Here we are, whizzing along on a country road on the way to Mysore--large hills on either side. Also along our trip, we passed by quite a few rice paddies and workers--we drove too quickly for me to ready my camera for them...the driver wanted to save us some drive time.		Also during our trip, we travelled under an aqueduct. I was able to quickly capture it.
The trip was a little over 2 hours...so some of us had to go. I paid 2 rupees to use this restroom.		Not to be crass, but while inside, I thought it would be funny to take a picture of the "loo" here. Yes, my pants were still on. :) This toilet is more traditional and actually healthier for elimination--the other type which has us sitting at a 90 degree angle, well, not so good.
We've arrived! From the parking lot, we can see the gate of the Mysore palace. It was a courtyard with symmetrical structures.		The structures are already starting to look amazing. And I even had humans walking across the frame for scale. If I rememebr right, this was where we needed to take off our shoes as we went on a tour through this building.
As the day wore on, the sky became wonderfully clear. I took a picture of these spires, a gentle yellow-white combination against the rich sunny blue background.		Here's a ceiling shot of beautiful painting done onside a dome structure with a hanging light. The colors we saw were always bright.
Another dome--this time colors on glass, and ceiling texture around it. A lot of beauty and purpose in the art.		Here, our Group Lead and a resource from Birmingham, Alabama were two out of five of us on the trip. We're heading along this garden walkway inside the courtyard grounds.
Here we are at this pretty yellow courtyard exit gate at the end of that path. Our tour continued...		This is the elephant ride...time to be brave! We rode this elephant--carefully--two people at a time. We waited nervously for our turn.
Yikes. This was our turn. My camera's motion truly reflected how nervous I was. in fact, I couldn't stop shaking. The ride was smooth--Jodi was rough.		I looked down--crazy, right? Like riding something 2 stories high. Yet I looked around, trying to occupy my mind. here, the rider was goading the elephant by pressing down rhythmically on his ear, with every step the elephant took.
A littile ways up a hill--went into a museum-type building we'd seen from below; it had paintings inside, and this balcony overlooking Mysore. This was on our way to more sights.		From our vantage point inside, we had a nice view of the sitar players in the restuarant section of the building. I enjoyed the atmosphere--I noticed a good number of americans eating there as well.
This is the bull statue of Nandi, near Chamundi hill. It had been decorated, and a man came up to greet us with red pigment to put on our foreheads--out of the four of us up there, our Group lead and I were the lucky recipients.		The wall around the bull statue--monkeys roamed free among the visitors. Once we'd spotted them, we were always on the lookout for them.

Not sure where this was in proximity, but I know this is a familiar site at Mysore--it's a temple with multiple graven images towering over the entrance. This is like the Chamundi Hill temple in Karnataka.

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We had all taken another trip together--to Lela Palace, a 7-star hotel!

This was the initial scene where our drivers had dropped us off at the hotel--between buildings, were gorgeous shallow water gardens with large sculpted white columns as their escort.		The entrance to the hotel--very graceful, with the spiral staircase and circular motif. Ornate ironwork, plus this statue, decorated with rose petals.
Just inside the courtyard, I look up and around me--structures are sculpted and neatly put-together. It seemed that no detail was too insignificant.		Another view in the courtyard--these gothic-type archways with the scalloped shapes seemed unmistakably indian!
Here was another vehicle for rose petals. This was amazing, and so beautiful--not to mention fragrant. They were used so luxuriously used here, and on other water areas inside the hotel.		Equally so, were other flowers used for decoration, or probably for religious symbolism, most likely.
I walked behind the other resources as we toured the grounds--our group lead had been here many times before, graciously acting as escort to each new resource "tourist". They had a nice garden on the grounds with a variety of bushes and trees. Here we see the edge of the courtyard building...		...and a view underneath the end section. I just thought the building was pretty cool.
Over to our left was the elephant gate--I think it was the courtyard exit. I'd gone up to examine a close-up of the elephants; it was actually a beaten-in copper bas-relief attached to the iron poles. I say exit from our perspective, because the only finished, more interesting side faced from within.		The garden had labeled many of it's beautiful and probably rare plants--this is a sago palm. So it was educational as well.

I wish I'd taken a shot of what this place looked like on the inside as we ate. I must have been hungry--it was very classy, and I thought it appropriate that it was called a 7-star hotel. This back area reflected the same feeling--more lovely greenery and a rock garden waterfall.

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