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Kemmangundi: Hill Station Guide to Trekking & Waterfalls

Perched high in the Baba Budan Giri range of Chikkamagaluru district, Kemmangundi (also called Kemmannugundi, and known officially as Sri Krishnarajendra Hill Station) is a serene hill station famed for its lush shola forests, roaring cascades, and dramatic valley views. Situated at an elevation of 1,434 meters (4,705 feet) above sea level in Tarikere taluk — with the surrounding peak rising to about 1,863 meters — this scenic retreat was established as a royal summer sanctuary for Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV of Mysore. Today, it offers an ideal escape for trekkers, nature lovers, and travelers seeking to experience Karnataka's pristine Western Ghats wilderness. History Kemmangundi lies in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, a region historically governed by the ancient Kadamba dynasty, followed by the Hoysalas, the Vijayanagara Empire, and e...

Annamayya District – A Traveler's Guide to Andhra Pradesh's Quiet Corner

I'll be upfront: Annamayya isn't a place you've probably heard of unless you're chasing Telugu devotional music history or you grew up in Rayalaseema. It's a young district — carved out in 2022 from bits of the old Chittoor and Kadapa districts — and it sits in the dry, granite-hill country of the Eastern Ghats about 200-plus km from Bengaluru. What you get here is Dravidian temples that see almost no tourist buses, a genuinely cool hill station at Horsley Hills, and some of the best Rayalaseema food you'll eat without a single Instagram queue in front of you. One thing worth knowing before you go: the district headquarters moved. When Annamayya was first formed in April 2022, Rayachoti was named the HQ. In a state-wide reorganisation at the end of December 2025, that changed — Madanapalle is now the administrative headquarters, and Rayachoti has se...

Basavanagudi, Bengaluru: The Old Neighbourhood That Still Feels Like Home

Travel Guide · Bengaluru Basavanagudi, Bengaluru: The Old Neighbourhood That Still Feels Like Home A guide to the temple-and-market heart of old Bengaluru — where the bull is carved from stone, the avarekai season is a festival of its own, and the city's past is still doing its morning walk. I've lost count of how many Sunday mornings I've spent in Basavanagudi. Not as a tourist ticking off a temple, but as a Bengalurean who keeps coming back because the neighbourhood has a way of resetting something in me. The light near the Bull Temple early in the morning, the smell of filter coffee from the small kitchens behind the market, the sound of vendors calling out the day's vegetables — this is the Bengaluru I reach for when the rest of the city feels too new and too fast. This guide is for the traveller who wants to actually experience Basavanagudi, not just photograph it. I'll t...