So it’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything; and trust me there’s plenty to tell you about. Since some of it happened over a week ago and I’ve inhaled enough carbon monoxide to kill an elephant (today alone), I’ll try to recount it all.

It was two weekends ago when another ‘Gore’ (white person) showed up. Yes, here was another lost soul right off the plane. Good thing we have good team members, because though the administrative staff here has been nice, helpful isn’t the first word that comes to mind. Well since Bret was new in town and I had gotten so much help I found it fun to try to share some of that experience with him. So we planned an action packed weekend that would take us through Bangalore and out to some sites in the direction of Mysore.

Well, in Bangalore I was told I had to go see one of the biggest temples here, Iskon. Well yes it is a big temple, and full of the history on the Hare Krishna Movement, but what a tourist trap. I’d show you pictures of the inside but they aren’t allowed. Well after seeing a fairly modern temple and being prayed for, and I’m sure I need it ;-), we were routed to the first stop in the temple where we were asked to sponsor a child. After that we were corralled through some more winding lines to use our book coupon to get some books; what they don’t tell you is the coupon only gives you a discount off the books it doesn’t allow you to get a book a book for free. And on from there we routed to a counter where we could buy food, and then to one where we could buy book stands (for our new books), and then to a place where we could buy jewelry, and then to a place where we could buy statues, and then…. (I think you get the point, hence it was a tourist trap).

Well not to be discouraged, we went on, I took Bret to see Bangalore Palace, I’ve talked about this before so I won’t take you through it again. Just one comment though, for a place they call a palace it’s a shame to see the condition it is in. So after the Palace we got some lunch…. like me at first, Bret wasn’t that hungry (2 weeks later and I think he’s still struggling with the diet). After lunch we went to see Tipu’s Palace. Once again not much of a palace these days and probably modest in its own time, but it is a wooden palace (something I have not seen here besides this one).

On exiting the palace and heading back to the car I ran into some bizarre ritual. Hopefully I caught it… I’ve posted it on Youtube so everyone can see… yeah some bizarre things come out of nowhere here.

After this we rounded off our day with a trip to Lalabrah Gardens. I’ve shown you this as well, but just thought I’d tell you where I went. The good news was the next day we had a little bit more of a trip planned... another KSTDC trip that would take us to seen a Bird Sanctuary, a Kesava Temple, and Cauvery Falls. Well I did get a picture of a bird and a bat, and a butterfly, but outside of that I don’t really have anything to share with you from Ranganathittu (I believe this means bird sanctuary). I actually saw more exotic birds site seeing around this country then I did at the sanctuary.

The next stop was Somanathapur, yes I told you about this place as well, but can I just dwell for a moment on how incredible this temple of more then 800 years in age is. If only the road to this place could hold up like this temple of carved soap stone has. Yes as you might recall, this is the road where we got our first flat tire on my other trip.

After the temple we were off to lunch, I did my best to recommend food for Bret. I enjoyed everything I selected, but Bret played it safe and stuck to the rice. I’ve tried more foods then I can name and most of them have a name that sounds like I said it with my mouth full of the food (at least when I try to pronounce them). So after lunch we were on our way to a beautiful waterfall.

It’s amazing, here 5 rivers come together to create this falls. I was told just a week ago the water was rushing so fiercely that you could not see the rocks. The funniest thing I saw at this place was the warning signs. Yes India loves to put up creative signs… Along the roads you see signs like “Speed Thrills but Kills”, well here they had some others; have a look for yourself.

Well, even though you may see the post before this one, I’ll end this one here and do a new one to tell you about the T20 Tournament (Cricket) and our time in Delhi.