Kochin & Mysore

We stopped in Kochin for a night on the way to Mysore, unfortunately i had a raging sore throat so had to give the sightseeing a miss...but i nipped it in the bud as you say! That evening i went to see some traditional south indian dancing. It was in a tiny room, thick with the smell of inscence and two guys sitting on the stage doing their stage make-up. An old man with a very soothing voice narrated the process they were going through with the make up and the significance of it, for example exaddurating the eyes as the Gods eyes are exadurrated. The show itself was a mixture of very strange to hyptnotising! One very skinny, sinuey guy danced using exadurrated facial expressins to convey...angry...or catching a fish! The other guy dressed up as a massive woman and ran about the stage using crazy eye and hand movements and screaming!

Kochin


The next day we headed to Mysore. I instantly liked the place. It was the usual indian craziness but the city felt spacious. We were bombarded by guys selling screechy whistles and coconuts that sound like bagpipes when you blow throw it. So we went to get some food and i ordered a drink from the menu to try something new..called Jaljeera or something similiar....Well....this has to be my worst experience in India...it looked like sewage water, smelt worse than sewage and tasted even worst than it smelt! I could not get rid of this taste yuck i can still taste it! I asked the waiter is he sure it isnt sewage, he said no he drinks it all the time, i said ok so drink this one! and he politely declined!!


Anyway next onto Mysore Palace! I decided to go for the audio tour, we had to drop in our shoes and cameras so unfortunately i have no pictures of inside but WOW i was totally blown away, imagine people actually living in this place!! Not long into listing to my audio guide description of the cielings when i felt a tap on my leg. It was a group of about 40 school kids who wanted a photo with me and all of them wanted to shake my hand and tell me their name....i also was told i have funny cheeks! That was the end of the audio guide! My friends were waiting outside for me wondering where is Emma and then i came pouring out the door with all these school kids!

here is a smaller selection of children...the little boys getting over excited and squeezing my arm






the scottish lion


This didnt happen just the once, it kept happening! So many kids just mad to get in a photo with you and shake your hand, elderly couples asking can you be in their photo!! random!!! We called this mysore maddness! It was quite sweet and they werent looking for money, friendly place, we felt a bit like celebrities!

this is eh...well its a big holy cow of course!

So....the cows are everywhere but in Mysore there are neon cows! We had arrived just after a festival and so the cows (and the odd unfortunate dog!) had been covered in a mixture of tumeric and milk and they were practically glowing!

I decided to have a look around the main market area. I picked up a strange fruit which is very mushy inside, it has big seeds and the mush around the seeds tastes exactly like custard! I was told its called the custard apple fruit...yummy... The market was divided up into the meat area...dont go there! The vegetables...wish i had cooking facilities and then all the rest. So many colours and smells, excellent to have a look around but i just wasnt in a shopping mood since ive been travelling i cant help feeling.....well i dont really need anything! or more...i dont need to carry anything more!

That night one of the guys found a gorgeous restaurant in the middle of a garden surrounded with palm trees and christmas lights! One of the guys earlier bought 7 screechy flutes and a coconut bagpipe (why ask why!?) so after many cocktails we had quite a funny journey home, about 5 of us in each rick-shaw, with instruments, playing and singing away to the top of our voices! Back at our hotel we had another 'jamming' session, this time joined by a french man and some little bongos. Oh we thought we were the bees knees, listening back to a video recorded that night it was more like Satens revenge!

The next day myself and one of the guys rented an auto and headed up to visit the temples. On arrival we were givin a blessing..which was the red dot on the forehead, a red string necklace with a gold barrel on the end and a 20 rupie tip for the man! The 1st temple you arrive at depending on how much you pay you can be fast-tracked to the front of the line. We werent that interested in splashing out on that so we just went for a walk instead. More neon cows, and a tiny skin&bone puppy just hanging on to life....i wish i could have taken him.



We found a small temple and there was some kind of procession going on inside where the holy man was giving people some water into their hand and they drunk it. We were trapped in the temple for a while by a cow just 'chillin' in the doorway! It really touched me, this little temple, just to see the devotion indians from all walks of life have for their gods. Even a tiny girl who could hardly walk touched her mouth then the step as if to put a kiss there when entering.

We came accross an enormous statue of a cow with more mysore maddness going on...being asked to be in photos with kids and couples! We also found a little cave temple with a friendly looking old man sitting inside, inscence burning and pictures of the gods around, he gave us a handfull of sugar. Too hungry to do anything more we asked an auto driver to take us to somewhere nice to eat! He brought us to an indian restaurant and i had the most delicous thali ive had so far here! all for about E2!


This night we would be catching an overnight train to Hampi and i was looking forward to some sleep! I would love to have had more time in Mysore..who knows maybe in the future!