of youngsters on their bikes having tea. It was very cold and this was the first time we stepped out of the comfort of the car and realized that we should have carried warm clothes too…. To beat the cold , I tought it would be a good idea to have a sip of tea. So I went in and ordered for two “Special Tea”. The tea, except for the fact the it was hot was nowhere close to be called a tea. We could hardly take a sip of it and desided to throw it off. It’s a big NO NO for travelers to have a tea break in T-point. We started again and the road till the foot hill was not in its best condition but was ok. Soon we reached the foot hills and started the assent. It was a winding uphill drive was I thoroughly enjoyed it, it was still dark so we couldn’t see any thing apart from the street which was lit by our head lights. We reached the top in no time and saw a huge crowd waiting for the entry ticket. I should say Bribe has its root every were in this country, The person who was in charge of issuing the ticket was taking his own sweet time to issue ticket and the queue was getting longer and longer. The crowd becomes restless as the Sun would rise in the next few minutes and they might miss the show!!! and of the blue there come the savior ….. one of their staff member walks by every one and asks if they want ticket (I mean black) a few smart guys did opt for the option and paid him 10 bugs extra and got their tickets instantly. But I opted to wait and got my car parking and entry ticket (Car parking is Rs.60 and entry ticket is Rs.3 per head). I personally feel that the car parking was a waste I could have parked it outside the gate itself, the only advantage of getting a Car park ticket is that you can take the Car to the top of the Hill which is about 1.5kms from the entrance, That was the reason I didn’t want to miss the sunrise, walking all the way to Sunrise point will certainly take 15-20 min. So we started again and drew all the way to the top of the hill, parked the car and found our self a cozy spot to view the spectacle. We were on time and in the distance (other side of the view point) I could here crowd gathering and the noise building up in anticipation. And there in the distant horizon came out a sparkle of bright red light,
and the whole hill was covered with claps and whistles, It was as if the hero has made a grand entry (like south-India superstar Rajinikanth does). I pulled out my camera a snapped a few quick once. We both sat there till the small red flame turned into a bright fire ball. Then we decided to take a stroll around. It was really cold and breezy tooo and dearly wished that we brought some warm cloths
…. We came across a restaurant which had a great view as it was built at the edge of the cliff Hotel Mayura. But then I noticed that there were no customers inside and I realized the it was just 7am. I enquired the gatekeeper and he said that it will only open around 10 am. So we planned to visit the Nandi Temple, here tooo we went inside the temple premises and noticed that the main temple is locked …. So we took the blessings from outside and went around the temple premises to find a small pound which was built for storing water. It was peaceful and the architecture was beautiful
. We came out and went around the garden which was pretty well maintained. Me and Kalai tried out some swings and that brought back old memories…… it was 8 am by then and we were feeling a bit hungry of all the activity and we couldn’t wait till 10am for the restaurant to open so we managed to find another small restaurant and ordered our breakfast…… it was really good and tea was fantastic. We did spend some more time strolling around and then decided to start our journey back …. Coming down the hill was fun and we saw all the beauty which we missed on the way up cause of darkness. We also had a quick stop in one of the many vineyard lining the road and bought some grapes for the trip back…… All in all a satisfying drive and rejuvenating trip.
the hop of the hill is simply called "The Peak" :) ..... I took a Bus to the top .... it was a fun journey with great views on the way up..... It was a two level (double decker) ... similar to the once we have in Mumbai and it was fun to sit on the front seat and have a birds eye view of the valley at every turn :). The Peak has a good restaurant and a shopping arcade .... along with other small tourist sovenier shops ..... But the best part of the place is walk 
around the peak , there are places from where there is an awesome panaromic view of the island and many of the sky scrapers are at eye level even thought we are on top of the hill.
which takes you all the way to DL .... but my iteneary was tooo tight to fitin DL . HK as an island has a huge shore line and here we can see many personal yarts and boats .... some like Pirate once .
t has many blocks (with mettal stars) dedicated to Film stars .... Its a must do and the word goes that if Jackie Chan is in town he is here having a strawl and meeting his fans who queup for his autograph.... no luck with me but I did shake hands with him ...... virtually :P pics here.... There is a store dedicated to Bruce Lee which offers a vide range of soveniers from trademark White dress which Lee used to wear, his movie DVD collectios and others... 
t has many blocks (with mettal stars) dedicated to Film stars .... Its a must do and the word goes that if Jackie Chan is in town he is here having a strawl and meeting his fans who queup for his autograph.... no luck with me but I did shake hands with him ...... virtually :P pics here.... There is a store dedicated to Bruce Lee which offers a vide range of soveniers from trademark White dress which Lee used to wear, his movie DVD collectios and others... 
attractive buildings around and it houses a coool acquarium in its basement... gud for a weekend outing.
