Mysore, Part II: Elephants Camels and Lions oh my!

We decided to leave srirangapatna around 2pm to head to Mysore. once we got into mysore we could see all of the highlight spots of city that everyone told us about just by looking at whatever popped up above the city line. The palace, a cathedral, and chamundi hills. so we started stopping at every intersection tryinig to figure out what the good road were to take to the palace. it was great to ask everyone. they were all super helpful. we even flagged down a moto driver and he stopped his moto just to come answer our questions. we eventually found the palace and it was large and definitely wasnt something you could pass up easily:this is the lion:

This picture is of the outside of the palace. it is covered in lights so when nighttime comes it becomes all lit up. we didnt get to stay and see that but the photos of it look amazing:

so we removed our shoes and paid some fee to be able to go through out the whole palace, well at least the public parts. it was amazing inside (sorry no cameras allowed). Murali and i spent the whole time imagining that we were royalty and making up uses we would use for each room. we decided the wedding hall would be a good discotheque, and we would change the meeting room to have fast internet and nice couches instead of hard tile floors with small pillows. it was quite fun, but the palace was really nice with beautiful wood work and even silver doors and ivory artwork.

When we left the palace robby came running up to both of us with wide eyes and a big grin on his face telling us that they had Elephants and Camel rides out in the palace courtyard. Boy was i excited. i always wanted to ride an elephant and now i get the oppurtunity! the camel rides were 20Rs and 100Rs for elephants. that a total of three bucks!! so we did both:

This has to be one of the best pictures ever:

the camel ride was actually pretty fun. they just took us around the courtyard area but i loved it. those camels always looked pretty funny. and when he got it to lift it's head high like it was stuck up i just couldn't resist but mimic the camel. The elephant was pretty cool, a lot smoother than the camel ride, but still fun. it was eating the whole time we were walking around. it was cool to see it hold the grass with its trunk. then afterwards we saw the elephant pick-up an offering coin from a paying customer, give the coin to the owner who was sitting on its head then the elephant tapped the customer on the head with its trunk. the elephant was giving blessings and it was super cool.

After the elephants and camels we left the palace in search for food. we ended up at a hotel eating a big south indian combo meal. it was very good. we then decided that we should start the trek back to bangalore considering it was pushing 7pm and we knew it would take awhile to do the journey. so we drove by the cathedral and took some photos of chamundi hills and headed out. after a long drive in the dark and being dropped at the bus station we made it home around 11:30pm. What a good day spent in Karnataka!!