Illuminated Mysore Palace

Although I almost having Briyani everyday here when I am in India, never a moment I felt enough with it as all of them are equally delicious in their own way. However, RRR restaurant in Mysore that strongly recommended by Anil definitely stood out as the best I have by far. This was a breakthrough experience for Jason as this is for the very first time, eating rice using his hand. A must try if you are here in Mysore, the shop is facing Gandhi Square near to the famous Mysore Palace.

The RRR restaurant with best briyani in town!

The portion is still huge, but I still feel I can take more after finish full plate of it all by myself.

Big crowd queuing and waiting patiently in this great local restaurant, thanks Anil!

After the very satisfying meal, finally we are about to spend next few hours in the most famous spot here in Mysore, the Mysore Palace. It is the official residence and seat of the Wodeyars and rulers of Mysore, the royal family of Mysore, who ruled the princely state from 1399 to 1950. There was a saying that Mysore palace attract more visitors even compare to Buckingham Palace in England, with more than 6 million visitors each year.

Anantha stop his car in the parking lot near to southern gate entrance. After we done buying the ticket, we join the huge crowd that queuing to enter to the palace compound, and first building that we see is the Sri Varaha Swamy Temple. We follow the huge crowd movement, which is leading the way to enter the palace. On the way, you will be able to see the palace main building.

Clear black and white mentioning 100 rupee for foreigner.

The south entrance gate that we use to enter the palace.

Following the crowd to enter to the palace compound.

Sri Varaha Swamy temple can be seen immediately when we enter the south gate.

The palace main building.

The crowd that about to enter the palace.

Shoes counter outside the palace that store our shoes, the label is showing 2 rupee per pair of shoes but the worker took my 50 rupee and did not return.

At first I am worried about the rules that camera is not allowed to enter the palace and need to store here as well, but you can actually bring it along with you inside, just not to snap any photos in. It started to walk on the corridor along the palace, the path still wide and we are doing all right. Slowly we are moving inside to the palace center area, where you can see lots of collections of the Kingdom being kept here. From here, navigating around in the palace start to feel like auto cruising as you don't have chance of standing still in the walk way as it is too crowded and people at the back will keep pushing you lightly signaling you to move forward.

One more highlight of the rules was not to take photo inside the palace, which at first I thought it was a very strict rules. But in reality, the security guard can't really control that much with this much of crowd visiting the palace, and furthermore, none of them really care. Hence, I also took out my phone and start to snap some interior photo of the palace quietly while auto cruising, as the interior of the palace is seriously very beautiful. It seem not whole palace interior are open to public, and we spend around an hour navigating inside the palace.

One of the hall inside the palace with direct sun light.

Auto cruising mode turn on.

Ambavilasa, a room that used by the king as a hall for private audiences. Love the colorful glass ceilings a lot!

Auto cruising mode, continue.

Moving on to another hall way.

Heard from some conversation that this elephant howdah is decorated with 84 KG of pure gold!

On to second floor, a glass ceilings with Ganesh drawing imprint.

Impressive roof artworks.

The audience hall on the second floor.

Architecture is a frozen music, a piece of art.

I know photo is not allowed, but I just can't resist it, guess it was the same for the rest as well~

I did some homework before planning for this day trip here to Mysore that every Sunday and Public Holiday, the palace will get illuminated from 7:00pm - 7:45pm, and gladly it was Sunday today! Since we still have some time before head to the front compound to see the light on, we decided to have a walk on the huge compound around the palace. The palace was just beautiful to be view from different perspective and direction.

There was another tiny scenario in which at a corner of the compound, we can see few elephants having their meal with some local having fun around. When we walk near, quickly some of the folks approach us and asking us to do what tourist should, to feed, close encounter, take photo, and even ride on these elephant. I start to felt curious with their generous approach hence moving away after taking some quick photo, but Jason proceed to have a try to ride these elephant, which again was a new experience for him. As expected, once we try to leave, they demanding tips to be given to them. I keep on saying thanks to them and slowly move away after gave them 100 rupee to avoid any problem, but even so they are not really satisfy with that amount. Those are the minor thing, but is important to be really careful with those people that offer help too generously.

Sri Prasanna Krishna Swamy Temple.

Ancient Lakshmi Ramana Temple.

Back to the entrance to the palace interior, yet the crowd is still very huge waiting to enter the palace.

Cute kid that approach us to sell us some flowers.

Jason with the flower kid.

As a token of appreciation, the kid also gave each of us a key chain.

Panorama view on the palace and its surrounding.

The main gate of the palace, Jayamartaanda Gate.

Front view toward the palace.

Another view from toward the palace.

The greedy guy that offering us to variety of activity with these elephants.

The photo he help to snap for us, not bad though.

Jason excited to ride an elephant here.

Quick photo on the elephant before leaving the area.

Quiet walkway at the rear of the palace.

Back to the front of the palace now, is time to wait for the illumination.

Try to arrive early, the crowd had already start to occupy the best spot.

Most of the India people are very friendly, and one thing that I don't understand is there always people, especially youngster will approach us and want to take a selfie with us. While waiting for the illumination, this happened for various of time, perhaps it is just because rarely have Chinese tourist visiting the area I guess. Anyhow, it was fun and weird at the same time to be in this situation.

From 6 PM on ward, the crowd start to occupy the area for the best spot. The security guard had already empty the compound in front of the palace and setup a barrier. We are lucky to find a VIP spot just next to the barrier to witness the sky turn dark slowly, and the lighting of the palace being turn on little by little as well. From time to time, we can see more lighting being turn on, and the sky getting darker. Finally at 7 PM sharp, the moment everyone long awaited is here, the palace is fully illuminated! Seriously, photo does not able to resemble the beautiful of the palace like what we have truly witness with our own eyes there. It was truly remarkable!

After staying for another 15 minutes, we move back to car park to meet Anantha and finally took another 4 hours in jam to get back to our hotel. It was a long and tired day, but we truly enjoy it.