Hampi Pictures

I've let too much time go by without posting more pictures from our trip to Hampi.

I'll spare you the history lesson and let you look at the pictures.  To give you a very high-level overview, the area is thought to be created from volcanoes that eruped under the ocean millions (or maybe even billions) of years ago.  The volcanoes created granite, so pretty much everything you see is granite.

It's amazing that thousands of years ago without the equipment we use today, people built these civilizations that are still standing today.  They think it took 30 or more years to build some of these things.  Can you imagine if we wanted to buid something today and they told us it would take 30 years?  We would say no thank you!

 Ganesh is inside this structure.  Notice the detail on the top.  Also, on the right there is a lady bent over cleaning the grounds.  It gives you a perspective of just how big all of these things were!

Check out this two-story structure. 

 A piece of the mountain broke off and fell on this structure, but it was still standing.  Just this one corner was not 'square' but the rest of the structure looked to be in good shape.

 That temple is probably 13 stories tall, but from this vantage point it doesn't look like it!  It was mostly overcast while we were in Hampi.  That was a good thing because it could have been very hot!

 Check out the crazy eyes on this guy!

 This detail of carving was all over the place!  Here is an example of their hunting techniques.  I found it interesting that in that day many women hunted too.

 This was a water reservoir of sorts.  It's pretty deep - and there were 7 of these on this one site alone!

 The leaders used to go underground into this space to talk about private concerns.  (It had a top and was ultra-secure.)  Our guide told us about it and then asked if we wanted to go down the steep stairs to be inside it.  I emphatically said yes!  Bryan immediately said really? 
We climbed down the stairs and then had to turn into this extremely dark hallway that was really wet to get into the part you can see here.  About half way in I realized that that location is probably a perfect location for the highly poisonous snakes of the area and froze!  At that point it was clear why Bryan was so surprised I wanted to go down there!  Suzanne coaxed me into the open space below.  I'm glad that we went down there, and glad that we got out of there without any unwanted critters!

 We did a lot of climbing these small mountains on Day #2.  We stoped here for a break.  You can see by the red on our foreheads that we visited the temple earlier that day.

 This carriage was not build to move, but rather designed to be a piece of art.  It was really impressive!  We heard it is one of the most popular spots in Hampi.

 This was the entrance.  You can barely see the intricate carvings at the top.

Many Hindu people travel here if they are unable to have a baby or if they are in need of a home.  They tie little bundles to the tree and hope they can have a baby or build little homes at the base of the tree if the yare in need of a home.  If they do have a baby or get a home, then the couple brings their family and friends here for a huge feast.  This picture doesn't really do it justice - there was SO MUCH stuff tied to the tree and on the ground.

 These were Elephant stables for the Elephants.  It seemed to be a very nice place for them.

Veggies, ah veggies

If you know me very well you know that I don't love vegetables.  I will eat them because I know they are good for me but I never think to myself, "Gee, I'd really like some (insert vegetable here)."  My thinking is more along the lines of "Pizza, yeah, that has tomatoes on it.  I don't think we need a vegetable to go with pizza!"

Fruit?  Now fruit is a different story.  I have no problem consuming inappropriately large amounts of fruit!

After finding out that I couldn't have gluten or dairy, I decided I should really try to eat more vegetables.  Ok, maybe I didn't decide that I needed more vegetables, but it was something I could eat so instead of limiting myself even further I thought I should try to consume more vegetables.  Oh, and by consuming them it also meant consuming large amounts of hummus and salad dressing to wash them down.  Whatever it takes, right?

Now that we are in Bangalore I've fallen into my old habits and have not eaten many vegetables.  And, for the past week I've been actually craving them.  (My Mom is never going to believe that I was actually hungry for vegetables!)

On Friday I went out for lunch and ordered a salad.  It was a bit smaller than I would have liked but it was delicious!  It even came with red peppers, tomatoes, and onions on it.  Oh, and it was real lettuce, not just iceberg lettuce. 

About an hour after lunch I became sick.  Really sick.  Laying on the bathroom floor sick.  Hardly getting out of bed sick. 

I've been taking Cipro for more than 24 hours and am hoping that it's going to kick in soon.  In more than 24 hours my main sustenance has been Sprite. 

