Mysore

Mysore

On Friday we took a six hour minibus ride from Ooty to Mysore, it was a good ride, but the Indian road authorities have invented a torture device that is 4 to 6 small speedbumps in a row. My bottom still hurts. That evening we went to the rail museum i Mysore, the star attraction was the saloon car used by the Mysore Maharajas. It was interesting to see how the Royals traveled. Later that evening, we went to the Devraja market where we watched someone making incense and bought some fruit. We learnt that a good incense maker will make 10 000 sticks a day! They earn 35 rupees for every thousand stricks. I also bought a box of delicous Indian sweets.

Today we started the day by visiting the Maharajas Palace, former seat of the Wodeyar Maharajas. The palace was rebuilt in 1912 by an Englishman named Henry Irwin at the price of 4.5 million Rupees after the old wooden palace was burnt down. The interior of the palace is completely over the top with stained glass roofs, cabinets made completeley out of mirrors, crystal thrones, silver thrones, and wooden carvings so realistic and 3-D it's like watching an I-max movie on pause. Its hard to describe how incredible the attention to detail is, and you have to see it to believe it. We returned to the palace in the evening to see it lit up, and not with led christmas light either. They use the same lightbulbs they've been using for decades. The have strings of bulbs on every crease and corner so you can see the outline of the palace very clearly.