Strange places in Mysore

If you were to base your impressions of Mysore on the number of clothes and shoe shops on all the main streets, then you could be forgiven for thinking Mysore must be the best dressed city in all India. Far from it though but stranger still is the dire lack of eating places in such a busy city. On a 2 kilometers stretch I came across just 2 Cafe come restaurants, neither of which appealed. So when it comes to dining - fine or otherwise Mysore once again does not live up to the hype.

Even my semi swanky hotel manages to serve up the most mediocre menu of unloved over priced dishes.

So far my best Mysore dicovery has been my wily Tuktuk driver who knows every corner of the city and who always manages to get paid way more than he should but a fiver for a 4 hours ferrying and waiting is worth it, especially with my dodgy knee. 

Other oddities today was the bizarre Folklore museum with stuffy dark galleries, full of amazing artifacts shoddily presented and some downright surrealist items like the life sized stuffed tiger with elephant tusks and maharajah portrait. Sadly no photos allowed. Cameras confiscated at the entrance.

In keeping with the 'why do they bother?' museum tradition my next stop was to a motley collection of railway paraphernalia at the so called railway museum. The guide books suggested it was an afternoon of sheer fun. My rickshaw guy said half an hour max. Guess who was right. 

My wiley driver knew how to milk me for rupees

The railway museum has got to be one of the silliest museums I've ever seen.

But this strange little car on rails made me laugh