Thursday, 27 February 2014

Safari, Beef and beer!

After a long and adventurous week, the following day after my short time in Mysore, I used the morning to take some much needed rest. And to wash my clothes too; a menial task of using shampoo (a cheaper and lighter alternative of using washing detergent) and a bucket of water. Hey, it does the job.

Sam picked me up in the afternoon as we had planned to go on a safari which I was quite looking forward to as I had never been on one before. It was quite a long drive so we stopped to have ourselves some sugar cane juice. Once we arrived, we paid our tickets and waited for the transportation to come. I was expecting a jeep like the ones I have seen on television, but instead we had a minibus with cages attached to the windows that obscured our view somewhat, and also hindered me taking any good snaps. So it wasn't as enjoyable as I had anticipated. But I still managed to get some snaps of bears and white tigers - or rather an employee did for me as he had a better view than I! Afterwards, Sam dropped me off back at the lodge.

Sam came back to meet me in the evening and we went up to M.G road for a walk. He took me to a commercialised and a heavy populated area. Again, there were many western shops and restaurants. Eventually he took me to a restaurant called The Only Place. It's menu consists of a wide variety of western food including beef! As it turns out, there are plenty of Indian people who do eat beef. Sam told me that a lot of people in India no longer deem cows to be sacred and so are fine with eating them. I guess the people of these more modern areas of India really are letting go of old traditions.  A lot of Muslims like to eat it here anyway though. Although, you still won't find beef in the more rural towns and villages where people are still very traditional.

Seeing as beef is my favourite meat, I opted to try a cheese beef burger, and holy cow it was delicious! Genuinely one of the best burgers I have had in a while. And very cheap too! For the burger and chips only costed me 180rs; that's a couple of quid less than a Mcdonalds burger meal!

After the enjoyable meal, I told Sam I fancied a beer (it was a Friday night afterall), so we headed to a pub called Guzzlers Inn. The interior looks like very much like a British pub, so it felt good to sit in there and have a pint of strong lager, and to have had great company too. Sam is like my own chauffeur and my personal knowledgeable tour guide; but more than that, he is becoming a good friend whose friendship, kindness, generousity and company I shall always appreciate and cherish. It seems we have already come a long way from just being two strangers on a train. We only had had one drink in there before we decided to call it a night.

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