Green Hotel Mysore, Dubare Elephant Camp Trip

We did this Road trip to Green Hotel Mysore, and to Dubare Elephant Camp - Jungle Lodges & Resorts, that is located at about 100 KM from Mysore, over ~3 days and 2 nights. It was at the end of December 2019 at Christmas time, and we had a good trip.

The Green Hotel Mysore

Green Hotel Mysore was formerly a palace called Chittaranjan Palace or Chittaranjan Mahal, built by the Maharaja of Mysore for his sister in the year 1916. It later changed ownership and became the headquarters of the iconic Premier Studio built very next to it in 1954. Later it was used as a private residence, and then subsequently restored in the 1970s by a Charity group and converted into The Green Hotel that is open to people to come and stay.

With adorable traditional interior decors and furnishing maintaining the historic Royal touch everywhere in the grand halls and corridors, added with extensive gardens, lawns, pergolas and such surroundings, they use solar water heating, no TVs and ACs in the rooms, and so on. They employ more people from the needy. In their Malgudi Coffee Shop bakery they employee especially women and widows to help them. The profits of The Green Hotel are said to be distributed to various charity programs associated with rural health and literacy.

The Premier Studio, which had 7 floors, built on 10 acres of land, was once Asia's second largest indoor studio, was closed over a period, and was actually demolished in September 2018. That was the studio where a major fire accident took place during the shooting of TV series by Sanjay Khan, The Sword of Tipu Sultan, in February 1989; an accident that claimed several lives.

Our plan to stay at The Green Hotel Mysore was only for experiencing all those historic connects in that very ambience and surroundings. We wanted to book the Princess Room, but as all the rooms in the main palace building were sold out even though it was 5 weeks in advance, we had only booked a normal Suite room in the annexe block. However, we got lucky when we reached there and got to stay in the Maharani's Suite in the main palace building itself. Do not miss a lot photos later below.

Our stay at The Green Hotel was also coincided by two other interesting events. We were there on the Christmas day and night, so it was just a week to the new year, and several streets and buildings in Mysore were decked up with lighting when we went around in the night. And the next morning, we also witnessed a full solar eclipse, the last of the decade, right before we departed from there towards our second destination of the trip, The Dubare Elephant Camp.

Dubare Elephant Camp Jungle Lodges & Resorts

Dubare Elephant Camp is part of Jungle Lodges & Resorts, located along the river Cauvery. We stayed there on a day package that included a jungle safari by their jeep, nature walk into the adjoining nature park with their guide and an elephant interaction session that the resort people arrange for the guests staying with them. The elephant interaction is also arranged for open public people who venture crossing the river waters dangerously by walking through it, taking a lot of risk unnecessarily; hopefully some authorities look into this to put in place some guidelines and do's and don'ts restrictions.

We leave the car at the parking lot (see the point below on the parking trouble) and a boat service by the JLR ferries us across the river to the resort on the banks on the other side. Each cottage had a unique name to identify; we were allotted 'Chandra'. The stay package we booked includes all the costs of the food and activities, as is common in all the JLR locations. Again the rooms here do not have a TV or telephone. We generally do not sight any wild animals during such jeep safari trips, and it is especially true during winter time like end of December. But, to go all the way and stay in a calm serene environment surrounded by wilderness for a day away from the city's busy norm is always a welcome experience.

And one of the common features we have seen with our previous JLR stay at Galibore was, a very passionate friendly guide who is very involved in his job and always trying to do the best job for the nature walk audience. Here also we experienced the same with one Mr Puttanaik who took us on the guided nature walk in the morning. They do not take any tips from anyone, but do a wonderful job of explaining about most of the flora in the route, the insects and birds around, environment, habitats and so on. A good complete experience.

The car parking mismanagement at Dubare before we take the boat to cross over the river to reach JLR is a complete chaos, and can make us into a mess. And there are no safety barriers between the edge of the road and the river cavity where the cars are parked to the brim. We were there in the Christmas to New Year vacation time and we were entangled amidst the chaotic incoming and outgoing vehicles including big buses, with just no responsible person assigned to help the vehicles at all.

