Air Show, Aero India, Bengaluru 2009

Air Show at Bengaluru was organized from 11-15th Feb, 2009.

I visited there on 15th (Sunday). I think it was the most crowded day. Special buses were available from Majestic. Even then it took 2 hours to reach the venue (Yelahanka).


Facilities were bad. I paid INR 400/- for ticket. In my category, the number of chairs were not even 1/10th as compared to the number of visitors. It is a pain for peole with family and kids.


The air show of Sukhoi-30 and C-17 was exciting and would not allow to even blink the eyes.

I had seen many videos on Su-30. But looking it in front of eyes was completely a different experience.
All the pics here, are of SuryaKiran Jet. For me, Su-30 was too fast to capture in the frame. :)

Hampi - Pattadakal - Aihole - Badami, Karnataka, India

Destination: Vani Vilas Sagar Dam, Hampi, Tungabhadra Dam, Pattadakal, Aihole, Badami,

Date: Friday 28 Nov - Sunday 30 Nov, 2008

Origin: Bangalore

Mode of Travel: Hired Taxi, Toyota Innova.

Leaving Bangalore: We started from Marattahalli, Bangalore at 1120 towards Hampi. I am not listing down the route details because they are already present on Google. In short we followed:

NH - 4 from Bangalore to Tumkur to Chitradurga. Right turn to NH - 13 from there to Hospete. Local roads from there to Hampi.

Vani Vilas Sagar Dam:
## Silent water with green tint
## Huge wall to give a feel of fort
## Peace and silence every where around
## Wind mills on the hill top to add to the scene
...in short an awesome place. We were short of time and hence we were not able to spend much time there. This is place is near to Bangalore and I hope that I would be able to spend a whole weekend there.
Directions:
On NH - 4, there after crossing Hiriyur, there is a over bridge. Beyond that there is a Cemented Gate on left. Also there is a green colored metal bridge over the highway for pedestrians. There are no boards or direction so being watchful helps. Take a left from there.

To Hospete:
It was dark already and there was a huge traffic Jam. Firt we thought that it was something serious but our driver jumped to the lane from which traffic was supposed to come. We noticed some really funny things:
1. One truck got stuck because the key was lost, it was dark and the driver was not able to search that.
2. It was dinner time. So one of the trucker just stopped and was having the food. None of the other truckers complained and all of them were doing the same things. It is so silly that you stop any where on the road and start eating.
3. As this jam was really huge, cars come out of the lane and block the way for the other way. We also did that but there was no other way. If one follows the traffic rules completely, then at least 2 days are required to come out.

Finally, we left our car and started walking. After around 2 KMs we got an auto and hired it for the hotel. The auto driver was another interesting person. He was playing Kannada songs at very high volume. He stopped after some time and spent around a minute to change the music cassette. Later I came to know that they were rain songs from Rajkumar. It was already drizzling so he wanted to play the music according to the mood!!! Just like a king.

We booked at Sanbhag Hotel which is bad so better to keep this place as last resort.

Hampi:
A mesmerizing place!!! We hired a Guide for INR 500/- for whole day. They ask for more but one can negotiate.

Tungabhadra Dam:
I was under impression that this is just another Dam. But it is HUGE. There was water till horizon on one direction. Photography was not allowed here. Looking at the SLRs in our hands, the security guard there warned us. May be the authorities are not aware of the things like Google Earth or they are in habit of following the rules of 1960s blindly.

Badami:
Pattadakal :
Aihole:
We stayed overnight at a not-very-bad hotel at Badami. The town was giving a perfect sight of a typical rural India. In the morning, I borrowed bicycle of one of the Hotel staff and hit the road.

All these three places and not very far off. We covered them the same day. But if one wants to absorb the places, then more time may be needed.

I haven't written much on the places because I think these places deserve much more than the words present in my dictionary. Google is the best place to know the details.

Bicycle on Bengaluru (Bangalore) roads

While roaming on the terrace, I was looking to do something new in life (as usual). This time I aimed for a bicycle. So I did some basic googling and without much exposure to this field I went to Arcot Srinivasachar street, City Market, Bangalore.

