Sightseeing in Mysore and Bangalore

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Yesterday my driver took me to Mysore, some 75 km from Bangalore. The purpose of the trip was sightseeing.

Driving out of Bangalore, we were in city traffic for some time then merged onto what was essentially a freeway. The was a median and even painted lane lines--not that anyone paid any attention to the latter.

Freeway gave way to two-lane road. And the city soon gave way to countryside. Although I would not describe the foliage as "lush", neither was it as dry as the deserts we saw in Rajasthan last year. There were trees and grasses, mostly uncultivated fields. That surprised me. Why wasn't all this land being put to agricultural use? There were some coconut trees and some smaller palms that could have been dates or bananas although I couldn't see any fruit.

There were a few rice paddies, mostly dry this time of year.

After about two hours of driving, we turned onto a side road, drove a few minutes and came to what I would desribe as the mausoleum of a bygone mogul ruler of the region. There was a sparse formal garden and a small building housing the crypts of the king and his immediate family and officers. There are addtiional crypts outside. All are in the shape of two peaked roof--two flat rectangular surfaces that come togehter at the top forming an inverted "V".

The building itself has a dome which leads to the claim of being the "little Taj Mahal." The claim is somewhat exaggerated, as the aesthetic beauty of this place can't hold a candle to that of the "real" Taj.

These historical places all have two-tiered entrance fees: e.g. 5 rupees for Indians and US$2 for foreigners. (At the current exchange rates, $2 is about 80 rupees.)

There were no beggers or street vendors outside this place; that surprised me since the tourist places we visited in northern India last year were swarming with both.

From there we drove back to the main road and then to Mysore. There we saw additional temples, palaces and even the city zoo. I would have skipped the zoo but my driver's English is too poor to really have a discussion about it. The zoo was like most zoos I've seen except it was really crowded. But then, everything here is really crowded.

The driver offered to take me to a large garden on the way back to Bangalore. When we got there it the sun was going down. There was a huge crowd waiting to get in. The driver said he'd wait for me outside. At that point I balked, between the crowds the forthcoming darkness and the fact that I had no idea where we had parked, I said "no".

We stopped for tea and then headed back to Bangalore. The trip was not very interesting because it was too dark to see anything but headlights; I slept most of the way back.

Pictures of Mysore

On Sunday my driver took me around Bangalore. My top priority was to find some CDs of South Indian classical music. I had mentioned this to my driver the day before. Either he didn't understand me or he didn't know where to buy music. Or both. So I asked at the desk in the hotel. They gave me a shopping-guide booklet and highlighted a nearby store, "Music World."

It was a typical music store, with racks of CDs organized by genre. They had a separate room for classical (Hindustani [North Indian], Carnatac [South Indian], and Western [e.g. Beethoven]). I guess the separate room was to block the booming music in the main room. They were playing a piece with an Indian rhythm but Gregorian chant in the background. I'm fond of fusions of this kind so I bought the CD they were playing. Also bought several others, one singing, one instrumental, and one of Bhajan, a simple song form with devotional lyrics and usually call-response. I guess it qualifies as classical music too, but it is not as elaborate as other forms

My driver obviously had a list of other shops he wanted to take me to--I'm sure he gets a commission.

I finally said "no more shopping". How many carved elephants can one see in one day?

I know these items are mass-produced for tourists, but it hand made (whether carving or embroidary or carpet) and is intricate in design. I bought a few small things. I wanted to buy a carpet, but they're more expensive and I knew my wife would object.

We went to an amazing temple with large statues of Ganesha (the elephant god--god of good fortune) and Shiva (the destroyer). The latter is one of the three highest ranking gods in the Hindu pantheon, the other two being Brahma (the creator), and Vishnu (the sustainer).

In the afternoon we went to a large horticultural garden. It was lovely and I had an excellent (but expensive) guide.

Pictures of Bangalore

Pictures of the Horticultural Garden

More Pictures of the Horticultural Garden