Our first stop was the Maharaja's Palace at the center of Mysore. The palace was actually built fairly recently (I think late 1800s, early 1900s) so lots of the architecture had obvious foreign influences. In order to go inside, we were required to take off our shoes, which was a bit nervewracking for me. Especially since getting from the main part of the palace to the nearby temple forced us to walk through an area that was scattered with camel poop...eep! We had to pass by elephants and camels giving tourists rides which explained all of the crap everywhere. But after gingerly maneuvering through the grounds we set off towards our next destination...lunch!
My friend suggested a restaurant inside a nice hotel, the Hotel Regalis, which he had eaten at before. When we arrived, we discovered the price for a buffet lunch was a whole 420 rupees...so expensive! (420 rupees ends up being about $10 U.S. dollars...haha, I know, we're such ballers for eating at such a pricey restaurant). It was pretty worth it because we finally got real vegetables and boneless meat and other such goodies. But my favorite thing there - naan! I don't know why but they do NOT have naan on campus which absolutely sucks, since I love naan. Apparently it's more of a north Indian cuisine. Oh well.
By the time we finished it was pouring rain outside (it is monsoon season after all, I suppose). Even so, we continued on our Mysore journey as the 3 cabs split up to do various activities. I ended up going shopping and after much walking around in the mud and rain I was ended up buying a pair of running shoes (yay, I can finally play ultimate without hurting myself...maybe). I also found a nice collered shirt/jacket thing which was quite exciting (the reason being, on Mondays through Thursday girls' dress code is collared shirts only - and since I only have about 7 of them, I'm going to end up with an extremeley limited wardrobe).
At dinner time we tried to find a "Chinese" restaurant but when friends reported back to what they had seen of the the kitchen, half of us immediately left and went to Pizza Hut instead, haha. It was around this time that I started to pester my other friend to teach me some Hindi...so I know I know a handful of words, yay! And hopefully he'll be willing to keep teaching me - we'll see how much I manage to retain by the time I get back =)
We got back to the Infosys campus around 9...just in time to catch the movie at the multiplex! And guess what tonight's showing was? Kung Fu Panda! Woo! So I have now officially seen that movie four times in theaters...I think that's a record for me. But watching with an Indian audience is certainly a different experience. Since the multiplex on campus only shows movies on weekends and since they only have two choices - one Hindi movie and one English movie - the theater was packed. And when Indian crowds watch movies, they cheer at EVERYTHING. If the panda did something funny - claps and cheers. If Oogway said something deep - claps and cheers. It was awesome...haha.
When we got out, we spotted a crab, of all things walking around near the sidewalk. We were so intrigued that we followed it around taking pictures and generally attracting attention. So much so that an old-ish man started watching the crab beside us and suddenly took off his sandal and squashed it! I was so surprised and freaked out I literally screamed and ran away. It was so bizarre...LOL.
Anyway, today I tried to sleep in but apparently my body hates me and refuses to sleep. I also realized that I've gotten down to my very last granola bar...nooo!! Which reminds that I should now post a list of things that I would like in case anybody is interested in sending care packages hee hee!
- SNACKS - good, American or Asian ones. Anything that you think I might like and that isn't spicy!
- Granola bars are always a good fallback
- Spam and seaweed. It would be cool if I could somehow make spamusubi
- SOY SAUCE (but I only need one or two bottles)
- Basketball shorts or shorts that cover my knees!
- Vegetables or meat somehow...
- Collared shirts and tank tops (totally unreasonable, I know haha)
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