Exploring Karnataka-Mysore

We visited Mysore on 7th January 2010.We started at around 6 am by bus of KSRTC from Coimbatore.The drive was across ghat roads of Dhimbam.And approximately 40 hairpin bends in the way.There are 2 routs from Coimbatore.
Route1.Coimbatore>Satyamangalam>chamrajnagar>nanjangud>mysore (or)

Route2.Coimbatore>ooty>kallati>bandipur>gundelpet> mysore

We preferred the first route.Second upto sathy,the road is excellent.As expected no traffic, reached sathy in no time. I would say 2 hrs then the ghats to dhimbam started.The border of Tamilnadu,upto here the roads are excellent.Even in Karnataka upto Chamrajnagar the roads are good from there the last stretch to Nanjungoud is very worse.We reached Mysore,201 kms in 5 hours.

The sight seeing day...We booked a bus in the afternoon itself at 2 pm..The half day sight seeing includes Maharaja palace,St.Philomina church,Tippu Sulthan's Sri Ranga pattanam and from there Brindavan gardens were seen..Among them the Maharaja Palace is excellent one..Inside photography not allowed.There is so much to see inside the palace like walls & roof blended with excellent architecture.So many of Raja Ravi Varma paintings are displayed in the palace reflecting the Wodeyar's glory and also beauty of Ravi varma kind of women..I spent much time there.there are so many things like chairs,crowns,cloths,jewellery etc etc used by Wodeyars..A simply breathtaking view of palace inside.A bit hectic schedule for us with our small kid Tikku...But succeeded in managed him..The next day morning again we went for sight seeing which includes Jagan Mohan palace,Zoological gardens and finally Chamundi hill.At Chamundeswari temple we were in que for 1 hour for darsan.But after completing darsan we missed our bus.So we caught KSRTC bus to reach Mysore after that.I say KSRTC buses are much more comfortable than the tourist buses.They are moderated with AC and all;Above pic Chamundi temple on Chamundihill.

Maharaja palace from courtyard.It was built by Wodeyars and is one of the biggest palaces in the country...

St.Philomina Church...

The Lalith Mahal palace...

Actually our trip was up to here.But we extended our programme for one more day to see Halebidu and Belur temples.We caught a cab in the morning at around 7 am.From Mysore the road is poor in patches and not even found good restaurants to have food on the way...One should have some meal before get started.Reached Shravana Belagola first,An 84 kms drive from Mysore. It is in the Hassan District of karnataka.Referred as one of the important holy destination for Jains in India.It is famous for the world's tallest monolith statue,Gomatheswara,also referred as Bahubali with 17 mt height.The statue was located on a hill called Indragiri made of granite is the largest of its kind in the world.

Ranganatha swamy temple,Srirangapattanam

The view of Shravana Belagola from top of the hill - A Great jain temple....

From there we travelled another 30 km and reached Halebidu,A famous temple in Karnataka,Hoyasaleswara temple (Shiva temple) .Its gem of the Indian architecture.The temple was built by Hoyasala dynasty.The temple is just amazing.The below pics.

And from Halebidu we reached Belur,Chennakesava swamy temple (lord Vishnu)which is just 17 kms from Halebid.It was the early capital of Hoyasalans.Stories from the Puranas,Upanishads and other mythological stories have been carved in the most authentic way.The Ramayana and the Mahabharatha also have been included.The bracketted figurines called the Mandanikas are no doubt the highlight of the temple's magnificent architecture.The temple is just fantastic and if we really want to see the architecture in detail we need one more day...

Our trip came to an end on 3rd day night around 8 pm.Around 100 people are waiting to get in to the bus.And we used the same old Indian public trick of dropping a bag from the window.Luckily we got the places to sit and reached Coimbatore in the midnight....Very very tired trip but the memories of Mysore will be there forever.