The bicycle Market here: I feel that this is basically a selling market and dealers do not care much about servicing. They have got old shops and may not be able to give you demo because most of the cycles are packed and disassembled. But I asked them and they gave me 4 demos by taking the pain of assembling the bicycles. The roads are jammed so one cannot think of test ride. I got the demos because I was going to spend good amount. This market is definitely cheaper than the fancy and exotic showrooms which might be available in Bangalore.

I got this model, AVON Jockey. A short review of it follows.

http://www.avoncycles.com/boys-bicycle-display.asp?id=285

I paid INR 6300/- for it.

It has aluminum body which makes it very easy to carry in elevator to my flat at seventh floor. It is very handy to carry in hands during traffic jams, red lights, country side etc. Whenever I go to M. G. Road, whole of the road is blocked by the Metro Rail Project and rest by long cars. I was very comfortable to carry my bicycle in hands and then to walk on footpath. There was another model from Hero with almost same specification but with Iron Body. That was 2000 less in cost. I think I made the right decision to pay more to the seller.

It has got front and rear shockers. I feel that this makes ride very comfortable and won't hurt you at wrong places. At this time I can not say about the longevity of these shockers. May be I will add that after a year.

It has got 18 gears. I strongly suggest to get a bicycle with gears if you want to make the ride a fun and not a burden. Gears will make your ride little bit easier on ups and make you fast on downs. But, frankly speaking, I do not see a need of 18 gears(at least in city). May be 6 or 12 are enough. I got 18 because because it is not possible to customize this machine according to your need. :)

Personal Experience:
# It is good(not great) bicycle.
# The ride is smooth and the shockers are good.
# Gear transition is smooth and they never got stuck.
# It has got front and rear long metal mud-guards. These days most of the geared cycles are having either no or short mud-guards. These are made up of plastic. In city , you won't be doing the stunts as a mountain biker. So when the roads are wet, these long mud-guards save you from the road dirt that flies off with the rotating wheel. This was the unique feature in all the models that I considered.
# The pedal has very good metal grip. Due to this your feet will never slip from it when you are applying break or crossing a bumper in speed.
# The rod under the seat is not long. So, if we want to raise the seat to a higher level, you may need to change the whole section.
# Brakes are cantilever type with rubber shoes. I would prefer disc brakes. But for that, one has to put in more money.

Recently, I got a speedometer/odometer installed. It cost me 350/- bucks. I purchased this from Raja Cycle Mart. There is a good mechanic, Lalloo. I got the reference from another blogger. I went there and the experience was good.

Directions for Raja Cycle Mart: Reach to townhall and start moving to City Market. Hardly moving 20 meters, on left you can see this shop.

Check out wikimapia. I marked this there
http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=12.9633878&lon=77.5843763&z=17&l=0&m=h&v=2


Many times people ask me about my experience on Bangalore roads. They say that the traffic is terrific and how safe is it? For all of these people, I have following words:

I use Cab to commute to office and I felt that two wheeler drivers are quite unsafe on roads. After roaming around on bicycle, I realized that the condition was not that bad which I *assumed* earlier. I noticed that people are sort of good to bicycle riders. Then one day I went to Office on my bicycle. I stay at Koramangala and Office is 11 KMs from my home. The route is (Sony World-Jagsandhara-Agara-Sarjapur Junction-Marattahalli). I leave my home around 7 in morning and leave office at 4 in evening.

My view got changed when I tried it myself. I know, the safest bet is to get in side a car. But except that I think bicycles are good to move around the city.

While raining, its very tough to ride bicycle because there is no motor inside and its all your muscles. I prefer to wait at some place. This can be treated as a limitation. :)

I still use Cabs but jump over to my bicycle around 2-3 days a week depending upon weather and schedule. :) Believe me, the time difference is just of 10 minutes one way!!!

So this is how I had a view some time back and now it got changed when I tried it on my own. :)

Points for getting on bicycle:
1. Fun
2. Healthy
3. Cheap
4. No Pollution

So, believe me. Borrow a bicycle from a kid around your place for some time and give it a try. For the first few times, you will feel strong pain in your knees. If this pain disappears and the riding becomes fun for you, go and grab your own bike.

Happy Cycling!!!