Mysore bum

Sorry no photos, despite being in Mysore, sister town to Bangalore, the capital of the Eastern IT world upload is so slow that I will have to do them from home. Ooty has little going for it except a super botanical gardens, giant eucalyptus and fir trees hundrerds of years old and for the first time for a while perfectly maintained laws, paths, a real breath of mountain fresh air. The un-planned urban splawl has ruined the town for ever, however there is currently a scandle involving the destruction of 1500 illegally built homes, to little to late. I booked my trip to Mysore , 1 day will easily do Ooty.

My god, I`m sure my anatomy is changed for ever!, I got the bus from Ooty 2240m in the Nilgiri hills, this time a private mini-bus to avoid the `cattle truck effect` on public transport. I was however last on and luckily had the middle place of the back row for my legs which seem to be double the length of the locals. Seriosly rutted `roads` stretches of unmade roads, roads under construction and all of this descending through 36 switch-back turns with hundreds of metres of precipice below, even I offered a little prayer to any/all the deities so prevalent in India in all the busses. This is the short cut not taken by the pulic busses. Each time we flew over a pot hole we at the rear were shot into the air landing in a heap on the seats. We passed through the Bandipur National Park, home to wild elephants, bison, spotted deer,a few tigers and the list goes on. Usually nothing is seen of these illusive creatures but as luck would have it coming around a bend, a safari vehicle was stopped in the road and there at about 30m was a group of 3 Asian elephants walking slowly along. It tookm a moment to realise that these creatures are completely wild and free. Later the same scene was replayed with 200 or so spotted deer, black faced monkeys and another elephant with small baby....aah!. After a short stop and a total of 4 hours bumping, flying and bus rally driving we arrived in Mysore, a lovely, clean(ish) city largely built by the british. The Maharaja`s palace, a spectacular edifice built and designed in 1916 by a British architect in a park with huge parade grounds resembling Buckingham Paslace. Inside it a strange mix of high kitch, art nouveau and deco, with a heavy dose of Indian maharaja thrown in. On Sunday it is illuminated with hundreds of thousands of light bulbs anl locals and visitors alike come flocking to snap the lights, me included.