Met our landlady's little 4 yr old daughter last night - cute little girl who wanted to show off and count to twenty and sing the alphabet song
Moira seems better with her tum now but decided to stay in for the day to fully recover - good as she did fall asleep again during the cooler morning.
John and I took a driver and went 20km out of Mysore to Sriringa Patnam or however you say it/write it. It was an interesting ride around the ring road of this big city with the large catholic cathedral looming up in the distance. We drove past lots of lakes and reservoirs and fields are all banked up so rice can be grown. Saw a man ploughing with 2 oxen and sugar cane growing - the green fields separated not with English hedgerows but with Neen trees and coconut palms and bananas - a very lush scenery.
SP is still for the most part a walled town dominated by the old fort. We started by visiting the 800 ad Vishnu temple (Sri Ranganathaswamy) which inside was rather like entering an Egyptian temple with huge pillars of granite and some amazing God statues - some in gold. It is the foremost Vishnu temple.
Then we walked on the walls of the fort and went out to the monument commemorating the battle where Tipu Sultan fought against the British and where the younger Duke of Wellington took part. It was very evocative of the battle with the walls still bearing the scars of cannon balls in places and in the heat it was hard to imagine how the Brits managed to win with all their stifling uniforms.
The British troops lay on the ground all morning until noon in the sweltering heat, then on a command, they waded across the river at about this point where the British cannon had made a breach and they then fought their way onto the walls at about the point from where I took the photo
Scars of cannon balls from 1799 still very much in evidence.
The needle marks the memorial to the fallen British forces
Looking over the fort walls was the Cauvery river - a huge wide bed, quite shallow now as it would have been for the battle. In the bushes we saw literally flocks of beautiful kingfishers - I have been so lucky with this bird this holiday - also saw a hoopoe and another Indian cuckoo and lots of huge brown eagles with cream heads as well as egrets, storks and cormorants.
We went to the Water Gate - a gate in the fort that allowed you to walk down to the river - it obviously was a possible weak point in the wall so it had at least 2 sets of heavy spiked doors - some missing - and this is where Tipu Sultan's body was found. Amongst a pile of his men, fighting to the last. .
We also visited Bailey's dungeon - a deep cavern with 2 flights of steps to get down - heavy arches just about 6ft high with a floor slightly draining to one corner for pee and blood etc and then in the wall still the stones with holes where the prisoners were shackled and tortured - Colonel Bailey was imprisoned here in 1782 for 4 years then went on to lead the attack in 1799. You could feel the nightmares of this superficially nondescript place - almost hear the screams of torture.
From there we went to the Summer Palace of Tipu Sultan which is in a lovely ordered garden and the house is 2 storey and the most richly decorated we have seen but no photos unfortunately - as one of the spoils of war - the Duke of Wellington was made governor here and lived in the Sultan's house. There are lots of etchings and drawings from the time and the best part is the murals on the outside walls protected by blinds that depict the Sultan smelling a rose as he goes into battle agains the British or the French - the foreigners depicted biting their index fingers in shock and fear at the might of the Sultan's forces. It is a lovely house and must have been a very comfortable place to live - even the famous painter Zoffany features here having painted a younger portrait of Tipu Sultan in all his finery. He was an enemy to be reckoned with and beat the Brits several times before they got him
Tippoo's Summer Palace and later the residence of Arthur Wellesley (after the battle).
Tonight we plan to go out to eat into Mysore and try out a couple of the recommended bars/ restaurants. Tomorrow off to Bangalore on the train at lunchtime and then after a few hours there we catch our first sleeper train to Hospet and Hampi to spend 3 nights to see the ruined city.
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