Srirangapatnam, Mysore, Mudumalai, Ooty, Wellington, Coonoor, Masinagudi

Yes, we covered six places in 3 days. One set of parents were in town so it was imperative that the trip be economically viable. Hence, staying in expensive hotels/resorts was out of the question. After a lot of research and planning, we set forth on our journey.

Time: 05:55 A.M. (27th December 2008)

Kilometer reading: 0.0 kms

Our first stop, as has now become our routine, was at Cafe Coffee Day on the Bangalore-Mysore highway, at Maddur. There are huge billboards to warn you in advance of the Cafe Coffee Day stop. The advantage is that it has a Pizza Corner on the ground floor. The CCD now has quite an impressive breakfast spread including omlette and toast!

Time IN: 07:42 A.M. (27th December 2008)

Kilometer reading: 91.6 kms

Time OUT: 08:42 A.M. (27th December 2008)

After spending a leisurely hour eating breakfast and drinking hot coffee, we set off for Srirangapatnam. Srirangapatnam is a little town just outside of Mysore, made famous by Tipu Sultan. He had a summer palace built there with the walls depicting paintings of his exploits against the British. Its clear that Tipu Sultan preferred Srirangapatnam over Mysore as both he and his father lie buried there. First stop in Srirangapatnam, just off the highway is Tipu Sultan’s summer palace, also known as Dariya Daulat Bagh.

Time IN: 09:20 A.M. (27th December 2008)

Kilometer reading: 140.2 kms

Time OUT: 09:55 A.M. (27th December 2008)

Dariya Daulta Bagh is a nice small summer palace, now maintained as a Museum. There isn't much to see there, except for the paintings on the walls and the artifacts in the Museum. Interestingly, there is a painting of Tipu Sultan a la Mona Lisa, such that the eyes seem to follow you wherever you go!

Next stop, further into Srirangapatnam was Gumbaz, the final resting places of Tipu Sultan, his father and his mother. The architecture there is quite impressive and the main structure is maintained very well. One thing to mention here is that the road signs in Srirangapatnam are very good. Clear indications of where to go.

Time IN: 10:00 A.M. (27th December 2008)

Kilometer reading: 142.6 kms

Time OUT: 10:10 A.M. (27th December 2008)

After a short stop at the Gumbaz, we were ready to head on to Mysore and see the main Palace there. There are four palaces in Mysore, i.e., The Ambavilas Palace (also known as Mysore Palace), the Jaganmohana Palace, the Jayalakshmi Vilas and the Lalitha Mahal. Since we did not have a lot of time, we decided on visiting the main Palace. What a good decision that turned out to be. The palace is huge and we ended up spending an hour and a half going through the entire palace, admiring the artifacts. Unfortunately, the Romeos and Juliets of today have not spared this palace even, as one room had walls adorned with "Sri loves Lata", "Naresh was here", etc. Disgusting.

Time IN: 10:45 A.M. (27th December 2008)

Kilometer reading: 162.8 kms

Time OUT: 12:10 P.M. (27th December 2008)

The Palace grounds also house a couple of temples which can be visited. Photography is not allowed in the Palace and hence we can only take photos of the exteriors. Shockingly, elephant rides and camels rides are provided in the Palace grounds for a nominal fee.

After a fantastic lunch (at 3:00pm), we left Mysore and headed towards Ooty. There was no other planned stop on the way and we expected it to be a three hour journey from Mysore. Once we reached the Madumalai Sanctuary office, there was a road leading to the left and one road going on straight. From here, people going to Ooty can either take the left (it's a shortcut and takes about 3 hours with 36 hair-raising hairpin bends) or go on straight (longer by about 30 kms and 1.5 hours). Since it was nearing dusk, we decided to go straight on the broader and safer road.

We stopped at Gudalur on the way for a quick cuppa tea before proceeding to Ooty. Unfortunately, we were informed at Gudalur that the drive to Ooty would take another 2 hours!

Time IN: 17:50 P.M. (27th December 2008)

Kilometer reading: 280.7 kms

Time OUT: 18:05 P.M. (27th December 2008)

Night driving on this highway was not difficult at all, as the road was broader than normal hilly roads, and the traffic was also sparse. We reached Ooty quite late and quickly checked into our place of stay. It was very chilly in Ooty and with the windy conditions, we were glad that we had brought our jackets along!

Time IN: 19:50 P.M. (27th December 2008)

Kilometer reading: 334.6 kms

The next morning we planned on going to Wellington and Coonoor. We drove from Ooty and easily found our way to the highway that would lead to Coonoor. In reality, there is a cut from this highway that takes one to Wellington. However, we somehow missed it, and luckily found a route that lead straight into Wellington station!

From there, we went past Madras Regimental Center and onto Gorkha Hill (these things, one can identify with, if one has ever stayed there).

After a few nostalgic hours in Wellington we went sight-seeing in Coonoor.

After a varied lunch buffet at the Taj Garden Retreat, we were back on the road, ready for some more sight-seeing.

