The Mysore Area
**SOUND**
Downloading these should make good use of your modem while you're reading this page. They're MP3 format baby, love it or leave it.
I recorded a Muslim guy praying at about 5 in the morning. I stuck my recorder out the window of my room at Hotel Govardhan and snagged some of his amplified magic. This thing happens everywhere: on trains, in the street, out in the quiet suburbs, everywhere. There is a short version, with one brain-splitting burst and a longer one that goes on for about 2 1/2 minutes.
Here's morning_muslim.1.mp3 (73kb) and morning_muslim.8.mp3 (647kb)
I punched record and walked out onto Sayajirao road, the main street in Mysore. As I walked up to a boy and some men selling fruit in a rather vocal fashion, they got quiet and looked curiously at me. I said "Give a yell!" and they delivered. Then I walked home. Does it sound busy and hectic? It's 9:30 at night in a town who's banks have no computers and with no buildings over 3 stories.
Here's mysore_street_vendors.mp3 (416kb)
Well, I'm here at Kabini Lodges. On the front porch of cabin #2. I'm letting my Vans dry in the sun. They have been wet for about 4 days. Chik-Naika, the cabin boy, who is certainly not a boy at age 35, just told me that when I go to lunch at 2, I should put my shoes inside 'cause a monkey would steal them. Good advice.
Looks like I'm the first one here. The other guests will be arriving soon, about 20 of them. Oh -- here come some now. It's kind of like Fantasy Island here. I haven't met the "Mr. Rork" of Kabini yet. He's supposed to give me the low-down. This is kind of nuts. I just spent 2 hours on the road from Mysore, running goats and cows and people off the road. Looking at the gorgeous countryside of rice, banana, cotton, and sugarcane flow by. Village after village. Driving by the people is so exciting -- they all stare at me like they've never seen a tourist. I think they're so beautiful. I feel like I'm a fan outside the Academy Awards, watching the stars parade by but I guess it could go both ways.
I'm here to go on some jungle safari's. I think this is the last of the super-luxo action I'll be getting. It's a little tiresome to be treated like a god constantly. This was the first time I've ever walked out of a train station and seen *my* name on one of those little white signs the drivers are holding. Freakish.
Spent the night in Mysore at the Hotel Hoysala for about $6, nice, built in the 1700's. Mysore is a really nice little city. About 600K people. It used to be the state capital and there are a lot of palaces and big colonial mansions. I walked around a lot and was amazed at the number of shops selling sandalwood carvings, incense, jewelry and silk. I'm planning on buying a bunch of stuff here when I'm on my way back.
I found the only Cyber Cafe in Mysore and went there last night. The "Pepsi Cyber Club", as the owner explained, got the name, a free sign, and refrigerator from PepsiCo (part of a nation-wide cola branding carpet bombing campaign). Their net connection (1 modem) was going up and down so I just sat and chatted with the 4 guys that were hanging out on the roof. They were all friends. There were no customers. I walked up and one of them said, "I saw you today in Bangalore." I said, "Yeah, I was there." He says, "At the Cyber Cafe and then downstairs at the restaurant.", I say "Yeah." and he says, "You had Masala Dosa" and I said "Very good!". He had excellent English and I spoke with them for a couple of hours about the IT environment in India. They gave me all kinds of good info and then I told them about GNAC, where I work and bragged how CHALK, a non-profit where I volunteer, has a T1 line for about 10 people. I was surprised to find that there's no Internet backbone in India. Just a bunch of 64KB leased lines. Because one guy was a market research consultant and another was a stock broker, I got an interesting perspective on business prospects in India.
I'm hungry now. The lake here smells like fish. My hands smell like I've just been cleaning fish and I only put them in the lake. I'm starting to think that pictures are the only way I can adequately capture this place. Maybe that's why I'm just stickin to the facts.
After lunch I grabbed an umbrella and started out of the camp. The rolling hills surrounding Kabini have various crops, mostly cotton and farmer's huts. The umbrella is actually carried by the locals here too. Sudden rainstorms are quite severe as I experienced. It also makes a good weapon against monkeys. I walked and walked, expecting to be noticed and assailed by the children playing in the road. Sure enough, as I approached they all got very excited and then stood still and dead silent when I walked up. It's a little frightening for me. They all looked astonished and admiring. I just smiled and said hello. None spoke any English so there wasn't much to do but keep walking. I started off and they all joined up behind me. More joined as I passed more houses and they chattered in Kannada and laughed. Soon I had a little army of about 20 behind me. Occasionally I'd turn around and give a funny look.
One little girl, the oldest, probably about 10, with a green water jug, stayed when the others left. I took a picture of her and her friends and then she went into her house. I headed back alone. I looked back after a while and saw her running down the road waving at me. I waited for her and she caught up and we walked the mile or so back to the water pump, not saying anything, where she got another load and we parted. I love her.
