Mysore

It was October 26th, Dasara holiday’s for Parnika and we decided take her to a Zoo to show her wild animals. Since we have variety of domestic animals on our Bangalore streets that, she doesn’t have to go to a Farm to see themJ. Mysore has one of the best Zoos in India and we were planning to visit Mysore since long time and thought this is the right time to so that. It was a sudden decision on Friday evening to go on a trip to Mysore next day morning.

Mysooru or Mysore is nestled about 146 km southwest of Bangalore at 770m above sea level.  Until India got independence in the year 1947 from British, Mysore served as the capital of the Kingdom of Mysore ruled by the Wodeyar dynasty. Mysore is also called as the Cultural capital of Karnataka due to its splendid cultural heritage.

Mysore is known for Mysore Palace, and for the festivities that take place during the Dasara festival. Mysore lends its name to the sweet dish Mysore Pak, the Mysore Peta (a traditional silk turban) and the Mysore silk saree. Mysore is famous for its diverse variety of attractions including panoramic palaces to religious attractions like Mysore Palace, Brindavan Gardens, Krishna Raj Sagara Dam, ZOOlogical gardens, Chamundesheari temple on top of Chamundi hills,  Mysore University, Mysore Sandal wood crafts and products, Mysore silk, Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary etc and not to forget, relishing a hot Mysore Masala Dosa J. One needs to spend few days in this city to enjoy the natural splendor and tranquility of this beautiful heritage city along with tourist attractions.

ZOO: We started our drive around 7am on Saturday from our home in Bangalore and on the way there was unusual thick traffic and jams at number of places. A supposed 2 hours of journey on the excellent Bangalore – Mysore state highway to reach Mysore took us 4+ hours to reach. We went straight to Zoo, as that was main objective of our trip and wanted to finish that first. We decided to have our lunch before walking inside the zoo, though we did not find a better restaurant of our taste near the zoo entrance, we settled for a mediocre one nearby.

Mysore zoo is one of the oldest Zoos in the world, named after Sri Chamarajendra (one of the kings of Mysore kingdom, who founded the Zoo) established in 1892 under the royal patronage. Every day Zoo opens at 8 AM and remains open till 5.30 PM and closes on every Tuesday. The zoo has an excellent variety of exotic animals and birds, Chamundi Hills as its background and a contrived lake (Karanji Lake ) on its premises.

The zoo has animals from more than 40 countries around the world and native Indian animals like Elephants, Royal Bengal tigers, white tigers, giraffe, deer, Himalayan black bear, Indian bison, white peafowl etc. The zoo is also home to many other exotic creatures from around the world like Branary sheep, giraffe, hippos and gorillas and variety of monkey species. This zoo has excellent natural greenery inside and you don’t feel tired walking inside the zoo under the shadow of the trees.

Parnika really enjoyed watching all animals, birds, snakes. In fact, I think she enjoyed more than us and she never felt tired walking about 4-5 km’s inside the zoo. End of it all, she knew most of the wild animals on tip of her tongueJ. It was evening around 5pm when we came out of the Zoo and we decided to go straight to Brindavan gardens.

Brindavan Garden and KRS Dam

Brindavan Garden is a beautiful garden and famous tourist attraction; one should not miss to visit this garden after visiting Mysore. This garden was built across the Cauvery River and below the Krishnarajasagara dam (formerly known as Kannambadi dam). KRS dam was built in 1924 below the confluence of three rivers – Kaveri, Hemavathi and Lakshmanateertha, has a length of 3.5 kms and height of 130ft above the river bed and named after Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, during whose rule Sir M.Visveswaraya, as Chief Engineer of Mysore built the dam.

Brindavan garden is full of fountains and special attraction here is its Musical fountain or dancing fountain; the bursts of water from variety of fountains are cleverly synchronized to the music of songs along with harmonic blend of colorful lights. This garden is best seen in night when it is well illuminated with colorful lights, gorgeous looking fountains and water streams. This was built during the period of 1927 to 1932 when Mysore was ruled by of Krishnaraja Wodeyar and contains variety of foliage and flowering plants.

We spent lot of time in the garden and ended it with watching the musical fountain and it happened to be the last show for that evening. I spent good amount of time finding good angles and platforms to capture some lovely pictures of fountains and illuminated garden in my Canon 60D under low light without having a tripod with me.

End of the day, I would say it was a great walkathon dayfor us; we walked entire zoo and walked entire length and breadth of Brindavan Garden. Surprisingly Parnika was full of energy and did not have many complaints about walkingJ. She co-operated and walked through out like a little sweetheart.

Later we went to a restaurant to have our dinner and that gave much needed rest to our tired feet. After dinner we went to catch up some sleep at my Uncle’s house at around 11 in night.

Mysore Palace

Sunday morning after breakfast, we went to see Mysore palace. The magnificent Mysore Palace also called as Amba Vilas palace located in the heart of the city is the official residence of the Wodeyars, the former royal family of Mysore. This is also one of the most visited monuments in India.

The palace is open to visitors every day from 10 am to 5.30 pm. Palace blends together Hindu, Muslim, Rajput, and Gothic styles of architecture. Now a part of the palace is open to public and it has been turned into a museum displaying collection of caskets, paintings, objects of personal use of royal family. Cameras and footwear not allowed inside the palace, cameras can be deposited at t cloak room at free of cost.

The palace is illuminated by close to 1 Lakh bulbs from 7 pm to 8 pm on Sundays including public holidays and also during all the ten days of the Dasara celebrations providing a feast to our eyes with its breathtaking – magnificent view.

Till noon we spent time at the palace admiring its beauty and later went for lunch in nearby restaurant.

Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary

After lunch we decided to drive back to Bangalore and on the way thought of visiting Ranganathittu bird sanctuary. The Bird Sanctuary which lies few kilo meters away from the Bangalore – Mysore high way. Spread across about 57 acres, the sanctuary is a small island on the banks of river Kaveri. A bird lover’s paradise, this sanctuary is a nesting and breeding center for all kinds of birds. It was not the right season to watch migratory birds, nevertheless wanted to see the birds whatever available to see. During June to October one can see white ibis, herons, egrets, little cormorants, open billed stork etc.

After the bird sanctuary visit we drove back to Bangalore with fond memories. I would defiantly want to come back especially to capture the magnificent view of illuminated  Mysore palace, which i missed this time.

 

Located in the tropics, the Mysore has a moderate climate. If you are visiting Mysore during the summer months then you will see that the temperature varies from 20° Celsius to 35° Celsius while the winter temperature of Mysore remains in the range of 12° Celsius to 30° Celsius. Travel to Mysore and explore the different facets of the cultural capital of Karnataka state!