Chalmundi hill, Mysore

One of the eight most sacred hills in southern India.

I think that this just about manages to capture something of the old and new Indias.

And so the last night in Mysore, tomorrow the overnight bus down to Cochin:-) gods own country as my flatmate Dennis never used to tire of telling me, and I would tend to agree...

In many ways Mysore was the ideal reintroduction to urban India. Chaotic but small enough to get around, mostly, on foot. Although the local rickshaw drivers find this hard to believe...interferes with their economy which appears to be silk/incence/essential oils and marijuana oil...not in that order I would say...

The people are delightfully friendly, the palace the height of kitsch and the view from chalmundi hill one of smog and dust...but, for me, I saw nothing to make me want to hang around. The market and its surroundings are a wonderful place to hand around for a while after dark and the roundabouts are jut about as much entertainment as you could wish for. Drive on the left...but only if you really want to:-)

And now, as the WiFi here is only in reception, open to the missile swarms time to retire and figure out some plan regarding my rucksack for tomorrow. Again I've no idea when the next WiFi will appear and tonight has been an hour getting uploaded...OK twice but something about the orange seller seemed wrong....

And I managed, in Hampi, eventually to put some photo's of Hampi up on flickr...I'm not even going to think about working out how to make a hyplink here but there's a link on my profile page....if nothing else they may add some context to the madness of hampi:-)

And so....