We went for a really enjoyable weekend trip to Bangarapet in May. We stayed at a place called Morrit Farms. Since the trip was right after the driver fiasco, I was real glad that my friend offered a ride to KGF. The road we took was quite bad, though the area was quite beautiful, with a lot of farms on the way. Also, his vehicle, an SUV, was made for such a journey. A point to note as and when I buy my vehicle. (During the ride, we had our first taste of Karachi Bakery biscuits and it was amazing. Note to self: Next time you visit Hyderabad, but a truck-load!).

Morrit package includes food, which made it convenient and the staff tried to accommodate our various requests as much as possible. There were glitches, like A/Cs not working. But after an eventful day, I didnt care much about the A/C and anyway, I am not a fan of A/Cs. My friends had packed enough beer to feed entire Bangarapet (!) and I am not kidding when I say that the only fluids (well, almost) we had during the trip was Beer. No wonder KingFisher brand is doing so well.

While playing cricket in their cricket nets, I made the mistake of attempting a caught & bowled and jammed my finger pretty hard. It was pure agony. The pain hasnt gone, after 1 month. No more fielding heroics while playing cricket. I had it checked by a Doctor who claims it is a micro-fracture and should heal by itself. Well, I sure hope so. I also managed to squeeze in a little bit of Badminton with the girls. I havent touched a Badminton racket since B-Tech days and it sure felt strange. I did start feeling more and more comfortable and if only I was interested in the game, I could work on improving it. But Badminton is not my thing nowadays.

Since all of us have daughters of roughly the same age, they had a blast. My friends happened to know a former resident of Bangarapet and he even gave us a guided tour of the place. It was great to get some insights from a person who actually grew up in the place. We visited a few of the mines, his former home (almost in the same condition they left it!), a local school etc.

In the evening, we visited Kotilingeswara Temple, the one with 1 Crore (almost) Shiva Lingams. No photos are allowed inside the temple and my clandestine efforts at snapping some pictures were futile as the poor lighting required flash and I dared not use the flash. All the pictures look like some UFO pictures. It was amazing to see rows and rows of Shiva Lingams and it seems the Temple already has 90 Lakhs of them!

Once we get our feet under us, we plan to do more such trips in the future. Looks like the Bengaluru crowd has given a shot in the arm to Karnataka Tourism.