Hoysala Trail on The Hindu
Today’s Hindu Metro Plus (Chennai edition) has featured a story on the Hoysala Trail. For those who are new here, The Hoysala Trail is a guided tour conducted by ‘Travel Wise’, an initiative from fellow travel writer and blogger Lakshmi and me. It’s a guided tour that takes you through some beautiful but rarely visited temples built by the Hoysala Kings. As we travel through these places, we talk about history of the kingdom and narrate legends associated with the temples that we see. Also part of the trail is a small detour – a walk under the thick canopy of evergreen trees in a 300-acre coffee estate. The estate manager escorts the participants through the plantation and explains the process of growing coffee. See travelwise.in for more about the tour. Below is the extract of what Hindu had to say about us. See ‘Related Posts’ at the bottom to know more about the places we visit as part of the trail.
Off the beaten track
There’s more to the Hoysalas than Belur and Halebeedu In the fringes of the Western Ghats in Karnataka, the Hoysala Kings built hundreds of intricately-carved temples. Popular among them are Belur and Halebeedu, popular on the tourist circuit. But, there are more such structures that are unknown to people. Which is why it is time you went on a Hoysala trail, put together by two travel writers. They compiled information on the temples built by the Hoyala Kings, spoke to historians and went through documents prepared by Archaeological Survey of Mysore over the last hundred years. They visited more than two dozen ancient temples around Belur and Halebeedu and spoke to the locals to know about the stories and legends associated with each of them. Thus was born a heritage trail full of story telling sessions on the Hoysalas.
The monsoon edition of the Hoysala Trail is planned on August 29 and 30 ex-Bangalore. For details, visit travelwise.in. For registrations, mail arun@travelwise.in or lakshmi@travelwise.in
Club Mahindra is hosting a travel writing contest called ‘My Trip of a Lifetime’. The contestants have to write about the best travel experience of their lifetime. Three winning participants will get an all expense paid trip to Mashorba near Shimla. I am going to be part of the jury, and am excited at the prospect of getting to read a long list of travelogues.