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Other entries in Mysore

Weekend Trip To Mysore

Last week was quite busy. We went out pretty much every night with the people we're sharing the guesthouse with. We've had some great meals and some not so great meals, but generally it's been good so far.

Bangalore has some kind of "musical fountain" where the water supposedly dances to the music, or something like that. We tried to go there the other night but ended up with a rogue rickshaw driver who decided he'd drive us all over the city (charging us on the meter rather than a set fare). Whether he was taking the mick or was genuinely lost, we'll never know, but we eventually pulled him over by some police/security guards who made him reset the meter to zero. Unfortunately, by that point we'd missed the fountain display so we just went to M.G. Road for some drinks. I was pretty miffed to be honest, it really left a bad taste in my mouth but...there we go. You seem to get the odd one like that, but most of them are genuine. There's bad apples in all walks of life i guess. We had one who basically offered to give us the fare for nothing if we will give him a pound coin. Whilst one pound sterling is worth miles more than the fare would have been anyway, we knew he wasn't going to actually spend it, because he showed us his collection of foreign currency...i would've given him one if i'd had one on me!

We went out on Friday night to 13th Floor, but when we got there we discovered you have to make a reservation on Friday nights just to get in. We managed to blag our way in anyway but had to put a 400 rupee minimum-spend tab down. I think they do that thinking that people won't spend that much so will ultimately lose out, but if so, they obviously underestimated the drinking abilities of Agents Dolac and Johnsow! At 150 rupees (just over one pound fifty) per 650ml bottle of Kingfisher, we were destined to spend more than 400 anyway...so in reality, we paid zero to get in. Then we went down the road to meet up with the rest of the crew, ending up at a bar called Fuga which was asking 1,000 rupees entry fee/minimum spend! With only twenty minutes until closing time, we sacked it off and went to an authentic drinking hole, full of locals and a bartender who served us our 59 rupee 650 ml Kingfisher bottles in a paper bag, as if to say "please leave". We sat down anyway, and Chris ended up breaking into Kannada (the local language) with the other people, only for them to ask him to speak in Hindi instead. Picture the scene: me and Chris trying to say hello, what's your name, my name is etc in Hindi, with them all asking the same questions to us in English, and everyone getting rather confused in general. They were really friendly though, and took lots of pictures of us and asked us to take pictures of them. In fact, one thing we've found really weird is the way people ask us to take pictures of them. Not in the "please use my camera to take a picture of my family" way, but in a "please use your camera to take a picture of me to take with you" way. After the bar shut, we got a rickshaw (the driver astutely pointed out that we were in a "happy mood", haha!) back to Katary Villa. After a long, fast, busy week, it was good to unwind.

We had to be up early on Saturday, because we'd booked a trip to Mysore, which took about two hours on the train. When we got there we sorted a hostel, which made me realise just what we've got in store for us when we leave Katary Villa - no toilet as such, just a squat-hole in the ground. Absolutely filthy - Mum would have had a heart attack by how unclean it was! I made the textbook error of forgetting my toothbrush as well :( Also, there was no shower - just two buckets, one big and one small. Most people here don't shower like we do, they get a bucket and tip it over themselves. On the plus side, it cost about a pound to stay there for the night! Speaking of pounds, there does not seem to be a pound sign on any keyboards over here - highly annoying!

