008 A-Temple-Hoppin'

Another eventful day today! We started by leaving Kabini bright and early this morning, for a famous local temple called the Shri Chamundeshwari Temple. The atmosphere was vibrant and loud, as most of India is, and the lot of us just soaked it all in.

There were hundreds of people milling around waiting to worship in the temple, and there were plenty of cows walking around, very much ignored by everybody.

Milling around.

Just hanging out, no big deal.

I think it so intriguing that a multitude of livestock – chickens, cows, and goats – have the freedom to walk around undisturbed. In any case, the temple was beautiful. Like all other architecture we’ve seen in India, every aspect of the architecture is well-thought out and intricately carved or molded. There were many holy men around the temple who were offering blessings of some sort for a small donation which was interesting to watch.

We cool.

Around the temple, there were also many vendors and hawkers selling fruit and flower arrangements, perhaps as offerings within the temple.

I truly enjoy how important of a role religion plays in the lives of most of the Indians we’ve had the opportunity to meet. So deeply ingrained in them is religion that it is a way of life, rather than simply a facet of life, the way it is in the States.

Anyway, after walking around, the group got the chance to try coconut juice/water! Mary, Pree and I had had it before, so we knew exactly what we were getting ourselves into.

Everyone else pretty much had a love-hate relationship with it, and it was funny to watch their reactions to trying it the first time. We also saw some kids dressed and painted up in costumes, apparently to depict some famous Indian gods and goddesses, who would dance and pose for tourists for a fee (but of course...).

After leaving the Shri Chamundeshwari temple, we went to see a large statue of a…sacred bull or cow. A few of us went close enough to touch it, and stick a coin (with a wish!) on the statue!

Can't decide if creepy or awesome.

We went to the Mysore Palace soon after and as you can imagine, it was gorgeous. We had to remove our shoes and couldn’t take our cameras in which was definitely a letdown, as the palace was beautiful!

Before we had to put our cameras away. :(

We took an audio tour of the palace and that was fun. One thing that we noticed when going to purchase the tickets was that a different price was charged for foreigners and for Indians to enter the palace. I suppose one reason for that discrepancy is the assumption that foreigners have more money, and can therefore afford to pay more. Another reason might be to encourage local Indians to visit monuments within the country, which seems to already be a popular option.

We left the Mysore Palace and headed for lunch at a hotel called Sandesh the Prince – super cool name. Lunch was a buffet consisting of Indian, Oriental, and Western food, and I definitely ate a LOT of Chinese food! It’s hardly ever a first choice back home, but I miss it now more than ever!

 There was a night club next to the restaurant that said entry was restricted only to couples, which I thought was hilarious. It was so different than the concept of clubs in the States, where people go out with the intention of meeting new people to date.

Other important rules.

Before heading to our apartments in Bangalore, we stopped by a mall/shopping center to pick up some groceries to cover breakfast over the next few days. Like in Big Bazaar, there was little to no rhyme or reason with regards to the layout of the store. Fruits were next to kitchen appliances, which were next to a rack of DVDs. And just like in Big Bazaar, all the shoppers knew exactly where everything was located, and had no problems locating their items. We picked some McDonald’s up after finishing our shopping and finally got to our apartment complex. Then, we had to go to the office to get paperwork filled out and passports copied. After some mix-ups, we were finally assigned our apartments, got settled in, and are about to go to sleep!

Groceries...

...in the apartment!

I’m sharing the apartment with Kaleah, Amanda and Pree, and I know we’re going to have a great time. The shower utilizes a water heater though, so Kaleah and I will have to figure out how and when we can shower...