Lions and Tigers and Bears... Oh my

So after the V~~~ Sceince Museum we did some driving around and looked that government buildings, the Capital, High Court, etc. After that we headed out for the Bannerghatta Zoopark. This is a little trek outside the city. On the way I saw some interesting things. Like the car part streets. One whole street had stall after stall just selling tires and the next just car parts. After a 30-40 minute ride outside the city you come to the Zoopark.

It looks quite hectic at first glance there are rows and rows of buses and a row of stalls selling food, much of it cooking over smoky fire pits. The smell of the smoke was very powerful and made me want to grab a fire extinguisher. Even the Indians on the tour with me seemed a bit overwhelmed and they all agreed we should stay together while in the park. They had several different types of Safaris we could go on. Of course we chose the “Grand Safari”.

First off you get your tickets for the safari then you get in a line where a guard stamps your ticket, then you get in another line where another guard stamps your ticket again and then… you get in a third line where a guy tears your ticket. Only then do you get on the bus that takes you around the park.

The park is set up along the lines of the Safari parks in the US. You get in a bus and they drive you in the various areas where you can see the animals roaming about almost like they were in the wild. The first enclosure we came to had buffalo, deer and boars and the driver dutifully stopped the bus so that we could snap some photos of the “wild animals”.

After that we came to the Bear enclosure where a bear was standing in the middle of the road. He took quite a while to demonstrate that there are some things that bears do on the road and not in the woods (notice the trail behind him… he was a well hydrated bear). We had plenty of time to photograph the bear. We then moved on to the rest of the bear enclosure and one bear climbed the very small trree. After the bears we saw the lions, then regular tigers and then the white tigers. All of the enclosures were fairly similar.
After that we headed back to the buses for the journey home(which I have covered previously) Well I have one more day in the office and then I leave for Goa. Three days of fun in the sun. I will be out of communication for those days but will try to give a report before I leave for the states!

Sightseeing Part 3

Sorry, it's been a while. I managed to come down with a cold on Tuesday and am just now getting to feel human again. It's been quite hot in India lately. I am sure we all know what a joy getting a cold in hot weather is so I won't elaborate on the fun I have had for the last few days.

Where was I? Oh we had just just completed the shoeless portion of the tour and we moved on to Tipu's Summer Cottage... sorry Palace. Seriously though even the guidebook I have called it small and dilapidated. It's a small building on a very neatly manicured grounds. It's a columned building. I guess it is no where near the grandeur of Tipu's Palace in Mysore.

After that we went to the Karnataka Silk Emporium where we were given a 1/2 an hour to shop. This is a thing to be seen. It's a small building and the men who work there all stand on this platform in front of the shelves and shelves of silks. You sit down on these chairs and they start pulling out the most beautiful fabrics. Silks with brocades and embroideries, etc.

I decided to have a silk Kurti made. First I had to pick a silk, then he showed me a book of photos of different designs and then we talked about how it could be embroidered. The whole process took more than the 1/2 I was allotted on the tour so the tour moved on without me. After I completed my purchase and the man promised to have it ready by Wednesday(I got it on Saturday only4 days late!) the tour operator came back to pick me up and take me to Lalbagh Gardens.

Since I was late arriving at Lalbagh I got the "speed" tour of the gardens. Keep in mind that it is about noon on a hot India day and I have been in a non A/C tour bus for 5 hours. Now this tour guide is taking me on a tour of the gardens at a jog. I am trotting behind him and snapping photos as I walk. The gardens are quite large and by the time we completed the circuit of them I was dripping in sweat and out of breath. Just when I think we are going to stop so I can catch my breath he points to this giant rock. "Kempe Gowda Tower" he says "Go climb and you will see 20% of Bangalore". I am thinking to myself "if I climb the giant rock I will pass out from heat exhaustion" but my zealous guide will not take "imminent medical emergency" for an answer. I am obliged to climb the rock.

From the top of the rock you do get a nice view of the area. Of all the sights I saw, the Lalbagh Gardens is the one I would most like to spend more time at. They really were quite pretty and looked to be a place where people would spend an afternoon hanging out. Also there were monkeys in the park. Not caged monkeys but real wild monkeys. (there are more photos of the tour in my photobuck account to double click on the "India Photos" to the right.

After my sprint thru the Gardens we went to our next destination the Science Museum. It's the Indian equivalent of the Science Museums we have in the US. Intended primarily for kids it had lots of replicas of machines and an animatronic Dinosaur. After that we put into a restaurant for lunch. To be continued...

