Mysore Vacation

            As many of you already know we had the wonderful opportunity to have some of my family visit over the last few weeks.  My brother Sam and his wife Jilliann came for 1 week and my dad and step-mom came for 2 weeks.  From the minute they got off the plane until the minute they left we kept very busy seeing all the sights and sounds of Mysore and Bangalore.
           They arrived on Easter morning at about 3am.  We were able to attend the Easter service at our church and then try out an authentic Indian lunch that our church served after the service.

Sam, already trying to eat with his fingers like a true Indian!

Some of the Indian ladies at church loving on John.

On Monday we left for Mysore which is a smaller city about 3hrs from Bangalore.  It is more of a "touristy" city with lots of fun things to do and see.  We decided to travel by train which was a new adventure for all of us as we have never tried out the Indian railways yet.  Overall it was a very good experience since we booked the train that had air-conditioning and assigned seats.  

Once we arrived in Mysore we decided to go see the Mysore Palace all lit up at night.  The palace has a light show every night to some music.  Sam thought the entire thing was way too cheesy, but I said that it wouldn't be India if it wasn't cheesy.  He had to agree with me on that one.   I thought it was rather beautiful all lit up.  

The next day we hired a driver so that we could go see several different sights that Mysore has to offer.  The first place we went to was Chamundi Hill.  It is a short distance outside of Mysore that overlooks the whole city.  It also has a Hindu temple at the top of the hill that many Hindus desire to see and experience for religious reasons.  It was rather sad to see them flock to the inside of the temple just to worship some idol or false god.  They also held a small parade around the temple in which they carried one of their gods on a pedestal.  It was an interesting cultural experience, but also a huge reminder of how much we need to keep praying for those that are living and believing in these false religions.  

Chamundi Temple

The view of Mysore from the top of the hill

There were a lot of people making and selling things outside of the temple

This is the parade that was going on while we were at the temple

Next we headed back to the Mysore Palace to see it in the daylight.  We also took a tour of the inside of the palace.  You're not allowed to take pictures of the inside of the palace, so I can only show you photos of the outside.  The inside of the palace was so grand and beautiful.  Words cannot describe all of the intricate details that ordained each room.  It was definitely the highlight of the trip for me.  

Outside the Mysore Palace

Outside of the palace they offer camel rides and elephant rides.  We felt it would only be appropriate that we try out the elephant ride.  Molly and Jilliann were a little unsure about getting on this enormous creature, but they worked up the courage to try it out.  They even let us sit on top of the elephants head, which was an interesting experience as well.  

The elephant even posed for this picture!

Next we headed to St. Philomena Cathedral.   This is a beautiful cathedral that was built in 1936.  Once again we were unable to take photos of the inside, but we were aloud to take some of the outside of the church.   I loved the colorful flags outside of the church flapping in the wind, because it totally screamed "India" to me.  Sam again thought it was cheesy.  (He is such an architect).

After this Sam and Jill headed down town for some shopping, while the rest of us went back to the hotel for a nap and some pool time.

Walls and walls of kurtas to pick from!  Jilliann managed to pick one out.  She is such a good shopper!

Pool time for Molly Jo!

Whew! That was an exhausting day.  The next day we headed to the Mysore Zoo.  It was a beautiful zoo with many trees and greenery, which is a nice change of pace from dirty, dusty, polluted Bangalore.   We also saw some very unique animals that we hadn't seen before.    

A white peacock

Gaur Bison

Sloth Bear

albino goat with curly horns (can't remember the name of this one)

Baboon with the weird red butts (can't remember their names either)

After the zoo we had to head over to train station to catch our train ride home.  We were all pretty tired out from all of the sight seeing, but I sure was sad to say good-bye to Mysore.  I could have stayed there much longer.  Hopefully we can go back again some day.  

Waiting for our train ride home.  Everyone wants to get a peak at baby John. 

There are many more adventures to share, but it is all too much to put into one blog post.  So stay tuned for more stories about all the other sights we shared while my family was here in India!