On the Easter weekend, we all headed off for a couple of nights. Between us, we had two 8 seater cars and one normal car so the ride was quite comfortable. For the first two nights we stayed in Mysore before heading on towards Bandipur for one more night. Ed, Matt and I ended up being in a group and planned to stay in a triple room for the first night. The triple room was basically a twin room with the third bed being a rusty old camp bed and there was no way I was sleeping in that, so I ended up getting my own single room. The hotel lobby actually looked very impressive and I really liked the lift.
My room wasn't too bad inside, apart from the cockroaches.
The view from my room was nice, with a palm tree right outside my window.
Ed and Matt had to move rooms about 3 times because of smells and damp, and my room had cockroaches, so we left the hotel (Hotel The Prince Sandesh) and went to a lonely planet recommended hotel, the Green Hotel, which is based on ecological principles and it was great. They help their staff to learn how to read, write and generally improve themselves. It was a really nice hotel. Again, Ed and Matt shared a room and I got my own room (more like a suite than a room). Even though we complained about little cockroaches in the Prince Sandesh, Matt and Ed never complained when they found a monkey in their room! I was a little jealous that I didnt have a monkey – brilliant hotel though – strongly recommended! They also gave us a quick tour because it was a palace built for the Mysore Princesses back in the late 1800’s. We didnt stay inside the main building, but in the small 'chalets' surrounding the gardens.
I really liked my room. All the furniture is made locally and all the food is bought locally. For breakfast they served me toast with a pot of jam and the jam was the best I'd ever tasted!
After moving our stuff, we went out to Mysore and had a look around the old market – really amazing place! Before we got to the market, this old guy pulled a knife on us and shouted something in Indian, so I obviously asked him to pose for a picture!
A quick drink of coconut milk was a good start to the day!
The market really was cool! So many different colours everywhere.
We also went up Chaimundi hill, one of the sacred hills in Mysore. We stopped at the Nandi bull temple on the way back down. The views were really good and the drive up was quite enjoyable, especially since the road had a (more or less) sheer drop on the side. The monkeys seemed quite happy living in the temple.
We also headed over to Mysore palace for a look. At night, the palace lights up, but I never saw it- perhaps next time...?
In the evening, we went over to the dam which also has these amazing water gardens with loads of fountains everywhere. We arrived when it was light and it got dark while we were there. When it was dark, all the fountains lit up in time to music and it was pretty amazing. My digital camera ran out of battery so I was left with my mobile phone, so the pictures were not as great as they could have been. 
We reached the dam just as the sun was setting.
The fountains at night were really spectacular.
The following day Ed wasn’t feeling well so he caught a vehicle back with Tom who was picking up his girlfriend from the airport that day (Rodger also went home early too). We planned to go to the ‘jungle’ in Bandipur and it was about 3 hours drive away, so we headed into Mysore town before leaving and I saw a ‘Free Tibet’ rally in response to the Tibet/China issues that recently flared up. The protesters looked very serious – totally different to the protests that occur in the UK!
On the way to Bandipur, we passed miles and miles of Paddy fields.
After another 3 hour drive, we ended up in the Jungle Resort. On the way, we passed through Bandipur National Park and we saw a family of Elephants taking a bath in the river
We also saw some monkeys (I fed them some monkey nuts) and one of them jumped up on the car. 
I sorted out the Jungle Resort accommodation before heading off and booked us a ‘cottage’ with a living room, a main corridor/dining room and two bedrooms for the guys and a room with two double beds for the two girls. It came to a total of about 3500 rupees (approx £40). The accommodation was pretty basic, but I really liked it (with the exception of having to share a 'double' bed with Matt - it was two single beds pushed together with one large blanket). We took a quick trip into the ‘town’ nearby (literally one street) where I bought a pack of cards.
Needless to say, we played cards for a few hours before being served dinner. After dinner, we went out in the land rover (in the pitch black) for a ‘night raid’ to see what wild animals we could spot. I was in the back of the land rover and couldn’t see a thing, so I ended up standing up in the back and holding onto the roof rack to get a better view. It was really cool to stand up in the back whilst the vehicle was driving at about 40mph down bumpy roads in the pitch black. We did see a few things: deer, boar, bison and an elephant in the distance (it was just a big shadow). 
The following day, we left at approx 7am and went back to Bandipur to go on a ‘safari’ which was a big bus. We did see a few things there too: monkeys, boar, deer, bison, peacocks and peahens, several varieties of birds (including the rare wild chicken – the driver stopped the bus for the chicken, but drove straight past the monkeys) and some kind of otter type thing. It was quite good. 
Back at Bandipur, Matt and I wanted to go on an Elephant ride, so the other guys headed off to Mysore and we said we would meet up with them. Whilst waiting for the elephant ride, I took a wander around the park and the wild monkeys were wandering about, so I got a few pictures of them – it was quite cool to see monkeys just wandering about. The wild boars were also wandering about through the park.