Sightseeing Part 2: The Temples

So yesterday I talked about the overall tour itself now let’s talk about the actual sights I saw. The first place we went when we actually started the tour was ISKON Temple. ISKON Temple is the international headquarters of the Hare Krishnas. For those that don’t remember them or haven’t seen Airplane the Hare Krishna’s are the people who just to sell flowers at the airports until that was banned. The ISKON Temple is partially a product of all those flower selling endeavors. It is a giant structure that looks like you split a glass and steel building in half and inserted a Hindu temple in the middle.

I didn’t understand everything the guide said about it but it has 4 temples that have gold statues and was built at a cost of 40 million blah (I couldn’t understand if he said Rupees or Dollars). They are most determined to protect all that gold because they require that you check your camera at the entrance of the temple. Then you have to got thru an Airport like security check (remember my mistake of going thru the Tel Aviv security? About like that). Now I know that many Indian Temples don’t allow photos of the inside but really… confiscating my camera? Making me check it with some guy who hung it on a hook? My NEW camera?

I don’t want to really give a flavor of what the temple is like so I will apologize if any Hindus find this description irreligious. As soon as we entered the Temple I was reminded of Walt Disney World, specifically the It’s a Small World ride. You know how in Disney parks you are fed into a line that curves back and forth? Well that is the same setup that the ISKON temple has. Also, when you are waiting in line at Disney World for the It’s A Small World ride you hear the “It’s a Small World” playing over and over again on the loud speakers? Well at the ISKON Temple they have “Hare Krishna” playing over and over. For those that don’t know this catchy tune it goes “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare” repeat that line over and over. Just like the “It’s a Small World” song after about 2 minutes of that you can’t get the song out of your head.

As you wind thru the lines you see signs everywhere “Beware of Pickpockets” which is a bit strange for religious site. The line winds you thru the four Temples. After you wind thru the fourth temple the line sends you into a huge gift shop (that you also have to wind thru) just like Disney World ride always spits you out into the gift shop. The gift shop had books, DVDs, idols, jewelry… etc… everything but the ubiquitous T-shirt. Then if you make it thru the gift shop you are kicked back into the line to pick up your checked camera and out the temple. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the temple due the the confiscation of my camera.

After we left the ISKON Temple we went to see a more traditional Indian temple the Nandi Bull Temple. I really liked the Bull Temple. It had a warmer more earthy atomosphere. Of course it has a really big carving of a Bull. The bull is carved out of a single block of granite. It’s really white granite but has been turned black by the oil the rub on it. The bull is really rather cool looking. Based on my recent discoveries about Cows and Oxen... I beleive this is an OX... I checked and it has hump.

That concluded the Temple section of the tour and I was glad because it meant I could put my shoes on. Indian temples don’t allow footwear. I don’t mind shucking my shoes at the

entrance but the ISKON temple makes you check your shoes at the beginning of the line so you have to walk thru the whole switchback line system barefoot on granite. Why do they put carved lines in granite when you know people will be barefoot? Anyway that is all for today. Tomorrow some of the other sights.

Retraction

Ok, before I go on to post anything about my tour I feel I print a retraction on an inacuracy in my earlier posts. Apparently there are complexities of bovine taxonomy of which I was unaware and when I reported that this picture was a cow I was wrong. I have been advised that this is in fact an Ox not a cow. How can you tell? See the hump on it's neck? Apparently that indicates it's an Ox. So if you are looking what you think is a hunchbacked cow it may be an Ox instead.

See this one has no hump and is therefore a Cow. What can I say I am just a simple city girl and I always thought if it walked like a cow and smelled like a cow it's a cow. I would like to hereby apologize to any cows/oxen I may have offended with my incorrect species identification. I am happy to report, however that the chickens I saw were in fact chickens so I didn't completely fail Farm Animals 101.

Bangalore Sights... Part One

Well, I am happy to report I made it on the sightseeing trip of Bangalore. I managed to get up at a truly unfortunate hour of the morning. I walked down to the tour company and waited for my bus. I did get to use my very first Indian Payphone when I had to call the company to see why the bus late. I was expecting a nice big deluxe coach but what arrived was a smallish un-air conditioned mini bus. Undeterred I board the bus for my 12 hour tour... (think Gilligan's Island and sing in an ominous voice... ) 12 HOUR tour.

