A communication with a friend currently in Karnataka brought back memories of my own trip to Mysore in India last summer. Among many wow moments, ones stands tall; an exploratory visit to the Green Hotel aka Chittaranajan Palace. Erstwhile home of the princesses of the Wodeyar family, this quaint old mansion has been restored by a UK charity as a model of sustainable tourism.
The main building is two-storeyed and houses the heritage wing replete with drawing rooms, stained glass windows, wooden staircases and verandahs.
As viewed from the huge front lawn flanked by pergolas, extremely popular with visitors for that al fresco dining feel.
One of the drawing rooms on the upper level entraps a ray of the setting sun…
A new wing has been added recently to the heritage property and offers a comfortable stay at affordable rates.
The high point of that visit remains the whimsically named Malgudi Cafe, a refreshing space partly open to sky, that serves the most amazing cakes and quiches with local coffee.
The lemon drizzle cake: finger-lickin’ good!
If you find yourself in the neighbourhood, your elevenses just got better!
Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu, travel enthusiast and the author of Adrift: A junket junkie in Europe is the youngest of four siblings born into an aristocratic family of Punjab. Dogged in her resistance to conform, and with parental pressure easing sufficiently over the years, she had plenty of freedom of choice. And she chose travel.
She was born in Shimla, and spent her formative years at their home, Windsor Terrace, in Kasumpti while schooling at Convent of Jesus & Mary, Chelsea. The irrepressible wanderlust in her found her changing vocations midstream and she joined Singapore International Airlines to give wing to her passion. She has travelled extensively in Asia, North America, Australia, Europe, South Africa and SE Asia; simultaneously exploring the charms within India.
When she is not travelling, she is writing about it. Over the past decade or so, she has created an impressive writing repertoire for herself: as a columnist with Hindustan Times, as a book reviewer for The Tribune and as a contributor to travel magazines in India and overseas. Her work-in-progress, the documenting of colonial heritage along the Old Hindustan-Tibet Road, is an outcome of her long-standing romance with the Himalayas.
