Happily Putting my Shoes Back On
The Puppy and The Monkey
Decorated Ganeesh
With the Serpents
Happily Leaving the Temple
The Inside of The Temple (of Doom)
With the Cow
Woman walking up the hill
Woman putting holy water on her head
Holy Water Pool
On Line to enter the templeI’ve been offline for several days because it was a three day weekend here and honestly I did not feel like being wired in. We were going to go to Goa for the weekend but it was all sold out so we said let’s wait until next weekend. Before I get into the weekend I want you all to know I’ve discovered the “Target” of India and the best part is it is right down the road from the office – within walking distance. Actually, let me amend that – it’s the “Super Target” because it has a “food” section in it as well. So everyone put your orders in now for all the Ayuverdic products which cost big bucks in the states and nothing here.
Saturday was Republic Day – a national Indian holiday celebrating 58 years of independence and as such the office was closed on Friday. So I spent a leisurely morning at the gym and breakfast and then Billie picked me up and off we went to Brigade Road as she had to pick up her suitcase which had been fixed. Brigade Road is a very popular shopping area and boasts the oldest supermarket in Bangalore. It’s called Nigrili’s and was founded in 1905. It’s actually a pretty nice market and the best part is they sell essential oils like jasmine, peppermint and ylang yling to name a few. This is the oil that you put a few drops in the thing that holds the water and you light the candle underneath and it makes the room smell good. It’s also supposed to have these health qualities like for calming and anti-anxiety. It cost like nothing so I got some oils and essentially transformed my room into a spa.
From Brigade Road we walked over to the Tibetan store – Billie is far braver than I am about crossing the street as pedestrians mean nothing here in Bangalore. She ordered a rug to be handmade and in a way it actually made me yearn for my very own house – she’s got a 3,000 square foot home in Texas. And the cost of the rug seemed to be fairly inexpensive – about $200 USD and Billie said it would easily be worth $800 USD. Anyway since it was a Tibetan store it had these chanting bowls (well I think that’s what they were – I mean you all know how spiritual I am – NOT!!!!!!!) but there was one bowl in particular which was not for sale and was also used for chakra. So the owner of the store made me lie down and then he hit the bowl and while it was chiming he put the bowl on my stomach – something to do with my chakra- absorbing the vibration- I really have no idea but it was pretty fun. Plus he also had some fabulous jewelry – very tribal – sterling silver and turquoise. But I held back – well for now anyway.
Then we went off to Commercial Street because in my book, In and Out of Bangalore, there was a tailor who could copy clothing. So we went up and down Commercial Street looking for this tailor and since there are no numbers on the storefronts it makes for an adventure. We also stopped at almost every fabric store, and believe me there are plenty, because Billie had some beautiful green silk she was going to have made into a jacket and she was looking for some silk to use as a lining. Seeing as we were there around 1:30pm it was nothing like that first Sunday I was here and went which was totally overwhelming. You could actually walk and not worry about getting run over by a car, rickshaw, motorbike or bicycle. We finally make it to the tailor only to find out it had been taken over by someone else and although they did tailoring they did not or would not copy. They did tell us to go down one of the side streets off Commercial and there would be a tailor there who could help. I must say that’s one thing I noticed about the shops here – if you are looking for something specific and they don’t have it they will tell you where you can find it and if you have no idea where they are talking about they will actually walk you over to the place. So long story short we found Billie her tailor – he told us where to go to buy some lining and she gets to pick up her tailor made items on Friday. By this time it was after 4pm, Commercial Street was getting really crowded and I was getting really grumpy – I know – what a shock J. So I came back here to my little oasis and Billie went back to her hotel.
Saturday the plan of action was gym and then chilling by the pool till around 12:30pm and then I was going to meet Billie and Sergey and we were going to take a look at the “lower level” room at Palm Meadows. As mentioned in one of my earlier blogs the Executive Suite was $340 per night and they weren’t coming down in price so I thought well let me see the other room which would be $275 a night. So off we went and I took one look at the lower level room and said NOT!!!!!!!! Bottom line – I’m staying at the Leela Palace. And now Sergey and Billie have nicknamed me the Leela Princess. After we checked out the Palm Meadows room we went to see this woman Billie knows named Nita. Nita lives in the Palm Meadows development and she makes jewelry. Not only does she do her own designs but she can pretty much copy anything you bring and because she transformed her garage into a showroom she doesn’t have the overhead the stores do. What I’m saying is her prices are much less because of this. Not too mention she is a lovely woman and she takes credit cards. Sergey actually took some pictures of various pieces of jewelry which he was going to email his wife and wait for her to say which one she liked.
