Incredible India

So it's been a while, blogees; thanks for stopping by. I've been busy with writing so I'm skipping over a trip to Singapore and Malaysia. But India -- well, I just had to blog after this trip. Forgive the six jillion photos, and skim; most of the links have just a few shots, and I labled the video stuff for you youtube junkies.

Allison had a business trip to Bangalore in the South, so we spliced on a visit to some fantastic temple sites in Karnataka State. The sub-continent is of course sprawling, and we just got a taste a bit of it, but, yuuummmm. India is intense, and can be a bit rough to travel in, but the sights, sounds, and tastes are incredible, and the people we met were awesome. We really got into the history while we were there, and I read Salman Rushdie's hysterical and moving Booker Prize-winning epic Midnight's Children. If you can't make the trip for a while, read the book. It's a dynamite way to taste the culture.

Mysore and the Jewel Boxes
Bangalore is the Silicon Valley of India; actually, Silicon Valley is the Bangalore of the U.S. But like our version, it's not a major tourist draw. When we asked people what there was to see in Bangalore they would say "go to Mysore,” which is a city 3 hours away. So we took their advice and headed there our first weekend. Our first stop was Chamundi Hill. Legend has it that that the demon Mahishasura, the king of the area that is currently Mysore, was killed by the Goddess Chamundi after a fierce battle, and when you kill a demon they name a hill after you. There were a number of villagers in town for a festival, who had come a long way and who apparently had never seen a Caucasian before, and if we slowed to look at something we were instantly surrounded and pressed in by the crowd. Children LOVED to start conversations with us by saying "name?" or "from?" One word is all you need!

After being the center of attention we headed to the Maharajah’s Palace in the center of town. The Kingdom of Mysore was ruled by the Wodeyar dynasty from 1399 until the independence of India in 1947. The current palace combines different styles of architecture -- Hindu, Muslim, Rajput, and Gothic. It's considered the palace to see in Southern India, and it's magnificent, though in some state of disrepair. We hired a guide who was crazy about pointing out all the pictures that when you walked by, the eyes would follow you.
We had lunch at the Lalitha Mahal, a palace converted into a hotel. Then to the Mysore market where we bought fragrances, flowers and paints. The colors were off the charts.

The next day we head to what are called "the Jewel Boxes of Hoysala architecture": the Unesco World Heritage sites of Belur and Halebid. The driver invited us to breakfast with his family on the way, and we toured the local dam -- my theory was that the guy was dying to stop by and see his family, so he had us tag along, but it was a great time and a great breakfast, anyway.

Halebid was our first planned stop of the day. The name literally means "old city" or "ruined city". Halebid was the 12th-century capital of the Hoysalas. It was sacked by the armies of Malik Kafur in the early 14th century, and then fell into a state of disrepair and neglect which are absolutely perfect for pretending you're Indiana Jones. It's made largely from soapstone so the carvings are amazing (the soft rock allows for detail). Outside the temple the carvings are done in panels: elephants on the bottom to show strength, horses next to show speed, etc. The work was amazingly intricate and Halebid has the second largest Nandi(a bull that Shiva rides) in India.

Belur was next and we were surprised with a local festival (Video). Belur was the early capital of the Hoysala Empire. The main attraction is the Chennakesava temple complex which contains the Chennakesava Temple (dedicated to Lord Chennakeshava, meaning handsome Vishnu) as the centrepiece, surrounded by the Kappe Chennigraya temple built by Shantaladevi, queen of king Vishnuvardhana. It was built by king Vishnuvardhana in commemoration of his victory over the Cholas at Talakad in 1117 CE. I think we all remember how cool that was!

Our next stop was Shravanabelagola, which I can now pronounce after trying 800 times. This is another Unesco World Heritage site, and one of the most important Jain pilgrimage centers. It's home to a thousand-year-old gigantic (60 ft.) monolithic stone statue of the Bhagavan Gomateshwara Bahubali, considered to be the world's largest monolith. It was built in 981 A.D. and symbolizes worldly renunciation. Oh, and the guy is naked, so every 12 years, thousands of naked male devotees congregate here to perform the Mahamastakabhisheka, a spectacular ceremony in which the thousand-year-old statue is anointed with milk, curds, ghee, saffron and gold coins. (I've tried this myself, but I called it something else...) The next Mahamastakabhisheka will be held in 2018 A.D., so mark your calendars now! While we were there, there was a man naked meditating in front of the statute. We finally headed home to Bangalore and collapsed after a very full weekend.

Bitter Transitional Paragraph, with Silver Lining
After a work-week in Bangalore and the worst traffic we have ever experienced in the world to date, we took the overnight train to Hampi... or so we thought. Our @#**! travel agent in his amazing incompetence actually booked us on a train to Hubli, which is a 4 hour drive away from Hampi. We were awakened at 6:45 am by people who thought were we in their seats (we actually were) and after talking to the conductor realized we had missed our stop (because the @#**! travel agent never told us it wasn’t Hampi!) So we got off at the next stop and an incredibly friendly man named Mahesh, took us home, where he and his lovely wife gave us coffee and breakfast, called our travel agent to yell at him, and took me back to the train station to fix our tickets for the way home. The couple was so friendly – his wife was from near Hampi and they wanted to make sure we got as much time to see the amazing sites as possible. So we got a driver and headed on the 4-hour journey we hadn’t planned. And then...

