Coorg Schmoorg. Just kidding, elephants.

Well, let me preface this with an apology for both the ridiculously cheesy title and the first paragraph of the last entry.  Specifically the "Mysore is three hours away, so it was only a three hour bus ride" part.  I'm going to blame it on the fact that we had just finished a thirteen hour day or dancing...

But anyway, on to the next adventure!  Also, as a preface and keeping a promise to Nicole, I can't take any credit for any of these pictures.  I forgot my camera so my friend Nicole was my personal camera woman like the great person that she is.

Last weekend we went on our final Jacob-guided tour.  I really like Jacob’s tour because we do a whole bunch of stuff that we wouldn’t have found otherwise.  Out trip started at 5am, which actually wasn’t too bad because we had a private bus.  And you know, time doesn’t actually exist here.  So off we were to Coorg at the crack of dawn.  We stopped for breakfast at McDonalds, which for some reason we’re all obsessed with here, which is kind of embarrassing.  But on a side note, I figured out that the factor in Egg McMuffins that make them so good is the English muffin.  They put it on a normal roll here and it just wasn’t the same. 

After a delicious lunch at our gorgeous hotel (which was right on the side of a mountain and we climbed onto the roof!), we went trekking! Also, on the way to the hotel we saw a forest fire.  We weren't sure if it was controlled or not but there were definitely treetops on fire.  I am so excited to write about trekking though because it is probably one of the top two things I’ve done here so far!

We climbed up a mountain that means “target” in Hindi.  Our guide said that his suspicions for the name is because it used to be a main trading point because it was the midpoint of two mountains with large populations.  From the top you could see all the way to mountains that were located in Bangalore!

The mountain you can barely see wayyy in the back

Our guide goes on this trip twice a day.  The trek was a total of ten miles, and we straight up walked through a jungle.  

Jungle Book status

Our guide was adorable because you could tell how proud he was of all the things he’s found on his own.  He showed us this one fern that if you press to your skin, it leaves a white residue that acts a temporary tattoo in the exact pattern of the fern.  Also, he shoed up a Eucalyptus tree and we got to smell it, which was sort of cool.  Because koalas.  Before we entered the forest, he pointed out a tangerine tree, and jokingly I asked if I could climb it.  To which he responded yes, so I ran up and climbed a tree and picked some snacks for us on the way up!  Tangerines here are super sour, and didn’t taste all that great.  But I still hadn’t picked fruit off a tree before so that was cool.  Also, I found out all citrus trees have thorns. So watch out.

We also saw coffee bean trees which were really cool.  This is kind of gross, but recently this fad came out with coffee where some company started collecting coffee beans that had gone through different animals digestive systems and then clean them and grind them.  Apparently it tastes better.  But we passed a coffee bean plant that did exactly that.  They literally had an animal poop collector that walked around the mountains and picked up digested coffee beans.  Weird.

Just before we entered the jungle part, our guide decided to drop the knowledge that there were king cobras and vipers that lived in the place we were about to walk though.  But he had never seen one.  Also, wild elephants and tigers were there.  But you know, whatever.  There was green EVERYWHERE through the jungle.  Like nothing I’ve ever seen.  There were Tarzan vines everywhere, and I wanted to swing really badly but he said I’d probably fall. 

It was like something out of avatar

Our first view up the mountain was at the perfect moment.  It was these three mountains covered with fog from some rain, and a huge rainbow cutting the mountains diagonally all the way to the ground.  

Our last part of the walk was this huge hill to the top.  We figured out it was easier to run, but way less sustainable because if nothing else, the trek showed us how out of shape we were.  

Attempted running

But the peak was worth oh.  Ohhhh boy, was it worth it.

The top had probably the most breathtaking view I have ever seen.  You could turn in a circle and have the perfect panoramic view that is right out a storybook.  

THIS IS NOT REAL LIFE

To the right were clouds and layers on layers of mountains with the sun peeking through which made sunbeams coming down on the mountains.  Julia kept calling them Jesus clouds, which was probably the best description I could tell you. 

To the left were a bunch of villages on mountains that looked like they had been covered in glitter.  The village side was patches of light shining off aluminum roofs and parts in dark.  I was super confused until I realized I was seeing the reflections of the clouds.  I had always been right under the clouds, but now I was seeing it from above…it was so crazy! 

