We then moved on to Bangalore, where we met up with Sheila Mapes (our friend's girlfriend's mom), who hosted us at her house for three nights. And in such luxury! We enjoyed Western delights like banana bread, whole grain pasta and french toast, slept in soft, clean beds, and took hot showers in the morning. We even washed our clothes in a washing machine! During the days, Sheila and her driver Ashok took us out to see the sights of Bangalore: a huge botanical garden, a Nandi (Shiva's bull) temple, and shopping in the most cosmopolitan city in India. At night, Sheila, her husband Leigh and the three of us sat around watching TV together like one big expat family. It was really, really nice, and we are very grateful to Sheila and Leigh for their hospitality and kindness. Sheila even packed us sandwiches for the bus on the day we left!
Sheila hooked us up with two other travellers who she met in Kerala, two Canadian girls about our age who were traveling after spending three months volunteering at an orphanage. We took the bus to Mysore together yesterday, and we were going to find a hotel together, but I think their standards for accommodation were considerably higher than ours, so they ended up heading off on their own to look for a hotel. The three of us ended up finding a decent place within our budget, and spent the evening watching Independence Day on TV while I planned out our route for the next few weeks.
We've changed our itinerary several times on this trip, but for now it goes like this: we leave Mysore tomorrow, headed for Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, where we will spend a day or two before going to the hill station of Ooty. During our stay in Ooty, we will make a day trip out to Mudumalai National Park. After Ooty, we plan to head down to Indira Gandhi National Park for a day, then continue on to another hill station, Kodaikanal. From there, we will take a rather long bus ride to Kanyakumari, a temple town at the very southernmost tip of the subcontinent. Then we head back north to our last wildlife-centric stop, Periyar National Park. After that, we will visit the famous backwaters of Kerala before heading to Kochi and then, most likely, the relaxed beach state of Goa. We only have three weeks left before Jill leaves, so we are going to try to get through as much of it as possible before then, but everything seems to take longer than we think it will. Hopefully we can get through it without having to rush and without Jill missing anything important!
So, back to the present: Mysore. We ventured out this morning, headed for the Mysore Palace, but on the way we ran into a local guy named Aslam who we met the night before when he tried to help us find a hotel. He told us that he could take us to see incense being made, so we decided to postpone our trip to the palace and go with him. He took us to a little shop where we did, indeed, see incense being made. Then the owner of the shop walked us past a huge pile of incense sticks, several feet tall by several feet wide, and took us upstairs to sample a large collection of aromatherapy oils. That was a lot of fun: we sipped chai as he told us about all of the healing properties of each one and how they are to be administered, and demonstrated on me by massaging my forearm and hand with sandalwood oil (supposedly great for joint health). We also got to smell and taste some pure saffron oil, which was pretty awesome. By the end of it, our arms were all covered with many different types of oil, all of which smelled amazing - in fact, my arms still smell great. I ended up getting a small vial of lotus oil, which you use by rubbing a drop into each of your temples for relaxation and to prepare yourself for meditation. Jill got some jacaranda oil (good for the skin) and Jordan got some sandalwood incense.
After that, our friend/guide Aslam took us to a government-run silk shop, where I bought a beautiful orange scarf made from famous Mysore silk, and Jill bought a scarf and one of the most incredible saris I've ever seen. After that, he pointed us in the direction of the palace and took his leave, without asking for or even giving us the opportunity to tip him for his time. It's really nice when people are just cool to us without expecting anything in return.
We decided to stop for lunch before heading to the palace, and found a place that served delicious Andhra-style (referring to Andhra Pradesh, the state Hyderabad is in) vegetarian thalis. You begin with a banana leaf in front of you, and then the waiter comes by and heaps a variety of different stew/curry-type items on it, followed by rice. The way to eat this is just by mushing it all together with your fingers and shoveling it into your mouth. There is absolutely no civilized way to do this, but South India is really big on this way of eating. It's really messy, but delicious and kinda fun.
After some trial and error, we managed to find the way into the palace - it has several entrances, only one of which is open to the public. That was annoying, as was the rule that you aren't allowed to wear shoes inside the palace, as was the rule that you're not allowed to take cameras into the palace, which of course nobody told us until we already got there. But, the guard on duty let us bribe him for cheap in order to keep our cameras on us, and I was able to sneak a few pictures of the inside of the palace as a result. It was incredibly ornate, from its brightly colored, ornamented pillars to its chandeliers to its ceiling murals to its stained glass windows.
Tomorrow morning we are going to visit the government silk and sandalwood factories, to see how Mysore's two most famous products are made. Then, if all goes as planned, we'll be on our way to Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in the afternoon. I'm not sure how regular our internet access will be as we travel through the parks, but I'm sure I'll have lots to write about the next time I get the chance.
It's so great to hear about your experiences. It sounds like you're having a wonderful time. That palace is beautiful, as are the silks. God bless the internet!
ReplyDelete