We originally tried to get booked into the Green Hotel, but they were renovating that weekend, so we couldnt get in! Instead, we found a cheap place (it cost about £10 each for 2 nights) with a restaurant, which seemed to suit us fine. There was no view, but a nice grey building about 10ft away, but for £5 a night, it did the job.
We were a short walk away from the palace, so after a meal, some beers and a 'death wish' cocktail (possibly the most vile cocktail on the planet - 5 shots with sugar syrup and pineapple juice), we took a wander over to the palace. It was lit up, but not properly (I've since found out that it is only lit properly on Sunday evenings and during festivals).
The gatehouse looked prety cool as well. At the gatehouse, I spoke with a guard and he was telling us about the maharaja's son, who lives inside the palace. He also told us about the elephants, so we decided to come back the following day to see the elephants.
Oooh, what's that?
The following morning, after a 50 rupee all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast (it wasnt nice) we went to take a look at the market. It was just as I remembered, but I had a much better camera this time, so I took some better photos.
One of the guys on the stalls gave us a demonstration of how they make joss sticks, which was quite interesting.
This is the guy with his stall, where he sold joss sticks and various oils.
The fruit and veg looked great.
On the way out, we found a meat market which wasnt particularly pleasant, especially since they were cooking goats heads and slaughtering chickens! The market was just to the right of this photo.
Just as we were about to leave, some guy came up to us and told us to take photos of him, so we did, then he opened some boxes and brought out a load of snakes!
He even had a cobra and did his snake charming bit for us.
After being quite chuffed with seeing a real snake charmer, we headed on over to the palace to go elephant hunting.
We found the elephants tied up having their lunch. We did ask if we could ride them, but the elephants were too interested in eating to be bothered with people, so we decided to come back later on.
During our wanders around the palace, we found some camels.
I'd never been on a camel before, so I had to have a go!
There was also elephant rides being offered, so we all decided to take an elephant ride.
After our elephant ride we took a look around the palace and Andrew, Helen and I went inside whilst Ben went back over to where the elephants were tied up. We went back over to meet with Ben and the guy I previously asked if I could ride the elephant, came back over to me and asked me to follow him, so I did. We went behind a building, out of general sight, and he brought an elephant around to us. The elephant was very friendly and we got as close as you could, then the elephant laid down for us to get on.
How often do you get a chance to ride bareback on a peeing elephant?
It was pretty cool - Ben and Andrew also had a go. The trainers wanted us to pay 800 rupees and we eventually paid 300. It was an amazing experience to ride an elephant bareback.
By this time, we were getting hungry after riding elephants, camels and watching snake charmers, so we headed off to get some lunch. I remembered that the Green Hotel was open for food, so we went over there to get something to eat. I really liked it there and was happy to return.
I got to get right up on top of the roof this time.
After lunch, we went over to the Brindavan Gardens and to take a look at the KRS dam.
The gardens are spectacular at night, so we went into the Royal Orchid hotel and found a cosy spot in the elephant bar (how fitting after our day of riding elephants) to have a couple of drinks and watch the sun go down.
As the sun goes down, the gardens light up.
Once it got dark, we walked back through the gardens and water fountains.
The giant man who was here last time I came was still around, so Andrew and I got our pictures taken with him. He is 2.20 metres tall and has the biggest hands I have ever seen!
For dinner, we went to Tiger Trail (lonley planet recommendation) and it was quite good. The following morning, we quickly went to town for a bit of shopping because Mysore is famous for it's silk, then we went back to the market for a quick visit.
After the market, we went to Chamundi Hill and as soon as we parked up, we found the monkeys!
Inside the barrier of the giant statue of Lord Shiva, some kind of religous ceremony was taking place. The guys were hitting themselves with swords and going into all kinds of religous fervers.
It was a lot busier than last time I came, which was good because a lot more was happening. Free food was being given out from the back of vans, people were breaking coconuts, a mini-market was set up nearby and huge crowds of people were entering the temple.
The view was outstanding!
I read about the steps that lead all the way down the hill and pass by the Nandi Bull temple, so I asked if anyone fancied taking a walk down, so three of us went down the steps and Ben took the driver to meet us at the bull temple. The walk down was good (although it was VERY hot) and we had some amazing views on the way down.
After a short walk, we got to the Nandi Bull temple and quickly hopped into the car for the air conditioning!
On the way back to Bangalore, I was in the back of the car and I pointed my camera backwards and took a shot completely at random. When I looked at the shot, I couldnt help laughing!! It was such a great picture!!
Another thing that made me laught was the call of death poster!
Although I had been to Mysore before, this trip was far better than the previous one. Even though I did more or less the same things and went to the same places, the experiences were far better. A definite highlight was seeing the snake charmer and I doubt anything will beat riding the elephant bareback.
