Day 48, Mysore [Sunday 20th January 2008]
Previous day: Day 47, Mysore [Saturday 19th January 2008]
Next day: Day 49, Tholpetty Wildlife Sanctuary [Monday 21st January 2008]
The internet connection at the Palace Plaza Hotel here in Mysore is pretty fast, so we upload a big chunk of photos to Flickr.
After breakfast we go to look around the mrket, but the overwhelming stench of manure and meat and chickens turns Kate's stomach, so we retreat. We go to the Jaganmohan Palace art gallery instead. This building used to house the royal family - Mysore was the capital of a large princely state, also called Mysore, up until independence in 1947 - although a new palace was built in 1912 and this one turned into an art gallery.
As we approach it we can hear the clatter of music coming from within the main auditorium. We poke our heads inside and it turns out to be the annual celebration day for a local dance school. Troops of girls appear on stage every few minutes and perform a routine to speaker fizzing, ear piercing Bollywood tunes. The front few rows are rapt, whooping and cheering the girls. Beyond that people are indifferent, distracted, talking to each other, getting up to walk around. We stay as long as our ears can stand it. On the way out a lady gives us each a bag of sweets.
The gallery itself has walls full of near identical portraits of various generations of the Wodeyars, the ruling dynasty. Upstairs they have some contemporary Indian art, some of which is interesting. Overall it suffers from a narrow range of subject matter - restricted almost entirely to Hindu deities - and much of it sticking to the usual syrupy, fantastical, sentimental style made popular by Raja Ravi Varma. There are some startling pieces concerning the darkness of Indian villages and the invisibility of women.
Kate wants to do a bit more shopping for a salwaar kameez or some other clothes. I think she's getting a bit fed up schlepping around in combats and walking shoes and just wants something a bit girlier. So we get a rickshaw to a large shop called Westside where she looks through the racks for an hour or two at the myriad salwaar suits - pants too tight, pants too baggy, pants just right but top too big etc. She buys some new tops in the end.
We go next door to Biryani House for lunch. I have the first big craving for meat since we've been here, and the place looks popular, so I get a chicken biryani. It's lovely, and it's so nice to actually chew something so, well, meaty!
On the way back we check the bus times to Wayanad National Park tomorrow, and buy some Mysore Pak, a crumbly yellow sweet particular to this area. It's claggy and bland.
At 7pm we go to Mysore Palace to see it lit up by hundreds of thousands of electric lightbulbs lining its contours. They blink on at exactly 7pm with a remarkable absence of ceremony. This is followed shortly by the pomp of an British sounding marching brass band.
The scene is so horribly gaudy and incongruous that I find myself with a big grin spread across my face. It's so busy here - every tourist in Mysore is probably here tonight. There's a big crowd and quite a sense of occasion. Policemen chase away boys selling popcorn and snacks.
Afterwards we go to the Maurya Hotel for dinner, where we have to sit in a queue for a table. Dinner is great, though, and worth the wait.
We've enjoyed Mysore a lot - it's a clean, handsome city, with wide roads, statuesque roundabouts, relatively little traffic and some friendly rickshaw drivers. Its many cream and white public buildings, colleges, hospitals etc are surrounded by gardens and give the place the air of a prosperous European city. There's also a large selection of street food here - I had once of my favourite dosas so far standing by the side of the street, eating it out of banana leaf held in my hand, while Kate phoned home from a PCO (personal call office).
They're cinema crazy here. I counted 5 cinema theatres in the city centre along. They were all single screen cinemas, showing the same film 5 or 6 times a day, for Rs. 40 a ticket. As you walk past you can hear the songs blasting out through the side doors, and the whistles and shouts of the men making noise at the screen. It adds a lovely filmi backdrop to your stroll down the street.
Next day: Day 49, Tholpetty Wildlife Sanctuary [Monday 21st January 2008]
Previous day: Day 47, Mysore [Saturday 19th January 2008]