Yesterday I sightseed and today I shop

Snow White's Cottage

The Seven Dwarfs
Stray Dog in Cubban Park
Camels Eating from the Garbage Dump

This is the temple of the elephant faced god - Ganeesh.

Yesterday was a rather interesting experience. I went with a driver - Girish (he would not let me photograph him) who is a native Bangalorean. He took me to all the different areas in the city but since there is no part of this city that is untouched by construction it was still hard for me to figure out how to get from point A to point B. But since I have a driver for the entire time I'm here I'm not going to worry about it.

Because it's not rainy season the park that everyone talks about Cubbon Park and the Botannical Garden do not truly represent how lush and beautiful they are during the rainy season. And honestly although all the guide books say that one can spend a lovely day sitting in Cubbon Park honestly I'd rather sit at the pool here.

So you know I've been seeing lots of stray dogs and cows but yesterday I witnessed something truly unusual and even Girish commented on it. There will be a photo below - I saw two camels eating out of the garbage pile. Now I asked Girish about the garbage and if it was every picked up and he told me there was pick up twice a day - once in the morning and once in the evening.

I find that a little difficult to believe.

The first place he took me yesterday was to a Hare Krishna temple. Now before entering any temple in India you must remove your shoes and in this particular temple you were not allowed to take the camera so unfortunately I have no pictures. Let me tell and I realize I'm dating myself here but after growing up in the 70s and seeing all the white suburban kids singing and chanting Hare Krishna it's really quite a different experience when you see all the native Hindu visiting the temple and praying to the god. I was the only white person there and they did quite a bit of staring.

He then took me to another temple where you pray to the elephant face god - Ganeesh. And he told me the story of how Ganeesh got the elephant face. Ganeesh was the son of a god whose name I can't remember and at his mother's request he was guarding the door to the room where she was taking a bath. He would not let his father in because he was respecting his mother's wishes. In a rage his father cut off his son's head. When the mother came out of the bath she was distraught and so the father told the servants to look for the first head they could find and put it on the body of the son. The first head they found was that of an elephant and so you have Ganeesh the elephant face god.

We also went to the botannical garden where you will see by the photographs they have the Snow White Cottage complete with statues of the 7 dwarfs. Needless to say I found this quite amusing.

We were out from 10am to 5pm and when we got back to the hotel I was exhausted. My box of peanut butter, crackers etc. had arrived so I made some crackers, kicked back and relaxed.

Today after breakfast I finally went to the front desk and told them I was not happy with my room so tomorrow they will show me two different rooms and let me choose which I prefer. My peeve with this room is it is on a corner and I can't really see the gardens and my balcony has no privacy. So I figure since I'm here till the end of the month the least they can do is change my room to something I prefer.

Anyway, Manajor just called to confirm he will be here in 20 minutes and he is going to take me to Commercial Street where I can shop for some shawls and silver bangles. I do have a shawl but it is wool and just way too hot for me to be wearing and since most of my shirts are short sleeved I need a shawl so as not to stand out - yeah right as if they can't take one look at me and know I'm not a native.

Oh yes and one last little piece of amusement regarding television. They do get lots of the American shows here. The other day I watched Seinfeld.

Signing off for now.