Someshwara Temple, Ulsoor, 16th Century

Right next to MG Road in the heart of the city, a beautiful living 16th century temple. With a quaint old market next to it with narrow lanes and the smell of spices - don't miss that, ask anyone for the vegetable market. This is on the way to Cubbon park, Commercial Street. I discovered this temple thanks to the INTACH Heritage Walks.

You need to remove your shoes to walk inside, but you can wear socks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halasuru_Someshwara_Temple,_Bangalore

INTACH: http://www.intachblr.org/

Mail intach.blr@gmail.com to get on to their mailing list. Their walks get sold out in minutes, they are so good. :) 

Photo from the Net.

Restaurants, Pubs, Shopping

Idli & Vada, South Indian Breakfast at Konark

If you are coming to visit Central and South Bangalore, here are some safe options in Central Bangalore where you can stop for breafkast/lunch/dinner.

Near MG Road

• Indian [Khansama, Rajdhani [veg]], European, and Japanese restaurants at UB City Mall, has a nice open-air restaurant area with an amphitheatre.

• Konark Vegetarian restaurant, Residency road [Old place, good for local breakfast and snacks, like idli, dosa etc]

• Koshy’s, St, Mark’s road [Old Bangalore landmark with photos of old Bangalore, great fish curry and rice, fish and prawn biriyani, potato smileys and beer] [080 22915840, 080 22213793]
• Hard Rock Cafe, right next to Koshy's, St. Mark's road

• Coconut Grove, Church Street [Coastal cuisine from the West coast, Kerala. 080 25596262]

• The Biere Club, microbrewery near UB City Mall, Vittal Mallya road, 080 42124383,080 42124384
• Ballal Residency, Residency Road, near Brigade Road [Great breakfast place, for South Indian breakfast. Parking available]

Indira Nagar

On the way from Outer Ring Road to MG Road.

• Toit Microbrewery [good food too], 100 feet road, near CMH Road junction,+91 9019713388, +91 9019813388

Shopping

Commercial Street, near MG Road

Old shopping area, lots of Indian clothes, jewelry, crafts

Cauvery Emporium, MG Road [for local Sandalwood and other handicrafts, original stuff. Open on Sundays too, 10 AM]

National Gallery of Modern Art

Beautiful old bungalow with huge gardens, housing paintings and sculpture from the East India Company times to the present. Has a small tea shop too. It has an amazing collection of old trees all around, they have Arboretum walks sometimes. Not very far from Cubbon Park.

On Palace Road, right next to the Petrol Pump, though it is one-way from that side. The same road as Mount Carmel college, Vasant Nagar.

http://ngmaindia.gov.in/ngma_bangaluru.asp

Palace Road, Vasant Nagar, Ph: 080 22342338

Gallery Timings:
Opens daily from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Closed on Mondays and National Holidays.

Photo from the Net.

Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens

Around 200 acres, started in the 1760s by Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan, with rare plants and trees from all over the world. There is a lake on one side, a lotus pond, and a 200-year-old Silk Cotton Tree. Takes about an hour to walk the entire park, but you can do bits.

Lal Bagh: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lal_Bagh

Giant Cotton Trees

Don't miss the lotus pond near the lake.

Lal Bagh is stunning in May.

Album: https://goo.gl/photos/MMdHmyViKxK947TG9

Gulmohars in bloom in May

Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace, 1791

With a museum inside, on the ground floor. Lovely Islamic architecture, gardens. Great place for photography, the light upstairs is lovely, since it is open on all sides.There is a beautiful temple also right next to it, you can club both.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipu_Sultan's_Summer_Palace

This is in South Bangalore, you can club it with visits to Bull Temple, Gandhi Bazaar, Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens.

Tipu Sultan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipu_Sultan

Tipu Sultan (20 November 1750  – 4 May 1799), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, Dipu Sultan and Tipu Sahib, was a ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, scholar and poet, recognized as one of the greatest South Asian rulers of all time.

..Tipu expanded the iron-cased Mysorean rockets and wrote the military manual Fathul Mujahidin, considered a pioneer in the use of rocket artillery. He deployed the rockets against advances of British forces and their allies in their 1792 and 1799 Siege of Srirangapatna.

