Mantralayam tour

shyamm

Need info on Mantralayam, the sights to see , accomodation,prices etc..I will be starting from Bangalore on Saturday 8th July night and hope to be back on monday morning.Any info would be appreciated.

shyamm

As I could not get tickets on the KSRTC Rajahamsa, i had to book my tickets on APSRTC high tech bus for Rs 250 per head.Though there is nothing hightech about it, the bus was an old battered one with torn seats, jammed windows etcc..But the worst thing was it was a video coach with a telugu movie running with such high volume it would shatter your eardrums and spoil your sleep.Will never again travel on APSRTC busses and would advice others also not too.Moreover the bus crew also make "extra money" by taking extra passengers and make them sit/sleep on the aisle.
The bus left bangalore at 9.30pm and after entering the Andhra state, it becomes a normal ordinary bus , stopping at all wayside towns and villages.Reached Manthralaya at around 7.30am. Being a sunday that day, all the rooms/ guesthouses belonging to the Math were booked, all of them dispalying ROOMS FULL board. Even there were no vacant rooms in the many private lodges.However was able to get a A/C room at a exhorbitant price of Rs.500 per day at a small guest house supposedly belonging to the math.But one thing I have to say is the clerk and the room boys were helpful/courteous.We also booked our return tickets back to Bangalore but due to the heavy weekend rush we were able to get tickets only on a semi luxury Apsrtc bus(That damn Apsrtc again!!!!!!!!)
After refreshing ourselves we had breakfast at Hotel udipi krishna bhavan.Later we visited the Manchallamma Temple in the Math complex.The diety is supposed to be Parvathi.Afterwards we visited the math and had darshan of the samadhi/ sannidhi/Brindavan. If you are a brahmin, wearing a dhoti and a angavastra, you can have darshan in a special queue.After the darshan and having bought the prasadam which are available at Rs.15 for 5 burfis, we hired a auto for Rs.150 to and fro to take us to Panchamukhi Anjaneya Temple, about 15kms away in karnataka state.The journey takes about 30-40 min one way.One the way we crossed a bridge over the mighty Thungabhadra which incidently had gone dry.This temple is a cave temple on a small hillock is the place where Raghavendra swamiji had penanced for 12 years before he was visited by the five faced Lord Hanuman.Hence the name panchamukhi Anjaneya.Nearby is unusual rock formations and the Yarkallamma temple, another cave temple.After darshan at both these places we came back to the math at about 1pm for prasadam lunch.Be aware to carry your own cups for drinking water.Though the math has a dining hall, Infosys has built a new high capacity modern dining hall 5 min away from the math complex.
After lunch we returned back to our room for a small snooze to give rest to our aching bodies.Woke up at 6pm , had tea at the udipi krishna bhavan again and had a stroll in the market and the math garden.Visited the math again for one more darshan.After a light dinner at 7.30pm went back to the room to pack our luggage.At about 8.30pm took a auto to the bus stand for our 9pm bus back to bangalore.Thank god our seats were reserved.Again the bus crew took more people than the seat capacity, also a few cops, a broken down car engine, a couple of mechanics and what not.Somehow safely reached bangalore at about 7am monday morning.
I would suggest anyone visiting Manthralaya to make advance booking of both journey tickets and rooms to avoid hassle there.The Math has a office at Jayanagar 5th block to make advance room reservations.It was a nice experience for me , a place i had visited 25 years back.