Here are a few pictures from our travels with Glen, Sasha and Anita that didn't fit in the other topics
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Mysore's famous tuskers So, after our unexpectedly adventurous first day in Mysore (or rather outside of Mysore) we settled in for a proper Dasara on the last day there. We were supposed to head out to Chamundi Hill in the morning, but with 7 of us, it took us so long to get out of the hotel that there was no way we had time to go to see the temple and the Nandi Bull and still make it to the parade. Instead we made arrangements through Aslam's friend to buy scalped tickets to the sold out Jamoo Saravi parade (for ~2.5 times the original price but he managed to get the kids in for free so, in the end, we didn't come out too far from what we would have paid). Aslam dropped us off at about 10:30am and said it would start in an hour. There was some confusion on where we could sit, but after realizing we were in the wrong seats, we ended up with our pick of front row seats, among the first to arrive. That we had such good choice of seats turned out not to be so surprising since the parade didn't actually start until 2:15pm and we had a long, long wait in a fenced-in area. Staying calm when life gets crazy Our visit to Mysore started with an autorickshaw debacle in which Glen, Sasha, and Anita were whisked away by an auto that simply disappeared. Working out where they were and why they hadn't followed our auto, involved punctured tires, an irate driver, and finally our driver taking all 7 of us into his auto. Then somehow, instead of the relatively short ride to Chamundi Hill to see the temple and the Nandi monolith, we were talked into a 30km drive out to see the old Hoysala temple at Somnathpura (check out earlier blogs on that) and our auto driver was calling a friend to take Glen and family. So our couple hours away from the hotel turned into 12 hours away but, perhaps all the best days are unplanned. Our first goal after Glen, etc's arrival was to get away from the maddening crowd. We did a fairly good job by going to an agro-resort outside of Madikeri (Coorg). Rainforest Retreat is an organic agroforest that produces coffee, cardamom, vanilla, and black pepper and offers cabins in the woods along with guided treks. We were hoping for an all day trek into the natural forest but due to the high volume of tourists (Dasara festivals) they were only able to offer the short treks that all their guests go on. Traffic jam on our way to Madikeri Glen, Sasha, and Anita visited us from 19 Oct (really 20 Oct by the time they got here from the airport, it was about 1am when they arrived) until the 25th (Glen) and 26th (Sasha & Anita). They are our first visitors and we were a little nervous about planning their trip, especially since Glen announced that all they really wanted to do was get away from people. In South India? Is that possible? During Dasara nonetheless. But we managed to find a agro-resort in the hills of Kodagu (Coorg) to spend a couple nights in (not away from people really, but it was away from cars and high-rises), then made up for the relative seclusion with a couple nights in Mysore surrounded by the madness of the Dasara rush. The drive to BR and MM Hills is pretty long but in between the areas where I need to be are places I'd like to be. We were, however, with a Driver. As a Driver he is a Getter-From-Here-To-There. He is not a dawdler in the places in between and so most of the tantalizing places I saw were just glimpses through a speeding car window.
Kalani and Kekai on the Chamundi Express We figured out how to buy train tickets and last weekend we packed up on Friday and stayed in Mysore until Sunday afternoon. The train ride down to Mysore was pretty boring (night time ride) and we were so worried about missing the train that we forgot to eat dinner so everyone was starving but the rest of the trip was great. |
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