Complete set of pics from day including both temples, the palace, the bird sanctuary and some random pics taken from the car of life in rural India. Be sure to view in slideshow.
Well, to be more accurate: Temples and Palaces and Crocodiles oh my! Not to mention the monkeys (see above me in pic to the left).
First of 3 days off. They are preparing for Guruji’s birthday. I woke up at my usual 5AM and got ready for a big excursion (I’d suggest the slideshow feature to view the pics). I met Kelly and Eva at 7AM at Anu’s and took off in what looked to be a 1970’s vintage mercedes. The good news was that it was nice and roomy. The bad news is that it had never had its shock absorbers replaced. “Fasten your seat belts girls, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!”
Our first stop was Somnathpur Temple about 33 kilometers outside of Bangalore. It took an hour to drive that 33 kilometers. Driving through rural India is an experience. Really, similar to Mysore but on a smaller scale. Villages with dusty streets, few or now sidewalks / footpaths, lots of dust, lots of trash, shops selling all sorts of colourful wares and people everywhere. Lots of oxen drawn carts (the one I really wished I’d gotten a picture of is the oxen drawn cart carrying two motorcycles! Analog vs digital. :)
I saw a number of people working fields of all kinds. Some of them looked like wheat but could have been ragi or finger millet, a type of millet high in protein. Others were definitely lentils or dal and still others rice. We kept driving over patches of what looked like hay that had fallen off of a cart. Our driver made no attempt to avoid these patches even though there were obviously people tending to them. At first I thought that was rude, then I realised there were too many of them for them to have been accidental spillages. I asked the driver, who’s english was pretty good and he said that it was dal. They put the dal on the road and let the cars separate the lentils from the stalks! That’s using mechanisation in a non mechanised world!
Many of these fields had streams running beside them and 2 or 3 times I saw lots of brightly coloured sarees laying out to dry. The woman had obviously washed their clothes in the stream and were drying them on the tops of the plants. It was actually quite beautiful.
We got there an hour before the temple opened. I didn’t really want to get out of the car because as soon as we pulled up half the village approached us with their hands out and I knew I didn’t have enough 10 rupee notes with me to satisfy everyone (note to self...stock up on 10 rupee notes whenever you sight see....although it’s always a bit of a mission to have enough of these for day to day living).
Not to worry, our driver assured us. Another temple, much newer (well the one we were waiting to see was built in 1268 so that wouldn’t have been hard) just down the road. We were keen to walk as it looked like quite a nice walk but our driver insisted on doing what he was hired for...down a grass track with more pot holes that you could count (did I mention the lack of shocks on the car?) We were a bit afraid of a flat and God only know whether or not he had a spare, but he made it without any problems. The temple was small and very brightly painted with a couple of small rooms with deities that I was not familiar with. There was a state of a snake and a big golden pole. I should be able to relate what all of these are as there was a very nice older gentleman that insisted on giving us a tour (for a donation of course). He was teaching a young brahmin boy and would punctuate his tour by asking the boy to fetch him certain things, like a photo album of obviously some big dignitaries visiting the temple when it was opened (about 6 years ago from what I could ascertain), a couple of flyers describing God knows what, a few bananas and a bag of sweets. He spent an our with us and was very thorough so I should be able to tell you all about what I was seeing, but I can’t because I did not understand a single thing he said! I think Eva and Kelly got some of it but I got not a word. It was a lovely spot and a lovely temple so I enjoyed my time there nonetheless.
Onto the main temple then. Interestingly the admission was 5 rupees for Indian citizens and 100 rupees for all foreigners. That seems to be the going rate everywhere we went today.
This temple was absolutely stunning! Incredibly intricately carved with a main structure around the perimeter wish small pooja or prayer rooms running every few feet and a smaller inner structure that was absolutely gorgeous. Some of the carvings were quite interesting as they depicted couples having sex. Well, I guess India is the land of the Kama Sutra.
It was so peaceful there. Very few people. Just lovely.
