[iashishi]

Hi,

We had planned on a long 4 day trip(may 1st to 4th), unfortunately, work came in the way and I had to work on the 1st. We had to make quick plans for a 3 day trip lots of names flew around, finally decided on Mysore,Kabini and BR hills. Yes, the title does not mention the last two places Here is the full story

Plan - Leave bangalore at 7, go to rangantittu andreach mysore for lunch. Look for a good hotel and then KRS in the evening. Kabibi trhe next day and BR hills on sunday.

Actual - Left Bangalore at 8, missed our planned breakfast stop at Kamat as I was zooming on the left hand side of the road while buses(or were they trucks) blocked our view on the right. Finally, had breakfast at Maddur. Reached Rangantittu at around 11.

We entered the park without much expectations, but man, that place was the best wildlife sanctuary I have seen. Lots of birds and lots of crocs. I have attached a few snaps here.

Then, we headed for mysore, looked for a hotel with parking and AC...A kind auto driver showed us a hotel for 30 bucks which met our requirements. (hotel Leela something...no...not leela palace...near St. Philomena's church)

We decided it was not worth going out in the afternoon heat so chilled out in our AC room (room rate 1000 bucks, extra bed 150).
We stirred at around 5, and went to KRS. Entry fees 15 bucks per person and 50 bucks per camera. We made the mistake of carrying 2 cameras into the gardens. There had been reports that it is loosing its sheen but the place is still awesome, well maintained and its musical fountain still gives a fair fight to the one in wonderla. The only thing we didnt like was the number of people there... it felt like a village fair, I wish there were less people in India who are interested in going out on weekends

Ran out of the KRS(literally) before the musical fountain show ended to beat the hordes of crowd leaving at the same time.(there were at least 1000 cars in the parking lot). We were successful in avoiding the crowd... reached mysore, had a meal. One of the hotel employees said going to Kabini is a waste unless we plan to stay there. We could not verify his claims and decided to drop Kabini.We went back to our room with a brand new plan. Go to BR hills and MM hills on saturday. Go to gopalswamy betta/bandipur on sunday. Slept with TV on (showing IPL match between Che and Del).

Got up, got ready, checked out from our hotel as we planned to stay closer to the nature and went to a restaurant (was it sweet and spice?) opposite to green leaf (both recomended by a fellow bhpian) for breakfast.
Then headed out to BR hills through T Narsipura. Road was terrible and not very well marked. we finally made it up the hill at around 12:30. As expected, there was nothing much to see(yes there was some temple which we didnt go to) and it was quite hot at noon.

There was a board which stated jungle lodges 20Km, and we headed straight for that place. It turned out o be in a place called K.Gudi hoping for an empty room. The road is awesome...need to take this road once again during rains...but destination was not... The jungle lodges guide told us the rates were 2250 per person per day. We immediately left the place towards chamarajnagar(again scenic route but road not in good condition).


At chamarajnager, we were drained...and felt the entire day was a waste with hot sun bearing down on us. We then decided to go to gopalswamy betta in the evening and return home ot bangalore after sunset.

Our moods lifted as it rained on the way to the hills. Its a small deviation on the ooty road before Bandipur, we reached the base when we saw a board (timings - 9AM to 5PM), current time - 5:15pm...oopsy... after talking to the guard, and a 50 rupee bribe(Price of entry for a car is 50 rupees, but we didnt get any ticket from the guard), we were allowed in.
The recent showers had made the hills heaven on earth...light cool winds and amazing scenary... we stayed till sunset and then drove back to bangalore, 1 day earlier than planned.

[nickatnite]

Very nice pics