Madikeri / Mercara near Mysore

Zaphod.Beeblebrox

We are a couple who had a great time visiting Madikeri, and seeing a bit of mysore that we liked and a bit of bangalore that we didn’t.

We went from Hyderabad – Mysore – Madikeri – Bangalore – Hyderabad and our journey started on a late Thursday when we took Train Number 2976 from Secunderabad to Mysore from platform number 10. (Don’t remember the train name but had the number written down in the itinerary).

We reached Mysore at around 4 in the afternoon next day which is not a very good time to reach because the Mysore palace closes by around 5 or so and therefore couldn’t get to see the palace at all. Instead we went to a Mysore sari emporium where we bought saris and blouses made of mysore silk which were quite awesome. Equally spectacular were the paintings and carvings which were on display on the first floor. She liked one but since it cost Rs.95000, I got her a blouse instead which was also equally pretty but about 94500 rupees cheaper.

We were guided through Mysore by a Rick driver who took us from the railway station to the hotel and then materialized again in an hour to take us around the city. We saw the palace from outside, went to a church called St.Philomena’s and this Mysore sari emporium.

We stayed overnight in Mysore in a hotel called Ginger which was quite superb and had a great sundae in the CCD after dinner in the hotel itself which made the stay even more memorable. Mysore appeared to be a very clean and pretty city with a lot of gardens and honest rick drivers.

Next morning we were slated to catch a bus from Mysore to Madikeri or Mercara as it is called now from the KSRTC bus stand. We had already booked tickets from Mysore to Mercara online but this was wasted. The reason for this was that the man at the counter told us that there was no bus of the same type at the time that we had booked. The buses don’t have numbers like trains but are identified by type and time. So for example you could book a Rajhamsa for 3 pm but there is no single thing to identify the bus. This was not a great impediment however because buses from Mysore run every half an hour and there was no need to book a bus online from Mysore to Mercara even in the holiday season. (We were going the next day as diwali which also happened to be a Saturday)

The road is mostly bad as it approaches Madikeri and its quite bumpy but on the bright side as you get nearer you can feel the fresh air instantly and it quite lifts you up. We reached around lunch time and had lunch in Coorg International; the food was not too great but nothing to complain about also. After having lunch we took a rick and went to Abbey falls, this was the first unpleasant incident with a rick driver in a place where I thought the rick drivers were quite pleasant overall. In any case from Coorg Intl. to Abbey falls and back to the bus stand cost us 150 bucks which included a wait time of roughly half an hour so you shouldn’t pay anything more than that. The falls were pretty nice and made a pretty picture and we quite enjoyed it. Though they were crowded a bit with people swarming from all over the place.

One amusing thing about this place is that it has a board warning people not to go right into the falls, and people have quite conveniently bend the railing right next to it and made a route to go right down to where the water falls. We didn’t try this out because of the warning but if you want to, then make sure you locate that bend on the railing else you’d be like the aunty in sari who tried to leap the railing from a place where it had no bend and almost gave evidence to everyone why the board was there in the first place. There’s a hanging bridge here too which is also a good spot to view the falls from and there are no warning signs there.

We went back in about half an hour mostly because of the crowds although the falls in themselves are pretty, quite pretty. After reaching the bus stand we spent another 20 bucks and reached Raja’s Seat.

Raja’s Seat is a place which has got a terrific view, in fact this was our favorite place and we went to Raja’s seat for all the three days that we were in Madikeri and at all different times. Though this is called the sunset point the sun sets from the extreme right of this point and people who are expecting sunsets like the ones in painting will do well not to think about the sunset but enjoy the scenery. There is a fountain here which plays music and lights up for about an hour or so from 6 – 7 or around that time, which is quite interesting but towards the end of it I thought it was detracting away from the wonderful view of the place. There is a small train which also looks fun though we didn’t try it out.

We reached back to our Home Stay – Gowri Niwas which is managed by the wonderful Muthu and had a great dinner there, Gowri Nivas is a cool place to stay with a good ambience and very warm hospitality as well.

After a night’s sleep next morning we had planned to go to the Buddhist Golden temple which is a few kms from Kushalnagar. We took a bus from Madikeri to Kushalanagar and the journey is about an hour and 15 minutes or so. We took an ordinary bus but the road is the worst in this stretch and although we are the kind who enjoyed the bumps many wouldn’t so it would be a good idea to wait for a semi deluxe bus or something of that sort. We had lunch then in one small restaurant in kushal itself and then took a rick to the Buddhist golden temple. It costs some 60 bucks or something to reach there from the bus stand. The monastery was brimming with tourists but it was big enough for us to go to the most peaceful parts and avoid the crowds. The monastery is quite beautiful and at places where there aren’t enough tourists quite serene too. It has got a throne for Dalai Lama which is huge and also a lot of other Buddhist paintings and ornate statues etc. We took a lot of pictures here as it’s quite a beautiful and ornate temple. Be sure to visit this if you are in Mercara.

