Mysore and the S place

Yes, we had trouble pronouncing again. Varnasi was a bit tough to get to and all the trains were sold out. So we decided on Mysore, a smaller town outside of Bangalore. We heard there wasn't a ton to do there aside from a really cool palace, so Priz pulled out her Lonely Planet and found the smallest village around! As Peter and I were driving down in a scary cab with our driver from the airport, and his very own brother who he picked up on the side of the road, Priz and her two visting friends were getting massaged--So not fair.

Yeah, car ride. Really nice road, like better than roads in some parts of California (well, maybe that's an overstatement) but every time there was some semblance of a town, even just a hut that sells sugar cane juice, there was a speed bump. And usually our driver slowed down. But as soon as Peter and I had a good laugh over the idea of him not slowing down and going flying, he did(n't). Not sure if that was on purpose or not. He also thought it would be cool to make the road like a disco--and by that I mean turning on and off his lights, not just his brights, but his whole lights. It was especially fun on the road through the woods to our yoga retreat place, complete darkness, he got such a kick out of it.



Anyway, onto more fun things, our cool cabin where we snuck in beers before bed. Wake up to 7:30 am Ayurvedic massages. Very interesting concept. Take off all your clothes, lie on a wooden table while two (not just one) women smear oil all over you. Actually quite relaxing, and the two people thing means there is symetry. I even got my face massaged. Then after you get to sit in a steamer--It was like a big wooden tanning booth only for team, and your head sticks out so you don't get too hot.

The rest of the day was spent wandering around the summer palance in Srirangapatnam (the S place)



and then the small village.


We had lunch at a place similar to the National Hindu Hotel, only this one wasn't quite as tasty--still yum, and fun times eating thalis with hands.

After packing up our stuff from the Yoga retreat, we piled into a true mini van and headed to Mysore, and of course, since Peter and I were in the car, some guy hopped in for the ride.

Mysore was more of a city than Srirangapatnam, but not so much of a city as Hyderabad or Bangalore. We checked into our hotel, had some ice cream, how strategic of us to find a hotel with an ice cream parlor in the courtyard! then headed out to the Palace.

No pics allowed at the palace, and ever since the Yale Daily News I've had an aversion to showts of buildings....so sorry, no images. But it was gorgeous. Every inch of the inside was covered with paintings, mosaics or mirrors. Their were pretty columns and stained glass. Lots of European influence, which was interesting to see, but understandable since this most of the paintings were about fighting with the British colonialists.

After a long day, we decided it was cocktail hour, and our tourist time for the day was done. We piled into a rickshaw and headed to Tiger Trail, a somewhat posh restaurant/bar in the courtyard of a hotel on the west side of town. We bullied our way into sitting in the prettier part which 'wasn't open' at 5pm when we arrived.


We proceeded to stay and drink and eventually eat dinner till about 10pm!! Nice work. They have good fries there, we missed you Diane.

Ok, enough for now, Sunday info to come later.