Combined with our trip to the Coorg region, we spent a night in the royal city of Mysore, a three hour drive from Bangalore. Mysore has a rich history and even richer royal family and its palaces mean that it is a popular spot on the Indian tourist trail.
Mysore palace is the famous home of the Wadiyar dynesty and was built in the early 20th century when its predecessor burnt down. The new and current palace was designed to be fireproof, using marble in place of wood, and is spectacular. Mysore is particularly famous for its celebrations, centred around the palace, during the Indian festival of Dussehra, in which elephants seem to play a significant role. We visited the palace and took the audio tour around the main rooms open to the public, although our visit fell on a public holiday which meant that it was extremely busy, even though we arrived before the palace officially opened.
Photographs aren't allowed inside but the exterior shots should give some idea of the scale and grandeur of the building.
We stayed in Mysore for one night only but Phil did very well with our accommodation. We stayed in the Lalitha palace which was built by the royal family of Mysore as guest accommodation for the visit of the Viceroy of India in the early 20th century. The palace design was modelled on St Paul's Cathedral and it is a glorious building. It is now run by the Indian government as a hotel and, rather amazingly under the circumstances, it beautifully kept with good well maintained rooms and for an impressively low price (we paid 4000 rupees though I think this was an exceptionally good deal, it's usually a bit more).
The palace has lots of incredible original features and we happily wandered through the corridors exploring its treasures. A highlight was the original lift installed in the 1920s which has been maintained in its original form. Other highlights were the delicious dinner of a Mysore thali in the grand ballroom (now the dining room) and a game of snooker in the bar. It was easy to visualise how the bar must have looked 90 years ago - full of smoke and smartly dressed Brits and Indians enjoying their post-dinner whisky and billiards.
A pleasant surprise in Mysore was the zoo. We have been to several Indian zoos so far which are typically full of animals with very little space and little in the way of information or structure to the zoo experience itself. Mysore zoo was different. Covering a huge area, the animals had large, well designed enclosures and the whole zoo was generally in a great condition. We didn't really have enough time to enjoy it fully, but I would thoroughly recommend a trip to zoo for anyone with a day or two in Mysore.
Mysore palace is the famous home of the Wadiyar dynesty and was built in the early 20th century when its predecessor burnt down. The new and current palace was designed to be fireproof, using marble in place of wood, and is spectacular. Mysore is particularly famous for its celebrations, centred around the palace, during the Indian festival of Dussehra, in which elephants seem to play a significant role. We visited the palace and took the audio tour around the main rooms open to the public, although our visit fell on a public holiday which meant that it was extremely busy, even though we arrived before the palace officially opened.
Photographs aren't allowed inside but the exterior shots should give some idea of the scale and grandeur of the building.
The grand exterior of Mysore Palace.
A nearly ex-palace (of which there are many) which now hosts a rather musty dusty art gallery.
We stayed in Mysore for one night only but Phil did very well with our accommodation. We stayed in the Lalitha palace which was built by the royal family of Mysore as guest accommodation for the visit of the Viceroy of India in the early 20th century. The palace design was modelled on St Paul's Cathedral and it is a glorious building. It is now run by the Indian government as a hotel and, rather amazingly under the circumstances, it beautifully kept with good well maintained rooms and for an impressively low price (we paid 4000 rupees though I think this was an exceptionally good deal, it's usually a bit more).
The palace has lots of incredible original features and we happily wandered through the corridors exploring its treasures. A highlight was the original lift installed in the 1920s which has been maintained in its original form. Other highlights were the delicious dinner of a Mysore thali in the grand ballroom (now the dining room) and a game of snooker in the bar. It was easy to visualise how the bar must have looked 90 years ago - full of smoke and smartly dressed Brits and Indians enjoying their post-dinner whisky and billiards.
The Lalitha Palace - with a striking resemblance to St Paul's Cathedral.
The grand entrance hall. By the time we left, the whole palace was heavily decorated for a wedding happening the next day. It appeared to be extremely lavish and we were told there would be 5000 guests. It was a local MP getting married...
The ballroom and now dining hall
The Mysore veg thali, definitely fit for royalty.
A very civilised (until it got a bit competitive) post-dinner game of snooker.
Just a corridor. Even the corridors were spectacular.
A horse and carriage was waiting outside the main entrance, possibly as part of the upcoming wedding celebrations.
Me in the lift. Most comfortable but with limited people capacity.
A pleasant surprise in Mysore was the zoo. We have been to several Indian zoos so far which are typically full of animals with very little space and little in the way of information or structure to the zoo experience itself. Mysore zoo was different. Covering a huge area, the animals had large, well designed enclosures and the whole zoo was generally in a great condition. We didn't really have enough time to enjoy it fully, but I would thoroughly recommend a trip to zoo for anyone with a day or two in Mysore.
The zoo had several tigers which, unsurprisingly, were the star attraction.
In the reptile enclosure...
Phil particularly liked this chimp.
The elephant were doing a thorough job at washing each other from these water tanks.
Rhino
Happy hippos
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