Over the last weekend I was off to Madurai along with couple of my colleagues to do a training at Thiyagarajar School of Management (TSM). TSM belongs to the illustrious Thyagarajar group of educational institutions in Madurai and I went to take a session on improving employability skills for their MBA second year students. TSM has wonderful infrastructure for an educational institution with well equipped library, computers with unlimited internt connectivity etc and all these in a very calm and serene surrounding.
MBA is totally different ball game where get great opportunities to build your knowledge, fine-tune your personality and equip yourself as a confident individual to face this world. Though they have good infrastructure, what I saw there is the lack of exposure of these students to current market practices. Probably, I guess many of the students study their MBA just like they did their graduation. Exactly this is the area we wanted to address and make them a wanted resource in the corporate world. We have got positive reviews, so I think the session was useful for the guys out there.
The other things I did in Madurai are the usual tourist stuff. I did go to Meenakshi Amman Temple and waited for 4 hours to complete the Darshan. The queue to enter the temple went like Hanuman tail extending for more than 1 km. We decided to patiently wait in the queue rather than hopping from Meenakshi Temple to some other temple. We did manage to enter the temple after 4 hours and had a darshan for 10 seconds!! But what caught my attention was the discipline exhibited by all the people where were in the queue. Not even one person tried to do any trick to byepass you on the queue and there was no noise, disruption or commotion. Patience is a great virtue and it was in abundance on that day. Only when the temple authorities played tricks by closing one gate and asking to take an extended route without proper entry, the crowd become little restive but overall it was fine.
When we started in the queue we never had any idea of how long we would take. After being there for 30-45 minutes we figured out that it is going to take more than 3 hours to complete the darshan. So we took turns to go and finish the breakfast while the other person continued to be in the queue. Standing in the queue, we end up talking to people standing near you whom you dont know at all. It was wonderful experience watching people, simply. Different people with varied emotions and reactions, it was worth the wait in the queue.
From Meenakshi Temple, we went straight to Pazhamuthircholai, (PZC) a place 20 kms from Madurai. This is one of the six abodes of Lord Murugan. The other 5 being, Tiruparankundram, Tiruchendur, Tiruttani, Swamimalai and Palani. PZC is just above the Alagar Koil, another famous temple on the Madurai circuit.
Couple of other things which happened during this visit worth mentioning here. For two days, I lived without TV or Internet. A great blessing!!
Showing posts with label Places. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Places. Show all posts
Visit to Golden Temple, Vellore
Last Sunday I visited the famous Golden Temple near Vellore along with our neighbours. The golden temple is built by Sri Narayani Amma for Goddess Narayani. This temple has become a big tourist attraction for people more than the spiritual pursuit in which you visit temples. There is lot of talk about the tonnes of gold which has been used in plating the entire santum sanctorum, vimana and the mandapam. So, we also wanted to see the golden temple and started with the same amount of curiousity.
This golden temple is situated 140 kms from Chennai and you have to take the Chennai - Bangalore highway. This highway is real pleasure to drive so I dont have any qualms about it. It takes about 2 1/2 hours to reach the temple. The entry to the temple was arranged through Vellore DSP, thanks to my neighbour, so there was a Police constable waiting to take us inside. We didnt have to wait and we were taken swiftly through the special darshan queue. Few privileges you enjoy when you go along with influential neighbours. If I had gone on my own, I would not have even opted for a special darshan queue.
The temple is very new, well built and you have to walk close to a kilometre before you reach the presiding deity. Temple has been well planned and the entire stretch of a kilometre or so is completely shaded so that "bhaktas" are saved from sun or rain. Along the way there are 300 boards which carry small verses or sentences about the spirituality, meaning of various pujas etc which I found unique and useful information to know. In this temple as well, for the dharma darshan queue, they follow the Tirupati model. By which what I mean is that they have 3 huge halls where the devotees would be made to wait in case of heavy rush.
