A Day in Chennai

On a February visit to Bangalore, I had the opportunity to attend a wedding in Chennai, and I was very excited to do so. A friend and I boarded a sleeper bus late in the evening, that would take us the 7 hours to Chennai. The sleeper bus was amazing! We totally need those in the U.S. It was super comfy (each spot is a bed - mostly flat with one end a bit higher to serve as a pillow), and I slept for the whole journey. Upon arrival in Chennai we checked into a hotel, where we took showers and changed our clothes, and then it was on to the wedding.

We arrived at the wedding at about 7:30 a.m., just in time for breakfast. The wedding ceremony is quite long, and there are only certain parts that the audience partakes in, so while the ceremony was going on, the audience went and had breakfast in another room. We made it back in time to see the end of the ceremony and to throw rice at the newly married couple. This was a southern Indian wedding so it wasn't as grand as the northern weddings we see in the movies.

Following the wedding it was back to the hotel to change into more casual clothes, and then off for some sightseeing before it got too hot. First stop was Marina Beach. This is a large, famous beach, often seen in movies. This beach is very deep, meaning there is tons of sand, and a long walk down to the water. It was fun to play and cool off in the water along side the locals.

Next we visited the Guindy Children's Park. It is a zoo, with lots of animals in cages.

It was fun to see the animals, including some I had never seen before. The plan was to attend the Snake Park, which is right next to the Children's Park next, but it was about 1:00 when we finished our tour of the Children's Park, and very hot outside. Thus, we decided a little time in some air conditioning would be better and went back to the hotel. This was February and it was in the 90s. If you visit Chennai, be prepared for heat!

In the evening we walked around the hotel, did a little bit of shopping, and got dinner (dosa - yumm!). After dinner it was a quick trip back to the hotel to grab our stuff, and then to the bus stop we went. We took a sleeper bus back to Bangalore, and once again I slept the whole way! 

9 Days left...

We are down to the final days of this trip, and while the students are busy finishing up all the last minute assignments, I have been busy coordinating to see the last of the tourist sites for the trip. Last weekend we headed to the east coast of India to Mahabalipuram, which is outside of Chennai. We stayed at the Chariot Beach Resort, which is on the Bay of Bengal, and has the largest pool I have ever seen. Many of us chose to just spend the weekend relaxing. It was hot and humid, so when we were outside, we were usually found in the pool! On Sunday, it was back to Bangalore, and time to prepare for the upcoming week.

For me, the weekend has been about setting up site seeing trips for the 2 faculty members that are teaching this session. Yesterday, I accompanied them to Shiva Temple:

It was a great experience, and we were all glad we took the time to visit. Today they headed to Lal Bagh, the botanical gardens. However, since I have already been, I stayed back to work on some other things. This weekend we are planning on going to Cubbon Park, as well as getting in some shopping for the remaining souvenirs we have yet to buy. Our time in India ia quickly coming to an end, but for most, the excitement to get back to friends and family in the states is growing exponentially with each day.

An Indian 4th

The past week has been pretty boring - just really filled with homework, quizzes and tests. But all of that changed today. It started like any other day, up at 7:15, breakfast at 7:45, class at 8:30 - which today included a finance test. After class I got to grade part of the finance test, so that kept me busy for a bit. But this evening, we were all off to Manipal County Resort to celebrate the 4th of July. We started the evening with chicken and lamb kebabs, then the open bar opened (this wasn't really necessary, as the students had been pre-gaming since noon, and it was 7:30), and then the 25 minutes of fire works began. Everyone got sparklers so that we could all personally take part in the evening's light show. This year we were standing a little farther away from where the fireworks were being set off, so I felt much safer. However, there was no fire truck standing my this time, so perhaps that was a false sense of safety! Following fireworks we had dinner, dessert, and then dancing. A good time was had by all! Hope you all enjoyed/are enjoying your 4th.

Golden Triangle

Yesterday we got back from seeing the sights of the Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, commonly referred to as the Golden Triangle. We had a good time, but I am very happy to be back, and even happier that we had 2 days to recover before starting classes again. Here are some of the highlights from the trip:

Delhi:
In Delhi we stayed at the very nice Park Hotel. On our second day there was full of site seeing. We went to Jama Masjid, which is a Mosque, then took a bicycle rickshaw ride through Old Delhi.

 

From there we finished up our morning with a trip to Qutub Minar.

We had the afternoon free, which was mainly spent getting some lunch, and cooling off (there was a high of 112 degrees that day!). In the evening, we headed off to Swaminarayan Akshardam. That place was incredible. It was like an amusement park complete with boat ride (similar to Pirates of the Caribbean), and an amazingly gorgeous temple. This wasn't in our original agenda, but those of us who went were very happy that we did. There were no cameras or other electronic devices allowed in the complex, so the website pictures are the best way to get an idea of what it is.

The following day we were free to do what we pleased, and so some of the girls and I spent the morning checking out a local market. In the afternoon, several of us ventured off to see the Lotus Temple. The temple was interesting to see, but to me more interesting were the number of people lining up to get into it. After getting back from the Lotus Temple, it was again time to cool off, before heading to dinner at a hookah bar.

The following morning, we loaded into a bus for the 6 hour bus ride to Agra.