I realized I was late for the evening safari and started hurrying back. And it was a good thing 'cause the last jeep was leaving camp and they barely spotted me way down the road. A few seconds later and I would have missed the trip. I'm only staying for the evening safari and the morning elephant ride / boat ride so it's a really good thing. I stood in the back of the jeep as we 4 wheeled through teak forests. Saw some deer (no biggie for me) some bison, (huge, 6 feet tall, and 2 tons) wild boar, some birds and elephants. No tigers or leopards.
Went back, had a hot shower, sat down for dinner around the fire with the other guests. A group of Americans had just arrived. They were so cute -- all old nature lovers. One old guy was wearing a tie! His wife's gray hair was in a bun on the top of her head and she had on a khaki skirt, denim shirt and a bandanna tied around her neck. They were obviously on a package tour put together by their nature group, probably the Audubon Society or Smithsonian. Hilarious after spending the day with the Indian jungle villagers.
I love watching 70's Bollywood Kung-Fu action flicks with the guys in the lobby (it's what's on when they're not watching cricket). I'm at the Hotel Govardhan in Mysore, recommended by my taxi driver. Today was a great travel day. I spent the day at the silk emporium, mailed my stuff (more on that later) and did e-mail, got microcassettes, got a good thali, got a reservation rejected at the bus station and had a beer and some snacks. I'm going to have to remember that word "snacks" It's the only way you can get certain foods here. I had veg. pakoda tonight and it was awesome.
So much happened, I can't remember. I went to the Maharaja's Palace and walked around. People were more interested in me than the incredible interior and I have to say I felt the same about them. You're lead through the palace on a definite route and I walked and talked with 5 college-age girls from Kerala. My favorite was when they asked me if I was married. They all giggled at the answer. I walked past about 5 field trips worth of Indian schoolgirls. It was amazing. Every one of them stopped talking and looked at me. I said "Hi" to about 1/2 of them. Groups of young men also walked up to me and wanted to shake my hand. A guy grabbed my hand on the street tonight, like the bums do in SF, but he just wanted to touch me and say "where from?" or whatever. One can't help feeling a little like a homecoming queen on a float. And even acting like it. I'm just waving to people sometimes whether they wave first or not. I've been doing it so much I think that I can tell when the people want to meet me but are just to shy. Jesus. THIS IS CRAZY.
My mosquito coil stinks. Smells like camping as a kid. The silk experience (I'm now experienced) was epic. I got there and spec'd a shirt out of gaudy green silk and then started the process of choosing tons of sheets / shawls and the usual load of Mysore products: soap, oil, incense, yadda yadda. I was "buying up the place", as they say. When it came time to ship my Rs.6000 worth of goods, they made a box by stacking two small ones together, tied it with twine and at this point I was like, "Ok, just give it to me, I'll do it at the GPO. Haven't you guys ever heard of packing tape?" But they wouldn't hear it.
SILK EMPORIUM
At Hotel Siddartha
78/1 Guest Houre Road
Nazarbad, Mysore 570 010
Then he set the box on the counter and yelled some Kannada at one of the 6 woman clerks. She whipped out a bunch of linen and started measuring my box. I realized that they were going to sew a cover. Another 1/2 hour of hand stitching and I was done. But wait, it's going sea-mail. Got to seal it. Out comes the red sealing wax and stamp and they seal every seam, another 15 minutes. Red splotched all over my white cotton box. Took some snaps of that for sure!
So off to the General Post Office, must've spent 5 hours in that shop. I get to the GPO and they say it's RS.1150 sea-mail. (only1 1/2 months!) or Rs.2500 air mail. I go for the sea and ship it to myself. She hands me the postage: 2 scraps of paper with postage meetered on them. Um, what's this? You've got to be kidding. How do I stick this on? (Clear tape does not exist yet. Not invented in the alternate universe that India has taken to the present.) She points outside to 2 tables, on which rest 2 plastic bowls, holding, glue. Glue that looks like they passed the donation plate and everybody dug deep and donated boogers. There's black hard things in it. This is going to stick my $20 worth of paper to cloth? And go around the world? I'd heard that glue here can't even stick a stamp to a letter. That's why I brought a glue stick -- which was back at my hotel, too far away to make the 6pm post time. I had to dip my finger in and go for it. So what if I'm sending over $150 worth of hand picked silks, woolens and cottons down the river with only this goo holding the boat together.
I decide to paper-machie the stuff on. I had to put the customs form on that way and left a square foot of the package completely wet with goop. I called Zareen to ask if this was insane, she said, well, what do you think? I had no choice. I pictured the thing still wet, thrown onto a dirty floor, scraping and scarring the customs form completely and basically sending my package (a lot of stuff. value: over a month's postal worker salary) into a shipping black hole.
And so it goes.
- Intro
- The First Couple Days of Travel
- Planerides, a Night In Bombay
- A Day In Bangalore
- Two Days of Aristocratic Bliss
- Tales of The Road
- Dave Goes Out. Dave Stays In
- The Mysore Area
- Monkmail
- The Trainride
- Kerala and Back to Bangalore
- To Thailand, Almost, Finally
- I Knew I'd Like Thailand
- Turkey? Yeah....Some Day
- My Friend Noah
- The Travel Tables Are Turned
- About This Site