Two Beers and a Pretzel

Not great, but OK…  The air quality is better than Bangalore (‘cuz BLR rickshaws are 2 stroke, MUM cabs are 4 stroker or CNG) but it’s really just another big city…

After about 4 hour of sleep, I flew into Mumbia.  You could easily tell when you’d moved from country side to the city.

I checked into a decent but cheap hotel in the Colaba neighborhood, and promptly fell asleep.  The next day I booked a car to show me the sights.

The Gateway of India (built in 1911)

..Which is right next to the Taj Palace that was the terrorist target last year.

Marine Drive and Chowpatty Beach (which up close looks like crap – the dark line near the water is trash)


Hanging Garden (astonishingly unimpressive – even the animal sculpted bushed needed labels for you to tell what they were)

Mani Bhavan (Ghandi’s house and an inspiring memorial museum)

Tower of Silence – a creepy place where Parsi people put their dead here to be eaten by vultures and let the bones fall into the tower – yuck!

Washing Laundry (the biggest open laundry in Asia)

The Victorian Area of town

And a few more sights that were either not worth a pic, or pics not allowed:
Nairman Point (the Official area of Mumbai – kinda booring)
Jain Temple (a 100 year old silver temple that was surprisingly dull on the inside)
Malabar Hill (Where some of India’s billionaires live – booring)

After the tour, I checked out the “SOAK” exhibit at the museum of modern art – which detailed the 2005 monsoon flood where parts of town received over 3 ft of rain in a single day (while other parts only got 3 inches).  It was very interresting to see the evolution of the city from a collection of low-lying islands to what it is today.  Many different land reclaimation and waster control projects over the last 200 years explain why this city seems exceptionally unorganized.  Much of the current “land” did not exist 200 year ago, so the major routes around town are often quite oddly placed.

After than I swung by the Leopold Cafe – a favorite hangout of travelers and ex-pats, and another place that was targeted by the terrorists.  There’s even still bullet holes in the upper windows…

After that, I wandered the market main drag in Coloba and of all things – ran into an Egyptian girl that I had met in Ushuia, Argentina back in February.

Hampi, India seems like a miniature version of Siam Reap, Cambodia.

Everywhere you turn there’s a temple or palace ruin from the Vijayanagar Empire in the 1300-1500′s.  The whole area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The most significant differences from Angkor Wat are that 1 ) you get to stay right next to the ruins, and 2) the landscape would be surreal even without the ruins.  The whole area is dominated by large hills of crumbled and weathered boulders.

The only way to describe it is to imagine a giant child was playing with these rocks, scooping them in his hands and stacking them into small mountains.

Although there is also a nice temple in town…

There are also lots of people treating the “white guy” like a rock star…  everyone wants to take a picture with you.

Even with the bizarre landscape and the active temple, the ruins dominate your time…

The royal bath in the palace complex…

…click the 180 degree panorama of inside the massive palace complex for a bigger version…

However cool that is, UNESCO did me one better with scrollable 360 degree views of all the major monuments…

http://www.world-heritage-tour.org/asia/south-asia/india/hampi/map.html

The royal elephant stable…

The Lotus Mahal…

After a sleeper train back to Bangalore, I piked up my Olympus uTough 8000 from the repair center.  I didn’t have a copy of my receipt to take advantage of the warranty, so the repair bill was a whopping $30 USD.  I love this country…

On the morning of the 23rd I was still feeling a little quesy.  Sreekanth went on a morning jeep safari and I stayed back in the room.  Around lunchtime, our cab arrived to take us back to Mysore.  I was feeling much better.

Once in Mysore, we went straight to the doctor and the pharmacy – even though I’m pretty sure the sickness was food poisoning, and it had passed.  Again, doctor visit + medicine = $1.55.

After dropping our bags off at Sreekanth’s parents’, we went on a tour of the town to the Mysore Palace – former home of the Maharaja of Mysore.

They did not allow photography inside the palace, and there were strict policies in place to deal with violators (but the bunny somehow got away).

Outside the palace, Sreekanth was playing with his SLR – which really made me see the limits of the Canon G9 (I can’t wait to get back to my 20D and better optics).

One nice thing about being the only white guy is that you feel like a celebrity.  OK, I wasn’t the ONLY white person – I’ve counted at least 10 others in the last week.  But people all ask where you’re from, and many kids want their picture with you.

The nicities to not transfer to the autorickshaw drivers.  These guys will all try to rip you off, and once you tell them you’ll only pay using the meter, they ask you to get out.  They would rather sit there than make their standard rate.  I’ve gotten pretty good at verbally reprimanding them, because they waste my time, and seem to think that they can rip me off just because I’m a white guy.  Take me back to the tuk-tuk drivers of Bangkok.  Yes, they hassle you about massage girls and suit stores, but at least you can negoiate with them and they smile the whole time.

Next was the largest church in this part of India – the Saint Joseph’s Cathedral and Saint Philomena’s Church.  Pretty basic gothic architecture by European standars, and the stained glass was either missing, or never completed.  But the outside was pretty neat with monkey’s climbing the spires and eagles flying around.

Then we went to a temple on a large hill overlooking Mysore – home of Chamundeswari, the protector goddess of the city.

