Mysore Trip - Day 1

Last weekend was yet another fantabulous weekend. We traveled to Mysore and wanted to show Aunty and Pixie around Mysore.

We left Bangalore by the 5.30 AM train – Kaveri Express. We reached Mysore by 8.30AM. We found a hotel Abhishek assisted and recommended by an auto driver. We checked in and wasted no time in getting onto the road.

Mysore Palace

We reached the Mysore Palace by 10AM. The first sight of the palace is impressive. The new palace was built to completion in 1912 by JayaChamaraja Wodeyar. The older palace as one is told repeatedly was burnt down in 1897. A few parts of the old palace have been preserved. The old palace was built in wood. The new palace in contrast is a modern structure.

The palace looks grand from the outside. The insides of the palace are stunning in places and a bit mediocre in some other. There are a huge number of paintings in the palace, not necessarily connected by any particular theme. Most of the paintings depict the royal processions taken out during the dashera season. I believe that Mysore is completely lit up quite spectacularly during the dashera season. The flooring had very interesting patterns of what I thought looked like regular symmetrical figures. I was seriously reminded of some algebra from college.

It takes a long time to explore the different parts of the palace. It requires good stamina and enthu to completely go through all the art work in the palace.

There are 6 temples inside the palace complex- very nice sculpture on the Gopuras. One such temple is:

Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary

20 Km drive from Mysore is Ranganathittu. It’s a group of small islands on the Kaveri River. Some of the most beautiful birds of the world have made it their home for nesting. One auto driver outside had this to say when I asked him what was to see in Ranganathittu – “Saar, adu foreign inda paksheegallu ella barrate saar. Tumba channage irratey nodakke.” – meaning that there are lots of birds that come from foreign countries and nest here.

As you go into the sanctuary you are greeted by some loner birds here and there. But as you go deeper into the woods and the riverside the beauty and serenity of the place magnifies. The best part is the boat ride – one gets to see such amazing flying angels. Storks, Herons, Pelicans, Swans, Ducks and a good variety of other birds rarely seen in everyday life are in plenty. This is not the season for migratory birds in India and yet we saw so many varieties of birds.

I tried my photography skills with the limited feature set available on my Sony DSC-P2. I did manage to get a few nice shots of the birds.

Here’s a shot of a bird walking straight into a croc! But we didn’t witness any predatory scene there.

Even the lawns of the sanctuary outside are very neatly kept. We just laid there and chatted for a good long time about the beauty of the flora and fauna of the place. We took a long walk along the banks of the river. The sound of bamboos in the cool wind was music to all our ears. An abandoned boat on the bank fascinated Pixie quite a bit and she went crazy clicking the snaps of the boat.

The Lover trees as we named them was another fascinating display of nature’s magic. See this snap and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

These are actually two different intertwined into each other’s metabolism so wonderfully. I really wonder what phenomenon of nature caused this kind of Siamese twin like trees!

This is a shot of the herons I took just before we left Ranganathittu.

We just relaxed in the lawns for quite a while and took a walk around the sanctuary. Some more shots we took there:






































Brindavan Gardens

We drove off in our hired cab from Ranganathittu with memories of the beauty of the place and music of the wind in the bamboo shoots.

Brindavan and KRS are nice sights but a bit too crowded. The dancing musical fountain and the illumination is definitely good and worth the hype.