Mysore

Instead of back-tracking to Madurai and then taking the train through Bangalore to Mysore (16 hours) I chose to take the "shorter" and more direct route via bus through Combiatore. After descending into the fume filled haze that surrounds it, I learned that there was no direct bus from Combiatore to Mysore, and instead had to take a short bus ride to Mettapulayam (I think). (Note: I stopped noting how much the buses cost by this point, since the government bus prices were set and always cheap.) The bus to Mysore was easy enough to find and board, but the ride itself was long and very rough going toward the end; this was after the bus driver - using a bevy of distinctive horns - had negotiated 27 hair-pin turns and had a confrontation with a "Wide-boy"/Goods Carrier where neither of them wanted to back up and allow the other to proceed down a narrow road under construction.

Twelve hours after leaving Kodaikanal, I was delivered to the Mysore bus depot (several hours later than the 7pm arrival I had planned for), and took a rickshaw (20R) to a traveler recommended hotel - Hotel Maurya - which was also listed in the LP guide. To say that the night manager was an ass (and a crook) would be putting it mildly, and fortunately I did have a plan B which worked out very well - the Hotel Goverdahn. There I stayed in several rooms ranging in price from 200R to 400R, varying in size and amenities, found the room service almost adequate and the management fair. They also have a well-cared for clan of monkeys on the roof-top, and did not damage all of the clothing which they laundered for me (10R per piece most places; make sure that includes pressing).

LP listed restaurants were as advertised and quite good, and the lighting of the Temple on Sunday night was pretty but not necessarily worth going out of your way for. I never did make it up to Chaudry Hill - which takes some time by bus - and the traffic in Mysore, which is booming thanks to the spillover from Bangalore, was heavy. Mysore also marked a return to aggressive vendors, taxi drivers and drug dealers, but was worth a few days for sure. (Note that one reason why I stayed in several different rooms was that I departed one morning with the intention of briefly staying near the Namdrolling Tibetan Monastery/refugee camp, which a young British traveler had enjoyed a few weeks earlier without an India Government Permit, as *corroborated* by the LP guide. However, the monks I met were of no help as to any accommodations besides the (one and only) Guest House in the near-bye shopping center, and there I was informed that as an American I would need said permit even to spend a night... (Maybe the British are afforded greater leeway, or something had changed in the few weeks since the British lad had visited; quien sabes?)