The elephant ride was great! The elephant was massive with huge tusks and after the ride, we hung around and I fed the elephants some bananas. There was a little baby elephant running about too which got a lot of attention from everyone. I’ve never been that close to three elephants before. I think those elephants were the ones I saw in the water the previous day. Again, my digital camera ran out of battery, so I was stuck with my phone once more.
Overall, a great trip and riding on the elephant was one of my highlights.
My room wasn't too bad inside, apart from the cockroaches. The view from my room was nice, with a palm tree right outside my window.Ed and Matt had to move rooms about 3 times because of smells and damp, and my room had cockroaches, so we left the hotel (Hotel The Prince Sandesh) and went to a lonely planet recommended hotel, the Green Hotel, which is based on ecological principles and it was great. They help their staff to learn how to read, write and generally improve themselves. It was a really nice hotel. Again, Ed and Matt shared a room and I got my own room (more like a suite than a room). Even though we complained about little cockroaches in the Prince Sandesh, Matt and Ed never complained when they found a monkey in their room! I was a little jealous that I didnt have a monkey – brilliant hotel though – strongly recommended! They also gave us a quick tour because it was a palace built for the Mysore Princesses back in the late 1800’s. We didnt stay inside the main building, but in the small 'chalets' surrounding the gardens.
I really liked my room. All the furniture is made locally and all the food is bought locally. For breakfast they served me toast with a pot of jam and the jam was the best I'd ever tasted!After moving our stuff, we went out to Mysore and had a look around the old market – really amazing place! Before we got to the market, this old guy pulled a knife on us and shouted something in Indian, so I obviously asked him to pose for a picture!
A quick drink of coconut milk was a good start to the day!The market really was cool! So many different colours everywhere. We also went up Chaimundi hill, one of the sacred hills in Mysore. We stopped at the Nandi bull temple on the way back down. The views were really good and the drive up was quite enjoyable, especially since the road had a (more or less) sheer drop on the side. The monkeys seemed quite happy living in the temple.We also headed over to Mysore palace for a look. At night, the palace lights up, but I never saw it- perhaps next time...? In the evening, we went over to the dam which also has these amazing water gardens with loads of fountains everywhere. We arrived when it was light and it got dark while we were there. When it was dark, all the fountains lit up in time to music and it was pretty amazing. My digital camera ran out of battery so I was left with my mobile phone, so the pictures were not as great as they could have been. We reached the dam just as the sun was setting.The fountains at night were really spectacular.The following day Ed wasn’t feeling well so he caught a vehicle back with Tom who was picking up his girlfriend from the airport that day (Rodger also went home early too). We planned to go to the ‘jungle’ in Bandipur and it was about 3 hours drive away, so we headed into Mysore town before leaving and I saw a ‘Free Tibet’ rally in response to the Tibet/China issues that recently flared up. The protesters looked very serious – totally different to the protests that occur in the UK!
On the way to Bandipur, we passed miles and miles of Paddy fields. After another 3 hour drive, we ended up in the Jungle Resort. On the way, we passed through Bandipur National Park and we saw a family of Elephants taking a bath in the river We also saw some monkeys (I fed them some monkey nuts) and one of them jumped up on the car. I sorted out the Jungle Resort accommodation before heading off and booked us a ‘cottage’ with a living room, a main corridor/dining room and two bedrooms for the guys and a room with two double beds for the two girls. It came to a total of about 3500 rupees (approx £40). The accommodation was pretty basic, but I really liked it (with the exception of having to share a 'double' bed with Matt - it was two single beds pushed together with one large blanket). We took a quick trip into the ‘town’ nearby (literally one street) where I bought a pack of cards.
Needless to say, we played cards for a few hours before being served dinner. After dinner, we went out in the land rover (in the pitch black) for a ‘night raid’ to see what wild animals we could spot. I was in the back of the land rover and couldn’t see a thing, so I ended up standing up in the back and holding onto the roof rack to get a better view. It was really cool to stand up in the back whilst the vehicle was driving at about 40mph down bumpy roads in the pitch black. We did see a few things: deer, boar, bison and an elephant in the distance (it was just a big shadow). The following day, we left at approx 7am and went back to Bandipur to go on a ‘safari’ which was a big bus. We did see a few things there too: monkeys, boar, deer, bison, peacocks and peahens, several varieties of birds (including the rare wild chicken – the driver stopped the bus for the chicken, but drove straight past the monkeys) and some kind of otter type thing. It was quite good. Back at Bandipur, Matt and I wanted to go on an Elephant ride, so the other guys headed off to Mysore and we said we would meet up with them. Whilst waiting for the elephant ride, I took a wander around the park and the wild monkeys were wandering about, so I got a few pictures of them – it was quite cool to see monkeys just wandering about. The wild boars were also wandering about through the park. The elephant ride was great! The elephant was massive with huge tusks and after the ride, we hung around and I fed the elephants some bananas. There was a little baby elephant running about too which got a lot of attention from everyone. I’ve never been that close to three elephants before. I think those elephants were the ones I saw in the water the previous day. Again, my digital camera ran out of battery, so I was stuck with my phone once more.
Overall, a great trip and riding on the elephant was one of my highlights.