Wow! What a trip. Mysore is a town about 3 hours from Banagalore. The trip down allows you to experience the varied country side of India, as well as get a glimpse into other towns and rural areas of India. Although the traffice was not as congested, the honking and manuevering were exactly the same.
In Mysore we visited a Hindu Temple, a Catholic Temple, a Sultan's palace and burial ground, and the Maharajah's Summer Palace. At each stop several of us made comments to what life would be life living in the palaces. Needless to say, we would have accepted the opportunity at any time. The palaces has grand acrchitecture elements and fantastic furnishings. The summer palace held several large ball rooms (not sure what they were called) that could easily hold several hundred people.
One of our team members, Cathy, is a blond woman. As you can expect, being blonde in India creates a lot of interest by the locals. At one point Cathy and I were chatting when a young woman asked to have her picture taken with us. That one picture led to many more, but I quickly realized they did not want me in the picture. Cathy was the focal point. She was a great sport and accomodated the requests.
A fun memory was in the sovenir market outside the Summer Palace. A young man was trying to sell me a handcrafted flute as I walked through. The vendors are very persistent here, and this yougn man followed me all the way to the end of the market lowering his price. At the end I gave him a final price and as a result my young nephew Max will be able to play with an Indian flute when I get home
Neat pictures. Was really nice of you to buy Max a flute. :)
ReplyDeleteDad & Renae