Singapore to Mysore
We arrived in Bangalore the next day and spent two nights to adjust to the new culture. The helpful people at the desk of our hotel arranged for a car and driver to get us and our pile of luggage to Mysore. The driver showed up Monday afternoon late, but this you learn to take in stride. It was an interesting, but uneventful, trip for which we are thankful.
Traffic in India is chaotic at best with the rules of the road regarded as mere suggestions to be followed only if convenient. It could be considered fortunate that the road surfaces are not the best, so traffic is unable to travel at excessive speeds. That enables everyone to avoid each other – most of the time. (Night time travel is another story, as we learned on an earlier trip. I do not recommend taking a bus or car at night as that is when the big trucks hit the road, and those drivers are often sleep deprived. We have seen the aftermath of some pretty horrendous looking accidents.) The 120 km trip to about 3 hours.
Street in Mysore - Bangalore is worse!
Sandra: We spent 2 nights in Bangalore before taking a car to Mysore, and all I can say is, Bangalore is best avoided, unless one wants to do some power shopping there. It used to be a beautiful city, but it’s gone the way of all Indian cities, and is now incredibly polluted and crowded. Traffic is a nightmare, and there’s just nothing to recommend it anymore.
We did, however, manage to take advantage of a big Diwali sale in an appliance store, and Bill bought a cheap little vegetable juicer. It included a free set of 6 little custard dishes, and a certificate to stay for 3 days and 2 nights at one of several Indian resorts or game parks. It’s good for a year, so we hope to take advantage of it.
Mysore is better but, unfortunately, it, too, has changed a lot from what it was when we were first here 14 years ago with our son Billy. Again, growth is taking place rapidly, and the traffic and pollution are quite a bit worse. Right downtown, there’s lots of construction, and the streets are no longer the tree-lined boulevards they used to be, with the odor of sandalwood wafting out of the wood-working shops. Certain places even have open sewers, which are nauseating to walk over on precarious broken sidewalks.
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