Saturday was a pretty interesting day. Sudesh, Rajiv, and I went to Mysore, which is a town about 80 files to the west. I to to see some of the India countryside, finally, and it is beautiful. Much what I imagine southeast Asia to be.
Kris and Anunda arranged a car and driver for us to take us to Mysore (thanks very much guys), and it picked us up at our homes/hotels early (7 AM for me). We got onto the highway to Mysore, which is not really an Interstate as much as a two lane divided highway we have in the US. We stopped for a traditional breakfast of Idly and Vaya with coffee. The cocoon looking thing is the Idly - it is wrapped in a long leaf. It is basically like a very light bread. I decided to brave the coffee after my friends explained it is boiled (percolated) here, so it is safe to drink. I had it with cream and it was very sweet and rivalled anything at Starbucks.
We got to Mysore in about 2 hours and first stopped at a large, Christian church that looked like most cathedrals we have in the US. From there, we went to the palace, which is the big attraction in Mysore. It was amazingly ornate on the inside and unfortunately, camera's are not allowed, so I was not able to take pictures. I have included here some pictures I again shamelessly stole from the official Mysore Palace Website of the interior rooms. The outside pictures I took myself.
I think it was much more ornate and gilded than what I saw in Versailles, in Paris. The "Sun King", King Louis XIV of France, had nothing on the Maharajah's of India when it came to palaces.The grounds were very nice as well.
One point to note about going to the palace is that there is a 20 rupee price for locals and a 200 rupee price for foreigners. Welcome to India. It was well worth the $3.80 to get into the park (plus 20 rupees or 38 cents to have someone watch your shoes while you are in the palace (again no shoes allowed). Taking of your shoes in India is a sign of respect for the place you are - be it temple, palace, or someone's home. Also, don't bother with paying a "guide" at the palace unless you want the history of everything. You can find your way around by yourself and guides are expensive, even the licensed ones.
After our walk through of the palace, we saw an elephant out on the grounds and went to investigate. We found they were offering rides on elephants and camels, so...
Let me say this about riding on elephants and camels... it is not a comfortable ride.
The elephant, which the man steered with by putting his feet on its ears, lumbered slowly and the people on top (myself, Sudesh, and Rajiv) lurched side to side with every step. Don't ride an elephant after a big meal.
The camel just plain hurt. The saddle is not comfortable and it bounces up and down. Its fortunate that Denise and I are done having kids if you know what I mean.
After limping back to entrance we walked through an open air bazaar selling trinkets to tourists. As the only white person around, I was a beacon of millions of kilowatts and street vendors from as far away as Egypt seem to descend upon with a furor and zeal rarely seen outside of religious cults. Here is a hint for future travelers. Wear sunglasses so no vendor see you look at them or their wares, and do not speak or acknowledge their existence in anyway. These are things I learned after the fact. When we pushed our way through the throng of vendors that encircled us and got to our car, they were literally pushing stuff in through the windows of the car. One guy wanted to sell me a flute for 100 rupees. It soon became 2 for a hundred, then 3... as we were pulling out of the lot this guy had 5 flutes in his hand through the window of the car while running along side of it. I think he almost got hit as the driver floored it. I looked at Rajiv and Sudesh and they busted out laughing (the driver too). Take this advice - never speak to a street vendor unless you are buying something. Ever.
After that, we proceed to a nice lunch with a couple of beers and off we drove to the wild bird sanctuary. It was 200 rupees for me (as listed on the board) and 40 for my friends. Then we each paid 20 rupees (40 cents) for a seat on a big, covered row boat that takes you around the lake where you can get close enough to the birds (and crocodiles) for pictures.
We did see one crocodile on the bank, but I could not get close enough for pictures. I did get some fairly nice bird snaps though.
Having borrowed Kris Nair's telephoto zoom lense for my camera was a huge benefit. I am going to have to get one of these myself. The image stabilization was well worth it when hand holding a zoom lense on a moving, rocking boat.
By the time we got back to the car and on our way, it was starting to get dark and we were all pretty tired. I was hoping to make it to the hilly areas before dark so I could get some more pictures of the countryside, but unfortunately we could not beat the sun and it was dusk by the time we got to anything scenic. The picture to the side is the best I could do in the low light from a moving car (again, the lense was awesome).
Well, that was it for the day. The taxi dropped me off at the hotel at about 9 PM, so after 14 hours out and exploring, it was time for a shower and bed. All in all, a great day.
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