Tips, Bungs and Baksheesh.....

Sometimes it really pays (literally) to get sidetracked and quite simply spend the day somewhere that you never intended to go anywhere near in the first place!
I was seriously debating the logic of spending 6 hours on a bus just to see one small town, however, the bus was air conditioned and I didn’t have anything else to do, so I decided to bite the bullet, dump my main rucksack in the cloakroom at the train station and go. This decision was made even easier being as I had to check out of my hotel at 8am and my train wasn’t due to leave Bangalore station until 10:30pm!
Mysore is a small town roughly 120km South West of Bangalore. Home to a large and impressive Maharajas Palace, an architecturally superb cathedral and a cute little railway museum among other things, all are good reasons to come here. The centre of this town, which is barely 2 square km’s has plenty of sights to keep you going for a day or two and if you haven’t already experienced temple overload then you can always trek, bus or autorickshaw your way the 13 or so km’s out to Chowmandi Hill and if your feeling really dedicated, climb the 1000 or so steps to the temple at the top.
Heading directly for the Palace, I ran into a small garden centre. I only wish we had garden centres like these back in the UK, then again half the plants wouldn’t survive there anyway, but one can still dream.
The Palace itself sits inside quite a big complex and it takes a good hour to walk around the outside perimeter. You are allowed to take pictures of the outside of the building, however, as usual here in India, you are charged 10 times the entry fee of the locals, yet your still not allowed near all the real goodies with your camera. I actually had all my camera equipment with me so there was no way I was going to leave it in their little camera room.
Being the sneaky sod I am I tried to smuggle it in only to get collared by the local constabulary! I suppose a 30L rucksack isn’t the most inconspicuous of items and trying to get it inside and through a metal detector un-noticed was always going to be too much to ask anyway! There I was, thinking that I was going to have to cough up a nice big wedge of baksheesh, but the policeman was actually quite understanding and said that he would get me ‘special permission’ which also sounded a tad expensive!
So im lead away to the Palace entrance and up to 2 other policemen who I presume are keeping a watch over everything. After a few minutes of explaining and a 40Rs (50p) baksheesh payment, im thinking im home free…… but ohh no….. it was never going to be that easy!!!
Suddenly, Plod turns into an impromptu tour guide and it was at this point I was starting to think that im now probably going to be stuffed up like the proverbial turkey!!!
Anyway, fortunately for me he spoke good English and seemed very knowledgeable, even if his tour was a little rushed due the the fact that he probably wanted to get back to his post before his boss found out he was missing and gave him a rollocking!!!
The inside of the Palace is beautiful, if a little over the top. However, if you look at the quality of the individual pieces of work then it is all much easier to assimilate! Most of the doors and frames are made and carved out of Teak, some doors are even silver plated. Pictures of the Maharajas family hang on the wall and Belgian glass chandeliers hang from the ceiling. In the main reception halls, the ceilings are adorned with amazing stained glass windows and highly decorated plaster pillars reach up to this ceiling from the floor. Even the Maharajas chair was on display ….120kg of pure gold.

So……..140 rupees later im walking towards the exit of the temple when another policeman I have never seen before comes walking up to me and asked me if id like him to get me permission to take some pictures of the outside of the buildings from inside the walls, obviously, you don’t argue with the local plod, especially in a place such as India, but I politely declined and got the heck out of there before my travel budget for the day was completely blown……
In a way, I cant blame them. Ive heard that the police here earn terrible wages and I suppose its better paying for a service than being fleeced into paying huge sums for nothing, which some people have had the misfortune of being forced to do here.

So, I continued my trek of this town, taking in the former British Governors House and St Philomenas Cathedral, whos architecture is able to rival most churches and cathedrals in Europe. There is a very garish Mosque on the way to the Cathedral and also the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Museum, which is free (that makes a nice change) and basically covers everything to do with Indian culture and how this foundation is working to preserve it. Walking through the town centre you come to the Devaraja Market, which mostly sells the usual fruit, Hindu offerings and of course the brightly coloured powders that many Hindus use to adorn their foreheads with.
After a good meal I decided to head off for the railway station, located to the North West of the town. Here they have a cute little railway museum that has several early (mostly narrow gauge) steam locomotives (all but one of them being British built). There are a handful of exhibits from Indian railway stations and even a railway carriage that was built for the Maharaja.
Anyway, that’s Mysore out of the way and its back to Bangalore for my train ride to Hospet, and from there I will take a bus the short distance to Hampi. At least this time my ticket is reserved and I don’t have to travel 2nd class. Im going to have a nice hard sleeper bed to myself, how much better can things get!!!

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