We left early from our guest house in Varanasi, following the porters, as we retraced our steps back to the taxi meeting point. We had a long travel day ahead of us.
About an hours drive to the airport, almost another hour to check in and get through security to catch our flight to Bengaluru.
The airport at Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) is the most modern one we’ve travelled through in India. We’ve left the cold weather behind us and daytime temperatures for the rest of our trip will be 30+ degrees. There was an outdoor food court just outside the terminal which wouldn’t be out of place somewhere like Brisbane. After eating local food for the last 20 days we were pleased to see Subway – late lunch – sorted.
We had a bit of a mix up with one of our taxis and it took almost an hour to get on our way to Mysore.
The drive from Bengaluru to Mysore is 180km but at India speed it took over four and a half hours. Firstly we had to pass through Bengaluru.
The city seems modern and cleaner, with many high rise buildings visible, both commercial and apartment buildings. Many of the buildings looked freshly painted in bright colours and well maintained. There was a lot of construction underway – this appears to be a wealthy city.
Although we initially ended up on a dirt road, we soon joined a 3 lane highway but it was close to rush-hour so the lanes were clogged and we travelled about 20km in the first hour. There were very few cows and no fog but plenty of judder-bars and barriers randomly placed in the middle of the road, both there to slow traffic down.
We’d decided to visit Mysore after a suggestion from friends. The main attraction is the royal palace, built in the early 1900’s, it’s more modern than others we’ve seen and every night the palace gets lit up with over 98,000 lights that have been strung along the lines of the palace walls. There’s a light show that starts at 7pm and the palace remains illuminated until 8pm. As we got closer to Mysore it became apparent that we weren’t going to make it in time to see the palace all lit up. The combination of our flight being rescheduled, the taxi mix-up and the slow drive had worked against us.
We felt a bit under-dressed as we rocked up to our flash hotel. We had dinner at the restaurant by the pool and retired for the night. It had taken over 12 hours from when we left our guesthouse on Varanasi till when we arrived at our hotel in Mysore – a very long day.
BJ started the next day with a yoga class by the hotel pool (he was the only person that turned up for the class) then followed it up with a swim which Lewis joined him for. The breakfast buffet was a hit with the boys – especially the donuts.
We visited the palace in daylight. Only a relatively small part is open to the public. It’s so grand – painted bright teal, red, cream and gold, huge chandeliers, stained glass sky lights, pillars, archways and ceiling roses in every room and hallway. I could have walked around it all day but they shuffled us all through a set route and out the exit within an hour.
This was our first day of sightseeing in 30+ degrees. I’m reasonably pleased that we don’t have many more forts, palaces and temples to visit as it’s not so pleasant in the heat.
We decided to take it easy for the afternoon at a microbrewery BJ had tracked down – The Barge. The beer was cold and a change from Kingfisher and we had a late lunch to get us through our overnight train ride to Madurai – 13 hours in a second class, air conditioned sleeper. This time there’s no lockable cabins, we’re in an open carriage with curtains to close off our bunks. Only 2 tiers of bunks though (not the 3 tiers that some carriages have). Four of our bunks are together and the other two are elsewhere in the carriage. It’s luxury compared to some of the carriages we’ve looked into and it’s only 13 hours of my life – let’s hope the toilets are clean (who am I trying to kid – they’re bound to be disgusting).
Outside and Inside the Mysore Palace
Quick Selfie inside the palace
Waiting for the train