After about an hour of wandering around we were off again. Our next stop was the summer palace of Tippu Sultan (after another hour long drive through rural India). Apparently Karnataka, the state we are in was ruled for centuries by the Wodeyer dynasty except for 30 years when it was usurped by Tippu Sultan and his father before him. This palace is known for the fact that every inch is covered with paintings. In it’s day it must have been quite magnificent, but now it’s decaying and I found it quit sad. There were other historical artifacts and paintings that were so poorly lit you could barely see them.
After another short drive we found ourselves in a fort. Apparently this was built on a river fork so they made it into an island by closing off the land side and building fortresses on the river banks. There were several items of interest in here but we just stopped at the dungeon where Tippu Sultan kept many British prisoners (some for up to 7 years). This didn’t look like any fun as they prisoners were chained standing with their arms outstretched between two pegs. During the rainy season the dungeon would fill with water covering some prisoners to the neck, according to our unofficial tour guide (we found out he was unofficial after he gave us the tour and asked us for a handout). You have to wonder though what happened to the shorter of the prisoners...
That treatment pissed off more than one British soldier which eventually let to Tippu Sultan's undoing...the site where his body was found was marked a fee hundred meters from the dungeon.
Our next stop was another larger temple. The Ranganathaswamy Temple is apparently quite famous and is much more active with lots of shops selling their wares along with people hawking everything from wooden flutes, bracelets and small deities. It’s hard to get rid of these guys they get right in your face. Not to mention the beggars. Needless to say I was out of 10 rupee notes and one of the other girls had to pay the bakshish (bribe) to get our shoes back after seeing the temple.
This temple was okay, but I didn’t like it nearly as much as the other. What was interesting was the monkeys...obviously well fed monkeys by their pictures.
Our last and my favourite stop of the day was the Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary. This was lovely! You didn’t really see any birds unless you were on the river, so we paid 500 rupees for a private boat (to the chaigrin of the many Indians waiting for the public boat which was filled to capacity).
It was brilliant! We say plovers and courmarants and storks and all sorts of birds. Not to mention a number of fresh water crocodiles!!!!! That was cool. Got some great pics of birds.
More importantly for that 1/2 hour on the river I felt normal again. It’s amazing what being in nature does for me. It grounds me and brings me back to what’s real. It centers me and makes me feel good about myself and the world. I loved it!
Back home for a light meal of fruit salad. I was soooo tired and strung out at the same time! An adventure like that at home would be one thing, but here it’s just exhausting!!!!!
Our first stop was Somnathpur Temple about 33 kilometers outside of Bangalore. It took an hour to drive that 33 kilometers. Driving through rural India is an experience. Really, similar to Mysore but on a smaller scale. Villages with dusty streets, few or now sidewalks / footpaths, lots of dust, lots of trash, shops selling all sorts of colourful wares and people everywhere. Lots of oxen drawn carts (the one I really wished I’d gotten a picture of is the oxen drawn cart carrying two motorcycles! Analog vs digital. :)
I saw a number of people working fields of all kinds. Some of them looked like wheat but could have been ragi or finger millet, a type of millet high in protein. Others were definitely lentils or dal and still others rice. We kept driving over patches of what looked like hay that had fallen off of a cart. Our driver made no attempt to avoid these patches even though there were obviously people tending to them. At first I thought that was rude, then I realised there were too many of them for them to have been accidental spillages. I asked the driver, who’s english was pretty good and he said that it was dal. They put the dal on the road and let the cars separate the lentils from the stalks! That’s using mechanisation in a non mechanised world!
Many of these fields had streams running beside them and 2 or 3 times I saw lots of brightly coloured sarees laying out to dry. The woman had obviously washed their clothes in the stream and were drying them on the tops of the plants. It was actually quite beautiful.
We got there an hour before the temple opened. I didn’t really want to get out of the car because as soon as we pulled up half the village approached us with their hands out and I knew I didn’t have enough 10 rupee notes with me to satisfy everyone (note to self...stock up on 10 rupee notes whenever you sight see....although it’s always a bit of a mission to have enough of these for day to day living).
