This was a long pending trip… Imagine, 25 years of stayin here in Karnataka and haven’t visited Nandi Hills even once??? It is 5 years since I stepped foot in Bangalore and the only things that I had heard abt Nandi Hills was what kind of a romantic place it is and how u can spend more than a day without getting sense of the time by boozing there or how u can make the most of your affair or how u can take undue advantage of the girl who has trusted you as a good friend. None had told me how picturesque it wud be along with the mist.
About 6 months back, I was almost near Nandi Hills – on the way to Ghati Subrahmanya when this thought came into my mind of taking a friend of mine to Nandi Hills. The both of us were riding together to Ghati when I asked her whether she’d be interested to go to Nandi Hills. Probably, she had heard about the same things what I heard of about Nandi Hills and she confided her fears in me… and we avoided Nandi Hills.
Last week, NRNP had a few frends who visited Nandi and had returned with the photos. Both me and NP were amazed by the pics and we decided on the spot that 5th would be our visit to Nandi Hills. We kept up to our commitments about the ride and spent the night at our house, planning for the next day. What we did not plan was probably the most crucial of all… the finance for either booze or petrol and what I did not foresee was the amount of petrol available in my bike.
We left for Nandi with me carrying 95 bucks and NP bringing 100 bucks.. — A total amount of 195/- which is nothing! On the way to Nandi, I realised that probably, the amount of petrol in my bike wud not be sufficient to go to Nandi and return. I went to a reliance petrol bunk on the way and they did not accept my card. Hence, I had to be satisfied with a petrol to the tune of 50/-… we were then left with 145/-. At that time, none of us knew that we wud repent later for not carrying enough money with us.
We were chilled to the bone when we reached Nandi after riding thru clouds and rain in the hills… The road condition is gud and the number of vehicles coming back from Nandi at the time proved that all the stuff I had heard about Nandi was true. The cars, the bikes, the chicks, the way the people rode.. it was quite exciting.. Also, we were two guys riding on individual bikes to Nandi… I dunno what all thoughts might have crossed their minds.
We were the only persons going TOWARDS Nandi Hills at that time and what we cud not have imagined that there were a lot of people already there or some more wud overtake us at the spot where we had stopped for taking a view of the breathtaking scenery below us.
A few of the pics of the trip are available here. All the pics are available in kodak gallery.
Lemme come back to the trip.. we had left my house by 0545 and had reached there by 0645, completely wet. The parking for one bike is 15/- and that left us with 110/-. The entrance ticket for one person was 5/- and that left us with 100/-. Beer and other drinks were being sold there.. The both of us did not bother and we just entered the hills with 100/- in our pockets, our minds full of happiness seeing the mist, and we being physically drenched in the rain and shivering!
We started our ascent and we went to a point where we found that there was a huge crowd of people sitting and having fun on the rocks. We thought we might as well go there. We went towards the crowd and actually further from the crowd leaving the guys and the chicks @ peace. That was probably the beginning of our fun… Within seconds, we found ourselves in the midst of a passing cloud. If a cloud passes thru us, we call it mist. If we check the same from either below or above the ground level, it would be displayed as a cloud! That was a realisation that we experienced there.
Nothing was visible, we cud not protect ourselves from the cold or the mist or the dew drops or the rain. And the visibility was like only a few metres.. not even 100mts. We cud not sit there nor go back.. that was our position… Y am i always in the condition of a Dobhi ka kutta???
Then, we repented for not bringing cash enough and the shop there wud not accept cards! Was something like the scene in the movie “Anbe Sivam” – both of us were like Madhavan thinking that Cards would be accepted in all the places which sold booze. We also repented at our thoughts having not brought someone wid us.. it wud have been fun. No wonder Nandi had got the reputation.. the climate above Nandi and the scenery made u really feel so!
It was already 0845 and it was still dark.. visibility was poorer than it was at 0700. We went to some hotel there – Hotel Ranjitha and had our breakfast.. probably, we hogged whatever was hot.. Had an idli-vada, had a bread omelette, had Cup Noodles and finally, had a pulav. The total bill came upto 95/- and we realised that for keeping our helmets in the shop below, we had to pay 10/-. So, we had ended up with absolutely no money in our purses and we were in Nandi Hills, a place without ATMs or shops!!
By 0930, we could see the first streaks of sunlight far away, and that meant the mist around us was rising to become clouds! And lo, by 0933, the entire mist had cleared and we cud see a lot of land below us! Just in three minutes… that was not any scene from NGC or Discovery channel… It had happened right in front of our eyes!
Tired and worn out, we wanted to visit Tipu’s Drop. We walked half the way towards the exit and then found a detour to Tipu’s drop which led us back exactly to the place which we first had visited on the rocks far away from the crowd! So, in order to make that worthwhile, we trekked thru the forest and the hills back to the exit. We left Nandi by 10:45 and reached my house by 12, after having had an exhilirating experience with absolutely not even a rupee left in our pockets. The both of us had made complete use of the “chutta” in our purses to pay for our helmets!
Whatever it was, it was an experience which gave us a lot to learn and also a most required change from the busy lives in Bengaluru! I hope I can make this trip again with someone spl. and make complete use of the climate! Lemme keep my fingers crossed till such a day.
