Minnesota invades Mysore!

We did so much yesterday that it doesn’t even feel like it really happened. Here are a few highlights from our local sight seeing day in Mysore:

-Started out our day at 7am to visit the Shri Chamundeshwari temple located at the peak of Chamundi Hills. Definitely an experience I won’t forget, especially since we had to remove our shoes outside to walk through the temple and its surroundings. It was bad foresight to wear flip flops that day…without socks. I think I’ve already used half my bottle of Purel on my feet since then.

-Yoga at the SDM Institute with Professor Dwarankanath.

-Tour of the Mysore Palace. There are a lot of contrasting words that can describe the palace; beautiful, magnificent, ostentatious, gaudy. Regardless of what anybody’s initial impressions are, it is a historical gem in Mysore that reflects its colorful days of maharajas and royalty. Unfortunately, we couldn’t wear shoes here either. Mental note: contact Mayo Clinic when I return to the United States and ask if I can have my feet amputated and replaced with clean ones.

-Journey to Srirangapattnam to visit Tipu Sultan’s palace and bird sanctuary. We were able to get on a boat ride around the sanctuary and get uncomfortably close to live crocodiles. I faintly remember a comment about how the famous Indian headless crocodile eats through his…well, you know.

-Walk through KRS dam and the Brindavan Gardens. At the dam, we saw a man who was seriously over 8 feet tall. Gene tried to shake his hand but it got engulfed in the black hole of his palm. When we got there, I was so thirsty that I summoned the courage (or stupidity) to eat a slice of watermelon from one of the street vendors. I’ll let you know how that turns out tomorrow.

-Back to the Mysore Palace to see the night lighting. This was really awesome. There were so many lights that it drowned out all of the surrounding city noise and ambience. Absolutely beautiful. On the way back home, I had 50 rupees (about $1.25) in my wallet and decided that I wanted to buy a sandalwood box to bring back home. Street vendor asking price was 650 rupees. 5 minutes of haggling later, Karl and I left with 2 sandalwood boxes for 92 rupees. Don’t you love the art of negotiation?

It goes without saying that I was slightly tired and slept like a baby all night. Once I get all of my pictures from the digital camera onto my computer, I'll post some new ones up!