Mysore

March 15, 2008

We are now in Mysore, heading up to the North of India. Next stop is Calcutta, don't know what to expect. We took a private mini-bus bus from OOty OOty to Mysore, and as the Lonely Planet travel book calls them, "wrecks on wheels", it was quite an adventure. First off, Indians must be all tiny (Salerno size) because I couldn't even sit in the seats without my knees hitting my chin, and the bus went down 36 hairpin turns, so I had to reach out and grab the chair to my left and then the chair to my right every time we made a curve. The scene was beautiful as we were going down the Mountains, cuz in the plains just below the sun was beaming down through the clouds, and it didn't look real at all, like the painted backdrop to the Wizard of Oz or something.
On one of the curves there was a line of monkeys, just waiting in a row. We didn't stop though, I guess they have to wait for the monkey bus. Yea, the ride was a lot of fun! And then we drove through the National Park that we wanted to go through, and we saw spotted deers that looked like Bambi, boars (Lucio), peacocks, and ELEPHANTS!!! Okay, so the elephants were all tied up next to a building, but we saw ELEPHANTS!!!

Next day we went to the Royal Palace in Mysore, a super huge splenderiffic building with four ornate gates, seven temples inside the outer courtyard, an inner courtyard, a golden throne, a hall made of stain glass, huge portraits of royalty, a gigantic public hall with painted bulbous halls, and a private hall with ivory doors and sandalwood carved ceilings. And they charged us every 25 steps that we took. Camera charge, information tips, temple tips. And you know what, I mean, I was impressed and all, it was a royal palace and shit, but big whoop. We didn't even get to the private chambers cuz we would have had to spend more to get in. It's just weird to go into something like that knowing that there are deformed beggars lining the outside of the gates. But later on, we went to the Museum of Brotherhood. And THAT was AMAZING! The painting /sculpture/ fiber works were all from tribal lands and tribal people, directly, and they had a sculptress from West Bengal making a giant sculpture out of mud and hay, which she then would fire later on (maybe, there was some communication breakdown happening). And the paintings were SO colorful and transcending and simple and complex and funny and childlike beautiful and full of cultures and traditions and ceremonies, and yea, we dug it. Okay, so granted, this is definitely more our cup of tea than snooty royalty sitting on a throne with a lapdog and a gold turban, but the 2nd Museum was free. Need I say more.

Today we visited a temple on a mountain outside the city where there was a crazy procession of music and people bringing around the statue of the local Deity, and then we walked down 1000 stairs. True pilgrims walk UP the stairs, but I guess we are still Westerners, after all.

Shawn