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Published: August 17th 2018
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Sleeping on a train full of people isn’t that easy and the beds are really very hard. Stephen helpfully pointed out that everyone else was lying on, rather the under, the heavy blanket provided after I woke up. I guess I’ll have to try that next time.
Arriving in Banalore we had under estimated how many stations it has and after going through Bangalore east decided to get off at Bangalore Cant. Our ticket code was BGC. We assumed the ‘c’ was for Cant. It wasn’t. It was for city! We hadn’t taken into account how late the train was running...
Fortunately we had almost 4 hours before our next train so jumped on a tuk tuk and got to see some of Bangalore from the back (including the racecourse).
At the (correct) station we found something to eat for breakfast and the worst cup of tea I’ve ever had. We found the people rude and unpleasant unlike other areas we’ve seen, so we’re quite pleased we weren’t staying (although I’m sure the stations aren’t representative of the whole city).
The station itself was much bigger than the previous one and so relied on an electronic system to
tell you which carriage you needed (the trains are much longer than at home - if you’re in the wrong place it can easily take 5mins to walk to the other end). Unfortunately the electronic system wasn’t working and the free WiFi is only available if you have an Indian phone number! Able to find the correct platform but clueless as to where our carriage would be we were pleased when the train turned up 10mins early and we realised we were standing at the wrong end...
Walking down the length of the train we reached the correct carriage - this time we travelled seated first class and were provided with large chairs, reasonable food and clean toilets.
Arriving in Mysore we heading off to our hostel for a shower and a change of clothes. We are staying in The Mansion 1907, a hostel which has got great reviews. It’s been a grower for us - the rooms are clean, there’s plenty of hot water and they do good, reasonably priced food. It was just unfortunate that when we first turned up it was full of 18 year olds getting high and talking about how spiritual it is (the
hostel, not Mysore) - not really our scene!
We decided to spend the afternoon wandering around and working out where things are in relation to the hostel. We walked past Mysore Palace and went to the bazaar where I bought some more bangles. An incredibly eloquent boy managed to persuade us into his shop to show us how he made insence sticks but we managed to escape without having to buy any. I really enjoyed the bazaar - lots of spices, jewlery, vegetables and flowers all for sale in a tiny area.
Walking further out of the city we saw Government House (former British residency) and walked around its grounds as the house itself was closed to visitors (its now used as a government guest house). On the recommendation of a random tuk tuk driver we walked over to St Philomenas cathedral. A stunning sandstone building which for some strange reason they’ve decided to paint grey!
Exhausted from travelling we headed to the Parklane hotel for an easy dinner and beer. The food & service were mediocre and it was rather overpriced but being in the Lonely Planet meant there were plenty of people there and it
had a good atmosphere. It also had a good beer.
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