The train was only 3 hours, and we arrived in Mysore at 10.00am. We didn't have anywhere booked, as all the hotels in the Lonely Planet were full, so we just arrived there and had a look to see what we could find. A manager of a hotel asked us if we wanted a room and said he had rooms for 600 rupees. We told him our budget was 300 and he said we could have it anyway! The room is ok, but definately not worth 600, i think 300 is a fair price! We went out for lunch to a restaurant that did South Indian Thali's and it was delicious! only 40p for rice, 3 different types of curry, popadoms and fried roti! Yum.

After lunch we took a walk to Mysore Palace. It's pretty impressive but a rip off for tourists. It's 20 rupees for Indians, and 200 rupees for foriegners. This price includes an audio guide, and even if you don't want it you still have to pay 200 rupees! But we went in anyway, as this was mainly what we had come to see. When you go inside the palace they make you take your shoes off, and they store them for half a rupee - so we put them in our bag! I've already paid 200 for this, not going to pay 200 and a half rupee!!! God, we're such cheapskates! Your also supposed to store your camera for 5 rupees, but we refused to put ours in, and promised we wouldn't take any pictures inside and they said ok! The audio guide was boring, and we ended up skipping it and starting it before we got to the next place of interest so we didn't have to stand around for ages!

After the palace, we met a nice couple Louise and Dave (she is Australian and he is from Edinburgh and they are moving to Scotland!) and we took a wander around the market with them. The market was really busy and colourful, and we got shown how to make incence sticks which was interesting! It's really easy actually! After that we went for a drink. Jack and Louise shared a beer called 'knock out' beer! We ended up staying for the rest of the afternoon/evening, but before our food came out Jack had a funny turn (must've been the knock-out) and we headed home so he could get some sleep. Probably just exhausted from the early starts and walking around in the sun. Jack fell asleep straight away, and i went out and got a loaf of bread for dinner... yum.

We checked out of the hotel the next day, both feeling refreshed from an early night and a lie in this morning. We were getting the train back to Bangalore, had a few hours there and then getting the overnight train to Hampi. the train to Bangalore was a 2AC class, which was very nice compared to the usual sleeper class! AC, free water, juice and biscuits! We arrived back in Bangalore at 16.15 - our train to Hampi was at 10.30, so we left our bags at the luggage counter in the train station and headed to MG Road. We found a pre-paid rickshaw stand at the station, so had no trouble getting the rickshaw there. We went to a bar for happy hour and had a few beers, then had dinner... at pizza hut again!!! Just getting in training for getting back home..!! We got bored, and decided just to wait at the train station. It had been raining all day, and it was cold and windy at the train station. The train arrived on time which was nice, but the journey was another story!

See the blog for Hampi.....