Elephants Galore! Mudumalai National Park and Mysore Dasara Parade

Sylvie shares... In the jungle, I DID see wild elephants! I even rode them in the jungle National Park for about a half hour. there was a special stairs that you climb up on them, and then step off the edge up on to the elephant. You sit in like a pad, sort of like a square donut for the elephants backbone, and on top of that is a floor with short walls out of metal bars. Sort of like a railing. You sit there and hang your feet off the edge. The driver sits on the elephants neck, and puts his feet on the elephant's ear and pushes one the left or right ear to steer the elephant.

After the jungle place, we went to Mysore. That's a big town with a huuuge palace for the mararjah. He doesn't live there anymore. We went there to see the big parade for the Dasara Festival. We had to go real early to get a seat on some stone stairs by the side of the road. Daddy bought grass mats to sit on, and also snacks to eat and cool drinks. It was pretty hot waiting in the sun. We had to sit for five hours, and after one or two hours is was SO crowded. People were walking on our grass mats to get by, and people across the street were sitting, standing, laying down... Lots of people were up in a tree, on a roof, and lots of people were standing in the back of trucks.

At the parade, the first thing we saw was a mommy dog with big nipples running back and forth on the street. Everyone cheered when it went by, because we were all waiting for sooooo long for the parade to start. When the real parade came, the first thing was 2 big flags with a bunch of men to lift it up.

After that came the big decorated elephants. They even had cloth over there back, and they had painted decorations on their faces, legs, butts, tails, and everywhere! There was a colorful seat on their back, and also big red umbrellas on tall sticks. The person sitting on the back had to hold the umbrella so it wouldn't fall, and the other guy was sitting on the elephant's neck steering it...

There were also drummers, dancers and acrobats, and big "float things" on trucks that went by. Not the sitting part, but the parade part, lasted for about 2 hours. It was pretty cool. It was worth it to sit all that hot time waiting for it to start. There was also a guy dressed up like a demon monster, and he was drinking gasoline and spitting out fire!

The last big thing were the best elephants, and the biggest one had a golden thing on it's back. It's called a "howdah", and that's the throne thing that the kind used to sit in when he wanted to go out riding his elephants. Now he's not really the maharaja anymore, so they put a statue of Chaumundi in the howdah instead. She's a goddess that's important for this holiday festival. Daddy's gonna tell more about that stuff later... So that's what we saw with elephants in the parade and jungle.
.............-by Sylvie
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Now it's Eliza's turn --

We just were on a 10 day vacation! -- First we went on a sleeper car,and in the middle of the night we got off the train at a place called Salem Junction. It was very stinky because people pee'd on the track! We called it Stinky Junction. We were so tired, and we had to sit in metal chairs until the next train came at 2:00am. Finally we got on the train, slept in bunk beds, and got to a place near Oooty.

Oooty is a cold place up in the mountains where they grow tea and coffee. To get there we rode on a slow steam train up the mountains. The train was about 150 years old, and the engine looked a lot like the one parked in El Portal! Finally we got to Oooty, and stayed at a guest house with a fireplace. We played "bird nest" in the nice beds (while dad was trying to nap!). We visited a small amusement called Jolly World that Lupin LOVED.... At Jolly World the best things were the bouncy Titanic ship slide, and also the big "boat swing" that went SO high up! Sylvie made a fish face on it, and held on sooo tight!

Next day we took a bus, but it was too crowded. Right when it came, everyone was throwing their suitcases into open windows to save a seat. So my Dad and Mom threw ME into a window too! My sisters also got pushed in through a window, and sat in a row behind me. This whole time Dad was trying to push his way on... he couldn't fit through the window! Then everyone was crowding on, and a guy almost sat on ME. My dad argued with him, then I switched to sit on my Mom's lap. During the ride a lady pretty much was sitting on me and my Mom's lap. She was stinky, but it was OK....

That bus got us to a jungle national park called Mudumalai, where we stayed for 3 days. In the night, out the window, we saw herds of spotted deer. They stayed each night by the lights of the hotel, so they would be safer from Tigers and Leopards! By our hotel there were SO many monkeys. It was so cute because the little babies would cling to their Mom's chest while she ran and climbed. Once, a guy came up by our hotel room, and started feeding corn to the monkeys. That made all of them stay around our room, and sometimes a monkey would try to come INSIDE our hotel room! My mom had to hit one once with a book to chase it back outside! One sat on our windowsill, and kept reaching in to try to get food, so Sylvie and I would run into the bathroom. We were scared they would bite us, and we'd then have to get 5 rabies shots.

The animals we saw there were: one leopard, one mongoose, many herds of wild forest elephants, lots of herds of spotted deer, a few herds of wild bison, SOOO many monkeys, real wild peacocks pea-hens and pea-chicks, some wild boar, and so many colorful birds like blue-tailed parrots, green parakeets, blue rollers, blue kingfishers, and others. Mom made a list of about the 50 different kinds of birds we saw.

Most days we took at least one Jeep ride through the jungle. We didn't have any seatbelts, and we got to stand up and look out of the roof bars! That way we could spot wild animals better. Once we also took a half-hour elephant ride, and mostly saw birds.

There was also an elephant camp, where they feed the riding elephants and take care of sick ones. They also had an orphaned baby elephant that would always stick it's trunk through the window. Once it almost shook my hand with it's trunk! It was SO cute! It's trunk was a little wet and ticklish.

Then we drove to Mysore to see the famous royal palace parade. There were elephants dressed up in costumes, one special elephant with a golden howdah (throne) on it, and a guy that spit out fire. there were lots of acrobats, musicians, drummers, and dancers. It was the best parade I ever saw, but the one sad thing was they showed how silk was made on one float. They get the silkworms, then put the coccoons in boiling water. It kills the little silkies, and then they unravel the silk cocoon thread. Isnt' that sad?

Now we took a bus back to Bangalore. Today we went to a park with some new friends from New Hampshire. There was a huge flying boat ride, a peacock train, and a merry go round too. They just left for an overnight train ride back to Hyderabad (where they live), but it was fun having them here. They had a boy who is Lupin's age, so they ran around a lot screaming together!
...........by Eliza