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Mysore
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27&30th January 2005.
Mysore is a charming little town. It's easy to get around on foot, and has a lovely palace and a very cool zoo. We skipped into Mysore twice, and found some of the noisiest and grottiest accommodation that we had stayed in for a while.
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The Maharaja's Indo-Saracenic Palace can be see from afar. Built in 1912 at a cost of 4.2 million rupees, it's interior is full of colourful stained glassed windows and mirrors. It was beautiful inside, but we weren't allowed our to take our camera in. Instead we had to waddle slowly through narrow corridors, waiting for locals to check themselves out infront of every mirror. This was very amusing the first time.
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Lots of the visitors come on a Sunday, and most of them want a foreigner in their photo. We wonder what sort of conversations people have with their friends when they show people 'us' in their photos. "Here are our very good friends from England...."
We think they fail to say, " ... Who we cornered one day and convinced to pose in a photo with us!"
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On Sunday evenings a festival atmosphere grips the palace, as a band plays, and 97,000 bulbs illuminate the palace.
Intermittent rain showers, rather than the band hidden a hundred metres behind a rope, convinced Jason that we should stay the full hour in case something exploded.
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There was no chance for romance, with large crowds, rain, and lots of locals who were selling balloons, postcards and stickers....they all wanted photos.
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The cows in town were dressed up and had their horns painted. Despite the flash attire, they would still push us off the pavement and shit everywhere.
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Some of the rickshaws were seriously overdressed.
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Horses and carts scampered around town and couldn't understand why we weren't interested.
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Huge jack fruit - sold on the road.
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The policemen here, wear funny cowboy hats and practice their "punch" from "CHIPS" face looking as angry as possible.
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Jason took a trip to the Mysore zoo (Claire was Mysored out). Jason has since spent the last week prattling on how good it was, and how much Claire missed... (yawn).
Apparently the animals aren't that badly caged though Leo Sayer didn't look to pleased with his harem.
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The elephants were going mad at each other prompting the zoo keeper to risk life and limb by running after them and throwing stones at their heads.
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After Mysore, we spent a day in Bangalore shopping for books, visiting supermarkets, going to subway and other big-city stuff.
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