We then came back to the Leela because one of the people I met at the American Expat Meetup Dinner called and wanted to know if I wanted to meet her and her friend for coffee. There’s a place called Barista at the Leela Galleria so we met over there – all five of us. Nicole (she’s the woman I met at the dinner) is very interesting. She is here on a fellowship – has been here since August and she works for a NGO (non-government organization) that feeds children. They feed 830,000 children a day – think about that folks – that’s more people than live in the city of San Francisco. And her friend Brian is here working on a social networking project as it affects financial planning. It’s in conjunction with a study some MIT professors put together. So they both live on peanuts and here I am talking about struggling to decide if I should stay at the Leela for my entire stay in India or find a service apartment. The unanimous vote was for me to stay here.
Nicole and Brian had to be somewhere at 7pm so they took off and Billie, Sergey and I decided to head over to Church Street in search of some dinner. Now those two have fairly adventurous palates and can easily eat pretty much anything. I, on the other hand, am the problem child. So we found a place called 20 Feet High which had a mix of everything. I figured if I ordered the roast chicken with no sauce and the roast potatoes how could I go wrong. Geez – shall I count the ways. First off the waiter was amazed I didn’t want any sauce for the chicken and kept trying to convince me I should get some. He finally realized that trying to talk me into something I didn’t want was a fruitless scenario and moved on. So the chicken comes and I take one bite and I swear to you they had just killed out it back – it honestly tasted FOWL – no pun intended. So then I figure let me try the roasted potatoes. They were sooooooooooo spicy I thought my mouth was on fire. Let me tell you I couldn’t wait to get back to the room and have a power bar. Someone is going to have to send me a care package with my Pure Protein bars because I’m running really low and don’t think I can make it until I get back on the 19th. Oh yeah and I only have 5 jars left of my Skippy Low Fat Peanut Butter and no more Carr’s Water Crackers – CARE PACKAGES PLEASE :)
SUNDAY – SHIVAGANGA
One of the guys who works on Sergei’s team invited him to go on a hike and Billie and I were invited to tag along. Shivaganga is about 60km from Bangalore and is a hike up a mountainside that has several temples dedicated to Gangadhara and Honnadevi on the way. It’s a rather strenuous climb but the view is magnificent. Sergei and Naveen immediately climbed to the very top without really stopping to take in the temples while Billie and I meandered stopping to look at everything. We didn’t go all the way to the top as the trail became very steep and although climbing up for me is no problem I have a touch of vertigo and do not like climbing down. So we went about ¾ way up the mountain. Anyway, we were the only white people and so people were rather fascinated by this – some of the children in particular who called us Auntie and asked us to take their picture. And they all wanted to know where our native was and our good name. It was really unbelievable because you are here at these 800 year old temples thinking how on earth did they ever get up this mountain to even build this and you’re surrounded by garbage – plastic bottles, juices boxes. It’s pretty disgusting. But I was a trooper and took off my shoes and went into this temple built into a cave in the side of the mountain. It really was like the Temple of Doom. I was doing okay until I saw the cockroach crawling across the floor. And of course my Princess Leela nickname immediately took hold and I started to hyperventilate. At that point I really couldn’t wait to get out of the place – it was wet and hot as hell but there was a line so I had to wait for the folks in front of me to dip their hands in the holy water and move on. And let me tell you fast is something they aren’t. Have you ever heard the expression if you went any slower you’d be going backwards???? Okay now you get the drift. The best part of the adventure was, of course, the monkeys. They are so adorable and there were tons of them. And you can get really close. They’re such inquisitive little buggers. And at one point one of the many stray dogs actually walked with us part way down the mountain to another temple. NO – I did not talk to the puppy or encourage the puppy in any way but Billie and I like to think she was protecting us from the monkeys. Anyway, we get to this other temple and the puppy just walks right up to a monkey and lies down next to him and the monkey just hangs out with the puppy right there. One monkey was going into a trash container and picking out juice cartons and then ripping the carton apart with his teeth and licking out whatever was left. We were there for about five hours and although the place is interesting it’s also very dusty and it was hot so all I wanted to do was get back to my little oasis and take a shower. Billie, Sergei and Naveen went to have some lunch and I came back here. And here I sit on my balcony – laptop plugged in writing this blog.
Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil 
Baby Monkey
Billie and Friends