The most impotent and close by place I have not seen till today in my life is Mysore. I have heard lot about it and I know to some extent, that the place is wonderful. But then I did not get much chance to see that place somehow. But the day had come when we were looking for a one day trip options near by b'lore. I had thought of going to mysore a few weeks back also, but had dropped it for some reason. But now I have made up my mind to see it, I asked amar if he can join me, as anyways he will go to mysore every weekend as it's his native place. He agreed to join me and show me all the places around.So our plan was to leave b'lore by 6 AM in the morning. But later as we thought the traffic will be more at 6.00 and thus changed the plan to 5.00 AM.
There was no power that night, and I could not get proper sleep and somehow there were a few mosquitoes also which were always roaming here and there (Night shift for them!) disturbing me from sleep. So we had actually woke up before 4.00!! and were waiting to get out of house, so as to feel the cold breeze at least on the way, as it was so hot inside the apartment. I had forgot to fill the tank last evening and thus it killed our precious 15-20 mins in the bunk and made us leave b'lore by 6.00 AM !! 
We were on mysore road at 100Km/h and reached Sriranga pattana before breakfast time. Some photos before entering the temple! There is actually nothing much to see other than the old Ranganatha temple, which is one of its kind. But the place won't make you feel anything good, as everywhere they will ask you for 10-20 bucks and thus the emotional attachment with the temple is lost. Somehow I found it very irritating and we left the place. We could not see Tippu's palace as it was very early and we have to wait for an hour or so to see that.
Our next destination was Ranganatittu. The place is well maintained by forest dept, and we were inside the bird sanctuary by 8.30. There is a very good hotel near the parking lot. We had breakfast there. We moved in, Amar was very much in to Photography, he took some of our pics too. We roamed around the place, it was a pleasant place with a very good ambience, as we were there early in the morning there were hardly any visitors which made us enjoy the things better as there was no crowd. We could see lot of birds, but as we did not take a boat ride, we could not see the birds from near. But still it was a very nice.
We left from that place, without paying that guard the rest 30 bucks which he asked us to pay while going back, he also did not give receipt for what we have paid for, so he must have put it in his pocket! We were on the way to KRS dam, we reached Balmuri falls. It was very much outside city and the place is not kept so clean, but its pretty decent, Its a kind of mini dam and the water is overflowing like a mini falls all around the barrier which creates a fantastic scene and we also can walk on that dam wall. It was a very nice experience there.
It started drizzling when we were half the way on the dam, thus have to come back. We next moved to edmuri falls, which is also a similar one, but much bigger in width, and less clean, and roads are also pretty bad (mud roads). People had thrown beer bottles everywhere making it look dirty.
We stayed there for some time and took some of the best pics, and moved to Chamundi hills. There are two way to climb the hill, one is by 1000 staircase, and other is the 13 km's two lane road. We opted for the second one and were on top with in few mins.
The view is nice, but nothing great. If you had covered the hill stations and trekking stations this you don't find it awesome, but you say it to be one simple place where the temple is built on top of the hill. There was a huge queue for Darshan of Devi Chamundeshwari. It took us an hour to get Darshan. The people who keep the slippers were behaving very cheap with people, even many were like that, the ones who were selling that flowers were also like that. I saw many fighting with people for nothing.
We came back down, and visited Nandi, A monolithic statue on the way back, that was a one way, which u can cover while coming back. That was a nice place, there also I saw a fellow giving flower for pooja behaving very cheap with foreigners, and even with Indians too who does not take flower from him. That's really a bad thing about that place.
We were back from the hills and were inside Mysore city. The city is very much well arranged, and I was surprised not to see any footpath shops, it was all covered by green grass and trees in most of the streets. I came to know from my friend that the DC is very strict in these aspects, and he had ordered not to put up shops in such matter, which spoil the beauty of the city, and going a step ahead he even had ordered not to extend the shop in to the street by putting a extensible plastic roof. I was happy to see such things.
We had lunch, Amar left us near the Palace and went home. We parked our vehicle near the palace, where they have arranged for proper parking area, one thing you must appreciate. Camera's are not allowed inside the Palace, but it is allowed inside the entrance where u can take pics in front of palace, we took camera with us but seeing some police checking everything, we thought that he is going to ask us to keep the camera inside the Camera room and does not allow us to come back and keep the camera in car, thus we may need to take new ticket to enter again if we come out to keep the camera in car.
Thus came back and kept the camera in car. When we entered there, he was not checking any tickets, we could have brought camera. But its already time, and thus we visited the palace and thought of taking pics later after coming out, by getting the camera from car.
