Aloha,
After the Dubare Elephant camp (from my previous post), we went to Madikeri which is a hill station here in Karnataka. Here we did some shopping for spices and coffee since that is what this area is known for. The store had so many products, all different spices and coffees, sandalwood lotion and oils, even chocolate. I won’t say exactly what I bought since some are souvenirs for family and friends, but it was a lot of fun to shop here! We were also able to grab a sandwich and a quick bathroom break. We were then off to Raja’s Seat. Raja’s Seat was so pretty! The drive there was also gorgeous, we had to drive up the mountain on a windy road, it reminded me of Big Island actually. There is this one hike in Waimea where you hike along the valley where it is all just trees and waterfalls. The drive was so similar so it made me miss home a little bit. When we got to Raja’s seat we all absolutely loved the view, it was all forest and greenery with the mist and fog in the background. It was very nice to be surrounded by nature again, Mysore is very city like with lots of buildings close together, so this was a very nice change. It was pretty cold too, which makes sense since we were up on the mountain. It was also raining almost all day, good thing I remembered my rain jacket! Anyways, Raja’s Seat was a little lookout, almost like the Pali lookout on Oahu. It also had a small little garden that you could walk around in, but the main attraction was the beautiful view of the valley. It was 10 rupees per a person to get in, which I thought wasn’t bad at all, plus no foreign fee!
We then went to Abbi Falls, which is a waterfall not too far away from Raja’s seat. I really wanted to see a waterfall here to see how it differs from Hawai’i. It wasn’t much of a hike to get to the waterfall though, it was just stairs that led down to the stream. No need to walk in mud or dirt or anything, just a nice little walk downstairs. Then when you got to the bottom there was a railing that blocks you from getting too close to the water and the waterfall. So you really just look at the waterfall from afar, take pictures and then walk back upstairs. It was a quick trip here. The water was very brown, so that was a major difference from Hawai’i. It was a pretty big waterfall though, too bad the water was brown and there was a railing, it would have been cool if it was possible to swim in it (but I wouldn’t anyways because we aren’t allowed to swim in the water haha).
We then went to the Golden Temple which is a Buddhist temple! I am happy that we got to see a Hindu, Muslim and now Buddhist temple! They are all so different! This temple was very pretty, I was assuming it was a gold temple which I mean is a good guess considering the name, but nope. This temple was very colorful! Every color was on this temple, both on the inside and outside. It was very pretty, the detail was gorgeous, especially the paintings on the wall. The walls were covered in intricate paintings, as someone who likes to paint and draw this was something really interesting to look at and admire. Inside there were three very large, gold statues, about 60 feet tall! The center one is Buddha, and the ones on either side are Padmasambhava and Amitayus which were important to their mythology. It was gorgeous, we also got to walk around the grounds and get some souvenirs here too!
Mahalo,
Maddie
Life in Mysore, India 