Fri 27th January, 2006 Arrived at
Yesvantpur Junction on the outskirts of Bangalore at 8:30pm.
Its about 15km to the hotel we're aiming for in the Centre of
Bangalore, so we weren't sure how much it was going to cost us.
Luckily, there were lots of autos and taxis, and we were
approached by one of each. The taxi driver came in
surprisingly low with an estimate of 300 rupees, so, of course,
the auto driver had to go in even lower and offered to take us
for 150 rupees. That'll do!. After
half an hour, we pulled up at the end of Brigade Road, where the
auto driver told us he couldn't take us to the Hotel Vellara as
autos were not allowed in to Brigade Road. Great, strange
he didn't mention that when we booked him. He said it was
about 500 metres up the road. Not a great distance, but
too far to walk carrying all our luggage, so we paid him off, no
tip though, and lugged our bagged-up bikes and panniers into a
quiet spot on the pavement, so we could assemble them. It
started out as a quiet spot, but within 2 minutes we had an
audience of 50, and one person was even videoing us as we put
our bikes together. Fame at last. Didn't get asked
for our autographs, this time. We
made it to the other end of Brigade Road, only to discover that
the Vellara was in the other direction, and that part of the
road was open to autos, so our driver could have dropped us
right at the front door. Bar-steward. The Vellara looked a
bit run down, didn't fancy the look of the restaurant for a
start, but it was 10pm and they had a vacant room for 860
rupees, Had a late dinner in a modern
restaurant across the road, the Kytoli, very clean and tidy, but
the staff were very pushy, telling us where we should sit and
rushing us to order. In trying to be ultra efficient and modern,
I think they've missed the point of service. They did,
however, let us put the food into our own mouths. Nice of
them. Karnataka is supposed to be one of the
biggest wine producers in India, as is Andhra Pradesh actually
but we didn't find any evidence of wine there. On the way
to our hotel, I had spotted a couple of wine shops, and I even
thought I saw some wine in one of them. I went back after
our meal and found they did indeed have some wine, a little
pricey at 300 rupees, but it turned out to be quite drinkable.
They even removed the cork for me, luckily I remembered we
haven't got a corkscrew just as I was leaving the store. Back
to Itinerary
Sat 28th January, 2006 We must be
gluttons for punishment, as we went back to the Kytoli
restaurant across the road for breakfast. It looked very clean,
so we assumed the food would be safe. Unfortunately, the masala
dosas, normally served piping hot, were only lukewarm, although
they were served with two sambas. Verdict? We wont be
back. We wandered down Brigade Road, heading
towards MG Road, stopping to look around some of the shopping
centres on the way, and also checking out a few hotels, most of
which were fully booked. The sun was shining brightly and
it was another hot day, par for the course around here. On
MG Road though, there was so much traffic there was a
constant cloud of exhaust fumes covering the area, and we soon
found ourselves coughing and spluttering. I don't
think we've seen it this bad anywhere else in India, even New
Delhi. We took refuge in a large department store,
Bangalore Central, where there is a supermarket on the 4th
floor, selling all sorts of goodies like lettuce (first time
we've seen it in India), wholemeal bread and various other
commodities I even spotted a jar of Pataks Extra Hot
Curry Paste, made in England and imported into India. Can
you believe it? Talk about coals to Newcastle. We
bought a bag of shopping, enough to make some lettuce, tomato
and tuna sandwiches for our meal tonight, just for a change.
The checkouts were extremely slow though, we joined a
queue with only two people in it, and they only had a basket
each, but it took 15 minutes to get served. Not sure what
the problem was, everything seemed to be a problem really, from
credit card validation, no prices, awkward customers, no change,
staff that didn't know how to use the till. Shame really. Further
up east along MG Road, we found the Ajantha Hotel, reasonable
write up in the guide book, and they had a room going for 650
rupees. Not a fantastic room, but a little nicer than our
current room, so we said we'd take it. Walked back to our
hotel, stopping at the World Pub for a quick beer on the way.
Packed up and checked out, then cycled down some quieter back
roads to the Ajantha. Made a feast in
our room of the goodies we'd bought from the supermarket.
Thought we might catch a moie and have a quiet evening, turns
out our TV only has one English language channel, but luckily
its BBC World, so at least we can keep abreast of the state of
the world. Sad to hear about the pigeon fanciers in Poland
getting crushed in the collapsed building. Sunday
- We had thought this hotel was going to be a lot quieter than
the last, but we were mistaken. There was no noise from MG Road,
from which the Ajantha is set back by about 200 yards, but the
noise came from the other inmates of the hotel, who were banging
and crashing about from around 6am. To make matters
worse, we both woke up with a throat infection, probably
something to do with all the fumes in town yesterday. Had
a quiet morning around the hotel, coughing and spluttering, then
went for a walk along MG Road. Being a Sunday, quite a few
businesses were closed, and the traffic was considerably
lighter. Tried to find somewhere for a light meal and a
beer, but not too many places doing food at 4:30pm, but we did
manage to find a rooftop restaurant who served us some beer and
cashew nuts. Wandered along Brigade Road and came across a
Pizza Hut. "A Pizza Hut?" I hear you say. Yes,
I'm ashamed to say we went in, but only so Rita could have a
nice lettuce salad. Honestly. Ok, I did have a
little pizza while I was in there, but it would have been rude
not to, wouldn't it? I noticed there was even a salami
pizza option on the menu with a little asterisk next to it,
which denoted "Due to import restrictions, this item not
available". Why did they put it on the menu then? Walked
back to our hotel via a beer shop on Brigade Road, it was the
closest to our hotel that I could find, and I didn't want to
have to come all the way back here later. Monday.