...Napoleon, the French commander-in-chief who later became emperor, sought an alliance with Tipu. In alliance with the French in their struggle with the British, and in Mysore's struggles with other surrounding powers, both Tipu and his father used their French trained army against the Marathas, Sira, and rulers of Malabar, Kodagu, Bednore, Carnatic, and Travancore.

Kempegowda Museum (1300 AD - 1800 AD) MG Road

Southerly view of Bangalore, by Claude Martin, 18th century

Fabulous old red building, with old pictures, maps, drawings of Bangalore starting from the 18th century, dedicated to Kempegowda, the chieftain who founded Bangalore. In the Mayo Hall compound, right next to the Public Utility Building.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kempegowda_Museum

Open 10.30 to 4.30 every day, except on Sundays, second Saturdays and public holidays.

Album: https://goo.gl/photos/A4db3s31HMhRqUuB7

Map of Bangalore, 18th century

The museum, from the outside:

Gandhi Bazaar, Basavanagudi

Lovely open-air vegetable, fruit, and spice market, in South Bangalore. Very close to the Bull Temple.

http://indianbazaars.blogspot.in/2010/04/bazaar-tour-gandhi-bazaar-bangalore.html

Bull Temple, Basavanagudi

Beautiful old 16th century temple, with an ancient grove right behind, with bats hanging from the trees. The city was originally founded in this area.

“The temple was built in 1537 by Kempe Gowda under the Vijayanagara empire in the Vijayanagara architectural style, he also founded the city of Bangalore.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodda_Ganeshana_Gudi

Location: South Bangalore. You can combine a  visit to Gandhi Bazaar, an open air market, very close to this place.

Photo from the Net.

Cubbon Park

Nearly 300 acres of beautiful green space, right in the heart of the city, founded in 1870. Has huge biodiversity, with hundreds of species, many brought in from all over the world. The park is closed to vehicles on Sundays, and many people come for jogging, marathons and picnics. A great place for a nice long walk, and picnics under the trees.

Cubbon Park: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubbon_Park

Sundays in the Park

On Sundays the park is closed to traffic, and there are music/dance performances at the Band Stand inside. Between 7.30 - 9 in the morning, and 5.30 - 7 in the evenings. The Horticulture dept also sells fresh vegetables and fruits, and there is a dog park where people bring their pet dogs.

November in Cubbon Park

If you happen to come here in November, you are in for a feast. The Tabebuia Impetignosa blooms in brilliant bunches of pink in front of the Central Library inside the park, a huge circle of trees that lose all their leaves in October. They last just about three weeks, by the last weekend of November they fall.

Photos [The November Circle of Pink]: https://goo.gl/photos/bGH3yeJ3ACDQGR6v6

Photos [From Blossom to Blossom]: https://goo.gl/photos/KeZQuW2C5F4dtPLT7

February in Cubbon Park

If you happen to come in February, you are in time for the Tabebuia Aurea that blooms all over Bangalore. They bloom in some parts of the park too.

See album here: https://goo.gl/photos/AXsqp1W1baLPxaNH8

Parking: On all other days other than Sunday, you can enter from the UB City gate and park at the red Central Library inside the park. You could also just park at the UB City mall parking, and cross the road into the park. On Sundays the park is closed to vehicles, so you will need to enter from the MG Road entrance, turn right and park along the road behind the High Court.

Facilities: There are two clean toilet facilities inside the park, and there is a Konark restaurant in the Kanteerva Stadium right opposite the UB City entrance. UB City, the mall, has a food court, which opens around 10.30.

Why this Blog :)

 

 
I've lived in Bangalore 24 years, and I am falling in love with it even more with every passing year. It is full of surprises, quaint corners. I love its mix of parks, tree-lined avenues, remnants of 400-year-old history, great restaurants/pubs, and the cosmopolitan culture. I find it painful to hear visitors say that they only saw lots of ugly buildings and traffic jams. They are obviously seeing the wrong places. :)

Here's an attempt to show you that there's much more to Bangalore than that. I hope you go back with good memories of the city that will always be home to me, though I was born somewhere else.

A quick peek at this album should give you an idea of why I think Bangalore is stunningly beautiful, a riot of colours:

Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/V3BuQRY7e1ZS3Dew6