The striking thing about this temple is it is run like a corporate. Everything seems to have been designed perfectly and the entire complex is very clean. The entire stretch of 1 km from the entry point to the deity is wheel-chair accessable and I saw lot of elderly people use wheel-chairs to have darshan. There are volunteers everywhere who are more than happy to help you. It took almost 20 minutes to reach the deity and being exam season we did not encounter much of rush. As you go closer to the sanctum sanctorum, you will start seeing the Golden Vimana. As you near the sanctum sanctorum, quantum of gold used strikes you . The entire mandapam which houses the presiding deity is gold plated along with the pillars and you look at it with awe.
There are different counts as to the amount of gold which has been used in the temple. Officially, it seems that they have used 1 1/2 tonnes of gold for plating all the walls, vimana and pillars. But the rumour is that it has taken 4 1/2 tonnes of gold in completing this. There is one more beam being currently added and it is going to gold plated. At current market prices, a tonne of gold costs Rs100 crores. Considering the fact that the temple was constructed 2 years back, the minimum cost would have been not less than Rs100 crores to complete this temple.
Goddess Narayani was well decorated and adorned with various precious stones and diamonds. She looks very beautiful and you will start praying if you are not atheist or woman! I really pity women and how they would feel when you see so much of gold around you. Prayer may be the last priority!! We could get as close as 20 yards from the deity and got a good couple of minutes to stand in front of the deity as we came through the special darshan queue. But if you have gone through the dharma darshan queue, then you will get to view the deity from some 50 yards away. I forgot about the gold and the hype surrounding it and prayed whole-heartedly standing before the deity.
On the way out, they have donation counters and they accept all credit cards, including American Express!! It is not the temple alone what this Trust runs. They have 150 bed hospital run for charity, a school, day care centre and various other social service activities. There can be doubts on how the Trust got this much of money to build a temple like this but there can be no question on the kind of social service they do. They have given away grants to thousands of poor people for heart surgeries and other medical cases which is worth sharing here.
You cant carry mobile phones, cameras and any other luggage inside the main temple. You need to deposit it in the cloak room and take a token if you inadvertantly enter the temple with these items. Therefore, it is advisable to leave the camera and mobile phone in your car before entering the temple.
This golden temple is situated 140 kms from Chennai and you have to take the Chennai - Bangalore highway. This highway is real pleasure to drive so I dont have any qualms about it. It takes about 2 1/2 hours to reach the temple. The entry to the temple was arranged through Vellore DSP, thanks to my neighbour, so there was a Police constable waiting to take us inside. We didnt have to wait and we were taken swiftly through the special darshan queue. Few privileges you enjoy when you go along with influential neighbours. If I had gone on my own, I would not have even opted for a special darshan queue.
The temple is very new, well built and you have to walk close to a kilometre before you reach the presiding deity. Temple has been well planned and the entire stretch of a kilometre or so is completely shaded so that "bhaktas" are saved from sun or rain. Along the way there are 300 boards which carry small verses or sentences about the spirituality, meaning of various pujas etc which I found unique and useful information to know. In this temple as well, for the dharma darshan queue, they follow the Tirupati model. By which what I mean is that they have 3 huge halls where the devotees would be made to wait in case of heavy rush.
The striking thing about this temple is it is run like a corporate. Everything seems to have been designed perfectly and the entire complex is very clean. The entire stretch of 1 km from the entry point to the deity is wheel-chair accessable and I saw lot of elderly people use wheel-chairs to have darshan. There are volunteers everywhere who are more than happy to help you. It took almost 20 minutes to reach the deity and being exam season we did not encounter much of rush. As you go closer to the sanctum sanctorum, you will start seeing the Golden Vimana. As you near the sanctum sanctorum, quantum of gold used strikes you . The entire mandapam which houses the presiding deity is gold plated along with the pillars and you look at it with awe.
