MYSORE Palace Coo!

Q: How do you make a stunning turn-of-the-century Art Nouveau palace more attractive to Indian people?

A: Cover it in thousands of light bulbs and wait until dark.

Originally built in the 14th century for the Wadiyar dynasty, fortunately for me it was burnt down and rebuilt between 1897 and 1912, so is now a lavish Nouveau showcase.

A few hours here and lots of photos filled our final morning.

We'd spent the previous morning bussing it up to the Chamundi Hills to see the Chamundeshwari Temple and get a great view over the city.

The temple was very good, but we couldn't see the view for the gift stalls. Think we passed it on the bus back down. Oh well.

Across to the Jaganmohan Palace Gallery then (no photos), to see lots and lots of portraits of the none too attractive Wadiyar family, plus some other interesting paintings, clocks, furniture and sculptures from the royal collection.

Finally to the fabulous Devaraja market.

"Dating from Tipu Sultan’s reign, this huge and very lively bazaar has local traders selling traditional items such as flower garlands, incense, spices and conical piles of kumkum (coloured powder used for bindi dots)" says Lonely Planet.

They also do fruit and veg. Lots of fruit and veg.

Our final destination as we leave our kitsch Parklane hotel is the station to catch our sleeper train to Hampi.

Antanu grabs us as we leave, whisks us to the station, poses for a portrait and asks us to tell all our friends to look out for him and tuktuk number 2667 KA-02 A-1761!

Job done. Let's go to Hampi.