Majestic Mysore

Mysore is a beautiful and cultured city of Karnataka state in south India. Mysore is well connected by road and rail transportation. It is located about 150 KM from Bangalore, the capital city of Karnataka. Mysore is mostly famous for its heritage sights, the palaces and the Brindavan gardens, food specialties and silk sarees.

In our two days of stay in Mysore, on first day we visited Mysore Palace. Please read my post: Magnificent Mysore Palace to know everything about it. 

On the second day we opted for the day tour from a private bus operator. If you are here in vacation period, I would suggest to hire personal taxi for sight-seeing, as because of the rush, it becomes difficult to see each place in limited time.

The Jaganmohan palace, was formally the retreat of the Royal family of Mysore, when the Mysore palace was under construction. This palace is now Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery and open for public. The gallery exhibits many original paintings created by Raja Ravi Verma and other famous painters. Also there are weapons of war, musical instruments, sculptures, antique coins, paintings made on a grain of rice, and many more things.

The Jaganmohan Palace, Mysore

The Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens famous as Mysore Zoo is a must see place at Mysore. This is well maintained, well managed zoo and the home of a lot of wild animals, various big and small birds, Reptiles, and many other species. The entry fee is 25/- for adult and 10/- for children. It takes around 2 hours to see the whole zoo. Electric car is available to hire.

The Lion at Mysore Zoo, Mysore

The Giraffe at Mysore Zoo, Mysore 

Chamudi Hills are located at the east of the Mysore city, about 12 KM away and famous for Chamundeshwari devi temple. The top of the hills gives a magnificent panoramic view of the Mysore city and Karanji lake. The Chamundeshwari temple is really beautiful and there is also a statue of huge Nandi (bull) 5m tall and 7.5m length.

Statue of Mahishasura at Chamundi Hills, Mysore 

Chamundeshwari Temple, Mysore

Chamundeshwari Temple, Mysore

St. Philomena's Church is a beautiful catholic church, situated in the center of the city. Famous for its German architectural design, the church's basement consists a tomb of Martyr St. Philomena. The church was constructed in 1936, by the Maharaja of Mysore.

St. Philomena's Church, Mysore

The second most famous place at Mysore are the Brindavan Gardens. It is located about 22 KMs north from Mysore city on Krishnarajasagara dam of the river Kaveri. There is a north garden and a south garden, a walk way constructed over the river between the two gardens. Both the gardens are unique in design and have lots of colorful flower plants, trees, fountains, etc. This garden is also famous for musical fountains, show timing is 7 PM. 

Fountains at Brindavan Gardens

The Royal Orchid Hotel at Brindavan Gardens

Krishnarajsagara Dam View, Brindavan Gardens

Shrirangpatna the historic and cultural town, is a great half day excursion and can be arranged with Brindavan gardens as they are on the same direction from Mysore.

Tipu Sultan Monument, Shrirangpatna

Mysore is famous for Silk sarees, there are many nice show rooms for that. Also do not miss to try famous Mysore Dosa and sweet Mysore pak. 

Magnificent Mysore Palace

The Mysore Palace, Mysore

The Amba Vilas Palace well-known as Mysore Palace is the topmost attraction of the Mysore city. The palace is really huge, located at the center of the city. The Palace timings are 10AM to 5PM IST, and there is an entry ticket of 40/- per adult. The palace has three entrances - East, West and South, the south is open for the public.

Mysore Palace Gate, Mysore

East Gate Mysore Palace, Mysore 

The palace complex is spread across acres and is the magnificent display of Mysore kingdom's culture, art and history. There are guides available but I would suggest to take audio guide for the main complex. The photography is not allowed in here.

Main Complex Mysore Palace, Mysore

The main complex walls are full of colorful paintings of the kings, the stories of Mysore kingdom and festivals of Mysore, especially there is a huge painting of famous Dasara procession. 

It has many unique rooms: The Ambavilas - The decorated big hall for private assembly, The Kalyan Mantapa - A huge octagonal hall for the royal wedding ceremonies, The Diwan-e-aam - The common assembly hall. All these rooms have unique designs, huge decorated pillars, glossy mosaic flooring, floral chandeliers, which gives them a royal look.

 

The Architectural beauty of  Mysore Palace, Mysore

The palace showcases a lot of antique items. One of them is precious Elephant Howdah (Ambadi) made of 84 Kg gold. There is a Doll's gallery of traditional ancient dolls. The armory displaying ancient weapons used by the royal family. There are many European antique items too. 