I wish that eyes could take pictures, because I’m not sure if any camera could capture the almost surreal-ness of the view from the mountain.  At some point we heard thunder and we could see the mountain it was coming from.  Well, I assumed it came from the Dark Mountain of Doom, but I could be wrong. 

Can you guess which one is Dark Mountain of Doom?

We hung out at the top for awhile, which was really fun.  We kept singing about three lines of “Stand with you on a mountain” over and over, because it was the most appropriate and cheesy song we could think of involving mountains.  

The only other song we could think of was
"She'll be Coming Round the Mountain"

Then we decided lying upside down on the side of the mountain would be a great idea.  Which it was, but it was also terrifying because it was so steep.   Here are some random pictures that Nicole took!

Varsity Karate Kid training

Sonia and I dancing!

Ya know, just harnessing the sun

Typical girl jumping picture

We meditated for awhile which was really nice!

We then walked back down the mountain.  During which I realized that everyone probably looks their goofiest running down a steep hill.  I don’t think there’s any graceful way to do it.

Not pictured: us running down the mountain.  Thank goodness

The next morning we got up early and went to an ELEPHANT CAMP!  

ELEPHANTS RIGHT THERE!

They seemed a lot nicer at this camp.  Jacob told us that elephants will stampede the villages and destroy them when they don’t have food.  So the people who own this camp will take the ellies and provide food and take care of them!  So we went and helped the workers bath the elephants!  We were originally told not to go in the water, but then everyone else was so we decided to.  Jacob’s reasoning for not going in was because the elephants might spray water at us.  Which was probably the worst reasoning to try to give us because that would be the highlight of our life. 

Plotting on how to get sprayed

Laura went to throw water on the elephant like the guy who worked there was doing, and as soon as she did it the elephant yelled! It was kind of terrifying, but really cool. 

Elephants are really warm but have rough, wrinkly skin.  They’re just so big and you want to hug them!  They’re very kind too, if you got in front of them they would rest their trunk over your shoulders and just hang out.  At the feeding area I was standing in front of one and it put its trunk in my hand like we were holding hands!   

It was a secret handshake

We found a baby in the feeding station, and we went to go over to feed it but they yelled at us because the baby tried to climb over the wall to us! It was adorable, and strangely human-like, like a baby trying to get down from a couch or chair. 

It's a baby!

Although we couldn’t feed baby elephants, we followed some of the workers as they took about three of them to the water and helped bathe them!  They were about as tall as me, and I wanted to steal them so bad!  

Chillin out, maxin, relaxin all cool

THEN WE RODE AN ELEPHANT!  If you read my first post about elephants, we decided not to do it at the original place.  But here their eyes seemed happier and the people treated them with care, so we decided it was ok.  I had a smile bigger than I could ever remember.  Literally so cool.  They’re bumpy and you sway back and forth and I want to ride an elephant instead of driving a car.  But of course now I can't find a picture of it.  Sorry!

After the best event of my entire life, we went to a nature park.  We didn’t have very long but we just kind of hung out and walked around.  We found some spotted deer and one that I named killer came up and kept licking my hand.  It was awesome.  The spotted deer have fuzzy antlers, which was pretty cool.

The last thing we did before going home was go to the Namdroling Buddhist Tibetan Monastery.  It’s the second biggest Tibetan Monastery in India, and the land is on a lease for 100 years to Tibetan monks.  India will keep leasing it to them for however long until it’s safe back in Tibet.  

This was their main meeting room, not even a temple!

Families will send their sons at 6 or 7 years old until they’re 18.  Once they’re 18, they can decide to stay a monk or leave the monastery and get married or whatever they want to do.  It was funny seeing little boys in the monk uniforms, because while the older men are very calm and very religious, little boys are still little boys.  They would run around and goof off and play.

Baby monks! 

The monks just kept going about doing their thing and didn’t acknowledge any of the tourists, which I loved.  It truly is their home, and I like that they won’t change their ways just because of their surroundings.  In the temple, these three teenagers were playing these three giant didgeridoos and dancing around like goofballs.

The entrance to one of the temples!

In the temple there were three HUMONGOUS statues that were made of copper with gold plating.  They were of three important people in the Buddhist religion.  

Hello statues!

I wish I could have learned more about it, because it seems so interesting, but there were only about three plaques to read about it.  From what I gathered, it centers around the idea of enlightenment, which is basically harmonizing compassion and wisdom, while not using either exclusively. 

There were beautiful flowers all around the grounds…I was a little obsessed.  There was also an exact replica of the monastery in Tibet, which apparently is roughly in the shape of an elephant in the mountainside where it is.  

On the way home, we went to dinner at this place that was shaped with a giant lotus flower.  We were super pumped because it looked really cool, but instead we got an experience to realllllly test how we fit in here.  We were in a building off of the main building that was surrounded by windows.  Because the windows were open, it was night, and there was food and lights inside, there were bugs EVERYWHERE.  We were covering our drinks with napkins and barely opening it when we took a drink.  And it was a race to eat our food when it came.  I actually don’t think I’ve ever eaten that fast in my life.  We kept asking for more and more napkins and the waiter looked at us like we were the most annoying Americans to ever enter India.  Which may not have been far from the truth.  The straw that broke the camels back was when we looked at Hannah’s head and there was like 27 bugs just hanging out in her hair.  I’m pretty sure it was some higher power testing us and asking “CAN YOU REALLY HANDLE INDIA?!?!”  I'm proud to say that we can, in fact, really handle India.

But we were rewarded on the way home with the most beautiful sunset in crazy colors.  There was purple clouds above and orange/pink sides of clouds that looked a lot like mountains and it was all behind lines of palm trees.  So pretty.  So all bugs and cobras aside, the weekend was a success.

My am I Sore

On our first weekend to ourselves, we decided to stay close-ish to home but still get into the swing of traveling on our own.  Mysore is about 3 hours southeast of Bangalore, which is only about a 3 hours bus ride.  We booked a bus for the way there, but not for the way back because Kindra, a girl who was here last semester too, told us that it was way cheaper to just hop on a bus.  So at 6am sharp, we were off to our first solo adventure. 

So you don't have to google map it yourself!

Turns out our biggest adventure was actually getting to the bus.  First, we ran around our apartment building like crazy people trying to find our 8^th member of our group who was nowhere to be found, then finally decided and hoped to the dear lord in heaven that she had left earlier.  We then had to get two rickshaws to take us to the bus station, and in India you’re never sure if the drivers actually know where they’re going, because that just wouldn't be much fun if they did.  Luckily we had each other in view until the last five minutes to the bus station.  So once we got out, my group decided our best plan of action was the find the bus in hopes that the other group had done the same.  But of course that would have been too easy and boring.  So instead we were those tourists running around this giant bus station in backpacks looking for four other white girls also probably running with backpacks (personally I think people running with a backpack is the most hilarious thing in the world, so I wish I could have seen this).  Eventually we spotted each other when one group was on an overpass and our group was in a parking garage.  Attempting to meet in the middle was absurd, but we finally found each other with about 3 minutes until our bus left.  Long story short (this was supposed to be way shorter), I was the last person on the bus and it was literally pulling away as I hopped on.  I’m pretty sure we terrified the bus driver when we all yelled when Sonia (the missing lady)’s head popped up in the back.  Apparently she had been in her bed but we failed to see her because she’s super tiny.  So with super greasy bus station samosas in our hands, off we went!

Once we got there we found some food for lunch, which weirdly enough may have been one of my favorite meals since I’ve been here.  Then we decided to find the famed Mysore palace.  It was weird and kind of uncomfortable walking around Mysore, because I realized that I kind of missed the familiarity of walking around Bangalore. Also, the men in Mysore were about ten times creepier than the ones in Bangalore.  There were just groups of men hanging out.  So in a strange turn of events, being away from my city made it feel more like home. 

Walking to the palace was insane.  We just kept asking people where to go, and they just kept pointing in a general direction.  The streets were very pretty though! 

I didn't intend to look that touristy,
but I'm not upset that it happened

I have no idea who decided it was a good idea to put traffic circles in India.  As if Indian drivers aren’t insane enough, lets add merging to the mix just for giggles!  The structures in the middle were cool though, and I wanted to go in them but one: I probably would have died, and two: they were roped off. 

Stupid, pretty, inaccessible gazebo

We finally found an entrance to the palace, where we were promptly told wasn’t actually an entrance. 

This was before I tried to climb over the gate.
Just kidding, security guards are scary.
But look at the palace in the background!

But there were horse and buggies there (which was unexpected, but the baby horses were so cute!), and we got our first view of the palace!

ITS SO LITTLE!!  Which is probably kind
of mean to make them pull carriages

So after walking probably another mile or so, we came across our first protest in India! A bunch of guys were sitting across a road blocking traffic, and we later found out it was because the city was shipping out water to other states even though Mysore still needed it desperately.

