A Weekend Mysore trip..

I Remember I have been to Mysore in my childhood days.. But I dont even have a single photograph of that in my home:-(

I came for my job to bangalore in 2007. Right from the day i came to bangalore, i have a plan to go to mysore.. But it takes me 2.5 years to go there.. Its not a big deal to go to mysore from bangalore(just matter of 150 kms).. But I couldn't make it for two years.. Ofcourse everything needs a time to come.. Ok, here comes my two days in mysore.

We have booked tickets in train(Myladuthurai-Mysore express - 6231), which starts from bangalore to mysore by 6:30 AM. Me and my friends senthil, dinesh & rajavelu got up that very early morning(Really tough to get up by 4'o clock in November in bangalore:-)). Rushed up with bathings and took a bus to majestic.. By the time we reached majestic, it was 6:20 AM. We jumped the barricades on the road and stepped into the train just some 2 mins before the train start.. A Very thrilling start :-)

As morning trains will not be crowded, we enjoyed the train journey with that morning breeze and chit-chats..

At last, we reached mysore by 9:30 AM. We have no idea what to do next.. First we decided to have something to eat. Took an auto, and asked him to take to some good place to eat.. Good that autowalah take us to a good hotel. We had a nice breakfast over there.. Then we started searching lodges to put our bags.. We looked some three lodges, near by that hotel itself. Finally we got MRT lodge, which is good both in economy as well as ambience..

We planned to visit the place which were a bit far from city. So we checked with that lodge restaurant itself for a car to roam around.. After some discussion, we booked a TATA indica for the entire day for 1000 rupees. By the time we start to roam around it was 11:00 AM.

First we went to Chamundeshwari Hills. It took us some 15-20 mins to reach there from the lodge.. Thanks God, the Temple was not crowded. It was a pleasant place, had a nice darshan of chamundeshwari devi... Ofcourse had some photo sessions too.. We spent, some half an hour over there. Only problem over there is, we need to walk some distance with bear foot. So we had a little tough time, since the time we went there was almost mid of the day.. Senthil got bubbles in his foot walking on that hot floor.. :-(



Then we started from there and went to Bull temple.. Not spend much of time over there. There is a single statue of Large Bull(we heard some stories that the bull grows over the days :-)). Bull temple is situated some 2 kms from chamundeshwari temple..

Coming back from Bull temple, we had a small bad time.. Our Car tyre got punctured. Thank God, there was a spare tyre.. We quickly changed it started it from there.. Senthil as usual starting photos of monkeys(his favourite) over there..

Then we went to Karanji lake, which is some 15 mins travel from Bull temple.. There is nothing much. But a quiet and good place with boating facility. So we spend some in boating over there. There were lot of birds, we can say it a s mini bird sanctuary.. You can see some love & romances going on in the lake shores :-).


By the time we came out of that lake, it was 2:00 PM. Hightime for lunch.. We moved to a kerala hotel near that lake itself.. I don't remember the name.. But Its a damn worst hotel.. Nothing is good over there.. Had abad lunch:-( and started..

Then we moved to Kaveri emporium, a government run shop where you can buy sandalwood related items and clothing.. Its a bit costly. But the quality is very good.. I bought some sandal oil bottles, a set of bangles for my mother, a shawl for my father and a t-shirt for my brother. I thought of buying a small sandal wood piece, but the cost made me to drop my plan. A 5 cm length of sandal wood cost 300 rupees..:-(

After that we moved to Srirangapatna, the capital town of mysore ruled my Tippu sultan once.
We visited Tippu's Residence, which later become the residence of Lord Dalhousie.. It a nice place, Its a building in some 2000sq ft, which is completely done with natural colour paintings, which are very minute.. Really excellent to see that 200 years old painting.. There were some lot and painting depicting the history of Srirangapatna.. Overall its a good place. We spend some 1 hour over there..

Last for the day, we started to Brindavan Gardens. On the way, we saw the death place of Tippu and a Mosque which Tippu use to visit. Brindavan Garden has the Musical fountain show by every day 6:30 PM. So we made it as last. At last, we reached the Garden which is built besides the majestic structure of Krishnaraja sagar dam.. In shops over there, Dinesh got his favourite monkey cap over there.. Rajavelu got a hunter hat.. Senthil was sitting quiet for sometime seeing the heat bubbles in his foot.. Then we moved to the stadium, which is build especially for musical fountain.. Musical fountain, to say about frankly, it not that impressive. But overall it a good one.. Some pleasant view for eyes for 30 mins.. That ends our day 1 in mysore..




Day 2 - Sunday.. We checked out the hotel by 9:30AM. Thank God, the checkout time for that hotel is 24 hours... A Mysore trip is not fulfilled without seeing the Mysore Palace. Yes, the first place we visited in our second day is Mysore palace, which is at a walkable distance from the hotel we stayed. So we finished our breakfast nearby hotels and walked to the Palace. The Mysore Palace stood majestically in front of us.. I understood the real meaning of a "King Life" after visiting there.. We spend some 3 complete hours in Mysore palace compound.. I was amazed of the royalty over there.. You could understand the meaning of "Royal" over there..

Then out of senthil's torture & compulsion. We moved to Mysore Zoo. Nothing much different from other zoos. It has a total walkable distance of around 4 kms. We were walking over there with the tiredness of the previous day. Senthil as usual, took lot of unwanted multi angel shots of all the animals to fill his digicam memory. Zoo make us completely tired. It was 4:00PM when we came out of Zoo. We booked the returned ticket also in train(Thoothukudi express - 6731) Starting 6:00 PM from mysore.

As a final place in our Mysore trip, we went to Rail Museum. Rail museum is right behind the Mysore railway station. That make us relaxed and spend sometime over there. Rail museum has some 10-15 old model train wagons and engines dating back to a century. It also has a special wagon used my the Royal family of Mysore. Its not much interesting, but its good to see.

We get into the Railway station through the back entrance of Rail Museum, had a cup of tea and waited for some time to board the train.

In the train, we had some unwanted arguments with some foolish guys, who is sitting in our reserved seats and refusing to get up.. Finally after some arguments, we got our place to sit
and started back to bangalore....