After such an interesting day yesterday, I was curious as to what today had in store. I was happy to have slept in till 545a, a big improvement over 4a! After breakfast, I packed up and met Tour Guide (TG) and the driver at 9am.  

TG, said we would first go to the Srirangapatna Fort, an island in the river where Tipu a famous Sultan ruled this part of India in the 1700's lived and died. He was known as the Tiger of India and was a total pain to the British, who he defeated (with help from the French) on several occasions. There are a few ruins where the walls of the Fort stood, but there are still seven arches/drawbridges that were used during that time.  

A few miles away is Tipu's tomb, which was very impressive. It is a mini-Taj and was located in a beautiful garden setting that was very peaceful. Inside the mausoleum, there are three tombs containing Tipu and his parents. As with the Taj, it only houses the tombs, which for the size and what it had to cost is quite impressive. 

While Tipu's palace next to the Fort was destroyed in one of the many battles, his Summer Palace just down the road from the Tomb is still intact. Similar to the tomb, the Palace is located in park-setting with trees, flowers, lots of birds and a quiet comparison to the busy cities not far away. While not as ornate as the Mysore Palace, it was still very impressive in the colors and decorations.  

It was now time to say goodbye to TG, who we dropped off at the main road as he would be taking a bus the 20k back to Mysore. One the way back to Bangalore, the Driver stopped to show me a sugar cane factory. Oh my, while it was very interesting, it was quite primitive and didn't make me want to run out and buy the yellow blocks of sugar it was producing!

The trip back to Bangalore took only 2.5 hours, due a huge improvement in the traffic. Soon we were back in the crazy traffic of the big city and safely back at my home away from home, ITC Gardenia. I will be back at work this week, but will back with a new update next weekend when I visit Goa!