Mysore-Srirangapatna-Somnathpura trip from Bangalore

A long waited trip

...it was. After we moved to Bangalore, this is the first decent duration bike trip. After a long turbulence in professional life, and not-so-willing movement to Bangalore from Hyderabad, this trip is something which kind of proof to our-self that we are back on track.

Being in Bangalore, Mysore is one of the most preferred destination for travelers, so was for us too. Didn't expected much from this trip but it came around just opposite. It started with a long dilemma of whether to go or not on that weekend & a quick last minute planning, and it ended with a 'might have been fatal' bike accident, but what was in-between was greatly enjoyed.

The road we took is the most common one, through Bangalore - Mysore highway, connected through ring road. Google map says, it is NH 275. The road goes through Wonder-la, silk city Ramanagara, city of toys Channapatna and sugar city Mandya and then comes the heritage city Srirangapatna.

As we had plan to travel by bike and wanted to visit three places, we planned for a 3 day trip. We started Friday 3rd July 8 am from Whitefield and reached Srirangapatna by 12:30 pm, with a breakfast break and few short 5 min breaks.

Srirangapatna

This place is famous for being Tipu Sultan's capital and battle ground of his last battle with East India Company and Nizam army. We planned to visit Daria Daulat Bagh (the summer palace), Gumbaz (mausoleum of Tipu Sultan), Tipu's fort, Tipu’s death place and Ranganathaswamy Temple. A map was actually not needed as Karnataka tourism has put the clear signboards from the highway itself to these main locations. The best part is, even though is looks like a very small town, the roads are good and people are very much interested to help you to find the place you are looking for.

Daria Daulat Bagh

a.k.a Tipu Sultan's summer palace. This place is much much better than the summer palace in Bangalore (in case you happened to be there). The palace is certainly smaller than what can be called as palace, but all the walls of the two storied small bungalow size palace was painted with pictures of battlefields won by Tipu Sultan and Haider Ali. The wall paintings also shows different cultural rituals of that times. To save the wall paintings from the flash light, camera is not allowed inside.

Gumbaz 

a.k.a mausoleum of Tipu Sultan. Visually, this might be the best structure of Srirangapatna. It also has a mosque attached to it. Mostly the same as any other famous tombs but still worth visiting.

Tipu’s death place

This is the spot where his body was found and is marked as a memorial. Though nothing to see there but it worth a visit. We spend at few minutes there, just to recall his bravery.

We also visited Ranganathaswamy temple, though it was closed. Also visited another place where Tupu's prisoners was tortured. Overall the ambiance of Srirangapatna was nice and enjoyable. We spend overall 3-4 hr there and then started for Mysore.

Mysore - Somnathpura

After lunch in roadside dhaba we reached our hotel Sujatha Residency by 4:30pm. It is a nice small yet neat & clean hotel. The room charges was also low compared to the service and appearance. We took a room with a window from which we can see our bike parked. This hotel is at a peaceful location, little outside of the city crowd.

As we didn't have as such plan for the evening, after getting fresh and half-an-hour of rest, we started to roam around the city. After driving in Bangalore traffic and road condition, you might feel good in any road, but Mysore roads were really spacious and smooth. And the city was amazingly clean too. The Mysore palace was closed by the time we reached there, but the sight of it from the front gate on the lights of setting sun was great.

The look of the palace itself was good enough to make us feel good but something greater was waiting for us on the day, and that was the St. Philomena's Church. Though it was already dark, but even then the heavenly architecture of the church mesmerized us. If actually someone can take a proper picture and remove the background, it will be tough for most to say whether the church is located somewhere in Rome. The signboard says the architecture is of Gothic style but whatever the style it is, it is a great example of that. When we reached there carol was going on and travelers were not as such expected inside, so we limited our-self to outside.

After a long tiring journey, the day ends for us with a good dinner at the restaurant named '1961' downstairs of the hotel.

Keshava Temple, Somnathpura

The first destination for the next day was Keshava temple, Somnathpura. It is located ~35 km from Mysore and took ~45 min to reach there. The road to Somnathpura is a mix of good and bad roads. So, if you are going on this road, restrict yourself from speeding as the bad roads are well distributed withing the good roads.

We planned for selected places in our trip depending on the reviews and pic we went through. We gave less importance to places like Brindavan garden and zoo compared to Somnathpura temple.And that was a pretty wise decision. No doubt this is the best place to visit around Mysore. It is medium size ~800 yrs old temple with no single place left-out without a sculpture or decoration. The sculptures were places on different layers on the temple and one can spend hours and days watching those. The inside of the temple was also greatly decorated. Not all the tourist to Mysore visits this place, but this is a must must visit. We were able to spend only half of the day there and returned back to Mysore.

