Mysore – the tourist trap

Mysore Palace

Mysore is probably the only tourist destination feasible for a day trip from Bangalore, which is about 3 hours drive away. To be honest, there isn’t much to see. The Mysore Palace is the main attraction, it’s kinda neat to see how the Indian kings lived, but doesn’t worth the long journey. There are a few yet another “famous” Hindu temple on the way. Hindu temple all look the same, you see one, you see them all. Unless you worship any Hindu God, visiting more than one Hindu temple is a complete waste of time.

It turns out the side attractions are more interesting than the main ones. The Tipu Sultan’s Summer Palace is a small museum about the last king of Indian and his defeat by the British. The exhibition is alright, just some history about an uninteresting king. However the Summer Palace itself is kinda neat, sitting in the middle of a beautiful garden. It looks like a very modern building with glass wall from the front gate. However when we come close, the glass wall turns out to be wooden panels painted in green!

Tipu Sultan's summer palace.  From afar, it looks like a modern building with glass wall... Up close, the wall is actually wooden panel in green.

The other attraction worth seeing is the Rail Museum. It has 5 engines and a royal cart in exhibition. It doesn’t charge tourist 10x entrance fee. It has no hawkers or annoying tourist guides. Apparently it is not a popular tourist spot, a photographer ask us to pose in front of the trains so that the government tourist book can show foreigners also interest in visiting this museum. We enjoy a quiet and educational walk between the trains and tracks. The restore work is not done very well , but I will take the Rail Museum over any Hindu temple any day.

A huge steam engine The control room

One thought on “Mysore – the tourist trap”

  1. Sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy your trip to Mysore more… I love Mysore, I cannot wait to visit again. Try Bylakuppe if you have a few hours, you might like the Tibetan temples there.

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