Hotel Palace Plaza Mysore

... a beggar walking crab-like on his hands and kneecaps scuttled out of the way of a passing auto rickshaw. I was surprised to see ricks in the rural areas but of course larger villages and towns cling to the highway, and there was trade and commerce of all kinds in the urban bush.

Whole buildings and even houses were painted in the garish colours and sales pitches of Vodafone or Airtel, and there were billboards for the latest Bollywood⎯or Tollywood, or Sandalwood⎯ ...

... good and it was cheap, he was right as he sat with me as i ate. He proceeded to show me a 'special' local market that no tourists get to see which seemed to be true...small, authentic market. Then i saw incense being made and another guy gave me his best sales pitch for all different oils (including an arm massage)..i didnt bite. I had enjoyed my local tour. Next i was at my 'tour' guy's 'body' shop with all his oils that we cheaper ...

... one for kids. he was getting tired and yet he drove down. the climate was becoming more cloudly and a drizll here and there... talakadu.. was full of thalai " heads" ;) . It was decided no time for temple there it was already 3pm when we reached there. amma was shouting @ me all through that road for pushing sriram to drive more [which I didnot ] . first thing to do was the coracle ride in cauvery. 10/- per head was just less than 5 mins.. Boppu who was ...

... there because it didnt work out cheap with three of us staying there. Besides we found a perfecty reasonable place to stay for a lot less. It had huge corridors and high ceilings and mysterious winding staircases that lead to nowhere and a large balcony for sitting and drinking beer in the evening. I don't know why I always describe the hotels in such detail, its not the most interesting thing but hey it will help me to remember. We took a ...

... village was cleaner and their health was better as a result of having the toilets.

As the meeting continued and villagers eagerly answered our questions, and one lady started crying. She said she was overwhelmed when remembering the people who had visited and worked in her village. She said she thought everyday how lucky she was to have the toilets and remembered the friendships she made. The whole village could not believe people from the other side of the world ...

... the steps, and will be wearing coordinated outfits. 8) It does not matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts - your enemies will wait patiently to attack you one by one by dancing around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out their predecessors. 9) If faced with certain death, do not panic. Merely chant and after a few short bolts of lightning, all will be well. 10) A heroine will have time to change outfits several times in one song, however short.

Woo hoo - I passed the exam for my Ayurveda course! Actually, would have been fairly hard to fail but still, I was presented with my certificate, complete with airbrushed photo! Yes, I had some passport snaps taken at a shop in Kannur and when I got them back I found that any blemishes (including an inconvenient mozzie bite in the centre of my forehead) and dark circles had been removed! Only downside is that with the combination of baby smooth skin and ...

... broad over time. In Mysore, there are 2 days that are lead, where everyone comes to do the practice together. And today was one of those days. Surprisingly, todays class was great. And it's getting hotter by the hour here in India so it was a sweaty one. It is always clear why we practice so early in a place like this. The afternoons could produce heat stroke. After an extra long rest I looked forward to hanging out with a fresh coconut - the standard post-yoga ...

... among it all before the day got going. After some breakfast Hamish showed up and we decided to go and visit Mysore Palace. We had to walk the whole way round the grounds to get to the entrance where we were met with every tout and piece of tat imaginable. After making our way through all that managing to hold on to our rupees we got to the palace entrance. We were supposed to deposit our camera as they weren't allowed in the palace but we ...

... Aside from that, Mysore was relatively uneventful but good fun to bimble round with plenty of handicraft shops and a few decent places for a beer. We mooched round the palace, which is very big and impressive. We did, however, take umbridge at the fact that the entrance fee was exorbitantly high for tourists (didn't bother us at the Taj Mahal, but it's our prerogative to be selective about when we take umbridge and at what) so didn't go in. We had a few ...