Our days of rest and relaxation in Wayanad had come to an end and with it our time in the state of Kerala was over. I was sad to say goodbye to Kerala, the people in this part of India are so laid back and friendly, and the food is amazing; Kerala parathas are our favourite Indian flatbreads so far. The meat here is also delicious and a lot more accessible than in much of India, especially b**f (beef is often spelt like this on menus). This is down to their more relaxed following of Hinduism and there being a higher percentage of Christians.
With each new state in India comes different languages, cultural differences, different religions, and different state laws. We have struggled to learn much of the many languages spoken in India as each time we have a few phrases down, we have to start again. So far we have come across Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malalayam and Kananda and we have only been to 3/28 states in India!!
We caught a very early bus from 4am - 9am onwards to our next destination, the ancient royal city of Mysore in the state of Karnataka. By some miracle I managed to sleep quite well on this windy bus while Alice spent the time tossing and turning and looking for tigers out the window. Mysore was once the home of a royal dynasty which ruled the Kingdom of Mysore from the 14th century until the 20th century. During their reign, the Wadiyar family built several palaces including the grand Mysore Palace which is now one of the most famous tourist attractions in India, after the Taj Mahal, attracting around 2-3 million visitors per year.
Although we had an average sleep, we were very excited to be in a new state and to explore this ancient city. Along with being rich with royal history, it is also famous for being the origin of the Ashtanga style of yoga which has been hugely influential on yoga in the west. This was another one of the “cow cities” in India, and cows ruled the streets, with even buses giving way to them. We were vibing this city immediately, the streets were dotted with palm trees and outside of the yoga area we were staying in, the city seemed to be full of friendly locals.
While eating some of the best dosa of our lives (I will talk about the food soon), we were invited for dinner with a local family (we didn’t end up taking up this offer as we ran out of time). There was an extremely chaotic photoshoot situation with some of the vendors in the local market who had their first experience using a real camera. Sanjay (age 14), who was the most excited to use our camera, insisted I send him the photos on WhatsApp immediately, and I had to explain to him that I can’t access them on the SD card from my phone. When I did eventually send him the photos on WhatsApp, he excitedly called me to say thanks.
The food we ate in Mysore was truly exceptional, and we planned our eating well here. When you only have 2 days in a place, there are limited meal opportunities and without proper planning it can be easy to squander these. We had done some reasonably thorough research before reaching Mysore and it paid off big time here. The dosa place I mentioned earlier served the most incredible dosa, crunchy on the outside and deliciously soft and fluffy on the inside, along with south indian style filter coffees of course. We’re not sure how we will cope once we head north and the coffee and dosas disappear.
After this breakfast experience, we went for lunch at another local spot famous for samosas. We didn't expect it to top our breakfast, and we were in for a big surprise. This place was on another level. There was a constant queue of locals lining up here at this hole in the wall samosa shop (also serving varieties of chaat and puri) tucked into a busy alleyway. Behind the counter there were three guys, one was filling the samosas at lightning speed, while the other guy prepared and cooked them in a pan filled with oil, and the third guy skillfully popped the Panipuri open with his thumb. We sat down behind the counter and began a five course meal of Indian delicacies. I can’t really find the words to describe the food here, so I will let the pictures do the talking. The man cooking the samosas explained each dish to us and he smiled when he saw our reactions eating his food. Afterwards we tried to tip by leaving without change, but they wouldn’t let us and quite literally forced us to take our change. In total, this five course eating extravaganza cost us 170₹ (about $3NZD).
We really loved our time in Mysore and I wish we could have stayed a bit longer. It was a great introduction to the friendly people and amazing food we would encounter throughout the rest of Karnataka. However, we were very excited for our next stop and our first major Indian city, the Silicon Valley of India - Bangalore.