Throats feeling a little better, spent the day updating the
website and sorting out digital photos for the Andhra Pradesh
page, they're there now if you want a look. It's now just
over a year since we left to go on our World Tour 2005, and
since then we've taken about 19,000 digital photos. That's
a lot. Especially when you consider that sometime we went
for several days without taking any, but not many places.
I bet you lot are not looking forward to us coming round when we
get back, especially when I say "Do you want to see our
holiday photos?" We went to the Caesars
restaurant across the road from our hotel for dinner. It
looked a rather posh place, especially with the doorman wearing
such an elaborate hat. But once inside and perusing the
menu, it wasn't too bad. And they even had steak on the
menu, by which they had steak items listed on the menu, not the
remains of somebody's dinner actually on the menu. I had
to go for it, I haven't had any beef since we left England, not
easy to get hold of in India, Although the Muslims in India used
to be partial to a bit of beef, especially as a celebration
after winning a battle, but with time and as a nod to religious
harmony, they dont do so much these days. So it says in
our guide book. I went for the Caesars Steak,
described as beef and chicken steaks, and Rita opted for the
vegetable cutlet. When they arrived, they were both served
as sizzlers on steaming hot metal dishes complete with a good
selection of vegetables. I think we were both defeated
before we started, they both looked like huge meals, but it was
more the presentation on the big wooden platter to protect the
table from the hot dishes that made them look so big. The
steaks were great, so was the cutlet, and it was nice to have
some carrots and broccoli with a bit of crunch still in them.
Neither of us managed to finish our meal, but it was extremely
good. And the total bill came to 1200 rupees, very
expensive compared with what we would normally spend, but that
about 15 quid for the two meals including drinks. I think
we might come back here for another blow out before we leave
Bangalore. Tuesday. I'm going to pop
off to Hampi for a day or two, while Rita hangs out around here
to do some work on her TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign
Language). So this morning we got an auto down to the bus
station so I could book tickets on the overnight bus. I
was quite impressed with the bus station, all very clean (well,
relatively) and well organised. They have booking
procedures like the trains, where you fill out a form with the
details of your trip and hand it in at a counter. They
even let me pick my seat from the available seats on a computer
screen. Only took 2 minutes and 240 rupees, and I
had my ticket for the 11:30pm bus to Hospet, the main town near
Hampi. Checked inside the bus terminal to make sure I
would know where to go tonight, and was amazed to see it all
clearly signposted for the various destinations, in English and
various Indian languages. Got to be the best organised bus
station I've seen in India. Had a quick veg
curry in a lovely clean Andhra restaurant in the bus station
complex. I could tell it was Andhra by the beads of
perspiration on my forehead by the time I had finished.
Fantastic. Then made our way over to Commercial Street to
look for some silk. It's so cheap here we're going to buy
some for future house furnishings, whenever that might be!
Another rickshaw back to our hotel to cool down, it was getting
too hot out in the sun by now. Packed
up some basic necessities for a couple of days, had a small
snack in our room, then set off for the bus station at
930pm. It's going to be quite strange not having Rita with
me for the next couple of days, I dont think we've spent more
than 3 or 4 hours apart since we arrived in India five months
ago. It will give Rita unlimited access to the laptop
while I'm not hear though. .Back to
Itinerary Wed
1st February, 2006 Arrived in Hospet at
6:45am after a bumpy ride from Bangalore. I'd managed to
grab a bit of sleep occasionally during the night, but not
enough really, so I had a couple of cups of coffee at the bus
station to keep me awake, didn't have time to waste sleeping
now, I've got Hampi to explore. Checked out a couple of
hotels for this evening, the Shanbhag Tower seemed quite
reasonable at 400 rupees for a single. The local
auto-rickshaw drivers were annoyingly persistent, didn't seem to
matter how many time I said I didn't need a rickshaw as I was
catching the bus to Hampi, they just kept on. The best offer was
80 rupees, but the bus was only 6 rupees, and I dont think the
bus is any less uncomfortable that an auto, so why pay the
extra? The bus took about half an hour to
cover the 15km, with only a few stops on the way. Quite a
few interesting buildings on the way in to Hampi itself, looked
like it would be a good place to visit. First stop was a
cafe for breakfast and more coffee. It was still quite
early, and I was in no rush. Hampi
had a settlement back in the third century AD, but is most
famous for being the seat of the Vijayanagara Empire and a major
centre of Hindu rule for 2 centuries from 1336. An excert
from our guide book: " The city was enormously wealthy,
greater than Rome, with a market full of jewels, and palaces
plated with gold, having held a monopoly of trade in spices and
cotton. It was very well fortified and defended by a large
army. With the defeat in 1565 at Talikota at the hands of the
Deccan Sultans, the city was largely destroyed. Today, the
stark and barren area of 26sq km on the right bank of the river
Tungbadhambra has the ruins of the great empire strewn across
it." That is why I thought I had better come here to
see what was left. At the western end of
Hampi Bazar is the Virupaksha temple, still fully in use today,
with a 9 storey tower over the entrance gate. Within is a
large working courtyard, with laundry and daily chores being
carried out, leading on to an inner temple area, but there is a
250 rupee charge to go inside, and I wasn't 250 rupee
interested. I've seen inside enough temples for quite a
while, especially if one has to pay. To
the south of Virupaksha, I saw a group of abandoned temples on
what I discovered to be Hemakuta Hill, a large, sloping, plateau
of granite, dotted with structures constructed of granite
slabs. The sun was getting fairly hot by now,
it was only 930 but it was beating down mercilessly on the
exposed granite, so I took my time wandering around the temples,
finding shade wherever I could. I saw a number of
colourful and interesting birds around this area, including a
fabulous hoopoe, with its huge crest and long downward pointing
beak. It sat posing on top of a granite column for a good
10 minutes, giving me plenty of time to study it and take a few
pictures. Further on , I saw a lovely small green bee
eater, flitting from bush to bush, a brilliant green colour with
a chestnut head. By that I mean he had a chestnut coloured
head, not that he had a chestnut for a head. Do try to
keep up. We bought a small book about Indian
wildlife when we were in Darjeeling, and very useful it has been
too. I'm not very good at identifying birds, and even
animals sometimes, so, although it only has a limited range of
animals, birds, and plants, its been invaluable. Otherwise
my descriptions would have been limited to big green bird with
small beak, small black bird with two wings, etc, Not very
informative.
