[Heavy Horse]

New car, will drive….with that intent in mind we sat to plan a long trip over the extended weekend of Good Friday. Originally we had the Kabini Jungle Resort in mind. Unfortunately they were curtailing some services like the river ride etc, so we decided to push that back after the monsoon. In the planning process, we had factored in a day at Mysore, so when the Kabini trip fell through, we looked more closely at Mysore. To be honest my wife is more keen on selecting the places we go to, while all I want is a long empty road in front of me so I can drive non-stop.

Place to Stay
When we discovered there was a Ginger Hotel in Mysore, the deal was sealed. We are great fans of Ginger, and along with my XUV, Indigo Airlines and a few others, ranks as real VFMs available in India. No mess, no fuss, clean rooms, clean ambience, adequate choice of cuisine. Booking online we reserved our room, and awaited departure day.

Route Planning
While my wife researched the places to see, I concentrated on route planning. I have been using www.rome2rio.com thus far. It’s a nice website that lists all possible alternatives to go from A to B, such as car, bus, flights etc, but within let’s say the drive alternative, they don’t spell out alternative routes. This is where I find Google Maps very helpful, where they list out all alternatives related to driving. Google Maps indicated that I could go through Madikeri, or through Hassan on NH48 (Mangalore-Bangalore Highway) and then branch out through either Holenarsipur or Channarayapattana to Mysore. The Madikeri route is the shortest at 313 Kms, then through Holenarsipur at 344 kms, and Channarayapattana 352 kms. We had just travelled to Madikeri on March 16-17, and knew that road which had large tracts under repair. Also I was keen to check out NH48, since we might make a trip to Bangalore in the not too distant future. So finally I decided to go via Hassan-Holenarsipur-Mysore route.

Reaching Mysore
We hit the highway around 8am and reached Mysore at 2.30pm. I was quite happy with the road conditions that made for smooth driving by and large. Only the ghat section I found was pretty long, so we took a short 10 min break at the top, and another 20 mins at Sakleshpur, after coming out of the Ghat section. Just after crossing the town we found a nice joint for some Upma and filter coffee, but unfortunately don’t recall the name. Total travel time was 6 hours, yielding an average speed of 57 kmph.

Check-in was smooth, and lunch was ready at the Café. Went over to the travel desk and asked for a person who could show us the roads and direct us to the various sightseeing areas. We made it clear that we did not want a Guide.

Rested the whole afternoon and early evening. A friend’s son who works at Infosys dropped by and we went out for dinner at the Pai Vista, to round off a pretty good day.

Next Morning
Ate well at breakfast. Reasonable choice, decent spread arranged buffet style. By 9am Srinivas our road guide turned up, and we were off. We had planned to see all we could within Mysore City, and Srinivas assured us it was eminently manageable.

First stop Chamundi Hill
This was around 15kms from the city. We reached there soon enough and for a payment of Rs 100/- per person we availed of the “executive route” to quick darshan!


Next stop Nandi the bull
As you wind down the hill, you get some fantastic views of Mysore City. That grand looking white structure is the Lalit Mahal Palace Hotel, built by the Maharaja, but now converted to a hotel.


Nandi the bull carved out of one stone.


After visits to a wax museum, and KSIC shop selling silks, sandalwood, furniture etc, we reached the eagerly awaited Mysore Palace, and made our way inside through the “mango people” entrance (shot from inside).



Viewing the inside of the palace took close to an hour, and another 20 mins to see the older palace behind. After that we went around the palace grounds on a golf cart at Rs 50/- per head. Really worth it, as it was quite hot by now (38C), and hard to walk around. Plus got some great straight shots of the main entrance and palace.



Srinivas suggested we do Mysore zoo, but our family has been one happy zoo over the last 25 odd years, so we gave that a miss. Opted to get back to Ginger, had lunch, snoozed and met Srinivas again at 5.15pm.

Off to Brindavan Gardens

The Mysore Palace and Brindavan Gardens are pretty close to world class, though I did get the impression that the Gardens lacked some necessary maintenance. Swarms of people milling around testifying to it’s huge popularity.


The sheer size and scale of Krishna Raja Sagar Dam…..


And the grand finale…..musical fountains….light and sound show.





Being a public holiday,Good Friday, the Mysore Palace is lighted up from 8-9pm. This happens on Sundays too. We rushed back to catch a glimpse and were not disappointed.



