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Travel and Rest
We spent the morning in Mysore's covered flower, fruit and veg market. The colours are vibrant, the aromas from the spices are exotic and the produce is very fresh and appealing. If only we had this quality and choice at home! There was even an environmentally friendly recycling plant in the market - a tethered cow and a couple of goats were making short work of the unwanted stalks and the produce that was past its sell by date. In exchange they return fertiliser and milk.
We also went to an art gallery located in yet another former palace. Mostly it was rubbish - gifts given to long dead Maharajas, stilted paintings of the ancestors in all of their finery, that sort of stuff. There was even a painting of polar bears in the wild. The artist had clearly never seen a polar bear. However, there was a more interesting section by local artists and the best picture in the exhibition was called "The Glow of Hope". It was a portrait of an Indian lady holding a shielded candle. The candle cast a golden glow over her features and saree. She had a rather enigmatic expression and it was difficult the gauge her thoughts. An Indian Mona Lisa.
We caught a train from Mysore to Chenai (Madras) via Bangalore in the afternoon. A 7 hour journey all going well. The lead story in the Mysore Chronicle that day was of a train derailment near Bangalore the previous day. Nine dead and many injured in carriage number 11. I don't know if it made the international news. We noticed an unhappy pattern happening here. Indian lady killed by elephant 4 days before our visit, German man killed by tiger 2 days before our tiger expedition and now 9 killed in a railway accident the day before we pass through on a train. Good job we are not superstitious. In the paper yesterday there were reports of further deaths by tiger at our tiger reserve. It looks like an old tiger has turned to easy prey and attacked local people in their gardens. The villagers closed the road in protest by placing the body in the way of vehicles and they also burned three police cars. An order has been placed to hunt and shoot the renegade tiger.
As it happened our train journey passed in relative comfort. A bright, modern, air conditioned carriage whisked us on our way eastwards to the Bay of Bengal. We were fed with snacks, drinks and then dinner and arrived well rested, watered and fed although frozen to the bone by an over enthusiastic air con setting. Our bus met us in Chenai and drove us on into the night to our sea side resort of Mallamapuram.
After our tiring 9 hours of travel a rest day was declared. Long lie, late breakfast, gentle stroll to explore the shops and beach - sounds great.
Being a two night stop it was the ideal opportunity to hand in some laundry to the receptionist. We arrived in the lobby at the same time as Mark and Mary who also had a bulging laundry bag. Although we had already made a list of our items the receptionist insisted on holding up and counting every single item. Pants one! Pants two! Pants three! she called out examining every item carefully and holding it up between fingers for everyone in the lobby to see. Poor Mark - his pants were all inside out. That wasn't the end of the laundry embarrassment. When we came to retrieve our washing in the evening all of our group's clothes had been mixed up. We each had to go through the large bundle to identify our own items. I didn't get all of mine back. Someone on this bus is wearing my pants.
Since our rather basic hotel didn't have catering facilities, we went around the corner to a German bakery to eat. There was a breakfast option for each nationality. The American breakfast was eggs, hash browns, coffee, juice and toast. The French option was black coffee, a croissant and a cigarette. This was hippy town. Lots of elderly hippies wandering around and a few youngsters who were adopting the lifestyle. We wandered down the main street and I ventured into a cobbler's shop to inspect his hand made flip flops. I had a pair made in Calley Thistle colours - blue base and red straps. I called back into the shop after lunch for a final fitting before they did the final gluing. All for £4.
The afternoon was spent on the beach, reading and watching the world go by. That evening we chose an enormous red snapper and had it simply cooked and served with chips and roast vegetables. It was fabulous. Later we joined some of our group in Shiva's Bar. The smallest reggae cocktail bar in the world.Bob Marley was playing quietly in the corner. I had a Mojito, Susan had a Bloody Mary made with fresh tomatoes. Perfect end to a perfect day (apart from the pants issue!).
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