Each time we write a new entry, we say to ourselves “This time the post will be shorter than the previous ones!”. As you may have realized, very seldom we achieved that aim. So in the last week, we carefully avoided every place where something worth reporting could happen and focused on the tourist spots and trekking routes. We started the week in Mysore (staying at Hotel Dasaprakash), the former capital of one of the Maharajahs’ dynasties. There we went to the “Chamundi Hill”, a holy Hindu site. Here you have to pay if you want to pray inside the temple, black persons want to sell “very beautiful sunglasses” and seemingly the devotes are convinced that the gods enjoy seeing them shattering coconuts onto the ground. Probably we will need some more time to fully understand this religion ….

Back to the profane world we visited the famous “Mysore Palace”. It is a wonderful building, full of lovely details, creating a marvellous atmosphere. By many tourists it is perceived as representing the traditional architecture of South India, but this is not true. The palace was designed by British architects at the beginning of the 20th century. It is a mix of many different styles from all over the world – actually resulting in some kind of fantasy architecture. And this is the main reason why you have so much fun visiting the palace, since you will experience new surprises in every room. It is just a pity for the Maharajahs that they only could live there during about 25 years, before India’s independence ended their residency.

After that we headed to Madikeri in the Coorg region (and stayed at Hotel Chitra), where we were really astonished how remote India can be. The area is a trekker’s paradise: it is wide, green, colder, it rains more often and it can be foggy – the English colonialists must have felt very much at home here. They grow lots of spices like cardamom or pepper and have many coffee and tea plantations, but on a rather small scale. Like in Mysore, people are really friendly and welcoming here, which rather surprised us since the places are comparatively touristy. We did a guided two days trek, passing forests where at any time you will find dozens of leeches sticking at and inside your shoes and trying to suck your blood. The highlight was the hike to the region’s highest mountain, where the view was not so clear but where I discovered a nice little palace that served as last hideaway.

Unfortunately, I had to do the second day alone, because Steve again had some more stomach problems. That’s the big disadvantage in India: they serve Indian food here and you can never know whether it is acceptable or bad quality. Until Nepal we never had any problems, in Nepal we did a mistake and suffered one time from food poisoning, but in India things are different. At least once in a week we eat something wrong and feel sick the next day. Until now we have not really been able to learn how to avoid this and locals told us it is impossible. We do not eat any meat but even a vegetable soup can be bad. So we hope to find a reliable restaurant when we’ll go to the beach the next days. And with this wish we are already at the end of this entry – finally we managed to keep it short.