What I know is that I likely won't be craving vegetables, especially salad, anytime soon! 

See, I knew vegetables were bad for me!

Visiting Hampi

This weekend we traveled about 6 hours north of Bangalore to Hampi.  Hampi is in the same state that Bangalore is in, Kanartaka, but felt like an entirely different place.  It was a much smaller city that bustling Bangalore, but the terrain was different as well.  While Bangalore is flat, Hampi is filled with small mountains of granite. 

Hampi is actually an UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It is the former captial of the Vijayanagara Empire and is located within the ruins of Vijayanagara.  Hampi is an important religious center as it is home to the Virupaksha temple as well as several other monuments. 

We took more than 500 pictures during the two days were were sight seeing so I (quickly) reviewed a few and posted them here.  As I have more time to sort through the pictures and identify them I will update some more.

We went to Hampi with our friend Suzanne who is also living here in Bangalore so you'll see her in some of these pictures.  It was fun to have a travel buddy and share some laughs and memories!

This was a structure built out of granite.  Granite is not easy to carve or shape, but thousands of years ago without the equipment we have now, they cut and lifted the granite to make the amazing structures we saw this weekend.  They created tongue-and-groove joints to ensure that their buildings would be sturdy.  You can see in the picture above just how sturdy those joints are!  A huge bolder broke off and hit the monument but it is still standing.  You can see it is crooked though!

We visited many temples including the one behind me.  I think that one is more than 10 stories high.  I've grown since you saw me last!  Actually, in the background you can see the other large hills/small mountains and I'm standing on top of one for this picture.

You can see the same temple behind Bryan, Suzanne and I.  This time it's a bit closer to scale but not quite right.  You can see the tongue-and-groove joints in this structure though.

 Here are some more pictures to tempt you until I can get captions and label them.

(See - look at all that granite!)

The beauty of India

Bangalore is a huge city, but it doesn't really feel that big (maybe because I don't have to drive myself anywhere and can't really get around without Suresh or walking a short distance from our apartment).  To me, Bangalore feels a lot like Washington D.C.  Bangalore is also called India's Garden City and has the most beautiful flowers and plants. When I stayed in Washington D.C. I thought they did such a good job keeping a lot of plants as the city grew, and the same can be said for Bangalore.

Here are some pictures of flowers and plants we've taken since being here.  Many of these were from our time in Coorg too.

These trees flower with the most beautiful flowers.  They are right next to the pool at the apartment and I love them.  They do drop their flowers somewhat often though, so I'm sure that the pool boys don't love them as much as I do!

Yikes!  Look at the thorns on that plant!  These were at the elephant training camp where there were all sorts of animals wandering around as well as humans.  I can't imagine what it feels like to step on one of those!

These bell flowers were in Coorg and we loved them!

Suresh does a great job of pointing different things out to us, so we are getting quite the stash of agricultural pictures too!  Sometime I'll share the rice paddies, sugarcane, ginger, and more that we've seen!

Coorg – Day 2. Is this what Kim Kardashian feels like?

Day 2 was full of sightseeing including the following:

Nisargadhama (an ecological park) – We started our day at this popular ecological park.  We heard that it had a deer park, boating, and elephant rides.  We visited specifically for the elephant rides.  Once inside this ecological park I felt like I was in 3^rd grade visiting Harry’s Woods in Clarksville IA, just on a smaller scale.  It had the typical river, a lot of trees and benches to sit on, some flora and fauna, and deer.  The deer were huge.  We could have gotten into the river, but I don’t feel any desire to get into a muddy river anywhere so we skipped out on that part!  The biggest drawing card, the elephant rides, was shut down as they did not have any elephants.  Bryan was disappointed but we knew there was another chance to ride an elephant at the Dubare Elephant Camp.

