Mysore (Mysuru)
Mysore (or Mysuru as it’s known now) – our first port of call on the Big Trip and a chaotic, noisy re-introduction to India after an absence of 8 years or so. This is our 3rd time in India (my 4th) and we were instantly thrust back into the familiar swing of it.
Off the bus from Bangalore and into choking diesel fumes, pushy vendors and sweat, sweat, sweat. Going to have to get used to that for a while.
We stayed in an apartment owned by a lovely dentist (Tharak) with a spankingly new Harley Davidson in Gokulam, an affluent area of the city that seems mercifully quiet, though that’s all relative here. Having worked hard to get ahead, he can now afford to work in the morning, seeing 5 or 6 patients and spending afternoons at leisure in a purpose built comic-book library. We hoped his practice might be called ‘Mysore Teeth’, but alas, no.
This part of Mysore sees quite a few foreigners, the majority on month-long yoga retreats, with nearby restaurants and cafes catering for detoxifying vegans and suchlike. Amongst the mainly genuine there are many ‘adopting the pose’ here – all topknots & dreads, oversized vests, skimpy shorts and often barefoot. We look very conservative in comparison.
Tuk-tuks took us from sight to sight around town, including the marvellous Mysore Palace. Built in 1912 by the British architect Henry Irwin after the previous residence of Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar the 4th burnt down, it’s a superb grey granite confection topped with almost edible looking pink domes. Visitors to the palace must remove shoes and run the gauntlet over hot concrete to the entrance, though it’s only painful, it seems, if you have pasty white feet… Pretending to ignore the smell of everyone, we shuttled from hall to hall, past murals depicting magnificent durbars and military parades, fabulous colonnaded rooms with gilded columns, peacock patterned stained glass and lifesize statues of snarling tigers.
Mysore Palace
The Audience Hall, Mysore Palace
Lunch at the ‘RRR Hotel’ was recommended by Tharak. Very much a local place where you take a seat with your fellow diners without any ceremony and strike up a conversation. Veggy thali served on banana leaves, cheerful waitresses spooning rice, pickles and stuff we weren’t too sure about, constantly replenishing everything and meeting needs for sauce you never even knew you had. Less cheerful women with buckets scraping your sloppy leftovers. Wonderful food, wonderful place.
The real highlight though was the sweat-box of Devaraja market – Helen’s written a piece to accompany this one…..
Devaraja market flower vendor smiling amidst the chaos
We caught a local bus to Srirangapatnam, Tipu Sultan’s seat of power in the Anglo-Mysore wars of the late 1700s, and visited his tomb in the family mausoleum – a fabulous building with a wonderful tiger-skin patterned interior spoiled only by the naff mock tiger rug draped over his final resting place. A purchase from Batley market surely…..
Tipu Sultan’s tomb – could get a few pairs of tasteful leggings out of that…….
At the entrance to Tipu Sultan’s summer palace we were made to purchase tickets by scanning a QR code, entering personal details, credit card information, verifying purchases through banking apps and downloading multi-page pdf documents. It took ten minutes. “We have cash”, we said. “No”. “We have credit cards?” “No”. “Electronic ticket download or you’re not getting in”. Reminded me of the advert on tv where you can only pay in crypto at a vegetable stall.
The palace was a marvel – an exquisite teak masterpiece covered with intricately detailed flower motifs and mural scenes from Tipu’s famous victory over the British at Pollilur in 1780. You couldn’t help reflecting that this boasting in paint might have been a little premature however – it became the residence of Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, after Tipu’s crushing defeat at the battle of Srirangapatnam a few years later. A monument to irony it seems. This is also where the wonderful ‘Tipu’s Tiger’, now housed in the V&A in London, was kept – a marvellous lifesize automaton of a tiger mauling a European soldier complete with sounds of groaning when the handle’s cranked…
Tipu Sultan’s summer palace
As we left the palace we saw groups of people huddled over phones at the entrance, all apparently having the same technological ticket traumas as we’d had. Baking into the dusty heat and tapping away, some looked anxious, some looked downright fraught, as if this might be an Indian version of Squid Game or something. I love the fact that India embraces the new – maybe I just need to adjust my expectation of what ‘progress’ is….
Calm Srirangapatnam local with no need to buy tickets
At the top of Chamundi Hill is a vivid yellow temple dedicated to the deity of the Mysore royal family, Sri Chamundeswari. Along with a multitude of others, we cautiously entered into claustrophobia-inducing cages surrounding the temple, which act as crowd control for devotees hoping to pay their respects and leave offerings of coconuts & flowers. Shuffling along a long line of people for what seemed an age we eventually reached the inner sanctum of the temple to catch only the briefest glimpse of the deity herself, depicted in a rather serene looking yogic posture, before being unceremoniously herded out by the temple ‘police’. Somewhat of an anticlimax for us, we hoped everyone else gained some sort of fulfilment. The offerings themselves were appreciated by the local cows at least, who get to feed on them after everyone’s gone….
Sri Chamundeswari temple
Grub’s up Buttercup
On to Pondicherry via the overnight train to Chennai. We had our compartment to ourselves for a while until two young blokes with a cat in a box took the other berths around midnight. The discussion with the train guard as to whether or not felines were allowed on trains took a while to be resolved, so not a great deal of sleep was to be had. Still, we’ll see what Pondicherry has to offer……
Simon (30th March 2025)
I went to Mysore when I was in Bangalore. Glad you’ve started your journey safely!
Thanks Claire. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Chaotic it may have been, but very friendly too!
Very nice. Doesn’t look overcrowded as I’d have thought it would be! The detail in the buildings is just crazy!
Cheers David – Mysore’s a great place (and the photos are carefully selected to show ‘less people, more scene’ on this occasion!)
Beautiful!! … and I’m glad they let the cat on the train
Big eyes, cute face – it was always going to win……
Hey, just seen these posts as the notification (as we joked about) did go to my junk folder!! What a beautiful place to start your trip. The buildings look very well looked after with such intricate designs and a bold use of colour!
You don’t actually confirm that the cat was allowed to stay on the train but I’m going to think it was 🙂
Ha ha – went ‘to my junk folder’…How appropriate!!
The cat made it – it was too cute to throw off……….
Mysore Teeth, still giggling….
Amazing descriptions you guys, and the photos! What a start. I remember running over the hot ground at Mysore Palace, but I also recall all the locals laughing hysterically at me!
Yes, same thing was happening to us. We’d be rubbish at the hot coals thing……….