One of the convenient things I liked about this tour when I bought my ticket was that it picked me up right where the tour company was. What I didn't stop to think was that it picked EVERYONE up at the tour company they bought their ticket at. Thus the first 2 hours of my tour were the "Pick up" stage where we drove around the city. As a matter fact we often came right back to the same spot so I saw this view at least 3-4 times. It might have been better sleeping in and getting a cab to this spot.
Anyway, we finally started the tour at 9 am or so the driver said. I don't know because I don't have a watch with me in India. I also don't have a cell phone either. A cell phone would be nice because the driver took down every one's number and would call them if they weren't getting to the bus on time. One thing that would be useful that I did not opt to do was rent a cell phone with a local number. You wouldn't believe how useful that could prove. India is definitely part of the cell phone revolution.

Well I don't have time to talk about all the sights I saw while in Bangalore and it will take some time to upload all the photos so I will have to do this in sections. Right now let's just talk about the overall tour, huh? Well to start off, I was the only non-Indian on the tour. As a matter of fact, I was one of the few non-Indians I saw all day. Usually when you to on tours you see some people from other countries but I saw fewer than 10 non-Indians all day.

Being the only American on board the tour made it a little strange because I couldn't understand the majority of the announcements. Oh the guide would try to remember to tell me in English what he just said but honestly it's wasn't much of an improvement over the Hindi(I am assuming it was Hindi. He could have been speaking Kannada) version. Listening to the Hindi I would hear... blah blah blah... then he would translate for me and I got blah blah Football Stadium blah blah. I will say the poor boy tried. He seemed most determined not to lose me... I think losing the foreign tourist might be bad for business.

Of course the worst part of the tour was that the bus not air conditioned and yes it is quite hot this time of year in India. You get dumped off the bus at a stop where you need to move a brisk pace to see everything so you are already sweating when you get back to the hot bus. Oh the windows were open and once we were on the road again enough air would be blowing into the bus to dry your sweat just in time for the next stop.

Of course India is a dusty country (dusty being a euphemism) and it seemed like every I went there was something burning. Either Incense, or some stall grilling corn over a very smoky pit or just trash burning so by the end of the tour I felt dirty: nasty, been camping in the woods for a week with bears, dirty. I had all that sweat and dirt and smoke dried on my face and in my hair. I was really rather glad to find the tour was over and get on the road back to the city.

Of course, now we get to reverse the pick procedures from the morning. Wouldn't you know I was the first picked up? Guess what... first on... last off. Their system of dropping people off made me nuts because it seems liked we were getting so close to the area where I needed to be dropped off then we would go in the opposite direction for 20 minutes to drop someone off. I was reaching that tired/dirty/wanna go home psycho point. I think we have all felt it right? Where you just want to get back home and take a shower and anything that gets in your way is toast? I had seriously just about given up on the idea they might actually take me back where I started and was about to have a psycho ninja female fit on them when.... suddenly... out of the blue there was the street I was picked up on.

Well I was so excited to finally get to go home I practiacally RAN back to the apartment. Completely forgetting the fine construction of Indian sidewalks (complete sarcasm if you can't tell). There was a pipe right across the sidewalk that I didn't see. I tripped on that and did one of those cool turning, twisting tricks skateboarders do(a back spinning 360 with Indy grab dude. It was TOTALLY WICKED)... only without the skateboard... and wiped out on the pavement. I am fine. I just scraped my knee and my hand. That didn't deter me from continuing my breakneck pace back to civilization. I should have learned something because I almost went right into the OPEN pit on the corner of 100 Ft Road and 12th Main.

Needless to say... after I got into the apartment, I took the most heavenly bath... and used 1/2 container of bath wash. Ahhhhhh... I felt human again almost immediately... Tomorrow. We will talk about the actual sights I saw.

Run Chicken Run!!!

I really have to make this a very fast post. I do have tickets for a tour in the morning of Bangalore. It leaves at the unfortunate hour of 7am. I know, by now, I have promised pictures of bangalore for WEEKS now. Everyone is probably pretty sick of my saying I am going and then seeing nothing the next day but yet another picture of a COW. This time I really am going. I have tickets booked... all I have to do is walk down to the tour agency and get on the bus. At 7AM... which means I need to leave by 6a (just to be safe) which means I have to get UP at 5am. Anyone who knows me knows this is a painful, painful thing for me to have to do. I will have to be going to bed... like an hour ago. LOL

Today, I did do some walking in a new area. I went to 80 foot road. Now you have heard of 100 foot road well that is considerably longer than 100 feet. The 80 Foot Rd runs parallell to it and is slightly shorty. This has a lot more Indian shops rather than the internation labels stores that are on 100 foot road. There is a small road that turns off the 80 foot road that had litterally tons of small stall like shops that are usually selling one single type of product but you can buy anything including a kitchen sink (they had a store that just sold kitchen sinks.).