There are different counts as to the amount of gold which has been used in the temple. Officially, it seems that they have used 1 1/2 tonnes of gold for plating all the walls, vimana and pillars. But the rumour is that it has taken 4 1/2 tonnes of gold in completing this. There is one more beam being currently added and it is going to gold plated. At current market prices, a tonne of gold costs Rs100 crores. Considering the fact that the temple was constructed 2 years back, the minimum cost would have been not less than Rs100 crores to complete this temple.
Goddess Narayani was well decorated and adorned with various precious stones and diamonds. She looks very beautiful and you will start praying if you are not atheist or woman! I really pity women and how they would feel when you see so much of gold around you. Prayer may be the last priority!! We could get as close as 20 yards from the deity and got a good couple of minutes to stand in front of the deity as we came through the special darshan queue. But if you have gone through the dharma darshan queue, then you will get to view the deity from some 50 yards away. I forgot about the gold and the hype surrounding it and prayed whole-heartedly standing before the deity.
On the way out, they have donation counters and they accept all credit cards, including American Express!! It is not the temple alone what this Trust runs. They have 150 bed hospital run for charity, a school, day care centre and various other social service activities. There can be doubts on how the Trust got this much of money to build a temple like this but there can be no question on the kind of social service they do. They have given away grants to thousands of poor people for heart surgeries and other medical cases which is worth sharing here.
You cant carry mobile phones, cameras and any other luggage inside the main temple. You need to deposit it in the cloak room and take a token if you inadvertantly enter the temple with these items. Therefore, it is advisable to leave the camera and mobile phone in your car before entering the temple.
Yelagiri Hills - still looking virgin!!
Yelagiri Hills is a hill station which is 220 kms from Chennai on the Chennai-Bangalore Highway. I was there three weeks ago just after the new year. I had couple of weeks of vacation during the year end and we thought of going to very many places but finally went no where. So day after the new year we instantly decided that we would venture out to see how Yelagiri looks like as we have been hearing about it for a long time. It is easily reachable from Chennai and it hardly takes 3 hours of driving on the beautiful Bangalore highway. I was in two minds whether to drive all the way or to hire a cab and go as I have never driven for 200 kms continuously. It is good that I drove because it was just pleasure driving on the Highway.
We gathered some inputs from our neighbour who has been there many times and we started our journey early in the morning at 7 AM. We drove on the NH 5 for 170 odd kms in less than 2 and half hours before we stopped for breakfast. There are not many motels on this stretch of the highway and we missed couple of them being undecided whether to stop or not. I think the best place to have breakfast is close to Vellore town which is around 150 kms from Chennai. We continued our journey for another 50 odd kms before we took the turn to go to Yelagiri after Vaniyambadi. From the Vaniyambadi Junction to Yelagiri, the road was not good though it is a state highway. World of difference.
Actually if you see, Yelagiri is a collection of 14 villages and there is no town or something called as Yelagiri. The hill is called collectively as the Yelagiri Hills. From the foothills there are 14 hair-pin bends and each of the hair-pin bend is named after Tamil poets like Bharathiyar, Bharathidasan, Elango Adigal etc., It is very novel way of remembering our Tamil poets. The hair-pin bends are easily negotiable and a person like me driving for the first time on the ghat roads, didnt find any difficulty at all.
Once we landed there, we found out that there are couple of good parks in the main village called Athanavoor. One of the parks also has a boating facility and as an eager tourist we finished seeing both the parks on day 1. The new park, called as Nature park is really well maintained and they also conduct a musical fountain program everyday at 7.00 PM. Just like what you have in Mysore Brindhavan gardens. Besides these two parks you dont have much to see except for a view point and telescopic tower.
The next day in the afternoon we went to Nilavoor where you can go for trekking on the hills. We reached there pretty late in the afternoon and we were told that it would take couple of hours to go up and come down. With a kid in tow, it was out of question of completing the entire trekking stuff. We did go for trekking for some 500 metres on the hills and returned back. There is a group of people who claim that they are local guides try to milk you when you go for trekking. So it is advisable to get rid of these local guides if you want to go for trekking. They ask for Rs300 or so to take you all the way up. They just walk with you alongside and no further. For the 500 odd metres I walked on the hills, I paid Rs100 to the guide!!
