Mysore to Ooty

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I have now left Mysore where I had a great time. Its my favorite city so far.

While there I visited the railway museum which my guide book said was very interesting and well worth half a day. I'd say it was a little bit interesting and well worth half an hour. Never trust the books.

Also had time at the Maharajas palace which was very interesting. Its a little bit of a walk from the gate where you pay to go in and entrance to the palace. Security is quite tight and before they let me in they put my bag through an x-ray machine saw the camera in there, no photography is allowed inside, and I was pulled to one side and told to go back to the main gate and drop it off at a locker. I gave the guard my best "you've got to be joking look" slipped him ten rupees with a promise to leave it in my bag and I was in. Once inside I was confronted with a thousand other visiters all snapping away merrily right in front of the guides who took not a blind bit of notice. I bet it didn't cost them all ten rupees.

The palace is huge and only part of it is open to the public which is a good job or it would take all day to get round. Its all a bit over the top as far as decoration goes but was well worth the vist.

Had a very nice day out at Mysore zoo. I've been to a lot of very badly run poor zoos in asia but this was a very good one. More monkeys on the outside of the cages as inside.

After a few more days of general wandering I booked a mini bus from Mysore up to Ooty in the Nilgiri hills. It was an early start of what turned out to be a not very good day. I was the first pick up but was assured it would only take 20 minutes to pick up everybody else. It took 2 hours which put me in a bit of a grumpy mood as it wasn't a very comfortable bus. The driver was a lunatic who kept trying to overtake when there was clearly no chance of making it. After a few near death experiances I felt the need to let him know that if he tried to kill me again we'd be having more that a few words.

It was meant to be a direct trip of about four hours but an hour after leaving Mysore we stopped for breakfast, then stopped again to look at some goats then only a few miles from our destination we stopped again for an hour at a lake so everyone could go for a boat ride. I was not best pleased and had a right moan at the bloke in charge. I think the idea was that we'd all get bored and take an auto rickshaw the last few miles into town but stuborness had taken over so I sat it out. Finanly we left for the last little bit of the journey and got within less that a mile of our drop off point when we stopped for lunch!! At this point I went into a purple headed rage which wasn't helped when I was told it was only a five minute walk to where I wanted to be which begged the question why didn,t you drop me off first. As i was close to getting chucked off the bus anyway I gave up and walked the last bit. So my four hour day had turned into an eight day and I had turned into a miserable old bugger. Oh well I suppose they can't all be good days.

Only been in Ooty for a day so nothing to tell you yet except it gets very cold at night due to the alltitude and I've had to dig my jumper out of the bag for the first time this trip.

Not sure yet where I'm going next but will let you all know when I get there.

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