- we drove to Mysore in the second class train.... just to have this experience....it really was one. Besides fighting for the room, where to sit or stand, the family who sit next to us had hard time to figure out what kind of creatures are we . First of all the women were pitting Kadri, since she did not have any golden rings or any golden necklaces, even not a silver bracelet....they were then looking at Branko, what kind of man is he....if he would truely love her, he would buy her all kinds of jewelery....what kind of weird relations are there between white people.....
- One of the main curse for railway workers are peanuts - when the whole family buys a small bag of peanuts to each family member to loiter away the time, then soon the train floor is covered with peanut shells. Of course, in India, it is totally normal, because there will be always some slave who cleans after other slaves, who clean after another. And if two foreigners are looking at this with weird faces and taking pictures, then there must be something wrong with them...
- In Karnataka, the cows that have any white spots on their coats are the blessed ones, because only they can go through a total make-over, and after the dull white color takes the much brighter yellow color and vague color of horns become amazingly red, they look more attractive than any other holy animals.
- Accidentally we found a way to one culture house, where at the very moment was going on a children's dance competition. The children were great, but the organizational team of the competition and the moderator will have long way to develop. The most cute was a 5-year-old girl, who could still preformed a great show, even though her dance was disrupted three times due to music system shot-down.
- Mysore market is the best market in the whole India. It reminded us good old times in Iran.
fruit section
banana section
flower section
color section
Branko tried betel nut wrapped into betel leaf. It is a very common drug in India, which makes you relaxed and even little bit high, but the effect was more like when the dentist is injecting you anesthetic.
- Again we tried to protest against the fact that everywhere, where you need to buy a ticket, people with white skin have to pay ten times higher price than locals. But who would care for the protest of two insignificant poor backpackers, all other ATMs from western Europe and America buy the foreigner ticket with no longer thinking and are even happy to have gotten it for cheaper than a beer in the pub.
- Our visit up to the hill to Chamundi temple came out to be especially jolly, because of the big horde of monkeys, who stole food from almost every second temple visitor. We learned already on the first day in India, that it is not safe to walk around the temples, plastic bag with bananas or other eatable stuff in an hand. Some Indian people have still not learned it. And so it happens, that a young girl, seeing a monkey approaching to her, can only shout: "Papaa....," and gone the plastic bag is...
quite a similar figures
Some random pictures from Mysore:
Plain dosa - rice pancake with coconut and lentil sauce.
Mysore is a city of palaces
Bangalore:
- Bangalore has a big green park in the middle of the city, where local westerners are making afternoon walk with their luxurious dogs.
- Even though of being an IT-capital of the World, it is hard to find a Internet cafe in the city and when you happen to find one, which seam to be a high-sophisticated prepay place for using Internet, and you have been given two high-sophisticated "systems", then it can happen, that non of the "systems" works, and no high-educated Internet cafe keepers can fix the problem....
Hampi:
- Coming off in the Hospet train station, we felt again closer to the Northern India, and realizing that once again we probably have to enter to Northern India with a shock...
- Hampi village, the former capital of the Vijayanagara Empire, is a geologically attractive place, but being at the same time touristically attractive, the money-atmosphere has ruined a lot of its historical-mysterious atmosphere. Even though we were able to find ourselves in an totally empty temple in the evening.
- There was a big festival about to take place in this small village. They expected about 1 million people taking part. We on the other hand escaped one day earlier. Many Indians asked us with excitement, of how many festivals have we taken part in India, but aside from all the places where we happen to be spontaneously during some people's gatherings, we were really afraid to take part any of bigger Indian festivals. Besides, anywhere you go in India, the street picture makes you feel like in the middle of a festival.....
preparations for the festival
drawing a mandala
Some more pictures from Hampi:
- Our train to Goa was suppose to leave very early in the morning. That left us two choices - either to stay in Hampy guest house and in the morning take a half an hour ride to Hospet train station with Rickshaw, whose driver would charge us double-triple price, or to try to get a resting room in the Hospet train station, save money and some more sleeping time. To get a train station resting room for 24 hours, you have to go there in the morning, to be sure that you get one, because during the day there is most of the times no chance. Somehow we realized that train station worker do not want to give resting rooms to white people, because even if you go there in the very early morning, they try to make you believe that all the resting rooms have been already given out. Branko however did not surrender that easily and after some fight with the station manager and promise to contact his boss, we finally had the key !
For everybody who are thinking of using the resting rooms in Indian train station:
Train station resting rooms are very convenient, as the cost the same as a cheap hotel and you don't have to fight with rickshaw drivers in the morning over the price, to catch your early train.
However, if the station manager trying to tell you 8-9 o'clock in the morning, that for coming night all the rooms are full......do not believe him and claim what you have a right to.
waiting for a train to Goa 5 o'clock in the morning.
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