We arrived in Mysore in the early evening and discovered that using the words "old world charm" to describe a hotel is really just a euphymism for old and rundown but we were too exhausted from the hike and bus ride to be bothered to change hotels. We woke up the next morning and changed to a more updated hotel and then headed out to see what Mysore is known for, it's palace and it's ancient bazaar.

We just walked quickly through the bazaar , planning to come back, after a visit to the train station to book our upcoming train journeys (we've found that a little forward planning helps avoid a lot of anxiety as to whether we actually get a seat on the perpetually packed trains).

With our next train journeys sorted, we headed back to our hotel to drop some stuff off before heading back out to explore the palace and the bazaar further.

An Indian "school bus".

But that was about as far as we got because it was about then that I realized I was feeling a little "off". That quickly developed into me having a fever hovering around 103 but feeling like our hotel was an igloo. While I can be stubborn and hate to go to the doctor, I wasn't stubborn enough to ignore my fever knowing the risks (nor immune to JB's scare tactics) so I got bundled up and we went to the Mysore hospital recommended in our guide book. While going to an Indian hospital was about a scary as the thought that I might actually have malaria, I want to assure you all that it really wasn't a negative experience and one that you might find interesting. When we got to the hospital's ER, there was no wait and I got to go straight in. While the place wasn't the picture of hygiene (JB didn't let me take a picture) the doctor who treated me was very thorough and professional. While he thought it was unlikely that I had malaria (and more likely that I had food posioning-AGAIN!) he gave me a shot in my thigh to reduce my fever (at which point I think we may have insulted him by asking "you don't reuse needles here do you?") and took a blood to test for malaria (negative!). And what did this all cost us? Five dollars. 

So...our trip to Mysore didn't quite pan out either. The next day my fever had broken and so we decided to take it easy but still take the train journeys that we had booked for that afternoon. The first one was a 3 hour train ride to Bangalore, a huge city known for being the center of India's IT industry. We had about 3 hours to kill before we had to get back to the train station for our overnight train to Hampi, so we headed into the city for dinner and a little shopping. We had the most divine masala dosas at a place that has been churning them out for about a hundred year and had a full waiting room of Indians waiting to take a seat (always a good sign).

After the delicious meal, we grabbed an autorickshaw to the shopping area known as Commercial St.

After a bit of shopping we headed back to the train station, which was bustling with activity. While waiting on our platform, our train pulled up. As the train pulled up there was a sudden mad rush as the unreserved seating cars known as" sleeper class" slowed to a stop in front of us. We watch as there was a mad rush to get into the cars, some people forgoing  the use of doors and climbing through open windows to ensure they got a seat. 

We, however, are not that hard core. We walked beside the train’s seemingly countless cars looking for the 2AC section. This section allows you to reserve bunks, is an air conditioned car and has the assigned bunks  in sets of four.

While a bumpy and noisy ride, we did manage to get some sleep.