So, I haven't exactly been keeping this thing up to date. For starters, I have been on two nice little trips since I last wrote. Also, this weekend was a festival called Holi. But back to the trips. Hampi and Mysore, in that order. Yet I think it says something that I wrote the first draft of this blog entry on my Mysore hotel notpad from my sick bed. But, I'll get to that later. Hampi first. I went to Hampi last weekend. Honestly, I only had two things planned with Hampi, and to describe them I am going to need to re-employ the HIMYM code. My two planned events were seeing the Hanuman temple and having a sandwich lassi.
So we got in on Saturday moring and went straight to the hotel to check in then to a restaurant for breakfast. We then went across the river and a little hike over to the Hanuman temple, Hanuman is the monkey god, every loyal to Rama and Sita. Well, no one had mentioned that the Hanuman temple was on top of a mountain, therefore a long hike to the top (well, they had stairs.) So much for not researching places I want to go as to be more spontaneous. We had a nice morning view of Hampi from the top. It was cool since Hanuman is one of my favorite Hindu/Indian gods. Then back down and a short auto rick back for sandwich lassis.
This is where things took a turn, where the trip turned into a "trip." We heard about the sandwich lassis prior to getting there but we didn't know exactly what we were getting. So we went to the prescribed cafe and got the special lassi, the cafe's own private code, then waited on the cafe's seats, which were mattresses on the floor. That right there, should have been the clue. W were told that when we order we should ask them to be strong. They came out and all the lassis tasted like were sandwiches, pure sandwiches. But on we went drinking our sandwich lassis. