We stay in western India and went down south for a holiday to enjoy their rich heritage of temples, palaces and forts and hilly beauty of their famous coffee plantations.
Karnataka is a state in southwest India with Arabian Sea coastlines. The capital, Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), is a high-tech hub known for its shopping and nightlife. To the southwest, Mysore is home to lavish temples including Mysore Palace, former seat of the region’s maharajas. Hampi, once the medieval Vijayanagara empire’s capital, contains ruins of Hindu temples, elephant stables and a stone chariot.
We reached Bengaluru by air from Pune where we live. From the airport we hired a car for the 6 day tour of Karnataka. Our first stop was Mysuru. Mysore (or Mysuru), has in its center is opulent Mysore Palace, seat of the former ruling Wodeyaar dynasty. The palace blends Hindu, Islamic, Gothic and Rajput styles. Mysore is also home to the centuries-old Devaraja Market, filled with spices, silk and sandalwood.
The palace is in the centre of Mysore, and faces the Chamundi Hills eastward
The Nandi Bull Temple on the Chamundi hills is very powerful temple which attracts devotees from Karnataka and also from the rest of India.
Another attraction of Mysuru is Vrindavan Gardens
The garden is laid out in 3 terraces which contain water fountains, Ficus trees, foliage plants such as *Duranta plumaria* and Euphorbia and flowering plants like Celosia, Marigold and bougainvillea. The garden is open to the public and an entry-fee is charged. The garden also has topiary works (sculptures of animals created by clipping shrubs), pergolas (shaded passageway covered by creepers) and gazebos. The main attraction of the park is the musical fountain in which bursts of water are synchronised to the music of songs. There is also a lake within the garden with boating facilities available for visitors.
On the way from Mysuru to Madekeri we dropped in the majestic Tibetan Golden Temple at Byelakuppe.
The **Namdroling Nyingmapa Monastery** is the largest teaching center of the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism in the world. The monastery is home to a sangha community of over five thousand lamas (both monks and nuns), a junior high school , a religious college and hospital.
From the Tibetan Temple we drove to Madikeri and stayed at a coffee plantation with homestay services. There are many good homestay estates in Madikeri.
There are two basic types of coffee grown here: Arabica(good flavour- mild strength) and Robusta (strong coffee). Pepper vines growing on Supari (bettle nut) trees are a common site in coffee plantations.
Nearby, Madikeri has an elephant training camp.
There's a famous elephant training camp at Dubare. The trainers boast about their ability to not only get a bunch of elephants to stand up in unison on stools, but also get them to pee synchronously.
From Madikeri we drove to Hassan to see the historic temples of Belur and Halebid.
At Hassan we stayed at the Hoysala Village Resort. They have beautifully landscaped gardens surrounding the cute cottages.
The Belur and Halebidu temples are within easy reach of this resort.
Belur is known for having some of the most intricate carvings in India. Out of the 92 Hoysala temples in Karnataka, Belur is the best. This temple isn’t just about worship but is about culture. Some parts are more for dancing and the sculptures are of dancers, while on the other side it’s stories from the epics.
This temple was built in 1117 A.D. and took three generations to build. It’s in great condition still. Technically, it’s called Chennakeshava temple, but most just know it by Belur, the name of the town. Like most Hoysala, the platform is star-shaped to increase surface area so they could build more.
Re, Halebidu: here are two Nandi’s here (Shiva’s bull) because it’s a twin temple. These are the 6th and 7th biggest in all of India. Being a Shiva temple, there is a Linga inside.
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