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Karnataka Tourists Places
Shopping And Foods Of Bangalore - Bangalore is a good place for buying silk sarees (including
exquisite hand-embroidered ones), sandalwood and rosewood carvings,
hand-crafted tables, brass & ivory ware, wooden artefacts with inlay work,
lacquer ware, lambani tribal jewellery and 'agarbattis' (incense sticks).
Commercial Street (full of shops, restricted traffic), Residency Road, Brigade
Road (full of shops from departmental stores to quaint 'mom and pop' ones) and
MG Road are the areas to try out for shopping. Some of the reputed and
authorised showrooms for assured quality and prices are Central Cottage
Industries Emporium, Shringar Mysore Silk Showroom, Cauvery Arts Emporium,
Nalli Sarees and Karnataka Silk Industries Corporation.
Coconut Grove is a semi open-air eatery with a wide range of delicious South Indian
Food; MTR (Malavelli Tiffin Room) serves fixed dishes in double quick
time - a must see and eat place! Rice Bowl serves Chinese food;
Karavalli, the west coast restaurant in the Gateway Hotel, is very
different; Amarawati and R&R serve reasonably priced hot
Andhra food.
Bangalore is the ideal base for touring other
interesting places in the State, availing the conducted tours run by the State
Tourism Development Corporation.
Tourists Places To Visit : Mysore - The capital of the erstwhile Wodeyar Maharajas, lying 140 kms
southwest of Bangalore, Mysore has managed to retain its easy-going
charm and heritage. The city is most famous for its beautiful silks. Also well
known are the imposing and opulent Royal Palace and Jaganmohan
Palace (which houses the Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery), as well as
the Brindavan Gardens (19 km) with their cascading and musical
fountains. However, the lasting memory of a visit to this charming city is the
all pervading fragrance of sandalwood, musk, jasmine and rose. The city is a
major manufacturing centre for 'agarbatti* (incense sticks) which find their
way to homes right across India, being lit near each family's deity.
The
1000m high Chamundi Hill overlooking Mysore provides a splendid view of
the city. Atop the hill is a temple dedicated to goddess Chamundeswari who,
according to legend, killed the demon Mahishasura. Half-way up the hill is a
much venerated, 5m high statue of Nandi, the bull, Lord Shiva's divine vehicle,
carved from solid granite in 1659.
The best time to visit Mysore is
during the 10-day Dussehra festival in October or November when the
glory and grandeur of royalty in a bygone era are recreated. The Royal Palace,
illuminated each night, presents a magical sight and, on the last night of the
festivities, the former Wodeyar maharaja leads a colourful procession of
caparisoned elephants accompanying images of goddess Chamundeswari and other
deities through the streets.
Thirty five kms east of Mysore is
Somnathpur, famous for the exquisitely sculpted Hoysala temple built in the
13th century. The temple is in a very well preserved condition.
Belur And Halebid - About 200 km west of Bangalore are the
quaint hamlets of Belur and Halebid, famous for the magnificent temples built
in the 12th and 13th centuries by the Hoysalas. The temples are low and squat,
and every centimetre, both inside and outside, is covered with exquisite
carvings, as intricate as filigree and as fine as lace, showing an endless
variety of subjects - deities, animals, birds, scenes from war, agriculture,
music and dancing. One frieze has 650 elephants in a row. And no two friezes in
the complete range are alike! The Chennakesava Temple at Belur is still
in use and non-Hindus are admitted. While it took 103 years to complete this
temple, the Hoysaleswara Temple at Halebid was left incomplete after 86
years of labour! The temples are carved from a kind of soapstone that is
relatively soft when quarried and hardens with age. Many people consider these
temples to be among of the wonders of the world.
Hampi- If one has the time for the 350 km journey north
from Bangalore, a tour of the seat of the 14th century Vijayanagar Empire at Hampi is a
not-to-be-missed experience. Sheltered by the Tungabhadra river on the north
and rocky granite ridges on the other three sides, the ruins are spread over an
area of 27 sq kms - a veritable open air museum! And much still remains to be
unearthed.
The Vitthala Temple is considered to be the most
interesting building in the complex. It has 56 pillars in the main pavilion,
each carved from a single slab of granite. And when tapped, the pillars make a
musical sound! There is also the famous Stone Chariot whose stone wheels
actually rotate!
The prime emblem of Hampi is the 30-foot high Ugra
Narasimha, Lord Vishnu in his 'avatar' (incarnation) as the man-lion. The
Virupaksha Temple with its towering 50m 'gopuram' (gateway); Hazaara
Ram Temple with its intricate carvings coaxed out of hard Deccan rock; the
King's Balance where kings were weighed against grain, money or gold;
the Queen's Bath with its arched corridors and lotus-shaped fountains;
the recently excavated Pushkarini, a sacred, rectangular water tank
surrounded by descending flights of steps built in rhythmic regularity, and the
Lotus Mahal (a delightful synthesis of Hindu and Islamic architecture),
are just some of the wonders to be seen in this fascinating 'City of a Lost
Empire'.
National Parks & Wildlife Sanctuaries - The Bandipur and Nagarhole
National Parks are 220 and 240 kms southwest of Bangalore and offer
perfect get-aways for nature lovers. Together with the
Mudumalai
Sanctuary and Wyanad Sanctuaries in neighbouring
Tamilnadu and
Kerala they form one of India's
largest wild life reserves. The Kabini River Lodge, spread out on the banks of
the Kabini river near the fringes of the Nagarhole National Park, is a unique
wild life resort. Once the hunting lodge of a maharaja, the camp offers all the
comforts, adventure and excitement of seeing wild life in its natural
habitat.
India's Silicon Valley Anyone with even a passing
acquaintance with India would not be surprised that some of the world's top
computer whizzes are from the subcontinent; Indians have a long history of
talent in the scientific and mathematical fields. Nevertheless, it comes as a
surprise that this land of antiquity is also the world's second largest
exporter of computer software (after the United States). The epicenter is
Bangalore's Electronic City Industrial Park, "Silicon Valley".
Computer
companies located here initially because it was a lower cost alternative to the
big cities. But Bangalore, the Garden City, has always had a reputation as a
quality lifestyle city, and more and more computer firms began moving their
operations here during the boom 1980s.
The result is a city of
surprising sophistication - lattes at pavement cafes are not uncommon - and
burgeoning growth, an interesting insight into the India of the future.
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