South India Tour - Mysore

13 June - Bangalore -> Mysore

Reached Bangalore on time and went straight to Ramakrishna Lodge with all our luggage. We waited for an hour before we got our room. I was a little sleep deprived and was taking short naps on the chair.  The room was comfortable.  No AC required in Bangalore! Took bath and went for breakfast. Papa suddenly has a new personality. He loves being in Bangalore and considers it his backyard. The breakfast was very good! That is one great thing about Bangalore – great food! 

Again, despite that I was carrying a bag and my foot was hurting, we walked to the railway station. Bhaiya and I left for Mysore on the Shataabdi. They gave excellent soup, curd rice, pulav and morey (mattha) – all awesome. Got into Mysore two and half hours later. There were no rooms on the railway station guest house, so we got a hotel, Sudarshan Lodge. We had some sugarcane juice and then went off to the hotel. Then it was time to get an auto to go to the palace. So we got one auto, but he was charging so much, so we wanted to get another. But, this auto guy told all the other autos to go away. What a bully! So we walked a little further ahead and got another auto for much cheaper price. 

The palace entry was minimal, Rs 15. Since they were checking in cameras and Bhaiya did not want to give his, we went in one by one to see the inside of the palace. Had to take off our shoes also. It was a beautiful palace, large pillars, all walls were painted with armies, families or religious themes. All glass windows were stained.  There were a lot of peacock designs. Just lovely. The wood doors had fine carving on them. The ceilings were all painted; the chandlers were all beautiful. The paintings on the wall were the height of the walls – 8 ft. or more. Too bad we could not take pictures. 

There was a central courtyard; one could come down by a beautiful spiral staircase or by regular stairs banked by two black huge panthers snarling at each other. I did not see the entire palace as the bedrooms were closed off; only a few rooms were open. After I came out, Bhaiya went in. and then it started raining. After he came out we went to the Kaveri shop and bought a lot of woodwork items. After the rain stopped we went around the palace. It is a huge building, really elegant. There is a great symmetry to it. 

After the palace, we planned to visit the Vrindaban gardens. One bus was leaving as we got to the bus station. We decided to take the next one otherwise we would have to go standing all the way. Big mistake! We had to wait another hour for the next one. There was so much push and shove, but Bhaiya got in quick and got us seats. But then he gave his seat up to a lady with a child. So he still had to go standing. He is nice that way. It took us more than an hour to get there. It was dark by then. So disappointing. The parking lot was full of tour buses. It was a long walk before we got to the tickets place. 

We entered over the dam on Kaveri River. It was a nice walk over it. I was exhausted. My feet were tired from all the walking and standing around for the bus, on top of the cut I already had on my foot. There were no restrooms on site. Oh my lovely India. After getting a drink we walked further inside the gardens. It would have looked a lot prettier in the day. The saddest part was that the fountains were not on. And the lighting in the gardens was not good. We walked up to the river and then it was time to go back. Both of us were tired. 

Vrindavan Gardens

After seeing the fountains of Kansas City, these little itty bitty fountains that they had on were nothing.  The walk back seemed really long. Luckily we got a private bus back to Mysore (Rs 57). It drove fast and dropped us near the palace. Took an auto back to the hotel. First things first – restroom! Then went nearby to a restaurant to eat. Weather was really good in Mysore, so did not need AC. Good day, except some parts of Vrindavan gardens.  

14 June - Mysore -> Bangalore 

The hotel guy woke us up at 6 am telling us that hot water was on! Great. Half an hour later another knock on the door, it was the chai wala! Good service, but not really if I wanted to sleep in. Got ready by 7:45 am, had breakfast and walked to the bus station to leave for Chamundi Hills. Reached there by 9:20 am. Not too bad. There is a big temple there – Chamundeshwari Devi. Lovely temple. Did darshan and then walked around. The hills were about 2000 ft. above sea level. It gave a lovely view of the city. The weather was cooler and windy. 

The only thing bad there was the open toilets…ugh! It was just yucky and smelly everywhere.  

We walked through the shops and bought some little things – really nice stuff. Took the bus back to Mysore, had lunch and took the 2:20 pm train back to Bangalore. Mysore is really pretty town. Very clean and not crowded. I would come back and see more. 

We got some good snacks again on Shataabdi –really love these trains! Took the auto to the lodge and met up with Papa. At 6 pm, went out to the market. Oh and what a market it was! There was so much stuff! Darn it that I don’t need anything. Prices were reasonable. I could have bought more things if I had needed anything. We had dinner at Krishna Bhavan. Awesome dosas! Except they were covered in ghee. Went back to the hotel. So many movie halls on the way, and so many banks on this road – Camp Gowda road.  And the crowd – unbelievable. There was hardly any place to walk! We were just squeezing through everywhere. 

Went back to the hotel and then back to the train station to catch the 10 pm train to Hampi. It is an overnight train.