Living in Luxury in India

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We are still swanning around in luxury; lovely Thai dinner last night, pedicures, swimming in the pool, sitting enjoying a drink at the al fresco bar and delicious complimentary breakfast. The staff are just lovely and did I mention the beds? Goose down pillows and duvets, crisp clean sheets and thick luxury towels- oh so mmmmmmmm.... We did however tear ourselves away to go sightseeing this morning and then some last minute shopping. Bangalore is ( according to the guide) the largest city in India with a population of close to 2 million. It is much cleaner and much more modern than other cities we have visited. We visited the Hindu Shiv Temple and had a quite different experience from what we expected. Firstly we dropped 108 silver coins on a snakelike walk through 108 bronze urns then we tied off our red thread to leave all our problems behind. We then started on a 'symbolic pilgrimage' through narrow tunnels that housed copies of holy shrines from other parts of India. We burned incense, threw a coin into the water ( wishing well) floated a candle and poured a milky substance over a stone. These all had significant meaning and we were given a pamphlet about it as we left. The towering four armed elephant idol and huge Shiv idol were impressive though the polystyrene Himalayas background was a bit odd. From here we headed to the Bangalore Palace, which was built after the Tudor style and looked amazingly English from the outside. Inside we donned audio guides and started our tour, walking up the rosewood staircase, passing under the huge trophy elephants head shot by the present maharajah's father. There were fascinating insights into royal life and the palace held a real charm as well as architectural interest. The internal gardens and womens quarters were lovely. There were many photographs of grizzly hunts of magnificent tigers, elephants and other game animals. Underneath the photographs were grizzly elephant feet stools and one stool where the four legs were of some poor beast- a bit gruesome really. Apparently he saw the light in the early 1900s and now all these animals are protected.

Shopping was great and it was back to the lap of luxury!!!!

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