The India Project: Day 3

Where we spent our 2nd night.
Night train from Chennai to Mysore.

Today, we visited Mysore palace. The place is huge and when it was built, in the very early 1900s, it only cost 55,000 pounds which seems like so little now!! But as our tour guide told us, you couldn't even get one of the doors from the palace for that much today. Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed inside, so I just have two of its front, which is a shame because the detail in every tiny little corner of the palace is just so incredible. Words can't even begin to describe! I suppose the lack of photos will mean you all just have to go and visit Mysore and India yourselves :P haha, if only!

All dressed up in my Indian garb :D

I started to feel at home in India today, and it all began on the climb up the mountain and the road's 36 hairpin bends...

There is an image etched into my mind of a woman standing on a cement block on the edge of the hairpin turns. Her clothes are billowing in the wind - a long green skirt and a bright long-sleeved shirt. She's one of the first people I've seen and I'm still wondering what possessed someone to build a town at the top of a 7500ft tall mountain. Her feet are bare as she stands surveying the world around her, she catches me watching. I smile and she returns the smile bashfully. It's strange to think that because I'm white a smile means so much.

As we go further up the mountain, it feels like going home. There were eucalypts and the smell of wood fired smoke. Horses, cows and dogs walk around as they please. Of course it isn't home though. In Australia, people would find the old, colorful houses - bright pink, blue, purple, green, yellow - to be garish and out of place, even though they're so beautiful here. The people at home don't roam around the streets like they do here. There's more than one road rule, and there wouldn't be the faint smell of incense. It doesn't matter though, this part of India is the most beautiful I've seen yet. I just wish I could jump out of our car and explore, take photos of the architecture, the winding roads, the plantations, and most importantly, the people.

Mountainside

Hebron School
Apparently that's white washed.

Paradise.