Mysore's Finest, Part 2

Lunch time was at Poorjari's Fish Land, a Mangalorean style seafood place. We ordered 4 different styles of fish (masala Pomfret and Angel, seared Pomfret and Angel), curry with special local chickens, neel dosa, kori roti, and lemon sodas. A delicious change of pace!

After a quick stop at home, we headed to the famous Mysore Palace. Rebuilt by the Wodeyar family in the late 1800s after the wooden one burned down, the architecture is a mix of Hindu, Islamic, and European. Lots of light blue, gold, white, and rosewood decorated the interiors.The royal family still lives in the residential part of the palace and are totally symbolic with even less power than the British monarchy. The current king ascended about 2 years ago when his father passed away.

Since we had just under 2 hours before the weekly palace lighting, we went shopping! First we wandered thru the Mysore market and were bombarded by colored powders, fragrant flowers, perfectly stacked fruits and veggies, and shop owners competing for our attention. We only ended up with a bunch of mini bananas and a few custard apples. Looking for handicrafts, we stopped at the Kauvery Handicrafts store, a government subsidized artisans market. We found wooden elephants and a pair of earrings for Tina.

Our final stop of the day was back to the palace for the lighting. But we were foiled! There was a 3 day mourning period for the death of a famous and beloved movie star from the 1960s so there was no lighting (he eventually got into politics and became a minister too). Instead we got some consolation ice cream and headed back for the night.Read more