Hampi -- Indiana Jones Territory
After much jostling and bumping over poor roads through spectacular rice and banana fields, we got to our “resort” (rough but beautifully located), called Hampi Boulders. Hampi itself is set among gigantic boulders. Local legend is that the Monkey King, after finding Rama’s wife Sita (who was kidnapped by a demon in Sri Lanka, you remember) brought all these boulders to Hampi to build a bridge to Sri Lanka, so all the monkeys could go see it. The extra rocks were just left here. We had a little hut next to a broad river with all sorts of amazing birds and sounds. The stars at night were fabulous. There was definitely something special, mystical, serene, spiritual... words don’t really describe what we felt in this area. The natural beauty, alongside the spectacular ruins, and locals brimming with curiosity and friendliness... go to Hampi, if you can!

Since we were set back ½ a day and Hampi was across the river, we toured our side of the river first. The main attraction was the Monkey Temple. It's dedicated to the Monkey God Hanuman and is crawling with, you guessed it, monkeys! (Video). Our driver took us to a number of other temples, we saw women washing clothes (Video) by the river – but our favorite was the last of the day where we met a devotee of the guru Sai Baba, a bona fide, cave-dwelling, meditating holy man who was a little crazy and very sweet. He first showed us his meditation cave, and then led us through bushes (where in the Quentin Tarrantino version we would have been murdered), to a high rock lookout point where we saw an amazing sunset. He told me he had been an engineer years before, and when I asked him why he left that and went off to meditate, he said it was because of “mind cracks." Hey, I know how you feel.

The next morning we headed off across the river finally to see Hampi. Hampi is located within the ruins of Vijayanagara, the former capital of the Vijayanagara empire, which many have compared to the Roman empire. Hampi is identified with the mythological Kishkindha, the Vanara (monkey) kingdom. It was formed capital of the Vijayanagara empire from 1336 to 1565. The King were tolerant, and although they were Hindu, allowed all types of architecture, and built Muslim mosques as well as Hindu temples. The city was eventually destroyed by Moslem emperors who left only the Muslim structures in tact. Because Muslims oppose idol worship, and because treasures are usually housed under Hindu statutes, the conquerors defaced all Hindu statues, looking for goodies. Once a Hindu statue is defaced, Hindus will no longer worship it – so it is now know as "The City of Ruins". The Vijayanagara ruins (listed as the "Group of Monuments at Hampi") are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We went first to the Ganesha temple and Hemakuta Hill which overlooked the one functioning temple Virupaksha Temple, the main center of pilgrimage at Hampi, and considered the most sacred over the centuries. The temple is dedicated to Shiva. We got blessed by the resident elephant! We visited the Krishna Temple complete with a huge, lively bazaar. We then ran into some magicians (Video) put on a show, just for us. They were a bit less serious than that David Blaine guy, but much more friendly.

After a great lunch by the river (Indian food was consistently terrific -- we really could eat it all the time), our first stop was the underground temple, so named because it was hidden under cover of mud for several centuries. Next came the Zenana enclosure where some scholars say the royal women lived, but others disagree, since the elephant stables were close by and they claim it would have been too smelly to put up with. The Lotus Mahal is a highlight; it had a system to pump water through the stone to create air-conditioning, which you just know made it popular.
Next on the tour was the Hazara Rama temple, dedicated to Rama, which has fabulous carvings depicting the entire Ramayana epic, a real stone-tablet-turner.

An impressive spread of land was the Royal Grounds and water tanks. Amazing in size, they had aqueducts and a secret room where the king could hide from everyone. This was my favorite -- seriously -- because I always wanted a room like this, and when I build my palace complex, I'm gettin' one!

My Queen (Allison of course), will have her own bath, just like this one.

Our final stop in Hampi was the Vitthala temple, which supposedly makes music from the stone pillars. Unfortunately many tourists have damaged the pillars by trying to recreate the sound with metal rather than wood implements, thus getting their rocks off in the worst possible way. This complex is also home to the renowned stone chariot.

We headed back to the train and met some really inquisitive kids at the train station who wanted to know all about Hong Kong.

We woke up in Bangalore and had the day before catching the red-eye home. We quickly learned why people answered “Mysore” when asked what to do in Bangalore. We made a valiant effort, visiting the Bull Temple, the Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens, and the Maharajah’s palace which was in a sad state of decline, and left us so nonplussed we failed to take any photos. We did chuckle at this sign for personality improvement and had fun shopping with a Allison's colleague Eswar, and having dinner with him and his wonderful family.

Then home sweet home – we’re here in Hong Kong until Hanoi in December with our friends Marija and Louise.

I'm really close to completing a draft of my novel. Lots of work still to do, but I am definitely getting there...

Hope you are all well. Let me know how you're doing... and enjoy the turkey.