Mysore - a nice getaway

This post has been in the draft mode since 13th Oct 2006. I managed to complete it today.

My hubby and I finally made a one-day trip to Mysore. I had been to Mysore thrice before with other family members but this is the first time hubby got to visit Mysore. We wanted to see what's so special during Dussehra. We booked a cab and started our journey at 7 AM on a chilly Sunday morning. There was absolutely no traffic on the road and it was a smooth ride on the highway. I have never seen such a well laid road in India ever before. The flowers and plants that are on the separator of the road is a wonderful sight.

We stopped around 9 AM at a small restaurant (forgot the name, it's opposite to a big petrol bunk) for breakfast. Hubby tried a different kind of idli called Mallige idli. I guess it's made out of Aappaam batter. I didn't like the taste of it and I settled for normal idlis. We then had steaming hot coffee. In another 20 minutes, we were in Srirangapatna. Our first spot was Tipu Sultan's summer palace. It's such a nice place with greenery around and beautiful flowers. I got surprised to see the ticket price different for visitors from abroad. The entry ticket is 5 rupees per person if you are a localite and $2 for visitors. I don't understand why the price has to be partial. If tourism industry has to flourish in India, these different pricing schemes should stop.

Sangam was our next spot. It's a feast to eyes to see the flowing water from all three directions. Good that we went after monsoon. There were coracle rides as well. But I was feeling scared to get into a crowded coracle. We took some snaps and bought a couple of idols made out of black stone. We then visited Ranganatha Swamy temple. I love the smell inside these old temples. I'm not sure if it's because of the basil leaves or something else. There were many shops selling artefacts and paintings which were damn expensive. We were feeling thirsty by then and had tender coconut water outside the temple. I don't understand why we don't get sweet tender coconut water these days? It's been a very long time since I tasted something like that.

It was 11.45 AM and we headed towards Mysore. "Welcome to heritage city" banner greeted us. We first visited the famous Mysore zoo and was thrilled to see the giraffes, different kinds of monkeys and birds, tigers, zebras, African elephants etc etc. The zoo is maintained well, except that the huge tigers could have been put in bigger cabins. Poor things, they were feeling restless and couldn't roam well in the small cabin. We couldn't find a single place inside the zoo where we could get some snacks. All we could find was a cool bar serving Coke and Maaza.

We came out of the zoo at 2.30 and our stomach was growling. We treated ourselves to a nice, sumptuous lunch in a restaurant next to the palace. It was a crowded place and we had to wait till 3 PM to get our food. We then headed towards the palace where a very long queue awaited us. Apparently, everyone was interested to go inside the palace. We were in no mood to spend the next couple of hours standing in the queue. So we changed our plans and headed straight to Chamundi hills. I bought an offerings plate from a local vendor while hubby was waiting in the queue to get pooja tickets. Suddenly, a monkey jumped towards me to pick the bananas from my offerings plate. I screamed at the top of my voice and hubby came to my rescue. For the next 30 minutes till we entered the main temple premises, I was being watchful, covering the offerings plate with my handkerchief. Though the monkeys look cute, there were just too many of them.

It was a nice, cool evening when we started to descend from Chamundi hills. What a wonderful view of the city! We waited to take a few pictures of the sunset and the huge Nandi statue. It was 6.30 PM and we decided to head towards Brindavan gardens. Our driver mentioned that it shouldn't take more than 45 minutes to reach this place. What we didn't expect was a traffic jam that stretched for the entire distance. It was 8.45 when we reached Brindavan gardens. We were very disappointed that we couldn't spend more time in such a lovely place. But the musical fountain show took away all the sadness and tiredness. It was definitely a treat to our eyes and ears.

We reached home at midnight, remembering the nice times and new places. There are so many beautiful places to visit around Bangalore. This is definitely on my to-do list for the next year.