So we were to leave Sumanahalli today, but not before visiting the market. The original plan was to visit the market in the morning, before leaving Sumanahalli for Mysore. As usual, as the school bus needs to send the kids off to school, the day started a little later (but no complaints here, all available time goes to wifi)
Went to support (HIV) to pick up several patients to the hospital to collect their meds, which resulted in us running a little late. Nonetheless, we reached KR market with a little time to spare and Uncle Mazda gave us a short tour of the place. From the garlands, to the live poultry, to the fresh fruits along the way, the market felt more like a slum than a real slum. Crowded, messy and confusing.
As the bus has left us, we were suppose to take a public transport back to Sumanahalli on our phone. Jon has previously gave us many harrowing stories abt taking public transports, from buses never stopping and passengers having to jump on and offboard. Luckily it was the off peak period and we were at the interchange, so we were spared all of that. Bus conductors are usual in most countries (especially developing ones), but having separate compartments from male and female passengers was still a first. The ride was as bumpy as it could, my ass was flying off after going past every hump.
We were soon back to Sumanahalli, where we had to collect our bags and leave for Mysore. Father George gave us a bag of mangoes for our trip. Of course, before leaving, we had to do jumpshots, and this became a trend for the rest of the day (and I presume for the rest of the trip). The bus was surprisingly comfy with air conditioning. A little squeezy but I had worse before.
Lunch at KFC! Seeing KFC is tantamount to seeing water in a desert. A group of us shared a bucket of fried chicken, and I went to a nearby cafe for some cool quality coffee (seriously, food is like the only source of comfort here), and we were soon on our way. Our first tourist attraction was the Mysore palace. The perks of having an Tamil on the trip is that we can pass off as locals. The local Indians pay abt 40 rupees to enter but the foreigners are charged like 200 rupees. So we pass off as local Indians (as impossible as we look...though Jon said just to keep repeating that we are from moneepuu). As we entered, G was caught with a camera, but things were quickly settled with a 10'rupee gift to the security. Without a guide and knowledge of the language, we were basically flying blind in the palace, so we just came up with our own history of the place (some archduke etc etc) and smoke each other (the palace is the first institution in India to have ceiling fans blah blah blah). No tourist visits by Singaporeans is complete without jumpshots, so we did a couple in full view of the India locals
An hour later, it was back to the bus, and on our way to the next state (I'm still having a lot of trouble with Indian names...took me 2 days to remember Sumanahalli). A long ride where we past time with our playlist (they had to go play like my Cantonese songs, batman theme and the imperial march -.-). But oh well, we reach eventually. Was originally suppose to be 2 rooms, one for the guys and another for the girls, but it became one for everyone. The only improvement from Sumanahalli is that this place has hot water, though u need to fill it with a pail. Went for dinner at a roadside stall after dropping our bags...and it seems so natural to talk abt how violent our diarrhea will be the next day.
Mark
A full fledged tourist in India
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