Some of the temples were filled with fine stone
carvings on the walls, but others were quite plain and even
crudely made in places, with the stones roughly cut and
ill-fitting. I guess they may have been built at different
times and with different budgets, Some even looked
as though they might have been cobbled together from the stones
of other temples. All very interesting to look at though,
and with it being so quiet, it was peaceful and relaxing as
well. Except, that is, for one foreign couple, carrying a
guitar, and dashing from temple to temple calling out loudly for
some lost. friends. I think if I had been their friends, I
might have tried to get my self lost as well!
Back down to Hampi Bazar, stopping briefly for a
cold drink, I made my way east up the wide expanse of the bazar,
towards some steps up to a small Hanuman (the monkey god)
temple. It's not too clear from my guide book, but I think
this main drag was a chariot road, and for most of its length is
lines by corridors of granite pillars, topped by granite plinths.
Quite impressive now, it must have been spectacular in its
heyday. The stone steps at the end curled their way up the
rocky slopes of the valley, with several small temples at odd
intervals. At the top of the rise, I suddenly came in
sight of a large temple in the next valley, and with
nobody else around it sort of felt like I had just discovered
it. The temple is called Tiruvengalanathe, and there is
absolutely nothing about it in my guide book so I can tell you
nothing more than its pretty nice to look at. There are
two large 4 storey gateways, the lower halves being made of
carved granite, but the upper halves are build of small red
bricks, which have deteriorated badly over time. The
granite carvings are still quite well defined, but the carvings
and moldings on the brick areas are only vaguely identifiable in
places. Maybe this is where the aforementioned gold plated
temple were? Who knows? Not me, thats for sure. Inside
the complex there was one particular building which had a large
intact roof supported by many finely carved stone pillars.
The carvings, on all sides of the pillars, were different
on each one, and I soon noticed that one or two of them were
positively pornographic. I spent a few minutes (okay,
maybe it was an hour) appreciating the fine detailed work before
moving onto the next building within the site. Some of the
building have been partially restored, and in some places, new
supporting walls have been built to prop up the old
stonework. Its been done quite well and blends in with the
existing ruins quite well. Walking north now,
back towards the river Tungabhadra, I walked along another wide
road lined by corridors of stone pillars. The
Archaeological Survey of India are busy at work here, excavating
and rebuilding another temple to the side of the road. It
looks like it was a large water tank, and they have already dug
down to the stone base, and are in the process of reconstructing
the now familiar stone pillared corridors around the
edges. All the carrying work of taking the baskets of
waste soil to a tipping site is done by women, while the men's
occupation seems to be limited to standing around discussing how
much soil needs to be moved, or holding on to the ropes to
steady a hoisting operation. Par for the course in India,
I'd say from what I've seen. Well,
I've managed to drag this on for far too long, so for the rest
of the day I walked to a number of other temples and places in
the northern half of Hampi, including the so-called Kings
Balance, the Vitthala Temple, quite a few interesting birds, and
many more long lines of stone pillared corridors, which, in case
you haven't picked up on it yet, is one of the main features of
Hampi. Well, so far as I see it, anyway. Oh, and I saw the
ruins of the stone bridge across the river, which, unusually,
seemed to have been constructed of long lines of stone
pillars. It was 4pm by the time I got
back to Hampi Bazaar, well hot and quite tired by this stage.
The rest of Hampi would have to wait until tomorrow
morning. I had a snack of a veggie samosa, (which turned
out to be more like a Cornish pasty!). to tied (or is that tide?
I dont know!) me over until dinner, then just managed to jump on
the bus back to Hospet as it was pulling away. There
was a different receptionist on at the Shanbhag Tower hotel when
I rolled up at 5pm, he looked at me in disbelief when I said I
was offered a single room for 400 rupees this morning. He
asked me what time that had been, I hope I didn't get the early
guy in trouble when I said 7am, but he grunted a lot and then
gave me a registration form to fill in. I guess I was
in. They gave me a nice corner room on the first
floor, a bit noisy with a school playground just outside the
window, but I don't suppose they'll be there all night.
After a quick dinner of soup and chicken fried rice, I settled
down with a couple of beers in my room and watched Bride and
Prejudice, a great film, staring the gorgeous Aishwarya Rae, and
some other people. Thursday
- I had intended on getting up early, returning to Hampi for a
few hours to explore the rest of the site by bicycle, before
catching the bus back to Bangalore around midday. But I
felt terrible when I awoke at 830 after a difficult night, my
cold had come back with a vengeance, and I didn't feel up to
much at all. Struggled out of bed some time later, a quick
shower helped we wake up, then checked out of the hotel and made
my way to the bus station. Only had time to make a quick
phone call to Rita to say I was on my way back, grab a couple of
bottles of water and a packet of crisps for supplies, and jump
onto the next Bangalore bound bus which was just pulling
out. Another close call. Actually, it's not a good
idea getting on buses just as they are pulling out, because they
normally fill up just before they leave, and this bus was no
exception. It looked like it was standing room only, as I
scanned the sea of faces looking (some might say staring, but
they're only looking) up at me to try and find a gap. I
had just about resigned myself to having to stand, for some way
at least, when the driver called me to the front and pointed to
a small gap on the end of the seat behind the driver, the two
other guys already sat there sidled along a bit and made enough
room for a perch for me. Thanks guys. And we were
off. As this was the regular bus,
instead of the deluxe bus I had caught out to Hampi, it made a
few more stops. Also, it didn't have individual reclining
seats, but it wasn't too bad, and it was only 156 rupees as
well. After an hour, we stopped at a large town and quite
a few people got off, but luckily not too many people got back
on. The driver then directed me to sit on a double seat on
the other side of the bus, which I then had to myself for most
of the rest of the ride. I felt a bit guilty at first,
being given special treatment, but when I looked around the rest
of the bus I saw that everyone was fairly spread out now,
The bus sped along fairly quickly, most of the roads were the
newer fast expressways, as they're referred to, dual
carriageways, but alarmingly, there was still two way traffic on
each carriageway at times. It was
dark by the time we reached the outskirts of Bangalore, and then
we hit the traffic jams. It took another hour before we
pulled into the central bus station at 7:30. There was a
long queue at the prepaid auto-rickshaw office, so I flagged one
down on the road, a very laid back driver who didn't seem to
care how much I wanted to pay to get to the Ajantha Hotel.
The traffic wasn't too bad at this time of the evening, so we
made it back in 20 minutes. Found Rita in our
room, still working on her TEFL course. We were both
starving, using the term loosely, so we made for the Caesars
restaurant across the road, where I had a fantastic chateaubriand
steak (too big though) and Rita had a chicken Dianne. Ok,
I know, its not traditional Indian fare, but you've got to have
a break sometimes. Back
to Itinerary
Fri 3rd February, 2006 After
all the excitement and travel of the last couple of days, I was
whacked out this morning, and we're both suffering with throat
infections, which we put down to the dust and pollution.
Had a quiet day at the hotel. Saturday -
feeling a little better, we were up early and walked over to
Commercial Street, a good half and hours walk. This area is a
busy shopping area, and also home to the Mysore Saree
shop. We weren't in the market for a saree (I've tried one
and they dont suit me!) but they also sell silk cloth at
wholesale prices. We were buying some silk for our friend
Anne in England, who makes fantastic pure silk bedspreads that
are absolutely unique in design, and which make exceptional
gifts. No, she didn't pay us to say that! We got a
bit carried away, and, because of the reasonable prices, bought
quite a bit of material for ourselves. Not exactly sure
what we will be using it for, but at least sometime in the
future we wont be kicking ourselves and saying we wished we had
bought some silk in Bangalore that time we were there! Or
will we? only time will tell. Sunday morning
saw us heading out early again for a long walk, hoping to avoid
the heavier pollution later in the day when the traffic gets
going. Walked around a large lake, looked like it was
reserved for some sort of military use, so perhaps I'd better
not say anymore about it! We also walked past some of the
posher hotels in the area, including the Oberoi, which, we
discovered, has a special Sunday lunch buffet with a wide choice
of international dishes. Sounds great to me. They
said they were fully booked but must have taken pity on our anguished
faces and managed to squeeze two more in for
1pm. I decided I didn't have a thing to wear
for such an occasion, so we nipped down to the Central
department store and I bought a couple of new lightweight shirts
in the sale. I've only got two t-shirts and one long
sleeved travel shirt with me, and they've all taken the toll of
frequent mixed colour (no apartheid in our wash) hand-washes,
and after 5 months are showing distinct signs of wear. So
now I felt very smart in my new attire, it even went well with
my shorts! Can't let the side down, you know. The
buffet at the Oberoi was very good, if not quite as
international as we had been led to believe. Included in
the 1200 rupees a head was as much "champagne" as you
wanted. It turned out to be an Indian sparkling wine, from
the Sula winery, but was quite drinkable. I wasn't
surprised it wasn't champagne as I had seen bottles of the
French stuff in a wine shop, and the prices started at 3000
rupees, so they weren't going to be giving that
away. There was a wide selection of starters, with various
cold meats, fish, salads and vegetables. The main courses
appeared to be mostly curry based, and on further investigation
we found they were indeed, curry based. However, there
were several cook-to-order sections, where we could order
tandoor oven cooked goodies (yes, curried), a grill serving
small steaks of beef, chicken and mutton, and even a pasta
counter with assorted sauces available on demand. The
deserts were something else though, an astounding range of at
least thirty mouth watering, colourful, delicate, chocolateey,
tempting, creamy......need I go on? Our plan of attack was
to concentrate on the wide range of starters, especially the
salads, which are very rare in most parts of India, Then
we would sample some of the main courses, and finally the
desserts. The buffet closed at 3pm, so we had to plan our
time carefully, not rushing too much but also making sure we
would have time for the sumptuous desserts. By 2:30pm, I
had managed several plates of various starters, followed by a
main course of grilled steak and curried vegetables, but Rita
had blown it, she had got stuck on the starters, especially the
salads, and now didn't have the appetite for a main course.
Never mind, we still had time for an assault on the desserts
table, so I led the way. I wont go into too much detail,
but I can say it got messy. In
the debrief we decided that I had probably had too many
desserts, but they were really good. We'd managed our fair
share of bubbly, but were shocked to find we were charged an
outrageous 80 rupees for each bottle of mineral water we had, we
should have skipped the water and just had bubbly.
Needless to say, we didn't do much else for the rest of the day. Monday
- Oh my stomach. I think it was the piano-shaped
chocolate cake complete with cream keyboard that finally did it
for me. Actually, not feeling too bad considering.
Managed a bit of a walk, and even looked at some cakes in a
bakery without feeling queasy. Found a pub near
Brigade road called NASA, where the interior is decked out like
a space ship, and the waiters wear pilots uniforms, and most
importantly their happy hour runs from 11am to 6pm. That's
a long 60 minutes! They also have more than one 20 watt bulb
turned on, so for an Indian pub, it's remarkably light in here.
A pitcher of beer is 170 rupees during this time, so we felt it
would have been rude not to try one. Or two. Tuesday
- Another long walk this morning, this time we headed out
south then east, and did a big loop. The main roads were
thick with exhaust fumes, so we tried to keep to the quieter
back roads where we could, walking through some well-to-do
areas, as well as a few not so well off ones. Came across
a typical South India style temple, dedicated to Siva, partially
hidden behind a line of shops. The figures decorating the
entrance tower are brightly coloured and very detailed, not sure
what they are made of, it might be carved stone or maybe
plaster. But the whole effect is quite startling,
especially against the bright blue sky. For a change we
went inside this temple, leaving our shoes with the chappel
keepers at the gate. We were accompanied by several people
who claimed to be temple security, pointing out the various
altars to the different gods, then wanting some baksheesh for
their efforts. Difficult to avoid sometimes, and this was
one of those times, so we gave them 10 rupees each, which they
were sort-of . Had to give another ten rupees each to the
chappel keepers as well. We've got to
send a couple of parcels back to England, unload some of the
stuff we're carrying so we're not carrying too much on our
flight back home in three weeks time. Best to start early,
and we've got the silk to send back too. Spent a few hours
going through our possessions, deciding what we needed with us,
what we could chuck out, and what we should send back. We
checked out the post office on Brigade road to find what the
procedure is here, turned out to be the usual, parcels must be
wrapped in white cloth bags and sealed with wax. We were
too late to do anything today, so we checked to find where we
could get the sewing work done, then planned to come back
tomorrow morning. Had a nice evening meal at a restaurant
called 20 Feet High, I had a great chicken fajitas, and Rita had
a great Caesar salad. Wednesday. Thought
for the day: Age and treachery will always overcome
youth and skill Posted our parcels back to
England, yours should be with you in 7 to 15 days
Anne. Linda, if you read this, expect a parcel in a
similar time scale, although deepest darkest Devon is not served
quite so quickly as Exmouth, so it might take a day or so more
before the donkeys make it out to you! Made
our escape plan today, we're off to Mysore tomorrow. At
last. Back
to Itinerary
Thu 9th February, 2006
Packed up and checked out of the hotel, we'd
been paying some money every few days, at there request, so we
had nothing to pay this morning. Set off towards the bus
station, about 6km east of our hotel. Hadmeant to check
the map before we left, but now it was packed I couldn't be
bothered to dig it out. But having taken the route a
couple of times in a rickshaw, I was quietly confident that I
could find the way. Traffic was quite heavy, and lots of
exhaust fumes as well so we used scarves as mask to try and cut
out the worst of it, not sure how effective that is, but it made
us feel better. On the way we passed a few things we
hadn't noticed before, including a South Indian style temple
with a huge statute of a parakeet as the centre-piece. Rita
tells me they, the temples, are called palavers, I wonder if
that's where the saying "What a palaver" comes
from? With the help of a few friendly locals we found the
bus station and survived the ride reasonably intact.
The express non-stopping bus to Mysore, allegedly only takes 3
hours, doesn't have a roof rack for our bikes but does have a
large luggage boot, which is where we put them. Comfortable,
individual reclining seats, and only 250 rupees for us and our
bikes to Mysore. The bus was empty when we got on, but
within 10 minutes it had filled up and we set off.
After a couple of hours the non-stopping bus
stopped for lunch. Mmmmm, I gues thta means we've got
another 2 hours to go, as meal breaks are usually taken halfway
through a journey. Never mind, 4 hours is not too
long. Arrived in the main Mysore bus station
mid-afternoon, drew a crowd of 20 or so as soon as our bikes
emerged from the luggage compartment. We had planned
on checking out the grand sounding Bombay Tiffany Hotel, but
while we try to figure out where we were on the map, we saw the
Ganesh Palace Inn, and as Ganesh is supposed to be lucky and the
place looked reasonable, we gave it a go. 600 rupees for
the good sized room with large windows overlooking the scene in
front of the hotel, which included the Wesley Cathedral, a small
public garden area, another church, and several busy
roads. Might not sound too impressive to you, but its one
of the most interesting views we've had from a hotel in
India.
We stayed in Mysore 9 years ago, at a
hotel called the Mannars, which turned out to be only a hundred
metres from our current hotel. I passed it on the way to
have lunch, but it looked as though we must have stayed there in
its heyday, wouldn't like to stay there now. Went to a
rooftop restaurant that we also went to 9 years ago, and I think
they still have the same surly waiter they had back then.
Food was disappointing, and they obviously didn't want me to
stay as they brought me the bill soon after the food!. I
wont be back. Back
to Itinerary
Fri 10th February, 2006 Planning
day, lunch at Ritz. If you've been to the Ritz in Mysore,
you'll know it's not a grand place, but the food was okay and
they have a shady outdoor eating area. Got pestered by a
lot of young blokes who said we had to go to the incense making
competition up by the big church. Couldn't work out what
their angle was, but they were all most insistent. So we
didn't go. Back
to Itinerary
Sat 11th February, 2006
Cycled to Srirangapatnam, about
12km north of Mysore. Took a wrong turning on the
outskirts of Mysore, on the advice of a group of locals Ended up
skirting the edge of Mysore for 4 or 5 km, stopping at junctions
and asking for directions again and being told to carry on in
the same direction. I think it was one of those cases
where they don't really understand what we're asking for, so
they just point in the direction we're already travelling in,
not wishing to offend and trying to be helpful. We don't
need help like that. Finally, outside bus station,
one person finally understood our pronunciation of
Srirangapatnam and told us to go back the way we had come and
take the Bangalore road. Oh well, we need the exercise.
The road from Mysore to Bangalore is being
upgraded to a four lane super highway, as they call it here, a
dual carriageway as we know it. Working is progressing
well, but the bridge building bits seems to be lacking behind
the rest, so at every stream and river the road is reduced to
one carriageway. The traffic here doesn't seem so bad, and
the buses and trucks seem more tolerant of cyclists, which is
especially welcome when we are cycling on one of the contra flow
sections and there is nowhere for us to escape due to the foot
high curbstones in the central reservation.
Srirangapatnam is a fort built on a island,
formed by two rivers. Originally built in the 10th
century, it has been rebuilt several times, and is even being
repaired today by the Archeological Survey of India. There
are the remains of three lines of fortified walls, surrounding a
large area of the 3km long island. They were badly
damaged in the battle between Tipu Sultan and Colonel Wellesley,
the future Duke of Wellington. Actually, I think it wasn't
a battle just between those two, they both had big armies
helping them. I thought I'd better clear up any misconception
there.
There is still a town within the fortress walls,
and being a bit worn out by the cycle ride in the hot midday
sun, we found a chai stall and sat it the shade to recover for a
while. We were frequently approached by groups of
schoolchildren demanding school pens, no beating about the bush,
they didn't even ask us which country we were from, the
compulsory first question to ask any foreigner when you first
meet them. I think its written in the constitution.
After drinking lots of water and Sprite, we
cycled through the small town to the Jama Masjid, Tipu Sultan's
palace, with its two tall minarets. A
kilometre down the road we found the Daria Daulat Bagh,
"Splendor of the Sea", described as a lovely
garden, but it seems to have been all ploughed up, although it
is still laid out as a formal garden with rows of low hedging
along the pathways. Rita went in for a closer look, the
museum had lots of paintings of battle scenes between British,
French and Mysore armies. I stayed outside, guarding the
bikes from the marauding monkeys looking for mischief.
Another couple of kms down the road is the
Gumbaz, Tipu Sultans mausoleum, a quiet and peaceful place, once
you get inside anyway. The name doesn't quite have the
same mystical ring, to it, does it, Gumbaz, compared with that
other famous Indian mausoleum, the Taj Mahal. Quite a few
hawkers and beggars outside, making the approach
hazardous. Rita watched the bikes this time while I took a
gander, the central building is quite ornate, with carved wood
and ivory inlay. Cycled back around the north side of the
island to see a few of the other sites to be seen, including a
stone marker on the spot that Tipu Sultans body was found after
his last battle. That was exciting. The 8th century
Ranganatha temple apparently has the second largest reclining
Shiva statue in the state of Karnataka, but the temple was
closed so we didn't see it. There was, however, a very large
ceremonial chariot/trailer parked up outside, with ornate wood
carvings huge wooden wheels. It had scaffolding around the
upper parts, so I guess it was still being worked on, but at
this tie it was at least 30 feet tall. It'll be nice when
it's finished.
The temperature drops slightly after 3pm, and it
was just bearable for the cycle back to Mysore by 3:30pm.
It didn't take as long on the way back, as we knew the way and
didn't give the locals a chance to give us duff
directions. We arrived back at the hotel hot and sun burnt,
but both agreed that it had been an enjoyable ride overall.
Went to the Parklane restaurant for
dinner. The place is very popular with foreigners and we
saw more there than I think we've seen anywhere else in
India. No quite sure why Mysore is such a popular place
with foreign tourists, there's the Palace and some nice gardens,
which we will visit in the coming days, but there are equally
interesting attractions in many other towns and cities in
India. And I dont remember seeing many tourists at all
when we were here 9 years ago, although we were here at the
beginning of December that time, a little earlier in the tourist
season The restaurant is nicely set up, with a
balcony area overlooking the enclosed courtyard garden. The food
was quite good, if a little difficult to get hot and all at the
same time. They seem to have their own opinion when
certain dishes should be served, not matter what you request, so
finger chips always turn up ten minutes before any other dish,
because that's the way they do it!
Sunday. Had a lazy day after yesterdays
exertions. In the evening, we went to see the Palace
lights being switched on at 7pm, all 50,000 bulbs, or so they
claim. Actually, I saw 3 bulbs missing, so I think they
should amend their claim to 49,997. Despite that
disappointment, it was actually a fairly impressive sight, with
the building, spires, and domes outlined with bulbs. There were
hundreds of people there, a lot of them tourists, and a great
time was had by all. Back
to Itinerary
Mon 13th February, 2006 A
day at the races - a great day out. Mysore racecourse is a
smaller affair than Hyderabad, but quite quaint. We'd been
told the racing started at midday, so arrived just before, only
to find that the first race was at 2pm. We looked for, but
couldn't find, the entry stalls, but somehow managed to wander
into the paddock area, unchallenged. There were a few
people hurrying about their business, but nobody looked at us
twice, so we sat in the paddock stand for a while, then wandered
over to the plebs side of the stand, where someone in authority
spotted us and kicked us out the main gate. At least we
knew where it was now! A few minutes later, after
purchasing our tickets at an exorbitant 20 rupees each, we were
allowed back in. At least the tickets gave us a free entry into
a prize draw, with a stunning first prize of 5000 rupees.
The canteen was a little basic, but having not eaten so far to
day, we were basically hungry, so we sampled a few of the
simpler dishes, i.e. dhal and roti. I spotted someone eating
what looked like a tennis ball sized lump of chocolate
sponge. I'll try some of that, looks exciting. It
wasn't. I was warned to chew it well, so after studying
the technique used by other punters, I broke off a piece of the doughy
substance, soaked it in dhal, then started chewing. It didn't
really taste of much and took a little chewing, but wasn't too
bad. I gave up after about a third of it, too much like
hard work. They said it was made of some sort of wheat,
and would make me strong. I think they meant it would make
my jaw strong.
The racing went well, we used the bookies
instead of the Tote, getting better odds. I had a couple
of winners in the first few races, then managed to pick complete
donkeys for the rest. Rita had better luck, and had quite
a few winners. After one race, when we thought I had won on an
each way bet but Rita's had come nowhere, the bookie gave
me my 600 rupees, but then gave Rita 800 rupees! What
for? We couldn't figure it out, perhaps he'd made a
mistake, or perhaps he'd misheard the horse Rita had bet
on. Never mind, we wont complain.
Our methods for picking winners varied
enormously, from how pretty the horse looked to whether it
walked nicely. I even bet on one horse who I swear winked
at me as it went around the paddock, a tip straight from the
horses mouth, I thought, or should that be eye, but it came
nowhere. I thought I'd found a surefire way to success
when I spotted one horse in the paddock relieving himself at
length. And I mean at length, he had an enormous tadger, I see
what they mean now when they say hung like a horse. I
figured after such a length pee, it would be greatly relieved
and be able to run better, and it did, coming in first. I
knew I should have bet on it. Unfortunately there were no
more horses relieving themselves in the paddock after that,
although I watched very closely, so I couldn't put my theory to
any further tests. But next time you're at the races,
check out their toilet habits in the paddock, you'll probably
spot the winner!
Tuesday. Cycled out to a lake and park in
the west of Mysore, don't know what it's called as there were no
signs in English. Which is also the reason we did not know
we were not allowed to take our bikes in, but we found out that
fact a few minutes of cycling down the lake perimeter
path. They allowed us to walk the bikes with us though,
which was nice of them as we didn't want to leave them
outside. The park is very peaceful, and we saw a lot of
birds, including some fabulous painted storks. No, they
weren't actually painted, that's just their name. They are
quite a striking bird, standing a metre tall, with a heavy
yellow bill, bald pinkish head, white plumage with black bars,
and pink patches near its backside, a bit like a nappy rash, I
thought. We spent twenty minutes watching a group of
three or four through a break in the trees lining the lake, but
when we moved on a few hundred metres we cam across an island in
the lake, close to the shore, where the trees were populated
with hundreds of painted storks. It was fascinating
watching them launch from their nests, swooping over the water
and disappearing into trees along the shore, to return a few
minutes later carrying nest building material. The landing
at the nest was most ungainly, involving much flapping of wings
and dangling of long legs seeking a purchase. They make an
interesting sound, possibly for mating, by snapping their beaks
shut, sounding like two halves of a coconut shell being banged
together. Their was also a bit of syncronised dancing
going on, also to do with mating I'd guess. We also saw
some Coucal, a large black bird with chestnut brown wings and a
beady red eye, and plenty of the blue tailed bee
eater. Its a 4km walk around the lake, which takes
quite a while when you're stopping to watch the birds. We
made it over half way before a guard with a big stick kicked us
out through a side gate, saying "No
bicycles". Never mind, it was getting
hot, so we cycled back to our hotel.
Wednesday. Temperature is definitely
picking up, its in the mid thirties by midday now, and staying
warmer atnight as well. Had a day chilling out and making
some plans. Back
to Itinerary
Thu 16th February, 2006 Day
trip to Ranganathittoo Bird Sanctuary. Cycled out to the
bird sanctuary, starting at 8:30 to try to beat the heat.
Its located 5km further on on Srirangapatnam, where we cycled
the other day, so we didn't have to rely on dodgy local
directions this time and made it there in under an hour.
What a fantastic place! Clean, well kept
gardens, with nicely laid out footpaths, benches, shelters,
shaded walkways. The lot! There is also a new, clean and
airy cafe, for snacks and drinks, and several kiosks selling
cold drinks, ice creams and snacks. But of course, the
main attraction is the riverside, from where you look out over
the river Cauvery and the islands where the birds nest. There is
a good riverbank footpath that runs for a few hundred yards, but
has limited views in several places, so you really need
binoculars to see anything from there. The best way to
view the birds is to take a trip on a rowing boat, at 20 rupees
a person, or you can, as we did, have a boat and oarsman to
yourself for 200 rupees for half an hour.
We had an excellent ride (or should that be
cruise, voyage or sail?) being slowly paddled around the islands
which were heavily populated by a dozen species of birds, and
the occasional crocodile, Quite big marsh crocodiles, at
that. Without wishing to bore you too much with the
details, we saw: painted stork, open billed stork, black crowned
night heron, Eurasian spoonbill (with lovely fine feathers
dangling from their heads like a wig), cormorant, pond heron,
Brahminy kite, river tern (as opposed to a river bend?), darter
(aka snakebird), black billed ibis, and probably some more we've
forgotten. We also saw a colony of large fruit bats, most
of the time just hanging around, but fortunately for us they
were disturbed by a troop of monkeys at one point so we got to
see them flying around, a rare sight in daylight.
Fascinating creatures.
Our half hour was all too quickly over, and we
found ourselves back at the small landing dock, surrounded by a
group of around 40 people, who turned out to be a large family
called Patang, on holiday from Tamil Nadu. After much hand
shaking and big smiles and hellos, we finally escaped to the
relative quiet of the cafe for lunch. Later, we mooched around
the shady pathways of the sanctuary, until mid afternoon, after
the hottest part of the day, then set off back to Mysore.
Friday. I've got a fever. Started out with
shivers and shakes, feeling cold but high temperature.
Could it be bird flu? No reported cases in India, yet, but we
did go to a bird sanctuary with a lot of migratory birds
yesterday. By mid afternoon feeling a lot better, and by
7pm well enough to go out to the Parklane for a meal and a
couple of beers. (Well, I'm always well enough for a
couple of beers) Nurse Rita did a wonderful job, although
she could have worked a little harder on the uniform.
Saturday. What are we going to do next,
after India? A question constantly on our minds. Spent the
day doing research on the internet. We'll let you know
when we've decided, but I'll give you a clue. It might
involve travel.
Sunday. Up early for a nice early Sunday
morning walk for an hour or so, exploring some of the previously
unseen areas of Mysore. Passed the train station on the
way, so we checked out trains to Chennai. 8pm, we were
told. "Are there any other trains?" Shake of the head,
which is not always easy to interpret . Further delving
required. "Is there a train in the morning?"
"Yes, 2." "Two trains or 2am?"
"2pm." !!!!!
Heard on the news this morning that India has
just had its first confirmed case of the H5N1 strain of bird
flu. I immediately thought of my brief fever on Friday,
but I've had nothing since, so I wont worry too much. An
hour or so later, BBC World reported that there had been a human
death from bid flu. Already? Obviously it's been
around for a while before they detected it. Then we heard
that there were 50,000 dead chickens they were
investigating! 50,000? Should that have rung a few alarm
bells somewhere a bit earlier? We're a long way from the
area where the bird flu has been confirmed, but I have a feeling
that it is going to turn out to be far more widespread that
currently reported, although I really hope not.
Back
to Itinerary
Tue 21st February, 2006
Time to move on, checked out the hotel by 9am,
cycled the 200 yards up to the bus station. The buses to
Bangalore are very frequent, one every 15 minutes, so it didn't
take us long to find one. The bikes and a couple of our
panniers went in the luggage compartment, which were empty even
though the bus was almost full, and we just managed to get a
double seat at the back. Bit of a bumpy ride, especially
being near the back, but it was a bit quicker than the ride out
to Mysore because we didn't stop for a meal break. Arrived
at Bangalore at 1pm, and immediately checked in to the Mahaveer
hotel near the bus station. Compact and bijou room, but
we're only staying one night. It's another 8 hours to Chennai,
so we had decided to split the journey up and have another night
in Bangalore. Had an excellent masala dosa at a multi
floor restaurant down the road from the hotel, recommended by
the guy on reception, which I thought was very nice of him
especially as they do food in the hotel.
Rita went off to find an internet cafe, I went
back to the bus station to book tickets for tomorrows
journey. This shouldn't take long, they've got an
efficient booking service here. Or so I thought. I
checked the list of departures and spotted a 9am departure to
Chennai, an Ultra Deluxe service. Ultra deluxe?
There was also a deluxe, super deluxe, and a video
service. I noticed there was no standard service
offered. The Ultra Deluxe service is operated by the SETC
bus line, and scanning the array of booking windows in the hall,
I spotted the SETC counter with one window. The clerk was
serving somebody else, so I waited patiently, and when he had
finished, I started asking for two tickets to...., but was cut
off as he said "No, no, no, wrong window, you must go to
the next window." How does he know, I heven't told hime
where I want to go yet! Then he turned away and started watching
a tv. The next counter was for the KSRTC line, and they
didn't have any service to Chennai, so I asked a friendly
looking local and he pointed at the SETC counter. I'll try
again. I tapped on the window to draw his attention from
the tv, he didn't look best pleased to see me again.
"I want to go to Chennai". "No, no buses,
you must go to next window." Me: "What do you
mean no buses, is there a strike? Are there any buses
tomorrow?". Annoyed clerk: "No, no buses" and
waves his hand dismissively to the next counter. I
retreated again, surely there must be an easier way.
Perhaps we should just turn up in the morning and pay on the
bus? But there is only one deluxe, sorry, Ultra deluxe
service in the morning, most services seem to run overnight. I
regrouped, )if one person can regroup) and attacked again.
"I want two tickets for the 9am Ultra Deluxe service to
Chennai tomorrow" I blurted out before he could interrupt
me. He paused. "Only one bus, 9 o'clock in the
morning". "Yes, I know, can I have two tickets please!"
He handed me a form to fill out. Progress. Two minutes
later I was the proud owner of two tickets to Chennai on the 9am
Ultra Deluxe service, seat number 1 and 2. Back
to Itinerary
Wed 22nd February, 2006
Not sure why its called an Ultra Deluxe
service, it doesn't look any more flash than the other long
distance buses around the station, in fact its not half as flash
as that big Volvo over there. Never mind, the seats are
fairly comfortable, but we are disconcertingly close to the tv
screen at the front. What chance do you think there is of
having a nice, quiet, gentle comedy, preferably with English
subtitles? I'll give you a hint. Absolutely no
chance. It's masala movies all the way, played very
loud. For those not familiar with the term, a masala (a
spicy mixture) movie is a little bit of everything, i.e. love,
dancing, murder, dancing, humour, drama, dancing, murder, and
oh, did I mention, lots of dancing with big syncronised groups
of men or women, rarely mixed, doing big pelvic movements and
quick hand motions. Get the picture. There's also the big
fight scenes, some of which even make the fighting in Crouching
Tiger Hidden Dragon look reasonable.
We had stocked up with water and fruit at the
bus station, so we didn't sample the delights on offer at the
lunch stop at 1pm, although the establishment looked quite good,
and a meal was only 15 rupees. Back on the road soon
after, another film came on, louder than the last. Rita had her
ear plugs in, and I have an MP3 player, but I could barely hear
my music even on full volume. Oh well, only another 4 hours to
go.
Continued on our Tamil
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