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Other entries in Mysore

City Tour

Got up at 7, left Patrick sleeping and headed out for some breakfast. I'm unlikely to see him again, as he's heading to Bangalore his afternoon to catch a flight to Australia, and I'm planning on doing an all day tour of the city.

After some chapatti, I walked over to where the KSTDC tourist office apparently was. It took about 15 mins at least to walk there, as it was completely the other end of town to me. There were still spaces on the tour, so I bought a ticket, and sat around waiting for it to begin.

The first place we visited was the Mysore Zoo, which we wandered around for an hour or so. There was one other foreigner on the tour, a guy named Michael from Germany. We sort of stuck together to begin with.

The zoo was fairly large, and contained a lot of endangered animals, and had been recognised for its conservation efforts with successful breeding programs. They had quite a few tigers and white tigers, giraffes, elephants (both types), panthers, cheetahs, rhinos, gorillas, chimpanzees. It was quite enjoyable really.

Next, an art gallery, set in a big building of some kind. There were lots of old paintings of Sultans and musical instruments, carvings and also a giant french clock, which had soldiers that marched around on the hour.

Next we stopped at the KSTDC show room for half and hour, where we could buy saris, carvings and other expensive items, much cheaper elsewhere, but I guess its just their attempt at making some money.

Then we headed a little out of town, up Chamundi hill, to see a Chamundi temple, a nice few over Mysore and a very big Nandi (bull) statue.

Then we headed back to the office and had lunch at a hotel next door, also run by KSTDC. A simple thali meal for both Michael and I.

Now we went to Mysore's star attraction, its palace. Huge and overly decorated, but set in lovely grounds, and very nice to walk around. Cameras were not allowed inside, so no photos I'm afraid.

Next, a big Church, very calm inside, cool and relaxed. Again, no photos of the inside.

Then we drove to nearby town, where there were apparently lots of interesting ruins and temples. We stopped to see a museum set in large grounds, within a very old building itself. Lots of very old drawings of Sultan son's, paintings of battles, a few guns and of coins.

We then drove around an old fort for a bit, and stopped to see the main temple within the fort.

Last, we drove even further away to some gardens, which were just filled with Indians. They shoot lots of bollywood musical scenes here apparently. It wasn't much special, set underneath a big dam, with water running and spraying everywhere. The main highlight was the musical fountain, which once it gets dark, shoots some jets of water into the air along with film soundtracks and lights. The Indians loved it.

Back at the lodge before 9. It was OK for me to stay in the same room another night for single price, so I went straight over the road and had dinner. Poori and vegetable fried noodles. Then I used the Internet for three hours, bringing this thing a lot closer to up-to-date.

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