Tuesday, March 8
Hassan to Mysore – 120 K
There were 8 of us who opted for a taxi ride to the hotel in Mysore. The cumulative effect of the distance and the heat has taken its tole on some of us and we opted for an extra day off from riding. The hotel is nice and once the luggage was unloaded from the luggage truck, the lobby was packed with bags. This is a picture of ALL our bags, both our permanent bags and our daily bags:
Here’s a sign in our hotel room that you just don’t see every day:
We took a tuk tuk to get a coffee and see a few sights of Mysore… coffee first of course! The second stop was at the Cathedral of St. Philomena. The buildings here are relatively new… this church for example was completed in 1952. Here’s the cathedral:
We never know what surprise might await us here! After leaving the cathedral, our driver stopped along the roadside and motioned for us to look at something. There were 2 ladies working just inside the doorway off the street. They were making incense sticks. Per day, they make 5000 sticks each and earn only 200 rupees – that’s equivalent to about $5.
They take a carbon powder, mix it with water into a paste then roll the paste on the sticks. These sticks are then placed out in the sun to dry before adding the scented powder coating on the outside. Here are the ladies rolling the sticks:
We followed our taxi driver up the stairs to where they sell the essential oils. Here is the young man selling his incense sticks and essential oils. I did buy some lavender oil… J
Our next stop was the Amba Vilas Palace. The original palace was made mostly of wood and burned down from a kitchen fire but it’s replacement is stunning! We took a tour but were not allowed to take our cameras inside. I only have pictures from outside. We had an unbelievable experience going from one end of this place to another figuring out that we couldn’t take our cameras inside… (craziness!). To make a long story short, we took our outside pictures, then checked our shoes (can’t wear shoes inside), then went through security screening – they told us we couldn’t have cameras inside and then sent us ¼ mile back to the entrance (after getting our shoes back) to check our cameras at the entrance. THEN we had to walk the ¼ mile again, repeat the shoe check-in, security scan, get our audio tour guides submitting my drivers license as collateral and entering the building. I’m sure glad it was worth the effort… we made a suggestion to put the camera check-in at the shoe check-in (it seemed a reasonable request!). J If you have a moment and can look at pictures of this place online, it really is worth it!
Here is one of the tiger statues out front:
The view from the front of the palace – where the big events took place.
After the palace we did a little shopping then came back to the hotel to relax and eat. I’m happy that we have one more day tomorrow to relax. J
