Mysore Days

Mysore Days

Saturday, Nov. 11, 2006--Mysore

I went to a vegetarian restaurant last night and did I find a good one!! I ordered vegetable fried rice and ate it with lots of chile sauce. It was hot and fresh and tasty. Best of all, however, was my fresh lime soda. It was the best one that I have had on this whole trip.

This morning, I took the bus to a nearby town named Srirangapatnam. It's an old fortified town on a river island that is 1 km wide and 3 km long. It has the old summer house for the local sultan whose palace is here in Mysore. The trip was a mistake, however. The town has far too many people trying to make a living off tourism than there are tourists. There were beggars, rickshaw drivers, tour guides, etc., bothering me most of the time. And the local kids were more persistant: Can I have a pen? No pen? Can I have 10 rupees? No? Can I have ____? Then beyond all that, the admission price for foreigners to see the summer house of the sultan was 18 times the price it is for local people!! The town is just a rip off and a mess. I was happy to catch a bus back to Mysore realizing that my life will be a good one whether I see anything in that town or not!

I sat with some Muslim men on the way back. Their wives and mother were in another seat. (Women and men do not sit together on buses in India.) They were brothers and nice guys. They were coming into Mysore for a day at the zoo--an outing they said they make about once a month. They were very curious about me and asked lots of questions and had me take their photos.

I returned to the vegetarian restaurant from last night for lunch when I got back to town. I ordered a paper masala dosa. It was thin and very crispy. And there were four bowls of chutneys and curries to eat with it. Again, it was one of the better meals of my trip. And the dosa cost less than 50 cents. I ordered another fresh lime soda, and this time it had pepper sprinkled in it. Like pepper in pepper nut cookies, it added a nice tingle to the sweet taste of the drink.

Mysore has so many huge wonderful buildings. I walked around the medical center during the afternoon. There is one impressive building after another for blocks. Then I returned to the hotel and rested and watched TV.

In the evening, I went to a fancy restaurant in a hotel near mine. My guidebook had recommended the chicken tikka there, so that's what I had. It was another good meal. The chicken was so tender that at first I wondered if it had even been cooked. The sauce on it (masala) was spicy and good. I had garlic naan to go with it. And it came with a side salad of slow--cabbage, carrots, green pepper--with lime slices to squeeze over it. Man, it was good, too. I've lucked out with the food in Mysore.

Sunday, Nov. 12, 2006--Mysore

After a lazy morning in the hotel, I left to wander town. I took some photos of some of the impressive buildings. Then I walked to the zoo. I didn't remember going there before, but the entrance looked familiar, and I knew I had been there once I was inside. It is a good zoo, though. And Sunday is a good day to go to a zoo even if you have been to it before. I wandered and watched the people as much as I did the animals. The zoo is known for its propagation of tigers and leopards, and they have many of them--each living in an area with a label giving its date of birth. It has the only gorilla in India. It has wonderful, huge grassy areas for its animals. Any city anywhere would be proud to have such a nice zoo.

I tried to go back to my vegetarian restaurant when I left the zoo. Unfortunately, it was full with a long waiting line of people. So I'm not the only one who appreciates its good food and cheap prices. Instead, I walked here to the cyber cafe. It's already 4:30 p.m., and I haven't eaten yet today. When I leave here, I will try the vegetarian place again, I guess. If it is still full, I may try to eat at the fancy place where I ate last night, although it will be an awkward time to go there. It's cheap, too, really. My meal of chicken tikka masala, salad, garlic naan, liter of mineral water, and 20+ percent tip came to less than $4 last night.

Tomorrow, I will catch a bus to Hospet. I will leave off my earplugs so that the mosque noise will awaken me around 5:30. I want to get a bus around 6:30, because it is at least a 10-hour trip to there. It may be longer taking a regular bus. All the "fast" buses go in the afternoon (arriving in the middle of the night) or overnight. I didn't have anything to do here all day tomorrow waiting for a night bus, and I didn't want to arriving in the middle of the night. So I will take my chances with the regular day bus tomorrow morning.