Bangalore to Mysore

To avoid possible delays on the notorious M25 motorway we stayed Wednesday evening at the Heathrow Thistle hotel which has the advantage that it connects to Terminal 5 by way of 'Pods' which were great fun and literally run approx every 10 seconds

 
We had a good flight with excellent seats on BA but unfortunately neither of managed to get any sleep during the 9.5 hours flight so were very tired on arrival which was about 6am local time (they are 5.5 hours ahead of GMT)

some pretty clouds photographed through the plane window

We were met by our driver Joshi (well at least that's how his name sounds) and driven to Mysore - a journey of approx 4.5 hours.   The plan was that by having our own driver we'd be able to ask him to stop whenever we saw anything that interested us so we could photograph it but today wasn't the right day as we were eager to get to the hotel and crash out for a couple of hours.

I dragged David to the nearby Zoo this afternoon ... it didn't live up to all its hype I'm afraid although it was a pleasant enough place to walk around.     We ended up being the main attraction for several Indian couples/families who wanted to have their photo taken with us .. which worked out quite nicely as we asked them to reciprocate and we got the better of the deal.   They got pics taken with a couple of old fogies and we got some very colourful and attractive Indian characters!  Not sure whether to be flattered or not that of all the attractions at the Zoo, David and I were the star turn this afternoon!

We did take lots of photos of native Indian birds today ... spotted a Paradise Fly Catcher, Indian White Eye, White Spotted Fantail, lots of egrets and Kites and an eagle ... It keeps us amused identifying them all from our little paperback book of Indian birds.   I won't post photos though as there are too many to trawl through and they'll have to wait till I'm back in England.

There were thousands of bat-like creatures hanging from the trees and making a lot of noise.  I think they may be flying foxes but will need to research that - they are certainly much larger than most bats I've seen before and they were hanging from trees in daylight.   When we went out this evening the air was thick with them flying around.    Here's one of the little beasties.

A few pictures taken at the zoo this afternoon

Brother and Sister with proud Mum looking on

A group of friends who insisted we appeared in their Group photograph, then posed for us

On the walk back from the Zoo to the hotel I persuaded David to detour round some of the back streets where he had a cup of Chai from a street food stall and we too a few more pictures.   The people of Mysore are so much friendlier than in some other large Towns/Cities we've visited - there was no aggressive touting of souvenirs or begging for money.    

A few pics from our perambulations around the back streets of Mysore (just the area surrounding our Hotel)

We found a local restaurant that served 'taster' style meals with 5 or 6 different small dishes being offered on a tray with a small plate of rice and a bread .. we've eaten this type of street food before and really enjoyed it so planned to go back this evening.    But when we got there at 7pm the place was deserted - they offered to cook for us but I didn't want to be the only couple in the restaurant so we detoured to another VERY bustling fastfood curry restaurant which was absolutely packed with locals and also was doing a roaring trade in 'take-away' trays which were being delivered to people in the car park where they ate in their cars.    We were the only foreigners there and the staff were a bit dubious about serving us at first and kept questioning if we were sure we wanted 3 curry dishes plus 4 small Naans .... the food (all vegetarian) was absolutely superb .. just the right amount of heat (we do love spicy food) and the bill, including bottled water was £4.75 for the two of us ... we'll be going back there tomorrow evening.   So much more atmosphere than the restaurant dining room which is lovely but a bit stuffy ... and what a bargain!

and they even had their own 'whistle wallah' who kept the cars coming and going through the small carpark with non-stop whistled instructions ... he was beautifully turned out in pristine white trousers and shirt!

We've timed it badly again.   On our last visit to India, 2 years ago, we arrived at Cochin to find they were staging 2 'dry days' ... no alcohol to be sold in restaurants, bars, hotels or grog shops.    One day was because it was Ghandi's birthday and the other was because the first day of every month, Indians aren't allowed to buy alcohol as that concides with pay day for many of them and the Govt want to discourage drunkeness!

Well, guess what.    knowing that one hotel/resort we'll be staying in has no liquor licence we'd planned to ask our driver to take us to a grog shop to stock up on wine and Old Monk (the local dark rum).  Wine from grog shops is just about £3 or £4 per bottle but in hotels with the terrific taxation a bottle will set you back between £20 or £30.    We found out today that because of 'elections' Mysore is undergoing 2 dry days - today and tomorrow.   Luckily we'd packed a couple of bottles in our suitcases so we enjoyed a sneaky glass before going out for curry tonight ... feels good to buck the system sometimes!

We have a full day of sightseeing in Mysore tomorrow with a guide and our driver, so hoping to get plenty more photos