FROM MYSORE TO BANGALORE ON THE SHATABDI EXPRESS

We had a leisurely start and the Shatabdi express was a great modern train with wide carriages - 5 seats wide and seat back trays and air con.  No sooner than we got started the little man appeared with free plastic tray containing a pack of 2 rich tea biscuits - then a free bottle of water followed by free tea or coffee.  The journey was about 2 hours long to do 140km - a lovely ride.

Bangalore - the capital of Karnataka region and high tech hub is a huge city - sprawling and modern.

We had a 6 hour wait before our connecting train so we put  our big rucksacks into the left luggage and caught a tuktuk into the main shopping street of Mahatma Gandhi road.  We immediately were struck by the modern shops - lots of westernised young Indians and not many tourists.  Moira and I enjoyed entering the silk shops and looking at all the saris and fabrics - Moira bought a bit of Mysore silk and I just looked.

John walked us miles to a recommended restaurant to chill out- called the Olive Branch - but when we found it - it was closed.  We were very hot and tired so we caught a tuktuk to a high rise block - Barton Building to a restaurant called Ebony.  It was pretty booked but as we were early they let us in and we had the most amazing Chef's steak dinner with mashed potato (Moira has been hallucinating for potato and cheese - and this was good although it was only smash.  The steaks were lovely and cost a mere £5.50 each.

From here we went back to the station to catch our 10 O'clock sleeper train to Hospet for Hampi.  We are getting good at trains now and know how to spot the carriage and find our names and seat numbers.  The train was full and we had 2 bottom bunks and one middle - all 6 bunks were taken in our compartment by an older chap and a younger man and his 6 year old-ish daughter.  We got free newly laundered sheets and pillow plus a blanket.  Moira slept like a baby and John kindlylet the father have the lower bunk opposite his daughter.  There was a young couple outside our compartment with a very young baby and we were worried about crying - but after the first unsettled time the baby settled and we didn't hear a peep from anyone - except my coughing - sadly we were disorganised and got on without water- but we managed.

Here's me on the bottom bunk that John took from third level

We spent long periods during the night stopped in sidings in the middle of nowhere and then we would start up and move slowly onwards- as the dawn started to break at around 6am you could see a very desert-like landscape like the Thar Desert with the odd thorn tree and field after field of cotton - some still with their bolls on - others cut and re-ploughed.  There was also mining going on - iron ore but so much corruption all the govt officials are now in prison - locals have been stopped from buying land because of the chance of iron ore deposits.

We had a 20 km ride in a small tuk tuk to get to Hampi from Hospet and there are rivers and canals and it rained last night- lots of yoked oxen and carts doing jobs and lots of pigs and goat again.

The land formation around Hampi is huge rocks like Mount Abu and then these amazing temples from the 1500 and 1600s (over 3,700)when Hampi was a big city before it was destroyed by some other tribal groups - (Deccan princes)

 the scenery is surreal - looks like South American temples on the top of rocks all over and a little settlement for tourists .  Our little hostel is great - Rocky's Retreat - Rocky is very nice and our rooms are nice and clean and we see the big temple towering above us when we exit our room - Vittala temple.  We have had a hearty breakfast and met up with some travellers we were with in Kerala - they have been here for 3 days and enjoyed exploring the site.  You can hire bikes or walk about or catch tuk tuk - the streets are verynarrow so only tuktuk or bike here.  We may go to the sloth bear sanctuary some time - chill out time again under a mango tree - there are aggressive red faced monkeys here apparently in the afternoon.   Looking forward to exploring after a civilising shower.

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.

SRIRINGA PATNAM AND DUKE OF WELLINGTON

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

It was so hot last night I hardly slept a wink and woke up with another sore throat - probably caused by the fan beating down on us all night.

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.

LOCAL COLOUR EARLY IN THE MORNING

I came onto the patio to get some cool and watched the women doing their washing opposite: you get your item on the front stone step and rub a big bar of soap on it and a small bowl of water taken from the outside tap - then you throw the item down with full force and hit it with a piece of wood - then you pour copious bowls of water over it on the front steps so the water runs down the street.  The women of the different houses meet outside as they do their chores.  One lady spent ages bending over outside one house and eventually I craned my neck to see her laying something out in the middle of the road outside a threshold - she then did it at the next house and so on all up the street - I thought maybe drying seeds or chickpeas... anyway once she had moved you could see each area had an intricate geometric pattern outside - obviously an auspicious act to welcome in the Gods or keep away evil spirits - John went down to photograph one - he reckoned it looked like rice flour or crushed chalk - It is still there this afternoon and I suppose tomorrow they will wash water down the street again and start all over again -

One slight worry is wondering what our clothes will come back looking like from our landlady and her laundering techniques - Moira reckons optimistically she'll have an automatic washing machine down there....

DAY IN MYSORE

Had quite a good night's sleep though it was very hot and we lose wifi at night so sorry folks who like to contact us at night at the moment.

We had an early breakfast and caught a tuktuk into town to Mysore Palace which is a huge place where apparently the current maharajah still lives with his family in 25% of the building.

Unfortunately no pics allowed inside but if you know the best rooms in Brighton Pavillion - double the opulence and that's Mysore.  The central Durbar halls and conference rooms and balcony facing the town is so huge and all beautifully painted - the bulbous pillars are all cast iron and painted in rich colours and the stained glass roof of one of the main halls was breathtaking with peacocks and birds etc- amazing.

In the gardens 2 chaps were cutting the grass with the funniest electric mower - why they didn't just get a hover I don't know...  We also saw 2 elephants with simple howdas on for tourist rides, but Moira wasn't her usual self today so she declined the ride.

