its the people that make it!

March 19, 2016March 19, 2016 SFLeave a comment

Mysore Bed and Breakfast is very much an open house, where we have now welcomed guests for over four years. A great community is beginning to develop. It’s formed from our guests, many who have returned or know of us through other friends, together with out team of drivers, gardener, cleaners, the hosts (Manjula, Lucy and the Yorkshireman) . There is also a network of other friends such as Homestay hosts and tour companies that collaborate to provide a great experience for visitors to this wonderful India. This helps create a richer life experience for us (eh… we don’t need to travel, the world comes here 🙂 !) and a greater depth for our visitors.

We’ve decided to introduce some of our community beginning with one of our guests.

Stephen F (a different Stephen F 😉 ) is a keen touring cyclist who has been to Mysore BnB maybe three times. He’s even left one of this cycles here for regular use! Originally from Northern Ireland he now lives in England and works as a communications consultant. Stephen goes way beyond the cycle tours we provide. He recently visited again doing a cycle loop travelling from here and taking in the National Parks. Previously he’s toured parts of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. On his first visit here we were amazed to realise we’d spoken to each other over the phone earlier in our careers in the early 1990s…. the coincidences of India, great stuff!

He’s just bought a rather expensive cycle and whenever we’ve had prospective guests planning on long and overnight tours we ask for Stephen’s help, whether its planning the tour, working out the best maps, finding suitable accommodation or general survival tips on cycling in India. Stephen has been a godsend. He now joins and has helped organise our family cycle tours back in the UK.

Stephen, as you would expect, has been on all our tours. Stephen and I have now started to develop longer tours taking in the local countryside, villages and my favourite, Srirangaptnam island.

See the map below.

Other cycling guests are also suggesting their favourite tours.

So this next year we’ll be inviting cyclists to come base their holidays here, join us on our established tours and we’ll help them design day tours in and around this wonderful area

Thank you, Stephen

Sand – The Great Escape

May 21, 2014May 21, 2014 SFLeave a comment

Sand Karma, from cradle to grave to be born again. The long tentacles of the mafia imprisons the sand by dredging the lakes and rivers, looting the embankments, stealing sand wherever it can, and bribing where it needs to… Dotted around our countryside we see in our rivers, small round boats like metal coracles or Bella (Jaggery) cauldrons or gangs attacking the river banks. These are the starting point for the convoys of bullock carts filled with the precious cargo.
After a sometimes long and arduous journey from river bed or bank, to cart, to truck, to city distribution point (to become official) and then on again (its a wonder there’s no sand travel sickness or maybe there is) to be dumped, unceremoniously outside the mushrooming building sites, found throughout the city. Only then to be reincarnated, as a grey mix, for the greater good of the ‘development’ (some might say ruin) of our great heritage city.

But this isn’t a sad tail of the demise of sand, the loss of its identity or of its sacrifice to the greater good…..no way.

One or two of our sand grain friends, reunited with water (their very own vehicle) from the previous nights torrential rainfall, seize the opportunity and escape form the constructors piles and become part of a great escape.

This morning the roads are covered with a layer of sand, in time, some might be scraped into little piles and recaptured but some will have managed to reach the storm drains, and on to a new life..

So next when you notice sand on the road and maybe you feel a bit irritated by the sand on your shoe. Spare a thought for the hard life of sand. Remember the triumphs and tribulations of the grain of sand and its great escape in its long march to the sea.

How can cycling grow in India?

April 3, 2014April 3, 2014 SFLeave a comment

Cycling is still seen by many in India as poor people’s activity. We are however seeing a slow but dramatic increase in cycling, particularly amongst young people. If this follows the trend seen elsewhere cycling will hopefully grow with more and more people from all sectors of society joining in. This will bring tremendous benefits for our personal health, the environment and the community in general. Yet as we see from this article the conditions for city cycling are getting worse and this disproportionately affects the poorer people in society. So what can we as keen cyclists do about it?

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/terra-india/2013/oct/24/indian-cyclists-squeezed-out-of-cities

Sustainably Cycling

April 3, 2014April 18, 2014 SFLeave a comment

I moved to Mysore over four years ago and was pleased to discover that there was already some interest in leisure cycling. One of my early cycle trips organised by Sham Sunder, an inspirational guy, who is Director of National Institute of Engineering’s CREST also highlighted that Mysore had a significant movement in the use of sustainable technologies and organic farming. This was proving to be a very interesting place.

Mycycle, Mysore Cycle Tours

March 29, 2014November 28, 2015 SF6 Comments

Mycycle is my business in South India that provides short guided cycle tours for visitors to the wonderful city of Mysore.

So the My refers to Mysore as well as my experience of over 40 years as a cyclist. But I fully intend that this blog will be much more than that…about our view of life in India that on the way will take in an eclectic range of interests and experiences.

We have now had the privilege of hosting, guiding and hopefully entertaining over 900 guests since we launched a little over two years ago. We’re often asked about the history of our business here, what drew me to Mysore and what adventures I and the team have had in living in India and developing Mycycle and Mysore Bed and Breakfast.

This is an attempt to share something of that experience.

please do join us on the journey

details of what we do can be found on http://www.manjulasmysore.in