Children enjoying elephant ride in Palace complex, Mysore

There are 12 Hindu temples surrounding the main complex, Someshvara and Lakshmiramana are the famous among them. The temples are having fabulous architecture and stone carving.

Temple inside the palace complex, Mysore

Chittorgarh

Chittorgarh is a city famous for its hill fort. It is situated about 60KM from Udaipur. We travelled by a cab through national highway. It takes around 1 and half hour to reach Chittorgarh. To go up on the hill there is a good road. It is allowed to travel inside the fort by car. At the entrance of the fort, we hired a guide charging only 50 INR. The guides ask for 50 to 450 INR, and it all depends on your bargaining skills. There is only one time ticket to see the whole fort.

Chittorgarh city

The fort contains many ancient monuments telling the stories of the kings of the Mevad. First we visited Mira Mandir built in the memory of the Krishna’s one of the great lovers Mirabai. Then we visited Vijaystambh built by Maharana Kumbha to commemorate his victory over the Muslim rulers of Malwa and Gujarat in 1440. It is a huge nine storey tower, and through the inside staircase we reached to the top. All the inner walls of the tower are carved with sculptures of Gods, Goddesses, dancing idols, etc. From the top floor of the Tower, we had an awesome view of the whole fort.

Meera Mandir, Chittorgarh

Vijay Stambh, Chittorgarh

After Vijaystambh, we went ahead to see Rani Padmini palace centred in a big pond and Rana Kumbha palace. The queen Padmini was very beautiful and the mughal emperor Alauddin Khilji attacked on this fort to get her. Alauddin Khilji won the fight but he could not get her because she did Jauhar (an act of self immolation by leaping into a large fire). We also saw this Jauhar kund. Including Alauddin Khilji, this fort is attacked three times. We saw the debris of the carved walls, gates, pillars, idols, etc. at many places in the fort.

Padmini Palace, Chittorgarh

Then we visited Gaumukh kund. There is a continuous flow of water from the idol of cow’s face.

There is one more tower called, Kirti Stambh is dedicated to Rishabha, the first Tirthankara of Jainism. It was built by a merchant and is decorated with figures from the Jain pantheon. The main entrance gate of the fort is called Ram Pol. Actually there are 7 different gates to this fort, but this one is huge, and if we see the view here, it is marvellous. We could see small farms, gardens, lakes and villages from this point of the hill fort.

Kirti Stambha, Chittorgarh

At last the guide brought us to visit a local shop of handicrafts. If you don’t want to buy anything from here, I would suggest you not to go inside or leave as soon as possible. The salesmen here are much trained to sell the products like handmade saris, blankets, shawls, bed sheets, etc.

It took around 4 hours to visit the whole fort. It was really a nice visit to the Chittorgarh. From the lowland of the hill, the fort walls look like they are still guarding the pride and spirit of the great Rajput kings.

I would rate the monuments in Chittorgarh starting with best being first as:

1. Vijaystambh
2. Rani Padmini palace
3. Rana Kumbha palace
4. Ram pol(The main gate)
5. Gaumukh kund
6. Kirtistambh
7. Mira Temple

Kumbhalgarh Fort - Second longest wall in the world!

Kumbhalgarh fort wall is the second longest wall in the world. From outside as well as inside, it looks fabulous. The travel distance is 100 KMs from Udaipur and 10 KMs from Ranakpur.

Kumbhalgarh Outside View

On the way from Ranakpur to Kumbhalgarh

It takes around 4-5 hours to see the whole fort. Don't forget to carry water bottle with you. Hiring a guide is optional. We didn't hire any. The architecture of the fort is so wonderful, that every visitor gets impressed.

Kumbhalgarh Gate

From the topmost part of the Palace you get the best view of the surrounding hills. In the palace, rooms are really cool by the child air flowing. We saw The great Maharana Pratap's birth place here. The elephants were used to make such a huge fort. We saw paintings showing bravery of elephants on the palace walls.

Palace of Kumbhalgarh

Elephant painitings at Kumbhalgarh

Apart from Palace there are big and small Hindu and Jain pilgrims in the fort area. We visited Shiva temple. The Shivalinga was huge. After the sunset, Light and sound show is also a good attraction.

Kumbhalgarh

Kumbhalgarh

Kumbhalgarh

Kumbhalgarh

Kumbhalgarh

I would suggest to avoid visiting this fort in summer or you may enjoy it less.