Valentines day today. The President hotel is a business hotel and caters for Indian businessmen. So today we had dosai and idli for breakfast, just like Indian businessmen.
We tried to find a travel agent to book a car and driver for tomorrow, but most were shut as it was Sunday, and the rest either didn't speak enough English to understand us or had never heard of the town we were going to.
We gave up and walked to Mysore palace. It was spectacular both in design and construction. Difficult to believe that because the original wooden structure was destroyed in a fire, the current palace was the work of an English Edwardian architect, and that the beautifully ornate cast iron columns had been shipped from Glasgow.
In my opinion it ranks as one of the most spectacular buildings in the world. Exquisite architecture and ornamentation which could only work in this type of climate. The audio guide was superb and invoked the pomp and majesty of the Maharajah's 25 generations of occupancy of the site.
We returned to the ParkLane Hotel for lunch, and then resumed the search for a travel agent. Finally we found a travel desk in the United21 hotel, but it was unmanned. The receptionist however phoned the travel desk manager for us and we arranged a car and driver over the phone. I suspect life would have been easier had it not been Sunday as many shops were shuttered closed and the traffic very light.
At beer O'clock we returned to ParkLane, then walked to the Palace because every Sunday it is illuminated with thousands of electric lights. And so it was, absolutely magical until we approached the gates, and then before I had time to get the camera out they were switched off. We were grateful to have seen the spectacle, but a few minutes more would have given us enough time to fully appreciate it.
We ate supper back at the President and again it was historic. I ended up accidentally with a triple whiskey as I had ordered a double and it turned out to be 3 for 2 due to happy hour!
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