Difficult as it was, I managed to drag myself away from Ezhara yesterday. I braved another local bus and travelled through the Coorg, an interesting coffee growing area to Mysore. I have left Kerala behind and am now in Karnataka. My first impressions of Mysore were good, it is a large but green city and its wide open boulevards reminded me of Madrid in some places....with a few stray cows and lots of rickshaws and honking horns. My hotel is great, I'm on the third floor, next to the roof terrace and have wifi and cable tv in my room...this makes up for the loss of the little white house on the beach.
Today I went up Chamundi Hill to take in the views of the city and visit the Chamundeshwari Temple. This was the most spectacular temple I have seen so far and not surprisingly it was packed with Indian and Western visitors. I then went to visit the Mysore Palace, one of India's biggest tourist attractions. It was built surprisngly recently in 1912 although previous palaces have been on the site since the 14th century. It was impressive, very different to anything I have seen so far, making me realise how rural Kerala is. I took an audio guide of the inside and enjoyed the gaudy, over the top decoration of the rooms. I came back to the palace this evening to see the illumination which happens every Sunday but stupidly forgot to bring my camera....a real shame because the palace really did look spectacular all lit up.
I found it hard to get back into the routine of finding food for myself, after being spoilt for 6 days in Ezhara but I did find a good veggie restaurant near the hotel which served a good thali meal. I also found it hard being on my own again after all the companionship at Ezhara but as these things happen I met a lone travelling Canadian woman at the palace this evening, who has also taken a year off work and was in Africa before Christmas and hopes to go to South East Asia next....we are going to try and meet up tomorrow.
Today I went up Chamundi Hill to take in the views of the city and visit the Chamundeshwari Temple. This was the most spectacular temple I have seen so far and not surprisingly it was packed with Indian and Western visitors. I then went to visit the Mysore Palace, one of India's biggest tourist attractions. It was built surprisngly recently in 1912 although previous palaces have been on the site since the 14th century. It was impressive, very different to anything I have seen so far, making me realise how rural Kerala is. I took an audio guide of the inside and enjoyed the gaudy, over the top decoration of the rooms. I came back to the palace this evening to see the illumination which happens every Sunday but stupidly forgot to bring my camera....a real shame because the palace really did look spectacular all lit up.
I found it hard to get back into the routine of finding food for myself, after being spoilt for 6 days in Ezhara but I did find a good veggie restaurant near the hotel which served a good thali meal. I also found it hard being on my own again after all the companionship at Ezhara but as these things happen I met a lone travelling Canadian woman at the palace this evening, who has also taken a year off work and was in Africa before Christmas and hopes to go to South East Asia next....we are going to try and meet up tomorrow.
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