Mysore

I arrived in Mysore and tried the Parklane hotel, but it was full, however, as is usually the case the rickshaw driver knew somewhere else. I however wanted to have a look at another hotel. The other hotel wasn't much cop so I ended up going with to the tuk-tuk drivers choice, which was about 50m from the original hotel. Round and round in circles.

I had a look at the Maharaja's Palace(1,2,3,4) during the day and also popped into the markets, where the vendors try to persuade you to buy incense and oils. At the end of the day my hands were covered in various smelly oils. However, I refused the paints which they want to decorate you with!

I happened to be there on the Sunday night which is when the lights at the Palace (1,2,3,4,5) are turned on for an hour, almost a 100,000 of them!

Some would say it was gaudy, others spectacular, perhaps spectacularly gaudy? Still it certainly lit up the sky!

I went to the post office to send home a CD, but as usual a simple task ends up taking ages!
Of course, the post office don't sell envelopes. So I wandered outside and found a vendor of all sorts of stuff. He had envelopes but only giant ones. I purchased the large envelope and then as I was going to post it. I realised I didn't have a pen on me and the envelope didn't have a sticky seal. So I nipped back to the hotel and packaged it up. At least this time they allowed me to post it, the other time they refused saying it wasn't good enough packaging and would be broken when stamped. I had images of an angry, muttering man in the stamping department crushing everybodys packages!

At dinner I noticed many of the small differences from the UK. They gave me a menu before coming back and lighting a candle so I could actually read it. The way the waiters 'borrowed' the flame from my candle to light another one. The waiter asked half way through whether I wanted any dessert or coffee. The bill was settled in the foyer of the hotel. No huge difference just a myriad of small ones, and that rounds up my cultural analysis of waiting staff in India!

Motorbike is King in India, although finding where you parked your bike could be a bit harder.
Next stop Ooty!