The choices for today were to go to Kemmanagundi and Hebbe falls or drive back to Bangalore and see Belur and Halebeedu on the way. If we did the former, we would have to stay an extra day since the long drive back would not have been possible at the end of a long day of water play. So, we decided on the latter. We checked out after breakfast and hit the road. Took us almost 45 minutes to reach Belur. We directly drove to the temple which is the main attraction here. Brought back memories of my childhood visit. We took a guided tour. I appreciated all the art a lot more now than my previous visits (may be my age?). PK was pretty amazed by it all. That 1000 years ago, when there were no mechanical tools or anything, they have done such precise and symmetrical carvings, is pretty mind-blowing. And all the intricate details in the jewelry, it is almost like paper cuttings, hard to believe it is stone. I was disappointed that the guided tour was pretty brief and hurried. After the temple tour, we stopped at the KSTDC hotel/restaurant for lunch. My main motivation to go here was the space and lack of any other people. And boy, it paid off! The loo was really clean and was a joy to use and take SK to. This is my biggest phobia of travel anywhere, but more so in India. About the food, the lesser said the better.
Then we headed to Halebeedu which is approximately 15 miles from Belur. More jaw dropping sculptures here. And lot of open space and good landscaping around the temple. We spent about an hour enjoying the place. But it was quite hot and the stone was burning the feet (no socks sellers here! And we were not smart enough to carry ours). The Hoysala lake next to the temple was also very clean unlike other places which are usually littered with trash. Boating was going on, but it was way too hot for that. The kids were pretty tired too, so we started driving home at about 3 pm. Drive was mostly uneventful, except that the last 70 km stretch just killed the joy of the whole trip. The road from Kunigal to Nelamangala was horrible, which we had experienced while going in the opposite direction, but the notoriety rises exponentially at night time. Headlights from opposite side traffic were blinding – lots of gravel and medium size rocks on the road. Anyway, from Nelamangala onwards traffic just stands still or crawls at 5 kmph, so it was quite miserable. Finally reached parents house @ 8.30. Had dinner with family and came home by 11 pm. Another misadventure waited us here …
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