Adventures in Mysore

It's amazing what a few turn of events will do for a sour disposition! After lunch while I was wandering around Mysore, I started chatting with Aslum who offered to show me how incense and essential oils were made. We walked up to a tiny, hole in the wall shop where in the back room a woman was sitting on the floor expertly and almost mechanically rolling incense sticks. 7,000 per day, that's her quota. Behind her a man sat and eagerly began telling me about the oils he produces. Eucalyptus for headaches and cough's, almond for skin health, geranium for dysentery and vomiting (good to note!). And the list went on and on. I wonder if they really work? I didn't make a purchase, but he did give me 2 incense sticks as a parting gift along with written explanations about each of his healing oils. Alsum showed me around Mysore from the back of his motorbike, I treated him to a cup of chai at his favorite coffee house, and then after a few hours of good conversation he dropped me back at my hotel. It was so refreshing to actually strike up a friendship with an Indian with no strings attached!

Around dinner time I went next door to Parkland Restaurant which was highly recommended in my India travel book. It was amazing. A 3-story restaurant with spiraling staircases, elaborate jungle-themed decorations(complete with a massive tree in the middle of it all), and service comparable to home. The general manager even came around to inquire that everything was to my liking. I just had a fresh lime soda (fresh lime juice, club soda, and a tiny bit of sugar syrup) so as not to break the bank and did some people watching. Hungry, I paid my tab and walked back to my hotel, stopping at a small store along the way to buy some crackers. By this time it had started raining and the store was down some steps. The cement was incredibly slick, and before I knew what was happening, I found myself tumbling down the stairs, face first, belly-flop style. I landed with my face at the bottom of the stairs, my body hugging the muddy steps, and my legs still up at the top of the staircase. The shop owner ran over mortified as I just got up and tried to play it cool. What is it with me and falling these days? Well it turns out that I knocked my knees pretty badly and now I have the beginnings of what will likely become golf-ball sized, black and blue lumps on both of my knees!