The most shadily snapped picture. Then we sped-walked.

Right after the protest was the palace though! It may have been the most proud moment for any of us having found it on our own (kind of).  

So. Tired.

This proud moment was followed quickly by another proud moment when we got the Indian rate of admission for the palace.  When we handed the ticket guy only 40 rupees, he gave us this look like “are you kidding me right now?” Then when we handed him our school ID card, he accepted it! We were officially Indian residents!

Our driveway to our new home...

 The palace was breathtaking, and so colorful even from the outside!

My new home!

Immediately to our right was this giant temple right on the grounds, which looked like a weird wedding cake with all its layers.  But looking closely you just saw carvings on carvings of gods stacked on top of each other.

I liked it

So I posed wit it

We had to take our shoes off to go in the palace, which to me was ideal because I hate shoes.  Ironically, Sonia, the only one of us who is actually part Indian, had to pay the foreigners rate which also included an audio tour.  She didn’t feel like using it, so I decided I would take them on a tour and just repeat the facts that the dude on the headphones was telling me.  Which was really funny, then really hard, then I stopped because he wouldn’t shut up and I wanted to look at the pretty paintings…so tour guides everywhere, I commend you.  

Mysore palace is absolutely stuning.  It was burned down just a few years after it was build in the late 1800s, then rebuilt in only 15 years in the early 1900s.  The royal family requested that no wood be used during rebuilding so there was no chance of it burning down.  I think they started off that way, but I definitely saw some wood in there.  I don’t know if it was added later or the architects just ignored the request because it was insane. 

My favorite part of the palace was called the hall of colors, which essentially is this huge ballroom with columns everywhere.  The columns are sky blue with arches in between that are scalloped.  If you stand at one end, it looks like a giant shark took oddly strategic bites out of the ceiling.  There were paints and sculptures of gods EVERYWHERE along the walls.  Mosaics were on the floor and the doors and then the hallways were made of this beautifully and intricately carved wood. 

Sorry for the not ideal photos,
 they were taken from a purse because
pictures weren't allowed inside

Nom nom nom
But props to Sonia for pulling the pic taking off

In the throne room (which is all yellow and so sunny and pretty, I’d totally hold court there) there is an entire door made completely of sculpted silver that is placed directly across from the throne.  The coat of arms of the family is everywhere.  The elephant trunk represents strength, the lion’s body power, and I have no clue what the two phoenix heads represent. 

There is also this one room where there’s a bunch of columns in a circle.  Our first thought was that we should try to hide somewhere and spend the night in the palace because that’d be the coolest sleepover ever.  Then my trusty audio guide (I named him Jeeves) told me that it was the room where marriages took place! It was completely blue with yellow details, and a huge chandelier in the middle (Ms. Cheryl, it would look unreal on a birdcage holder haha).  Weirdly enough, at one end of the marriage room was steps to what was supposedly a playground.  It reminded me of gladiator because there were two huge lions on the steps down and it looked like a place where people would fight to the death.  But hopefully the royal family was nicer than that.  But probably not, because you know how royals are…

Sneaky sneaky.  Chandelier! Plus the TV is probably an original...

OH YEAH! And the ceiling was stained glass too!

At the front of the palace there was the huge open area with steps the opened to the garden and the main palace entrance.  On each side there were balconies, which kind of looked like the boxes in a theater.  Apparently the royal family would hold court here, and everyone related to the royal family would sit on the steps.  The balconies were reserved for diplomats and other important people.  There was the one statue at the top that was the exact middle of the palace and straight across from the middle of the palace gates.  Zero clue why that was necessary, but still pretty cool!

Those are the stone steps.  Also pictured: me sitting

We were taking pictures after touring the palace in front of it, and someone suggested that we jump over each other.  The pictures turned out very very cool.  

WAHHH

This should be the USAC cover picture

It was funny because we were concentrating on it so hard that all of a sudden we looked up and about fifty people were gathered around watching us take pictures.  It was super creepy and really weird.  Looking back, it probably wasn’t the smartest to draw a lot of attention to ourselves by running around, but in the US we wouldn’t have thought twice about it.  We had to yell at people to stop taking pictures of us even when we were walking away. 

Men taking pictures.  Not weird?

