Shridi Sai Baba by train from Bangalore

Shridi Sai Baba by train from Bangalore

Plan your trip at least a month in advance if you are planning to take the train. There is only one train from Bangalore - Train No 2627 Karnataka express to New Delhi.

Since this train is going to Delhi most of the times it is fully booked in advance. You can try Tatkal, which is what we did, just that you need to pay around Rs 500 extra for a ticket.

The train leaves Bangalore at 7:30 pm. It is a good idea to carry your dinner with you; we did carry lemon rice, curd rice and some fruits.

It had been a while since I traveled in a train for more than 8 hours, so early morning was a great rush for me.

Got up used the rest room and was ready for a hot tea. The train has a pantry and you get tea bag teas.

Morning breakfast was bread omelet. If you want fresh and hot, go to the pantry and ask him to make a fresh one for you.

You reach Sholapur in the morning. Sholapur is a city with an array of small and medium scale industries. It has been is a leading center for cotton mills and power looms.

You will reach KOPARGAON by around 2 pm. Get down at KOPARGAON its just 10 km away from Shridi. We took a big size auto, please check for fares before you get in. we paid Rs 175.

I had done a booking with a home stay at silver oak apartments. It was Rs 1500 for a single bedroom apartment with extra beds. Maximum people allowed were 5. At that price it was a decent place, but you can look for better 3-4 star hotels and a room will cost you around Rs 2000-5000 double occupancy. Some good hotels include woodlands; sun n sand, kala sai etc. check the web for details.

After freshen up we made a visit to the temple at around 6 in the evening. It took us a cool 4 hours to get darshan. So be prepared for a long wait. But it will be worth it I promise.

Once outside there are many smaller temples like the place were he used sit.

There are horse carts that operate as taxis; we took the horse ride back to the hotel which is highly recommended. Do try the Vada Pav with green chilies. It’s a must try.

Next day our train was at 5 Pm, got delayed by 1 hour. We took the mobile number of the same auto guy and asked him to come to drop us at KOPARGAON. So that was a smart decision. The train ride back was an eye opener; this whole belt is an agriculture belt and pretty dry. I could see wheat, sugarcane, onions, as the main crops. You could see farmers working in the hot sun, and pretty dry lands. It looked like a struggle for them and was pretty sad.

We were home the next day at around 2 PM, tiered but refreshed!സ

സ്നാപ്ശോറ്റ്-

Started from Bangalore – Friday evening

Reached Shridi at 2 pm on Saturday

Darshan same day

Next day Sunday train at 5 pm

Reached Bangalore on Monday after noon 2 pm

Ghati Subramaninan and Lepakshi

We started from Bangalore at 9-30 am to Ghati Subramania Temple, (advisable to start earlierJ) You need to take the hebbal-yehlankha route and as you reach yehlankha take the left and cross the Railway Gate. Once crossed as for Doddaballapur and just follow without taking any drastic turns! (Straight road I mean)

There is a junction which has left towards Tumkur, Straight to Ghati and right to Nandi hills. Take the straight road

We stopped here to have fresh tender coconut, and also ask the way!

After around 2 kms you need to take a right after you see a board directing to Ghati Subramanya . From here it is a village road, but in good condition. The drive gets real interesting here with curves on the road and also farmers selling fresh produce.

It’s a good idea to stop and buy some fresh vegetables here. Its pretty cheap and fresh. The road would be a bit bumpy and will take you directly to Ghati Subramanya. Darshan took us almost 1 hour; there where a couple of peacock and rabbits in the temple.

Lot of monkeys around, so don’t carry food in covers or they might just snatch it away.

We had carried our lunch (curd rice, chips and mango achar (chethu manga) it is recommended to bring your own food as the hotels didn’t seem to have much in terms of food and hygiene.

We stopped at a quite farm under a tree to have lunch.

Ghati subramanyam to Lepakshi was a long drive. We should have taken the Hindupur route but instead took the Chikabalapur route and it was almost 50-60 Km longer .

Do not take that route, take the Hindupur route, the roads are much better and with less traffic. We reached Lepakshi at around 4-30 Pm. The temple was closed and opens only at 6 PM. That would be too late to start back to Bangalore so we just had normal darshan. The temple is a architectural marvel, and looks like a palace.

We started back to Bangalore and this time took the hindupur route. The road is rubberized and marvelous, just took us 2 hours to reach Bangalore, but once in Bangalore took us 1 hour to reach home. We were at home by 8 PM.

Bangalore-Tirupati

We planned last weekend to go to tirupati. this was my 1st long drive in my Esteem. This was for Kalyani's Mundan.We started from Bangalore at 8:50 am from home on a nice cool bright morning. Once we touched KR Puram it was a nice drive, the roads were not that good with many pot holes. We had a good breakfast at Kamath hotel which is around 50 Km from Bangalore. We had the butter masala dosa and some hot coffee. Breakfast for 4 was around Rs 150. There is a woodies hotel also on the way after, people say it’s also a good place.After Kolar the roads were much better and had a great view with all the mango trees and vegetable farms. It was tomato season and we found loads just dumped and rotting due to excess production....was wondering why i can’t start a tomato pure/ketchup factory around!!!Instead of going to Tirupati we took a left to tirumala, I presume this is a by pass.Since we hadn’t booked the darshan it was not a good idea, as we reached tirumala around 3 PM. They have a elaborate security check of all baggage’s.The darshan coupons in Tirumala are sold at the Vijaya bank counter, the coupon is Rs 1000 for 5 members ( Puja name Arjitha Bhramaotsava).T he counter would tell you that you can get darshan at 1 pm, but actually its a puja done 500 mts away from the main temple in an auditorium. 1 pm is reporting time and actual puja will start at 2-230 pm. So be ready for that.Once the puja is over you can move to the VIP queue counter opposite the Vijaya Bank counter and enter the temple.We had to wait in the queue for 1 hr, which was pretty ok and got very good darshan. Once we took the coupon we left for lunch at Indian coffee house in tirumala.We drove down to Tirupati for our over night stay, we did a recce on 3 hotels- ITC, Mayura and one more cant recall the name.On the price and ambience we chose Mayura, it was a nice room with extra bed cost us around Rs 2000 for 3 (breakfast dosa and mausambi juice was really good)We checked out at around 10 am and left for tirumala for darshan. In tirumala you can also visit Akashaganga, its 10 km further and you can see a few windmills and a Dam. It’s kind of a tourist spot. Try the raw mango and also the Bhel Puri!
We drove back at around 5 pm from tirumala. We also visited 2 temples on the way back in Kannipakam - Arsidha Vinayaka temple and Ardhagiri temple. We reached home at 12:30 am.The ride back in the night is not advisable, it really strains you down.

For clarity - The route for tirupati is Bangalore - kolar - chittoor - tirupati (631 Km total)