Mysore

So I didn't get a chance to write about our trip to Mysore yesterday, simply because I came home and fell into bed, sweat, funk, and all.  Our day started at a brisk 5am, where we then traveled for three hours by extra small and steamy bus to Mysore, a great cultural center down the road from Bangalore. Over the centuries, Mysore has been home to sultans, maharajahs, and enough hindu temples to make a roomful of Evangelist scurry for their bibles, but because we only had a day, there were just a few greatest hits to our trip.

The first temple we visited was at least 900 years old, and apparently didn;t allow photography inside.  I didn't realize this, nor delete my pictures afterwards, so please don't step on me when I am reborn as a dung beetle.  When we got out of the van, we were swarmed by youths leading beautiful painted and flowered horses, promising us "bootiful women" a ride up the treacherous steps of the temple.  Halfway up we realized the price was actually 600 rupees, and once we refused to pay we suddenly got less beautiful and considerably more suitable for schlepping.  The temple itself was huge though, and it was a fun Indiana Jones moment to wander around in the dim stone walls for a while.

Our next stop was the summer Palace of the Tippu Sultan.  This time, the no camera rule was enforced with a security checkpoint, so alll my memories of the place are not easily shareable.  It was big and ornate and painted, with lots of beautifully carved everything topped off by a gorgeous celling dipping with lots.  The balconies were my favorite.  It's so easy to imagine some beautiful princess being serenaded to by her lover there, in the middle of the (seriously) Peacock Garden.  Ah.

The next temple that we saw that day was located at an elevation of 3,000 ft, on top of one of seven sacred hills of southern India.  The temple itself was crowded, but the view over the side was spectacular.  I paid a few rupees for a blessing, then spent a little while wandering around with some fresh nice coconut.

Of course, the guilt and gold MacDaddy of India was next, also known as the Mysore palace.  Google Image Mysore palace.  It is gigantic, and beautiful, and the most decadent place I have ever been in my life, coming from a girl who has spent some time in Eastern Orthodox Monastaries.  Wow.  I also got to ride a camel there, which isn't the exotic beast that most Indians are hoping American girls come abroad to experience.

 The honeymoon period is defiantly over for me as of yesterday in regards to being a novelty.  Yesterday was the first time we were at a lot of really really touristy places, and myself and the girls I were with were just harassed.  Men kept making kiss faces when we walked by, or would "rub" past in the most inappropriate way.  My friend Katie had a man literally grab her face and try to kiss her, in front of his buddies.  Even if it isn't sexually, we are still targeted.  Vendors and peddlers kept pushing us, literally, and some actually followed us out to our van, where they would walk around the outside and tap on the glass, trying to get us to buy something.  I never felt physically threatened,  but it was still pretty draining, and was kind of a dammper on a really great day.