Notes from a Dug: Goodbye Goa; Hello India

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Notes from a Dug: Goodbye Goa; Hello India

Enough of the bliss kingdom known as the Leela Inn. It was time for the three Moms and a Dug to get back to India. Where we stayed in Goa was so unlike any of our previous stays that we did forget the land on which most Indians walk is nowhere near where we were being pampered. Our transfer driver to the airport was all testosterone and jet fuel. The pampering was over. The airport procedures were ours to decipher. The only remaining bliss to be found was in the face of a white-skinned monk, potentially a left-over Hari Krishna from a 1960's US airport. The pilot had difficulty with both the take-off and the landing. The guy beside me threw up into an improvised plastic magazine bag. Amidst the "waugh, waugh" pining for the Leela, we are definitely being slapped for our time-out. We arrive at our Bangalore hotel to discover our rooms are designated cigarette factories. Nothing like the cozy smell of a permanent ashtray to have each of us reaching for our own improvised plastic magazine bag. Terry put those size eight feet of hers firmly on the nicotine pile they called a carpet and took on the challenge. Previously unavailable non-smoking rooms were liberated and the four oxygen-starved non-smokers disembarked into 3.5 flickering stars of a business class hotel.

Doug thought it would be neat to see what the hi-tech capital of India was like. Surprise, surprise - when you let money talk, most everything else walks. Cities in India ebb mainly and flow generally. Try to dress them up with our concrete and glass and it just seems like lowest common denominator thinking. It's like taking Kevin O'Leary from CBC and making him a town planner. An urban landscape with an open-pit mine personality.

Doug gets off lightly. Not slapped too hard for his desire to see how India might do things differently, we are all happy to be here for only one night. The next day we see what little Bangalore has left in terms of interest or history or gardens and take some comfort in the shop of a local silk merchant. Bangalore is home to India's silk industry and the Three Women do their best to support the local silk farmers. Buying pure silk kurtas (mid-length tops) for only $10 each, we beat it (more like crawl it) out of town with silk hanging out our pockets. Next stop, Mysore. And, we hope, it isn't.



CRAP - tried another way of adding pictures to the blog. Ain't happening!!!!

See the lines below and then move down to the pictures. Bengaluru Palace goes with the first picture, Entrance to Bull Temple with the second, etc. etc. Although . . . when I look at what pictures were imported, it seems that Bengaluru Palace and the Bull Temple are missing. If they don't show up in the post then just skip to the second line etc. etc. and I will try to stop banging my head on the wall.

Bengaluru Palace Entrance to Bull Temple

Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens Silk Loom

White girls are in demand here, no matter what age. Our crew is always in somebody's lens.

Spelling is an art form here. Our room in Mysore

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