One of the problems we did encounter is with food. There is hardly any good restaurant and you have to rely on the lodge or resort where you stay for the food. In the lodge we stayed there was no good food and once we went out to eat at the Sterling Resorts. The prices are affordable as far as the food but the quality is very suspect.
There are number of lodges and few resorts which have come up recently I was told. Sterling Resorts, O'Nila resorts, Rhythm resorts are some of the prominent ones. I liked the Rhythm resort as it was bang opposite the lake and it has a terrific view, though I didnt get to stay there. You also have a YMCA dormitory facility which is atleast 5 kms away from the main village, Athanavoor. There are few good lodges where you get a decent room like where I stayed for 750-1000 bucks a day.
Overall, I think it is a good place for the weekend where you can just go and relax. Not many places to see but the climate is very good and air is clean. Crass commercialisation has not crept in so far and it has not still become a concrete jungle. Worth a visit once in a while to break away from the maddening Chennai.
We gathered some inputs from our neighbour who has been there many times and we started our journey early in the morning at 7 AM. We drove on the NH 5 for 170 odd kms in less than 2 and half hours before we stopped for breakfast. There are not many motels on this stretch of the highway and we missed couple of them being undecided whether to stop or not. I think the best place to have breakfast is close to Vellore town which is around 150 kms from Chennai. We continued our journey for another 50 odd kms before we took the turn to go to Yelagiri after Vaniyambadi. From the Vaniyambadi Junction to Yelagiri, the road was not good though it is a state highway. World of difference.
Actually if you see, Yelagiri is a collection of 14 villages and there is no town or something called as Yelagiri. The hill is called collectively as the Yelagiri Hills. From the foothills there are 14 hair-pin bends and each of the hair-pin bend is named after Tamil poets like Bharathiyar, Bharathidasan, Elango Adigal etc., It is very novel way of remembering our Tamil poets. The hair-pin bends are easily negotiable and a person like me driving for the first time on the ghat roads, didnt find any difficulty at all.
Once we landed there, we found out that there are couple of good parks in the main village called Athanavoor. One of the parks also has a boating facility and as an eager tourist we finished seeing both the parks on day 1. The new park, called as Nature park is really well maintained and they also conduct a musical fountain program everyday at 7.00 PM. Just like what you have in Mysore Brindhavan gardens. Besides these two parks you dont have much to see except for a view point and telescopic tower.
The next day in the afternoon we went to Nilavoor where you can go for trekking on the hills. We reached there pretty late in the afternoon and we were told that it would take couple of hours to go up and come down. With a kid in tow, it was out of question of completing the entire trekking stuff. We did go for trekking for some 500 metres on the hills and returned back. There is a group of people who claim that they are local guides try to milk you when you go for trekking. So it is advisable to get rid of these local guides if you want to go for trekking. They ask for Rs300 or so to take you all the way up. They just walk with you alongside and no further. For the 500 odd metres I walked on the hills, I paid Rs100 to the guide!!
One of the problems we did encounter is with food. There is hardly any good restaurant and you have to rely on the lodge or resort where you stay for the food. In the lodge we stayed there was no good food and once we went out to eat at the Sterling Resorts. The prices are affordable as far as the food but the quality is very suspect.
There are number of lodges and few resorts which have come up recently I was told. Sterling Resorts, O'Nila resorts, Rhythm resorts are some of the prominent ones. I liked the Rhythm resort as it was bang opposite the lake and it has a terrific view, though I didnt get to stay there. You also have a YMCA dormitory facility which is atleast 5 kms away from the main village, Athanavoor. There are few good lodges where you get a decent room like where I stayed for 750-1000 bucks a day.
