well, needless to say i didn't sleep much. you already know about the state of indian roads, and there was a rather large man sat next to me who kind of spilled over onto my armrest... then onto my arm... then over half my body. he could snore with the best of them as well and was in sore need of a session in one of those decontamination units you see in sci-fi movies.
i arrived in mysore a very bleary-eyed and grumpy chap 14 hours after leaving hyderabad, and was greeted with the usual "rikshaw rikshaw you have guest house you want rikshaw?" i saw the prepaid booth in the near distance and made a beeline for it whilst looking for a place to whip out my guidebook and pick a hotel. normally i like to have this all planned out in advance so i don't look like a complete bumbling idiot - rocking up somewhere looking dazed, tired and confused and pawing through my book like a little lost child. i sat down on my pack, had a flick through and found a place which was really near the palace. i finished my cigarette, trying to wake up a little as i was in a kind of half-asleep daze and things were just a tiny amount too loud and bright. as i looked up the first guy who had approached me was leaning over the railing grinning at me. i must have told this guy no 
about 10 times in the 50 metres or so between the bus and the prepaid booth so i just looked at him and said (in a rather annoyingly shrill squeal - i blame the lack of sleep) "how many more times do i need to tell you no? no no no no no no!" the autorikshaw i took from said booth was 12 rupees, which cheered me up lots - i'm a big fan of cheap rides :D the "budget" hotel that the lonely liar had recommended glowingly as being "the best budget option of the blah blah bullshit" was 900 rupees a night which brought me right back to being a resident of grumpsville.
i checked in anyway, thinking that for a good night's kip it was worth it and i could find somewhere else the next day. turns out it was a little slice of lushness and i stayed there for 3 nights. i had a proper mattress (mattresses in india usually consist of a slice of foam maybe 3 inches thick if you've been a good boy that day) and 4 fluffy, big, proper pillows (pillows are generally made from gravel, lumps of rock and glass - if you're lucky enough to get a pillow) so on seeing the pristine white duvet (yes, a duvet!) covering a bed that looked ready to swallow me up and comfort all my worries aches and pains away i was sold. the cricket had just started so i watched the indian innings from behind slowly drooping eyelids and eventually gave up and had the best night's sleep since the mumbai expensive-but-so-worth-it hotel.
mysore is a lovely place. it's quite small and open with lots of little parks and monuments and whatnot dotted around. there is very little hassle and the general vibe is chilled out. i had a good wander around on my first afternoon cutting through backstreets, stopping for some chai and watching the traffic slip past and generally getting a feel for the place. there was the usual chaos that surrounds any activity undertaken by indian people from buying some fruit to driving like a maniac, but it was far less frenetic than anything i had seen so far. the climate must have something to do with it - it was bloody hot.
now for a wee history lesson as mysore has quite an interesting past, evident in the wealth of beautiful buildings and monuments sprinkled liberally around the place. it is the second largest city in karnataka and will soon be blessed with a new name - mysuru, which i quite like. in hindu mythology a particularly nasty little demon called mahishasura used to live here until he got a spanking by durga (who you might know as shakti or parvati, her other incarnations.) up until independence mysore used to be the capital of the kingdom of mysore and was ruled by the wodeyar dynasty, great patrons of arts and culture. the palace that sits at the south of the city was their home and a very nice home it is. (screw the history lesson i'm bored - go here if you're interested...) i had rather serendipitously arrived on a sunday, meaning the palace was all lit up and sparkly in the evening. which was very nice indeed, though the resulting power cuts later on were a tad annoying. especially while i was trying to tuck into the gorgeous afghani kebabs served in the rooftop restaurant of my hotel.
i visited the market (the name escapes me now) to look for some incense, oils and spices. it was a cool place to hang out for a few hours with fruit and vegetables and flowers and pots and pans and woodcarvings and perfumes and garlands and dyes and silks and all manner of interesting things to look at. i chatted to a few of the stallholders who really knew their stuff about the perfumes and incense they sold and ate lots of exotic fruits whilst wandering around, sniffing the spice-filled air and making sure i took time to sit every now and then and watch the hustle of the bazaar swirling around me. not much to say about the next couple of days really. i bimbled around, took some photos, drank some chai, sat and chilled out. mysore is grand.next stop... ooty, in the nilgiri hills. this wasn't originally in my itinerary but i'd heard "man, you have to go to ooty it's great" too many times to ignore it.
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