The day began with a new sunrise. We three (I, Priyank and
Saumitra) were out for our new and exciting journey to Mysore, the city
of palaces and I got a chance to visit another part of India which was
untouched by my feet. We took a cab from our guesthouse and started travelling
towards Mysore through Bangalore-Mysore highway. The road was ‘as smooth
as butter’.
But at the same time, it was very strange
looking at mountains, people and even the signboards. I think this is the reason
why we call our country “Incredible India”. It shows various faces of life when
you travel to different parts of the country.
A half an hour after, we passed
through Srirangapattanam, One of the famous historical places from India but as
our target was Mysore so we didn’t stop in Srirangam. While on the way to
Mysore, we decided our first spot (The first principle of travelling
–‘planning’ was simply ignored by us at that time), but at least we were aware
of the tourist places in Mysore so it wasn’t so hard for us to roam in the
city, and of course, our driver was there to help us.
We first decided to visit
Chamundeshwari temple which is situated on Chamunda hill (One of the eight
sacred hills of South India). We can go there directly by car or by climbing
staircases. Of course we took 1st way and reached the temple within no
time. Chamunda temple is 7-8 km away from Mysore city and local government has
established a good network of public transport, so you need not worry about the
transportation and about the food, there are many hotels up there which serve
delicious breakfast as well as lunch.
We stood up in line for ‘Darshan’
and after few minutes we came to know that we need to have a ticket for the
same. Oh God! Such a great business! Sometimes I wonder instead of doing CA,
why can’t I build a temple, I will earn much more than a practicing or working
CA. There were two options, 100 Rs. and 30 Rs! As both options were going
to give us the same result, we bought a ticket of 30 Rs. and again we stood in
the line waiting for our number to come.
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| Ravan |
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| And another one |
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| Chamundeshwari temple |
After
half an hour, we got a chance to pray the God for hardly 5 seconds! Those five
seconds were the most precious ones. After having breakfast we
stopped at Mysore view point and Ahaaa!!
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| Golf |
After we
drove towards the main attraction of Mysore (at least for my two friends), The
Grand Mysore palace.!! Oh man! I haven’t seen such a place before. We were
feeling excited when we entered the premises of palace and I was excited to
take pictures of the palace but my excitement lasted for just 2 minutes as I
saw a board saying Cameras are not allowed in the palace. There was a
significant number of crowed, many of them were foreigners who came from
different countries like Japan, China, Germany, U.K., just to see the
rich heritage of India.
Even
if the palace looks so huge, it hardly took us 30 minutes to see the entire
palace as many rooms were closed completely or some were having a board on them
showing letters ‘under maintenance’. We were surprised to see lift in that
palace though It may be installed later.
When
you enter in the palace, you see many old things which were used by the king or
his family. Starting from his clothes to utensils used by him or even gifts
received by him from various people. We saw divan-a-aam and divan-a-khaas
and stood there for sometimes just to experience the ‘Darbar’. The main thing I
like about the palace is, it has been maintained properly. So you won’t find
any kind of dirtiness anywhere and every person is follows his given
responsibility.
We came
out of the palace, and then we took some photographs (Camera is allowed only
outside the palace). There were two temples inside the palace premises and
unfortunately they were closed at that time. Palace management has also
arranged Elephant and camel ride inside the palace premises. It was really nice
to visit this heritage spot! One more place added to my list!!!
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| Priyank Jain |
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| Mr. Vyas |
And After
The might palace, now we were going to visit, the famous mysuru zoo! Of course
my favorite part of the trip due to my love for wildlife, though I don’t like
to see animals and birds inside the cage but yes you get an opportunity to see
species from outside India.
Let
me tell you, I have seen many zoos so far, whether in Maharashtra or outside
Maharashtra but I have never seen a Zoo maintained like Mysore Zoo!! Just
incredible!! The round in zoo is about 3 km and in these three km , you can see
maximum number of animals including many bird species from northern parts of
India or wild animals from Africa!!
If
I start explaining every minute details about the zoo then I will have to write
a separate blog on it, but for your information, Wild animals like African
Chittah, Tigers, lion, leopard, hyenas, sloth bear, jackal, wild elephants,
zebras, giraffe and what not!! and of course variety of birds including
water birds and few rare species!!! A treat for wildlife lovers and
photographers!!!
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| Otter |
After
spending two and half hours, we moved ahead to Karanji lake and nature park to
enjoy boating as well as observing butterfly species sucking nectar from the
flower!! The lake has been maintained so good that u don’t want to go out from
there. But now it was half past five so we decided to move out as we
didn’t want to miss the fountain show at Vrindavan gardens.
Vrindavan
garden is around 25 km distance from mysore and the most crowded place I have
seen. We bought tickets and we entered into the garden and were delighted to
see the greenery (fortunately of both the types). We roamed around here and
there, ate popcorn and waited for the show to begin .The show finally started
at around 6.45. It was around a half an hour show in which they played some old
as well as new songs and of course the fountain dance. We left garden by around
7.30 after enjoying the scenic beauty and started our journey back to the
Bangalore.
It
was a great journey with these two friends, a new heritage place added in my
list and of course a break from a regular routine work!! What else do we want
from our life?!
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| Vrindavan garden (Pic from Internet) |
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