Trip to Mysore and back

The journey started off at 4 in the morning when i took off from my place to pick up my friend. I was ready for the morning drive with a flask of coffee :) and slices of tangy mango to have along the drive. Picked up my friend by about 4:20 at Jayanagar and then started the journey down SH17 to mysore...

Somewhere in the middle on the highway just as morning was breaking

The drive to Mysore took a little less than 3 hrs. Of course my friend kept up the tempo all through the drive with all her jumping about and her singing :) which i must admit is pretty good :) We reached Mysore, and found sign boards telling us the way all through the city.

We first went up Chamundi hills to get to the Chamundi temple, and then came down to the Nandi temple. Thankfully, since we got there early, it was pretty cool and not too hot and crowded. We left our shoes at the shoe counter at Chamundi temple, and made our way through the rivers of cow pee and poo and avoided all the monkeys (which were giving us dangerous looks!!!) The temple was all serene and quiet. Spent some time in the temple admiring the architecture while my friend prayed.

The temple at Chamundi Hills

Picked up the prasadam from there and headed down to Nandi temple. Only sad thing about the place is that the place around the temple walls are littered with garbage (while all over the place there are boards that say "Keep Chamundi free of plastic!"....

We asked around and found the steps that would take us down to the Nandi temple. It just took us five minutes of walking down the steps to realize that once we got to the Nandi temple there was no way we were going to be able to climb back up the 300 steps to the Chamundi temple were we had left the car. Glad we made the discovery early, we ran back up the stairs and took the car down to the Nandi temple which I actually preferred to the Chamundi temple - lot more quiet, simple and peaceful!

Nandi Temple - very peaceful here

Quite a few people had climbed up from the bottom of the hill (600 steps to the Nandi temple) and it looked like they were going to keep going up to the Chamundi temple (another 300 steps)... That's called enthusiasm! :)

The steps up to the Chamundi temple from Nandi temple

On the way down from Nandi, we can actully see the Lalit Mahal Palace which is all white. It was 9 AM and we headed on towards Lalit Mahal Palace Hotel for breakfast. The palace looks pretty grand. We were however, the only ones there for breakfast (in a hall that could have seated at least a 100 people) The food was good (though priced a little on the high side) and the service was very good. The service was friendly and simple and they let us walk about the place and explore for a bit... wonderful place.

The Lalit Mahal palace from outside - pretty majestic

The Lalit Mahal palace restaurant

At around 10 AM, we left from Lalit Mahal Palace Hotel and went on to check out the Mysore palace. When we went to one of the entrances, we were told by a bunch of tour guides that the Palace will open only at 11 AM and offered to show us around Mysore till then. Luckily we drove on instead of taking them up on their offer and found another entrance (which was the actual entrance!) and entered the grounds (which were expansive... and pretty well maintained) No cameras allowed inside the palace :( and also no footwear allowed inside the palace. The palace itself is very interesting (especially if you are interested in history). Audio guides are also available. I had my friend, who was a history freak who had been to the palace before, and who also had a very vivid imagination so i didn't need any boring audio guide :) The durbar halls were very nice with a lot of intricate work. The public are not allowed beyond a very strictly controlled pathway through the palace which makes the whole exploration a little boring though the paintings and architecture are very interesting...

The palace

By the time we got out of the palace, it was around 11 AM and we were totally spent especially considering the summer heat! The next place to be visited was Rangantithu Bird Sanctuary, which was back on the way to Bangalore. We decided to get done with lunch first and so found our way to Ginger hotel which we had seen on the way to Chamundi Hills. Lunch was nice (nothing to write about though).

By about 1 PM, we started off towards Bangalore hoping to find Rangantithu on the way. We needed to take a left off the SH17 highway towards Polahalli village and then from then on towards the bird sanctuary. We reached there around 2 PM and found that the boat rides would begin only at 2:30 after their lunch break. The boat rides are an absolute must... it was amazing. We got seats at the head of the boat and so could see un-obstructed :) the number of birds there were un believable (i had expected to have to look carefully into the trees to see the birds. But instead i had to look carefully to see the trees behind the wall of birds!!!)

Rangantithu bird sanctuary

The one thing that i liked the most was that there were crocodiles in the water which would keep swimming away from us. I desparately wanted a photo of one with its moutth all open... but that was not to happen :( did get a lot of good photos of the birds though :) The guide on the boat was very good and he made the ride a lot more interesting :) Bet he made a killing in tips ;) (he was honestly very good and deserved the tips!)

The only place left to see on our list was Balmuri falls... which is close by to Rangantithu (about 30 mins away heading through Polahalli village) This was a BIG disappointment... There was very little water with tons of people in their chadis swimming and jumping about. Guess the place would have been a lot more fun if there was a lot more water. Anyways, we stayed there for about 10 mins max.

We then headed back towards Bangalore (around 4 PM) On the way back we stopped off at the coffee day and spent quite some time sipping coffee and talking. After some time, reluctant to head back into the heat, we had to leave and continue on our way back. Reached bangalore around 6 PM but took an hour and a half to get through the city and reach home near Indiranagar. The whole journey was not at all tiring except for the last stretch through Bangalore city....

Happy visiting to Mysore....