Wow, Mysore is a big change for us. having just been in the smallish town of Madurai, with its focus seemingly entirely on the temple, and then in two very rural homestay situations, to be in such a lovely functional city as Mysore is really fun. Mysore was the capital of a very successful princely state. The Rajas here ruled for hundreds and hundreds of years, broken briefly by about 30 years of moslem rule in the 1600s or something, and they had a lot of wealth. They every year for 400 years have had a procession which used to be for the Raja and to entertain his people he imported very special treats, like camels, and apparently spared little expense. so it's quite famous and remains so today although the Raja became only a governor in 1947. People come from ll over south India. To Party! yes it's a quasi religious festivl but mainly it's fun. we just finished seeing the parade, I cannot describe how many rhythms, costumes, drums, dance troups, floats, horse troops, elephants make up the mix. It's great and it's all in front of this incredibly fairy tale palace which is in a huge walled compound with many other palaces and temples. it's grand.
outside the palace area, the city spreads out in spokes and gardens, a design dating to the brief period of islamic rule, it's amazingly easy to walk and explore. and the climate's not bad either. in the mornings we have gone out to interesting sites nearby by auto riksha, the country side is pretty.
The women are lovely of course. The children are enchanting. the men are ok. I've noticed by and large they are very nice but there are just a few of them who do seem to leer a little bit when they don't think you are watching and sometimes also sort of paw their crotch area while leaning close to you. I don't know if it's that's common I've read in India it can be hard to travel alon e if you are female. enough of that.
we found some really good food here! we loved the vegetarian food in Tamil Nadu and we've had excellent food at the homestays, and we had AWFUL food for 2 tmeals here at a place called Park Place. don't go there. but then we found the Dynasty. we just let the waiters select for us. Incredible. a fish with a cashew spicy thick sauce, a chicken dish with lots of lime or lemon; that was lunch; evenings they have a chinese style cook and he made some flat Malaysian noodles with veggies, awesome, and a spicy fish again. Marinated. Both meals were the quality of Ajanta in Berkeley.
Tonight we hope to go to a hotel, the Orchid/Metropole, in the palace the Raja built for his British guests a century or more ago. We have found some nice silk here. Craig went to the local branch of FabIndia and got a really beautiful turquoise/blue striped cottn shirt, excellent quality with a sheen. really nice.
Every day I have been wearing the Salwar Kameez outfits I bought in Madurai and I feel much better - less like I stand out - especially when I see the European tourists in their shorts. So ugly!
we didn't mention the Gold Card. An expense of the Madurai festival is that to avoid crowds you are best off buying a quite expensive 3 day ticket called the gold card. For the evening music festivals, this literally gets you in to the very front section over a red carpet and onto some soft red couches! the feeling of luxury sitting on these couches and gazing up at the palace while watching musicians who seem close enough to touch was superb.
However odd it seems to be buying such luxury, the alternative of wrestling with Indian crowds is worth avoiding.
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