RAIN IN MYSORE

The wind picked up last night early evening and we watched the black clouds and thunder and lightening work their way around us - it did spot with rain in our area which was nice as it cooled the atmosphere pleasantly.  We caught a tuktuk out to the best hotel in town - the Orchid Metropole which has a restaurant called Tiger Trails.  It was full of foreigners chatting and eating - had some lovely tandoori chicken dishes and we enjoyed being pampered with good service for a couple of hours. Meal and drinks - £24 for the three of us - so not bad.

Now we have to pack our little rucksacks ready for the train at lunchtime today - about 140 km to the capital of Karnataka - Bangalore.  This is the Hi Tech hub of India I think so it will be interesting to see.  We have several hours there so will leave our rucksacks in the left luggage office and do a bit of sightseeing until 10pm when we get the nightsleeper train from Bangalore to Hospet.  We are staying in a recommended guesthouse called Rocky's.  Looking forward to seeing the ruins of Hampi which sound amazing and Lonely Planet has them down as number 1 of the 17 best sights to see in India.  We have been taking our anti-malarials for 3 days now ready for Goa and no side-effects as yet.

Saw an interesting sight across the road this morning - while the ladies were scrubbing the washing on the front step as usual, the man of the house just dressed in loincloth appeared at the front doorway with incense /oil lamp in one hand on fire and a small brass bell in the other and rang it very vigourously whilst turning around on the spot and then bowing and praying towards the centre of the house - he then walked inside still ringing the bell with the flaming incense - a different start to a Saturday morning.  The chap wasn't quite so endearing last night when I saw him tip 2 big pans of slops over his wall into the street- why he couldn't put it down his perfectly good drain I do not know!

Moira was kept up last night with the neighbourhood dogs meeting and prowling the streets and fighting all night.  It's a hot day today and we will be dodging the sunshine and hugging the shadows.