Day 2 – Part 2 :
After our late breakfast and baths, we started for Mysore on the nicest of the roads, the NICE road!
We had already informed our trip driver, who was probably in late 50s that we are vegetarians and he sounded disappointed. (No fancy meals for him on our tour!) Mr. UC, the driver was as slow in his driving, as was he in his talking, probably because he was talking in our language, Telugu and not in his mother tongue Kannada.
We had booked an innova for our 11 day vacation, but we couldn’t utilise the last row, as it was flattened out to carry our luggage, which was huge, thanks to our 11 day itinerary! (added to it was the suitcase of our driver)
KBee wanted to sit in the last seat and stare at all the vehicles following us on the highway, but since the suitcases were stored there, he went ahead and sat on the suitcases and had the time of his life.
My little munchkins hate travelling in the car, I have no idea why. I used to enjoy our car trips when I was a child, we made every journey seem like a picnic experience. Touchwood!
Anyway, they were already complaining half an hour into the trip that they are bored. I told them to buckle up or shut up! (I am sick of them asking for screen time always) That made them start playing some game about finding alphabets on the road, nameplates, signs etc.
By the time we reached Chennapatnam, both had played more than 3 games and ended up sleeping! Peace, period!
As per our original suggestion, UC took us to the Kamat hotel at Chennapatnam, a pure veg eatery.
We sat at a table and KBee was not one bit happy about the eatery. He saw cows in the shed and smelled cow dung in the air and he hated it instantly. He asked why we had brought him to a smelly place!
Food supplies hanging from the ceiling – Old World Style
We ordered green pea pulav, Mangalore buns for kids and two North Karnataka thali for me and Mr.Bee. I had a hearty meal and was completely satisfied with the food. I had extra servings of majjige (buttermilk) and we exited the restaurant. (The kids had neither the pulao nor the buns, but ended up eating the soft jowar rotis from our thaali.)
North Karnataka Thaali – the healthy option
There was a shop in the campus and I bought myself a small terracotta Ganesha and a jute sling bag. My sweet muffins, the kids, reprimanded me that they are sick of my shopping! Shocking!
Who can resist buying such Cutie Pie? My 3cm tall Ganesha.
After our hearty meal, we started onwards, towards Srirangapatnam.
The temple is old and probably made of sandstone. It has been standing strong, all this while. I felt at peace and didn’t mind standing and staring in every direction. It was a regular beauty! If you are interested, you can even ride a horse near the temple.
After our temple visit was done, UC, suggested we go to the Nimishambika Temple as well, which is nearby.
We did go there, but since it was 3 p.m. , the temple was closed and would only be open for darshan at 6 p.m. according to one very old lady, who gave me this information in shuddh Kannada! I nodded my head and said ‘thank you’ and she went her way.
UC asked Mr.Bee for the next course of action and Mr.Bee told him our next destination is Payana, the car museum.
We saw many number of cars and some of them reminded me of black and white Telugu movies where the rich heroine would drive one such fancy car and the poor hero would get a lift to college or vice versa!
Inspite of seeing many beauties, the one I loved seeing was the good old Ambassador car and a scooter, similar to my dad’s first 2 wheeler, our Lambi, short for, Lambretta!
Our Lambi was silver and blue in colour and not white. This pic is from open source!
From the museum, we started for our hotel at Mysore. We reached Mysore at 6 p.m. and checked into the Parklane hotel, which had an old world charm to it. As I waited in the reception, for the hotel boy to pick our luggage, I wondered about the colonial past and the days of the Princely rule of Mysore! Deep thoughts indeed!
We retired for the night and asked UC to rest.
Mr.Bee ordered pizza for our dinner.
We ate and slept, having spent the day productively at my love, Mysore!
P.S :
1. The priests at Srirangapatnam are multi-lingual and once they saw that we were Telugu speakers, they guided us in Telugu.
2. I was happy more with the Ambassador car than with the Rolls Royce and BMW at Payana.
Incidentally, the first car I ever rode was an Ambassador. When I was couple of days old my maternal grandpa had brought me home from the hospital in an Ambassador car. That must be one of the reasons for my love.
3. Pizza was surprisingly good. The hotel had advised us to order food through swiggy and we had no problem with that.