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We caught the train down to Mysore, a city small enough to walk around in, but noisy enough to...scare us back indoors. At this point we were getting a little tired of the hotel lifestyle, so took on the offer from a local agent, found in the classifieds, to look for a short-term let on an apartment.
We spent a morning with Prakash, the agent, and a very patient auto driver, looking at an apartment, and then got waylaid looking at PG (paying guests) accommodation which is dorm type accommodation or a room in someone's house; typically split into male or female PG. As Prakesh was a man, he was not able to enter the two premises we visited, and we were left to be interrogated by two local women who insisted on seeing our passports and all our documents.
The suspicion continued, until they heard that we were willing to pay Rs2000 for a week (that's about £25). When we said that we did not want to share with two others and wanted a private space; they offered to move one of the other guests out - which we thought did not bode well for us if we moved in. The beds were in a bit of state and it felt like the worst kind of first year student dorm. We'd been there done that and wanted a bit more independence and privacy although this was hard to convey as they did not speak English or Hindi to any great extent.
It went from the ridiculous to the bizarre... with a sudden turnaround from us feeling like we were being treated as if we were going to eat their babies to us being dignitaries. Alas though, the word was out, phone calls made, and despite us knowing from first sight that PG did not meet our needs or standards they insisted on showing us around and sent us to look at a relative's property. We tried to convince them not to as we were going to say no but there was no getting away from their grip. They then put on airs of being affronted and asking for our reasons for turning them down on this lovely room with dirty mattressed single beds, its own dirty balcony and with an ensuite toilet room that was in a bit of a state. Bearing in mind the person whose home we were in was sat with us, we were very uncomfortable and in the end backed out of the premises saying sorry no, this is not what we want, our current hotel is the best bet. We didn't say it was minging because that would have been too rude!
Three hours later we were back at the hotel and grateful for the clean sheets and the semi clean bathroom. Despite being the cheapest hotel we stayed in, it was one of the better ones and we stayed there for 6 days.
Mysore was warm but rainy throughout our stay however we managed to get around a bit. The traffic and the noise did put us off somewhat and we did not visit Chamundi Hill which everyone agreed was a marvellous place and historically important in the development of Mysore. However, we saw the pictures and heard about the statue of the goddess guarding the city and heard about the scenic views and felt it enough.
Mysore Palace was where we focussed our energy, we insisted on a full guided tour. We saw the palace lit up at night and bestowed with thousands of light bulbs lit at 200 megawatts (a phenomenon reserved for Sundays and public holidays).. but it did look very pretty. We've tried to capture it on camera... but did not feel it did the electric atmosphere any justice.
Our tour guide, suave in his Starsky and Hutch sunglasses, was a royalist through and through. His obviously rehearsed and too-oft repeated patter about the place, had us wondering if we'd made the right choice in guide that morning. Nevertheless, we learnt a lot about the history, the Wodeyar dynasty, their pioneering taste in interior design, and suggestions that they were incredibly technologically advanced for their time, for example the palace had AC lifts (alternating current), and the wallpaper was pioneering in some way we did not catch.
The Palace was rebuilt in the late 19th century following the destruction of the old wooden Palace with Henry Irwin as the architect. There were Hindu, Islamic and Christian influences embedded in the design and layout of the Palace with domes and various temples, churches and mosques around the Palace which paid homage to each religion. The art, design, décor, attention to detail were designed to formalise, glamourise and uphold each and every royal ritual and movement. This from the paintings, the tiled floors, the silver room, the wooden room, the arches, the 'real gold' paint, the ivory inlaid rosewood doors and ornate silver and golden thrones, the gatherings at court, the senate, the courtyard where the public saw their king, the pageantry and processions and of course there was an elephant gate... well why wouldn't there be? Much to our amazement there were hundreds of ornate boxes in all kinds of designs, shapes and materials. Each box was designed to hold an invitation to the Wodeyar Kings from other states, rulers, countries or maybe just parties! According to the guide, the last ruling king was a fair and just man and treated his people well and his heir, who no longer had state control, as India was now a democracy, was still revered because of his position.
Our guide made us both walk down two staircases which led to the court entrance designed to receive dignitaries and aristocratic couples, as if we were attending the King's court itself... we weren't really dressed for the occasion but luckily the king was dead and his current heir was not in. We thought it was hilarious the way the guide showed us the numerous wall friezes and paintings by asking us to focus on one particular part of the picture, or person in the crowd, whilst moving full circle around the room and shouting his instructions of where to look. What we got from this is that the perspective in the paintings was clever, but eventually we stopped showing our appreciation as the novelty wore off after the umpteenth painting.
