[akroy]

Nice pics Mahesh !!

next time dont forget to watch the famous Amitabh Bachchan starrer Mard and Toofan. Both were shot here. Some of your pics exactly resembles the place where Amitabh on his Toofan came running towards that temple.

Abhi

[snaronikar]

Ahh somehow missed this. I have not logged on to this from past 3 days and lo we have a travelogue from our own happy jurno.

@Mj: You have pics in the same locations where I have shot. BTW, howz the road from Shivanasamudram to Talkkad? When I went there there was no road at all. Hope there is some motorable road now.

Good pics and descriptions.

[mjothi]

Originally Posted by akroy

Nice pics Mahesh !!

next time dont forget to watch the famous Amitabh Bachchan starrer Mard and Toofan. Both were shot here. Some of your pics exactly resembles the place where Amitabh on his Toofan came running towards that temple.

Abhi

Ah, I should have got this info from you before, anyway, as you said one more reason to visit again

Originally Posted by snaronikar

@Mj: You have pics in the same locations where I have shot. BTW, howz the road from Shivanasamudram to Talkkad? When I went there there was no road at all. Hope there is some motorable road now.

Oh, no roads. Its just gravels and rocks. One +ve point since there is no roads - no potholes

[snaronikar]

Originally Posted by mjothi

Oh, no roads. Its just gravels and rocks. One +ve point since there is no roads - no potholes

No roads - No potholes - But only huge craters, right?

[mjothi]

Some more pics from the Main temple.












Watch out the Nandi position




Rock Pot? Rock Bucket? Whatever, it was so nicely done in one single piece I guess.

But somehow got broken and became two pieces.

[snaronikar]

I feel somebody has kept the Nandi in that position.Otherwise, nandi will be always straight to shivling.

When are you starting your Mysore stint of travelogue?

[mjothi]

Originally Posted by snaronikar

I feel somebody has kept the Nandi in that position.Otherwise, nandi will be always straight to shivling.

No. we enquired with the poojari. He mentioned that in olden days that is how the Nandi was placed. Only exception is the Nandi near the Falg outside the Gopuram.

The one near there was in line to the Lingam.

[mjothi]

Some more pics of the temple





We also saw a marvellous piece of art on rocks.

Look at the rings. 2 rings inside the other carved on a rock.

It was hung on a snake which was also carved on the top.

The rings was shaking in the wind. Some fellows over there started hitting a small rock in front of that and said, if the ring shakes or waves when you hit this, then you did not do any sin. Oh my god!!!













Then we had meals in the neat by mess. It was costing 30rs for just rice, sambar, rasam and papad. Oh, pickle too. We just had it and went to the Cavery near by. We see huge crowd over there. And the moment we enter, several fellows surrounded us asking to have meals in their place. Out of curiosity, we asked for the menu.

He said, 2 roti, unlimited rice, 2 sabji, sambar, rasam, curd with sweet. And that too for the same 30 rs. What the hell!!! We felt so sad that we should have not asked

Then it was nice to see water and we just entered into the water and we heard some drums and music. Thinking it may be some swami coming around, we started at the crowd. Later we came to know that it is deadbody and coming their for cremation in the river bed.



Seems its very usual there. They cremate the body in the bed and next day monring come back to put the asthi in the river.

Not just that, the people just got the dead body into the river and started to give a bath to that. The whole river was with the flowers that was decorated on that.

We lost the mood to play and just walked away.

Look at the flower all over the river



Wish I was in the same age. Would have been playing without worrying about the above issue.


Btw, it was 6pm when we took these shots. Does it look like that? Not sure if it would be always like this. But it was so sunny even @ 6pm.

But changed within next 20-30min to complete dark.

We initially thought of covering Somnathpur, but since we heard that it would be closed by 5:30pm, we headed straight to Mysore.

When we reached Mysroe it was almost 8pm.

I had my uncle as Wing comander in Air force. So, we headed straight to his house for the stay. For my friend, we had booked a central govt guest house with the help of my Uncle.

The guest house is very near to the Nandini/Air force selection office in Mysore. Its called Holiday Home and it was so nice. It had a big hall with real good sofa sets, TVs, and a separate room for Bed room with attached Toilet.

Dropped my friend in there and we hit the bed in our Uncle house.

End of day 1.

@Snaronikar - Almost there for Mysore trip & pics See you soon!

[akroy]

Nice one there mahesh, looks like Talakad started to arrange for food now. When I went last time (3 times rather, last been on Dec06), We didnot find people asking for meals.
We carried our own lunch as we knew that we will not get proper lunch in Talakkad. bathing in Talakkad is a pure bliss. You get the feeling of a swimming pool on a river. Not so deep but very clean water.

Which route did you take for Mysore? Is it Malavalli - bannur or via Somnathpur? hope you didnot take the same dirt track back towards Shivasamudram again (Maan this road is like this since I first went there by bike in Oct2004. No change at all. Wonder what is the administration doing about it?). I strictly feel Talakad is a very important tourist destination and it should be connected well.

