Thursday, April 30, 2015

Kids Attraction 3: Mysore Zoo

Date: 19th April 2015

Visitor: Arun

Fee: Entry Rs60 on holidays, Rs25 for camera

Timings: 8:30AM to 5:30PM. Closed on Tuesday.

Recommend to take battery operated vehicle for Rs125 if you have kids and elders.
On day 2 of my solo trip to Mysore went to the famous Mysore Zoo.

Though i am not fond of seeing animals in captive i visited here because this zoo was home to some spices which i may never see in wild (Giraffe, Zebra, migratory birds, etc...) :(.

The zoo was well maintained and most animals look healthy though they may not be happy.

Get the tickets outside the zoo and the camera tickets needs to be purchased after entering.

Zoo keepers put a label on plastic water bottles and allow inside.
You need to pay Rs10 here and collect it after showing the labeled bottle when you go out.
First section is the birds and you can see some beautiful birds very active.



Multicolored parrot.
Cute couple.

Next was the big cats section.
Tiger cooling off in artificial pool.
White tiger a variation of Bengal tiger.
Indian Gaur.
Hairless Chimp. Freaky.
White Rhino grazing.
Black bear.
The zebras, another cute creation.
King of the Jungle.

It will take around 2-3 hours to visit the whole Zoo.

I skipped the reptile section as i become very tired walking.


There is also a souvenir shop if you want to buy some t shirt, caps etc..








Best of the whole visit. The Giraffes. Couple of them were standing so still that i thought it was some clay model.


Kids sure will enjoy this place. One of the must visit in Mysore.

See other kids attractions below
Aero show
HAL Museum

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Eateries in Mysore

Date: 18th April 2015 - 19th April 2015

Foodie: Arun

Another weekend to spend alone and so i decided to visit Mysore. I wanted to visit the Zoo primarily.

Booked train tickets and started Saturday morning.


On the way in train they were bringing lot of food items to eat and suddenly it stuck me "why don't i try famous food places in Mysore"

Checked with friends and also the outlook traveler and finalized on few hotels to eat. 
Below is my experience eating in few famous eateries in Mysore.

Reached Mysore in noon and the first hotel that i visited was Hotel Dasaprakash. This was a famous chain of hotels. Visited here for Lunch. The service starts at 12:30.

For lunch you get only meals and chapathi.

Ordered a special meal which is Rs90. Yes we still get meals for less than 100. Surprised.

It was a full meal with soup and 2 chapathis and a bowl of rice.
Chapathi and variety rice was good. Tomato soup did not have rusk and that was a disappointment. 

I was hesitant to take sambar because of sweet sambars that i eat in Bengaluru. Surprisingly it was not sweet.

The curd was nice thick and greasy. This was the best of all.

Overall it was a good meal but not something extraordinary. My personal View.
It was time to have some evening snack and i decided on Bomaby tiffany's. As per outlook it was famous for its rava idly and badam milk.

A different kind of disappointment was waiting for me there.

They had stopped the tiffin service long back and they only have sweets and chats. But atleast they had badam milk and my 2Km walk did not go in vain.


Rs 32 for a cup of this Badam milk and it was good one.

There was plenty of crushed almonds floating on top. They had cold and hot badam milk, i preferred cold one.

Overall it was a good one. One can also try variety of sweets there.
Next was the famous Guru sweets.

Mysore-pak is the specialty of this shop.

As you can see it was such a small shop but saw many people getting sweets here. Sure its a famous one.

Got 2 piece of the famous mysore-pak, they gave it along with handful of spicy mixture. Very thoughtful.
It was not too sweet. It was not too hard. It tasted ok.

Rs360 for a Kg and i took 250gms to give it in office.

Next day i also took another 250gms of Mysore-pak from nandhini milk parlour to compare.

As i thought people in office also liked Nandhini one than the Guru one.

Nandhini Mysore pak was sweet and feel like its melting inside. so side by side comparison everyone prefer Nandhini.

Overall it was good but....
Dinner time it is. Walked upto Hotel Mylari in Nazarbad.

I was expecting it to be some kind of old build but did not imagine it will be this small.

They do serve only Plain, masala dosa and coffee.

I took a Plain dosa. Used to of the dark, crispy and oily Bengaluru dosa i was happy seeing golden brown, folded and less oily dosa.

Rs30 Dosa is served with butter and coconut chutney, both my favorite.

Spread the butter on top of the dosa and took the first bite and i was like yeah rite this is it :)
Without waiting to finish the first one i ordered for one more. It was like a home made dosa and the chutney combination was excellent.


Soft outer part and light crispy inner part.

Coffee was kind of ok.  I prefer coffee in Balaji, BTM.

