Ranganathittu and Sangam — Good day for snaps

It is a very rare occurrence if we visit Mysore without spending some time in Ranganthittu. So, it was not a surprise at all that this was part of the plan. We started early but after breakfast and reached Ranganathittu around 9 am to find out that we were the only ones there! We had to either wait for a group or hire a boat just for ourselves. We decided on the latter and we were not sorry.

The Arien got a couple of nice shots, sharing a few here. We spotted two crocodiles. Both looked scary and totally menacing in their statue poses. For a few seconds I mistakenly even thought that maybe it was only a statue of a crocodile and the boatman was only trying to provide us some value for money. And then the statue moved. It looked massive. I started praying for the boat ride to be over soon. Ya, I get very panicky at times. The other one was quite far off and appeared not to care too much about us.

The boatman paddled, pointed out crocs, birds, and told us to come at a time when we can really see a lot of birds (i.e not now) etc. The Arien was glad for the info, I was trying to collect info for the blog post, and the boatman wanted to chat. Win-Win!

The Arien got a pic of the spoonbill in flight. It looked amazing and glorious in flight. We saw mostly spoonbills and so both of us were not so thrilled. Anyway, our next plan was to get to Sangam.

Sangam looked exactly the same compared to when we visited last time with my mom-in-law. It seemed like a place untouched by progress. Its a holy place because of the meeting of three rivers. As a result, it is usually visited by folks to pay their last respects to their ancestors. Pujas are done here and so you may be in for a shock if you expect something else.

When we visited with my MIL, a puja was going on the outside of the temple shown on the right. It can be a bit of a shock to see folks wearing traditional outfits and praying or performing homa or chanting after the priest when you have come on a holiday. You may be viewed as a person showing a lack of respect and so you kinda cannot enjoy it much. Be warned!

It is quite unsophisticated, natural, and definitely not clean. When we visited this time, there were no pujas going on. We spent some time sitting on the banks and resting our feet in the water. It was so silent and calm, it can seem a bit scary but otherwise there is nothing much to see or do. The picture on the left is actually view from where we sat with our feet in water. The water was amazingly cold and the whole place had a very calming effect on us.

The Arien chose that moment to go crazy over a dragonfly and was trying to shoot it in various angles. I have no idea what he was trying to do. I think the dragonfly was wondering the same. Every snap of the dragonfly looked the same to me 🙂 In fact, I liked the second shot better than all his other pics. But, he drove me nuts running after the dragonfly and shooting pic after pic after pic while I followed him like a goof ball. Attaching the second pic of the dragonfly for my satisfaction 🙂

Coming up is the visit to the Mysore Palace.