Mysore Road Trip

To Travel is to Live

Consider this my first travel memoir. Papa advised me to make one when we went to Singapore and Malaysia, but the laziness inside me, which holds everyone from achieving their potential, got better of me. Let’s say sanity prevailed this time and here I am, writing my first travel memoir.

It all started on a Wednesday night, me sitting with my phone and laptop scrolling through YouTube videos and thinking about how I will be wasting my four days holiday. Four days because Karnataka had Lok Shabha Election on Thursday, Friday was Good Friday, and weekend is weekend. It’s not that I hadn’t tried, but my friends kept canceling our plans. We had plans for Wayanad, Kodaikanal, Mysore, etc. Mysore plan was supposedly on, and it was planned for the weekend. Out of nowhere, I got a call from Akshay Jain, my college classmate and the person I wasn’t expecting to get call from, saying that they are planning a trip to Mysore, the very next day. Now, I had two groups to choose from and two separate dates to choose from. Both the parameters reinforced each other, and I had to say no to someone. It’s better to have a day or two to rest, after coming from holiday. I thought I wouldn’t have the same level of comfort with someone's group as I would have with Akshay’s group. Later it turned out to the case. The trip was fantastic.

Thursday morning woke up after getting a call from Maaji. Papa’s friends are traveling from Varanasi to Bangalore, and so Maaji and Mummy found a way to send some homemade snacks for me. She called to ask whether she should send two packets of Suhali or three packets of Suhali. Ordered breakfast on Swiggy and started packing my bag. We booked Swift car from ZoomCar, but they canceled it and upgraded us to Verna. The only drawback that now our pick-up point was changed from a place near to my pg to an area 20 km far. I forgot to mention who all are on the trip: Akshay Jain, Shubham Garg, Tanmay Agarwal, Sidharth Soni, and me. I took Ola to Akshay’s place, to join Akshay and Shubham, then picked Sidharth on our way to the pickup point. The car was all ready, Shubham opened the door using the app, and off we went.

Into fifteen-twenty minutes of the ride, I already had a feeling that it was going to be fun. Sidharth started his jokes from the minute we left for Mysore. Then all started making fun of each other or the song which we were playing. First stop, some small restaurant to have lunch. It was fine. After covering like fifty kilometers, I got feeling from inside that I should also drive. Many thoughts ran across my head as I have only driven my small car back at home, never have I ever driven someone else’s car (apart from training school), and what if some accident happens. It’s funny how the brain, almost instantaneously, comes up with reasons to not do something, and maintain the status-quo. Then I found a reason, which turned out to be the one which overcame every other reason, that is if not today, then when. So, I asked Shubham if it’s okay if I drive and he was happy to give up the wheel. Nor it was not one of those fairy tales, that I drove like a professional and was very smooth, nor it one of those Bollywood movies, that some accident happened, and everything turned out to be horrible. It was a small step to remove the hesitation, and now I am confident enough to drive any car, any time. Shubham drove for like 70% of the journey, but that 30% has helped me to upgrade one of my skills to a new level. I am thankful to Shubham and others for supporting me and allowing me to drive. It’s not a small thing, on my bike trip to Kudremukh, my friends didn’t allow me to drive the bike. That saddened me, but taught me a valuable lesson; not everyone has the same wavelength of thoughts.

It started raining before we reached Mysore, so our plan to visit Chamundi Hills got canceled. We went straight to our hotel, or what we thought was our hotel. We got confused between “Ni. Ambaari Suite” and “Ni. Ambaari Elite”. So, then we went to the second hotel. I would rate the hotel 3 out of 5. I guess it’s okay for bachelors because we are trying to save money and anyway, we need the room to doze off at night. After keeping our small bags and refreshing, we left for Mysore Palace. Mysore palace is the center of attraction for anyone coming to Mysore. It is closed at night, but we went there to see the palace’s lighting. It’s wonderful how beautiful and advanced our architecture was, even at that time. We had dinner at Mezzaluna Indian & Continental Restaurant. We had continental food; it was delicious. Came back to our rooms, slept for a few hours. One thing which every traveler will tell you, “don’t sleep a lot during traveling.”

We woke up around 5 am to see the sunrise from Chamundi Hills. Let’s say, nature is wonderful, we should stop interfering with it. After sunrise, we climbed 300 steps to reach the Sri Chamundeshwari Temple. Didn’t go in because of the long line. Again, if it were the other friend group, they would have gone in, but not this one. Anyway, after consuming coconut water, we left for Sri Rangasawmy Temple. Long queue waiting. I come from Varanasi, and I am used to long queues at temples, but this was even the next level queue for me. Beautiful temple, with minute sculpting all over the campus. Having paid our devotion to Vishnu Ji, our next stop was Tipu Sultan’s Summer Palace. The whole palace was painted with figures of kings, queens, ministers, subjects, and much more. It was also a museum inside, with various artifacts from that period like swords, guns, furniture, etc. It’s always educating to revisit chapters of history and relive those old times. One who doesn’t know his history is doomed to fail in the future. Now we were hungry, so we headed to “The Old House.” Specialty: wood-fried pizzas and they were tasty.

Finally, it was time for Mysore Palace. It was full, literally full. I guess it was holidays for everyone. Breathtaking, marvelous, huge, are some of the words which come to your mouth just after entering the palace. No wonder it is the center of attraction, and because of this one place, so many people visit Mysore. Many people do visit Mysore during Dussehra time, but the rest of the year, it’s only for Mysore Palace. I wanted to hire a tourist guide, but my friends were not up for it. It’s funny how we are ready to spend a thousand bucks on Pizza and Pasta, but not three-four hundred bucks on a travel guide. Clicked enormous number of photos, and we were tired now. Heat and vastness of the palace do not go hand in hand.

Next stop, Brindavan Gardens. It’s built near the KRS dam. It is known for its laser show and beautiful flowers. I have seen better laser shows in India. Didn’t spend a lot of time there. Two reasons, we were tired and had to drive 20 km back to the hotel. Relaxed for a few hours at the hotel and then, left for dinner. Had dinner at Kapoor’s Café. It’s a vegetarian, Punjabi restaurant. Food was tasty but too spicy. Tanmay couldn’t even finish what he ordered. Back at the hotel, we started planning for the next day. We had the car till noon only, so going somewhere far was not an option, and we had covered almost everything in the city. We decided to go to Somanathapura; it was on the way back to Bangalore, so we were like why not.

Woke up early, left for Somanathpura. It was not open when we reached there, so went to the Kaveri river, which was five minutes away. Nothing extraordinary about it, we just had to kill time. Somanathpura is another remarkable example of ancient Indian Architecture.

This was more of a road trip. We drove a lot, and it was undoubtedly refreshing. In Varanasi, roads are non-existent, so driving on the highway with beautiful scenery all around is something nice for me. Reached Bangalore by 12:30 pm. It was one of the best trips, I have ever had with my friends, and I will take this opportunity to thank everyone on the trip to make this trip a memorable one. I am looking forward to having many more trips like this.