Greetings from Mysore

We’re now in Mysore - about 2 hours by train from Bangalore. Came here on Wednesday via the Shatabdi Train, which offers a nice view of the Karnataka countryside. We checked into the Royal Orchid Metropole hotel, a lovely gardens-filled place. Our room is very nice and the stay has been restful and sweet. This is a big step for me because I’ve never travelled by myself in India – meaning as the one navigating planes, trains, auto rickshaw drivers, and so on. Not sure why it felt like such a bigger deal to me to do it India than in places like Brasil, but it does.

Yesterday we did some shopping, lots of walking around Mysore, and toured the Karnataka Sandalwood Oil Factory, which is where most of the world’s sandalwood oil comes from. It smelled SO good there…the trees were just so yummy. Even the scent of the shavings (wood chips) from the trees was delicious.

Today we’re off to Sri Chamundeswari Temple, where we will climb up 1000 steps to the top of the hill. It’ll be a workout!

Here are some pictures of the past week. Lots of them were taken by Hasan - the things that struck him when he was walking around Bangalore near my sister's house.

I'm getting sad that Hasan will be leaving on Tuesday, but I'm glad Roxie will have one of us back with her. And I'm happy to have some time with just my sister and Tanuja.