Our Mysore Home
The First Mysore Apartment
After settling our stuff into a hotel in Mysore, and having a good night’s sleep, we set off the next day to find the place to rent we had found on the internet. We had the address of the owner’s parents, but it took the auto rickshaw driver some time to find it. The woman was a very outgoing, engaging ball of energy, and immediately conducted us upstairs to the apartment that was for rent.
It turned out to be much less than expected. There was no hot water heater, no appliances, and no screens on the windows. The floors were bare concrete. It was, on the whole, rather uninviting. But, it was cheap!
However, to make a long story short (more on that in Life in India), after spending one night there we decided that it would not work out. I was there to heal, not spend weeks of intense effort getting the place habitable.
We trundled back to the hotel, with the mattress and all of our luggage, very discouraged.
Having no better ideas, we went to a travel agent and asked if he knew of any apartments for rent. No, but he had a friend who did, and he arranged for him to meet us there the next morning.
Our Mysore Home
After most of the morning being shown various places, some very nice, , we stopped at a 5-floor apartment building a on a knoll overlooking Mysore. The landlady, Mala, was nice and, after some discussion, decided to show us the apartment owned by here niece, who was currently living in Bangalore.
It had two bedrooms, an office, large living and dining area, balconies off the living room, master bedroom and kitchen, nice bathroom and kitchen. And, best of all, it was completely furnished with screens on the windows.
The price was right, too, only $200 per month.
It was then we learned that the agent’s fee was a full month’s rent! That was bad enough, but we had to pay for using the taxi for a full day, even though it was more like half a day. What could we do? We paid. Still, we had a nice place to move into.
Another big surprise was waiting for us. In India, they don’t expect one or two month’s rent as the deposit. They expect ten months! What a shock! We did manage to negotiate that down to six months, and asked Mala to give us a couple of days to arrange it.
We had to go into town to a money changer and pay $30 to take that kind of money as a cash advance on our credit card. A few days before doing that, we stopped at an internet café to transfer the money we would need from our bank account to the credit card so we would not be charged any interest.
Mala became a great friend and we very much enjoyed the apartment. Especially as it had wonderful views and there was usually a good breeze blowing through it keeping it cool.
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