The Study Trip

Well the faculties and the management conducted a study trip to Bhagmandala and its surrounding areas. The tight, well thought out, planned trip started of for me on 27th November, 2008 at around 8.15 A.M when the bus booked for the trip arrived at my stop. The departure from my stop was around 8.45 A.M because of the usual delays of students not arriving on time. The bus took of and in the bus started the chit chatting, which eventually grew louder and louder as the journey continued.

Our first stop was around 10.30 A.M and by then we reached Kamat Lokaruchi. The food was flavorsome, mouthwatering, appetizing, scrumptious, yummy, juicy, and succulent and they exceeded any expectation anyone had. With our stomachs full, we continued our journey. At this point of time, the games started beginning. On one side of the bus were fun games and on the other side, games like chess and different games of cards were being played. It was very intriguing, interesting and actually made me so enthralled that I didn’t even know that we covered around 130 Km. Our next stop could be called a pit stop considering the main aim of this stop was to attend to some major nature calls.

And we were off again, back in games mode. We made a quick stop for lunch at some faltu hotel in Hunsur. The place reminded of the days I was there with my parents, grand parents and uncles and aunts. My mom is from Hunsur.

And of we were of them there.

The duration till our next stop wasn’t that much and before knowing that we reached, we were already there. The place where we arrived at was called Tibetan Colony and the name of the place suggests it all. It is a colony holding the Tibetans. The architectural design of the place resembles the architectural design of Tibet and Indians also seem to look like tourist over there. Quite an achievement to make in India I must say.

The guys started clicking photos right from the point they put the foot down on the place. The major tourist spot of this place is the Golden Temple of Buddha. The temple is filled of various ages of monks and in the temple sits 3 huge, massive, gold plated Buddha’s. It's a beautiful unexplainable sight and you must go there to experience it. The guys kept moving in and around the place buzzing about the people, the location and the beautiful views. Our next stop was toward the market area which was about 500 meters from the temple. The market area was pretty small but had a lot of variety and mainly depicted the culture of Tibet. I managed to pick up a bell to which if you revolved a wooden stick gives of the sound of the scared chant 'OM'.

The bus was horning out loud basically to get out of that place as quickly as possible. It was late and dark. We were out of there at around 8.30 P.M and as the journey to our lodge continued, most the guys were falling asleep like bowling pins. We reached Hotel Mayura, Bhagmandala at around 9.30 P.M and thankfully they were pretty happy to keep some food ready for us. The food was not that great but anything is OK at that point of time.

After the dinner, some of us went out for a night walk. In that dark and lonely road uphill, god, that was a walk which I wouldn’t try to do it again. On the walk, we were basically making fun of every odd character that we knew. We were back within 45 minutes and straight headed straight into the dormitories where our bed waited for us. Unfortunate for me, the other guys in the place weren’t that cooperative into allowing me to sleep.