More Mysore
You might have noticed i’ve been making some videos along the way. Since Manjula is almost famous globally for her cooking and we had no fixed time line, I thought i’d document the process.Needless to say the meal was super delicious.
On our third day we managed to fit in a Skype call with Chris. For those of you who don't know, Chris is looking after our cat, Mau. Mau is our pride and joy, so much so we decided to leave her for a year, obviously to test our love for her. Seriously though, we couldn't be happier that such a dear and wonderful friend is looking after our baby. We miss the both a LOT. While we’ve been away, Chris has decided to embark on a modelling carer with Mau to make a little money on the side of his teaching career.
After checking in with our nearest and dearests, we hit the market. This is one of Mysore’s tourist hot spots and for good reason. Soo many photo opportunities.
What blows my mind about this market and a lot of india is that there always seem to be multiple outlets selling exactly the same thing and they're always right next to each other. This market was a perfect example of this. Rows and rows of bananas, then coconuts, then onions, greens, flowers, etc. I guess the locals have their preferred sellers but I really can' get my head around the system. Maybe it’s to do with the sheer volume of people and produce in the country and expense of the real estate to trade in? Anyway, as I said, the market offers some great photo opportunities.
This market has a really good vibe. You can happily walk around for hours. The locals are always up for a good chat and we met some really nice people.
We took a few trips to an awesome restaurant called ‘Rasa Dhatu’. Fellow Vegan’s, if you’re ever in the area, get involved. The food is great and it felt amazing to get some raw greens down us.
Day 4 was hot. Probably the hottest I’ve ever been. Damn, just thinking about that heat is making me sweat. Since we had decided to stay a little longer with Stephen, we had to move bedrooms. Unfortunately for us there were no rooms left. Lucky for us, Stephen kindly swapped his room for the couch. Shout out to Stephen! Thanks again buddy!
We spent our fourth morning on the opposite side of the city at an animal sanctuary.
‘People for Animals’ have sanctuaries in various locations across India. The one in Mysore was set up around 8 years ago. We were fortunate enough to meet one of the Trustees. She told us of her earlier days before working at the animal sanctuary. She explained that her and her husband used to do under-cover photography, exposing animal cruelty. Their photography revealed such things as the cruel practise of rounding stray dogs up off of the street and electrocuting them, in order to cull them. As a result of their work, it's now illegal to kill street dogs in Mysore.
Here’s a puppy we played with.
The sanctuary seemed like a very positive place, but of course it was so sad to see those animals who had no chance of ever getting better. The sanctuary was home to dogs, monkeys, horses, birds, rabbits, cats and cows. We hung out for most of the morning giving some love to the doggies!
We got pretty hot and hungry around late afternoon so headed back to our abode. There is a really good local restaurant that we ate at a few times called Ramani’s. This place sells delicious and really local cuisine. I think this Thali was around 80 rupees which is about 80p.
Over and out. More about Mysore in the next blog!