Not to worry, our driver assured us. Another temple, much newer (well the one we were waiting to see was built in 1268 so that wouldn’t have been hard) just down the road. We were keen to walk as it looked like quite a nice walk but our driver insisted on doing what he was hired for...down a grass track with more pot holes that you could count (did I mention the lack of shocks on the car?) We were a bit afraid of a flat and God only know whether or not he had a spare, but he made it without any problems. The temple was small and very brightly painted with a couple of small rooms with deities that I was not familiar with. There was a state of a snake and a big golden pole. I should be able to relate what all of these are as there was a very nice older gentleman that insisted on giving us a tour (for a donation of course). He was teaching a young brahmin boy and would punctuate his tour by asking the boy to fetch him certain things, like a photo album of obviously some big dignitaries visiting the temple when it was opened (about 6 years ago from what I could ascertain), a couple of flyers describing God knows what, a few bananas and a bag of sweets. He spent an our with us and was very thorough so I should be able to tell you all about what I was seeing, but I can’t because I did not understand a single thing he said! I think Eva and Kelly got some of it but I got not a word. It was a lovely spot and a lovely temple so I enjoyed my time there nonetheless.
Onto the main temple then. Interestingly the admission was 5 rupees for Indian citizens and 100 rupees for all foreigners. That seems to be the going rate everywhere we went today.
This temple was absolutely stunning! Incredibly intricately carved with a main structure around the perimeter wish small pooja or prayer rooms running every few feet and a smaller inner structure that was absolutely gorgeous. Some of the carvings were quite interesting as they depicted couples having sex. Well, I guess India is the land of the Kama Sutra.
It was so peaceful there. Very few people. Just lovely.
After about an hour of wandering around we were off again. Our next stop was the summer palace of Tippu Sultan (after another hour long drive through rural India). Apparently Karnataka, the state we are in was ruled for centuries by the Wodeyer dynasty except for 30 years when it was usurped by Tippu Sultan and his father before him. This palace is known for the fact that every inch is covered with paintings. In it’s day it must have been quite magnificent, but now it’s decaying and I found it quit sad. There were other historical artifacts and paintings that were so poorly lit you could barely see them.
After another short drive we found ourselves in a fort. Apparently this was built on a river fork so they made it into an island by closing off the land side and building fortresses on the river banks. There were several items of interest in here but we just stopped at the dungeon where Tippu Sultan kept many British prisoners (some for up to 7 years). This didn’t look like any fun as they prisoners were chained standing with their arms outstretched between two pegs. During the rainy season the dungeon would fill with water covering some prisoners to the neck, according to our unofficial tour guide (we found out he was unofficial after he gave us the tour and asked us for a handout). You have to wonder though what happened to the shorter of the prisoners...
That treatment pissed off more than one British soldier which eventually let to Tippu Sultan's undoing...the site where his body was found was marked a fee hundred meters from the dungeon.
Our next stop was another larger temple. The Ranganathaswamy Temple is apparently quite famous and is much more active with lots of shops selling their wares along with people hawking everything from wooden flutes, bracelets and small deities. It’s hard to get rid of these guys they get right in your face. Not to mention the beggars. Needless to say I was out of 10 rupee notes and one of the other girls had to pay the bakshish (bribe) to get our shoes back after seeing the temple.
This temple was okay, but I didn’t like it nearly as much as the other. What was interesting was the monkeys...obviously well fed monkeys by their pictures.
Our last and my favourite stop of the day was the Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary. This was lovely! You didn’t really see any birds unless you were on the river, so we paid 500 rupees for a private boat (to the chaigrin of the many Indians waiting for the public boat which was filled to capacity).
It was brilliant! We say plovers and courmarants and storks and all sorts of birds. Not to mention a number of fresh water crocodiles!!!!! That was cool. Got some great pics of birds.
More importantly for that 1/2 hour on the river I felt normal again. It’s amazing what being in nature does for me. It grounds me and brings me back to what’s real. It centers me and makes me feel good about myself and the world. I loved it!
Back home for a light meal of fruit salad. I was soooo tired and strung out at the same time! An adventure like that at home would be one thing, but here it’s just exhausting!!!!!
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