Mysore

On Sunday morning around 8am we left for Mysore, which is about a 2 hour cab ride from Bangalore.  The hotel arranged a package for us so that a cab would drive us to Mysore and take to see as many of the sights as we could handle in a day (for a great deal, by the way) and return us to the hotel later in the evening.  Mysore is known for a few things.  The most notable of these is the fabulous Mysore Palace.  Mysore is also known for having a very concentrated expertise in yoga and ayurveda, which is becoming quite a draw to visitors from around the world.  Also, there are several magnificent temples in Mysore and along the route from Bangalore to Mysore.  We stopped at several of these.  As you can see from the photos below, we had a blast.

The only downside of the trip was that the cab ride, while only a 2 hour ride to Mysore, took almost 4 hours on the return trip to Bangalore due to the insane traffic I have discussed on here before.  Though I slept for a lot of that 4 hours, it was certainly not good for the neck to be sitting or even leaning on the window for that long.  The morning after was rough.  I am now writing this on Tuesday morning and feeling much better.  Yesterday (Monday) we took it very easy; I got a massage and that was pretty much all I did.

Our driver for the day.  I just asked Kei if she could remember his name.  Her answer is the same as mine.  We both suck.  

Our driver stopped to get breakfast.  While we waited we were kind of entertained by this guy who cut open a coconut so we could drink the juice/milk -  it wasn't very milky at all.   

Bingo!  Funky Masala.  Gotta have the funk.

Also, while waiting for our driver to finish his breakfast, we met these kids who were picking berries off this tree and eating them.  I tried it too.  They were really yummy. 

I believe this temple is called Sri Ranga Patan, but don't quote me. 

More Sri Ranga Patan

The soft collar was getting extremely hot at this point.  Luckily I had this nice little towel to wipe sweat off with.  I lost and found that towel like 4 times throughout the day. 

This area was at the Nimishamba Temple; it is actually the convergence of two (or maybe three) different rivers. These round saucer looking things are boats, I suppose.  I convinced Kei to take a little ride withe me in one.  

This was awesome!

Though Kei was initially reluctant, she was happy I talked her into it.  

The ship's captain...so to speak

So apparently, this was the main goal of the ride - to touch this monument and pray to it.  I think Kei and I both prayed that we make it through Bangalore traffic for the rest of our stay in India without any major mishaps.  

Returning to shore

After we got out of the boat, we discovered a bunch of monkeys hanging around.  They are not afraid of people, so you can really get pretty close.  

The Summer Palace (I believe it may be known as Tipu Sultan's Summer Place) - the palace and garden were awesome.  By the way, we were not allowed to take photos inside of any of the temples or the palace. 

Chillaxing with a bull

A peek inside of Chamundeshwari Temple 

Four happy monkeys

Chamundeshwari Temple

View of Mysore from above

This looked extremely inviting on this hot, hot day

More monkeys

On the way down from the big hill (where Charmundeshwari sits), we saw this family of 5 packed onto what looked like about a 100cc motorcycle.  You can barely see the top of the head of the second child behind the man in the blue shirt.  Helmets?  We don't need no stinking helmets! 

Lunch at a very local restaurant that our driver chose.  It was awesome! 

I think I actually prefer eating with my hands

Entrance to Mysore Palace

Mysore Palace - too bad no photos are allowed on the inside, because it was pretty damn amazing in there.

This kind of reminds me of the one in front of Panthers Stadium.  

Kei utilizing the panoramic function on her fancy camera at Mysore Palace 

Again with the panoramic