People are always asking me and John how we manage to take our kids to so many great places, and on this trip I think I finally figured out how we do it. We just expect that they’ll be able to handle things, and generally speaking, they do fine.
But sometimes they don’t, and that makes for a rotten day. Johnny and Evie made some kind of pact overnight in which they decided to make their parents' lives miserable during our first full day in Mysore. They whined and argued from the moment we pulled up in front of the Mysore Palace until the time we put them in bed that night. The ENTIRE day, folks.
It's a good thing we had such spectacular things to see and do. The demonic behavior would have driven me to an early bedtime back at home, but I couldn't let it spoil Mysore! The kids later admitted they had fun exploring the Mysore Palace, a silk factory and a sandalwood factory.
Here we are trying not to kill each other in front of the Mysore Palace (or here or here), seat of the maharajas since the 14th century. Johnny's posture describes his mood.
The palace now standing is only 100 years old, but historians say it's the fourth palace to occupy the site. The Kingdom of Mysore was established in the 14th century, and the same family retained control almost continuously right up to Indian independence in 1947. For the last century and a half of their rule, they were a princely state under British control. You can read more about the history here.
The palace is just spectacular. I don't know if I've ever seen any place so ornate. Every doorway is intricately carved, the tilework on floors, walls and ceilings is incredibly detailed. There are murals, paintings, thrones, doors made of silver, gold and ivory, golden howdahs, pillars, stained glass, mirrors everywhere. I don't know that I'd call the overall effect beautiful, though each detail is gorgeous. Am I making sense? It's as if someone thought of every way they could show wealth and opulence without giving much thought to how it would all go together.
We weren't allowed to take photos inside the palace, but here's a link to some photos of the interior. You can find a few more if you do a Google Images search for "Mysore Palace interior."
I've already said that the kids were not having a good day, but most of the arguing stopped during the palace tour. I think they were impressed in spite of their attitudes.
Samuel's favorite part was a display of toy cars owned by the young princes. He was under a rope and halfway into one before I knew what was up. Johnny loved the display of weaponry. They had everything from spears to pistols, and he especially liked some of the oddly shaped swords and daggers. He also liked a set of silver mirrors that were in a room with some of the royal furniture. John and Evie and I liked the octagonal marriage hall best, though the Durbar Hall overlooking the parade grounds runs a close second for me.
There were elephant and camel rides on the grounds, but the kids were content to watch from a distance. The gardens were beautiful, too, though I'm sure I would have enjoyed them more if the kids hadn't been driving me nuts.
Anyway, if you're ever in Mysore you don't want to miss the palace.
After lunch we headed to a silk factory. No photos allowed, sorry. It was awesome, though. We saw almost the entire process, from cocoon to silk sari: drying the silk strands (after the cocoons were soaked and processed out of view), spinning, twisting, warping the thread, then weaving the fabric, cutting and dyeing and drying. Evie stood mesmerized as they pressed a long roll of pink silk.
One of the coolest things we saw, though, was the creation of zari, which is silk thread covered with hammered gold. The workers were in a cage on the factory floor. We peeked through the bars to watch as they spun gold onto the thread. One of the workers came out and let us hold a spool of completed zari. It was really heavy. Johnny had this crazy gleam in his eye ... I was a little worried he was going to run off with the shiny stuff.
The factory tour was a little bit crazy. As this is India, there's no such thing as worrying about little things like safety. They basically just opened the door and said, "Here's the factory. Knock yourselves out." We wandered around among huge, noisy machines. A worker would occasionally come forward and show us what they were doing, but very few knew much English. The weaving room was deafening, but I was fascinated to see the mechanical looms since we'd so recently seen people working handlooms in Kanchipuram.
In every part of the factory there were little shrines to Hindu gods and pictures of the gods on the walls. Prayers for safety? for increased productivity? for strong silk sales?
Before leaving, we stopped at the factory shop, where John bought a couple of silk ties and Evie admired the purple sari behind her in this photo. (Notice the zari borders.) I didn't buy anything, because I can't wrap my mind around trying to care for a sari made of raw silk in this heat and with these children climbing all over me.
After the silk factory, we headed down the road to a small factory that extracts oil from sandalwood. Sandalwood trees are slow growing, which makes them rare and therefore expensive. Again, no photos allowed inside. We wandered through piles of sandalwood while an enthusiastic tour guide explained the process of steam distillation. Sandalwood oil is used in Ayurvedic medicine, traditional Indian medicine that still has a huge following here and throughout the world.
The whole place smelled wonderful. Sandalwood paste is used in the Hindu temples and to mark people's foreheads, so it's probably the smell I associate most with India (as far as pleasant smells go, I mean). We bought a box of sandalwood incense sticks, so next time you visit ask me to light one for you.
Here we are in front of the factory with our guide.