What we did not expect at this ecological park was to be the object of so many people’s desire!  I’ve heard and Bryan has experienced locals wanting to take pictures of or with Americans.  Obviously, we stick out and while there are a good number of expats in Bangalore, we are less common in rural areas.  At first some people approached and asked if they could take our picture.  We happily agreed and went on our merry way.  Then, a group of 6 people wanted our picture and we agreed again.  Bryan was sure that “this” was what Kim Kardashian feels like.  I assured him it was not.  There were a few people who chose to hid behind a tree or not-so-discretely take our picture which was just awkward.  We decided we would much rather have them ask to take our picture.  At the deer park we stumbled onto a larger group of 12 or so people who each needed their picture with us individually and then in random groups.  Really people?  You can’t take our picture and share it with your friends?  At some point we told them we were done taking our picture and walked away.  Then, a tour bus full of high-school age boys noticed us and came charging at us.  We took a picture with the first boy (it pays to be past and observant) and then I told them they would have to ask their friend for the picture.  Then I changed my mind and decided I would rather that they stood back and took our picture while peering from afar!

Dubare Elephant Camp – Since there were no elephants at the ecological park Suresh took us to an elephant training camp that also had whitewater rafting.  I did love whitewater rafting, but again, I’m not doing dirty muddy water and this was more like rafting than white water rafting so we just hit up the elephants.  To get to the elephants we had to take a boat across the river to the training camp.  Bryan really enjoyed riding the elephant with 6 or so of his (now) closest Indian friends as they were really sandwiched on top of the elephant!

Abby Falls – Our last stop of the day was a waterfall.  We drove up a different mountain and Suresh parked and then we walked down the mountain to be at the base of the waterfall.  It was misting but the views were amazing!

Day 2 in Coorg ended as we celebrated our first month in India.  Our time has gone by fast and we are excited to plan some more trips to take in as much as we can before we have to head home.

Coorg – our first weekend trip

Last weekend we went to an area called Coorg, an area 5 hours outside of Bangalore but in the same state, Kanartaka.  The main city is Madikeri, and is a tourist hot spot for relaxation and connecting with nature.

We stayed at a hill station resort that Bryan and I both imagine was similar to staying in a cabin in the mountains in the States.  It had the necessary things like a bed and bathroomand was simple enough to encourage people to  be outside when not sleeping.  We saw a lot and have some great stories, so I’ll post 3-4 separate posts about our trip; Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and a post about the flowers.

We left Bangalore at 7 AM on Saturday morning to begin our treck to Coorg.  Suresh, our driver here in Bangalore, took us and we were thankful to have him as he navigated the congested roads and the roads that were hard to get through.  I don’t know how we managed the whole trip without a flat tire, but Suresh did it!

A bit outside of Coorg is a Golden Tietbetan Temple, Bailkuppe.

This gold-coated Buddhist temple was really unique, and may have been my favorite part of the whole trip.

The photo above is the temple from a distance.  After removing our shoes and getting closer, we were able to see just how ornate this temple was!

We went inside and it was HUGE.  While the intricate paintings surrounded us, the statues and decoration at the front was amazing.

 

  

The grounds were large so we looked around a bit before leaving to meet Suresh to take us the rest of the way to our resort.

The resort price included 4 meals (breakfast, lunch, high tea, and dinner).  The south Indian food was familiar and tasted good.

After checking in and having lunch, Suresh drove us to Talakeveri, where the Cauvery river starts.  It is also home to a popular temple.  As it is monsoon season, and we were outside Bangalore which is protected from the monsoon rains that the rest of the country gets, the rain picked up and the fog set in.  The humidity was high and the visibility was short.  Suresh navigated the partly paved one-lane road with ease, especially when we met other vans, tour busses, and uncareful drivers.  I’ve seen 2 or 3 lanes become 5 or 6 in Bangalore, but imagine driving up a mountain on a windy one-way road that becomes two!  He did it with ease and we made it to each of our destinations safely.  We tried to take pictures, but they look like blobs of white! 

So we headed back towards our cabin. 

We did stop to see the sunset at Raja’s Seat, a famous viewing spot for sunset and sunrise but due to the fog and our inability to find the sun, let alone see it set, we headed home for the night.

Check back soon for posts about Day 2 in Coorg!

Ramblings on our time in Bangalore

I need to start carrying my camera with me so that I can post pictures too.  I’ve been saying that for a few weeks, so let’s hope it lands a permanent position in my purse sometime soon!

Until then, here are some (very textual) updates from Bangalore.

