Disappointing Mysore Dasara

We wanted our kids to enjoy the world famous Dasara and we ended up achieving just the opposite. Schools in India are closed for about 10 days during Dasara and as soon the schools closed the kids left for Mysore with their grand parents. The grand parents took them over to see the palace at night and they definitely enjoyed it. The following is the story of the other famous events associated with Dasara in Mysore



Dasara Exhibition: The grand parents take the kids to the exhibition on the very first day it opened for public. They were let in without having to purchase any tickets the reason for which became clear pretty soon. Inside the fence there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. No exaggeration but all that was there was an empty piece of land. God knows what did the chief guest helped open that morning. Apparently they initially charged people to go in and see this NOTHING but when the crowd got irate (for all the good reasons) they may be refunded the money and let the people who came later for nothing to see this big nothing. What a joke!



Bhavani and I decided to go join the kids and because of the vast crowd ended up riding in the infamous Red colored bus from KSRTC from Bangalore to Mysore. This Bus has no shock absorbers of any kind and I swear I will do anything to avoid getting onto that one. This was almost a precursor to the things to come in the next couple of days.



Dasara Procession: We decided to provide the best viewing of the Dasar procession and hence bought these Rs 200 tickets. For Rs 200 you get to sit on the chair near the road by which the procession goes by. We reached there by 11:30 and found that the road was so well blocked that we could not get t o the entrance through which we had to go to grab our chairs. After some real gymanstics of climbing over fence and gates, we finally managed. Once we went in and sat down we thought we had made a sound choice in buying these tickets. But just when the procession was about to start (around 1:30) you had this sudden gush of people from the road from all different directions and soon they were all sitting next to you without having paid anything. Some even joked about the foolishness of people who pay for these things and there I was sitting and listening to this not knowing how to react.



I also saw that there were huge posters of the Chief Minister and deputy chief minister of Karnataka right in the center of the big KR circle and I couldn't figure out what they had to do with the Dasara until there was this mad rush of police running behind 2 fat guys who happened to these honable ministers. Apparently they were the chief guests and had decided to turn it into their personal dasara. The procession was a long drawn out (over 2 hours) of mind numbing, total bull shit parade of villagers dressed in everything from cave men to your normal towel on the shoulder and beating drums of different sizes. Later I learnt that all the drum beaters come from the same community as the deputy chief minister and he thought it was so cool he decided to waste 2 hrs of everyones time on that. We left the procession totally dejected.



Torch Light Parade: That same evening there was this torch light parade (supposed to be very cool) in BanniMantap. We had purchased the highest denomination ticket for that one too just to get a good look. The problem was the roads were so badly blocked we had to get off the Autorickshaw and walk. There was commotion all around with vehicles running on the sidewalk because the roads were like parking lots. It was unsafe everywhere with fights breaking out and we still decided to walk to this place without realizing how far it was. It turned out to be 3 km and like idiots we still kept going. I didn't even realize until later that I had lost my mobile by then. When we finally reached the venue there were police all over and none of them were helpful. There was this mad crowd near all entrance gates and making your way through them was next to impossible. Couple of times we were in the middle of this crowd when police started swinging their sticks and the kids by now had totally freaked out and I was begining to feel unsafe. Bhavani would not give up and we finally enter the stadium to realize that the stadium was filled to twice the capacity already and we did not have space to put both the fee on the ground. Since people kept coming in, I was NO JOKES on one feet. Forget your seats that you paid for since all of them had been occupied by everyone but people who paid for those. After 10 min, I couldn't take it anymore and with great struggle got everyone out safely. Bhavani went to complain about the situation to a Police officer and he questioned her wisdom in coming there with the kids. Go figure!! I swore that was the end of Dasara for me



Adventure Sports: For the first time the organizers decided to provide adventure sport opportunities for the tourists. They had organized Parasailing, Water scooters, Bungee jumping , hot air ballon rides and each one of them turned to be an interesting story.

• Water scooter: This turned to be such a low horsepower scooter where there is a guy who sits behind you and holds the handle like you would when you are teaching a two wheeler to your kid. He will not let go and so imagine yourself being hugged from behind by this guy with whom you wouldn't share a table if you had your choice. Added to the fun was the scooter hardly moved. I have no idea what was the adventure part of that.
• Bungee Jumping: This one was particulary good and you could clearly see both the watchers and people who were jumping of this platform hoisted from a crane were really enjoying it. However they had sold so many tickets (Rs 500 each) that after waiting for 4 hrs, I realized that I would have to wait for 2 - 3 hrs more before I could jump at which time I gave up and took the refund
• Para sailing: This was another popular one. You would strap on a parachute and be tied with a long rope to a Jeep. As the vehicle start moving you will get a lift and will hover about 100 up in the air. Looked like fun but same problem. Went on 2 consecutive days, waited for several hrs and did not get the turn.
• Hot air balloon: This was a joke since all you got to do for your Rs 1000 ticket was you would go up 100 ft up in the air, while the balloon continues to be tied to the earth with ropes. Did not even touch this with a 100 ft pole.

