Friday 2nd July - We went to a
party with our new friends from Cameroon, Nelson and Stephane. Nelson
is an aspiring actor and model and Stephane works for Tata, India's
biggest conglomerate. Tata are crazy, about 30% of the vehicles are made
by them, as well as owning a satellite TV network, mobile phone
network, hotels, bottled water and there's even Tata Ceramics! A company
could never become such a huge entity in the West, but in India several
big companies seem to dominate all the markets. Tata have a strong CSR
(corporate social responsibility) though, giving a lot back to
underprivileged Indian citizens, unlike some of their counterparts.
The party was great,
dominated by mostly French people and Africans from French speaking
nations. I had fun trying out my French skills (or lack of) from school
and meeting people from all over.
The next morning we were
picked up at 8am (painful after not getting in until 5am!), by a minibus
we hired for the weekend, which took us to Mysore, a city about 3 hours
away. We went to a beautiful Hindu temple near the city first and I got
a cowboy hat, then rode a horse for hire for 60 rupees (£1). After
looking around the temple we went to some other ancient buildings, the
summer residence of a bloke called “Tipu Sultan”, a ruler from a few
hundred years ago. The house was a bit disappointing, it had lots of
beautiful paintings, but they are everywhere in India. We then went for
lunch in a lovely restaurant, ate loads, and paid 150 rupees (£2) each!
Then our driver took us up to the top of Chimundi Hill, which is home to
another huge temple on top, and there are 1000 stone steps leading down
to the foot of the hill.
Many monkeys were around the
busy temple area, lots with babies; we saw one which was carrying it's
baby's corpse, and was very defensive if any of the other monkeys came
near. It was a little disturbing really, but very interesting to see how
attached it was.
After walking around the
temple and putting our shoes back on, we began the 1000 step descent.
After about 50 we stopped to admire the view from standing on some huge
boulders which made up the side of the “hill”, more like a small
mountain (actually I guess not, considering India is home to part of the
Himalayas!). A man was sat on the rocks, and after the majority of the
group left, he began talking to me, Ania and Anthony. He told us he was
really sad, and was enjoying the tranquillity and the view. The 3 of us
decided to leave the man to his peace and climb down the boulders rather
than walk the boring steps. As we left the man started crying
hysterically to himself, I think someone close to him must have died,
and he was feeling a little like the monkey we saw earlier.
After a long and interesting
climb down boulders and through jungle we reached a road, and we turned
left, which we later realised was the wrong path, and we ended up on the
other side of the mountain! It began to get dark as 2 policemen on a
motorbike pulled up. One stayed sitting but the other got up and held
his truncheon (which look more like baseball bats) in his hand
menacingly. The police here seem to cause trouble, not prevent it, and
have huge egos. The corruption and bribe-culture is something I
certainly never thought about before arriving here. Both policemen told
us we needed to find our group as soon as we could as mountain lions
and panthers were in the area. Then they drove off. Nice.
So we all fashioned bats from
tree branches, then carried on our journey to the foot of the mountain.
Luckily when we arrived we got our phone signal back, and got in
contact with the others, who'd been waiting about an hour for us. Our
driver managed to find us, so we drove to Mysore Palace to see the
nightly light show. It took about 20 minutes to get there, and there
were no lights on! Turns out we'd missed it! There was groaning and an
uncomfortable silence lasted the rest of the journey to the hotel.
That night we went for food, then watched Germany nail Argentina.
The next morning we went
shopping at Mysore market, whilst Anton, Charlotte and Laura were at an
“elephant camp” a couple of hours away. The market was a fun experience,
with the inevitable staring and every seller asking where I was from
and what I was doing in Mysore. One boy walked around with Maceik for
over 30 minutes asking him to buy various things from his sack, and
although to us it was obvious Maceik wasn't going to change his mind,
the boy obviously thought otherwise.
After meeting the guys from
their elephant camp, (actually a place where you can bathe and ride a
chained up, beaten up elephant), we went to a place called KRS dam,
about an hour from Mysore. The dam was huge, with beautiful gardens with
fountains stretching for about 3 km. We went in an aquarium for Rs.5
(about 7p), and it showed! The place needs no other explanation than
“crappest aquarium in Asia”. That, funnily enough, wasn't its slogan. We
enjoyed the afternoon in the gardens, before watching a “dancing
fountain” show at dusk. The fountains and lights danced to Bollywood
tunes, which was good, but got old quite quickly. India is fantastic,
but some things (like fountains and aquariums) are a long way off our
own. I will lower my expectations in future.
After leaving we saw a bridge
over water with 2 spotlights on it, and a cloud of what must have been
over 10 million moths! Me and Ania dared each other to run the 50 metres
through it and back again. After a count of 3, 2, 1, we went for it! It
was pretty disgusting but very exhilarating! That short story had no
purpose other than to amuse you, and help me remember!
A few hours later we were back in Bangalore after an interesting weekend!
That's all for now, I hope you enjoyed reading about my time in Mysore.