We took a 3 day trip to Mysore last weekend. Bangalore and Mysore are hardly away from each other. They are like twin cities, it takes about 2.5 hrs to cover the ‘journey’. Whats really interesting about the journey is that the stretch is so exploited by Ad banners and eating joints that you barely feel like you’ve the left the city. Small Towns fly past – Ramamnagaram, Chennapatna,Maddur, Mandya and finally Mysore. You have reached before you realized.

We chose Windlfower resort for our stay. We were greeted at the reception by a friendly parrot called Rosy. She was really bold and would perch on just about anybody. The rooms were vibrant and the view of a shallow stretch of water from the ground-level balcony was breath taking. There were ducks waddling in the water quaking loudly. In fact thats what wakes you in the morning.

We quickly settled down in the room and took a tour of the facility. At night we enjoyed dinner at the hotel restaurant- The Olive. After dinner we left for a drive to enjoy the view of Mysore by night. I loved the wide roads and the quiet night life. The palace was lit under the right amount of yellow & blue lights. I think the darkness of the city improved the ambiance created by the subtle lighting. While we were returning back to the resort it started raining. That brought down the temperature by a few degrees. No wonder the a/c in the room had refrigerated us by morning.

Next day I woke up cold but fresh. It was a beautiful morning, ducks were waddling in the water outside and water was flowing out of a big, heavy pot replicating the sound created by a brooke. After our complimentary buffet breakfast we left for the Rangantittu bird sanctuary. Luckily this was a good time and we got to see lots of birds that had migrated down from Nigeria, Siberia, Japan, Australia, North America, etc; These birds return to their home town in the month of June. Wish we could just tag along with them. It would be the most easy and inexpensive way to cross boundaries, that too without a passport! We also saw a lot of crocodiles. There were apparently about a hundred crocodiles in there!!

I returned back to the resort and went to the SPA for a relaxing foot massage. I had been having a severe leg pain for nearly two days and the incredible massage gave me immediate relief. I think it was one of the best foot massages ever.

In the evening we went to the Brindavan Gardens in KRS Dam. Oh God! It seemed as if hundreds of people from Bangalore, Mysore and more had descended into the place. I couldnt imagine such a crowd on a Monday. I guesss it was due to the summer holidays. We watched the musical fountain – a short 15 min light and water show. The fountains were choreographed to latest hits and ended with a patriotic song.

By the end of this I was dead tired. I just had a salad for dinner at Pizza corner and headed back to the hotel for a night of deep sleep. My legs were breaking & I had more than gotten over my relaxing foot massage. I needed one more…. I guess thats asking for too much, too soon

I slept like a log at night and woke up directly at 6.30 am the next day morning with no recollection of where I was. I was woken up by the sound of quaking ducks. I did some pranayaam and read Gita for a while. I then had a cup of tea and started to pack my bags. Once we were ready we went to Chamundi hills to visit the temple of Chamundi Devi. The temple was hardly a 20-min drive up the hill. After Darshan we returned back to the resort and checked out. This was the difficult part – convincing the baby that we can not stay in the bougainvilleas forever (sometimes I need a bit of counselling myself) Our drive back to Bangalore was smooth. Thanks to the Bangalore-Mysore highway for making the commute easy and enjoyable. We reached back home day before and got  busy unpacking and catching up on our laundry.  Holidays leave you with so many good memories and photographs. This trip goes to the good records for years to come…