Highlights - The Green Hotel, and in Mysore

• A great cozy room with traditional touch in the furniture, decors, floor tiling, and so on
• Our Maharani's Suite had a window overlooking the razed location of Premier Studio building
• Grand halls and corridors with fabulous interiors and furnishing of the palatial construction 
• Wooden staircases, easy chairs, colorful antique tinted glass decors, gramophone unit, piano, library
• The Malgudi Coffee Shop served some wonderful stuff made in the bakery
• Their Lemon Drizzle cake was a wonder, so much so that we repeated the order!
• The vast open garden restaurant with a large open seating area and some covered seating areas
• A small roof top terrace area with old time outlook and multi-layered tiers to wind around
• A look through window near the compound wall to view the remains of the razed Premier Studio
• The night drive with the Mysore Place as well as several roads illuminated up brightly
• Our mandatory dinner at the Gayathri Tiffin Room, delicious Khara Bath / Upma and Masala Dosa
• With a bit of cloudy sky, we still witnessed the decade's last full solar eclipse through camera images

Highlights - Dubare Elephant Camp Jungle Lodges & Resorts

• Cottages located in a calm and serene environment by the side of Cauvery river
• A nice Nature walk in the morning conducted very well by Mr Puttanaik
• Good range of food at the Gol Ghar, and a short camp fire near there in the evening
• A stilted view point in the premises had a set up with a tough climb step ladder
• Obviously we came across several Elephants in the camp that the jeep safari drove through
• We also spotted Peahens, Crested hawk eagle, Flame-back Woodpecker, Hoopoe, and an Egret
• During the jeep safari, Mr Puttanaik also showed us pug marks of a tiger that roams around here
• Mr Puttanak showed a lot of information during the morning Nature walk
• Spices like Marathi moggu, Stone flower, and Cinnamon, fungi and termite on trees, and ant hills
• Hanuman phal a sister fruit to Sita phal (Custard Apple), and many other flora
• We also spotted a Malabar squirrel and birds like Spotted doves during the Nature walk
• A standard at JLR stays, an animals film show at the Gol Ghar, before dinner time
• The elephant interaction session was on the next morning outside the rear exit, near the river
• The trainer mahouts put through several elephants to bath and allow the guests also to participate

Overall a very good stay experience at both the places, good cuisine, calm and serene surroundings for 3 days out of Bangalore. The drive from Bangalore to Mysore and to Dubare also enabled us to spot several local produces on transport or sale along the way. Sugarcane, Coconuts, Paddy were very common. On the sector from Mysore towards Dubare, when we pass through Bylakuppe cross and Kushalnagar we do not miss to see a lot of the Buddhist monks who come from the famous Monastery nearby, shopping in the area. Another interesting sight always driving through small towns and villages are the terracotta roofed houses with single deck and some with an upper deck. We also passed through the popular Cauvery Nisargadama, though we did not stop. There was a big crowd of vehicles owing to the vacation season. The other major sight we had was the farms of Mochai (Field Beans / Faba Beans) and the sales with heaps of those produces along the road side at several places by those farmers. On the return route we stopped in Dubare at a spices shop to buy some Coorg Coffee powder, a produce from this area, and later we also stopped near Nisargadama at a shop to buy a few nice items made out of clay pottery.

Routes

Our drive routes from Bangalore to The Green Hotel Mysore and from there to the Dubare Elephant Camp JLR:

Look for our itinerary summary and the trip review scores later below. Scroll down to see a lot of pictures - Do not miss!

The Green Hotel Mysore

Terrace at the roof top

Premier Studio view from The Green Hotel

A night drive through Mysore

Dubare Elephant Camp - Jungle Lodges & Resorts

Food at The Green Hotel

Food at Gayathri Tiffin Room, Mysore

Food at the Dubare Elephant Camp JLR

On the way

Please also see my Caught Special - 131 posting with some special pictures from our trip, here.

