We (Me, Laura and Alessandro) left Hampi for Mysore (the city of palaces) on 17th October 2010. The journey involved a local bus from Hampi to Hospet, a coach from Hospet to Bangalore and another local bus from Bangalore to Mysore - a total of 17 hours travel on the bus!

The stop in Hospet gave us chance to fuel up (on food) and as usual we were all starving!! After asking locals for directions and being sent on numerous wild goose chases, we found the only restaurant in the city!! We got shoved in the upstairs room (which happens a lot!) into a room that looked, overall, dodgy!! The seats were a dark blue velvety-type material, the room was dark, only lit by a few small, red bulbs, all the customers were men and there was a shifty looking guy sitting behind a desk in the corner of the room, counting stacks of money - You see what I'm getting at??!! After visiting THE WORST toilet I had encountered so far (of which we all took photographic evidence!!) I sat and tucked into my meal!! It's amazing the things you learn to ignore in India!!

We finally arrived in Mysore, tired, hungry and with nowhere to stay and started the familiar, dreaded hunt for decent, budget accommodation. As you get off a train, bus or donkey (whichever your chosen method of transport), hostel owners spot you with your backpack and follow you around continuously, hassling you to take a look at their hostel - Always the same assurances: It's very clean, cheap and just around the corner. 9 times out of 10, you follow them for miles, get to their stinking hostel, with mould up the walls and holes in the mattress and they ask you for more money than you have already agreed you can afford! Mysore was no different! We followed one of these guys to a room that had wet bedsheets and stank so badly of damp that you could hardly take a breath!! We told the guy we couldn't stay there because of the damp and he responded with "Wait there". He walked into the room, sprayed half a can of air freshener and said "There, now it's OK!!" Erm, No!!! These people just don't get it!! The next hostel we looked offered to put is in a room with some dusty old paint tins, a pair or step ladders and a couple of broken mops!!

Finally we found a half decent place to stay and headed out to the spice market where they were doing demonstrations on how to make incense. Along the way we were collared by a guy who assured us he was "not a money man" and would like to show us the way to the market in a bid to improve his English and get a chance to talk to tourists - As usual he turned out to be a phony!! We followed him around as he took us into factories making cigarettes, silk and aromatherapy oils - On the whole it was a complete waste of an afternoon as this wise-guy tried to sell us all the things made in his friends shops. On the plus side, Alessandro got a massage with aromatherapy oils which ended up giving him more pain than when he started along with a burning sensation on his head where the guy had guaranteed the oils he rubbed in would promote hair growth!! Funny - I though anyway!! (Sorry Alessandro!)

The next morning we visited the main palace in Mysore. As usual the cost for foreign tourists (ie, us!) to get in was 10 times more than the cost for Indian tourists. By now I was so tired of the daylight robbery you have to put up with as a tourist in India that I went in a mood and decided I wasn't paying 200 Rupees to go into he dumb palace whilst the Indians were only paying 20 Rupees!! The palace was surrounded by armed police so I decided to ask if there might be a way we could strike a little deal and get to see the palace for cheaper - Brave I know!! Without hesitation the police man agreed to let us in, secretly, if we paid him a little bribe - So we did!!

On the way out of course he asked for more money and more police surrounded us, asking questions we didn't understand, in some angry sounding Indian language - We made a wise decision and just legged it, leaving the police to argue between themselves! Job well done I think!!

In the afternoon we visited Bindavar Gardens for a music, light and water show. The bus journey there was another experience in itself - An hour standing up on a hot, hot bus with Indian guy's armpits in my face and a guy in a skirt behind me pressing his "bits" against my bum for most of the way until I "accidentally" elbowed him in the said parts!!!

The show was obviously a BIG deal to the locals - There were hundreds of people there. I laughed to myself when the water fountains started playing "Boom, boom, boom, boom, I want you in my room" and the muslim women sang along - Clearly oblivious to the meaning of the song!!

The next day we visited Shivanasamudra Falls; the biggest waterfall in India. The greenery and the peace was a luxury, even if it did come with a 45 minute hike in the blazing sunshine. At the bus-stop on the way home, a guy offered to give us a lift in his car - coincidentally he was going to the same place as us. He tried to reassure us that he was with his wife and when we asked where she was he said he was picking her up along the way from the next village - Needless to say we refused his kind offer!!

That night (our last in Mysore) I went to the off licence/bar to get us all a well-earned beer and when I got there was told that it was closed - Despite the fact that the sign on the door said it was open for another 2 hours and there were plenty of people inside drinking!! I was used to this hostility by now though, after going into a bar the day before and being banished to a loft room with broken chairs and tables, rotting walls and a toilet in the middle of the room!! I am becoming involuntarily thick skinned! Anyway, I pulled through for "The Team" and found a place willing to serve alcohol to a white woman - A proud moment!!

The next day, craving for some relaxation therapy after 2 long, hectic days, we headed to Kannur in Kerala, one of the best beaches in India - Once again on local buses, a 10 hour journey awaited us!! ..........................