Today we headed out early to try and avoid the inevitable heat of Mysore. We firstly walked to the bus station to get a local bus up to Chamundi hill which stands at 1062 meters high. It is a sacred hill where Hindu pilgrims head to worship at the Sri Chamundeswari temple. It's a stunning temple that has a huge gold forty meter high gopuram (entrance gateway) and wouldn't look out of place in Thailand. It's a great place to look at Mysore as the views are incredible. We wandered around inside and its always really interesting to watch the local traditions. Here the pilgrims buy coconuts and flowers and take them in as an offering to the gods. Once beside the priest breaks the coconut open for the pilgrims and they are meant to crack cleanly around the centre of the nut. If they don't then the coconut hasn't been accepted by gods and another gets purchased. If the nut breaks smoothly the pilgrims sit and enjoy them in the tranquility of the temple. The nut is meant to represent the pilgrims who are expressing to the gods that although they may appear rough on the outside they are soft and pure inside.

We sat and heard about some local traditions of the Hindu community such as the women wearing wedding rings on their toes and gold rope necklaces to represent marriage. We weren't allowed to take pics inside the temple... And rightly so but took some outside. While outside you get harassed by local traders and touts and after a while you are ready to scream at them. While we were outside numerous boys approached us for photos and it was really quite funny... Especially when they approached us after to show us the photos that he had already printed out. We then had free time to do some souvenir shopping before heading back to get the bus. I found a lovely wooden elephant for gran but Steven wouldn't accept the bargain price of two hundred rupees that even Ravi said was a locals price ....the guy is far too tight. Anyway we got the bus and headed back to town to visit Mysore palace elephant less .

Mysore palace is undoubtably one of India's most beautiful buildings, the place just blew us away. It's set in large grounds with numerous entrances ...bit like the taj and its stunning. Outside you can take as many pictures as you like but photography inside was strictly prohibited.... I was gutted by this as its a photographers dream. We had some time before going in to take Lots of pictures and be in lots of pictures. There were lots of pilgrims and they all wanted pics with us... And I wanted some of them so I worked well. We then headed inside and it was magical. We had an audio tour which I really enjoyed as I love hearing the history of the places we visit. The palace it self was originally made of wood but burnt down during a wedding in 1897 and was then rebuilt by Henry Irvin, a British architect in 1912 under strict instructions to use as little flammable materials as possible. The place is amazing.... Far more stunning then even the Taj Mahal and I loved being there. Everywhere you go you can see ornate carvings or splendid paintings. I loved the paintings along the corridors that were painted from pictures taken during the days of the Edwardian Raj.

After the palace we walked back to the hotel and sat on the roof terrace having drinks and trying to get the wifi to work... We needed to book flights to Mumbai and hotels and such. We then headed down to the same thali place as yesterday and enjoyed a very tasty lunch. Tonight was the night for the sleeper train so we had a late lunch and headed back to the hotel. We then had a good chat with Auntie Pat and Virginia ...but weren't able to get hold of Dave. We managed after a few attempts to get hold of my mum and had a nice little chat before we had to leave for the train at seven thirty.

We took auto rickshaws to the station and headed in to find the platform. We were to get the eight twenty sleeper train to Chennai (Madras) which would take just short of twelve hours. We boarded the train and settled in to our carriage, we were sharing with Rhys, Cliodna, Manya, Vanessa and a couple of Indian people. I feel asleep quite promptly but didn't sleep very well as I was far too long for the bed but I did get some sleep so no complaints. Steven slept really well.... Mainly because he was directly below the air con and he didn't have uncle Albert farting below him all night... All in all we had a good night.