Overall, I think it is a good place for the weekend where you can just go and relax. Not many places to see but the climate is very good and air is clean. Crass commercialisation has not crept in so far and it has not still become a concrete jungle. Worth a visit once in a while to break away from the maddening Chennai.
Back from Valparai
I took a week off to go to Valparai, a hill station on the Anaimudi range and couple of other places over the last week. Valparai is close to Coimbatore and it is one of the lesser known tourist places when compared to Kodaikonal, Ooty, Yercaud etc., Valparai is 3500 feet above sea level and dominated by tea estates.
Top-slip - why somebody should visit?
We took the Cheran Express from Chennai and got down at Tiruppur. We have arranged for a pick up vehicle from Tiruppur to take us to Valparai. Enroute to Valparai, we covered couple of places like Masaniamman Koil and Top Slip. Top Slip is highly over-rated tourist spot, I guess. Absolutely there is nothing to see, no good restaurants for food. But everyone keeps telling that Top-slip is a fantastic place. I don't know why somebody should visit Top-Slip.
Mudi's club - where we stayed:
We stayed in a company's Officers club of Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation (BBTC), which is called as Mudi's club. Valparai is still lives in the British Raj style with clubs for officers/managers who are working in the tea estates. The companies which owns tea estates in Valparai and surrounding places are Tata Coffee, Jaishree Tea (BK Birla Group), BBTC (was told that it is still owned by an Englishman partially!!), Karamalai tea estate etc., As we stayed in the club which belonged to BBTC, we found out that there are more than 10000 employees of that company in Valparai and surrounding areas.
The place were we stayed has a beautiful view of tea estates. In spite of being peak summer season, the climate was very pleasant. Mudi's club, provides you with a kind of dormitory facility. There are no separate rooms but couple of big rooms where all are accomodated. It is suitable if you go in a group of say 10 to 15 people and who can stay together. The club has decent size cricket ground and where the company's managers/officers play cricket. When I said that they still British Raj style prevails is because of the fact that these officers/managers are still referred as "management" by the locals and labourers.
Valparai doesnot boast of tourist attractions similar to Kodai or Ooty. Couple of places to visit in Valparai includes the Balaji temple, Sholayar Dam, any tea processing factory (which we did), Cincona falls etc., It is an ideal place for somebody to go and relax for a couple of days.
We stayed in Valparai for couple of days and moved to Udumalaipet and then Coimbatore for a day each. On the way down from Valparai, we visited places like Tirumurthy Falls, Monkey falls, Aaliyar dam, Oneness Temple at Aaliyar (Vazhga Valamudam group). We stayed at Udumalaipet for a night. A family room at Udumalaipet costs Rs500/- with 2 extra persons accomodated. Quite a decent bargain, I guess.
The last leg of the tour is towards Coimbatore visiting places like Pattiswaram, Echanari Vinayagar Temple, Isha Ashram (Jaggi Vasudev's) and a private Balaji Temple at Karamadai run by the owners of KG Denim group.
We were really worried if we would be able to make in time to Coimbatore after the Balaji Temple for our train at 10.00 PM. Karamadai is some 35 kms from Coimbatore and by the time we left the temple, it was already 8.15 PM. Luckily there was no big traffic snarls on the Coimbatore - Mettupalayam road and we could reach the station in time for the train.
Vandalur Zoo - A must see place for children!!
Being in Chennai for many years now, gives me a kind of complacence in exploring places closer to the city. One such place I visited couple of weeks back, breaking my complacence is Vandalur Zoo.
Aringar Anna Zoological Park, Vandalur is popularly known as Vandalur Zoo. It is run and maintained by the Tamilnadu Government with wide variety of animals. It is situated on the GST Road before Urapakkam, may be 15 kms from Tambaram. It is spread over a sprawling area of more than 1000 acres of reserve forests. Zoo boasts of wide variety of wild animals, birds and reptiles in well maintained enclosures.