Itinerary Summary

Here is a short itinerary of the entire trip, with a little more information, in case you are looking for.

     - Day1, 25Dec19, Wed, started from Bangalore at 10 am on our drive

     - Stopped at Maharaja Grand restaurant in Mandya for lunch at about 12:30 pm

     - Checked into the Maharani's Suite room at The Green Hotel at about 2 pm

     - Looked around the interiors in the Chittaranjan Palace, the gardens, and terrace, and had a nap

     - Evening snacks at 5:45 pm at The Malgudi Coffee Shop and visit to their inhouse Library

     - 7 pm to 9 pm on a night drive in Mysore around the place and dinner at Gayathri Tiffin Room

     - 10 pm a late snack at the garden restaurant back in The Green Hotel

     - Day2, Thu, total solar eclipse around 8:30 am and complimentary breakfast at the garden restaurant

     - Checked out from The Green Hotel at 10 am, and started to Dubare via Periapatna and Kushalnagar

     - Checked into the cottage 'Chandra' at the Dubare Elephant Camp at 1 pm

     - Lunch at 1:45 pm; view point at 2:20 pm; jeep safari from 4:15 pm to 6:30 pm

     - Camp fire and snack at 6:30 pm; film show at 7:30 pm; dinner at 8:45 pm

     - Day3, Fri, Morning coffee at 6:45 am; Nature walk from 7 am to 8:30 am; breakfast at 8:30 am

     - Elephant interaction and bathing session at 9:30 am

     - Checked out from Dubare Elephant Camp JLR at 11 am, and started to Bangalore

     - Stopped at Green Coorg Spices at 11:30 am to buy Coorg Coffee powder

     - Stopped at Coorg Clay Mart near Cauvery Nisargadama at 12 noon

     - Stopped after Bylakuppe cross at Adiga's at Coorg Gateway at 1 pm for lunch

     - Stopped at Maddur Tiffanys at 4:20 pm for a snack break

     - Reached Bangalore by 7 pm

Trip Tips

• We had planned this travel date and did the bookings about 5 weeks in advance
• In terms of room type, JLR booking was fine. But The Green Hotel was running full and did not have the Princess Room we wanted. So we booked a normal suite room in the annexe block. However, luckily at the time of checkin we requested them to check for vacancies and got the Maharani's Suite in the main palace block itself.
• The Maharani's Suite however, had a poor isolation to the adjoining hall on the other side; so we the cleaning and housekeeping sounds from the other side disturbed us in the night and early morning.
• Due to the vacation timing of our trip dates 25-27Dec, we crossed through a lot of crowd everywhere. Something to be prepared for.
• Such a trip to The Green Hotel Mysore and Dubare Elephant Camp would cost about INR 9k per person including highway toll, food expenses, etc., plus the fuel expenses extra.
• While returning from Dubare via Kushalnagar towards Bangalore, you do not have to go to Mysore. Take a left at Yelawala and go towards Srirangapatna to connect directly with the Mysore Bangalore highway. The road may not be that great, but it still saves time.

Verdict

Our ratings on a scale of 5 (1 is low, 5 is high).

• The Green Hotel Mysore Maharani's Suite room: 4.5/5 
• The Green Hotel Mysore interior, decor, furnishing, etc.: 4.5/5
• Lemon Drizzle cake at The Malgudi Coffee Shop: 4.5/5  
• Khara Bath and Masala Dosa at Gayathri Tiffin Room: 4.25/5  
• Breakfast at The Green Hotel: 4/5
• Dubare Elephant Camp JLR cottage room: 4/5
• Jeep safari at JLR: 3/5
• Nature walk at JLR: 4.25/5 
• Elephant interaction session: 3/5
• Food at Dubare Elephant Camp JLR: 3.75/5
• Parking lot facility at Dubare before boarding the boat to go to JLR: 2/5

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