Mysore Weekend

We just heard about the crazy elephant rampage in Mysore, but we weren't there, thankfully.  Just a week and a half ago we did a weekend trip to Mysore and let me tell you, my rear was SORE, hence the name? We took a long country road dodging large pot holes, cows and sheep, slow moving tractors, and rice...yes, I

Sheep along the country road to Mysore

 said rice.  Piles of stocks where on the road and I thought a truck load had fallen out.  Our driver went full speed ahead over the piles and I held my breath as it banged and clanged under the car.  It made quite a commotion and was very bumpy.  "What in the world happend back there?" I asked the driver who was completely unphased.  He explained that the villagers use the passing autos to remove the chaff  (the hard shell) and later they come back to collect the grain.  They expertly get out of the way as cars and trucks drive over their grain and then scurry back again to shovel grain into bags. That's so resourceful... but a little disgusting at the same time.  So their rice has tire tread and maybe a few splatters of engine oil?

Cocoon Market where our driver got the cocoons

Our driver made a quick stop at a cocoon factory, told us to stay in the car, and a few minutes later brought back little surprises for each of the children...silk worm cocoons! It was a little creepy when  one of them started quivering.  I imagined a big moth-like creature emerging and flying around the room in the middle of the night so I gently placed it on the balcony outside our hotel room.  It was still quivering the next day but I have no idea what happened after we left.  It's (dead) brothers and sisters came back home with us to Bangalore.

A couple of the silk worm cocoons.  They are so big!

The drive should not be have been long judging by the kilometers, maybe three hours, but we left by 8:30 in the morning and didn't get to the hotel until 2p.m.  Needless to say, the kids couldn't "hold it" and I was dreading a potty stop at a local roadside shanty.  Just at the right time, in the middle of nowhere, our driver pulls over to a coffee shop, almost Starbucks style.  Yay! Clean toilets never looked so good.   

Found a coffee shop along the roadside for a coffee and most important, clean toilets!

  

Long country road from Bangalore to Mysore...

We are admireing the detailed carvings, notice we had to remove our shoes even in a temple that isn't active.

Intricate carvings on every inch of this temple thousands of years old.

This is what the entrance looks like.  It's really beautiful architecture.

After the coffee we detoured a little to hit our first destination, Keshava temple.  It's not an active temple but it's got amazing stone carvings and details after so many centuries.  It was built in early 1200 A.D. and it's in remarkable shape, check out this link on wikipedia: Keshava Temple

After the temple we headed into Mysore where we stayed at the Lalitha Mahal Palace hotel.  It's in need of a facelift since it's feeling pretty tired but if you like historical places and palaces then this was a good place to stay. The Maharja built the palace to host a VIP guest back in the 1930's.  Mysore used to be the capital of the state of Karnataka before it was moved to Bangalore.  That being said, it seems to be the last connection the Indian's have to royalty so the city and it's palaces are pretty popular places to visit.

Mysore Palace view from left corner.
 It's not the Taj, but second most visited location in all of India.

After a refreshing lunch we headed to the famous Mysore Palace, the second most visited place in India.  The Taj Mahal is the first.

The crowd alone was surprising.  Apparently it was the last weekend before kids went back to school so everyone was doing last minute vacationing.  Thousands of Indians must have been there!  Now imagine standing in line to get tickets and then finally arriving at the entrance only to find out you have to remove your shoes.  Ugh!  That pretty much takes the fun out of it right there.

The one good thing we did was hire a "tour guide" for about $10 and it was well worth it simply because he got us through the lines faster, lifting those guide ropes and sweet talking the guards into letting us pass.  The palace tour itself was a disappointment and had very little to see but at least I can say we've  been there, done that.

The highlight of the trip was after a full day and an evening of shopping we drove by the palace grounds one last time to see what we always saw in pictures.  On the weekends the palace lights up more lights than I've ever seen apart from the "Parade of Lights" at Disney World.  I suppose the trip was worth it for that.