City of Hawkers

Well.......Mysore before the mugging was quite something! I was very excited to be there as I read a book in NZ called "climbing Chimandi hill" and I was all set to do just that! Chimandi hill is famous pilgrimage route in india and the book was wonderful!

Arriving in mysore I was acousted by a million rickshaw drivers/beggers/hawkers /con artists! I managed to avoid all and make it safely to my haven of a hotel in the middle of the city! Then I set about exploring! There is no point in even trying to explore anywhere with a pack on your back in India....it is a nightmare! I have also learnt to keep my lonely planet well out of view....."the book" has its downfalls!

The following day I set off on my little pilgrimage only to be told that climbing the bottom of the hill was dangerous for women on their own and i was best to get a rickshaw up there! Damn those god damned indian muggers! Being the cautious girl that I am I believed the warnings and managed to somehow end up trailing a crazy lunatic drug dealer/making sex man through the backstreets on the promise of a spice market! An hour and a chai later I was seated in his "factory" being asked why I would not "make sex" with him, he informed me that I was lucky he didn't believe in rape, and asked why I not like skinny guys! I tried to explain that not all western girls "made sex" with every man they laid their eyes on, but got nowhere and decided to hightail it out of there to the train station and try to book my flight to safety the next day!

No trains!

However I found fantastic rickshaw driver at the palace gates who was deaf and decided he would adopt me since I was very good at communicating with him.....he took me to a silk factory and I purchased and was measured up for some clothing........this was fitted by tailor the next day, who happened to be two hours late, tried to insist that he was happy staying in my room while I changed in front of him, and was then dissapointed in my 50 rupee tip!

As luck would have it it was Sunday, and the palace lights light up in Mysore every Sunday! This was FANTASTIC.....kind of like disneyland! The palace was beautiful and they have a pipe band playing out the front with guards on horses and indian fair treats!

The following day my lovely deaf rickshaw driver arrived to ferry me to the 1/2 way point of chimandi so that I could walk the last 1/2 to the top (india is all about changing plans and compromise) and I was escorted to the top by a bunch of loud/enthusiastic schoolboys who decided to try to tell me the history in broken english............all I managed to get from them was that there was possibly more than one temple at the top.........this was obvious once there, but nothing like 20 smelly sweaty school boys to compliment a scenic stroll!