Finally, we went to the market to experience the bustle of the town.

On the 24th we caught a train back to Bangalore, and we’re getting ready for a sleeper bus for a few days in Hampi – a city on the UNESCO world heritage list.

Now for the much anticipated update on India…

I got sick.  We’re talking loss of control of some major bodily functions type of sick.  I’m better now, but avoiding spicy fod for a while.  The neat thing is that I saw a doctor and got two different  prescription medicines for 70 rupees.  That’s $1.55 for a doctor visit plus medication!!  They say the US has the best available healthcare (and if I need a major surgery, that’s where I want to be), but geez, we’re paying out the arse for all the little things…

Anyway, on the 20th, Sreekanth went rock climbing while I hiked around the hills and took pictures.  It was a really cool rock formation about an hour South of Bangalore.  They didn’t have a harness to fit me, or time before the rock face got too hot for me to climb, but I had plenty of fun hiking around and snapping photos. 

That afternoon, we caught a bus to Mysore, met Sreekanth’s parents, and crashed there for the night.  The next day we hired a cab to take us to the Kabini River Lodge near the Rajiv Ghandi National Park.  This lodge used to be the private hunting grounds for the Maharaja of Mysore, and has hosted such dignitaries as Prince Edward and Admiral Halsey back in the 1920′s…  so it was pretty nice.

We met my friend Roopa there with her husband and brother.

Before lunch, we walked thru the camp and saw some local insects, birds, and monkeys.

After lunch and a brief stint in the tree house play area before a quick nap and then setting out on the safari.

Unfortunately, I started feeling bad about an hour after lunch, but held in the discomfort to ‘enjoy’ the safari.  It was worth it, but painful.  We saw spotted deer, peacocks, monkeys, wild boar, wild elephants, eagles, woodpeckers, wild cattle, and a host of other animals.

The grounds of the lodge were on the riverbank between 2 national parks that boast the largest density of 3 different apex predators of any park in Asia (tigers, spotted panthers, and wild dogs).  One reason there are so many predators is that the park is well protected from poachers, and there is an abundance of prey – especially spotted deer.  Since the safaris are only allowed in about 5% of the park, we didn’t see any of these.  They did mention sighting a tiger in our camp a few days before, but that didn’t do much for me – having not seen it.

The next day we took another jeep safari in the morning, and went out on the crocodile infested river in a native craft not too dissimilar from a 5 ft diameter upside down wicker umbrella covered in tar.

A bit after that, we took a boat safari in the late afternoon.  I thought I was feeling better, but lost it on the boat ride (again, about an hour after lunch).

The river was damned in the 70′s to create a reservoir, which aside from forcing the relocation of a few villages, also has some unforseen advantages…  Many plantations has blocked the migratory paths of elephants during the dry season to the lush mountains.  Now, grasses grow year round, so the elephants can stay and are not killed as frequently by the electric fences of the plantations along their old migration paths.  The practical upshot of this is that there are wild elephants everywhere – among a number of other animals…

Well, I had to say goodbye to Bottle Beach.

I spent a day travelling to Bangkok, then spend 1/2 a day there before another 1/2 a day of air travel thru the “airport inside a mall” in Bangkok and on to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia before arriving in Bangalore, India just before midnight.

My friend Sreekanth picked me up at the airport and took me to his apartment – my new crash pad.

Today we rode around in Bangalore’s legendary traffic during Sreekanth’s lunch break.

I had some excellent tandoori chicken and garlic naan (bread) for lunch at my favorite type of place – a dive that most westerners would never go into… (the orange building in this photo).

Around 5PM, I took my first sitar lesson from an excellent player/teacher named Gopi.

Shortly after the lesson, we crashed an Indian wedding!!!

Actually, it was my friend Gopi from the GAP who happened to be holding his wedding just as I got into town.  It was nice seeing a few of my old co-workers from Columbus.

For all the American girls reading, imagine having a thousand or so people invited to your reception, and you are expected to stand in one spot on a stage while they all line up for their 2 minutes with the new couple…  Gopi and Rangitha were on stage being videotaped for hours!!!

On the other hand, we got to move into the next room and enjoy the food.  I can’t tell you exactly what I had (Sreekanth can), but it was delicious!!!  For all my Indian friends who have ever offered me “sweets” – they actually tasted sweet!!!

Yes – Thai food is better in Thailand, Argentine Steak is better in Buenos Aires, Fergburgers are best in Queenstown, Mexican food is better in L.A., and Indian food is brilliant in India (not so good in Ohio Indian restaurants)!!!!

At the end, a guy was making some chewable snack with leaves and spices.

You basically put it in your mouth like chewing tobacco (sometimes including tobacco) and chew.  It starts tasting like mint, and ends up kind of bitter.

Tomorrow I’m on my own, as Sreekanth actually has to go into the office.  I’ll try to get a pre-paid box to the hostel in Wellington so they can ship my SPOT back to my parents.  I also need to see if the battery latch on the new Olympus u8000 can be repaired (for how much I loved the 1030SW, the u8000 has not impressed me at all).  Then I’ll see some sights before dragging Sreekanth to be the interpreter at my second sItar lesson.