Mysore to Trivandrum, Kerala January 31, 2009

It was a long haul from Bangalore to our Ashram near Trivandrum, Kerala.  We took one pleasant bus to Mysore, a colonial town with an impressive but  slightly gaudy palace.  We slept in the girl’s dorm of a youth hostel in the ‘burbs surrounded by engineering professors.

The eight hour bus to Mangalore started with Marci and I having to sit on our bags as the bus swerved and bumped along well over capacity.  We wove up into the Western Ghats then survived a joyride down to the coast going ~40 MPH along potholed, hairpin curves.   Mangalore was hot and grungy; a pretty miserable pit stop when sandwiched between cross-country train and bus trips.  The train was a refuge with air conditioning and a place to put our bags under the seat.  A Keralan guy was in our berth who attmepted to teach us the Malayalam language of Kerala along with serious head bobbling and “tsk-ing.”   We’ll need to do alot of practicing at the Ashram…

Bangalore, Karnataka January 31, 2009

I introduced Marci to the Indian Railway System in style – we rode 2AC from Hospet to Bangalore in a private berth for two.  Upon arrival to Bangalore (the Silicon Valley of India) , we spent our one frustration of the day early on the rickshaw drivers and unhelpful hotel operators.  Luckily we found refuge in a great hotel on MG Road and my love for Bangalore grew from there. 

The city itself is large but feels less bustly.  The people are kind and relaxed, the weather pleasant and best of all, no one is interested in us as foreigners. 

The K.C. City market was the highlight of the day.  Miles of street vendors sold everything from dinky kids toys to economy-size woks.  Emerging from the darkness of the market warehouse, we stumbled across the colorful flower market.  In the best smelling place in India, rows and rows of men and women strung together yards of multi-colored flowers.

After traditional India, we headed straight to capitalism in Bangalore.  In one rickshaw ride we drove from squatting women selling rope to suited camera salesmen in the Sony Store.  Along with constant coffee shop visits, we got our America fill eating at the mall and seeing an energetic and very real interpretation of India at the cinema: Slumdog Millionaire (a must see!) 

We had big plans of a night on the town with cocktails and other urban pleasures but our Backgammon addiction got the best of us:

 

To the Rocks… January 31, 2009

Remo (Swiss), Marci and I hiked out to the rocks by Hampi’s “reservior” to swim and camp. We bouldered a bit until sunset, built a fast burning fire then cuddled up on our crash mats to sleep. We woke a bit chilled but just in time to see the sun’s blood red color sprinkling the lake with light.

Marci hiked out the first day and Remo and I continued on for the long haul adding Herbert (Austrian), Kooka (Finnish) and Ronja (German). We scampered through the valleys surrounding the lake until we found our beloved cave atop a high plateau.

We spent the next three days bouldering and swimming at dawn and dusk and watching the sun heat the rounded Hampi rocks from the salvation of our cave by day.