Down this road I found a little stall that sold tours of the city... and that is where I bought my tickets for the bus tour. YAY! Fingers crossed. I also was noticing an increased variety of live stock. I saw goats and then I saw these chickens just strutting down the street. Wow I thought Chickens just out on the street like that. How interesting.

Then the very next shop I came to was the chicken shop. Where they had chickens in little coops and people were buying them... and I don't think for pets. I don't know why there were two loose chickens roaming around by the shop but now would really be a good time for them to think of a good punchline to the "Why did the chicken cross the road?" joke. Especially since if you zoom in on the Chicken shop sign it says "the tastiest chickens in the world"... I don't know. Maybe the lose ones were not making the grade? They didn't look like world class tasty chickens to me. Maybe they are chicken outcasts (like the Foster Farms commercials...)

Buy for now... I have to sleep so I can get up at the crack of dawn... (hey maybe I should have snatched up that rooster to wake me up?). Tomorrow... Tour of Bangalore...

No KFC/Pizzahut

I feel I need to explain the KFC picture. You see Brett and Mark were in terror that I might spend my entire six weeks in India ordering Pizzahut and KFC... so naturally I had to take a picture of the first KFC/Pizzahut I saw. Why... Cuz that is just the way I am. I still haven't had any KFC (I am a Popeyes girl anyway) and the only Pizzahut I have had THEY ordered for me when I first arrived. Perhaps they were sublimating their OWN desire for Pizzahut by ordering it for me?

Which is not to imply I am eating Indian food 24/7. I mostly save that for one meal a day but with so many International restaurants around who needs KFC? Overall, I have to say I have liked the vast majority of the Indian food I have tried. Masala Dosa... is heavenly. It is a breakfast food and my freaky shift thwarts my craving for it. (Think crispy crepe filled with potatos). Anything the give me in a roll is great. Briyani in it's many incarnations has been awesome. They Indian do tend towards the extremes of flavor. Their spicy foods are spicy and the sweets tend toward extreme sweet. The two foods I honestly HAVEN'T liked were the pickled red stuff (I don't know the name) that managed to be both very vinegary and hot at the same time. My tongue just threw up it's taste buds and said "make up your mind". The other thing I didn't like was "Gulab Jamoon" partly because I misunderstood the description. I was expecting some crispy sweet balls... and what I got were soggy sweet balls. Never in life when you are expecting crispy balls will soggy ones do. It's just a fact of life. On that note I will end this post...

And I still haven't order Pizzahut or KFC... ;)

Foiled Again...

By now I am sure you are all expecting an exciting blog about my tour of Bangalore on Sunday? Well... it didn't really happen that way. First off I slept in until mid afternoon on Saturday (after getting off at 7am Saturday morning). I got up, got dressed, called a cab... waited for the cab... got in the cab... the cab driver got lost. Then he did something totally unexpected... He got out of the cab and asked for directions. A man asking for directions... can you imagine? Only in India!!

Anyway, I finally got to the Hard rock and got a table. Now I have been warned that there is no good Mexican food anywhere in India. You know how if someone says "Don't scratch your head... your head immediately itches?" Since I was told there is not Mexican food to be had I have been craving it. I ordered the Chicken Fajitas. I probably should have ordered something else. Strange how a country that has several tortilla like food products of it's own doesn't know what to do with a Tortilla. Mine was both cold and hard... not warm and soft. The chicken tasted mostly of lemon but no spices (which is strange because Indians KNOW spices). So I can say you can't get good Mexican food in India. You can get a great Pina Colada... or two... or...

Their merchandising section was a bit of a let down as there were only a few different pins. Once again I came up against the Indian sizing chart. Which has me right on the very edge of the chart about to fall off. Finally, when I was ready to leave I had them call me a cab... and about 40 minutes later it arrived. I think i ust should have hailed a Auto Rickshaw but live and learn.

I overslept on Sunday and by the time I got up, got dressed and called a cab... waited for the cab... thought the cab had arrived and gone downstairs... realized it hadn't and gone upstairs just as they were calling me for directions and just missed the drivers call... well after all that it was too late to make the tour bus. Dang it.

I almost feel the sightseeing gods are against me. First I got sick, then I overslept. Well I will try again this weekend. I will SEE THIS CITY!!! Of course, we are supposed to have Thunderstorms on Sunday. I don't care. I will see it in the rain!