First on our list was Sim's park, which is a huge botanical park with all sorts of trees. Finding it is not easy, as the entrance is hidden on the fork of a road.

We saw some really interesting and very old trees in Sim's park. From there, we found our way to Lamb's Rock and Dolphin's Nose.

Beware1: The road is quite thin and not easy to drive on. At one point, while returning, we were stuck as a bus was on the road, heading in the opposite direction. There was not enough place on the road for both vehicles to pass. So, we had to back our car and somehow make way for the bus to pass.

Beware2: There are a number of tea stalls which have sprung up on this road. These are points from where one can see the look-out points!

Proceeding on, we reached Lamb's Rock and Dolphin's Nose, from where the view is simply breath-taking. As such, do not except to actually see a Lamb or a Dolphin's nose. Just enjoy the view and return before dusk.

If the weather is good and the timing of the visit is good (like ours was), you get to see a picturesque panoramic view of the Nilgiris at sunset.

Since it was getting close to dark, we decided to head back to Ooty in time for dinner. We wound our way back from Coonoor to Ooty and settled down in our guest house for dinner.

24.23 liters of petrol were filled at an IOC petrol pump @ 50.41 INR per liter. 422.2 kms, giving a mileage of 17.42.

The night temperature in Ooty was really low. It gets really really cold there at this time of the year. The day temperature, however, can feel quite high as we face the direct heat of the sun.

The next day, we were to explore the sights of Ooty. Two very good products of Ooty are:

1. Tea - Ooty produces some very interesting flavours of tea. There's Masala tea, Chocolate tea, Cardamom tea, Lemon tea, etc.

2. Chocolates - Ooty produces some fantastic home-made Ooty chocolates. Every shop in Ooty can be seen selling "Home made Ooty Chocolates".

As part of our plan for exploring Ooty, we set out in search of the Botanical Gardens. We both have memories of a Botanical Garden with vast open spaces and a lot of greenery and few tourists.

However, there were a lot of people there (this being the tourist season) and to top it all, the trees were not "in season". However, we trekked all the way up to the Toda Village (a small settlement of the Toda tribe, protected as part of the Botanical Garden). The walk through the botanical garden was quite heavy on us, and we were now ready for lunch!

After asking around, we found a decent lunch spot, where all the tourist buses stop. On the previous day, while returning from Coonoor, we spotted a small wax museum in Ooty. This seemed like the perfect after lunch thing to do. The wax museum was not hard to find, as it lies on the Ooty-Coonoor highway. It is a small wax museum with very realistic wax statues. This museum has mostly Indian personalities.

After a nice stroll through the wax museum, we headed to the famous Ooty lake. Once again, we were taken-aback with the sight. We remember (and have photos from childhood) an Ooty lake, bereft of tourists, green grass embankments. Everything has changed. There are now amusement park rides on the lake, and there is no greenery to speak of. We took a ride on a row boat and even when we were on the farthest edge of the lake, we could hear the shouts of kids on the amusement park rides. It was not the peace and tranquility that we had imagined. It was loud and painful.

One good thing about the lake trip was that we noticed that there is a small deer park right next to the lake! Having seen that from the row boat, we asked for directions to Doddabetta from our rower and set off for our next destination.

We had been warned that the entry to Doddabetta closes at 5:30pm, so we hurried as we had only half an hour. The drive up is currently not good because part of the road has been dug up, so really there is place for only 1.5 vehicles to pass on the road. Extremely difficult navigation. Having reached the gates of Doddabetta, we were informed by the guards there that the closing time is actually 5pm! So we turned right around, and headed back where we came from.

On the way back, we saw the board for a "Tea Museum". Unfortunately, that too was closed for the day. So we stopped at a tea stall to try some different varieties of tea. Interesting...

That was the end of day 2 in Ooty. The next day, we set out from Ooty at 7:20 A.M. and decided to take the shorter route down. This route has 36 hairpin bends and is quite steep and thin. We were very glad that we were taking this route down, and did not consider coming up on this route. The drive is extremely picturesque though, and since it was early in the morning, the on-coming traffic was nearly absent.

We stopped for a short time at a place called "Bison point". Maybe its named such that one can look down into the jungle and spot Bison. The view was majestic.

Once the 36 hairpin bends were navigated, we entered the plains, i.e., the Madumulai Wildlife Sanctuary. We stopped at a small Tamil Nadu Guest House (run by the government) for breakfast. From this vantage point, depending on the time of day, one can either see the elephants of the sanctuary being bathed or see the elephants of the sanctuary being fed. We managed to catch a sight of a few elephants being fed.

After a nice stop, we were once again on our way towards Mysore. Our next stop, for lunch was at another Cafe Coffee Day in Mandya district. This Cafe Coffee Day is part of a petrol pump sponsored by HolidayIQ.

The drive from here to Bangalore was smooth. We were back home by 3:30pm. Not bad for a days work! Kms covered in the return journey: 273.1

After a few days, 25.19 liters of petrol were filled at an Bharat petrol pump @ 51.71 INR per liter. 463.4 kms, giving a mileage of 18.39.