World Trip – Stage 10, Hosapeta to Mysuru

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12th – 15th April

Journey to Mysuru

The most challenging thing in leaving our hotel, in Hosapeta, was breakfast. An inviting buffet presented itself, however lifting the silver lids of the warming pans did not reveal the expected scrambled eggs, little sausages or baked beans, but rather a typical Indian breakfast, with no descriptions to aid us… All was not lost though, Peter plugged in a toaster, and we did recognise the hard boiled eggs, laid in a bed of salt. This meant that breakfast wasn’t as substantial as the day before, when we arrived after the buffet was dismantled and we had breakfast to order.

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In the short walk to the station, we were grateful that the sun had not yet become all powerful. Our train to the big junction Hubballi (aka Hubli), was only 1/2 hour late departing and 1 1/2 late, arriving at lunchtime. Not a problem for us as we had taken the earlier train to ensure we didn’t miss our connection, which meant we had nearly 10 hours to wait.

We figured the sleeper train had only one station before us and was less likely to be late than the train from Hosapeta, which would have come much further and was much more likely to be late.

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Hubballi station is enormous, even with new escalators installed for the walkway connecting the platforms. It boasts having the longest railway platform in the world at 1,507m.

First things first. We quickly found the Cloakroom, which is where we could leave our luggage for a period.

Next we ascended the walkway to cross over all the tracks to the far end, emerging in the now searing heat, to find the Hubballi Railway Museum. We spent a couple of happy hours browsing mostly defunct railway items and watching a well-made AV presentation on the heroics of the Indian Railway Gangsmen, Gatesmen and Pointsmen. There were no English sub-titles for the last film but we got the picture! Unfortunately the cafeteria (housed in a restaurant car) was not open.

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Now, the long wait for our 22.50 train began in earnest. We found a fantastic ‘Paid for Lounge’ – air conditioned (struggling), access to high speed Wifi, drinks and snacks, comfy sofas. Not to mention a huge TV screen showing juicy Bollywood music videos in the afternoon, turning into cricket in the evening. Not bad for 50 pence per hour for both of us, 12.5 pence per hour for Wifi and a sum total of £1.20 for four coffees, a litre of water and a big packet of chocolate bourbon biscuits…

We had considered wandering up the road to find somewhere for dinner as we only had the bananas we’d bought at the roadside with us, but the wall of heat deterred us from leaving the relative cool of the station. So we risked eating at one of the two eating establishments on Platform 1. When we couldn’t make ourselves understood at the first one, we made do with the second one, where we ordered A La Carte, 1 vegetable biryani and 1 egg biryani. We received mountains of rice and a wooden fork. No after effects at all…Phew! So much for our original idea of buying a bottle of wine to take on board; it was Sprite or mango juice for us!

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The time passed until 22.50. The lady’s strident voice in the PA system told us, in three languages (one of them English…) that it was delayed, but would be arriving shortly…. To cut it short, we finally boarded at about midnight, and the train departed at about half past midnight.

We travelled in 1st Class Air conditioned. A cabin with four fold down bunks. The guard saw us and grinned and said – ‘Peter and Lynne’. No question mark… We were each handed a bundle with two threadbare sheets, a small but functional pillow and a rough grey blanket. First Class? Well, yes – thinking of the many hundreds more on the train in cramped, hot carriages with hard benches making do overnight. We had one companion who slept throughout and didn’t bother us.

We slept in bits, as it was a bit of a ‘bone shaker’, which didn’t do Lynne’s sore hip any good, but we woke up in a good mood, eager to face the day’s adventures. At one point we seemed to be running 3 hours late but arrived unexpectedly only 2.5 hours behind schedule. This was the terminus, so we took our time getting off.

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Mysuru

…. Or, as it used to be known as; Mysore – which is what most people still call it!

We were getting into the hang of travel in India. Ignoring calls from everybody offering taxis and rickshaws, we just headed for a rickshaw – ‘How much?’ – and jumped in. Twenty minutes later we were at our new lodging, ‘Sandesh, The Prince’, with an imposing lobby and super eager staff, if slightly tired rooms. We even had a pool that we made use of.

The central attraction by far in Mysore is the Palace. Finished in 1912, after the old palace burnt down in 1897 and designed by Henry Irwin, it fuses Muslim and Hindu styles, but with quite a few quirks from Europe.

In the evening we attended a fantastic ‘Light and Sound’ show, telling the legends, history and kingdoms of Mysore. At the end of the show, the famous ‘lighting up’ of the palace drew gasps from everybody in the audience – truly magnificent!

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The next day we booked a half day tour, taking us up the Chamundi Hills for the view over the city and to not see the temple at the top. Despite a valiant try, we found the queue to enter the temple entailed 2-4 hours shuffling in narrow caged passages. No thank you. But it was worth the climb to admire the magnificent views of Mysore in the haze below.

We really loved seeing the Palace in daytime, and visiting the interior – even surpassing the magnificence of the exterior! It’s probably a bit like visiting Buckingham Palace, although that’s not something we’ve done. We spent some time exploring the gardens, pretty much alone, as it was so hot.

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Lastly, our driver took us to the Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery, a former palace with fascinating paintings, very early sepia photographs, furniture and relics.

To ‘beat the heat‘, we left early next morning to visit the Devaraja Market, a large area of narrow semi-covered passageways, lined with traders of fruit, gloriously fresh vegetables of so many sorts, colourful blossoms and flowers, spices, delicacies and silks. The smells wafting through the market were delicious. It was perhaps not as vibrant and busy as we expected; maybe we were too early, maybe it was because it was Sunday and a religious holiday.

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As for Mysore, we really appreciated the Palace and Art Gallery, plus the luscious gardens and trees. We were recommended to visit the Brindavan Gardens, next to a dam, but felt it was a bit too far to travel considering our short time here and the intense heat. We were looking forward to our next adventure in Bengalaru.