For a change I woke up a little late, around 7:15 am. Dude was already up and so was Vj. Hotel rooms without open windows give me a groggy feeling when I wake up and I long for fresh air. So we decided to go down for a walk. It was already hot and I was reminded that we were back to the plateau and not in the mountains anymore. A short walk took us to a small, dingy tea shop, where I had 2 glasses of superb tea.
 |
| Route for the day |
Since Shimoga wasn't too far away, we had decided to take it easy today and leave Mysore by 12 pm. So we had a lengthy breakfast at the JP Mahal: The spread was lavish compared to the other places where we had stayed and the food was pretty good. I had idli, wada, watermelon juice and baked beans on toast. I under ate today to make up for the over eating the previous morning.
Back in the room we had time to kill, so Vj slept and I watched TV. Dude and Butts decided to check out the Mysore Palace and they got ready and left by 11 am. Before leaving for the palace, we zeroed in on Green View Boutique Resort in Shimoga, called them up and blocked 2 rooms. Dude befriended Madhu on the phone and struck a good bargain for us. 2.5k for each room with complimentary breakfast. The 45 min walk and talk theory was on display and I was worried that if he spoke to her for another 5 mins she would give the rooms for free.
 |
| Mysore Palace |
 |
| Inside the Palace |
 |
| A passage within the palace |
 |
| We own this place |
 |
| Within the palace walls. |
We finally checked out of JP palace at 12:15 pm. I wanted to do some shopping so we stopped by at Mysore Silk and handicrafts emporium after some terrible navigation by me where we went round and round the same streets twice. We bought few things from there while VJ shopped at an adjoining bakery. At 1:15 pm we starting hunting for a place for lunch. We stopped by a Kamat Restaurant (ground floor of Nalapad Residency) which was nearby. The food was bad, as bad as bad can be. :( . Dude rated the place -4 and when dude rates food in negative, it has to be really really bad. One thing to remember in Mysore is to carry cash in your pocket as the shops, restaurants and even petrol pumps don't accept cards.
It was 2:30 by the time we finally left from Mysore with Dude at the wheel. Shimoga was 4.5 hours away at 240 kms. Butts was playing the DJ and putting up a good show. Some great songs were being played and we were doing good on time. This is when i dozed off in the car. It is very rare for me to go to sleep inside a car which is in motion, but I guess I am getting older. I woke up to the sweet smell in the car and saw that Butts and Vj were gorging on a sweet that looked more like a pizza. It is called dil-pasand and is supposed to be delicious. The nap did more good than I had imagined and I was feeling fresh. En route around 4 pm, the weather changed for the good. The hot sun gave way to dark clouds. There was a lot of lightning without any rains for a while. After a while there was rumbling thunder and the rain gods smiled. We stopped the car and got outside to the lovely earthy smell of the wet soil. The wind was blowing, there was a slight drizzle and the green expansive plateau around us shimmered and soaked in the rain. I wished out aloud "it would be awesome if technology would be able to save and store smells so we could relive the complete experience over and over again whenever we looked back." Alas, we ll have to make do with only pictures and videos for now!!
I drove expertly for the next few miles and we stopped at a Coffee day and had cappuccinos. I don't know why I ordered a Hazelnut Carat cake, I didn't like it much. It was still drizzling on and off when we left. The next few hours were full of bickering and banter with Butts at his glorious best. He was going one up on every statement and if we were girls we would have offered him our bodies and soul. :) We finally reached Shimoga at 7 pm thanks to some great driving by Dude.
 |
| Hotel Green view Boutique, Shimoga |
At the hotel we were greeted by the receptionist Shoaib and a strange smell with lots of smoke. Turned out that the hotel had just been fumigated to drive away the mosquitoes. It took a while to check in and by that time each own of us had breathed in tons of that smoke which kind of screwed us up. Once our luggage was taken up, dude and me stepped down to park our car. There was a group of well dressed local girls who were visiting the Rice Bowl restaurant housed within the Green View Boutique hotel. They checked us out and giggled while we threw attitude! :D
 |
| Room at the hotel |
 |
| Room at the Hotel |
 |
| Room at the Hotel |
The hotel was pretty good for the price being charged. The rooms were neat and you know that its a good place you are getting a minibar for 2.5k. Back in the room we ordered some stuff to eat while the receptionist Shoaib arranged for beer. Pizza, Aloo paratha, french fries, paneer tikka, gobi gulistan arrived and was gobbled up pretty fast. The beer took longer than expected to arrive and by the time it arrived, we were so full that we knew that we were going to drink just for the sake of it without enjoying it. Key takeaways from the trip were discussed and Togetherness was what everyone was looking forward to, apart from having fun. Butts was on a high and it was good to see him free up and state his mind openly. Vj was calculated and measured as usual. Dude looked like he had a lot to say, but didn't want to, as he felt it would not go down too well. I was ok too.. usually I am the one who manages to screw up in such situations, but luckily it didn't happen this time. Guess what Reverse Osmosis actually removes the good minerals from the water, but many people including few Kent experts are unaware of this.
After a lot of talk and a one sided football match (between MU and Spurs) later, we all retired to bed.
Tomorrow is the last day of this trip and we ll be on the road for more than 9 hours and our avenues of having fun are very limited. I want this trip to end on a high. We need a miracle tomorrow and I am sure someone somewhere is listening.
Quotes:
1. Don't use your skill to kill
2. C for Chetan,, C for Chamataka
3. Wish we could capture this smell and take it away with us.
