Mysore

If you are a fan of incense then you have seen the word "Mysore" on almost every box of Indian incense. It is not the word for what happens to your feet after a week of mucking around sockless in sandals in India. It is actually a large city near Bangalore, which anyone in the computer business would recognize as where 90% of all calls centers of the world live. We are in Mysore. And my feet also have mysore growing on them, too.

 

We left Ooty a two days ago. Ooty was just as nasty when we left as when we arrived. Have you ever seen a US western movie where the streets run with mud and the horses and carts and people just go about their business in and through it? That was just about exactly what Ooty in the rain is like. And it is populated with real honest to goodness Indians, too! And horses and carts. What they gracefully omit from those westerns is the amazing stink. You see, all that water flowing down the streets is not just pure rain fresh water. It is also the overflow of what passes as a sewer system, too. In every city we have been in the sewers lie right below the sidewalks. The sidewalks are literally just a series of concrete planks that bridge over the water below. In many cases the planks have large voids or are missing entirely. It is essential to watch your step most carefully. Now, in Mysore, we have walked a couple miles and found these folks have taken a large step into the future - there are not any visible sewers under the sidewalks. In fact, they have fairly decent sidewalks where one must only watch out for beggars, vendors, dogs, beggars, post card vendors, beggars, wires, lamp posts, beggars, and... uh... a lot of stuff that looks a lot like shit. Certainly it must be something else.

 

Yesterday we spent the day and night at a jungle lodge. It was a popular place for wealthy young Indians to share quality time together with a lot of US rock and plenty of alcoholic beverages. The foreigners were less adventurous and took off in jeeps that love to honk and drive crazy. We spent time looking for wild animals and found some, too. Somehow the drivers can see animals way off the road, talk on their cell phones, avoid hitting each other on the single lane road, and tell their passengers what to see and where. We saw several wild elephants. One of which had killed people as recently as last week. There were some Indians off their motorbikes taunting it until our driver gave them hell. We saw some drunk Indians having a fist fight on the road. We stopped at an elephant training camp where they take on orphaned babies. There was one there only a few months old. It was about 3 feet high and like all babies, very cute. It was rolling around on the ground, going up to people for petting, and sniffing them in embarrassing places with its trunk. There were also a lot of monkeys about. The tourists love to see them, but the guides and locals treat them like common pests, which they are around here. The highlight was a sighting of a leopard. This is apparently a rare sighting. It was lounging on a dead tree about 100 yards away. It was one huge cat. I took a lot of pictures to prove my claim, but none of them are terribly good and you might think it was actually a disney animation.

 

We went to bed fairly early and had to complain to the management about our neighbors loud stereo and obviously drunken party in the dorm room next door. Our room was a dorm room our entire group shared. It was quite comfortable, and with ear plugs and a sleeping pill I was asleep before anyone. Susan said I snored quite loudly, but no one complained today, so she may have exaggerated.

 

This morning we arose before 6 am to head into the jungle for a 2 hour sunrise walk. Only Susan and I went on the walk. The others said they had to sleep in due to being tired from some night noise that I was unaware of from sleeping so soundly. It was a very nice morning for a wilderness walk. We walked on a mostly low shrubby hilly area for a few miles. Eventually one guide spotted something - a pack of wild dogs eating a killed deer. We were about 50 yards away and were able to watch them for about 10 minutes before they saw us. Calling them dogs was generous. They were huge beasts with big bushy tails and stout heads like hyenas. When we were spotted one started growling and barking the strangest noise was indescribable staccato noises. I would have been nervous had the guides not been there and not too concerned. When the dogs left we even tried to follow them a few minutes, but they were long gone.

 

We returned to a late breakfast and then hit the road to Mysore. That trip was uneventful. I am even getting used to seeing my life history flash before my eyes several times a minute. I have had a couple close call maneuvers in my history of driving, neither of which is remotely like the ordinary way everyone here drives all the time. It is incredible there are not a lot more accidents. Perhaps the way drivers here manage is their awareness is so much more intensely on the road conditions than ours is.

 

After arriving in Mysore we checked into the nicest hotel we have stayed in. Then we walked to the Mysore Palace where the local king lived until about 1950 when the new government kicked him out and turned the palace into a museum. It was a very impressive building. We only saw a tiny bit of it. Most of it is closed off and it would take days to see it all. We were going to go see it lit in its weekly illumination ceremony, but after dinner found it was again raining. Rather than endure a mile's walk of drizzle, I decided to inflict a hour's worth of drivel on you.

 

There may be no reports for a couple days. Tomorrow night we are spending the entire night riding a night train to Chennai, formerly known as Madras. That should be a heck of a lot of fun, or something.

 

Susan just pointed out there are lizards crawling on the walls in this internet shop.

 

Thanks for reading, and namaste!

--
Michael & Susan Kuhn
Trip email: indiaadventure2007@gmail.com
Trip blog: www.indiaadventure2007.blogspot.com