The guide left us to wander around the grounds and the badly designed museum and to witness the ubiquitous elephant and camel rides on offer to tourists along with the kitsch trinkets. An enjoyable and amusing day at the Palace ended with beer and good food at Park Lane. Alcohol in India is dominated by beer and spirits, especially whiskey. We are missing good wine. Here the wine is limited to two or three brands in a few places, and is sold in 60ml measures and tastes like port. It is by far the most expensive beverage and a bottle of imported Blossom Hill will set you back at least £12.
Whilst in Mysore we also visited Srirangapatnam, the old fortied island north of Mysore. Built in 1454 by the Vijaynagar Kings, the fort was handed over to the Hindu Wodeyars of Mysore. It became the capital of Haider Ali, a muslim ruler in the 18th century. His son, Tipu Sultan fought the Britsh and was killed in 1799 on a spot that we saw in 2008, by Colonel Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington.
There were a number of heritage sites around Srirangapatnam; some gruesome dungeons created by the Brits. There was also evidence of communication between the British Royal family and the Mysore Kings. And a number of Mysore artifacts were said to be held at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Tipu's Summer Palace, referred to as the social historical jewel was set in beautiful gardens and was a smaller, less ostentatious but no less impressive, monument than Mysore palace. It was made mostly of teak with beautiful arches, wooden painted walls and ceilings. There were two long wall friezes depicting battlescenes between Tipu and the British which were a bit gruesome if you looked too closely. There was some evidence that the design of the modern Maharajah's Palace in Mysore was based on the old palace. A local guide displaying a miniature model of Srirangapatnam reverently told us that Tipu also had a Hindu wife.
Whilst there we visited the Mausolem where Tipu was laid to rest and Muslim architecture is evident as you can see from the pictures. Tipu seemed to be greatly respected across Karnataka for being tolerant, good to his subjects, for his determination to beat the British, his good nature and his tiger emblem.
Speaking of tigers we also went to Mysore Zoo. A little apprehensive about going at first, we read that it had been involved in some important species conservation work, so paid it a visit. An interesting visit, largely because of the tigers and how visitors related to them. There were two Siberian tigers and four Indian tigers. All but one of them were in metal mesh fronted concrete cages that seemed too small. One of the Siberian tigers paced up and down its cage, whilst onlookers were noisily excited and teasingly roared to try to get a reaction. Perhaps understandable given the feared and revered status that tigers have in India. It was at the same time disturbing, given that it won't be long before India's population of 2000 wild tigers are extinct and the only place to see these magnificent cats will soon be the zoo.
At the same time, we were able to see some local wildlife (and not so local) and birds that we would otherwise not have seen. Gaur, the sloth bear both native to Indian, along with parakeets, the ASBO langurs (but who'd blame 'em!). We'll let the pictures tell you the rest.
We escaped the beeping of Mysore for Bandipur National Park, some 2 hours bus journey away. We were hoping to spend the night there and do a couple of safaris, but everywhere was fully booked or too far away. So we opted for an easy afternoon elephant watching followed by a government run safari. Now imagine a safari in a National Park, one of a few involved in the national Project Tiger programme - an Indian government led initiative to save the indian tiger - and you would imagine a serene place, with well informed guides and safaris conducted in a manner sensitive to its surroundings.... well no, not here.
The lack of information from the ever-not-so helpful person at the reception left us hanging around for some time. Whilst waiting we noticed a few langur monkeys around fighting amongst themselves and doing other cute entertaining monkey stuff. This included coming up close and watching what we were doing. One of the monkey's then went for Sundeep's backpack and opened the zip ready to nab her underwear and a few rupees no doubt. When she attempted to shoo it away it swiped at her and she had to abandon her bag. Col was useless she got up with her bag and swung it in an effort to scare the langur away; instead the monkey chased the swinging bag, hissed at her and stared her into submission. Bit scary but we escaped when the langurs seemingly sniffed and went off with their noses in the air. We later saw the louts stealing things from the back of cars with people in them. Hence the term ASBO... langurs.
Soon we gathered that a safari must be imminent by the coachloads of people arriving, and people forming an orderly queue outside the information office, in front of a tiny window with wooden shutters. A camouflaged bus parked up, and the shutters opened to a haggle of people buying tickets for the safari. We managed to get tickets for the second of the four safari coaches! Yes there were four coaches taking around twenty visitors one after the other. The noise from the bus alone would be enough to keep the hungriest of man-eating wildlife away, let alone the clearing of throats and shouting from all on the bus. We gave up any hope of seeing anything, but then low and behold, there were a herd of Gaur (Indian Bison) heading off as the bus approached. A similar sighting of a herd of Chittal (Indian Spotted deer), rushing off as soon as the bus' brakes screeched. We gathered the elephants were in musth, as the larger males had all been restrained with chains.
An interesting experience, if not to tell us to avoid the government run safaris and opt for a local guide with knowledge of the area instead next time! Thus ended our Mysore stay. Despite, what we thought was the worst traffic noise pollution, we enjoyed the local feel and friendliness of the place.
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