First Stop, Hotel Rolex

The first leg of the ride was through Bangalore, then down the Bangalore-Mysore highway to Mysore. The Bangalore-Mysore highway is a modern highway, two lanes per side, divided. The road quality is good, there are few potholes. There are two major differences between this highway and one my American readers may be used to (besides the whole driving on the other side of the road thing). The first difference is that occasionally and with no warning there will be large speed bumps across the road. Usually a series of bumps in a row, sometimes just one large speed bump. These speed bumps are larger than any speed bumps we have in the US, are often unmarked, and truly require you to slow to a near stop to go over. As you can imagine these keep your eyes attentively on the road ahead of you. The other major difference also keeps yours eyes active and on the prowl; the fact that everyone drives like a complete fucking maniac. Its a bit like everyone just got infected with the 28 days later infection, I believe it was called the Rage virus, jumped into a little car, a huge WWII era truck, an old bus, a tractor, or a motorcycle and drove to Mysore. Everyone drives as fast as they can, swerves randomly around, ignores lanes, squeezes three or four vehicles wide in two lanes, all the while honking.
Traffic was light at the start of the ride. Which is good, as it was still dark, and everyone drives with their highbeams on, so you have no night vision whatsoever as you are constantly blinded by oncoming cars.
We drove through to Mysore, then a few km further and stopped at a roadside 'hotel' (restaurants are called hotels, I don't know why, couldn't get a clear answer) called the Hotel Rolex for breakfast. Breakfast was green pea curry and paratha (a flaky south Indian flat bread). The Hotel Rolex was not clean. I've attached a few pics. But, the service was fast, albeit served barehanded to your plate.
I've also included a pic of the Hotel Rolex toilet, a fairly standard Indian toilet, so anyone visiting India in the next month or so wont be surprised by the provided accommodations.







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