Chamundi Hills

Nothing as such is there for a traveler unless you want to stand in the long queue for puja. This temple is same as any running South Indian temple. Though the view of Mysore city from some parts of the hilly road is really good. On the way back there is a huge Nandi statue is there. Make a note, most part of the road is one way, so if you see a good place to stand and watch the city from top, have a look because you are not going to come back through the same road.

On the way back we visited the sand museum. It is okay to visit once. The sculptures are no doubt good, but even if you don't visit, you are not going to miss anything as such. by the time we are back from the hills, we were badly hungry but the dhaba near to the museum was overly crowded and had nothing as such. We decided to take something on the way back to the city but unfortunately no good hotel were there too. At the end we end up in a South Indian restaurant beside the zoo entrance and had minimal food.

Mysore Palace

Our next stop after lunch was Mysore palace. The most crowded place in Mysore, on top of that it was a weekend. The crowd was not less than any Durga Puja mandap. The biter experience starts from, you have to remove your shoes, and then you have to give it to a counter where people are kind of fighting to submit the shoes. In big letters it is written not to tip, but if you don't, the lady at the counter is misbehaving, what a mess. Anyways, after few minutes of fighting, we were able to submit our shoes and start for the palace inside trip. Once you are in the queue, you hardly have to make any effort to move, the crowd behind will do that for you. The palace was really great from inside. the well decorated darbar a the gallery was the best. The feeling that this Wadiyar dynasty had pact with the East Indian Comp was something not letting me feel so great. Anyways, once we are done with our tour in the first part of the palace, we again had few minutes of fight to take the shoes back. Then comes the second part of the palace, the residential area. As you are a tourist and might not come to the same place again, you want to see it all, and that's what made us remove our shoes again (this time crowd was less) and take a ticket again. There was nothing in the residential area, but what to do, we were already in. We spend some time in front of the main palace after that. As we were staring back on Sunday morning, we missed the lighting at the palace which happens only on the Sunday evening. Btw, camera is not allowed inside, so no snap was taken.

St. Philomena's Church

Our next stop was St. Philomena's Church. We wanted to visit again as last night it was already dark when we reached there. The light of the setting sun made it look even better. 

After spending some hour or so, we planned to start for the hotel but sight of street side kebab shop stopped us. Complete day of half starving and testy kebabs (as ramzan was going on) made us delight at the end of the day.

Venugopala Swamy Temple

On the third and last day of our trip, Venugopala Swamy Temple was our destination. This place is ~10km inside from Brindavan garden on the same road. We stopped for few minutes at KRS dam on Kaveri river. After the river, the roads are narrow and going through villages to the place. This temple is still under construction, but due to the ambiance it felt great. The place is surrounded by lake created by the dam on Kaveri river.

After spending an hour, we stared for Bangalore. On the way we stopped at toy shops at Channapatna. As obvious, the return journey is always less exiting and more tiring. We took multiple small breaks in between. On the way back we closely saved us from an accident, though it was nothing to do with me, the guy in front rapidly slowed down when other car closely crossed it.  Not sure if the day was of that kind or I was already tired of hundreds of km bike ridding or the loaded side box on one side of the bike was making it less stable, at last we made an accident when we were just 4-5km away from home. The accident could have been fatal but as both of us were wearing ful helmet and shoes nothing as such happened to us, though my wife's head hit the bus in front and mine hit the road. This was not the same for my bike though. The front light and speedometer was broken and the handle was twisted. Anyways, as it was few miles away, we completed our 515km journey riding a twisted handle bike as slow as possible with my bleeding hands. Though the end was not as planned, we will certainly not stop our bike tours.

Hyderabad to Warangal on bike

On 11^th January, 2014, at 7:15 am we started from Kondapur, Hyderabad towards Warangal. The distance is of nearly 175 km and planned to reach in three and a half hours. Two riders, one back pack and the bike started the journey. This is our first long distance journey on bike together and we are not going in group, so was little bit worried and highly excited.

We took the road suggested by Google map, from Kondapur to Uppal through city roads and then took the Hyderabad – Warangal highway. Initial few kms from Uppal are so crowded that we thought we are not in a highway and took a wrong road (and as you know, mobile GPS doesn’t work when you need it most), but latter part of the road is better and going forward it was great. A big section of the road is a tolled road (free for us though as we are on bike), and the bike reached more than 100km/hr there. Just a note to those who says Avenger becomes unstable after 100km/hr, it’s not, it’s smooth and bold as always. My wife was not encouraging this speed, but was not discouraging too. We both were helmets while riding, though they don’t really work at 100km/hr.

