Incredible !ndia - LittleWanderingWren

DAY NINE – If you didn’t want adventure, then you would have stayed at home….

I stayed the night at City Park Airport Hotel, arriving at midnight, it was a great room, free Wifi and an inedible breakfast included. Good value at less than £50.

Back at Indira Ghandi International Airport for the third time in ten days, I notice signs announcing the airport has been voted the world’s second best airport, which is not surprising….Free trolleys on arrival (unlike Melbourne), clean, free WiFi ( if you have a working mobile phone to receive the access code… ), a strong security presence, lounges with showers and napping areas etc

My Go-Air flight to Bangalore leaves a little ahead of schedule for the 2.5 hrs flight. All is going well, my bags arrive, the driver’s waiting with a sign with my name on, and a car with the words Incredible !ndia on the outside…….

Arriving at Bangalore Airport

We get to the bus terminal only to find that the bus has been cancelled. Yesterday was a big protest (Bandh) in the region. The local people are upset about water. The State Government’s decision to release water from the Cauvery basin means that water is being taken away from the village farmers, there has been a drought and they claim there isn’t enough water to give extra away. The protest continues and we hear the main road between Bangalore and Mysore remains blocked.

I look around at the other options …..

The driver is told to put me on another bus, bearing in mind the original bus was a luxury coach, I’m not liking the plan B….. I ring our travel agent and tell him that I am not traveling on a local, non air conditioned bus, with no guarantee of getting through…..

We try at the Government bus station….
My driver very kindly agrees to try to drive me to Mysore. We get as far as
Maddur when we find the road blocked. We head off into the countryside it is lush and green – like they have had a bit of rain….Isn’t this big fight over water?…We see palm trees and Oxen with long slender long horns pulling impossible loads.

We arrive at one village, two cars too late and the locals are pulling branches across the road…

The protestors block the road by burning tyres and branches, then sit down on the road

There is one older man, who looks intoxicated splashing what looks like kerosine or petrol all over the branches, he is cheered on by the local villages youths. My guess is that all the men are away in the towns protesting, but these kids are not about to let all this redirected traffic through without some sort of a show….

Things settle, the boys sit in the road and we edge pass…..We join the main road at Mandya – sugar city and see the remains of the protest which has blocked the main road….

The protestors blocking the road at Mandya
The road to Mysore from here onwards is great and I finally arrive at 6pm – only 1 hour behind schedule. We head out to see the Sunday lights at Mysore Palace and onto a market. It is good to have rejoined the group in Incredible India!