Mysore

Bangalore to Mysore: 8th May

Sitting at the front of an inter-city bus is an unnerving experience as I found out today. You do get a good view with the full vision of the windscreen, but every now and again, your heart goes in to your mouth and misses a beat, as an oncoming bus passes, literally inches away, in a sort of modern day jousting. Maybe it’s just me, no one else seemed to bat an eyelid.

The state bus west out of Bangalore to Mysore is a three hour journey for Rs 50.
Halfway there we breakfasted in a foodhal that served puris and sambar – two food items only, no nonsense, cheap, fast and safe. Just as I was tucking in the bus was pulling out to leave so, hand dripping with sambar, I ran out to stop it only to find it re-parking in the shade of a tree.

Arrived in Mysore at noon and checked in to the New Gayathri Bhavan, a simple and clean place, which charged Rs 185 a night. It was high above the streets so seemed quiet. Quiet that is until the evening, when the generator kicks in a makes a noise not dissimilar to a Porsche 911 flying by. I knew I should have kept those ear plugs they gave me on the flight. The mosquitos here are quite small and bites from them only itch for a short while and they disappear in no time.

Mysore is small enough to walk around – there’s a colourful market place selling powders in a rainbow of colours and rows of red-green mangoes, oranges, jackfruit and green bananas. The mangoes are sweet and so juicy it is practically impossible to eat them without needing a shower.

The Mysore palace dominates the city. A beautiful building, surprisingly modern, it smacks of a gorgeous colonial splendour; scenes from the Jewel in the Crown seem to come right out of the hard-wood floors and spiralling stairwells. The Durbar Hall has an ornate ceiling and sculpted pillars, there is a jewel encrusted golden throne and a gallery of pictures of the Wodeyar dynasty. You have to be nimble footed on the hot pavement stones as you have to enter the palace complex barefoot.

I left the palace and checked my emails at a cyber café –according to www.lonelyplanet.com. there would be a “Pooram” an annual festival of temple elephants which attracts in excess of 100,000 people on the 10th of May in Trichur in north Kerala. So that was it, my next stop.