The palace is very nice, its one must see place in mysore and its very big also. We were tired seeing the whole palace, which made us leave the idea of visiting Jaganmohana palace. We came back again and took some photos in front of the palace.
I suggested to my cousin about going to Madikeri rather than going back to B'lore, as I was not at all interested going back to b'lore, we have come all the way till here, and if we go to madikeri we can enjoy the cold weather there and stay back for a day there and visit some nearby places to have great fun. First she did not agree as she had not brought extra dress to wear for tomorrow. We thought of buying them at Madikeri, and she agreed for that, we left the place and were on the route to madikeri after asking few people where to go out of mysore city to madikeri.
It started raining like anything on the way, the wiper was always moving!! We wanted to stop somewhere to wash our face as it was looking very oily after the tiring journey all around. But as it was raining heavily we could not stop, after sometime the rain had come to some dull phase, which gave us some few mins of time for to wash our face, and come out of that tired look.We had some biscuits to make up with the meals as it was very light still we were feeling very hungry. The road was very good, But later once we crossed Kushalnagar the roads were pretty bad for sometime. Again they were good when we were close to Madikeri. Finally reached Madikeri at around 6.30 PM. We had left Mysore at 4.30 PM around and it took us 2 hours to cover the distance. As it was raining heavily we could not purchase the clothes after reaching Madikeri. We thought of going to uncle's house first and get ourselves fresh. We can come back later with Umbrella to get clothes. So we reached there, sipped a cup of coffee and came back later at around 8.00 PM after taking suggestion from Aunt to go to KT ( A shop where u can get best clothes for college students) We got the best of the clothes we were looking for.
Uncle had arranged for chicken dish for that dinner, it's nice to have chicken in that cold weather. The mischievous guy "Amogh" was there, now that he is going to school here, was very much happy seeing us as we were speaking in Kundapur Kannada. He made our stay cheerful with all his stories and arguments on anything and everything.After the tiring drive of more than 300 Kms, it was not that difficult for me to get sleep, I put myself inside a thick blanket, it was dam chill outside. My legs were waiting for some rest after the tiring drive. Soon I was asleep.
After the sound sleep, I opened my blanket to find that Putti is not in her bed, I wake up and came out everybody was awake and it was just 7.30 AM at that time. I could have slept a bit more. But I thought I should enjoy this early morning in this cold weather. We sipped a cup of coffee, with Neer Dosa and chicken curry for breakfast. After the bath, when we started for Abbi falls. The road was very good as it was before which made our journey comfortable. We reached the place with in few mins. The Scene was awesome, water was all muddy because of the heavy rain from last few days. The cold water vapors, along with wind were trying to make u feel the power at which the water is falling down the falls.
After some distance again there was one more bridge, which was shorter than the earlier one, but the water flow was more violent and there was no grills on either side to protect in case if we are carried away by the current. I was a bit afraid. Then I came to know from the police people standing there that, there on the other side also one omni is waiting, and one expert young driver is trying to get the vehicle to this side. He came zooming to this side with some of his friends, I asked him if he can help me take the vehicle to other side. He agreed, I gave the vehicle to him and sat in back seat. Two more fellows came and sat on either side of me. My cousin was in the front seat. At that moment I got afraid, as if why other guys are also getting in to the vehicle. Later moment I realized that its just to make the vehicle heavy so that it won't get carried away in the current. We finally reached the other end without any issues, and I am thankful to him, We said thanks to him and left that place.
We were searching for the way to "Irpu Falls", but most of them in Virajpet did not know about it, finally one guy told us that the bridge on the way to that falls had collapsed and because of that they also have canceled the trip. We were a bit sad listening to that, but then we were not completely upset. We had enjoyed the drive on this route as it was an awesome track, and more over even if we go there now, we can just see it for a while and can't get into water. All these things made us forget about that falls and enjoy the remaining part of the journey.
Then the next amazing spot we got was when we were driving inside the "Rajeev Gandhi Reserve Forest", the weather was breezy, and cold, cloudy, forest was dense and green, roads were straight and dark, and all new. It was an wonderful drive there, we enjoyed it to the max. After sometime once we crossed the Jungle we could see the villages, there also roads continued to be good. We joined the double road soon, and were on the way to Mysore now. We took a shortcut via Srirangapattana and reached Express State Highway. There was not much traffic, but still it was more than while going, and we managed to reach b'lore (Mysore road junction) by 6.30. because of the odd time, it took about half an hour there to cross that junction and one more hour to reach our house at Kaggadaspura.!
More photos @ "http://www.flickr.com/photos/prasadshetty"
