Garden city to Palace city!

Crew Members: Dilip, Manish, Shyam and myself!
Duration: 3 days
Expense: 2300 per head.
Date: 15th, 16th and 17th of March 2014.
Round Trip: 622 Kms
Bikes: Royal Enfield Electra and Royal Enfield classic 350.
Abstract: 3 days of epitome fun!

The moment our MS batch mate intimated us about her wedding and posted us of Mysore being the wedding venue, we decided on making it a ride. Marriage day was a Monday and it was perfect for a three days get away! Myself, Dilip and Shyam were already in and Manish was skeptical about his availability for the ride. After quite a few discussions and conference calls the week before the riding dates, we settled upon the destinations - Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta, Nanjundeshwara Temple, Chamundi Hills and to roam around in Mysore city. The day before our trip date, Manish made up his mind to tag along with us and thus we were all set to ride!

Dilip had some work engagements on 15th March because of which, we had to give away the first plan of leaving Bangalore early in the morning. He got himself freed up by 12 PM and reached Hebbal by 12:30 PM and so did I leave accordingly from Marathahalli and we met at Manish's at Hebbal. Wasting not much time there, we rode to Cauvery Theatre bus stop to pick Shyam. By 12:50 PM, we officially started started our trip with Shyam being my pillion and Manish Dilip's. Our next halt was decided upon to be Rasta near Ramnagara and Dilip was so determined to be a responsible rider and wanted to hit our destination before the sun goes for nap. We were trying to pierce through the city traffic in the mid noon sun and managed to cross Corporation signal and headed to city market with myself riding ahead. All of us sudden, Shyam gets a call from Manish saying their bike got punctured in corporation signal! They had managed to push the vehicle to Lalbagh main road enfield showroom and we had to kill our time till 3:15 PM to get things sorted out! We started our trip once again officially at 3:30 PM and we moved as fast as we could. AAP and Kejriwal slowed us down near Kengeri as there was a rally going on. As soon as we crossed Kengeri, we started 'riding'! We reached Rasta by 4:45 PM. 

I had been to the place before and we ordered couple of burgers, a pizza and chilled drinks. I should say this, never ever order Pizza from Rasta. Food is always under rated and expensive there. But I love the burger and drinks that they serve and ambiance is very much appreciable.

By 5:30 PM, we payed our bills and hit roads again. Once we crossed Toys city, Chennapatana and reached a place named Bairapatna, Dilip felt his bike wobbling and there it is! Second puncture of the day! We tried searching for a puncture shop near by and finally found one that was closed! We walked back another kilometer and found another one with a puncture fixing guy who didn't know how to remove tires of enfield. So we took his bike and rode back, removed the tire by ourselves and he fixed it for us.

We were little worried about the time and we had all the fun we could have.

Mysore-Bangalore road is damn beautiful for late evening rides. Sunset view is unimaginably beautiful and I just love it.

We started by 6:50 PM praying not to come across another puncture for the day and the ride till Mysore was damn smooth. Dilip and Manish switched in between and we entered Mysore by 8:05 PM. We decided to take up a room near to the marriage hall and the place was Sarswathipuram. We got a room in J P Lodge for 900 bucks a day. We went in search for food and after a lot of pondering, we got enough food for the night and we had a bash that night. By the time, we slept, it was past 12! We were all sleepy, but none were able to sleep! :D

Alarm rings at 4:30 AM as it was programmed to, the previous night. I jumped awake and tried waking up fellow riders and all went back to sleep with a moan. I got myself freshened up and eventually so did the remaining three. We started our ride at 5:45 AM, 15 mis late to our schedule. Our destination was Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta which is 89 Kms away from Mysore city. We kept riding and had couple of stops in between. Roads are amazing and perfect for morning rides. Sun gradually came out of the orange sky and lit up everything around.

We reached Gundlupet by 7:30 AM and our destination was at 16 Kms from there.

 By 7:50 AM, we were at the foot of the hills. Forest department opens the gate for the visitors only between 8:30 AM and 4:00 PM and the visitors are allowed to stay only for 90 minutes at the peak. There were one tempo, 4 cars and a bike which were already waiting to get through the gate. There is this road on the left side of the gate which will take you to a large banyan tree. If at all you end up reaching early at the gates, you may opt to spend time at the banayan tree. 

Guards made sure all the vehicles are clear of liquors and cigarettes and we had to pay 25 bucks per bike as the entrance fee. The ride uphill isn't that great as the roads are patched up. We reached peak in no time and there was a herd of deer enroute.

We parked our bikes near the temple and stared at the view around. It is suppose to a green carpet view had we come after monsoon. Clouds formed a belt around the hills.

There is fence laid around the temple and trespassing the fence is strictly prohibited. We didn't attempt any such craziness. We went to the temple and waited for the priest to show up.

Priest did some pooja and gave us all prasada. Temple was crowded by then. We walked around a bit and decided to descend as it was already 1 hr past. While riding back, there was a male deer with perfect antlers in the grasslands and I couldn't take a pic of it as it escaped the moment it heard enfield's thud thud!

We exited the gate on time and we started our ride back. We decided to have our breakfast from Gundlupet. Idli, Vada, Bisi bele bath and rice bath helped us quench our hunger. Our next destination was Nanjundeshwara Temple. Sun started making us feel boiled with in our jackets. Neither could we remove our jackets nor could we bear the heat with in! I felt sleepy in between and I didn't want to scare the shit out of Shyam and didn't let him know about it! :D

We reached Nanjundeshawara temple, Dilip family deity by 11:45 AM. Temple was so damn crowded and we all went nuts seeing it. On top of that, the scorching sun was not letting us stay one point for more than a minute!

