A trip to Orissa

A trip to Orissa meant a visit to the golden triangle Bhubaneshwar - Konark - Puri. As I considered the itinerary of various tour packages online before planning this trip, I found out that most tour packages suggested that we arrive at Bhubhaneshwar, and proceed to Puri visiting Dauli and Pipli enroute and stay in Puri for the night. But we decided to stay in Bhubaneshwar for the whole trip and visit all the places from there as it takes a maximum of 2 hours to reach Chilaka lake which is the farthest place on our itinerary. We used to start at 7:30 in the morning to avoid the rushhour traffic and used to return before dark.

Usually we were budget travellers, me and my hubby, but this time we decided to indulge a little so though there were many bus services from Bhubaneshwar to konark and Puri we hired an air conditioned taxi. This decision was strongly inspired by the hot and sweaty climate of Orissa. We knew we were taking risk visiting Orissa during summer which is definitely not recommended time, (The best time to visit being in the months of October to March) but it was the only time we could spare. Anyway we did manage to have a great time and the best thing of going on a sunny day is that our photographs were brilliant.

The first day we decided to visit Konark - Puri - Pipli - Dauli.
We put aside the second day for some fun, frolic and some freash seafood at chilaka lake.

The third day is meant for visiting all the temples in Bhubaneshwar - the temple city of India.

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Jaipur

I wanted to go to Rajastan like forever. I mean it was like some sort of fairytale land filled with golden sands and colorful people. The majestic palaces that still dominate landscape take my breath away. Its magical and wonderful to imagine the regal lifestyle of the people who lived in those palaces. The mysterious 'paradas' of the royal women and the tales of their beauty. The courage and valour of those rajput men all seemed scenes straight out of a story book. If you could you should visit this place atleast once at a time.

We just had a day to visit this fairyland and we made the most of it.

Banglore Palace

Bangalore Palace is a palace located in the city of Bangalore, India and is built to look like a smaller replica of the Windsor Castle in England.

It was built by Rev. Garrett in 1884, it was bought by the Maharaja of Mysore, Chamaraja Wodeyar.Now owned by the current scion of the Mysore royal family, Srikanta Datta Narsimharaja Wadiyar. The palace was built in Tudor style architecture with fortified towers, battlements and turrets.

The ground floor consists of an open courtyard containing granite seats covered with fluorescent blue ceramic tiles.

It also contains a ballroom for holding private parties.

The first floor containing an elaborate hall called as the Durbar Hall can be reached by climbing a decorated staircase. This is the hall where the king used to address the assembly. The walls along the Durbar Hall are adorned with paintings and the staircase has a massive elephant head mounted on its wall. After climbing the stairs we find the photograph of the king on his golden throne in the Mysore palace, which is taken out only during the Dassera festivities.

After that we enter the elegant Durbar hall with its magneficient chandlers, and beautifully ornamented mirrors. One side of the Durbar hall contains stained glass windows in Gothic style. The colour yellow is used profusely and the walls and the sofa set in the hall are in yellow. A screen on one end separates the area where the ladies used to sit and watch the assembly proceedings in relative privacy.

The interior walls of the palace are also adorned by old paintings belonging to the mid-19th century, including some Greek and Dutch paintings.Some paintings of Raja Ravi Verma are also present here.

Some of the other attractions include a dining table belonging to the Diwan of Mysore, Sir Mirza Ismail. This table contained a mother-of-pearl inlay with Chinese lacquer work.Also the numerous photos of the royal family, depicting the various generations of royality and splendor.

The interiors were decorated with elegant wood carvings, floral motifs, cornices and relief paintings on the ceiling. The furniture, which was neo-classical, Victorian and Edwardian in style, was bought from John Roberts and Lazarus. A total of 35 rooms were built in the palace with most of them being bed rooms, which demand our special attention.

The palace is open to the public who can visit it after paying a nominal fee. There are also plans to rent out the ballroom for private parties and also to sell silk scarves, photographs and other articles used by the royal family to the tourists. Illumination of the palace and renovating the gardens using Mexican grass is also being planned.