Size & congestion

First, Bryan and I learned from Wikipedia (so take this lightly) that Bangalore is the 16^th largest city in the WORLD.  New York was the largest United States City and it ranked somewhere in the 20’s if I remember correctly.  No wonder it feels so big and seems to have a little of everything.  I don’t mind the size and congestion like I thought I would and I appreciate everything it has to offer because that means there are things like home. 

Butcher

For example, our friends recommended a butcher and I was timid about going because I was preparing myself for an open-air type environment with some carcasses just hanging around.  I was pleasantly surprised as the part of the shop that was exposed to the general public was a counter with a bunch of refrigerators and freezers.  (Obviously, in any butcher shop there are carcasses hanging around, but I am used to them being more hidden and at least refrigerated.)  This meant that it smelled like any butcher would in the States (a smell that I can tolerate) and had a large array of options like chicken cut an way you like as well as chicken sausage, chicken sticks, etc.  I heard it would have some pork, but I was pleasantly surprised to see there was beef!  We got 6 chicken breasts and 1 lb. of beef mince.  Yes, I said beef mince.  You know, the cut of beef also known as ground beef in the states?  That was fresh (read: ground directly from the animal in the back and still warm when they gave it to us.)  I’m happy to report that the beef mince tasted just like it does at home and we haven’t tried the chicken, but I’m not so concerned about that.  I’ll be making many a return visit to this butcher for sure!

Gluten-Free bakery!

Thanks to the wonders of Google and my searching husband, we discovered that there is a Gluten-Free bakery in Bangalore that not only has gluten free but also has dairy free items.  They have bread!  Want to know what else? They have cakes, amazing looking cakes!  We just discovered it today, but you can bet we'll be making a trip sometime soon.  Then, hopefully I can dine on some PB&J sandwiches for lunch instead of some nuts out of my purse.  Things are looking up!  (Oh - BTW - I recognize that I could bring my lunch, and plan to, but this whole food thing has been hard, so we're starting with baby steps and will grow into it as we are here.  We expanded our repertoire to include pizza and spaghetti last week and are going to work on tacos this week.  You see, it IS SLOW but we are making progress!)

Shopping malls

There is a lot of shopping here.  In the forms of malls but also in the forms of stores along the street.  Shopping is everywhere!  (I guess it needs to be with this many people!)  Most people shop at local food stands, but I’ve learned that if you want a big-box grocery store you have to go to a shopping mall, where they are always found.  (I would love to shop at those little stands, but I have special dietary needs (and am spoiled) so it’s the big-box stores for the most part.

The malls are quite large and seem to be just as much about entertainment as they are about shopping.  There are plenty of stores and even some familiar ones, but there are also movie theatres, mazes, wacky mirror rooms (you know, the kind where the mirror makes you look short and squaty), mock race tracks, and the like. 

Things in general are not air conditioned as much, which means that I’m comfortable and Bryan is sweaty, but the mall we went to on Friday night had me sweating, so you know it was warm in there people!  We seemed to be the only people affected by the temperature though, so we just went with it.

We also saw a cigarette vending machine of sorts.  It’s been a long time since we’ve seen one of those!

Government Bureaucracy

As all expats in India must do, we had to register at the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO).  We were blessed because our company got someone to help us navigate through this bureaucratic task, and our friends prepared us for the “worst part of living in India” as they described it to us. Even before we left the States we’ve been sending the requested documentation/information off to be prepared for our FRRO paperwork. When we got here, the emails seemed non-stop and after some very hectic last minute moments, our paperwork was ready and we were informed to appear at the FRRO office by 8:15 AM.  We were prepared for the trip to take the better part of a day so we brought our iPad and Kindle and were set to camp out.  The sun must have been positioned just right as we were in and out with our necessary paperwork by 11:30 AM!

Then, we had to begin the PAN registration, which is some sort of tax registration.  That’s been a hairy mess, and the required elements seem to change by the day.  For example, on Friday I verified where we were supposed to send our information with my contact.  She confirmed.  I sent it via courier as directed only to be told on Monday that I should use a different address as that would be “better.”  Really?  Really people?  My courier is well on his way, and he’ll just drop it off at the location you gave me, ok?

I got a response back (a day later) that yes, since the courier was on his way the address they supplied me would have to work. We’ll hope that we get the PAN stuff done soon!