Then we walked to the ancient fruit and veg market (Devaraja market) built by the late great Tipu Sultan and as you walked through the front entrance you were overpowered by the smell of fresh flowers where the men and women had strung up endless coils of garlands that the girls wear in their hair and faithful take to the temple as offerings - there were also whole halls of every type of banana and we bought some red ones and some little fat yellow ones - the flavour is amazing.

Now, as I mentioned before, Moira was not feeling too well as we walked around the palace and as we approached the bazaar she suddenly felt an urgent need for a loo - and sods' law said there would be not one to be seen.  John rushed into a hotel and we begged, but they threw us out - by now Moira was thinking she'd have to go in the gutter - they pointed us to a loo down the next road that we eventually found, but the man would not let Moira in - by now we were desperate - anyway ... it turned out his nodding meant it was occupied and he called us in - so it all ended happy ever after - thank goodness.

We cut short our bazaar trip after that and caught a tuktuk out of town to the Lalitha Mahal Palace which was built by the Maharajah to house his foreign guests - not bad as guest houses go - we read you could lunch there - so we had a drink in the bar

/then John and I had a 'silver Thali' meal for the princely sum of £4.80 for two and we ate in comfort in the huge dining hall decorated in wedgewood blue - we 3 and another couple were the only guests in the whole enormous palace today... I had to order a cocktail - a Tom Collins which sent me quite squiffy and I had to recover with a swift walk around the garden before falling into the tuktuk home.  A good test of how drunk you are is to try to say Sriringa Patnam convincingly - and John was not convinced!

The gardens were beautiful and there was a swimming pool at the back just waiting to be swum in - sadly no cosies with us- so with a heavy heart we returned home for an afternoon nap and internet surf to you guys.  

The doorman was telling us about how the English magician came with the BBC (Paul Daniels) to stay once and he showed us a copy of the newspaper article in the UK - the doorman made his own musical instruments and did magic tricks so he shared a few with Paul Daniels, which he liked!  

Got sucked into a couple of hotel shops where it felt like a customer had not entered for an age - you have to feel sorry for them just waiting in case a guest checks in...  

anyway it was a lovely relaxing lunchtime and Moira looked much better for it and is sleeping peacefully now... in our little rooftop home from home.

In the Lalitha palace John found some etchings and descriptions of Wellington's battle at Sriringa Patnam so he was elated - I think we will travel there tomorrow about 20km out of Mysore with a taxi.

RICKSHAW MAFIA

The rickshaw brotherhood are at it again.

We arrived at the central bus station and were accosted straight off the bus by some smooth operator. We shrugged him off of course. Our hotel had advised us to get a prepaid rickshaw. So the ladies parked themselves in the shade with the bags while I went looking for a desk with 'pre-paid auto' over it.  I never found it but apparently it is there. You have to pay the desk person a fee of 1 rupee, tell them where you are going, pre pay and get your voucher.
So we didn't do any of that.

At least I had found the rickshaw area. And in in the end I negotiated 120 rupees for what should have been an 80 ride.  Well, it looked like a fair old distance on the map and there three of us plus big bags. That seemed alright.  However, in the event I had us down on the wrong street and it was closer. And the bags don't count. Rickshaw people are used to that.

Of course the the rickshaw driver had to try the other usual scam as well. Our home stay is just behind a well known office. Our directions were to go there and then call them. He took us there as requested. Then while I was trying to phone the homestay people, he 'helpfully' looked over my shoulder, made a show of calling our home stay number on his phone  (before me) and said he would take us there.  My phone had been switched off so it hadn't found the local network yet.
I dubiously said ok so of course he took us around the corner to a different hotel so he could get the commission.
Well, that didn't work. We all shouted at him to go back to the meeting place we had just left.
By now my own phone had found the network and was working fine. I called the homestead and within one minute the owner was with us.
Good job I had got my Indian Sim card working.

Later I suggested to the owner that it would be helpful if she put the amount to pay on her website somewhere. She said that they used to do that but the rickshaw people got to know about it and came round in a gang and threatened her off she didn't take it off.

How did they find out? Well, in Pushkar they were doing a similar thing and the rickshaw drivers would ask you who told you it was 80 rupees. Of course, if you said 'the hotel told me', then they had their information and they would go round and put the pressure on them.  The best way to answer would be: 'It is in the guide book' which lays no blame on the hotel owner. 

Rule of thumb. Don't pay more than 80 rupees for most trips of up to about 3km.
At least that's what I'm thinking today!

They say India changes you!

Today we are off to the Mysore Palace then possibly for lunch to another palace where you can eat like a Rajah!

John

ABOUT THE INDIGENOUS TRIBES IN OOTY

Forgot to mention the ancient tribes still living around Ooty - they are protected to some extent and have very different customs such as different temples - worship of waterbuffalo and look in features very much like American Indians or Bolivians- we met an old granny Toda this morning and she was very lively and tried to persuade us to visit her village for a dance - we settled just for the photo opportunity.

Apparently this Toda tribe is very highly educated and this old granny was a force to be reckoned with.

coming down the Nilgiri hills (in Tamil Nadu) to the plateau of Karnataka at the bottom

 The tea trees are grown in lovely patchwork clipped bushes under some trees - don't know what

We are here in Mysore now for 3 nights - opportunities to wash smalls, socks and slimey flannels!

We will have to try Moira's new 'Long Ding' Green tea from our tea factory visit - apparently it has many health-giving properties including no doubt a soothing effect to one's 'ding'- if you have one!