A better day

Thankfully today has got off to a much better start than yesterday. We began the day with a fairly decent breakfast in the hotel and then decided to take the slightly lame option of getting the travel agent we've been dealing with to organise a car to take us around Mysore's sights. It was a little more expensive than an auto-rickshaw, but a lot more comfortable, which is exactly what we needed!

We started with the drive up Chamundi Hill, 1062 metres high, to visit the Sri Chamundeswari Temple.

We didn't end up going inside due to the usual confusion of where to pay to get in, the concept of leaving our shoes 20 metres away from the entrance which is traversed by cows, monkeys and hundreds of people, and our general disinterest in religious monuments in general. We wandered around the perimeter for a while before heading back to the car.

On the way back down the hill we stopped at the statue of 'Nandi', Shiva's bull, which is carved out of rock.

We also stopped to look at the view of Mysore's city 1000 metres below.

After this the driver used the typical Indian method of bamboozlement and told us he was taking us to the palace, but then we stopped at a non-descript building which he described as the 'Maharani's palace'. We walked in only to discover it was a shop selling fine silk and carpets which, while very nice, we had no interest in buying and had to embarrass ourselves and the owner by walking in and straight out again.

Once we'd escaped the driver actually took us to Mysore's famous Maharaja's Palace.

We weren't allowed to take cameras inside, but the outside complex itself was far more interesting anyway. The inside, while filled with ridiculously decadent items such as solid silver and cut glass dignitaries' chairs, got kind of boring after a while. The grounds outside the palace were full of grand archways and cool tiger statues:

One unusual observation was the fascination touring Indians had with us. We had a group of young Indian lads insist of having their photos taken with us. We insisted we weren't rock stars or anyone remotely important, but we tolerated it for one shot before realising we could have been there for the long haul, and stormed off like spoiled prima donnas.

Once we were done with the Palace, our driver tried again to convince us to go to the sandalwood factory or the silk emporium, but we managed to convince him that we just wanted to see the markets. So he not only took us to the Devaraja Market, but walked us through what turned out to be the highlight of the day. The whole place was a riot of colour, with whole halls selling single products, such as a wall of bananas, or enormous bowls and strings of flowers.

One of the coolest things was the piles of colours that are used for various purposes such as smearing on the forehead:

We ended at a stall that sold attars, pure essences of flowers and plants. While we hadn't intended to buy anything, the cacophony of smells got the better of us and we ended up buying five different fragrances of Mysore flower, lotus, watermelon, blue moon and night queen. I think we probably ended up paying way more than we needed to because the owner of the stall ushered us inside, brought us cups of masala chai and gave us a bundle of free incense and glass bottles to share out the attars once we get home.

After all this we were pretty much exhausted so we're now back at the hotel and contemplating going out to get some lunch (once again at 3pm). We'll probably just take it easy for the rest of the day and go out to one of the fancier hotels tonight for dinner - and we certainly won't be walking this time after last night's experience!

Addendum - We've just returned from a tasty but rather bizarre eating experience in our hotel - in the mezzanine floor restaurant called 'The Cave' in Hindi. The place was literally devoid of natural light and filled with statues, fake flames and staff in silly Rudyard Kipling safari hats. That aside, the food was pretty good and the few beers we had were up to the task. Going to brave a swim soon.