Mysore - The Sights

The main reason to go to Mysore, was to see the palace there. While not the Taj Majal (what is?), it was relatively close and supposed to be nice. It was OK. The grounds and palace are huge, but I was disappointed by the upkeep. They need to spend some money on this place before it falls down. There was peeling paint everywhere. You can't take pictures inside, so you have to check your camera at the gates.

The other interesting thing was you needed to remove your shoes to enter. I guess this is done so that all the shoes do not wear down the floors, some of which were beautifully tiled. But what cracked me up is that the cleaning people were using these grass brooms to beat, and I mean beat, the dust off the furniture and statues there. I can't believe that does not do more damage than people walking around in shoes.

The Palace

I got to ride an elephant

Mysore - "Will you please go away!!!!!"

One of the attractions in Mysore is the market there.

It was so cool walking around looking at the wares the vendors were selling. There were spices,

powdered dyes,

flowers for special occasions,

and fruits and vegetables.

While the atmosphere was just as expected, vendors calling out to buy their stuff, I had one man follow me around for 10 minutes trying to sell me these cheap looking and sounding wooden flutes. The best part was he was showing me how each one worked. He would not go away, I tried being nice, not so nice and rude. Nothing worked. Finally, Cheryl said to ignore him. The fact that I was responding to him meant I was interested. Well even ignoring him did not work. It wasn't until we left the market and walked to our car that he finally gave up. Persistent little bugger!

Mysore - The Trip to Mysore

Cheryl suggested a trip to Mysore to get out of Bangalore and see some more of the country. The Taj Majal was out because it required a flight and overnight stay. Too much time required for a two week visit. Mysore is not close, 3 hours each way, but doable in one day. Fellow expats, Monica and Emma decided to join us. At 6:45 am with pillows, bread basket and bottled water packed we headed out. The good new about leaving so early was that traffic was pretty light. The bad news was that our driver was one of those people that drive right up to lights, traffic back-ups, road blocks and speed bumps (Right don't get me started!) at full speed, then slams on the breaks at the last minute. So we are on the Bangalore-Mysore road cruising at 100 kph (about 62 mph) when we come up to the first roadblock. The police set up these barriers so that all the traffic has to wind around the barriers going from full speed, two lanes to no speed one lane. It's crazy! The we are at full speed again and come up to a speed bump. I assume that these are in place because we were approaching populated areas, but who knows. I couldn't count how many roadblocks and speed bumps we hit on out trip. But for each one it was the same, wait to the last minute and slam on the brakes. The scenery was interesting. There were sugarcane fields being harvested and rice paddies being planted. That was surprising to me, I think of that mainly in Asia. Who knew?