World of Books and Travel

Family Trip to Coorg - Part 5 Our last stop was at Golden Temple (also known as Tibetan Monastery). It is located 6 kms from Kushal Nagar, at Bylkuppe.  Established in 1961, it is home to more than 7000 monks and students and is still very calm and peaceful.             The main attraction of this place are the 40 ft tall golden Buddha statues. The temple  has three resplendent golden statues of Buddha Shakyamuni, Padmasambhava and the Buddha Amitayus. The walls of the temples and the institution are decorated with colourful paintings depicting gods and demons of Tibetan Buddhist mythology.   Tibetan festivals are celebrated with great gusto at the monastery.   It is a beautiful place with well laid out gardens   There are shops for the purchase of various Tibetan items.  They are a little overpriced, but good items are available.   As you enter this place, it  gives you an ...

Pondicherry is a Union Territory in India, formed out of four enclaves of former French India. It is located in the southern part of India, on the banks of Bay of Bengal. Since 2006, Pondicherry is known as Puducherry in Tamil (meaning New town) and also known as The French Riviera of the East" (La Côte d'Azur de l'Est). Pondicherry was earlier under the French influences (from 1673 until 1954), and when they left the place a great legacy was also left behind. This tiny land of Pondicherry (Puducherry) has some great attractions such as the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, the international city of Auroville, the French boulevard town, world class beaches, beach resorts, backwaters, fishing villages, and more. Recently, we had a weekend trip to Pondicherry. These are some of the best places we visited. 1. Auroville 2. The Sri Aurobindo Ashram. 3. Museum - 4. Botanical garden 5. Chunnambar Lake- 6. Paradise Beach 7. Auroville Beach 8. Promenade Beach 9...

On the early morning of a Saturday we reached Badami House at Bangalore to board the KSTDC tourist bus to Mysore. There were few other buses also ready to proceed to different tourist destinations. Sharp at 7.15 a.m. our Volvo bus, began its journey through the "not-so-crowded" roads (because of the time) towards its destination Mysore, located 140 kms away. Among the tourists, there were many domestic and international tourists as 'first-timers' to experience the well known "City of Palaces" and many repeated visitors like me. The weather was extremely pleasant and hence our journey was enjoyable. By 9.30 a.m. we stopped for our breakfast at "Hanchina Mane Restaurant" at Somanahalli. Our next stop was at historic town Srirangapatna . It was the capital of Mysore rulers Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan, popularly known as Mysore Tiger. (Chamundeswari Temple) (Music Fountain) See the people trying to capture it in their mobile camera. (Hotel Mayur...