After spending upwards of an hour here we went to the shopping complex which is just opposite the temple. Here mostly wares which are Tibetan in nature like lucky bells and fans etc are being sold. I read in a blog that you can get the same stuff in Bangalore for much cheaper but we liked a Chinese fan a lot and got that for 180 bucks for our living room. There is a small restaurant kind of a thing which had ‘momos’ written on the door, which I absolutely love but had to skip as we had just had lunch. We had read in a blog to have lunch in Kushal itself which is a great idea but I’d suggest you leave a little space to try out the momos too and then tell me how they were 

After the Buddhist golden temple we went to Nisargadham which is an artificial island not far away and it costs some 60 bucks on auto.
The great secret of driving in Kushalnagar is to avoid the roads. The only safe place to drive is the sidewalks and the sides where the road ends, bigger potholes would have to be classified as craters.

In any case we reached Nisargadham which is a sort of a small island which has a lovely river running through it in which you can take a quick dip if you have change of clothes or just feel the water rush through your legs but in either case it’s quite refreshing. Then there are tree houses. Which is just a small house on the top of a tree, which I have decided is a good idea to have in your own home garden too and there are cute rabbits who you can treat to Lay’s from your hands. These are quite pretty black and grey rabbits who are allowed to be fed by people.

There are a couple of elephants too who allow people to ride on their backs, which we also wanted to try initially but then for some reason we started identifying with the elephant more than the people who rode its back and gave up the idea.

There are times when one is just happy to be alive and for me the highlight of the trip was the ‘swing ‘ on which she went “whee!!’ if you are the type who go ‘whee‘ on swings I strongly recommend this, if you are not the type who go ‘whee’ on swings I recommend this even more strongly. I have since realized that there is no better way to express delight than a ‘whee!!!’ Of course the side effect is that people crossing by may give you dirty looks on account of their inability to understand adults going ‘whee’ on swings.

After having a great time there, we took the bus back to Mercara and reached just about after dark. Madikeri is quite a safe place even when it’s dark and late and so we walked about quite a bit and soaked the fresh and crisp air. We had dinner in one sidey restaurant in the night, which was not good and wished that instead of experimenting should‘ve had dinner in Gowri itself.

Next morning we got up at 6 and went to Raja’s Seat which looked even more serene and beautiful, we did this because Gowri is quite close to Raja’s Seat and it meant a great morning walk but if you are going to stay in a place which is not walking distance then it may not be worth waking up and going to watch the view.

In the afternoon we took the Volvo back to Bangalore, important to note is that while tickets booked on KSRTC are useless if the bus is not Volvo, for Volvo your e-tickets will be accepted and also that Airavath (bus type) and Volvo are the same thing. So only book tickets on www.ksrtc.in if they are either Volvo or airavath. For other buses you will get tickets on the spot.
Thus we reached the last legs of the journey which were spent in the crowded Bangalore and if only there was a way to avoid Bangalore in this trip we would have done that happily but the train back home was only from Bangalore. We had thought that we’d have dinner near the station itself but our train Sampark Kranti left from Yesvantpur Station which doesn’t have absolutely any place to eat around the station or on the platform. However she had the great idea of seeing a Coffee Day and a Kathi roll place while on the way to the station in a place called malleswaram so we took an auto, went back there and got ourselves a few rolls packed and a dessert to top off the great holiday which we eventually had in the train.

All in all a great vacation, Madikeri is a very peaceful place and even though from Hyderabad it was quite a bit away we had a great time. One thing that I wish we had done was to reach places much before 5 in the evening because that is the time things start closing so during our journey we got a feeling in Mysore and Bangalore that If we had reached earlier we could have done more. We were hampered because of the train timings from Hyderabad to Mysore etc. but you could do better.

Hope you find this review useful and have a happy trip.

wonderwomanusa

What a wonderful trip review! Thank you so much for sharing it wtih us!

firefox

thanks for sharing your wonderful experience..

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batistuta

Thanks for sharing.

rebeccam

THANK YOU for the trip details. Very useful. Am planning trip to Mysore and Coorg, had been wondering how is Ginger Hotel Mysore--now I know!! Also, thanks for info on places you visited, and on the homestay at Gowri--looks wonderful.

capt_mahajan

Great review, ZB. Felt I was making the trip.

dhans

Great story. Move it ot the journals?

Hans

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softarun

Hi

Your article is good in terms of coverage. I enjoyed this writing here http://srinathtravel.blogspot.com/20...rg-mysore.html from the perspective of things for nicety. But your article is written with cautious alerts plugged in thoughout which if a traveller can sense and plan accordinly, no doubt it will surely be a pleasant experience. I have had the itinerary prepared with the help of these two articles (Timing, Pricing, alerts).

Thanks and I will definetly share my experiences after I am gone and back. Hoping for life to be smooth as that of a baby's butt.

Thanks & with regards - Arun

suiko

Thank you - nice amusing post! We are planning on going trekking for a couple of days in Coorg - how long would be good to spend in the srea>