Day 9: Monday, 15 December

Tonight we're staying at a 4-star hotel called "Standesh the Prince" in Mysore which is roughly a three hour drive southwest of Bangalore. Along the way we passed rock outcrops that looked like parts of Arizona. We also crossed through lush agricultural areas growing rice and sugar cane.

View from the front row of the coach
We left Monday morning for the city of Mysore, also in the state of Karnataca. It's roughly a 90 mile drive southwest along the Bangalore-Mysore highway but takes at least three hours because of the traffic congestion in Bangalore. After you leave the city, the landscape starts rolling at becomes very lush. There are a number of rivers that cross through allowing for quite a bit of farming which is predominantly sugar cane and rice. We also passed by an area that looks a lot like the city of Phoenix with its large rock outcroppings. Below is a picture of one of the many welcome signs we saw as we entered different towns. If you enlarge the picture you'll see that the extremely long name of the town.

 We got off the main road and drove onto an island that at one time was the town of a sultan. In 1799, the British overtook the town and claimed it for their own. There were many ruins including the old moats outside the city walls that would have contained crocodiles to deter any unwanted visitors. Below is a picture of some young children we passed while driving through the town.

Mysore is much smaller than Bangalore and is very lush. There is a colonial feel to the town and it's more approachable - easier to get around. Below are photos from the Gandhi Square area, including one from a rooftop restaurant.

Thoughts on the day (from Alison). Mysore is sometimes referred to as the city of palaces. Below is a zoomed-in photo of one of the palaces. 

 Following lunch at our hotel, "Sandesh, The Prince" we drove to the top of Chamundi Hills. The drive was several miles up (and up) a two-laned road with hairpin turns, which, due to the fearlessness of our bus driver, was kind of an experience of its own.   

The Chamundeshwari Temple is at the top of the hill. Our guide explained that the tower of the temple was built in the 17^th century, much later than the original shrine. Chamundeshwari is a form of a Hindu god and the temple was built and visited in reverence to him. This golden temple is about seven stories tall and is covered with impressive, ornate carvings.

The crest of the hill included not only a temple, but many tourists, lots of shopping,

and ....monkeys. We were warned by our tour guide to watch out for the monkeys but I didn’t take it too seriously until our group got close enough to the temple to see several of them climbing around on the carvings and decorations. A few of the locals were feeding them but otherwise seemed uninterested. Meanwhile, our group of forty-ish Westerners was furiously snapping photos.

After getting over the monkeys, the temple itself was extremely impressive. Today, there is a path of 1,000 steps up to the temple. Instead of taking the bus, we walked down these steps and caught some beautiful views of the city of Mysore from up above.

 This is a picture of Pramod, our guide for the two weeks.