Overall, I am sure going back there again.
Sunday morning breakfast at Iyengar's tiffin center. Here they do have all breakfast items like dosa, idly, vada and upma.

As usual ordered plain dosa and again it was a golden, folded, less greasy dosa. So it only in Bengaluru they do that dark oily dosa.

Dosa and the chutney were nice. Sambar again was a non sweet one so that too was good.
Looking around i saw they also had bonda and thought of trying that.

It was made of same batter as like uddin vada but in a ball shape.

It was cooked well inside and outer part was crispy to right amount (cannot explain just eat it ;) )
This bonda sambar was very good and one can try it.

Rs20 for dosa, Rs20 for Bonda and Rs10 for the coffee.

Overall, This was a good option for breakfast.

Finally my rating

1. Mylari

2. Iyengar's

3. Dasaprakash

4. Bombay Tiffany's

5. Guru Sweets

There are still plenty more places like Hotel Ramya, Nalapak, Indra etc. Need to try these next time when i visit Mysore.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Weekend Getaway: 23. Hosur: Chandrachoodeshwarar Temple

Date: 12th April 2015

Visitor: Arun

Route: Bangalore - Hosur

Distance: 40 Kms

Road condition: Excellent.
Here comes the summer vacations, Shilpi and Harsh went to our hometown to spend couple of weeks.

I was all alone and was getting bored within few hours after they left.

The weather was also good so decided to go out for a small drive.

The temple is located on top of a small hill in hosur town.

One can either park the vehicle down and walk up or drive all the way to the top.

I drove up and it was a nice big open parking. Nice breeze up there and the view from the top was beautiful.
View of a pond. Hosur looks so colorful from the top. All the houses were painted in different colors.
Few pigeons around the temple. I reached there around 3:30 and the temple would only open at 4:30. The sky was clear and i was walking around the temple taking some pics.


Suddenly within few minutes the black clouds started building up and it turned bit dark.

The wind grew stronger and the clouds got darker.
At 4:30 the temple opened and i went inside and there was a crowd of 20-30 people.

Lord Shiva was decorated nicely and had a good darshan.

The rock pillars are one of the interesting things to see inside.
View of Gopuram.
Getting more and more dark.

Just when i came out and started walking towards the car it started pouring.

Held the camera under my shirt and ran towards the car. Just in time to save the camera.


From then on it was just awesome. It rained very heavily and i had to drive very slow.

Though the visibility was very low it was fun to drive.
Karnataka - Tamil nadu border.

Another place of interest near by is Rajaji memorial in Thorapalli. Could not go there because if rain. Next time.

Friday, April 17, 2015

Photography: Ball of Fire



On the way back from Shravanbelgola.

Thoughts, comments and suggestions?. Please share it if you like.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Rainbow, Beautifying Bengaluru






Today while coming back from Office. Never seen such a beautiful Rainbow before.

In the first pic you can see two curve formation. Mobile Pics.

Thoughts, comments and suggestions?. Please share it if you like.

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Weekend Getaway: 22. Worlds largest monolithic stone statue at Shravanabelgola

Date: 5th April 2015

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi, Harsh and Aarush

Route and Road condition: Check Hosaholalu

Fee: Parking Rs20, Footwear room Rs3.


After visiting Lakshminarayana temple at Hosaholalu we went to Shravanbelgola.

It was around 2:30 PM and was hot. We decided to eat and then rest in the nearby park and climb after 4.
Asked the person collecting the parking fee about a good hotel to eat. He said there are many hotels but today there is some Jain function and they provide food in the mutt.

We decided to eat there, it was crowded but the line was moving fast. We had nice hot sambar and rasam rice with sweet and buttermilk.

When we finished lunch something wonderful happened.
The sun went hiding behind the clouds and weather turned pleasant. We started climbing immediately.

It was total of 600+ steps and climb was not difficult.

Kids resting in half way.
One is not allowed to wear footwear. Socks allowed. Even if you forget there are many people selling socks at the entrance. 


View of chandragiri hills and the white pond.


View of the town from half way.
Some writings on rock protected by glass panel.
View of lord Gommateshwara atop the hill.

The statue is largest monolithic stone statue. Build somewhere around 981AD.

Lot of interesting reads available on net about the history of Lord Bahubali.
He had meditate here in standing position and attained enlightenment. The ant hill and the creepers encircling his legs and arms.
Seeing the world with his open eyes.
View of the temple from top  of the hill.
Doorway with godesses Lakshmi sitting on a lotus.
Some small sculpture carved on the rocks.
Tyagada Kamba. A beautifully carved pillar.
Palanquin used to carry elderly people who cannot climb up.

Carried by 4 people.
A cute squirrel on a rock.
And just after we climbed down and started drive back to Bengaluru it started raining.

Lord Bahubali was very courteous on us :)

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