Road Trip to Sandalwood City
Tired from the hogenakkal road trip yet longing for more adventure we decided to go on a road trip to Mysore - the Sandalwood city of Karnataka, and definitely if we had not made it, we would have missed a lot. On this trip we happened to visit few interesting yet less accessible places which triggered eagerness to explore more historical sites from Hoysala dynasty in Karnataka.
Day 1 :
This time we had a lazy slow start, left the home by 6:00 A.M, we took the Nice road to get out of Bangalore and drove past Ramanagara. We stopped at a McD somewhere in the SH17 for our breakfast and continued with no breaks till Srirangapatna. By the way the hash browns at McD were great!!
The drive was good with not much traffic except for a couple of minutes near Ramanagara and once again little traffic in Mandya.
Srirangapatna :
Even with a breakfast stop we reached Srirangapatna by 9:30 A.M with ease.
Srirangapatnam is a small town near Mysore, located at the banks of the river Kaveri. This town has cultural and historical importance with temples of Ganga dynasty and palace ruins from Tipu Sultan's rule.
Ranganathaswamy Temple :
A Vaishnwite pilgrimage temple with the mixed architecture of Hoysala and Vijaynagar styles. We spent around 20 mins in the queue to visit the deity "Ranganathaswamy". Being a Saturday it was a bit crowded , but we got a good view of the deity.
If you are visiting Mysore and are into temples, it’s worth dropping by and visiting the place.
A picture is worth a thousand words , check out some of our interesting pics from the road trip to Mysore
Tipu's places:
Not a history lesson ;) but a little info, Srinrangapatna was under the rule of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan for a considerable period of time and you can visit the remains of the places of historical association to these Kings but most of these places are ruins and falling apart.
We wandered around for an hour in Srinrangapatna and visited a couple of places, all of them are situated probably within a radius of a km. The only two places worth mentioning were the Bailey's Dungeon and Daria Daulat Bagh. All other places just seemed to be either completely ruined or just a stone carved with historical significance of the place.
Bailey's Dungeon:
It is located right next to the Ranganathaswamy temple, was once a place where Tipu used to imprison British Officers. Named after Colenel Bailey who died in the dungeon, It is below ground level. As you enter the arches of the dungeon , an old cannon welcomes you.
One can find shoulder height slabs on the north side of the wall where the prisoners used to be chained in waist deep water. There might not be much about the structure but the silence in here is intimidating and the history of the place sends out chills through the spine but yeah you get a nice view from above the dungeon.
Happy we are visitors to the place and not prisoners !!!
Daria Daulat Bagh:
Surrounded by rose gardens at the banks of the River Kaveri is Daria Daulat Bagh, which was once Tipu's summer palace is now just remains. Walking around this place we find artifacts and portraits from the period of Tipu's rule, the palace once would have been a beautiful place , though not so big and majestic in size.
Adorned by intricate wall paintings of flowers and trees, you can still see the beautiful usage of colors, though the place itself is falling apart.
Want to plan your trip to Mysore , check out our two day road trip Itinerary to Mysore
The Sangamam:
Confluence of 3 holy rivers Kaveri , Lokapavani & Hemavatir. we left to the place with the childhood memory of my visit to Sangamam - "Coracle ride to the spot where the three rivers meet" was what I had in mind , but it was more of a disappointment of how the place had changed , dirty and flooded with people doing rituals and there was no way we could get into the water so we decided to leave and head towards our next place.
Ranganadittu Bird Sanctuary – Bird watching , Flora Fauna and Selfie with the reptiles!!!
Our Next stop "Ranganadittu Bird Sanctuary", a couple of minutes drive from Srirangapatna. We reached this place by 2:00 P.M, had some snacks and started our tour around the place. The main attraction in this place is the boat ride though bird watching by the river is a paradise for wild life photographers. We waited for around an hour for the boat ride to open, the computer at the ticket counter had stopped working and we were made to wait, but definitely it was worth waiting for!!!
Initially we thought it was just another boat ride and we would do just some bird watching, but as we went past the rocks on the river, it took a while for the people on the boat to realize the huge reptile on the rock , quite difficult to distinguish from the rock, there sat a huge crocodile.
That was just the start and to add to our excitement there were crocodiles swimming along side the boat, though seemed a bit risky, it was worth catching the reptiles in action!!
One of the girls on the boat started standing and taking selfie with the crocodiles on the back ground!! Leaving the whole boat shaking!!! Age of selfie freaks!!!
Of course there were a lot of birds, flora and fauna around the place.
It’s a good pit stop on your drive to Mysore.
We headed off to Mysore and as we started our drive it started drizzling but luckily we made it to Mysore after a 40 min drive.
KRS Dam / Brindavan Garden :
We had a late lunch at A2B and checked into our Hotel. Took a quick nap and later headed off to KRS Dam or the Brindavan Garden.
It was a 40 min drive from Mysore, we reached there late in the evening. The place was a feast to the eye with water fountains lit up and with a spectrum of colors at every corner we turn. One regret was if we had arrived a bit early when there was still some light , we could have enjoyed the garden and enjoyed the light fountains at the dusk. The boat ride across the dam was fun, across the dam we were welcomed by the musical fountain!!
What a good way to end our first day of the road trip!!
Day 2
Somnathpur Temple :
I was checking for nearby places to visit and came across "Somnathpur temple" a 30 km drive from Mysore and that’s where we decided to head first on our day 2
After a scrumptious breakfast at Quoram, we decided to drive to the Somnathpur temple. The drive was smooth for a couple of miles but later we were driving between tiny villages , mud roads and between the fields!! to add to it a couple of diversions due to road repairs!! Finally we reached the Somnathpur Temple.
This is definitely not a place you find on your driving route and is a less accessible place but definitely worth visiting! The "Somnathpur temple" was our first Hoysala experience and it triggered the curiosity to visit more historical sites built by the Hoysala's.
There are no words to describe the beauty of the outer sanctum of the temple!! Ramayana and Mahabharata stories carved around the outer sanctum of the temple.
The temple as such has been destroyed, what we see today is the restoration of the ruins yet it’s a sight to behold. It keeps you wondering how astonishing it would have been if it was still the same as it was made!
Mysore Palace:
How could you leave Mysore without visiting the Mysore Palace!!! After an hour at the Somnathpur temple we drove straight to the Mysore Palace.
The Royal residency of the Wadiyar Dynasty - The Mysore Palace or The Ambavilas Palace, is one of the most famous tourist attractions after the Taj Mahal in India.
It takes about an hour to soak in the royal beauty of this Palace - Intricately carved rosewood doors, subtle roof artwork of the ceilings, vibrantly painted tall pillars of the Durbar. The king’s family still seems to be living in one of the wings of the Palace to where Public do not have access , who knows if you are lucky you might be able to meet the Royal Family members during your visit ;)
Early start back to Bangalore:
We being constant victims of the Bangalore traffic , decided to start our drive early.
We started by around 2:30 P.M and reached back home by 6:30 P.M avoiding all the evening traffic.
The Somnathpur temple , the Mysore Palace , the ruins from this trip made us feel that sometimes we are so carried away with the fancy of traveling abroad that we forget to notice the beauty that is so close to us!!
Want to plan your trip to Mysore , check out our two day road trip Itinerary to Mysore
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