Mudumalai Trip

Our vacation this year led us to the land of tigers at Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu.

We started on a Sunday and flew down to Bangalore. After meeting relatives there went to Lalbagh gardens. Why Lalbagh? Why not Cubbon? Well, my parents have some black and white pictures of me at Lalbagh and somehow I was fascinated by the pictures of glass house there, and as my better half gave permission for only one park visit, it was Lalbagh. 

glass house at Lalbagh

It didn't disappoint me, it held the same fascination for me after all these years. Next we went to see UB city, an area developed by Vijaya Mallya, housing UB headquarters and many other offices and shops.





The thing that struck me most of Bangalore was its roads, they were pathetic. If you think roads in Hyderabad are bad, you should see them in Bangalore, it makes one wonder how people commute there. It was not just the traffic, which was heavy, the state of roads was bad with potholes and constructions (metro and flyovers) and what-not.

Next morning we started off for Mysore. On the way we visited the Tipu Sultan summer palace, remains of his fort, the place where he worshipped (legend has it that he didn't miss a single namaaz all his life) and the place where his body was found in Srirangapatnam.

Majestic Mysore Palace

Beautiful Brindavan

Next was Mysore palace, huge and magnificent.  Trip to Mysore would be incomplete without a visit to the famous Brindavan Gardens. Though we have lots of parks and gardens, to think that this was built some decades ago and still has not lost its charm or allure speaks volumes about the place. Next day we started to Mudumalai after visiting Chamundeshwari temple, huge Mahishasura, and equally majestic Nandi.

Deer Crossing

Our road to Mudumalai led us through Bandipur Tiger Reserve, where we had the first glimpse of wild life in the form of elephants crossing the road. After crossing the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border we entered Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. We were greeted by deer.

Cottages at Masinagudi

We were booked at a resort in Masinagudi, which we reached by noon on Tuesday and were to stay there for three nights. The resort had around a dozen cottages of which we were the sole occupants. There were no TVs in the cottages and no phone connectivity, so for three days we were cut-off from the rest of the world. We ventured to go on a walk that evening, but were asked to return to the resort, by a gentleman might be forest official, as it was elephant roaming zone and hence dangerous. So we had no option but to relax. Next day morning we went trekking and had a beautiful view of the Nilgiris, they were blue! Evening we went on a safari and were greeted by a big bear, a rarity we were told. We also saw deer, sambhars (or nilgai?), wild boar, peacocks and many other beautiful birds. Thursday we decided to make a road trip to Ooty which was about 30km. On the way we saw Kalhatti falls (no water) and Bison valley (no bisons). It was our second trip to Ooty hence didn't go site-seeing, visited a tea factory had free sample of tea and roamed about in Botanical gardens and returned to the resort by evening.

Friday we had flight back to Hyderabad from Bangalore at 1:30pm. So started off early at 6am, drove down, stopped for breakfast and reached the outskirts of Bangalore well within time. Then started our woes. First it was a wrong turn to get onto the outer ring road, then after getting onto the ring road the car ran out of diesel. We came off the ring road on the wrong way to get diesel and then onto the ring road, lost half an hour there. Then the traffic, construction and a tense couple of hours later, we were running towards the Jet Airways terminal to be told that the counter for Hyd flight was closed. A bit of cajoling and pleading saved our day and finally got us on board.