We took few snaps in some stops and had breakfast at one of the locality on the way. It was nearly 85 km more to reach the Warangal town after we crossed the ‘Welcome to Warangal district’ arch. This town is a union of Kazipet, Hanamkonda and Warangal towns. Our first destination was hotel Ashoka. We reached their nearly at 11:45am. It’s a nice hotel with decent reception, parking lot and a big size room. Nothing much great to mention about the hotel, and nothing as such bad too. We got fresh and took food in the hotel restaurant downstairs. Though the restaurant is little costly than look like but the food was good (actually I liked it but my wife didn’t). And now our sightseeing starts.

I generally do some homework before visiting a place, and this time was not an exception too. I had my list of places to visit ranked by the importance and vicinity. This time I send so much time in map of Warangal sightseeing that I hardly used rout finder while travelling. But you know what, Google sometime shows you roads from the backside of a building, and that what it did in case of Thousand pillar temple. We took a narrow ‘gali’ from its back side and reached the temple though its main gate was just on the main road. Though neither of us is a believer, but we like visiting temples, mostly the old once.

This temple was made during Kakatiya dynasty nearly 900yrs ago. It is a running temple and little bit crowded. A ‘kirtan’ was going on there and looked like some VIP was visiting too. 

The temple is completely made of stone. The pillars and beams are made of stones and joint by ‘T’-joints. The sculptures inside and outside the temple is great. This actually doesn’t have thousand pillars. The walls are curved like multiple pillars. The big circular pillars inside the temple are made of dark green marbles (so dark that it looks black if not in sunlight). One part of the temple was under renovation. We spend more than one hour there before we start searching for Siddeshwara Temple and Padmakshi temple.

Google map was wrong this time too, though we reached the places asking local people. Siddeshwara temple is an isolated small and newly made temple. We didn’t feel to go inside and start searching for Padmakshi temple. This one was placed on top of a hilly area. Again, this one too wasn’t much great but couldn’t resist myself from trying to climb the hilly road (may be 50m max) by my bike. We haven’t entered the temple though.

Our next destination was Warangal fort. To reach this place we had to cross complete Warangal town and lost the road one more times by Google. I should really say, Google map is never this much bad, but either due to the slow network or the improper GPS, in this tour it was really misleading us multiple times. 

Anyways, coming back to the fort topic, it is not really a fort. Though it has a high fort boundary for that area, but most inside area is residential. There are two main locations to see in this fort area. 

One was a garden with scattered leftovers of fort from that time and most importantly, four entry gates. Though it might not be a fort but the sculptures on the left over was real good. The entry gates are the most important monuments of this place and you can see same looking gates in any important building in Warangal. The other was a big hall room called some mahal, really nothing to see though.

Our next destination was Kakatiya Musical Garden Kakatiya Rock Garden. We were not able to find the Rock garden but found the musical one. Why musical? Because it has a musical fountain. Other than that, there was nothing much musical and I was real disappointed because of the expectation I had by the ‘musical’ word.

The day ends with 200+ km bike ride in a day and a great dinner with kebabs from a roadside shop. This was our highest ride in a day up to that point and no doubt it was tiring but (in a strange way) with no back pain which I was kind of expecting as most part of the day we were on bike.

Next day started with a fresh morning but with a failed sunrise seeing try. I generally try to find a sunrise point in every place I travel, but here was none (as far I got). After getting ready and taking a road side breakfast we started for our last destination, Bhadrakali temple. This one too is a running temple and moderately crowded. It hardly had any historical significance but was a nice place (mostly the lake side part) to spend some time.

At nearly 10:30am we started back towards Hyderabad. Took hardly one or two breaks and reached nearly by 1:30pm. It was 377kms in two day for us. We were tired, but more than that was excited to search for new place to go by bike.

