Our estimated time of departure was 7am, bright and early. We nearly made this too! We fed Daisy and threw her in the car only to discover about 100 metres down the road that she really doesn't like to travel on a full stomach so back to the apartment for a costume change for Daisy and Chris and hose out the back of the car and we were off again. Daisy fell asleep in my arms and stayed this way for the next few hours. We picked up a work mate of Chris's and headed out of town. It took us over an hour to reach the outskirts of Bangalore. The first change to the landscape were the appearance of these mountains. They were huge masses of rock. Chris and i argued over whether they were volancanic plugs left after erosion or huge rocks pushed up through the earths surface during a particularly violent earthquake or the such. The jury is still out! Though since Chris studied geography at uni he is probably right! More coconut palms started to appear and soon we found ourselves surrounded by them and rice paddies and watched as fields were ploughed by oxen and men walking behind them. The road was a lovely four lane highway, two lanes in each direction. This though didn't stop the occasional motorbike or rickshaw being on your side but heading in the opposite direction!! We are very pleased with our driver and felt that this wasn't his first trip to Mysore. He handled the traffic masterfully! We drove through villages and over huge bridges and ohhed and ahhed at the countryside. It was soo lovely to be out of the city. Our first stop, beside the coffee day coffee stop, was at a place called Srirangapatnam. This is the ruined capital of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan's capital from where they ruled much of southern India during the 18th century. In 1799 the british conquered them with the help of disgruntled local leaders. Tipu's defeat marked the real kick-off of bristish expansion in southern India. Our first stop in this village was to the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple. This was quite an impressive hindu temple. We have more video footage than photos of this place. It was quite a sight, not only the temple but the food stalls and 'carnival' that went with it. It is quite a tourist sight for Indians as well and again we stood olut like boils being the only white people. Our car was accosted by people volunteering to be our guides. One man was quite persistent and spoke good english so he was the chosen one. The road leading to the temple is filled with beggars, street sellers plying their wares, animals, the ever present dung and tourists. Inside the temple was cool and quiet. Our guide showed us around and again we got our foreheads hindi-ed. We departed with 300 rupees after refusing to pay his requested price and wandered back to the car. It was an ordeal to retrive our shoes as being white and tourists they want heaps of money for looking after our shoes at the entrance to the temples. We were also accosted by boys selling pencils and men selling necklaces. From the sidelines, men and women shouted for our attention to buy there things. One day I will buy a coconut drink where they chop off the top while you stand there and put in a straw for you to drink straight out of the coconut. It looks delicious. (I have just had my first bout of food poisoning so I am very wary again of all things)
Below is a picture of a typical food stall that lined the road side. I am not sure of what was battered and deep fried. I thought it might be pineapple but it wasn't this so I am not sure what is was. They would prepare food here and then beside this they had a bench wth seating that you ate at. All the places were quite busy with the locals. We didn't eat here!
Below is a picture of Raj our driver. Daisy thinks he is great because he plays teletubby videos in the car. Her face jsut lights up when she sees him and he thinks this is very cool. He is a very careful and competent driver and we are very pleased with him.
We visited another couple of sites in this village which is about 16 km's outside of Mysore. We went to the Gumbaz, which is a Taj looking building holding the tomb of Hyder Ali, Tipu's father. Then we drove to the summer palace of Tipu. After Tipu's death his wealth was redistributed around, though most of it went to the British. A lot of his treasures are in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The palace has been restored and there is a bit of a museum inside. Most of the rooms in the house only have one or two walls with rooms open onto other rooms or walkways. This makes for a very breezy and cool building. I can see why it was his summer palace. I stopped to feed Daisy in the cool some fruit and we were swarmed by well wishers wanting to touch her and take her photo so as soon as she finished we were on the move again.
Our estimated time of departure was 7am, bright and early. We nearly made this too! We fed Daisy and threw her in the car only to discover about 100 metres down the road that she really doesn't like to travel on a full stomach so back to the apartment for a costume change for Daisy and Chris and hose out the back of the car and we were off again. Daisy fell asleep in my arms and stayed this way for the next few hours. We picked up a work mate of Chris's and headed out of town. It took us over an hour to reach the outskirts of Bangalore. The first change to the landscape were the appearance of these mountains. They were huge masses of rock. Chris and i argued over whether they were volancanic plugs left after erosion or huge rocks pushed up through the earths surface during a particularly violent earthquake or the such. The jury is still out! Though since Chris studied geography at uni he is probably right! More coconut palms started to appear and soon we found ourselves surrounded by them and rice paddies and watched as fields were ploughed by oxen and men walking behind them. The road was a lovely four lane highway, two lanes in each direction. This though didn't stop the occasional motorbike or rickshaw being on your side but heading in the opposite direction!! We are very pleased with our driver and felt that this wasn't his first trip to Mysore. He handled the traffic masterfully! We drove through villages and over huge bridges and ohhed and ahhed at the countryside. It was soo lovely to be out of the city. Our first stop, beside the coffee day coffee stop, was at a place called Srirangapatnam. This is the ruined capital of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan's capital from where they ruled much of southern India during the 18th century. In 1799 the british conquered them with the help of disgruntled local leaders. Tipu's defeat marked the real kick-off of bristish expansion in southern India. Our first stop in this village was to the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple. This was quite an impressive hindu temple. We have more video footage than photos of this place. It was quite a sight, not only the temple but the food stalls and 'carnival' that went with it. It is quite a tourist sight for Indians as well and again we stood olut like boils being the only white people. Our car was accosted by people volunteering to be our guides. One man was quite persistent and spoke good english so he was the chosen one. The road leading to the temple is filled with beggars, street sellers plying their wares, animals, the ever present dung and tourists. Inside the temple was cool and quiet. Our guide showed us around and again we got our foreheads hindi-ed. We departed with 300 rupees after refusing to pay his requested price and wandered back to the car. It was an ordeal to retrive our shoes as being white and tourists they want heaps of money for looking after our shoes at the entrance to the temples. We were also accosted by boys selling pencils and men selling necklaces. From the sidelines, men and women shouted for our attention to buy there things. One day I will buy a coconut drink where they chop off the top while you stand there and put in a straw for you to drink straight out of the coconut. It looks delicious. (I have just had my first bout of food poisoning so I am very wary again of all things)
Below is a picture of a typical food stall that lined the road side. I am not sure of what was battered and deep fried. I thought it might be pineapple but it wasn't this so I am not sure what is was. They would prepare food here and then beside this they had a bench wth seating that you ate at. All the places were quite busy with the locals. We didn't eat here!
Below is a picture of Raj our driver. Daisy thinks he is great because he plays teletubby videos in the car. Her face jsut lights up when she sees him and he thinks this is very cool. He is a very careful and competent driver and we are very pleased with him.
We visited another couple of sites in this village which is about 16 km's outside of Mysore. We went to the Gumbaz, which is a Taj looking building holding the tomb of Hyder Ali, Tipu's father. Then we drove to the summer palace of Tipu. After Tipu's death his wealth was redistributed around, though most of it went to the British. A lot of his treasures are in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The palace has been restored and there is a bit of a museum inside. Most of the rooms in the house only have one or two walls with rooms open onto other rooms or walkways. This makes for a very breezy and cool building. I can see why it was his summer palace. I stopped to feed Daisy in the cool some fruit and we were swarmed by well wishers wanting to touch her and take her photo so as soon as she finished we were on the move again. 
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