Then I tried to fight a stone tiger

After we went to get some dinner and found a rooftop restaurant that was really pretty and so delicious! The people were very nice and moved tables for us, so we spent a good amount of time there.  The sunset was so pretty overlooking Mysore!  

So of course we had to take an angsty band CD cover picture

Ignore my strange face, look at the bird instead!

We were going to try to go to these gardens that had a light show at night, but when we went to the bus station they told us that the road was blocked because of the strike we saw! Gosh darn activists. 

Instead we went back to the palace to see it light up.  We accidentally got there almost an hour before the lights went on, so we were watching random lights on the palace show up for an hour and wondering if that was the light show.  

So bored...?

We almost gave up and left, but I am so glad we didn’t. 

Waiting forever

I audibly gasped when the lights turned on.  There are 96,000 light bulbs on the outside of the palace, and you can see every one individually when it’s lit up.  It was like a varsity gingerbread house.

With light up gum drops!

The next day we went to a temple on a mountain!  It’s the end of a pilgrimage for Hindu’s and there’s a 1000 step path leading up to the temple.  We decided to get a bus up and then walk down the path.  Our preconceptions of the temple were really construed, because when we took the bus up there and saw the temple, we were a little underwhelmed. 

But this holy man was cool!

I think it bothered us that a lot of really important temples are built to tourists so there were markets all around it and it just didn’t seem like a very sacred place.  But who are we to say what is sacred?  Nevertheless, the temple was beautiful but the line to get in was super long so we didn’t go in.

This was 40 meters tall!

With horns at the top?

Luckily we decided to stay and found this small Shiva temple, and it was probably my favorite one so far.  It had a tree growing sideways inside of it that I loved, and there was no one regulating what you did so you could kind of go about walking around the temple however you wanted so you didn’t feel like an idiot not doing the proper gestures. 

Favorite tree

But after we just kind of sat on some steps on the side of the mountain and meditated for a little while and got to look over the whole city of Mysore.  It was so peaceful!

Shameless selfie

This actually isn't our spot, but it had a pretty view of mountains

We finally found the start (or end, however you look at it) to the path down the mountain.  It was really cool to see people trekking up who were very obviously on a religious experience.  They have this red and yellow powdered pigment that they use to put Bindis on at the beginning of temples (we ended up with about tree by the end of the day), but also put it on pretty much anything else that could be religious.  There was red and yellow all over the steps, so I am deducing that people on the pilgrimage touch every step on the way up to the temple. 

Imagine bending down at every step you take.  I should start an Icy Hot stand along the path.  That’s how I’ll make my millions.   There were also just families and kids walking on it though. 

Like these lovely ladies who rested with us!

It’s crazy that this super important leg of a pilgrimage could be some other kid’s Ma and Pa Trail.  I did most of the trail barefoot because why not? Plus I like being barefoot.

I totally get why people wear
sneakers now, though.  My
ankles hurt so bad after.

A little ways down there was this huge rock on the side of the mountain where we stopped and it overlooked all of Mysore.  Which I know I keep saying, but it is just so cool being above a city.  We could see the palace and it was still huge even from far away. 

Laura is not amused.

Alllll of Mysore.  You can't see the palace from this picture...sorry!

Then about halfway down there was this huge statue of Shiva’s bull.  Carved completely out of one giant rock.  It was HUGE!  And for some reason covered in tar.  People were sticking rupee coins to the outside of it, so I put my American edge on it and stuck a penny I found in my backpack on it.  So rebellious.

Then I smiled as though nothing happened

There was this guy carving little statues out of some rock.  He was also carving mortar and pestles, so I decided it would be an awesome idea to add another five pounds to my backpack and get one.  Because everyone needs a mortar and pestle.  Right? RIGHT!?!  Just kidding, I am actually super pumped about it. 

That's mine he's making!

Also, I never understood why a normal backpack would have those buckle straps, but now I think they’re probably the best invention since sliced bread.

Also, we all had pocket pants.
So naturally we had to take
another band cover picture

We ended our trek down the thousand step path by overpaying for a rickshaw back to the city and finding a bus back.

The final arches to the end (beginning?)!

Which was surprisingly not that hard, but was less swanky than the AC one we took on the way to Mysore.  Super proud of ourselves and ready to take a shower, we got back to Koramungala safe and sound! Ten points to us for being alive.  Wait for another post this weekend about the past week!  Sorry I am really bad at posting here, but I'm trying my best!