inland to Mysore

My general plan was to move southwards down the west coast of India ... but Mysore beckoned.  I'd heard about the impressive palace, only built at the beginning of the last century (after an older one burnt down) and not even fully Indian as it was designed by a British architect, but very large and, as I discovered, with some spectacular rooms.

This to the left is part of an area that the public would have had access to as they came for public audiences with the Maharajah,  There are a number of such corridors and spaces, all equally spectacular.  The grounds are large and impressive too, although sadly I did not find out in time that there is a free well-rated light-and-sound show on Sunday evenings ... I arrived there on a Monday.  I was also a little annoying to find that the entry fee for foreigners had, until three months ago, been the same (£1.20) as for Indians, but as with everywhere that charges for entrance, it now has a higher price for foreigners (£10).  Something I have rather mixed feelings about.

But I enjoyed my couple of hours in there, and found a few other things to do in Mysore - including a hill of some 1,101 steps (I tried to count them, but it was easy to get distracted by the birds, by Indians wanting to say hello and ask where I'm from, and by a couple of sights on the way up) to a Hindu temple. - which might have also had quite nice views over the surrounding area were it not for the smog that covers this country at this time of year.  There were some cute monkeys hanging around on the way up, however (oh!  and I saw an elephant through the bus window on the way to Mysore, as we drove through a National Park).

One side of Mysore that took me by surprise was learning that it is the source of virtually all of the world's sandalwood (at least, that's what people there told me, I haven't fact-checked), and so there are many little family-owned businesses making incense sticks, and oils (eg massage oils) with this sandalwood.  I got dragged into a few of these places, and bought the smallest jar of sandalwood oil that they sold ... still not sure what I'll do with it!

The manager of one such store was keen to spend more time with me, and given that his suggested outing would not take me to anywhere I would feel unsafe with a strange man, I agreed that we could go to the cinema together, to one near my lodgings so that I could easily and safely get home afterwards.  After all, cinema is a big part of modern Indian culture, so seemed like a reasonable thing to experience.  We picked a film that was advertised as having English subtitles (which it didn't...), and arrived at the cinema 15 minutes before the start time.  There were quite a few people hanging around, but it was only after he'd bought the tickets that we discovered why: the star of the film (someone called Viraat) was going to be attending!!

We settled ourselves into our seats in the balcony and heard the commotion as he arrived downstairs.  Then at the midway interval the public were able to approach him and take their selfies (I guess those have replaced autographs?), including when he came upstairs.  Seeing me (a foreigner!) amongst the crowd, he asked me if I was watching (and enjoying the film), which of course I said I was without referring to the lack of subtitles!  I did the mandatory selfie, but as it's one of the worst photographs of me I've ever seen (and that's saying something...) I won't share it here!  A surreal experience, but great fun!