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24 March
Yes, I still love Indian trains. We arrived early to Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley where we promptly boarded a bus to Mysore (which is not an eyesore!). After a great lunch, we hopped in a tuktuk to the state-owned silk factory. If you ever thought a tuk-tuk seat with room for three people only holds three people, you would be wrong. They hold seven. After the disappointing discovery that we could not watch them make silk in the factory but instead could only buy loads of silks, we left.
In the late afternoon, we took a pair of tuk-tuks up Chamundi Hill for sunset views. Imagine driving a lawnmower up a mostrous hill. Now imagine there are 4 people in the lawnmower. That's about how this went. 340 m in altitude later, we were at the top at the temple devoted to Chaumundeshwari. We wandered around the area for a bit before following a calf into one of the temples. Apparently this made the calf particularly holy, as the worshippers seemed quite happy to see him. From here, we went to the big temple that we'd actually come to see. There's nothing like a Hindu temple to
make you feel like a total outsider. We don't blend in well. After reclaiming our shoes, we got back in the tuk-tuk for the much quicker ride down the hill. About halfway we made a stop to take a look at a massive Nandi bull (Shiva's vehicle, which is why they are so holy), the largest in all of India.
25 March
Still in Mysore! I went in the morning with Vivek to the Mysore Palace, which is massive and gorgeous and fantastic. It's relatively new, which is obvious by the original electrical fixtures throughout. My favorite bits: the elephant gate, the incredible ivory in-laid doors (which made brief appearances in England before returning to the palace), the marriage pavilion (a massive octagon a la Charlemagne's cathedral in Aachen, but with cast iron columns and peacock stained glass windows from Glasgow) filled with cleaning ladies chucking buckets of water on the walls, columns, and floors. I was impressed. It's THE most amazing palace I've been to. Period. Everything is intricate and fascinating and cool and wonderful. Again, image search it. Photos aren't allowed inside.
Another 3-hr bus ride back into Bangalore and then...A TRAIN.
26 March
I really still like trains. Though at this point, getting off of them is the best part. In Hampi (in the northern part of the state), we hopped in tuk-tuks again. The driver Lisa and I had couldn't have been more than 15. And getting to the hotel was apparently a race. Though our driver was the only participant. He raced motorbikes, other tuk-tuks, cars, trucks, cows, goats, pigs, chickens, dogs. I think it's better we didn't have a spedometer. I may have cried if we did. We arrived rather quickly into the middle of heaps of 14th century ruins and hopped on a little boat across the river to our hotel. The hotel was the nicest little resorty hotel, with bungalow style rooms, hammocks and swings outside and enchanting views of rice fields and mongoose (though I think everyone else was blissfully oblivious to the mongoose).
In the afternoon, we were taken to the lake for a nice swim. A nice, fully-clothed swim. The locals know that the hotels bring their guests here and they camp out on the banks to catch glimpses of western girls in bikinis. We didn't grant them the opportunity. Feeling
like the fat kids at the pool in our t-shirts and pants, we splashed around and swam from rock to rock. We sunned on the rocks reptile-style to dry off then headed off to a couple local temples. The most impressive was the Monkey Temple. Up too many steps to count, we reached the rather unimpressive temple. And we had seen no monkeys. Lame. The steps and temple were painted white. The temple was just a squat building without and fancy architecture. So we clambered across rocks to get better panoramics of Hampi. We sat and waited for the sunset, trading turns at posing on different rocks with varying backgrounds and people watching. The people watching wasn't very impressive, as there were only two other people for most of the time we were up there. The sun set. Behind smog, as is typical of Indian sunsets. I never saw the sun hit the horizon once. And from our perches, we made our way back along the rocks and down the steps. It only took a few steps to realize that oh yes, this really was a monkey temple. And the steps were covered in hundreds of them making their way
up. Macaques, macaques and more macaques. The key is to keep walking and not to stare them in the eye. Of course, when they are on both walls of the stairway and in the middle, the just-keep-walking tactic isn't hugely successful until the monkey in the path moves. Near the bottom, langur monkeys, about 2-3 times the size of macaques, were making their way up as well. Luckily they are a bit more shy and posed less of a threat.
27 March
Day 2 in beautiful Hampi. I was pretty much a big lazy bum. My accomplishments included sleeping on the swing outside my bungalow, catching a frog, and burning my feet on the path while trying to run after the mongoose.
28 March
4 a.m. wake ups are the best. As are 11 hour train journeys. I like trains a lot better at night.
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