The next day we learnt that there would be a light and sound show at the Palace. But the day was spent visiting Srirangapatna, where Tipu Sultan, had a summer palace. This place is about 20 kms away and was an easy drive. Tipu’s summer palace is small, but has extensive grounds and reasonably well maintained.


Unfortunately Tipu met his end here too.


His tomb along with his parents and other family members has been turned into a nice memorial, and attracts many visitors.


This is where Tipu is laid along with his father Hyder Ali and mother.



And finally we were luccky enough to witness the lighting of the Mysore Palace. It seems there are different levels of lighting. In this one only the Palace is lighted without the grounds largely dark, unlike the earlier ones where both the Palace and grounds were illuminated.


And so the end was reached. The next morning we were to head back to Manipal at the end of a very satisfying visit.

[Rudra Sen]

Mods note: Thread moved from Assembly Line to Travelogues. Thanks for sharing.

[mazda4life]

thanks for sharing , looks like Mysore was sizzling hot.

[SDP]

Very crisp and informative travelogue, Heavy_Horse! Loved the pictures.
Looks like the new car is prompting you to hit the roads often.

Thanks for sharing. Have a good day!

[motomaverick]

Nice and crisp travelogue almost like Wikitravel about Mysore. By the way, even I was there with parents & inlaws on Friday in Mysore. We went to Brindavan Gardens but by the time we reached that place there was a huge crowd and we opted out. Reached the illuminated palace instead but the lights went off at 7:45 so I could not click any picture.

[Heavy Horse]

Originally Posted by mazda4life

thanks for sharing , looks like Mysore was sizzling hot.

It sure was Mazda, peaked at 38C. I forgot to mention (unforgivable for a healthcare consultant!!) that you need to keep drinking water at frequent intervals. It was still energy sapping but hydrating regularly made it manageable.

Originally Posted by SDP

Very crisp and informative travelogue, Heavy_Horse! Loved the pictures.
Looks like the new car is prompting you to hit the roads often.

Thanks for sharing. Have a good day!

Like you SDP I use the Nikon D90 and just love it. I use the all weather 28-300mm so not much need to change lenses. And yeah, we've been hitting the road pretty often. In fact that was one of the drivers to buy the SUV, cos while I've done a lot of business travel in the South, hardly any sightseeing, so this is a great opportunity.

Originally Posted by motomaverick

Nice and crisp travelogue almost like Wikitravel about Mysore. By the way, even I was there with parents & inlaws on Friday in Mysore. We went to Brindavan Gardens but by the time we reached that place there was a huge crowd and we opted out. Reached the illuminated palace instead but the lights went off at 7:45 so I could not click any picture.

Hey Moto, this is really sad that you missed out on the Brindavan Gardens.

Are you sure you missed out on the lights on Good Friday? Because we reached around 8.30 pm and it was there. On Saturday, the lights went out at 7.45 or so, because we were there as well, but we reached early and saw the whole show.

[motomaverick]

Originally Posted by Heavy Horse

Hey Moto, this is really sad that you missed out on the Brindavan Gardens.

Are you sure you missed out on the lights on Good Friday? Because we reached around 8.30 pm and it was there. On Saturday, the lights went out at 7.45 or so, because we were there as well, but we reached early and saw the whole show.

I have previously seen the musical show when the gardens were much more cleaner But my parents wanted to see it, anyways there is always a next time.

Yeah, on Friday we reached the palace compounds by 7.30pm but by the time we got around to the parking lot the lights went off. I think what you saw were the flood lights rather than the ones which just illuminates the palace and not the surroundings. I had a tripod also with me to frame a perfect shot but missed it because of the GPS which bought us to wrong gate.

[sajusherief]

Originally Posted by Heavy Horse

I have been using www.rome2rio.com thus far. It’s a nice website that lists all possible alternatives to go from A to B, such as car, bus, flights etc, but within let’s say the drive alternative, they don’t spell out alternative routes.

Thanks for the website, never came across that before. It's very interactive and i especially loved the CO2 calculation they make for each mode of transport. This site is very useful for calculating the approximate cost and comparison of different traveling modes for a trip. As you said one big miss is the lack of alternative driving options.

[debuda]

Neat travelogue with lovely pictures. Keep 'em coming.

[saravanakumar07]

The Grand Looking white building is not the Lalit Mahal Palace. It's the Mall of Mysore near ( Across) the Golf Course. This is on the Western side. The Lalit Mahal palace will come in the North Eastern side of the hills, It will have a high dome in the middle.