Mysore - Bustling touristy town 10-11 Mar

Mysore is a lot more exciting than Bangalore. More people, more shops, more bulls, more sights to see and also more roundabouts!

We are beginning to love the weather in South India. Hot, dry and yet breezy. We kind of got used to perspiring daily, walking a lot, waking up late, jay-walking everywhere, no fixed itinerary and the slowness of life in the locals. We have met mainly friendly locals with lots of initiatives to show us what an item is for, how to eat this & that (even gave us sample to try!), how to do this & that etc. A large part of our time was spent on observing people, things and the way of life. At times, we even joined them!


We were looking at 2 locals eating some kind of omelette from a hawker while observing the other pushcarts hawker preparing the food with lotsa customers. After they finished their food, the 2 young lads came over to us (we were very wary of them after hearing the different horror stories of molest from frens) & told us that what they were eating is omelette with vegetables & costs 10rupees (S$0.32). Isn’t that sweet?


We feel very welcomed in the 2 places that we have visited so far. .Probably cos there aren’t any Chinese around and they are amused at how interested we are in their stuffs. It’s funny that majority thot we are Japanese or Korean.


So far, we have not met any Chinese! There are very few Ang Mos on the street too. We met an Indian old couple from New York at the train station at Bangalore. There’s another American guy whom we met while crossing the road in Mysore. He stayed a year in Taiwan learning Chinese & teaching English at nite to get by. He wanted to speak to someone who could converse in Mandarin to remember the language (he speaks mandarin fluently. More so than jeff as he struggled to converse with him in pure Mandarin! Haha!). Plans to backpack around India for 3-4mths before heading to Russia, his country of birth! I always wonder if I will ever lead a life of such…keeps travelling from one place to another at his own pace with no fixed itinerary...


Sean (the cool & inspiring guy who cycled from Finland-Singapore over 18mths) suggested that we shd have a theme when we travel so that we can look out for it wherever we go. Dunling, if u are reading this, pls tell Sean that we have found ours! FOOD, Glorious Food!! Before we started on the trip, we tot that we wld slim down while travelling…at the rate that we are eating everyday since we got here… hehe.. FAT chance! The food is nice and we are eating a lot more than back home…Dinner only starts at 7-7.30pm in restaurants so we kinda have late dinner and then back to room, watch tv(mainly Jeff!) and sleep!


In order to keep within our daily budget, we have decided to sleep budget but eat well! My dear Shao Ye is even willing to downgrade to non-aircon room! There’s a few hundreds rupees (S$10) different between AC and non-AC room, so we decided to save that up. Frankly, the ceiling fan is good enough! A sumptuous meal in a hotel costs us 650 Indian rupess (S$20) and we had the best Tandoori Chicken, crispy maggie mee goreng & some other Indian food! Other eateries only cost abt 200 rupees (S$7).


In Mysore, we have experienced the typical touristy touts like other touristy places, saw the grandeur of Mysore Palace and felt the warmth of the people...


Check out the pics below on the places that we went..
 
 

Leaving Bangalore on auto-rickshaw..

We tot that he was cooling the train track…turns out..washing all the poos on the track!

Airline service on the train from Bangalore to Mysore! Excellent. Apart from the main course, there was soup appetizer and a huge bottle of water for us!

Typical sweet store in India. Oh boy, it was really sweet! Upon seeing us, the store owner came out to introduce wat’s famous & asked if we would like to try. Everything was good!

Delicious & fragrance Chicken Briyani at Gandhi Sq – Hotel RRR.

We shared for dinner & went back following day for lunch & each ordered our own portion! Finger licking good!

Nite scence of Mysore..

Setting up our own Laundromat in the room.

Spacious toilet. 2 in one!

Attempts to get on the bus..haha..on the next one.

Foreigners pay 10x more than local for entry into Mysore Palace! It costs 100 rupees (S$3.30) in the guidebook dated Oct 2008. Doubled in less than 2 years!

Exterior of the palace. No photo taking inside…unable to share the grandeur..

Baggage Carrier was wat it says on the front of the track, check out the double storey they have created for pple to sit comfortably. So cool!