Now I am 1/2 way thru my trip and I can start to say there are things I am missing from home. My cell phone. I never thought I would say I would miss my cell phone but when you have to take a cab everywhere, order your food either take out or delivery... a cell phone would be nice.
My car. I miss doing a yahoo map and getting in my car to drive somewhere without having to wait for someone to pick me up.
My Dog and Cats. I miss cuddling my critters.
Mexican Food. I really am missing mexican food, especially after the Hard Rock debacle. Could someone PLEASE Fedex me a Chipotle Burrito? With Guacamole and sour cream? Thanks.

How Now Brown Cow

Not to seem cow obsessed... but here is yet another 'cow' picture. During the week I don't have time to go many places so I amuse myself with photgraphing the "ordinary". You know when I was a kid and we would go camping being the first person to see a deer was a big deal. The person that saw the first deer on the way to the campground would get a quarter. One time my Mom pretended she saw a deer when it really was a cow. I got very excited for her... Oooh Mom won the quarter. At that point she really couldn't back track and say it was a cow. Boy if I had a quarter for every cow I saw... well let's see at 50 rupees for a dollar... a quarter would be 12.5 rupees times the Average Per Day Cow Sighting... let's see carry the 1... Well let's just say, I could live off the proceeds of cow sightings alone.

However, having seen stray dogs by the dozen, cows by the herd... but here is a new one. Last night I saw a stray horse. At least I think it was a stray... it was just trotting by itself down the middle of the street in the middle of the night. It could have been making it's great escape.

I uploaded some new pictures to my album. This weekend I have a happening agenda!! I am going to go to the Hard Rock Cafe... Not because I am craving American food but because I collect Hard Rock Pins so I have to get some in every city I visit that has a Hard Rock. I think I will do that Saturday(maybe have lunch there) then Sunday I am planning to take a bus tour of Bangalore. That should also be interesting.

Oh, also Sai Babba has changed his outfit again to day... He is resplendant in a lovely silver brocade that really brings out the color of his... well... it really shows off his lack of color in an attractive way.

Have YOU seen a cow today?

Take two beauty products and call me in the morning.

Well today, I had the unforgettable experience of trying to buy drugs in India... no not THOSE KIND (tsk tsk... ), I just wanted some plan old fashioned headache medicine. I brought my whole home pharmacy EXCEPT I don't have any Tylenol or Advil. Today I had a headache and thought I need to pick some up. First I stopped at the grocery store thinking they might have some basic meds but they didn't. Then I went to this store down the street that clearly said on it's sign Medicines. Ah, I thought a pharmacy!! YAY!

My brief perusal of the shelves showed they had ointments and bandaids but not even a singe children's aspirin. I decided to ask the sales person for help. "Hello. I have a headache... do you have any Tylenol, or Ibuprofen?" I got a blank look and could hear the sound of silence so I tried the "universal" symbol for headache. I held my head and said "I have a headache". Ah the light bulb comes on... "madam over here" and I am taken to an aisle with face creams. "Face cream Madam?".

"No", again, I say "I have a headache" at this point as second sales person comes along listens to my tale and with looks at me with a face that absolutely glows with comprehension of my needs "Ah Madam needs Shampoo over here." Needless to say at this point my headache is getting worse and each time I explain what I need I gain another salesperson who is trying to help me. After we had gone thru every product that can go on or near your head, I have a crowd of 5 salepeople and I am doggedly listing off every possible type of pain releiver there is "Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Advil, Motrin, Aspirin, Bayer.... etc". I finally get a saleperson who take me to the back and whips out a tiny bubble strip of tablets that, on the back, magically say "Ibuprofen". Of course it's only a pitiful 10 tablets (geez no 300 pill bottles? After all that?) but I am happy enough just to GET 10 tablets so I happily take them up to the counter.

Ah... alls well that ends well, huh? No it's not over yet. They go to ring up my purchase and after two or three minutes of staring blankly at the screen the cashier informs me that I am not purchasing enough to buy the pills. It seems that my pitiful 10 ibuprofen are only 3.47 rupees and their minimum purchase is 10 Rupees. I say "Great get me 3 more of those strips and I will be fine!" Uh... No you need to buy 10 rupees (at this point I am shown a chapstick) if you buy this you will have 10 rupees. No I said... I can buy more 3 strips of the pills then it will be over 10 rupees. Anyway after about 5 more minutes I convinced them that to sell me more ibuprofen (which at this point I really needed) and headed home.