Abhi

[mjothi]

Originally Posted by akroy

Which route did you take for Mysore? Is it Malavalli - bannur or via Somnathpur? hope you didnot take the same dirt track back towards Shivasamudram again (Maan this road is like this since I first went there by bike in Oct2004. No change at all. Wonder what is the administration doing about it?). I strictly feel Talakad is a very important tourist destination and it should be connected well.

Abhi

I think I took the one towards the Bannur. I asked the locals when I left from cavery. They guided to go towards one left and I took it. It went staright to Mysore

I differ a little here. Since the temples are still under excavation and this place is under the control of ASI, this is better left as it is rather than converting it to a popular tourist destination.

May be after some time, it may turn, but I wish they take enough precautions before displaying this to the huge tourist population outside the world.

I also heard that some of the Taxi cab fellow do not come inside Talakad if we wanna get there. Because, they dont want to spoil their vehicle.

[snaronikar]

So after seeing the dead body bathing in river, you did not venture out in river right? You did not feel like gettng into water...

About meals, last time I went, I had carried home made food. Parked the car under a tree and had the meals. Free for me (Homemade)

[akroy]

Originally Posted by snaronikar

About meals, last time I went, I had carried home made food. Parked the car under a tree and had the meals. Free for me (Homemade)

Ya Srini, it was a wonderful picnic experience of dining on sand, under trees. Infact I took the car on the sand and parked it under a tree.

Abhi

[mjothi]

Next day, we get up around 7:30am, get ourselves ready. I go to the Holiday Home and bring my friends family for breakfast in my uncle house.

We finished the breakfast and started to discuss where to go

After long discussion, we decided to visit the following place.

• Lalitha Mahal Palace
• Yedamuri & Balmuri Falls
• KRS Dam
• Mysore Palace with Illumination

We started around 9:30am from our place. We went towards the Chamundi Temple direction and took the first exit which leads to the Lalitha Mahal Palace. When you take this, you will get a junction in the middle. You should take the left road and reach the main road to get into the Palace. The straight one has no road, but you can see the backside of the palace. This time I wanted to try this route to see if we can have some short cut.

Backend of the Palace


When I went in there, i went straight and it was a dead end. I see around and no roads seen. I see only all trees and rocks. I check with the locals there and they mentioned that 2 wheelers can pass this way and join the main road, but car can not go.

Helipad?


But, I took some courage and started to head towards those narrow lanes mean for 2 wheelers. It was so bad and the bottom was scraping. So, I asked the people to get down and started to drive in those bad roads. With all those bumpy ride and narrow curves and slopes, I finally reached the main road.

After driving in Talakad roads, these are nothing.






We entered the palace and parked the car. I started to head straight to the Reception since I already visited here and came to know the procedure for getting the tickets. One Supervisor came to us and enquired. I explained that I want to see around the palace and so like to get the ticket for the same. He then asked us to go ahead and then meet him when we leave. Strange behaviour. But we continued. After doing some shopping inside and photo shoot, we were about to leave.



One more person came near us and asked if we want to see the rooms up. I know that these people will not allow you to go upstairs even if you get the ticket, but now its all changed. He also mentioned that he will show us the place where Chandramuki danced, rooms where former TN CM Ms Jayalaitha and other famous celebrities stayed. We could guess now that he is doing all these for money. Eventhough we dont want to do any cross check for the authenticity, we decided to go ahead.

We went to the room in first floor. It was a class in its own. The room was just made up and the room incharge said we need to see and leave as soon as possible, since Dr Abdul Kalam is suppose to arrive to this room for staying that evening.





We had a look inside those porche room. Took pics. One guy showed a cot well arranged there and mentioned this was one the one used in the Chandramuki movie. Also there was one more chair whcih as per him used by Vetaiyaraja in that movie. We are not sure if he meant all these to just fool us or really he was right. But since we knew that several movies including the Muthu, Guru Sisyan etc was shot here, we just listened to his saying.

Some pics of Palace continues...

[mjothi]

Some more pics of Palace...

Big Hall


Dressing Room


Should I need to name it?


Then he took us to the balcony. It was a big one with view of Mysore. He mentioned that the song "Lakalakalaka" was shot here. Seems they covered the entire place to make it look like a hall and took the shot.

Balcony


Then we came down and to the right of the Palace, you have a beautiful pool. As usual, took some shots and left from there.

Near by the Pool



Near the fountain




Btw, I forgot to mention that we have been giving money to 2, 3 chaps when we went to each place. After everything is done, when we came out, the security also was showing the usual poster of asking money. My friend got wild and told him, he has already given around 300rs inside so we cannot give anythign to him. Then the security told, that you should take the pass, but you don't have a pass etc. We highlighted him what the supervisor told and pointed him to that guy. The supervisor, seeing all this silently went inside. Poor security, had no option than to leave us.

Man, I see a lot of difference between my two visits here. Last time, they were so professional, and this time they are no way different to those securities in the check-post. What happened in between? is the recession hit them that no guest comes and stays there? Don't they get any gifts or money from the hotel guests? Not sure, but this is certainly not for good in the long run.

over to the Balmuri falls...

[hillram]

Nice pics and even more a realisitic imagination for us of the Chadramukhi movie with all those spots where the film was shot.