Planes, Trains, and Running Shoes

Hello Bloggers in Blog World! I'm writing to you from Kay's air conditioned apartment. The lovely Miss K at From India With Love offered me her place to stay when I emailed her asking to meet up for coffee! So I'm spending some time with more blog buddies...which seems to be the norm these days. Anyway, I got in yesterday afternoon and already it feels like I've been here for a month.

Bangalore was wonderful. I had a really enjoyable time with my hosts and met some great people at the hostel and had an all around good time. Here are some photos from Bangalore:

Bangalore Skyline...seen from Ladagh Botanical Garden

This little monkey sprung up on us! Along with several others!

The "Empire State Building" of Bangalore

Some Aussie friends and I may or may not have crashed an Indian wedding!

So yes, that's Bangalore! A crowded, chaotic city but with a lot of character! But boy, Bangalore is different from Delhi. Bangalore is the most crowded place I have ever seen in my life. Delhi is a lot less crowded...but still just as crazy.

Since yesterday was a travel day, I didn't do a whole lot. I'm staying with a friend and this morning, I got up and hitched a ride with her land lady to a nearby park for a 4 mile run. It was 91 degrees with 76% humidity and I thought I was going to die. I have never wanted to cut a run short so badly in my life and I'm so proud of myself that I didn't because today is Day 2 of Marine Corps Marathon training! (Yesterday was a Rest Day). So that's on my plate. On my way back from the park, I got lost and walked around for about an hour trying to find my way...oops. When I finally got back, I drank about 5 gallons of water and sat in front of the air conditioning for about 20 minutes. Then, I got up and started my day.

First, I went to go see Humayun's Tomb. Humayun was one of the great mughal emperor's of India. The Taj Mahal is said to be modeled slightly after the Tomb and it was absolutely beautiful.

Humuyun's Tomb

Since it was a weekday, it wasn't too crowded which was nice but I was really disturbed by the looks I was getting. I honestly felt like I was in a zoo...and this was just at Humuyun's Tomb...it was all day. I had been warned about the staring culture that Indians have...and it's totally true. People in India love to just stare at you. And if you stare back, they don't have a problem with it at all. What drove me nuts though were the men who just kept taking pictures of me. I asked one of them to please stop and he just laughed. It was really discomforting having my picture taking when I was just trying to enjoy the sight. Again, I was warned about this but I honestly thought that they would be discreet about it and it wouldn't bother me...oh no, no discretion at all.

Close up of Humuyun's Tomb

From there, I was absolutely starving so I hopped in an auto and made my way to Sundar Nagar Market. I totally got ripped off because the driver took me to the wrong market first and didn't think I would notice and ended up charging me 100 rupees extra. It's only $2 but it's principle. I hate that just because I'm a "foreigner" I immediately get charged triple what anyone else pays for anything. So I stopped into an Italian restaurant for some fantastic food. Italian food in Italy? What are you thinking, Christy? I know, I know. I was just in Rome and had the best Italian food ever but my stomach wasn't feeling too hot and I didn't want to take any chances since I didn't have any meds with me so I stuck with a highly recommended Italian place. Don't worry, I'm eating plenty of Indian food while I'm here. After lunch, I headed to a tea shop and bought some yummy teas and then made the mistake of walking nearly 2 miles to the nearest metro station. I could have taken an auto but I was still bent out of shape about getting ripped off earlier so I walked. My feet are now paying the price.

This is an auto rickshaw...what I've been driving around in. In this particular instance, the one in front ran out of gas, so my driver decided to give him a push...with his foot...while still driving me around...for almost 20 minutes...

So, I finally found the Metro and was trying to make my way to the Indira Ghandi National Museum but the auto driver took me to the Mahatma Ghandi Museum...no worries! I wanted to see both anyway! I don't think this was the Ghandi Museum though...according to my guide book there's a Ghandi Museum and Ghandi Smriti which is the Ghandi Memorial. It's all very confusing. Anyway, I went to Ghandi Smriti which is where Ghandi lived his last days and was assassinated.

Ghandi's last steps leading to where he was assassinated.

Where Ghandi was assassinated.

So I didn't see as much as I would have liked to today but the day is still young and I've got a lot more time in Delhi! So far, it's definitely been an experience but a pretty enjoyable (although at times frustrating) time. I'm taking India for what it is though, "creative chaos" as my friend Sid says!