Day 73 - Mysore

Alas, I'm already missing the german bakery in Varkala, mainly because there are no cafes or restaurants here that you can sit in peace and read your book or relax and chat. Efficiency here is the waiters watching us eat our food, whipping the plates away and slapping the bill on the table the minute the last morset is put in our mouths. Ah well, we aren't here for long. There are also limited options for breakfast and light snacks - there's dosas (pancake things made of lentil flour that come with coconut goo), and that is pretty much it. Still, it may be boring but at least it's cheap!

Today we've looked round the palace (very bling - carved wood furniture and ceilings compete with brightly coloured walls, stained glass and elaborate crytal chandeliers for 'most eyecatching' award), visited the market (the scent of spices and oils, jasmine flowers and ripe fruits - great photo op). We've also found a yoga place where we can attend the drop in lessons in the afternoon - all good fun. Have now been typing away in the internet cafe for an hour, arranging flights for when I get to australia and suchlike, so I'm getting hungry. Guess its's time for... Thali or Dosas with a nice cup of bournevita, yuuummy.

Day 72 - Mysore

Mysore - home, among other things, of sandlewood essence and Ashtanga yoga's guru, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois (guruji). We are staying at the Hotel Maurya, and the helpful staff have already told us the buses we need to catch in order to reach various places and warned us not to buy anything from the street children (verry bad boys, bad sandlewood). So far we have staggered downstairs with armfulls of laundry and dumped them in reception (haha - they can wash my mildewy clothes), eaten cheap, delicious thali until we felt full to bursting (with fingers of course), and trailed around the streets looking for the entrance to the palace (yelling at any poor streetkid/tout/guide that homed in on us).

We have many things we plan to visit here; the glitzy and grand Maharaja's palace, the big fruit & veg market and Chamundi hill (with it's 1000+ steps up to the temple on top - will I climb them? Nooo, I think not). We are also planning to visit the government-run sandlewood factory and also maybe go to the Ashtanga Research Institute and take a peep at the freaksome uber-ashtangis doing their thing (maybe Madonna will be there - she is another of Guruji's fans.) So, will probably stay for a few days before hot-footing it up to Hampi for shopping and sightseeing. Yay - we're somewhere new, fuuuun!

Below left: Mysore streets Below Centre: The Palace Right: Old man Guruji does his thing

Day 71 - Bangalore

We are now in the silicon valley of India, the outsourcing central of the east that is Bangalore. Very urban Indians wander round talking about capital and investments on their posh mobile phones and young women strut by in tight jeans. In MG road, where our hotel is located, Levis and Adidas shops vie for attention between Pizza huts, McDonalds and KFCs. There are a few cinemas that show western movies alongside bollywood classics, and many packed internet cafes and coffee shops. Yet another place that is like India in some ways, but so unlike it in others.

This morning we arrived after a 17hr train journey in Bangalore station and caught a (very expensive) taxi to our hotel. Thankfully the guy on reception had understood me on the phone, and our room was available. We have a TV (that has many channels showing many awful programs) and a balcony that has an attractive view of some grubby back-allys. After unpacking and changing, we left the hotel and went for a wonder around the MG road area. After much laughter at aformentioned shops and fast food places we eventually sloped into a great little bookshop (called The Bookworm - just in case you ever happen to be in Bangalore). I left with Q&A (Vikas Swarup) and Becca with A Million Little Pieces (James Frey). I am happy to have found these books - a little tired of the Paulo Ceulo books that constitute the main collection of little bookshops here. Whilst in the ashram I quizzed the guys on the best books they had read recently, and have been keeping an eye out for these books ever since. For my fellow bookworms (also for my own benefit, as I am bound to loose the list at some point)...

Random Recommended Books

• A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (the guy who wrote Cider House Rules) - This is the book I've just finished reading - it was great, very funny, I highly recommend it.
• Q&A by Vikas Swarup
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
• A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
• The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (actually, I've read this too - v. good)
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Love in the Time of Cholera also by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Day 69 - Varkala

Last day in Varkala - no rain, yaaay! We have, yet again, spent a significant portion of the day pigging our faces in the german bakery (byebye 4" weight loss). Apple crumble wins hands down...

Richard: This is delicious, this is the best crumble I've ever tasted, no really, its amazing, heyhey did you make this? What is the recipe? Wow, this is great.
Me: darn, now I want some.
Becca: (immediately) excuse me, a piece of your fine apple pie thankyou... 2 spoons...

and so on...

Apparently it's ok to stuff ourselves silly, it's Halloween!

Have booked accommodation in Bangalore (or I think 've booked it- I'm pretty sure the guy on the phone understood me, but hey, in India you never can tell). We have also contacted the friendofafriendwhoisahipproducer. Unfortunately she is on a shoot in Mumbai, but she has given us the mobile numbers of her boyfriend and another mate. So now we could be going for a meal with a boyfriendofafriendofafriend and a whole bunch of people I have an even more tenuous link to - could be funny.

Day 68 - Varkala

Great day of sunshine, sea and sand. Today was the first day since being here that it hasn't rained 90% of the time so B and me hit the beach. Bumped into Richard on the way there, he had just left the ashram the previous day and was looking a bit shell shocked so we dragged him long with us to the beach. I hired a body board and we took it in turns to have the s@$t kicked out of us by the sea (have got a really burned face after too much squinting into the horizon, and so much sea went up my nose it felt as though I had had a marathon neti session).

Yesterday we pulled ourselves together and sorted out our travel plans. On wednesday we are catching a train from Trivandrum to Bangalore - funky modern city extrodinaire. B has a friend of a friend there who is a hip producer or something, so we may meet up with them and go for a meal. The next day we will catch a bus to Mysore, another yoga heaven and apparently a generally nice place. After a few days there we go up to Hampi, a beautiful ruinous city where we can do a bit of sightseeing and stuff. After that we split, B goes west to Goa, and flies out from Mumbai on the 18th or something, and I go further east. I plan to go to pondicherry, a French town south of Chennai, to sample the bakeries and visit the Auroville ashram with its huuuge crystal. I fly out of India from Chennai on the 20th - destination Singapore.