thirty-two -- bangalore and mysore (day 1 cont'd, day 2)

street vendor in Mysore (July 21, 2009)

Since we have decided to relax at home today, I now have the time to briefly describe our last two days in Bangalore. Monday we visited the gorgeous Shiva Mandir and yesterday we visited Mysore. It's nice to play the tourist in India, for once. Too often we're just caught in the middle, shuttled from flat to a relative's house, seeing India but not really seeing it. See our pictures here.

I SEE:

• strings of jasmine flowers in long dark hair
• a Shiva statue twenty times my size, striking against the blue night -- wondrous
• eco-friendly volvo busses (more expensive than a normal bus)
• a profuse number of alcohol advertisements (Kingfisher, Bacardi, Smirnoff)
• silver chudiyan (bangles) on our wrists, purchased from vendors at the Mysore Palace. they jingle and are very pretty.
• cloudy gray skies and cool weather
• in Mysore, humans and horses and cows
• people swarming the Chamundeshwari temple, straining for a glimpse of the heavily-garlanded goddess far in the back
• the Supriya Pig Mutton Hotel (Gablu: Nina didi, they call everything a hotel here! And it's true.)
• auto-rickshaws, Marutis, one Ford, motorbikes
• new buildings and malls and giant billboards
• the shabby prettiness of Vrindavan Gardens, the magnificence of the Mysore Palace

I TASTE:

• egg omelettes and pancakes
• chicken fry and noodles
• "authentic Karnatakan South Indian Thalis... veg, but still good!"
• McChicken and fries
• daal, rice, fried aloo

I FEEL:

• exhausted (poor nights of rest, still jet-lagged?)
• tense (still acclimating)
• awed by devotion (Shiva Mandir and Chamundeshwari Temple)
• overwhelmed (are temples supposed to be so stressful?)
• restless (I want to see the city more!)