The only enjoyable part of this whole trip was (no jokes) the return journey from Mysore to Bangalore in a comfortable A/C coach, which truly captured it all (the best thing you could do was to get out of the town ;-)

Trip to Hogenekal Falls

Pictures of the trip:http://thejoshifamily.com/Travel/Hogenekal2004.asp

Our trip to Hogenekal was really memorable and here is the recount of it. Hogenekal falls is att the border of Karnataka and Tamil nadu. Hogenekal in kannada means smoking rocks because of the mist that kicks up around rocks as a result of the falls. Hogenekal is about 185 km from Bangalore. We set out at about 8:30 am after filling up the Scorpio (our SUV) and the customary morning coffee. The first half of the journey (About 90 km) is on the NH-7 also called Hosur road. This is a divided 4 lane highway and so the drive was very enjoyable. At around Dharamgiri you have to break off from the Highway and head east. The road isn't bad but not great either. You drive about 90 km on this road to come to Hogenekal. Hogenekal is mostly fisherman's village which is immediately evident as soon as you enter the village. Fisherman here use what's called "Teppa" in kannada or Coracle. It is very crudely built boat that looks like a saucer.

We were eight of us and so rented 2 of these coracles agreeing to pay Rs 500 (about $11) per boat. You walk down this dirty stretch of the road to the water with local ladies selling fishes on either side of the road.



Once you get into the boat you sit down in a squatting position. The boatman steers the boat with a single oar with such deftness that you will be amazed. Especially evident is their skill in maneuvaring around the currents and riding upstream. He rowed the boat for about 20 min and asked us to get off the boat and walk to the falls.

The walk to the falls took another 20 min with several times having to walk through the river and over rocks. Once you reach the falls the view is breathtaking. You will be standing at the edge of the falls and viewing down. The falls is wide and not a whole lot high (like Niagara). It is a great feeling to stand overlooking the falls and cool down with the water splashing against your face.

After that we spent about 2 hours playing in the shallow water next to the falls. Kids especially had a great time. We finished eating our lunch and headed back in the boat. This time around the boat takes a different route and goes through some rapids. You will really appreciate your boatman's skill. The next stop was at the tower from where you can overlook the entire falls and it is a great view point. It is a great view point because that is when you will realize that what you saw earlier was only half the falls.

We left Hogenekal at 4:30 and reached Bangalore around 8:30 with a pit stop on the way. One of the things I did not try but seemed to be very popular there was getting a oil massage from the local folks and then taking a dip in the cauvery river. May be next time

Trip to Jog

Pictures of the trip:http://thejoshifamily.com/Travel/jog2004.asp

We recently went on a trip to Jog Falls, the highest waterfall in India (may be Asia too) at 900 ft and have nothing but good memories of the trip. Jog Falls is situated in Central Karnataka in Shimoga District in the midst of western ghats. We went there by govt owned KSRTC bus which by the way are pretty good now. They have A/C coaches but unfortunately for us, there was no a/c coach to Jog falls. We had to settle for the next best Ultra deluxe (called Rajhamsa). These days KSRTC has made their reservation system accessible to lot of private travel agents because of which you can get it done locally wherever you are. Luckily for me a travel agent close by my house had the access and so reserving our trip both ways was a very quick process. The bus took off promptly at the scheduled time and reached at the scheduled time.

We had called and made a reservation in PWD guest house, which is situated on a hilltop and commands a good view of the western ghats. We had reached there at 6:30 am but the housekeeper did not show up until 8 am (when he is actually expected to be spending the night there). With some murmurs and complaints he agreed to give us the room although it was reserved for Rs 500. He turned away some other guests. The room was more like a suite with a separate living area and 3 double beds enough for the 4 of us. The only problem with that room was the walls were damp (not enough curing during construction process) and bathrooms not really upto the standard. These turned to be minor nuisances compared to what we actually got out of the trip.

Jog falls has no good tourist accomdations and the facilities run by Karnatak Tourism (KSTDC) are best in ruins. There is a KPC (Karnataka Power Corp) guest house that is smack infront of the falls and is well maintained. If you ever visit Jog and want some good food, go talk to the chef at the KPC guest house and he will fix something up (very clean, homely cooked food) for a very reasonable price. There are some restaurents nearby but having tried both, I would go with KPC guest house.

Once you are there, people will come and approach you for taxi service for nearby sightseeing. We hired a local guy with a SUV (didn't want to mess with Maruti cars in Western Ghat) and had him drive us around for 1.5 days. He took personal interest in showing us all the area around Jog. My suggestion to folks who go to Jog would be to drive to nearby villages and as you are driving you will see the beauty of western ghats. Since we went near the end of monsoon season, not only the rivers and falls were overflowing but the whole area was lush green with plenty of wild life to see. A long snake crossed our path once and a bunch of monkeys had blocked our van by occupying the entire road. We drove from Jog to Murdeshwar(coastline city) and really enjoyed every bit of it including the drive since the roads were pretty well paved. There is a huge statue of Shiva built on the beaches of Murdeshwar and is a sight to behold. This being India, religion has to make its presence felt everywhere including beaches. Murdeshwar has several good lodging and boarding facilities on the beach all owned by the same guy (R N Shetty).


Here is an observation, if you want to meet people innocent and honest, go to country side. People will help you with no expectation in return and that is very hard to find in cities.