We began the morning by visiting the Mysore Palace. It was built in the 19C for the maharaja. At this time in India, the British were in control of the country so the viceroy, who represented the Queen of England, ruled India and the maharaja took orders from him. When the two men met to talk about the kingdom, the viceroy sat on the throne with the 2 open-mouthed lions on the arms of the chair, while the maharaja sat on another throne with the 2 closed-mouthed lions. The gates of the Mysore Palace had granite tigers standing guard. The current maharaja is 90 years old. As he has only four daughters, the next in line to the throne is the eldest son of the the eldest daughter. This palace has 2.7 million visitors from around the world every year. It is the second most popular tourist attraction in India next to the Taj Mahal in Agra. The palace hosts a fall festival every year. They even have modern midway rides. The palace has 12 temples on the property which are yellow. They are very elaborately carved with all kinds of gods especially “Gaja ...”, the god of wealth and prosperity. We could take a few pictures outside the palace, but then had to check in our shoes and cameras with security. The art inside was ok and there was a lot of gold, stained glass, frescoes, and complicated but balanced architecture.
We left the palace and drove into the mountains in search of the elephant and tiger reserve at Mudumalai. As we drove through the park, which was very hilly and forested, we saw white-faced monkeys and langoors (smaller monkeys), wild boar, white-spotted deer, peacocks, water buffalo, but no tigers. At the park headquarters, we waited for the mahouts to bring the elephants back from their jobs in the forest for supper. Around 6 p.m., five Indian elephants, ridden by their mahouts, were brought in for their delicious meal of horse gram (type of grass), rice, and jaggery (sugar cane). They were well behaved and we took lots of pictures and videos. It was getting dark and we had 4 more hours to drive through the mountains to our hotel in a town called, “Ooty”, so we boarded our bus.
The mountain road was very narrow, windy, steep, and busy with buses, trucks, motorcycles, and cars. The bus driver manoeuvered his way through the traffic and it felt like we were on a rollercoaster at Canada’s Wonderland. But we arrived safely and checked into our Raj hotel which was built by the British 160 years ago, and reminded us of a Victorian summer cottage. We ate our dinner at around 10 p.m. and the food was soooo delicious!!! We have 2 days to enjoy the 30 acres of Victorian paradise.
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