Now in Mysore after one brief night in Bangalore

The flight was great, though I was only in Bangalore (in the state of Karnataka) long enough to sleep, eat breakfast and wander the veg/fruit/flower market. The cones of coloured powder are kumkum, used for bindi dots on the foreheads of married women, as well as for religious rituals.

Kumkum, used for bindi dots

Update: By the way, Bangalore looked like a western city at night from the airplane, with real suburbs and such. It was also quite clean, at least until I got near the market… The air was noticeably cooler in the evening than anywhere else in my trip thus far, quite refreshing. And in Bangalore, by law, the auto-rickshaws have to use the meters (which are never used anywhere else), which are Rs12/$0.30 for first km plus Rs6/$0.15 per km after that.

Then I took a 2 hour express train at 11:00 to Mysore, which is southwest of Bangalore. I’ll be here 2 nights, then on Tue I will take a mid-day train to Bangalore, spend 9 hours looking around, then take a night train north to Hospet, the gateway train station for (fabulous) Hampi (where I’ll spend 3 nights before going to the beaches in Goa).
In a fit of planning activity, I have my next 3 trains booked!

There is a big Maharaja’s Palace here, which is lit up with 96K light bulbs on Sunday nights for one hour – and as it turns out, today is Sunday! They also light it up for the Dussehra festival in Sep/Oct.
I saw this girl at the train station in Mysore right after I booked a future train – she reminded me of that famous photo of the Afghani girl with the blue eyes (which I recently saw on a book cover in a shop).

Maharaja's Palace in Mysore, lit up on Sunday night
Indian girl with blue eyes

Update:  I bought some fruit today in Mysore, since I have been a little negligent in that department. Some at the market, some on the street. Four plum tomatoes for Re1/$0.03 (Rs5/$0.13 per kg, I think he rounded up my 4 tomatoes without weighing them), a red papaya for Rs10/$0.25, 15 finger bananas for Rs10/$0.25 (they range from Rs16-20/$0.40-0.50 per kg), and some “peas” (single pea-like pods on little leafy stalks). I didn’t buy any (to avoid over-buying at once), but pomegranates were also Rs18/$0.45 per kg.

I was hoping to get the backwaters written up tonight, but I’m just too tired. And I’m not sure if I’ll be up for it after a 12 hour organized tour of Mysore and surroundings tomorrow!

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