Finally in Mysore

I spent all of yesterday trying to get to Mysore. It took almost as long to get Mysore from Delhi as it does to get from the US to India.I was up at 5:30 to catch my flight from Delhi to Bangalore.  I made it to the Delhi airport in plenty of time for my flight, but because of fog/smog in Bangalore, everything was delayed. I made the wise to decision to purchase a day pass to the Air India lounge and I hung out there for a few hours. I highly recommend it if you every find yourself in a similar situation. There was a great wi-fi connection and lots of food and beverages. It only cost 500 rupees for the day pass! Which is the equivalent of about 8 dollars. Finally, after a 4-hour delay, my flight departed. Once I got to Bangalore, I took the FlyBus to Mysore. The FlyBus takes about 4 hours and only costs 800 rupees.  The bus was full, and I was glad that I reserved in advance. (I had to cancel my original reservation and lost about 50 percent of my original ticket.) Mysore is not very far from Bangalore in terms of actual miles (about 95 miles), and I was always surprised to hear that the trip took 4 hours. After yesterday’s trip, I finally understand—we were on narrow roads with tons of traffic (and cows), lots of merges, rumble strips and obstacles.  There is no such thing as a direct highway with wide, open lanes.  The trip (despite the usual road terror and the subsequent relief of not dying in a fiery bus crash) was uneventful. As the sun was setting, I did see a large cloud of bats flying over the countryside.  There were hundreds, if not thousands of bats. These are not the small bats we have in the United States, they are gigantic flying foxes.  Personally, I find bats to be adorable, so for me, the scene was absolutely beautiful. There is apparently a large bat reserve somewhere in Karnataka, but I think it is fairly far from Mysore, and from what I can tell, it is not set up for visitors.  During the bus ride, we also made a stop at a rest area/chat house of some kind. Please forgive me for the following description, but it left an impression on me that will unfortunately endure for some time.  When I made a visit au petit coin, I was struck by the most horrifying odor that my olfactory senses have ever had the misfortune of experiencing. This place made the most disgusting gas station bathroom you have ever seen seem like a place where you would want to curl up and take nap. I will need to rinse my nasal passages with Chanel N° 5 for the next 20 years to undo that heinous smell.  Also along the way, I was surprised to see several churches and even houses with Nativity scenes. India has a substantial Christian population (like 27 million people), especially in southern India.  There seems to be an emerging awareness of Christmas in India--especially the secular, consumerist side of Christmas.  There was a huge Santa statue in the Delhi airport and families were crowding it to get pictures.  In any event, we finally made it to Mysore. I took a rickshaw from the bus station to my temporary lodging. It was 9 pm, so the city was dark and it did not make much of an impression.

Marie, the proprietor of the guesthouse greeted me (en français!) and led me to my room, which is called Sparkling Water. I was amused by the name of my room since I go through several cases of sparking water each week. 

A sparkling room to complement my sparkling personality!

Marie is an absolutely wonderful woman—so welcoming and kind, and the Anokhi Garden guesthouse is absolutely charming. Tomorrow will be a busy day—I need to register at the shala and also try to get a SIM card for my phone.  I was informed that the registration line at the shala earlier today was 4 hours long. Ugh! I guess that you show up at 2:30 and then the registration starts at 3:30. Perhaps by tomorrow most everyone will have registered already and the process will not be so bad.

My room at Anokhi Garden

Land of the bucket shower

More to follow! I am very curious about my class times. It would be so nice to get a reasonable time—not 4:30 in the morning. My first day in the shala, provided the registration goes okay, will be Monday. Sunday in Mysore is rest day, and this year it also happens to be New Year’s Day. (I wonder if I will be able to find black-eyed peas; I know that sauerkraut will not be available.)

Indian mattresses are so comfortable!