We landed in Bangalore at 4.30am. It would have been sensible to have tried to sleep on the flight, but watching the latest James Bond and stockpiling large amounts of gin and tonic proved too tempting. (We now have 200ml of gin and a tiny bit of tonic- but we're yet to find the crucial fridge.)
We then found a local bus, and went first to the sattelite bus station in Bangalore, and then onwards to Mysore. We are being profligate with our money and chose air conditioned class for the four hour bus journey. This came to the pricely sum of roughly £2.50 ticket- (non aircon was £1.70.)
It was an enormous relief to reach the hotel- and more importantly a shower. It is seriously hot here-35c according to my phone.After a short nap, and a decent wash we headed out to find some food. Im a fairly messy eater at the best of times, but eating rice, vegetable curry and dahl with my fingers proved to be a disastrous business. It wasn't long before I was wearing quite a bit of it. Bright splashes of yellow dahl all down your front isnt a fashion look I'd recommend. The restaurants seem to all serve lunch off banana leaves, which certainly saves the washing up!
Trying not to fall asleep was the goal for the rest of the afternoon- so we headed off to the palace. This was rebuilt in the late 19th after a fire decimated the previous one. It was stunning involving stained glass windows, plenty of colours, murals, and steel from the glasgow steel works! To go into the palace you had to take your shoes off, which was fine until you stepped off the carpet onto the paving slabs, which had been baked by the sun to a searing temperature.
We then wondered round the corner and found the marharajas elephants. There was a brief debate about whether it was ethical to pay for a ride on them, before happily parting with 100 ruppees (94p) to climb aboard. It was surprsingly uncomfortable, and the gait felt quite sharp. I wouldn't have liked to ride into battle or try to shoot a tiger from one- I don't understand how you could have a steady hand. However, elephants are super cool, and Edd now wants one.
Edd has been a great hit with the locals, Im not sure whether it is the bushy sideburns, or the flurescent yellow shorts, but everyone wants their picture taken with him. To be honest it might not just be Edd western tourists seem to be a bit of a novelty in themselves- even half way through day two, we have still only seen three others.
The temperature after four o'clock became a lot more bearable. We ambled around the palace grounds and the nearby streets for quite a bit. One comment 'where do you think the elephants live?' Gave us a new purpose and we rapidly turned from elephant groupies into superfans- and began the hunt for elephant stables. Just as the dusk was setting in we managed to (sort of) inadvertently walk past a security guard, and then found the elephants stabled- under a big dutch barn. The mahoot beckoned us over and we got to pat and talk to the elephants again. They were having a large supper of green rushes. The mahoot then suggested we ride one of the elephants. On command the elephant knelt and we climbed up behind his ears. On your own without a harness it felt a very long way up- fortunately we weren't about to gallop off into the sunset as the elephant was chained to a nearby concrete block.
We then headed back to the palace to see it lit up. It is only lit up on festivals and sunday evenings, and is covered in thousands of small light bulbs. I have tried many times to upload a picture here, but unfortunately the techonology has beaten me- but I have managed to upload a picture of it (and some other pictures) to this website if you would like to see it: https://www.instagram.com/flurrywight/
Having decided the palace looked a little bit like disneyland we headed back finally to bed- it felt like a very long day!
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