to see our photos of Mysore Dasara festival click on the link below
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009142&id=1112916442&l=a2ba06b9f6
The Dasara festival is a festival of lights, and the town was illuminated magnificently every evening.
The first day we slept for much of the day, then went to the flower show. The main exhibit was a flower elephant. You will notice there is an elephant theme here.
That evening we went to the palace for the evening concert. Getting in was the first problem. The show was scheduled to start at 6.30 but they didn't open the gates until nearly 7pm. The crowd was restless, and surged forward as the gates were opened. It was good to be through the gates and out of the press. Everyone was supposed to be security checked by a scanner, but the crowd surged through and either side totally out of control. The police stood back and watched.
The palace was amazing, lit by thousands of lights. No power saving lights here.
The concert was Hindu music ensemble, sitar, drums and wailing, then HIndu dancing accompanied by similar music. Volume was reasonable, so we had a pleasant evening.
The next day Pam succumbed to the Delhi belly, and spent the day in bed. Peter walked around town, visiting the market, taking lots of photos. That evening we went for a ride around town to see the lights. The city is magnificent, and most of the maharajah's buildings are now public buildings, impressive architecture.
The following day was the big parade - Pam was Ok, but well medicated to make sure she could last several hours away from the toilet. The paper said that there could be no mobile phones and no bags at the palace. We had bought tickets so we could have a seat at the palace and at the parade ground in the evening. We lined up and went through security - about half the people either had a bag or a mobile phone, and there was no attempt to enforce the ban. It seems that when it gets too hard, the police just sit back and let it happen. So despite the huge security presence, it was mainly ineffectual.
The parade was fantastic, lots of elephants, floats, bands, acrobats, marching soldiers, horses, white bullocks pulling carriages. It lasted over an hour. The military component - tanks, jet fighter on a trailer etc were not allowed in the palace, but joined on the end of the procession outside the palace gates. the patriotic crowd was very impressed with the military display of might.
We sat in our expensive seats (we had a gold pass for $A180 for the two of us), and watched the ceremony from under our shaded canopy. Watching the crowd was also entertaining, they kept on rearranging the plastic chairs, blocking walkways and creating typical Indian chaos. There were also plenty of police with their whacker sticks for crowd control.
After the parade, we went back to the hotel for a rest, then Nagendra, our guide, picked us up at 6pm to go to the parade ground for the grand finale. Getting there was a little traumatic - the vehicular traffic was completely gridlocked, so we had to abandon the autorickshaw and walk the last bit. We gathered outside one of the gates(locked), protected from the crushing crowd by a stationary car. The crowd continued to build, and it was oppressive for us, and must have been terrifying for the children there. Most Indians are short people, so we could at least breathe some fresh air. Still, the gates did not open, and eventually the police in riot gear decided to move the crowd away from the entrance. We moved on with the crowd, and were guided to another gate, which was open, but the security check line was huge. Nagendra managed to sweet-talk the police, and get us foreigners to the front of the queue. Once inside, a policeman decided that Peter's camera was a security risk, so he had to remove the battery from the camera and put it in his pocket before he was allowed to proceed further!!!
The highlight of the big finale was the army motor-bike stunt riding display, using Indian Enfield bikes. They managed to get up to about 10 people balancing on a bike. There was also horse show-jumping and dressage, mass dancing (Olympic opening ceremony style, but nowhere near as professional), laser show promoting Karnataka (the state), but we saw the reverse side of the screen. We stayed for a couple of hours, but left beofre the fireworks at the end. This way we avoided the crowd, and could get some dinner back at the hotel. We still saw the fireworks, but from the roof-top restaurant at the hotel.
Overall, Dasara was a great experience, we were very glad we went, and is one of the highlights of our India trip.
to see our photos of Mysore Dasara festival click on the link below
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009142&id=1112916442&l=a2ba06b9f6
