Mysore outing

Day 15

Mysore Outing

Let's explore Mysore city again after 17 years. The first destination on the list was Chamundeshwari temple located on the Chamundi Hills. Google says darshan opens at 7:30am. When we reached the multi level parking at 7:35am, the parking was full and there were long queues already. We took a special darshan ticket for ₹50 and entered the queue at 8:15am. It took us 3 hours to reach the main sanctum sanctorum. We did have a nice darshan , however the guards there don't allow the devotees to stop there for even a moment. After the darshan, we had sugarcane juice from the stalls outside the temple, put on our shoes and walked back to the parking. We were able to exit the parking by 12 noon. 

We then planned to have a tour of the Mysore Palace. We reached the palace's parking and got in the queue to purchase the entry tickets. You will need to remove your footwear before entering the actual palace premises. 

The architecture, paintings, idols, furniture etc everything had been maintained and preserved very well and worth a watch. The palace is open to visitors between 10am - 5:30pm. There is a light show and palace illumination that happens between 7pm & 8pm. 

Owing to certain restrictions, they had been cancelled for a few days. We then walked up to Guru Sweet Mart on Sayyaji Road. It's around 700m from the palace. This is the oldest sweet shop in the town and the inventors of Mysore Pak. The invention of Mysore Pak is a small interesting story that you can find on Google. Their mysore pak actually melts in the mouth. Next up was the lunch. We had zeroed in on a restaurant, however it wasn't serving south indian food when we reached there. So we decided to go back to Hotel Adithya Grand from the previous day and had another round of delicious food there. All their food preparation is good and service prompt. After a filling meal, we went back to Sayyaji road for some silk shopping. There are quite some shops around to shop for silk there. We hopped around a few of them but liked and bought our Mysore silk from "states silk emporium - Jidda bazaar". They had pretty designs, color combinations and competitive prices. After this trip, we went back to our hotel to relax for a while. We rested for a while and packed some of the stuff as next morning was an early check out. After this wasthe interesting part. We left from our hotel to go for dinner. 

We were going to Gufha restaurant in Hotel Pai Vista. This used to be our favorite during our training days and we would make weekly or fortnightly trips to this restaurant back then. As the name suggests, this is a theme restaurant and has the look and feel of a cave. 

We reached there by 8:20pm. There was a 20-mins waiting to get a table. We waited there, and finally a table was allocated to us. The place was still the same and the food amazingly delicious. It has a very different charm and interests people of all ages. It has a rustic feeling and was nostalgic for me to be back there in the same setup after almost 2 decades. The kids as well loved the place and the food. We all had a lovely time there.

The city has changed a lot over these years. Chamundi temple darshan used to be breeze back then which took more than 3 hours now. Cams were not allowed inside the Mysore palace which is now open and has no restrictions. Gufha restaurant always welcomed us with open arms back then, where we had to wait now. Even after all the increased crowd, the city is still nice and serene.