Chāmundi

After breakfast we left our accommodation at 9am to travel to Mysore. The journey was on much less windy roads and dropped us further into the plain in the foothill.

We drove for about 90 minutes before arriving the outskirts of Mysore where we visited the Sri Chamundeshwari temple. This is an active temple you the god Vishnu and sits high on the hill above the city.

There were hundreds of other people at the temple and we queued for a while to get in. Unlike most temples, non-Hindus are allowed to go inside. After about 45 minute we eventually got to the front of the queue and had about 10 seconds in front of the statue before we were ushered on.

At around midday, we returned to the minibus for the 20 minute journey to our hotel, Sandesh the Prince, where we were able to check in.

After a chance to freshen up with a warm shower and some food, we met the group again at 2.45pm to visit the Mysore Palace. We walked for about 20 minutes before arriving at the palace and met up with a local guide. After removing our shoes (because of the floor tiles and not fit any religious reasons, we went inside. The guide was interesting and explained that the palace is the second just visited place in India, after the Taj Mahal and also that it was rebuilt in the early 20th century after a fire destroyed the old wooden palace. The architecture is a mix of Christian, Muslim and Hindu styles to reflect the fact that the Hindu King recognised all religions.

Much of the structure seemed to have been imported with iron columns from Scotland, ornate gates from Austria and bronze statues from England. Unfortunately, it appeared that half of the population of India was also visiting at the same time and it was very very busy and noisy, not helped by the guards visually blowing whistles. Definitely good to experience and see although it made it difficult to hear the guide!

At night, once a week, and all over the Christmas and New Year period the palace is it up with 97,000 bulbs. We only saw it from a distance but our guide who went out for the evening sent us a picture of what it looks like!

It was almost 6 by the time we returned to the hotel and we had a beer with the group before you've to freshen up. Most of the group then went out for food to a hotel with a rooftop restaurant. I went for a more western mean as a change from the three times a day curry that we've been having and we then had another early night.Read more