The zoo has a battery operated car to take you to the various animal enclosures as well as offers a Lion Safari. Though the Lion Safari offered by the Zoo does give you a semblance of a safari when you start but actually it is not. The driver of the van knows exactly where the Lions would be in the forest and take you directly there. The Lions roam around freely in the forest and the driver parks the van very closely for you to see the Lion.
The animals are well fed and the enclosures are well maintained. The watch and ward staff cleans up the enclosures as well the zoo very regularly. You can either choose to walk the entire zoo or take the battery operated car. I suggest if you have young children to take the battery operated car. It saves you lot of time and energy. The charges are very nominal right from entrance fees to lion safari to battery operated cars. The battery operated car drivers tries to make some quick money by taking along passengers without valid tickets!!
Overall it is an enjoyable day out in the open rather than sitting in front of the Television. The children would love to see the different kind of animals, snakes and birds.
Tips if you are planning to visit Vandalur Zoo:
1. People who are travelling from the western part of the city (like Ambattur, Anna Nagar, Vadapalani - Porur, Mogappair) can take the Maduravoyal - Tambaram bye-pass toll road. This road will help you to bye-pass the city traffic and helps you to reach Perungulathur closer to Vandalur in no time.
2. The weekly holiday is Tuesday. This Pongal day may be an exception, I guess.
3. Start early in the morning. We started around 8.15 AM and reached there by 9.15 AM and had plenty of time to look around.
4. If you intend to take the battery operated car, on entering the zoo find out where is the booking counter. There is an advance booking mechanism in place for the battery operated cars and Lion Safari. You need to book it in advance else you would not seats, particularly on weekends.
5. There is a Tamilnadu Tourism Development Corporation hotel inside, but the food is not of great quality. You have one hotel by name Hotel Sangeetha just opposite to the zoo on the GST Road.
6. If you are planning to carry light snacks, please avoid carrying it in very thin plastic bags/covers. Plastic covers are banned inside the zoo. Better way to carry biscuits or other food stuff in a air-tight container rather than in plastic bags. Otherwise, you have to undergo the ordeal of transferring your eatables in plastic bags to hand-rolled paper covers at the entrance.
Aringar Anna Zoological Park, Vandalur is popularly known as Vandalur Zoo. It is run and maintained by the Tamilnadu Government with wide variety of animals. It is situated on the GST Road before Urapakkam, may be 15 kms from Tambaram. It is spread over a sprawling area of more than 1000 acres of reserve forests. Zoo boasts of wide variety of wild animals, birds and reptiles in well maintained enclosures.
The zoo has a battery operated car to take you to the various animal enclosures as well as offers a Lion Safari. Though the Lion Safari offered by the Zoo does give you a semblance of a safari when you start but actually it is not. The driver of the van knows exactly where the Lions would be in the forest and take you directly there. The Lions roam around freely in the forest and the driver parks the van very closely for you to see the Lion.
The animals are well fed and the enclosures are well maintained. The watch and ward staff cleans up the enclosures as well the zoo very regularly. You can either choose to walk the entire zoo or take the battery operated car. I suggest if you have young children to take the battery operated car. It saves you lot of time and energy. The charges are very nominal right from entrance fees to lion safari to battery operated cars. The battery operated car drivers tries to make some quick money by taking along passengers without valid tickets!!
Overall it is an enjoyable day out in the open rather than sitting in front of the Television. The children would love to see the different kind of animals, snakes and birds.
Tips if you are planning to visit Vandalur Zoo:
1. People who are travelling from the western part of the city (like Ambattur, Anna Nagar, Vadapalani - Porur, Mogappair) can take the Maduravoyal - Tambaram bye-pass toll road. This road will help you to bye-pass the city traffic and helps you to reach Perungulathur closer to Vandalur in no time.
2. The weekly holiday is Tuesday. This Pongal day may be an exception, I guess.
3. Start early in the morning. We started around 8.15 AM and reached there by 9.15 AM and had plenty of time to look around.
