Anyway, as I continue my land travel from Mumbai to Chennai, I hit the "capitals:" Bangalore, the IT capital of India (and the World I would imagine!) and Mysore, where the infamous Mysore Palace resides as well as it being known for as an up-and-coming yoga and ayurveda capital.
Here are the highlights....
Bangalore:
The IT Capital of the world! The 1st city in India to have electric street lighting and the inventor of hotmail grew up here. I met a lot of expats in Hampi and people said, "eh... as an expat it is nice living here, as a tourist, not so much to see." Well, I have to admit they were right!
I was eager for some Western comforts, and that included: Eating at the Hard Rock Cafe (hehe), having drinks at the Sky Bar, or swank roof top bar on top of UB city, a luxury mall,
Walking around Cubbon Park
where we sat to just relax, had a good 3-4 men rotate sitting on benches in front of us just to stare at us (awk-waaaard),
Going to a couple of the local markets, such as Russell Fruit Market and Commercial Street,
And finally to see Leela Palace Hotel, which a local told me was actually nicer than the Bangalore Palace. Ha!
Best part was that I did the couchsurfing thing again, stayed with an expat, then met up for lunch and drinks with 2 others. One of which was a local and we watched the cricket quarter-final match,
which of course was a big deal for India because they later won (by "later" I mean the game takes so long, I was long gone by then) and that would put them in the semi-final with Pakistan of all countries! Eeek! It was just cool being in another World Cup setting (wow! South Africa seems sooo long ago! The soccer World Cup is when I started my journey in June!!), and one in which the host countries were actually winning (Sri Lanka AND India). Woo hoo! So.... welp, that's about it! That was my time in Bangalore! See? Locals were right!!
Mysore
As Bangalore as known for being the technology capital of India, Mysore is known for the infamous Mysore Palace AND the place where asthanga yoga was originated. However, it unfortunately got off to a bad start. After all these months... with one scare that I'm still not sure if it was or wasn't... da da dum, I got good 'ol bed bugs in my bed. :-( I woke up from the itching, saw the little buggers, fully inspected my bed and thought they were all gone and decided to sleep with the lights on and an eye mask because typically they don't attack with the lights. WRONG! Saw some more when I managed to doze a little, but woke up more from paranoia and then saw some more. I normally would be "peace out" and change hotels, but this was at 1:30am and going out at night by myself to look for another hotel would not have been smart. I ended up changing rooms and somehow (after a full inspection of the bed) managed to fall asleep... and had the same problem. I had also done a full inspection of my pajamas before I changed rooms because that is how they spread, they can leech onto your clothes, and it was soo disturbing that bed #2 was infested as well. So I ended up just sleeping with the lights on... on the couch. I was outta there first thing in the morning after an ugly talk with the management, and ugly reviews on Trip Advisor AND Lonely Planet. Hmph.
Onto more pleasant things.... the Mysore Palace, or Maharaha's Palace. This is really one of the grandest of India's royal buildings and where the Wodeyar maharahas resided. It is truly amazing. The old palace unfortunately was gutted by fire in 1897, but the English architect Henry Irwin completed and restored it in 1912. It has everything you can think of, amazingly detailed carved wooden doors, kaleidoscope stained glass, mosaic floors, and a beautiful series of paintings depicting the extravagant life in Mysore during the Edwardian Raj. As you should all know by now, this would be a perfect opportunity for me to take 0239480239482390423 pictures, buuuuut they had a strict No Photography inside the palace. So I saved my 23094832409832 pictures for outside! It is quite a majestic place, I'll tell you that!!!
Funny thing and what I love most about traveling is the unexpected adventures. When I arrived at the Palace I accidently went to the wrong entrance gate, but yet encountered this fun wedding party that had a local acrobatic band and some festivities. Love it!
I also somewhat more or less came across the St. Philomena's Cathedral, which is a towering cathedral built in neo-Gothic style between 1933-1941, it is very impressive!
Oh! Can't forget to mention this AMAZINGLY delicious masala dosa I had more than a few times. :-) It's probably one of the best ones I've had in my entire stay! Yummy! I am developing quite a palate for Indian food!
Sooo.... as I mentioned earlier, Mysore is known for ayurveda and yoga. As I had done a fantastic 21-day treatment of ayurveda back in December in Varkala, Kerala, I needn't do it again. Instead I went to this beautiful ayurvedic center... but only to do yoga. It is set in the foothills of the Chamundi Mountains as well as in almost 7 hectares of gardens, the Indus Valley Ayurvedic Center (IVAC).....
I was getting tired of the constant honking, noise, and pollution of India and needed a break. I came to the right place! So for the week I was here, I did 2x/yoga a day (asthanga yoga) with a lot of 1-1 time because there weren't too many people there and had a super fun and cool instructor,
(Me: Obviously a beginner....)
(Deepak: Advanced!)
(Hmm... what a show off :-) heheh)
1x hour of meditation,
And ate 3 delicious meals of ayurvedic foods a day. The rest of the time.... I read the 900+ page Shantaram book (excellent book about India! Author is Gregory David Roberts), lounged by the pool (which side note, literally was the only person there each time I went!),
Sat in the fish tank and had these exfoliating fish eat the dead skin off my feet (also had this in Thailand, this one was free though and unlimited access!):
Met some nice Westerners doing ayurvedic treatments, and managed to do a couple of side trips to Chamundi Hills, India's 8th most holy hill with the Sri Chamundeswari Temple at the peak of the 1062m summit,
(Offerings to the Temple)
(View of Mysore)
Also went to Lalit Mahal Palace Hotel, which, you guessed it, was a former palace converted to a hotel. I should say it was more like a ghost town. There were absolutely NO guests and I literally was the only person wandering around. Kinda spooky, but also neat to have the place to myself!
(I have to admit, as cheesy as it sounds, this kinda reminded me the staircase in the movie Titanic... where I envisioned myself walking down the stairs as Kate Winslet with a handsome Leonardo DiCaprio at my side, ha hahah!!)
After this week of yoga detox and FINALLY doing something for my body (I am stiff as a board after almost 10 months of backpacking, sitting for 6-15 hours at a time on varying trains/buses!), I feel rejuvenated and ready to conquer the rest of my almost 2 weeks left in India!! Yeaaa!
