INDIA & BANGLADESH 2014: 17 From Hassan to Bengaluru, India

Saturday, November 15, 2014

The 3 hour drive to Mysore was mostly on good roads, through beautiful hills and farmland.

Mysore has a population of about one million It is called the palace city, our guide said it has 246 heritage buildings. It was the capital of the Mysore kingdom from 1399 to 1947. During four British-Mysore wars, Mysore won the first two and Britain the second two, after which a peace agreement was signed giving the maharaja rights, including his palace and some tax collection, but under British rule. The 1897 bubonic plague killed half the city's population.

The King (later maharaja) of Mysore's Palace is located on 72 acres, where 8 elephants are still kept by his widow. The 74.5 m (245 ft) long palace building alone covers 11 acres (4.5 ha). The original palace was built with wood in 1812, but burned down. The current one was built between 1897 and 1912 with help from the British. The interior is opulent.

After a drive up Chamundeswari hill we came to the Shri Chamundeswari Temple, created for the god credited with saving the city by killing demons that possessed the area in early times. There is a spectacular view of the sprawling city below, and lots of monkeys for photos. Pilgrims climb more than 1,000 steps to get to the temple, stopping at 700 steps to ask a huge black bull statue built in 1659 for the strength to carry on to the top.

The city is gaining population as IT businesses and retirees are locating here due to its good climate. The city is green, with broad avenues lined with towering shade trees..

We in tourist country for the first time in awhile–road signs have English. We stayed at the Royal Orchid hotel, a palace built by the British for visiting dignitaries in the 1800s. The hotel is beautiful, however when we went for dinner about 20 minutes before the various tour groups, we didn't see another waiter once they arrived–it was necessary to chase them down. Marilynn's food arrived after about an hour, but it was ice cold. Mine never did arrive in spite of the tour groups being fed and on desert! We left, telling the Maitre d' we would not be paying any part of the bill. Hotel staff called the room offering to send food but we declined. The hotel is for bus tours, has no elevator, and internet for pay..

Paveen was expected to sleep in the car tonight, so I paid for a 560 rupee (about $US 9.20) room for him, which he said was very nice. He slept well and was rested for our last road trip.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

The drive to Bengaluru was on divided four lane highway, but in the 142 km there are 108 speed bumps (called speed breakers here). The worst are when they lay 5 bumps spaced about 6 inches apart, as these require a car to stop completely as it bounces along, and causes massive traffic jams when traffic is heavy.

Praveen stopped at Srirangapatam to show us the island fortress of Tipu Sultan. It had 2 km of defensive walls on an island in a river. There is a large temple to the god Vichnu and Sultan Tipu's summer palace was nearby. He was killed in the fourth Mysore/Britain war in 1799, very near to his summer palace, where a grave marks the site. Once in Bengaluru it took 45 minute drive across the city, passing Cubbon park, 300 acres of green space in the middle of the city.

At the hotel we met with Rahul Dhar, an owner of the travel company that put together the last part of the trip, to work out itineraries for today and tomorrow. Marilynn was met by a nice lady guide for her long promised shopping expedition. Praveen drove them, while I stayed at the hotel to get caught up. We are in the Pride Hotel, which is very nice and has included, although chancy, internet.

Bengaluru has a metropolitan population of about 8.5 million people – over twice that of Costa Rica. Human settlement has been determined back to 4,000 BC and Roman coins indicate it traded international from 27 BC. It was governed by a wide variety of empires until 1673 when it became part of the Kingdom of Mysore, who lost it to the British in the fourth Mysore war in 1791. It is a major textile and IT centre. It is amazing that unlike other cities this size, there is no smog.

Monday, November 17, 2014

It was an easy morning with a later than usual breakfast. Hotel food has been good, and breakfast was no exception. Marilynn bought another suitcase yesterday for some of her shopping items and for things we don't need on the train – we'll leave them with the tour company, who also have our cold weather gear shipped to them by Bestway's Delhi office. We'll have to sort and repack when we return in a week.

After lunch we were pick up by Rahul Dhar and Praveen for a city tour, visiting the massive granite legislative buildings, called the Vidhana Soudha, and the Maharaja's 1800s Bengaluru Palace, now a private museum owned by the current maharaja. It is considered one of the most remarkable Islamic Buildings in the city, but it likely little visited, as it costs $12 to take a photo and more than $20 additional to go inside. Not worth it, I think. We also drove through Cubbon Park and visited a Ganesha temple called the Bull Temple, as the bull is reputed to be the son of Ganesha. The Kadali,, or peanut festival, associated with the temple was underway and packed streets blocked from cars were lined with vendors selling from mountains of shelled peanuts.

At 4 PM we were dropped off with our train baggage at the five star Taj West Side Hotel, to register and get a briefing on the Golden Chariot train. High tea was served, followed by a tour of the hotel area, which was founded by a British couple as a boarding house and restaurant in 1887. It is on 19 landscaped acres.

On the way to the station we visited the 1990s International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hari Krishna) Temple, where we received the deluxe tour, both behind the scenes, and embarrassingly close to the idols in front of worshippers. The place is massive, having several temples with huge ornate gold structures and statues, plus cafeterias, gift shops and a book store. My cynical side got the impression it was largely dedicated to the worship of money!

We didn't arrive at the train until after 8 PM, but we could tell this was different from our other overnight train experience by the red carpet laid from the bus to the train entrance, the band that was playing, and the brass pylons with maroon felt rope holding back hundreds of curious people in the station. Our room has twin beds, flat screen TV, a fold out desk, closets and a bathroom with full sized shower. There are a total of 11 passengers including one 10 year old boy. The train has 18 carriages including 2 dining cars, a bar car with wifi, a gym, a spa with 2 massage staff, a business centre with computers having internet, the catering and staff cars. The 45 seat bus that took us to the station will drive to each of our stops to pick us up for local touring.

A good dinner was served by attentive staff, followed by a night with not a lot of sleep in our comfortable beds, due to the bad condition of the railway road bed, as we moved towards Chennai. Once there we will have crossed the Indian subcontinent once again!