Once we'd arrived in Mysore, we had a look around the markets, taking in the spice trays, incense and silk sellers. There's a half-indoor market that was absolutely rammed - uncomfortably so, especially if you're carrying a rucksack. Then we got a rickshaw to take us a couple of kilometres out of the town to Chamundi Hill, on which is a rather impressive Hindu temple. Sadly we picked a rickshaw that was on it's last legs, and it actually failed to go up the hill properly at one point, so i had to get out and push for a minute whilst Chris sat like King Farouk! We got there in the end, and instantly fell into a tourist trap. We were like sitting ducks to a huge host of touts. Being extremely worried about what we were and weren't allowed to do when entering a Hindu temple, we let ourselves be told what to do, and ended up carrying a selection of flowers as offerings (puja) to the temple, being skipped to the front of the queue, having our shoes minded whilst we were inside (you have to go in barefoot), having bindi put on our heads etc...all at a price. Seriously, these guys were relentless, almost worryingly so. We fell for it from the start, and it became clear that they were all in cahoots from one stage to the next. It basically ruined the experience, but has at least wisened us up to the way things work in these places. It's a shame really because i'm already in the "say no to everything" mindset - it sucks that we have to be so guarded all the time, but there we go. I'm pretty good at ignoring things like that at home, and so far i've been relatively successful here. Wearing sunglasses seems to help a lot because they can't make eye contact with me, and eye contact is pretty important/intense here. Having red hair also helps, as does an increasingly-impressively-wild facial growth (i have no shaver with me!). I'm told that beards are the domain of the lower castes here, which may explain why people speak to Chris first and not me! Whilst on the subject of talking to Chris, we were in a restaurant the other day and Barbie ordered something, only for the manager to come over and speak to her about her order via Chris rather than address her directly. Very interesting experience!

Anyway, after we'd escaped the clutches of the touts, we went to find a bus to take us back down to Mysore. At this point a group of young-ish looking lads arrived. They looked about 18 or so, and there was six or seven of them. Dressed quite flash, sunglasses, nice shirts/trainers...pretty Western, i guess you could say. They were basically staring at us from the moment they got off the bus and saw us. Chris and i were both thinking the same thing: this does not look good. They started walking over to us and to be honest, i was worried...then they said hello and asked if they could take our picture. Then i realised they were staring at us simply because we were a novelty for them! We let out a sigh of relief and posed for their pictures, exchanged a few words, shook hands and then they moved on. It's quite difficult gauging what people here are thinking of you, whether they are being friendly or whether we should steer clear. That was a perfect example!

For dinner we went to a place recommended by The Books. We were one of the first people there, and had to sit upstairs as downstairs was for men only. The place gradually filled up with travellers from all over the place - England, France, America etc etc. All of them carrying the Lonely Planet - textbook! All of them probably only in that restaurant because the Lonely Planet recommended it - just like we were only there because of that. It's so funny how The Books are literally used as bibles by travellers! I tell you what, the drinking den i mentioned earlier isn't in any tourist guide, but it was still quality...you gotta look around for yourself as well as take The Books into consideration!

On Sunday we went to the Maharaja's Palace - by far the most spectacular thing we have seen thus far, it is frankly stunning. It makes Buckingham Palace look like a garden shed. We had a tour round during the day. It was the total opposite of Saturday - very professional, sealed off from random people walking in (20 rupee entry fee), and the only people inside offering tours etc were official workers who left you alone as soon as you said you weren't interested. 0.50 rupees for shoe-minding, etc...just perfect. The only thing was taking cameras inside wasn't allowed...i smuggled mine in by putting it in my pocket, telling the guard it was my wallet, but Chris had to engage in a little baksheesh (bribery), giving him 10 rupees to let him take it in. We had no intention of actually using them inside because it's disrespectful etc, but we didn't want to leave them at the front entrance! We had a good walk around the inside of the palace, and then went out the exit only to see our first elephants and camels! There was a big sign saying "Elephant and camel joyrides" - you could pay to take an elephant for a spin round the palace grounds, incredible!

We went to get some food again, and then went back to the palace around 7pm, because on Sunday evenings it gets lit up by lights. 5,000 bulbs if you read The Rough Guide, 97,000 if you read the Lonely Planet. It looked much more like the latter than the former! It was incredible, and the entire crowd gasped with awe when the lights came on (cue police blowing whistles left right and centre to keep everything in order). I have some pretty good pictures of it, i'll try and upload some when i get the chance.

We got the train home and went to bed. I woke up on Monday morning with bad stomach pains and generally feeling rather ill...must've been something we ate last night because Chris and Barbie felt ill too, even though we'd all eaten different dishes. Don't eat at Dynasty restaurant in Mysore! Even if it's just because they refuse to serve soft drinks until 6.30pm!

Monday was a public holiday here so we were going to go around Bangalore for some shopping/sight-seeing. However, we all felt so ill that we just got some food and lazed about. Chris and Barbie went to a Christian Rock concert in the evening whilst i lay in bed recovering/drinking copious amounts of water and pepsi.

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