bangalore | On My Canvas

5 Years As a Digital Nomad in India: Behind The Scenes

on the road 1 drying clothes on rolling mountains near a road himachal pradesh

5 Years As a Digital Nomad in India: Behind The Scenes Table of Content [TOC] Introduction to My Digital Nomad Lifestyle January 5′ 2024 Bangalore Here I am in a hotel in Bangalore, writing about my nomad living and wondering why do I feel so cold and why am I so uninterested and unenthusiastic about everything. …

Some of the Best Bangalore Hotels – From Personal Experience

As my partner and I left our rooftop terrace in Bangalore to start our indefinite road trip, we started searching for budget hotels in Bangalore. Our car was still not delivered (more on the chaos in a separate piece), and we had to stick around the city a bit longer.

The most challenging thing about finding a good guest house in Bangalore is that in big cities hotels are expensive, even if poorly maintained. I have run into a lot of guesthouse owners who overestimate their property’s worth and charge exorbitantly. They calculate their property’s per day rent in terms of how much the building values but not on the services they provide and the current state of the hotel or homestay.

I stayed at a homestay in Bangalore where we almost went crazy fixing the place and handling the hosts. You can read more about this Bangalore Airbnb experience in my family-run guesthouses of India guide. At times, some of the stays at Bangalore were so dirty we checked out from the place the same day.

This Indian accommodations guide has extensive write-ups on my hotel experience in India.

And I understand the hosts’ apprehensions about Indian guests. A lot of us are notorious for making the place dirty, breaking others’ stuff, being rude and noisy, and not caring at all. But if we look beyond, the Bangalore hotel industry is run by staff most of whom aren’t trained in the hospitality industry. Well, that’s a problem in all of India I guess.

In a big city like Bangalore, I have realized it makes more sense to stay at a known or reputed hotel. Smaller and cheaper hotels in Bangalore offer poor services (maybe because their costs are high but can’t be recovered in budget pricing? or they just don’t know any better). And star-rated hotels in Bengaluru have to function well because they cater to a wide audience. Homestays in Bangalore are a gamble.

In the above two guides, you will read me discussing more on such Indian hospitality problems. Today I want to write about these three guesthouses-cum-best-hotels in Bangalore I loved staying at. I booked them on different occasions and here sharing my honest reviews.

Please note: This is not a sponsored post by any of these accommodations in Bangalore. They don’t even know I’m writing about them.

flowers sold in basavanagudi bangalore feature

Going Back in Time in Basavanagudi in Bangalore

Spread symmetrically around parks and temples, Basavanagudi in Bangalore was a surprise to me. I was taken to this old locality of Bangalore by a dear friend Julia.

Julia is a French woman who married an Indian man mostly for her love for Kolkata (sorry Sudipto) – she met her husband there. As destiny had it, Julia happened to move into the flat below our rooftop abode in HSR Bangalore. From my terrace shed, we stalked the blood-red moons together. Christmas was celebrated at her home and Diwali was at mine.

In December 2020, when the lockdowns had been lifted and the cases were receding, Julia took me to Basavanagudi. I hadn’t explored the locality. If Julia hadn’t suggested, I may have never visited the ancient lanes, intriguing parks, and the historic temples in Basavanagudi.

Memories From Cubbon Park Bangalore – City’s Wildest Escape

I cannot give a guide to Cubbon Park Bangalore. I mean why would I? One has to explore a park at her speed and manner.

What’s there to a park anyway? You may ask.

azuki japanese bistro restaurant near mg road bangalore

My Favorite Restaurants Near MG Road – Places to Overeat

I first created a draft for the restaurants near MG Road Bangalore when I was staying at the boutique hotel Casa Cottage behind Richmond Town. Sitting under the avocado trees, I would read books on Bangalore. Sometimes midday, I would pack my Kindle, pen, and notebook and head out. A few days, I stopped by Koshy’s and Indian Coffee House, and other days, I walked on. Towards the evening, my partner would join me for dinner, and we would explore different restaurants around MG Road (It’s close to Richmond Town). And many of those adventures of my belly found their way into this article.

I lived in Bangalore for quite a while and ate at many restaurants, kiosks, food stalls, and cycle vendors. But I never wrote about those eateries. I was scared of indulging in my food obsession. In Richmond Town, I was eating out at a new place daily because we were soon leaving Bangalore (for the nth time). Our Karnataka adventures were coming to an end. And so, I decided to record my food experiences in this MG road restaurants’ guide.

Here they are all. Enjoy.

the mama pelican has come to feed this Tickell's Blue Flycatcher does look lonely on a dry branch in ranganathittu bird sanctuary near mysore karnataka south india (1)

A Noisy Day in the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, Karnataka: A Road Trip From Bangalore

We went on a one day drive to the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary: one of the coolest places in Karnataka and one of the best places to visit near Mysore. And I was overwhelmed by the sanctuary’s beauty.

As we approached the Ranganathittu National Park, we could see big birds flying above us in groups. That part of the Mysore city felt like a forest. Soon we would see crocodiles basking on rocks and islets full of young chicks chattering incessantly for food.

Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary is a natural reserve in the Mandya district of Karnataka. The reserve is three kilometers from the historic town of Srirangapatna (another important place in Karnataka) and sixteen kilometers (10 mi) north of Mysore. The drive to Ranganathittu bird sanctuary from Bangalore took us about four hours.

Ranganathittu islets were formed when an embankment across the Kaveri river was built between 1645 and 1648 by the then king of Mysore. These islets, originally numbering twenty five, soon started attracting birds. Once upon a time, ornithologist Salim Ali observed migrant birds nesting in huge numbers on the islands. Upon his suggestion, the King of Mysore declared the islets a protected area in 1940. Now the sanctuary is formed by six of these islets on the Kaveri river.

As soon as we arrived at Ranganathittu, we purchased a ticket and went inside. As we went inside the sanctuary, we could see the Kaveri islands below us, and above us in the sky flew painted storks, ibis, pelicans, and herons. At least those were the birds I could identify. When we took the special boat ride that takes in seven people and goes around the sanctuary for forty minutes the boatman told us that the Ranganathittu reserve hosts at least one hundred seventy bird species. Some of the common birds found are painted storks, Asian openbill storks, woolly-necked stork, pelicans, river terns, egrets, cormorants, herons, and varieties of kingfishers.

The best time to visit Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary is from December to February, and we were well within the time frame. During these months migrant birds come to Ranganathittu from as far as Siberia, South America, and the Himalayas, and they all nest in the bird sanctuary. You can also spot crocodiles, otters, mongooses, and flying foxes there. Just keep your eyes open and binoculars in focus.

I penned down my experience in Ranganathittu National Park in a poem. After all, what is better than nature and poetry?

Writing down that poem here. Hope you enjoy it 🙂