A weekend of palacial grandness (no hyperbole present I swear)

Our trip around Karnataka (plus the other bits)
Ana & Chas Fisher Chas here: Sorry about the two blogs so close together and these is one more to come. But the last week was so full of experiences that they had to be broken up and we have only had the chance to write the blogs this week. So be prepared for overdose of Chas and Ana.

Also, I felt that I was hijacking the blog simply because I had internet access all day. So here is Ana telling you about our trip to Mysore on the weekend. One story though that Ana did not want told: Ana finished her book on the bus which then meant I had entertainment duties. We were playing I-spy when I spied something beginning with ‘n’. She pointed at me and said ‘numbnut’. This caused her to laugh so much at her own joke that she pitched forward and banged her head on a metal bar on the seat in front of us. An Ana moment that could not be missed! Of course she kept laughing afterwards until her tummy hurt.

Anway, here is the wonderful (and still not ill) Ana:

Our trip to Mysore started off with the three hour non-AC bus trip. We only just made it because working out which of the 18 bus stands went to Mysore was a challenge, but we managed to jump on as it was starting to move off.

Once on the bus, we made our way down to the back seat, and we spent the rest of the trip getting cosy with our neighbours (not out of choice but lack of space). I was wedged in between Chas and this big guy, and every surface area that we shared was drenched in sweat, for three hours. Pretty gross. And the big guy also started snoring.

But we felt much better after a cold shower (a shower head that worked too! So we didn’t have to use a bucket! Yay!) and were able to sit and chill with a banana lassi and fresh mango juice. We stayed at a place called the Green Hotel, which was kindly booked by our friend Rohan. It’s an eco-friendly hotel, and the main building used to be a palace. Rohan has just started working at a boy’s school teaching English for a month in a small village just outside of Mysore, and he stayed at the Green Hotel with us for the weekend.
We had a nice evening with Rohan, and his British friends Sabrina and Tim, who are currently live in Mysore.

The next morning, we were faced with a bit an obstacle. As we went to open the door of our room, we found that we were locked in! (See saga photos). The first door we could unbolt but could not open because there was a little hook that must have fallen when we closed it. Moment of panic. And the second door was bolted from the inside, so it couldn’t be opened unless the first one opened. The windows had steel bars so we couldn’t get out that way. Moment of frustration. But in the end Chas ingeniously managed to unhook the latch with a clothes hanger (but the clothes hanger was my idea!).

Sunday we spent time looking at the temple on the hill, which was sign posted as one of India’s top 8 sacred hills. And there were also signs warning us of cheetahs, how exciting! We took the 1000 steps back down the hill, on the way passing lots of really cheeky monkeys (one youngster who tried to grab a hold of Chas’ bag strap but missed!) and a great big black bull statue. We then visited the Tipu Sultan’s Palace, which was very large, had lots of fearsome-looking tiger statues and the inside was ornately beautiful. The large pillars were intricately painted in beautiful colours, and there were numerous rooms with stain glass domes, in the shapes of peacocks. We were not allowed to take photos, so you will just have to take our word that it was very pretty!

We were told the markets weren’t open that day, so we came back to hotel and had a few games of pool at a place around the corner. Just a lovely weekend!

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