I’m in culture shock! As much as Bombay felt like a different country from northern India, Mysore is even more of a change. Every corner has a traffic light, and pedestrians actually wait for the walk signal to cross the street in most places.

Most importantly, I have arrived in the land of good coffee! Coffee here is much like New Orleans coffee, with chicory and lots of milk. On the first morning in Mysore, we had large cups of coffee brought to our room. It was delicious, and not too sweet. For those of you who know what a coffee person I am in the morning, you will know how happy this made me.
Highlights of the day included the 1912 palace of the local Raja. It had an interesting blend of traditional Indian handicraft work, and Victorian English style. There would be an ornate, Hindu themed frame around a picture of small cherubs.
Our guide books recommended a temple on the top of a hill a few kilometers South of town. We took the bus, which afforded beautiful views of the agricultural valley, and red-tiled roofs of villages. The temple was beautiful, but we were not given much of a chance to enjoy it. We were grabbed buy a boy when we dropped off our shoes, and were thrown into the business machine of the people who make a living off the temple. We here rushed through the temple by the kid. Small statues and flowers were forced on Kyle and Maryanne. When dragged outside everybody demanded money for the things they had shoved into their hands. It was not much of a spiritual event.
The next morning we caught the bus to Bandipur national park, where we had booked a room. The park is a refuge for tigers and elephants. The only way to venture out into the woods is in a mini bus. We took a late afternoon safari and saw lots of deer, guar (similar to elk) and wild boar. At the end of the ride we saw an elephant, and then realized that it was chained to a tree, and not wild. In the evening we watched a nature film, which we expected to be about the animals in the park. Instead it was a “Crocodile Hunter”-like Australian nature show. The next moring Kyle and Maryanne went on another safari while i slept. They did manage to see a small group of wild elephants, including a large bull that guarded the others.
I did manage to see a wild elephant on our bus ride out in the morning.