Welcome to our blog from the Indian state of Karnataka. After a 13 hours train/bus journey from Fort Cochin, we arrived at Mysore near midnight. The journey itself went smoothly until we got stuck in bottleneck traffic up in the mountains. The scenery from the bus was absolutely breathtaking and we saw a few cheeky monkeys on the way! As we were on a government bus, the bus did not have windows and at times we were sharing the bus with far too many people. Helen in particular had her heart in her throat several times when we went round the hairpin bends. As we arrived late it meant that we could not check into the youth hostel that has a 10pm curfew. We checked into a hotel much to Helen's delight! We both had an excellent nights sleep and with our batteries recharged we were ready to face Mysore.
The next morning, we headed straight to the youth hostel to check in as per night the charge for a bed was a measly 100 rupees (£1.35). We then headed to the centre of Mysore taking in the sights of the clock tower and the memorial hall. Being fed up of Indian food, we made a pit stop at Dominoes where the pizza was much appreciated even by Helen who is not a fan of pizza!
As Helen's mother requested for some silk from India we went to the 'silk roundabout where the only trade around was silk. Mysore is world renowned for its silk production. We spent a good hour plus trying to select silk...after making our purchases we browsed Devaraja market which is a lively bazaar which combines the antiquities and modernism of India. It was particularly spellbinding what with the variety of crafts, flowers and colours surrounding us.
As we parted ways from Tyron and Fifi in Cochin, we met up with them in a jungle themed restaurant. Within the first five minutes we must have had at least 3 power cuts! Power cuts are not a rarity in India having experienced them daily. Even the waiters were dressed up as rangers! It was a strange experience!
The most famous thing in Mysore that brings in tourism is the Maharaja's Palace which is amongst the grandest of India's royal palaces. As the palace burnt down in 1897 it was completed by English architect Henry Irwin in 1912 at the cost of 4.5 million rupees. (see photos!). We managed to get in for free as the ticket salesman must have felt sorry for us being Deaf. It was grand and must have been awe inspiring when in use. We relished in telling the security guard that some Indian people were using their cameras (photography is prohibited) as we were fed up of them taking photos/filming us! Tyron relished in his new found celebrity status!
We then headed to Chamundi Hill which is one of 8 holy hills in South India, to obtain spectacular views of Mysore and neighbouring towns. Chamundi Hill is also home to a 5m high Nandi, Lord Shiva's bull which was carved in 1659.
The rest of the day was spent chilling out at Tyron and Fifi's hotel in particular as Helen was not feeling well! Our evening was spent having a final meal with our fabulous and entertaining travel companions for the past two weeks. We all then went to pick up our baggage, Nick had the sole responsibility of looking after the 'left luggage slip' given to us when we dropped our bags off. When we arrived at left luggage, Nick realised that he had lost the slip....we tried all tactics to get our bags back including matching the flags on our bag with the stamps in our passport, unlocking the combination lock and matching our day packs with our rucksacks....we must have spent 30 minutes arguing with the man with Tyron and Fifi as spectators, he finally let us have our bags. Basically the moral of the story is- don't trust a man with a piece of paper!
Our journey to Hampi from Mysore took 10 hours, Helen slept pretty much the entire journey as she had a dodgy tum. On arrival we were met by loads of very eager tuk tuk drivers all wanting to either take us to our hostel or take us on a tour! Thankfully for Marta and Clara, two Spanish girls, they led us to Hampi's bustling guesthouse centre.
We spent what felt like hours shopping around for a guesthouse, thankfully they were all next to each other on the same street. We wanted a cheap room to make up for blowing our budget in Kerala and Mysore. We settled on Laskhmi Tourist Home as the shower looked ultra modern and it had a TV. The day was spent watching films and recuperating from the long journey and dodgy food.
A little bit about Hampi, Hampi is a World Heritage Site and according to the Lonely Planet you can "lose yourself among wistful ruins, or simply be mesmerised by the vagaries of nature". How right!? Hampi also has local laws applicable to the town such as no sale of alcohol or meat! Hampi used to be one of the largest Hindu empires in Indian history and while it has left it's mark through numerous temples and religious artefacts, you would not have guessed otherwise.
Our first evening was spent at the Mango Tree restaurant where we had to walk through a banana plantation. It was fabulous as we sat on the floor and leant against stone walls taking in the scenery (river and boulders). There was also a huge Mango tree overhanging! Nick really recommends their special veg curry which was delish. We decided to have a film night but this was cancelled when we had a power cut forcing us to go to bed at a ridiculously early hour.
The next day was spent on a tuk tuk tour after haggling the price with the driver. We took in the sights of Hampi (sorry for loads of photos...to come at a later date!). I'm not going to give a history lesson about the various temples etc. On our way back to our guesthouse we got a flat tyre, so we hitched a free lift from another tuk tuk. We got our bags and waited for the government bus to Hospet for ages, loads of tuk tuk drivers tried to scare us by saying the next bus is in more than an hour and that we would miss our coach to Goa. Thankfully, one of the tuk tuk drivers had his heart in the right place and he reassured us that the bus would come and it did. So off we went to Hospet to catch our sleeper bus to Goa.
Hampi left us both spellbound with it's forlorn ruins and giant boulders!