Every immersion class we run, we take the students sightseeing to an area outside of Bangalore called Mysore. Since it was my first class, I went along with all the students from this class that, although ending in a very long day, was very fun.

Mysore is famous for many different reasons and is considered the cultural capital of the state of Karnataka. Our trip happened to be in the midst of one of the many festivals, this one celebrating the goddess Chamundi slaying the demon Mahishasura. During this festival that lasts for ten days, the Mysore Palace and its 100 000+ light bulbs are turned on all night and many other celebratory activities take place in its grounds.

There are plenty of places to visit in Mysore, and we managed to hit quite a lot of them despite all the traffic between each of them. After a three hour bus ride, we arrived at St. Philomenas Church, a fairly newly built church constructed by the Portuguese and is apparently one of the largest churches in the country. It even has a small catacomb that you are allowed to walk through.

We then met our local tour guide, who also happened to be born and raised in Mysore, at the famous Mysore Palace. It’s a very large palace, surrounded by an imposing four gated wall, and filled with lush gardens including a beautifully kept rose garden. You’re allowed to take pictures inside the palace grounds but you’re not allowed to bring your camera or your shoes inside the actual palace building. There’s a convenient booth for you to leave your camera near the entrance, and a very busy shoe counter just outside the palace entrance. The palace is amazingly decorative inside and is influenced heavily by Hindu beliefs, with many of the gods and goddesses intricately carved in all of the doors, ornaments and hangings. There are some very interesting paintings, plenty of artefacts and the large and heavy gold throne of the King.

We eventually made our way to Chamundi Hills that gave us a great view over the entire city. It’s also home to a statue of the demon Mahishasura that the goddess Chamundi slayed and a Hindu temple for the goddess. We didn’t enter the temple up there, choosing to walk around watching the way that cows would roam free, monkeys indulge in many of the scraps and just take in the general atmosphere.

After a quick visit to some local markets, we headed for our final destination, the Brindavan Gardens. Cantered around a major lake, the Brindavan Gardens house a musical fountain very much like the show that you might see in front of the Bellagio though set to some Indian music. A lot of the locals enjoyed the show and even though it lasted for half an hour, I found it slightly disappointing.

It was an exhausting day, starting at 7am and ending at around midnight by the time that we came back. The three hour trip back to Bangalore went by really quickly with a really great game of charades.