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            <<  Mysore, 24-Jan-2015  >>

Maharaja's egotrip

Mysore - home of Indian's most famous Maharaja palace and an agreeable south Indian town

Mysore’s big attraction is its Maharaja palace. Some of my ex-colleagues from ZUNO / Greyson actually visited it during our business trip to Bangalore, but me and Jirka skipped it, trading it for a trip to Varanasi, which I haven’t regretted at all.
Well, yes, the Maharaja Palace is there and it’s surely big and pompous, but frankly, it’s mostly an overdone aristocratic ego-trip, weird combination of Arabian, Indian and British architecture on verge of kitsch. It’s not very ancient either. It had burned down and has been rebuilt in 1921 by a British architect, which explains the stained glass over Arabian archways and the overall similarity to Mumbai’s train station :-) Don’t get me wrong, the palace is actually interesting and imposing, and I’m glad to see it, but it is somewhat of a tourist trap.

But away from the extravagant Maharaja Palace, Mysore is a very sympathetic town (with exception of its VERY annoying rickshaw drivers). Typical south Indian lively town, with colorful market where the locals sell their fresh produce, millions of rickshaws, crowds, honking and chaos all around, bunch of British buildings, all mingling into that Indian sweet chaos. In a way, it’s charming. But we spent only little time, as we were basically just passing through.


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     MARCEL STRBAK | www.strbak.com | www.facebook.com/marcel.strbak