4. If you intend to take the battery operated car, on entering the zoo find out where is the booking counter. There is an advance booking mechanism in place for the battery operated cars and Lion Safari. You need to book it in advance else you would not seats, particularly on weekends.
5. There is a Tamilnadu Tourism Development Corporation hotel inside, but the food is not of great quality. You have one hotel by name Hotel Sangeetha just opposite to the zoo on the GST Road.
6. If you are planning to carry light snacks, please avoid carrying it in very thin plastic bags/covers. Plastic covers are banned inside the zoo. Better way to carry biscuits or other food stuff in a air-tight container rather than in plastic bags. Otherwise, you have to undergo the ordeal of transferring your eatables in plastic bags to hand-rolled paper covers at the entrance.
Visit to Eagleton resort, Bangalore
Three weeks back (Sept 22-23) I visited Eagleton Resort in Bangalore along with my colleagues. Eagleton resort is a very picturesque place with a hill as a backdrop and a beautiful lush green golf course. It is located on the Bangalore - Mysore Highway and it is 30 kms from Bangalore Majestic spread over 550 acres.
I had less than a day to spend at the resort with a packed schedule of fun activities in the evening and followed by the India - Australia Semi-final of the Twenty 20 world cup. The evening was spent having fun games and little bit of dance. It was a wonderful match which India won. We are now facing the music of the Australians in India for that win in Twenty20 world cup!!
The next morning I went around the resort. The resort has 18 hole PGA standard golf course. The golf course was well maintained and was very huge. There were lot of foreigners who were playing golf. I was surprised at the high number of korean-looking faces among the foreigners. Are there many Koreans in Bangalore?
The resort has all the facilities like swimming pool, spa, healthclub, gymnasium, conference halls, banquet halls etc., There are many indoor games like shuttle, table tennis and squash. They also have a room to play darts. While going around I saw some independent houses and when I enquired I found that there were plots which are developed and sold by the resort owners. I was told that the ongoing land rate is around Rs2300/- s.ft. Not for me, I left it at that!!!
The owner of the resort is from Andhra Pradesh, I was told. Eagleton resort provides a perfect ambience for a quiet weekend for a busy corporate exective in a very beautiful environment which would help to rejuvenate the mind and the body. I totally enjoyed my visit and decided to comeback someother time. It is an ideal weekend gateway for the Bangalore guys.
PS: The room tariffs are little expensive starting from Rs6000/- for a single occupancy. You can visit them online at http://www.eagletonindia.com/. I am also loading few snaps taken at Eagleton.
I had less than a day to spend at the resort with a packed schedule of fun activities in the evening and followed by the India - Australia Semi-final of the Twenty 20 world cup. The evening was spent having fun games and little bit of dance. It was a wonderful match which India won. We are now facing the music of the Australians in India for that win in Twenty20 world cup!!
The next morning I went around the resort. The resort has 18 hole PGA standard golf course. The golf course was well maintained and was very huge. There were lot of foreigners who were playing golf. I was surprised at the high number of korean-looking faces among the foreigners. Are there many Koreans in Bangalore?
The resort has all the facilities like swimming pool, spa, healthclub, gymnasium, conference halls, banquet halls etc., There are many indoor games like shuttle, table tennis and squash. They also have a room to play darts. While going around I saw some independent houses and when I enquired I found that there were plots which are developed and sold by the resort owners. I was told that the ongoing land rate is around Rs2300/- s.ft. Not for me, I left it at that!!!
The owner of the resort is from Andhra Pradesh, I was told. Eagleton resort provides a perfect ambience for a quiet weekend for a busy corporate exective in a very beautiful environment which would help to rejuvenate the mind and the body. I totally enjoyed my visit and decided to comeback someother time. It is an ideal weekend gateway for the Bangalore guys.
PS: The room tariffs are little expensive starting from Rs6000/- for a single occupancy. You can visit them online at http://www.eagletonindia.com/. I am also loading few snaps taken at Eagleton.
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