Recently I went on a trip with my office friends.
The dates are around 31st December 2019 so we thought we will spend each day in different types of places like a historical place or hill station or beach or something else. At the same time, we want to go to an unexplored place or less crowded. So, We selected some popular places (Mysuru, Coorg) and a not well-known place (Valiyaparamba). Same thing we did with our stay too.
We started at Hyderabad on 27th December at 6:00pm in my car. The next day we reached Mysuru by afternoon.
Day 1 – Mysuru
We planned to cover mainly 3 places here
1. Mysuru Palace
2. Brindavan garden
3. Sri Chamundeshwari Devi Temple
We don’t have a full day so we decided we will cover Mysuru Palace and Brindavan garden. First went to Mysuru Palace.
Mysuru Palace
Palace is good but not great. We liked some parts in the Palace(Gallery area, Wood ceiling work). There are some reasons why I didn’t like it that much.
1. Crowded
2. Shoes are not allowed that’s fine but keeping them at the designated place is a huge nightmare.
3. So many rooms are closed due to that we covered the whole palace in a few minutes.
Then we headed to Brindavan garden.
Brindavan garden
We felt the same with Brindavan Garden too. It’s good but not great. Like the Palace, it’s also crowded. I will say the best time to visit in the evening. If you saw Akshardham light and sound show then you won’t like it here.
We are exhausted so we went to the hotel which we booked which was not good so not worth mentioning.
Day 2 – Mysuru to Madikeri(Coorg)
After Day 1 we all got doubts about our hotel selections. We thought we took the wrong choices in the name of trying something new. So we thought of checking our rooms first once we reach Coorg.
We didn’t cover Sri Chamundeshwari Devi Temple so we went there first and from there we started for Coorg.
Sri Chamundeshwari Devi Temple
Temple is very good. I think I should say temples. Multiple temples are there which are old and nice. Journey to Chamundi hills also great. Nice roads and beautiful views.
A small tip for you if you see a lot of crowd without any doubt take Rs. 100 darshan ticket. It will save at least 1 hour of your time. Why because it’s line starts from almost the main entrance of the temple. Free, Rs. 30 darshan ticket, and Rs. 100 darshan ticket queues are mixing at Garbha guḍi. So, take care of your kids at the time of darshan near Garbha guḍi.
When you are coming back from Chamundi hills there is a nice viewpoint on the left side from there you can see the whole Mysuru.
From here our super exciting journey started I should say. We started seeing amazing Valley views and roads. Namdroling Monastery Golden Temple will come before reaching Madikeri.
Namdroling Monastery Golden Temple
I will say you should visit. It’s one of the beautiful Monastery I have ever seen.
Three huge statues of Padmasambhava, Buddha, and Amitayus are amazing. When you sit there and watch those statues you will feel calm from inside.
Paintings and work on walls and pillars and everything is amazing. If we observe closely each and everywhere you will see amazing work and beauty.
3 temples are there. Luckily we reached prayer time so we were able to see the rest of the temples too.
Later we decided to go to the place where we booked to stay. Those are tents. We are a bit nervous because our Mysuru stay is not good.
The first day stay at Madikeri(Coorg)
We thought we will try something new at the time of room bookings so we booked a tent stay which we doubted a lot but it turned out to be great.
When we searched for directions it is taking to a point from there is no proper road so we were panicked and called the owner. He came and showed us directions we started following in my car from there everything turned interesting. The road is not great but view and experience are amazing.
We parked our vehicle in Coffee estate. From there we walked a bit to go to the place where we are going to stay.
Once we reached there again our minds blown by the amazing view. We are between hills, next to us a small water canal and there are rocks in such a way that it feels like a mini waterfall because of that water is making an amazing sound and looks like birds joined to make it even more amazing. I will say before seeing the place you should here the sound/music created by nature.
Watch the surroundings where we stayed.
The water canal is amazing.
We spent the whole afternoon at that small waterfall. We did our lunch there and played as long as we got tired.
Tried Coorg authentic food(Akki Otti, Neer Dosa, Nool Puttu, Nye Kool, Pork fry). We liked Nool Puttu(Plain Rice Noodles) and Koli Curry(Chicken Curry).
Once we are back in our tents we had Bonfire.
Don’t know when we slept but we all promised ourselves that we will wake up a bit early and watch the sunrise. We woke up at 6:30am and saw this
Then I got to know that here sunrise happens at 8:00am. Amazing right fell in love with the place. If we were raised here our parents wouldn’t have scolded by saying “The sun is out but you idiot still on the bed”.
We roamed around the coffee estate
Saw beautiful sunrise
Took loads of photos.
Ate some raw pepper and coffee beans.
Said bye to the place and host. Started from there to cover Coorg. After that, we went to Valiyaparamba(Kerala) to spend our 31st night which is a totally different experience, unlike usual 31st night where we enjoy loud music, dim lights, and crowd noise. Will cover rest in another post.
Peace. Happy Coding.