Next we went to a tiny music store, where John found a cool djembe. We were tempted by a folk art museum, but by this time the kids were more than done, and, frankly, we were more than done with the kids, so we went back to the hotel for dinner and bed.
Coming up: Samuel faceplants at the Rail Museum! We track tigers! Stay tuned.
But sometimes they don’t, and that makes for a rotten day. Johnny and Evie made some kind of pact overnight in which they decided to make their parents' lives miserable during our first full day in Mysore. They whined and argued from the moment we pulled up in front of the Mysore Palace until the time we put them in bed that night. The ENTIRE day, folks.
It's a good thing we had such spectacular things to see and do. The demonic behavior would have driven me to an early bedtime back at home, but I couldn't let it spoil Mysore! The kids later admitted they had fun exploring the Mysore Palace, a silk factory and a sandalwood factory.
Here we are trying not to kill each other in front of the Mysore Palace (or here or here), seat of the maharajas since the 14th century. Johnny's posture describes his mood.
The palace now standing is only 100 years old, but historians say it's the fourth palace to occupy the site. The Kingdom of Mysore was established in the 14th century, and the same family retained control almost continuously right up to Indian independence in 1947. For the last century and a half of their rule, they were a princely state under British control. You can read more about the history here.
The palace is just spectacular. I don't know if I've ever seen any place so ornate. Every doorway is intricately carved, the tilework on floors, walls and ceilings is incredibly detailed. There are murals, paintings, thrones, doors made of silver, gold and ivory, golden howdahs, pillars, stained glass, mirrors everywhere. I don't know that I'd call the overall effect beautiful, though each detail is gorgeous. Am I making sense? It's as if someone thought of every way they could show wealth and opulence without giving much thought to how it would all go together.
We weren't allowed to take photos inside the palace, but here's a link to some photos of the interior. You can find a few more if you do a Google Images search for "Mysore Palace interior."
I've already said that the kids were not having a good day, but most of the arguing stopped during the palace tour. I think they were impressed in spite of their attitudes.
Samuel's favorite part was a display of toy cars owned by the young princes. He was under a rope and halfway into one before I knew what was up. Johnny loved the display of weaponry. They had everything from spears to pistols, and he especially liked some of the oddly shaped swords and daggers. He also liked a set of silver mirrors that were in a room with some of the royal furniture. John and Evie and I liked the octagonal marriage hall best, though the Durbar Hall overlooking the parade grounds runs a close second for me.
There were elephant and camel rides on the grounds, but the kids were content to watch from a distance. The gardens were beautiful, too, though I'm sure I would have enjoyed them more if the kids hadn't been driving me nuts.
Anyway, if you're ever in Mysore you don't want to miss the palace.
After lunch we headed to a silk factory. No photos allowed, sorry. It was awesome, though. We saw almost the entire process, from cocoon to silk sari: drying the silk strands (after the cocoons were soaked and processed out of view), spinning, twisting, warping the thread, then weaving the fabric, cutting and dyeing and drying. Evie stood mesmerized as they pressed a long roll of pink silk.
One of the coolest things we saw, though, was the creation of zari, which is silk thread covered with hammered gold. The workers were in a cage on the factory floor. We peeked through the bars to watch as they spun gold onto the thread. One of the workers came out and let us hold a spool of completed zari. It was really heavy. Johnny had this crazy gleam in his eye ... I was a little worried he was going to run off with the shiny stuff.
The factory tour was a little bit crazy. As this is India, there's no such thing as worrying about little things like safety. They basically just opened the door and said, "Here's the factory. Knock yourselves out." We wandered around among huge, noisy machines. A worker would occasionally come forward and show us what they were doing, but very few knew much English. The weaving room was deafening, but I was fascinated to see the mechanical looms since we'd so recently seen people working handlooms in Kanchipuram.
In every part of the factory there were little shrines to Hindu gods and pictures of the gods on the walls. Prayers for safety? for increased productivity? for strong silk sales?
Before leaving, we stopped at the factory shop, where John bought a couple of silk ties and Evie admired the purple sari behind her in this photo. (Notice the zari borders.) I didn't buy anything, because I can't wrap my mind around trying to care for a sari made of raw silk in this heat and with these children climbing all over me.
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| I have no idea what Evie thinks she's doing in this picture. |
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| Johnny had us pose for this one. |
The whole place smelled wonderful. Sandalwood paste is used in the Hindu temples and to mark people's foreheads, so it's probably the smell I associate most with India (as far as pleasant smells go, I mean). We bought a box of sandalwood incense sticks, so next time you visit ask me to light one for you.
Here we are in front of the factory with our guide.
Next we went to a tiny music store, where John found a cool djembe. We were tempted by a folk art museum, but by this time the kids were more than done, and, frankly, we were more than done with the kids, so we went back to the hotel for dinner and bed.
Coming up: Samuel faceplants at the Rail Museum! We track tigers! Stay tuned.
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