Dilip enquired about the duration to get darshan and learned that 3 hours of queue in the sun can take us in! We decided to give up and payed our respects at the entrance and rode away.

We reached Mysore by 12:30 PM, directly went off to room. The moment we entered room, every one crashed and I didn't forget to keep an alarm for 4:30 PM. It was such a rejuvenating power nap! We had dreamless sleep! By 5 PM, we all got ourselves readied and started for city roaming. Riding two bullets through Mysore city was amazing! Unlike Bangalore city, bullets don't go unnoticed there especially when its two of them going together! :D We visited Jagan Mohan Art Gallery, Mysore palace and St. Phelomena's church.

We didn't dare to enter Mysore palace on Sunday evening. Palace entry closes by 5:30 PM and will be lit up for half an hour at 7 PM. This happens every Sunday. During the lit up, visitors will be allowed to enter the park in the courtyard but not inside the palace.

We roamed around and clicked couple of late evening shots.

Shyam's friend who is a localite of Mysore suggested us to visit Kohlapuri Bhel center in Nanjunmallige Circle. With little difficulty, we found the place. It was a small one room shop with 4 employees. There were lot of customer waiting outside for their order to come up. They had a token system for the orders. The shop timing is 12:30 PM to 9:30 PM. We got our bhel puri in 15-20 mins and we were literally lost munching the same. It is served with a slice of raw mango and a salted green chilli. I am not a big fan of bhel puri. But next time I visit Mysore, I will make sure to visit this place again! And next thing, I wanted to have Mysore pak from Mysore! :D And we did buy one for each! :D

We hit our room by 9 PM with dinner parceled and yet another amazing night bash. Nepal vs Hong Kong Worldcup T20 warm up match was going on the TV and we had immense fun. We slept late and Dilip had his alarm set for 5:30 AM for Chamundi hill visit.

Unlike day 2, I was the last one to wake up and we got ourselves sorted by 6:30 AM and we rode for the Chamundi Betta. Mysore city roads are mind blowing in the morning. If I were a Mysore resident, I wouldn't have gone to a gym daily for jogging. Such beautiful boulevards. Moreover, the city is very well organised. There sign board at every junction with which there literally no chance a tourist would get lost. I respect Mysore city management for the effort.

We crossed Chamundi Peak entrance by 7:30 AM and ride uphill was such joy giving for a rider.

Very wide roads with awesome curves. We stopped couple of times for photos. Mysore city looked even more beautiful from the peak at first light.

I knew little about the majesty of Mysore city. Even though my bus to native goes to through Mysore, I could never stay awake to see Mysore. All I had was memory fragments of what I saw when I visited Mysore couple of times as kid! We could see every important building of Mysore from the peak. The view from the peak would make yourself quote Mysore as the palace city. The picture pasted above is Lalith Mahal as seen from the peak.

Temple opens by 7:30 AM and we were expecting a long queue. Contrary to what we expected, the temple was deserted and there were hardly 10-15 devotees around! We had long satisfying darshan and we were out in 15 minutes! We had our breakfast from Sree Chamundi Krupa hotel inside temple premises and I wouldn't recommend the hotel.

We were back in our room by 9:45 AM and we were off to marriage hall. By 2:00 PM, we finished marriage function and decided to start our ride back as soon as possible. And so we did by 2:30 PM. Again, ride in scorching sun! We were left with no choice. We had to take our first stop at Srirangapatna though we didn't spend much time there. We decided to take one stretch to Maddur and have a halt for Maddur vada there. We reached Maddur by 4:30 PM, we had a 20 mins break there and had couple of Maddur vadas and soft drinks and got ourselves boosted. We decided to take no breaks until we reach Bangalore. We reached Kengeri by 5:40 PM. We decided to take up Kengeri-Yeshwantpur road to avoid Kengeri traffic. We were all tired to the core but still we couldn't believe the 3 days had gone in matter no time!

Things to Remember:

1. Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta is open from 8:30 AM to 4 PM only and visitors are allowed stay only for 1.5 hours at the peak.

2. Chamundi Temple opens at 7:30 AM in the morning.

3. Kohlapuri Bhel center timings are 12:30 PM to 9:30 PM.

4. St. Phelomena's church isn't open for visitors during the mass timing.

5. Jagan Mohan art gallery closes by 5:30 PM.

Do's:

1. Walk or ride around Mysore city in first light (6 AM to 7 AM). Believe me its nothing like anything! :D

2. Try out Maddur Vada at Maddur and buy wooden toys from Channapatna if you have kids at home. Thatte idli at Bidadi is also pretty famous. Time we crossed Bidadi wasn't just right a Thatte Idli!

3. Mysore city sleeps by 9-9:30 PM. Getting vegetarian food post that is damn difficult. Better make arrangements keeping this in mind.

Dont's:

1. Carrying eatable, drinks, alcohol, cigarettes are a waste while going to Himavad Gopala Swamy Betta.

2. Don't try entering into the restricted areas at the HGS peak. Not only you'll get yourself into trouble with forest department, you'll disturb wildlife which is very carefully maintained there.

Our group pic: