Tuesday 28 January

Mysuru

Today was a truly wonderful day – Vaishakh lives in Mysuru and is very rightly proud of his home city.  Vaishakh showed us many important sights in and around the city and we talked a lot about the city, his friends and our families. He’s a truly good man who works hard and is very kind. We were fortunate to meet him and it’s thanks to Bharath and Shubhi who we first met in Bristol last summer and who suggested that that Vaishakh could be our driver.

We began the day with breakfast at our homestay (Mysore Bed and Breakfast). There were 9 around the table: a British couple from Warsash, (near Southampton), a young French couple from Paris, a German and Indian couple with their small boy, Stephen the proprietor and Sowbaghaya who cooked breakfast. It was nice chatting about India and Indian trains. Most of the other guests were leaving on the Hampi Express later today.

Vaishakh arrived at 10 to collect us. We’d sent him home last night with a gift for his one-year old son, Dhairya. Dhairya had some stuffed animal toys and Sindhoo said that Dhairya was a bit obsessed with dogs – he referred to his stuffed animal toys as dogs, but we noticed that he didn’t have a dog – there was an elephant, a unicorn and a cat …so we had fun choosing a cute dog soft toy for him. Vaishakh said that Dhairya loved it and showed us a lovely picture of him with the dog – so cute! We drove into the city centre and parked near the Devaraja market, so we could explore the market itself and the centre on foot. The market is fantastic – really big and with stalls piled high with all manner of fruit and vegetables and spices and flowers – it was heaven. We saw some couples who were getting married and having parties of their wedding videos made there – it was nice to see them. We tried a lovely sweet fruit that’s in season – Vaishakh bought some for us to eat on our train journey to Hampi in a couple of days.

After visiting the market, we headed to Mysore Palace.

Vaishakh told us that his neighbour worked in the palace … we thought that this might give us privileged access … but unfortunately she wasn’t working today. Then he thought that he might know someone else who worked at the palace and went to see if he could find them. I had spotted a sign to the restroom, so I used the opportunity to go in search of the toilet … I followed the signs around the corner where the path forked, but there were no more signs that I could see – I walked in one direction past a green and a temple and was at a big gate with guards on it … I didn’t see and more restroom signs, so I went back to the other road that went in the other direction but I was walking further than seemed plausible and wondered if I’d walked past the toilet without noticing, so I turned around again and slowly retraced my steps. Still no restroom! Eventually I found them at the end of the second path and near the entrance – it would have been much quicker if I’d walked in the opposite direction to the signs. I’d just settled in when I heard Vaishakh calling my name – he realised that I was probably lost and had come to find me!

Vaishakh did know someone who was working and they did arrange for us to visit some closed off rooms. She was lovely – was an accountant (I think) and said that her brother studied in Leeds! She arranged for us to have our own guide, who was really knowledgeable and explained what we were looking at. First of all we went into an army room and then a room full of stuffed animal hunting trophies (this second room was quite an unwelcome place for me to be!). Our guide even pointed out where the bullets had gone into the tigers, which was really quite upsetting. Matthew did point out that there wasn’t much we could do about that now! Vaishakh was super sensitive and realised that we didn’t want to be there, he explained to the guide that we were vegans – it sounded like it took quite a lot of explaining! We were allowed to take photos in these rooms that were not normally available to visit. We then toured the rest of the palace – it’s magnificent.

There are seven palaces in Mysuru – (the city is often called the ‘City of the Palaces’), this was the main palace as it was the official residence of the Wadiyars until Indian independence. The first palace inside the Old Fort was built in the 14th century. The previous palace burned down during the wedding of Jayalakshammani, the eldest daughter of Chamaraja Wodeyar in 1896. The new palace was designed by Henry Irwin, a British architect and built quickly between 1897 and 1912. Mysore Palace has over three million visitors every year and is the second most visited tourist attraction in India – only the Taj Mahal has more.

After the palace we went to the bus station for the 201 to Chamundi Hill. While waiting for the bus, one of Bharath’s and Vaishakh’s friends, Suprith, arrived – just to say hello (and to have a picture taken with us for Barath I suspect!).

We’ll see Suprith later – he used to work for an NGO with Vaishakh and Bharath. Suprith is an amazing guy … and a man after my own heart, he’s walked over three thousand miles along a river and is planning to walk from the west coast to the east coast of India; that sounds fantastic!

Chamundi Hill is a sacred place – we alighted from the bus by a big statue of Mahishasura – who was killed by the goddess Durga and Mahishasura is the origin of the city’s name – Mysuru.

Alongside the Mahishasura statue is the beautiful high Chamundeshwari Temple – named after the goddess Chamundi.

There were wonderful panoramic views of the city and the temple can be seen from many parts of the city. We descended from the top of the hill using the Chamundi Hill steps – constructed in 1659 with 1,000 steps. Halfway down we passed a huge and beautiful granite carved Nandi (god in form of a bull) – carved from a single piece of granite. Vaishakh had ordered a tuktuk to take us back to his car in the city.

Vaishakh drove us across to the area where our friend Bharath grew up – we also saw Vaishakh’s old house, then Bharath’s father’s old shop. We stopped at Grape Juice Corner – the chilled red grape juice, was sweet and delicious.

We changed some more sterling to rupees – the exchange rate seems to be pretty good for us at the moment then went to the Mahesh Prasad Hotel for bonda soup, and dosas (two kinds – rava onion dosa made with semolina, which made it very crisp and crunchy, and also Masala dosa with a potato and onion filling). All delicious. Our dosas have usually been served with small pots of daal and coconut chutney … sometimes with additional chutney that are usually too spicy hot for my tastes. Matthew has a go with them though!

After dinner we headed over to Kukkarahalli Lake near the university to watch the sunset. The park was lovely and the lake has a path all around it – we’ve not seen so many runners in India . The sunset was beautiful.

Then back to Mysore Palace for the evening light show. Pret extraordinary!

Vaishakh bought us gifts – handmade cotton shirts – what an unexpected and lovely surprise! Thank you.

Back at our homestay we chatted with Stephen before bed – nice to learn more about India and his situation. After his wife died, he lost the right to live in India indefinitely – which seems horribly cruel. He’s exploring ways of staying on in the house that he and his wife made into the business that it is is today.