A trip to Mysore

This weekend 20-5-2006 our choice of destiny was Mysore. We had planned for a trip to Mysore earlier but somehow we had to drop it. This time we actually wanted to visit Coorg but one of us(that was Biru) dropped out for some special reason! To meet his imaginary Uncle. But latter we found out his whole uncle story. Though I had been suspecting him from yercaud trip, he confessed it only now as he had to drop out from the team at the last minute.

Anyway this time its Mysore the historic place. Its been raining for more than a week and the climate started to be cool and made us enjoy the trip well. Addi and I(huez) started from Bangalore on 4 AM Saturday 20 May 2006. The hiway was deserted almost till we reached Mysore. As the time closed to 5AM sunlight started to brighten the sky slowly. As we drove we saw blue and green shades in the morning sky. May be the sky is always beautiful like this every day but who knows we guys get up by 8AM or even 9! We stopped for a while to capture the moment in our eyes and in our camera as well. The morning was glorious especially with the whole green paddy fields all around us.

We've been having a lot of stops as we were going. It was like the whole highway is ours. Infact we had taken photos in the middle of highway too! Every time we saw a scenic view we stopped and took snaps. Then We had our breakfast in Srirangapatna and reached Mysore by 9AM and found a decent hotel to lodge. As I couldn’t sleep the night as soon as I lied on the bed I had a deep sleep for around 2 hours. Addi was curious about the places to visit and started to read his copy of "52 great weekend trips".

After relaxing and refreshing ourselves our first choice was to see the Mysore Zoo. We had a quick tour around and left for the Palace. The Wodayars palce was stupendous! It showed how much power and wealth they had those times. It was so disappointing that we cant take any photos inside the palace. I guess this kind of stupid rules should be removed. Anyway as we came out of the palace we had a photo session around the palace.

Now the time was around 4PM we left for Philomena's Church. The church was magnificent standing tall infact we were able to see it as we were riding from the far showing the way towards it. There was a worship service going on that time and so went in. The service was in kanada so I just made a short prayer and a thanks for our safe journey to God. Then we had a few photos taken outside the church and sat outside admiring the evening sky.

Around 7PM we had some food in a small typical mysore hotel. The food was very good and cheap too. We roamed around the streets admiring how different it is from our bangalore's all time busy streets. Then we reached our hotel room around 9PM and soon we are fast asleep.
Sunday 5: 45 AM my biological clock woke me up and its now time for Chamundi hills. Waking up at this time of day without an alarm is a historic event for me!! But the visit to chamunid hills is the magic. In 15 minutes we are on our bikes heading towards the hill. The roads were very good till the top. The view of the Palace from the hill was great. The hill was not even as tall as nandhi hills but it was all green. We spent a lot of time roaming around the hill, taking snaps.

8:30AM We climbed down the hill towards the room. On the way I lost the way and went all around the town. The best part was I don’t know the name of the hotel we were staying, the name of the area and the ultimate thing is Addi left his mobile in the room itself and I can't call him! Addi is good at keeping the routes in mind but im not. I had no idea what I have to do. I remembered suddendly the route from Philomena's church to our room. So I asked for route to philomenas church and then recollected the route we took last night and somehow I reached the room where Addi was waitning outside as the room key was with me. Fortunately Addi didn’t kill me for that.

We groomed ourselves and checked out the room and started towards Bangalore. Our plan for the rest of the day is to visit Tipu Sultan Summer Palace in Sriranga patna, Sangam, Gosai Ghaat, Kariaghatta. We had a pleasant dip in Cauvery at Gosai Ghat. The water was cold and was surrounded by dense trees and the whole view was breath-taking. We left Srirangapatna around 2PM after having our lunch there.

Our next stop was at Kariaghatta, a small hill on top of which is a temple. By the side of the hill is cauvery flowing with all its charm. We climbed the hill by stairs without knowing that there is a road till the top! But the view of cauvery from there is worth it. The road uphill was winding and was tempting to me that I told Addi that I want to climb the hill by bike. There was a film shooting was going on for a Kanada movie called "pandavuru". They were shooting a dance sequence for a song. Then I took my bike and climbed the hill. The road was narrow and steep and I loved it so much I rode down and climbed it again with Addi sitting behind me.

Around 6PM we started towards Bangalore. I touched 120km/hr zooming past all vehicles except an Accent who was driving at almost my speed just at a visible distance. We had a few stops for tea and snaks and for dinner in Bidadi. And reached Bangalore around 9:00 PM Sunday. This trip was a mix of historic monuments and a visit to nature. We were more happy that Biru missed the trip!