The journey began as all adventures should – trains, planes, and automobiles: Derby to Birmingham, to Dubai, to Bangalore, and then on to Mysore.
We landed in Bangalore, and knowing we would be pretty tired after the long trip, I booked the Marriott Bengaluru Golfshire Resort and Spa using reward points. Marriott hotels are nearly all the same the world over, and this one, being north of the city, would give us that bit of peace as well as the safe familiarity to help recover from jet lag before we headed into our adventure.
The pre-questionnaire I submitted before arriving had asked if this was a special occasion. I had responded, “well yes, it’s a holiday of a lifetime”. That seemed to translate to a “Happy Birthday”.
On Sunday morning we met our guide Roger and our driver Das, and the real adventure started, first with a long transfer to Mysore.
This gave us even more opportunity to recover fro jet lag, taking it easy and visiting the ‘world famous’ palace, which was beautiful. But funnily enough, it turned out, for the locals, that we were the main attraction 
. This was the start of a common theme.
That evening we stayed at the Southern Star Hotel but before dinner we went back to the palace for the grand illumination.