Hyderabad to Bidar on bike

On 8th Feb, 2014, we started from Kondapur, Hyderabad at 9 am on our bike towards Bidar, Karnataka. The distance is nearly 120km and targeted to arrive within two and a half hour. The rout is pretty straight forward. Take the Hyderabad – Mumbai highway, go nearly 100 km and take right just after Zaheerabad, go nearly 20 km more and you are at Bidar. Most part of the road is good and some part is okay. We haven’t faced any bad road though. The landscape is good in few parts of the road. We liked the scenery on the road between Zaheerabad and Bidar most. It was a combination of pitch black road, red dry soil and a feet tall white grasses. No as such difficulty to reach the place, we didn't even take a break other than a photo shooting one. We reached nearly at 11:45 am.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Bidar is not a tourist place. So if you are habituated with a tourist friendly environment, don’t expect that here. The most named hotels also don’t have a guarded parking lot. We first arrived at Hotel Mayura (just opp. to bus stand). The guy in the reception was disturbed when we asked whether they have a parking place in which the bike will be safe at night. He replied, 'aisa to koi nehi puchhta, sab samne eisehi rakh dete hai' ('no one asks this, everyone just parks in front of the hotel') and the open parking in front of the hotel was saying 'Parking at your risk' in big red letters. So, with no other way, we left for searching another hotel. The next known name to me was Hotel Sapna International, which was nearby (by Google map) but not visually prominent as it is in a busy building filled with different type of shops. This hotel too doesn't have a parking but we were given a parking at the opposite hotel's parking lot. The reception was decent and the rooms looked clean and okay.

As i said, Bidar is not a tourist place, though the food was real tasty, don't expect decency in restaurants and hygiene is not a word in their dictionary. Even local people were giving a strange look at us. Anyways, we had our lunch and started for our tour.

The first destination was Bidar Fort. We didn't expect much from it but even in the first look it gave a good feel. The high long wall of the fort, a wide trench away from the road, is prominent with its royal and stubborn structure. The entrance is the best part of it. Narrow road goes inside the fort within the high walls and huge gates. From a concept of fort, this is nothing new, but is certainly the one we liked most. Some song sequence shooting of local movie or something was going on a section on the entrance, but it didn't block the road. The maintained portion of the fort contains Solah Khamba Mosque and a museum, containing some locks and guns from that time, nothing much interesting though. There are other parts of the fort which is not as such maintained but open to roam around, was having a huge area guarded by fort walls, Rangin Mahal and few other places (not as such named). Rangin Mahal is no more ‘rangin’ (colored) and just the left over part of it. We roamed around here and there for some time and took some photos. In a sunny day this fort can certainly give some good pics. Map says Bahmani Tombs is there in that compound but we were not able to find it out. Though nothing specific to see, but still the old historic feel was there and we liked it.

Our next destination was Khwaja Mahmud Gawan Madrasa. Somehow Google wasn't able to find it out on the map, so we took help from passerby and reached this place. It was a residential madrasa made more than 500yrs ago. Again, nothing much left but we liked the front view as few of the works on the walls with blue things (don’t know what are those) still left.

Rest of the places we visited were Chaubara, which is a clock on a brick made tower and Gurudwara Nanak Jhira Sahib, which is a gurudwara little far from the town. There is another place we visited which i would suggest anyone not to go (even if someone is ready to pay some bucks for it) and this place was Narasimha Zarna - Cave Temple. This is a cave temple where you can go through a cave with muddy (and don’t know what else) water up to your chest and do a ‘darsan’. We certainly didn't do it but even the outside on the temple itself was so disgusting with open dress changing place for men and women that we left the place within minutes from arrival. We visited some Bidriware (a famous Indian metal handicraft originated from Bidar) shops too to purchase some mementos.

So, we thought we are done with our tour and ready to head back for Hyderabad next morning, but an interesting (rather irritating) story was still waiting for us and that was, the bugs in the hotel room. The hotel room was actually full of small cockroaches and bugs in the bed which we discovered in the middle of the night after the bugs started their dinner with us. When we reported it to the hotel reception, it looked like this didn't surprise them. Fortunately there were other room available and more fortunately what was not having bugs, so we changed the room.

With the experience of last night, we planned to leave the hotel as soon as possible in the morning, so left the hotel and started for Hyderabad at nearly 10 am. As it takes less time while coming back than while going, we reached Hyderabad nearly at 12:30 pm.

Again, though there was nothing much to see and had some bad experience, we over all enjoyed the trip. After all, we 2 were on 2 – wheeler.

Warming up the engine

Why this blog?

I started this blog to share (rather capture) the travel experience we, me and my wife had and going to have while travelling on our bike.

This is my first blog so, plz don't expect a expert version... ;)

Short details of 'we'

Both of us love travelling, mostly when its on our Black Beast. Harley Davidson is a dream for Indian middle class, so keeping that dream as dream, we purchased Avenger 220. Don't know how God feels riding His bike (as said by its tag line 'feel like god'), but i feel great riding my own. Every weekend we try to go around somewhere (in Hyderabad). Some times we go little bit far too.