A Sight for Mysore Eyes

We arrived in the late afternoon at Mysore, but lost no time in exploring the city. The hotels were all full and expensive, overpriced for what they are. But we luckily found a manager who gave us a (gasp!) 400Rs reduction! 

Sunset in front of Mysore Palace.

The sunsets in this region, Karnataka, are breathtaking...

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There were a lot of touts in front of the palace, promising incense, oils and weed. We ignored them as best we could, but one very insistent guy (who seemed drunk) was so offended when we asked him to shut up and go away that he started screaming at us: "INDIA IS MY COUNTRYYYYY! I WALK WHERE I WAAAANT!!!!" Well, he had a point... And for the first time ever, I think Henri was genuinely scared and pushed me to go the other way. The dude was a different level of pagal (crazy).

A little preview of the palace.

An old guy was trying to sell me his "aluminum post card," which, after some deep thinking, I realized to mean "illuminated palace post cards." There are lightbulbs all over the palace and every Sunday night, they might up the whole exterior.

And here it is in the morning!

The palace is Indian extravagance on overdrive. It was what I expected their palaces to look like, which is part Gallerie Lafayette and part Bollywood. I could imagine the royal family lounging around in the golden ballrooms. Henri thought it was a bit much, but I loved it. Too bad we were not allowed to take pictures, but everybody with us was snapping away with their cellphones.

This is Allan's joke, which Henri thought was worth doing for real.

 Punishment in the form of tiger guards.

I don't even know what this is supposed to be. Mr. Dumont has some explaining to do...

After lunch at a popular thali restaurant, we went to the market. It smelled lovely. Mysore is well-known for its hand-rolled incense (they don't sell synthetic incense here), sandalwood, and scented oils.

Henri also bought me something from Tiffany's... it is THE place to get sweets in Mysore. We got milk cake, peda, gulab jamun and jalebi :)

Then we wandered around the city on foot...

The hospital...

St. Philomena Church, build in the time of the Wodeyars.

At sunset, the church bells rang...

While the Islam call to prayer was being broadcast a few meters away.

The next day, we had booked a bus to Hampi at night and whe had the whole day to squander away, so we took our time at Domino's...

Desperate for meat, we found ourselves in a place we sort of detest.

then took a rickshaw to the rail museum.

It was cool and we took a ride in the tiny electric train around the museum garden that overlooks the real train station.

The museum also has the maharajah's old cabin.

So luxurious! Especially after travelling in the sleeper trains in India, the sight of it made me a little jealous of royalty :)

They also have Magneto's telephone!

We ended our third and last day in Mysore like we started our first day. We did so much, I could hardly believe we'd arrived just a few days before. But it also felt short. We'd been on the road for so long that sometimes we get confused about the dates or the days. It just goes so fast, so fast.