Mysore

We left Mallamapuram and took a Minibus to Chennai (Madras) and caught and overnight train from here to Mysore. Luckily this time we traveled AC3 and not General Class as I last did to Trivandrum. In Mysore we visited the beautiful Mysore Palace which unfortunately you are unable to take in your camera so much so you have to go through 2 x-ray bag checks to search for cameras. We had a guide here who was very good and explained many small details about the Palace and it's history. It had been built for a total cost of 50,000 Pounds and is now considered priceless. Many of the fixtures and fittings were produced in the UK , the steel columns in the central hall had been cast in Glasgow and the floor tiles had been manufactured in Ironbridge, There are amazing paintings on the walls of around the palace depicting the annual parade which takes place in the city which is lead by the Raj on an Elephant into the palace. Many of them contain clever little references to the designers and builders of the Palaces by including them in the crowd scenes.
After the palace visit we took a drive out to a former Minibus Driver for Intrepid who now cooks a traditional meal for the tours as due to health reasons he is unable drive. We had a amazing meal of Biriyani and an Aubergine Curry. The Biriyani had taken 4 hours to prepare and needs constant care and attention throughout to ensure it works out just right.
Following the meal we traveled out to anther Temple which is no longer in use but had some fantastic carvings. Unfortunately I think we were all getting a bit 'Temple'd out' and the Guide was fairly bossy, he would have done well working for Neil (my old boss at BT) he loved his Testing for Understanding questions after every carving! Slowly virtually everyone drifted away to just take pictures, plus the place was over run with school children (again) who we teased and got in trouble because they were making too much noise. Finally as we were waiting to leave a group of local kids came asking the usual, 'Hi what is your name?... One Pen?' So you tell them your name and that you don't have a pen but I gave once of them a 1pence coin which amused them for about 5 mins then he came and asked how much it was worth, I told him about 50 paise, (Rs. 0.5) and he promptly went and 'sold' it to an older teenager for Rs.1, they start young in India!
After the Temple we returned to Mysore and took a walk around the Market Area and took many Photos however it seemed a little lest 'local' than the market we visited in Pondicherry.
In the Morning we took our Minibus to the local highpoint which has a Hindu Temple however as it was Christmas Day?!? it was packed so we didn't join the queue to go into the temple on the way down the hill we stopped at the apparently largest 'carved rock' bull in the world, it was huge about 2.5 times as high as me and that was with the bull sat down. However the best thing was the sugar cane juice with lime and ginger we had there which went a long way to clearing my head from the previous Christmas Eve drink or 2 we had the night before.