Mysore, Karnataka, India – Tea in bed once again. Then after breakfast, we headed to change money at the bank, which was supposed to be a major project, but it turned out to be painless. It was on the way to the bank that I found for the first time, the official India Indian red dots for sale. So, I splurged and spent the two cents and bought a pack of them. Since, we had time to kill waiting at the bank and the central telegraph office was next door, I wrote my parents a fax telling them we are still alive.
From the bank, we headed across a street to take a wander through the Maharaja’s Palace. His palace is huge and you are only allowed entry once you have checked in your shoes and your camera at the respective checking desks. The palace is amazing on par with France’s Louis XXIV’s Versailles. It is so opulent and being in a country where you see the horrors of poverty on a daily basis makes the palace seem that much more grand.
The walls, doors, and ceiling are all made of the most intricately carved mahogany, but you would get the odd door, which was silver plated with various scenes of the Ramayana on it. Some of the ceilings in the larger rooms were made entirely of stained glass giving the room a warm glow under the sun shown through. A few of the rooms had ceilings that made you think you were in cathedral and virtually all of the rooms were painted in brilliantly bright Disneyland type colors. Even with these brightly colored paints, it was not tacky like you to expect. It was still classy. The floors vary between regular marble slabs and marble inlaid with various designs, plus walking through this place barefooted made you feel more relaxed and free. It was definitely amazing sight and we were told that we were only allowed into a small number of the rooms. I wonder what the rest of rooms contain.
After our palace tour, Rich and Kate went to go to the doctor, so I lounged around our room having tea brought to me for the duration of the day. We were definitely living the colonial life, tea and newspapers in the morning, our washing done on a daily basis, and that evening before going to bed, Kate, Rich, and I figured out that there was a button over the bed that would summon our tea boy when pressed. Now, we would not even have to move out of the bed and get tea. We could ring for the servant.
In preparation for our use of the bell the next morning, we taped a note to the door saying we would like three teas. So the tea could be ordered without our having to get out of the bed to open the door and tell the man what we wanted.