Emily in India

On May 25, I finally took the road trip to spend a day in Mysuru. Since I got to India, everyone talks about Mysuru – the palace, the zoo, temples, etc. I don’t care for zoos and temples aren’t a huge draw for me any more (more on that in a bit) but the palace and light show has always sounded cool

It was a 3-hour drive from Bengaluru; Mallappa, Savi, and I left early in the morning and arrived in the late morning, a little ahead of schedule. I hadn’t previously cared to see the main temple because while temples are very cool and the history is wild, I’ve seen many, many temples and it just isn’t at the top of my travel priority list anymore. Mallappa and Savi really wanted to go because it is a special temple where a lot of Hindu’s go to pray and ask for blessings. As they hold out hope that her dad will agree that they can be married, they’ve visited the temple a couple times in recent months.

So with the extra time, I agreed to go see it and really had planned to go see it, and move on. The travel up the hill leading to the temple was insane. I wasn’t keep track of time but IT LOOK FOREVER. On more than one occasion, I said, “I can get out and just walk to the temple, take a look, and come back.” But they weren’t having it. Eventually we made it to the temple, parked in the parking garage (yes, this was surprising to me, too) and walked up the crowded hillside street to the temple. Because I hadn’t traveled in India for the last few weeks, I think I must’ve forgotten just how crowded and crazy it is all the time. Mallappa and Savi wanted to go close to the temple but I was not interested in weaving through the crowd so stood back. As with any other time I am caught standing alone, I started to get people walking up to me wanting to shake my hand and take pictures with me. On grandmother brought her granddaughter to me and said, “It’s her birthday” as if I were a clown or healer. But of course, I turned it on and asked her how old she was, her name, etc.

When Savi and Mallappa were done doing their blessings, we made our way back to the car. Next on the list was the zoo. The only reason I cared to see the zoo was because it has sloth bears and I’ve never heard of nor seen sloth bears. I was intrigued! We drove around looking for parking – god, there were just so many people everywhere. It was a beautiful day and I was reminded later that since it was the end of May, all of the kids were out of school for summer break. A popular time for family travel and Mysore is definitely a top destination for Karnatakans. Anyway, we got to the zoo (with the rest of Karnataka, seemingly). I had planned to go straight to the sloth bears and straight out of the zoo but the only way to the sloth bears – and the only way around the zoo – was around the path that encircled the entire zoo. So, we walked. And walked. We stopped so that Mallappa and Savi could get ice cream and again, I was hounded by people asking to take pictures with me. We kept on through the zoo, saw the sloth bears (suuuuper cute and playful with one another), and left.

Another expat (Victoria) told me about sand museum and seashell museum in Mysuru so while it was not on any list of ‘must dos’ in Mysore, I wanted to go. There’s only so much history a girl can absorb before she wants kitschy art, ya know? Boy oh boy, I don’t know what I was expecting but THIS was not THAT. The sand museum was behind an unassuming store front and had super cheap tickets. It was outside with some covering so we walked around a center display, on the outskirts of which were very neat and intricate sand sculptures. The sculptures were themed: Sea life, Disney, Christmas, Halloween/ goth, birds, etc. It was hilarious.

We moved onto the seashell museum which was a tad bit more of a museum than the sand room. Inside was filled with truly incredible sculptures made with seashells. There was a huge church, Ganesha, the Taj Mahal, flower arrangements, etc. The facades of all were entirely seashell. The museum also featured the women, who in the 80s started this art. It was colorful and fascinating – a great stop, if you ask me.

Onto the palace!

I loved the Bangalore palace when I went (my second weekend in India) and everyone has said that it doesn’t even compare to Mysore’s, so I was really excited. We wanted to get to the palace in time to have a walk around before the palace closed and the light show started. After taking off our shoes and placing them in shoe bins, we stood in the looooong line to get into the palace and finally made it in. The panic set in pretty soon after. There were people everywhere, from wall to wall. We moved in a pack, there were no exits, and no way to move outside of the pack. It was hot in the rooms that were closed off to outside. I admired the tile work and ornate arches, the beautiful colors and paintings and kept my breath steady so that I wouldn’t have a panic attack. The crowd moved slowly to see royal chairs and mirrors behind glass along the tour. At one point I turned to Mallappa and said, “can we get out of here? I want to get out of here.” and he broke the news that there was no getting out until the end. Which eventually came.

It felt so good to catch my breath outside, find my shoes, have an ice cream, and take a rest. We sat on a curb on the palace grounds people-watching and talking. We had something like 3 hours before the lightshow. Honestly, I just didn’t care too much about it so when it started to sprinkle, I decided I could find a recording of the lightshow on YouTube, and suggested we head back to Bangalore.

**as I write this, it has started a light pour of rain here! It is so beautiful against the trees outside my balcony. The rain sounds so soft and light but a lot is coming down. I took a walk in a nearby park today, the weather was sooo nice but it did seem that maybe rain was a’ comin’. And here is it. :-)**

Not surprisingly, the drive back to Bangalore took hours longer than it should have. But we made it! I had officially checked the Mysuru box.