Mysore
Mysore is the cleanest city you will see if you are residing in one of the metro cities. This beautiful city has a numerous tourist spots like, palace, zoo, lakes, museum, temples altogether at a close proximity which makes it easier for even one day trip to the city. I visited Mysore as a day trip twice and combining here with suggestions of hotel stay based on the distance. I boarded KSRTC bus to Mysore from Bangalore Majestic Bus stand by morning 6 A.M. I reached Mysore bus stand around 9.30 A.M. You can have a yummy Mysore masala dosa for breakfast in restaurants around the bus stand. Temperature is mostly humid at 27-35º C in Mysore.
As I mentioned, all the tourist spots lie at a close proximity and so auto is best to use for travel here. You’ll get pre-paid autos controlled by city police at Mysore bus stand giving you safe and budget travel. Travelling from one place to other costs less than 50 INR.
I took an auto from Mysore bus stand and reached this zoo in 10 minutes. This is such a vast zoo and definitely takes a lot of your time to admire and click photos with wide range of animals (leopard, deer, elephants, giraffes, Sambar, ape too), birds (peacocks, white peafowl, Pelican, Golden Pheasant and a lot more colourful birds), reptiles (variety of snake species, chameleons, soft shell turtles (i.e. no outer shell). I found most of the new creatures in this zoo which I hadn’t seen anywhere else. I was lucky to see the white peafowl dancing and it danced many times giving gaps. I walked fast and ran around the zoo to finish my visit in 3 hours.
Once exiting the zoo, I took auto to reach the lake in 5 minutes. Boating keeps exiting us always and you can enjoy pedal boating here. You can spend time in ‘Butterfly Park’ in the lake. I loved when peacock was walking along with me in the park as they are let free. You’ll see other plants, birds and usual butterflies.
You can walk to this museum from the Butterfly Park. The museum displays the wax statues of Gandhi and other Mysore Kings. As the name states, they display wax statues with different musical instruments across the globe. The place is small with low lights but good to visit. You can play any of the musical instruments here at a price.
This place just lies beside the wax museum. You can enjoy the short thrill into this place. You can visit to pass some time as the ticket doesn’t cost much.
The temple is at the top of Chamundi hills, Mysore. You can take a meter auto to reach here or by bus in 30 minutes. You have a moving queue for an hour to enter into the temple. You can take darshan and will be sent out immediately by securities and police there. You have less than a minute to worship as this is much crowded place. I took MTC bus to return down the hills.
The Palace is a must-visit place in Mysore for its construction in 1912 and elegant architecture both on the outer and inner side of the place. The entry ticket costs you around 600 INR. Visitors are allowed to explore a small part of the palace whereas; the major part is living space of the King’s family. No photographs are allowed inside palace. The palace has colourful pillars lit by grand chandeliers from ceiling and beautiful portraits on the walls. It is all the antique and royal collections inside the palace. You can click your photographs outside the palace. The palace lit up at 7’O clock evening and it is the moment of WOWWWW!
On exit of the palace, reaching main road saw many horse carts taking people at 150 to 200 INR. As it is going to be a new exciting experience for me, I jumped into cart to reach Mysore bus stand by evening. This is end of a day trip as I returned back to Bangalore around 10 P.M. Let’s continue for next day trip.
You can take accommodation in hotels around the palace road. You will get descent hotels around ‘Chamaraja Circle’ where you can click ‘Statue of Chamarajendra Wodeyar’ and around ‘Hardinge Circle’.
Brindavan Gardens is located far from all the tourist points in Mysore city. So take a day to visit this place not to miss the serenity. I planned to reach the garden by noon. You’ll be exposed to open sun so keep an umbrella handy. Its beautiful greenery filled in a large space. You can explore the garden and take beautiful pictures. You should reach till the top end and sit and watch the entire ‘Brindavan Gardens’ view. You’ll see the same image as in the school book pictures.
The other side of the garden is the Kaveri River and the majestic Krishnaraja Sagara Dam. You should definitely capture a couple photo and dam and river together. Boating in the river open by 4’O clock evening and you can enjoy reaching close to the dam by boat.
Musical fountain is the highlighted place of fun for children. You need to wait till evening to see the beautiful lights in Brindavan Gardens and the colourful musical fountain show on the other side of the garden.
Dussehra is the famous festival celebrated in Mysore palace for 10 days when they allow public to watch the celebrations in palace. I visited in one such day during Dussehra festival. I tried to enter into place gate after 6 P.M. with hesitation but they let me and other public inside without need of ticket. You can walk to the seating of the celebration stage but not inside palace. They started the show with the entry of elephants decorated with gold into palace after a procession on city road. The stage show of classical dance styles was perfect for the eyes. The skid was stayed on the history of Goddess Chamundeshwari in dance form. Classical vocals were staged and the show goes for 3 to 4 hours. Locals visit every day to watch the celebration for 10 days in palace. If you are a person enjoying festivals, try a day to visit the palace during Dussehra post evening.
You’ll definitely know ‘Mysore Pak’ as a tempting sweet from Mysore which you can buy in sweet shops in Mysore bus stand. Mysore is famous for sandalwood and its derivatives such as, sandalwood powder, soaps, perfumes, etc. which you can buy in the shop in ‘Mysore Palace’. In regard to clothing, the place is famous for ‘Mysore Silk’ which we prefer buying as Mysore Silk saree, shawls, etc. around the market place near bus station.
