Wow we only have about 3 days left here. SO sad. Today we are back in Tamil Nadu.- in Tanjore and then we hope to get on a train back to chennai but we are waitlisted.
We had some nice highlights our last day in the green city of Mysore. we wandered over to the large vegetables market and met a charming young kid, Akbar, who promptly ensnared us with his smile and got us to go watch him make incense which was of course to take us to his family's oils shop!which dates back 3 or 4 generations. We actually had a grand time, sniffing and testing wonderful fragrances and being charmed into buying little bottles of this and that. Black Jasmine, Watermelon, Sandalwood. they do smell better than they sound!
We also went into the Raja's palace which was exquisite, huge arches and ceilings and lots of turquoise, silver, gold and lots of red carpeting. Gold thrones, that kind of thing. Then, trying to escape the huge palace area grounds, we followed some folks behind a building and we were in the elephant stables! The elephants were still painted from yesterday's parade, and many people were checking them out and the Mahouts and their families who live right there (being an elephant handler is an inherited trade) were allowing people to stroke them, sit on them, ride on them. All very happy until somecop decided it was a bad idea and shooed us out. Shooed me out in particular by thwacking me on the back with a piece of cane or bamboo or something. was kind of funny actually. Then we watched some of the other elephants being bathed and cossetted and hand fed little bundles of hay. they really are beautiful animals. when you are eye to eye with an elephant and can't read its emotions and aren't sure how to communicte it can be a little scary! have great pictures of little five years olds so very scared to touch it and reaching out and touching and leaping back.
we continued to enjoy the cool fresh day there and ate some more fabulous food at Dynasty, this time lamb 'rogan gosh' and chicken/murgh chat paddi. all I remember is lovely deep orange brown caramel color on one dish and a redder spicier color on another.
then, another overnight train. we have learned a lot about the trains: how to find out where your particular carriage is going to be is a big one so you don't make mad dashes along the track. this train was an overnight 2AC. All the trains unfortunately are very dirty theynever wash them but the dirt is a dry old kind of dirt and so not too bad. the actual chairs and beds are quite clean, just not the walls and floors and windows. The porters bring clean sheets, you have a pillow and blanket of unclear status but which seem clean, there are lights which take some learning, there are fans, there is air con -- SORT of. we descended down into the hot flats of Tamil Nadu and it was one warm night!
We are now in Tanjore or thanjur, every town has several ways to spell names based on how the English used to try to standardize it and then how the various languages reclaimed the names. We had a fabulous early morning at the beautiful templehere that dates 1000 years this september. Craig is posting pix I see. It's a bit warm here and defintely there is not as muchmoney as in Mysore - the saris women wear are quite different, the ones for sale are no longer the very fine wedding silk saris or even sophisticated prints they are more like ordinary fabricyoumight see in the US (for the first time; til now all sari stores have been a treat to gaze at.)
The town also has a terrific, if run down, palace, with thick walls and moorish arches which capture the wind just right. and an AMAZING museum of the lovely bronze statues and carvings from the Cholan empire in about 1400. . THese statues are so lifelike, they look like greek statues kind of! or michelangelo kind of. beautiful. we have many pictures.
It being hot, tomorrow we are hiring a car and driver for $40 to go to a bunch of places andhopefully see a little countryside! Among the treats we expect are another incredible temple built by the same Raja Raja who built the temple here, some temples with fabulous carving still in the site, and a village where they still prepare the bronze statues by making a detailed wax sculpture, burying it in clay, and then heating it til the wax melts. basedon how I feel today actually, I do NOT understand how the wax isn't melted to start with! and THEN we may be going to the town market which specializes in excellent cosmetic jewelry! I already bought some 'emerald' jewelry today.
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