Kalammankumri State Forest

After all our fun with elephants, we drove over to a nearby park to wander around. We had to walk across a suspension bridge (over the same Kauvery River) to get there, which naturally attracted the bridge engineers. The park was basically a large bamboo forest with statues depicting the lifestyle of Coorg natives. It also had a large enclosed area that functioned as a deer sanctuary - we saw several more spotted deer there, but this time much closer. We also took the opportunity to wade into the river, which felt very good on such a hot day.

We then drove to a Buddhist temple, the Namdroling Temple, also known as the Golden Temple. It featured a 60ft gold plated statue of the Buddha and two 58ft gold plated statues of two of his disciples. The main temple had dozens of paintings of buddhas on the walls - with some drawn as demons in a style more familiar in China. There were many monks there performing rites, which including banging drums and gongs and sounding horns. It was at times rhythmic, at times cacophonous. Maybe they were just learning the ropes? We also couldn't help but notice that the rainbow on the main spire was inverted, with red being the innermost part of the rainbow...

Following our Coorg adventures, we returned to Mysore to do some shopping. Ani and his parents showed us around and helped us pick out a wide variety of souvenirs and gifts. We ended the night at Ani's favorite hangout: the Pelican, where, once again, we ate an unreasonably large amount of food. That family can sure eat!Read more