Agra:
Agra is home to the Taj Mahal. At 5:30am we jumped on board carriage type things, which were pulled by horses to take us to the Taj (vehicles aren't allowed very close). We were then walking into the Taj complex as the sun rose at 6am.

At 7:30 is was back to the hotel to cool off and eat breakfast. At 9:00am we were on the bus, headed to the Agra Fort.

Following the Fort stop, we headed to a marble factory, where they explained the process of making tables and other sorts of marble items that have gems inlaid in them. That part was interesting, but then came the sales pitch, trying to get us to buy countless marble items. Not really my cup of tea. Following that it was back to the hotel to rest up. In the afternoon, some of us went to the showroom of Kohinoor Jewelers, in which we were shown a families private art collection. The work was incredible, but again no photos were allowed. We then went upstairs to look at their jewelry collection, where there was a sales person following each of us around. The jewlery was beautiful, and not too expensive for what it was, but still well out of my price range.

The next morning we loaded back into the bus to head to Jaipur.

Jaipur:
After our afternoon arrival in Jaipur, we headed out to see the Birla Temple, and enjoy the aarti ceremony. The next morning we left the hotel at 7:30 to head to Amer Fort, where we rode elephants to get up to the Palace entrance of the fort.

Following the Fort Palace, we then headed off to City Palace. I saw City Palace last year and was not so intrigued by it, so I opted to ride the bus back to the hotel, while the majority of the group looked at the palace and then shopped in the surrounding market.

After a week of traveling, we headed to the Jaipur airport to fly back to Bangalore. We arrived back at Woodstock about 9:00pm on Friday night, completely exhausted. Thus, most of us have spent the weekend relaxing, and getting ready for the new set of classes that start tomorrow morning. Back to the grind, but back to a routine!

A Free Weekend

Last week finished off with a trip to the local vegetable market where the students tried their hand at negotiating the price of mangoes, and then a business visit to Biocon and Radel. Everyone was ready for a little down time come Friday night, so several of us headed off to Hard Rock happy hour. My friend Karthik was in Bangalore for the weekend, so he met us there. After some good food and a couple of drinks, we headed back home - some of us very excited by the opportunity to sleep!

On Saturday, one of the students, Crystal, and I decided that we wanted to see some of the sites in Bangalore. So, we grabbed an auto rickshaw and headed to Bull Temple. The temple itself wasn't that impressive as we have seen statues of Nandi Bull before and been to other temples, but the grounds outside of the temple were gorgeous. It was so green and lush, a vast difference from most of Bangalore.

Following that stop we proceeded to Tipu's Palace, which is small, but has beautiful  architecture. We then headed over to Church Street, which is in the central part of the city, where we walked around, looked in some shops, and then had dinner.

This next week is the last week in the first session of classes, which makes this the equivalent of finals week. Thus, the students are very busy with projects and tests, and therefore Sunday was a pretty quiet day. One of the other residents here asked me where the students had gone for the day, seeing as how he hadn't heard or seen any of them (a real rarity!). I told him that they all were indeed here, but were in their rooms studying. He seemed pleased with the quiet day this presented him with.

At the end of this week we will be traveling again. This time it is the Golden Triangle trip - Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur. Everyone is looking forward to the trip, and even more to a week without homework, or in my case papers to grade. All in all, we are enjoying ourselves here in Incredible India!

Kabini!

After 2 good days in Mysore, we packed up our stuff and got back on the bus. We were off to Kabini! This year we stayed at the same amazing resort that we stayed at last year, but the roll-away twin bed I slept on this year wasn't quite as nice as the king I had all to myself last year. But, my stay at the resort started off nicely with a safari, in which we saw elephants, a leopard, Indian bison, deer, monkeys, and a few wild pigs. This year I brought my nicer camera along with me on the trip, and was very happy I did! Here are some of my favorite shots from the safari:

After the safari, the rest of the time in Kabini was all about relaxing. There was a lot of time spent reading poolside! It was nice while it lasted, but Sunday morning at 9am we were back on the road to Bangalore.

Mysore, part 2

Following the stop at Chamundi Hill, we were given the option of stopping at the Mysore Zoo. 12 of us decided to check it out, and were thoroughly impressed. It was much bigger than we ever imagined it would be - we had to call and ask for the bus to pick us up 2 hours after our drop off time instead of the 1.5 hours originally given, and still had to rush to see all the animals. There were a ton of larger animals including giraffes, elephants, lions, hippos, leopards and tigers. The zoo is privately funded, and has provided most of the animals with a good amount of space, given the zoo environment.

Following the zoo visit, it was back to the hotel for a nap. That evening, one of the students and I walked around the center of town, where we walked through a market. The colors were so rich and the people so kind. It was a great experience.

 After visiting the market, we walked around town a little more, and then headed back to the hotel, where we ran into a group of students getting into rickshaws to head to Planet X to go go-carting. So, we opted to join in on the fun. While at Planet X, some went on the go-carts, some played mini-golf, some bowled and some hit the arcade. We had a lot of fun hanging out, and were the last ones to leave the park that night. As we were heading to bed, we were not very excited about the 9am leave time that we had the next morning. But, Kabini was in our future, and we were all excited!