Mysore. Saturday

Over slept this morning. Even the morning chorus of Indian men loudly clearing their voices and spitting didn't wake me. Went for breakfast at the same restaurant as yesterday and had a wonderful masala dosa. Got the 11am train out of Bangalore it was A/C and direct and took only 2 hours but involved me having to consume a 3 course meal. The trolley boys just kept handing out the food.. No wonder some Indians are so fat. Most food in the SOuth Of India is vegetarian because it is the Hindu heartland and pure Hindus don't eat meat or drink alcohol and they seem to manage it without the back street shinnanigans of Arab countries. (I spose coz it isn't an enforced law and they could eat and drink the stuff if they so wished) It suits me coz when you see the hygine here it realy puts you off eating any kind of flesh but once I'm in Kerala I'll go for the fish.

Right my hotel here is pretty central and is a popular haunt of Tibetian monks. I've seen loads of monks in their red gowns today and MY GOD they are gorgeous. Tall, healthy, shaved heads, perfect teeth and wonderful cheekbones. I wanna touch them all but know this will result in hours of ritulistic cleaning coz of the pollution of being touched by a woman. I wanna take some photos but know thats pretty much out of bounds too. Oh well!

My room is well cruddy but the bed and floor are clean. (Bed, I have 3 beds.) Infact the room is a cavern and looks fine from the bottom half down. the top half is a crumbling, rotting mess. I just hope the fan doesn't fall on me and chop me into a thousand pieces. here are pictures of my ensuite room! Again ,sorry I can't move the picture into position. I would post the pictureof my bathroom but it would probably make the more faint hearted of my friends worry about my health and sanity!!! Bought silk today to make into a skirt and lots of other stuff. it really is a shopper's paradise here. How the hell am I gonna carry it all!

I've booked myself on an all day sight seeing tour tomorrow. So i'll get to see everything and have a guide tell me stuff. the palace will be lit up with 5000 lights at 7pm til 8pm tomorrow because it's sunday. I hope I get to see it.

left my hotel and nipped next door to a sandelwood shop and ended up buying loads of crap and chatting to them with tea and cakes. A Canadian girl was there. She's been in Mysore for 3 months doing Yoga training with a high up guru in an Ashram here. We went wandering off together around the city and ended up having dinner together. It's good to have a chat after spending so much time alone. I'm really not meeting that many tourists.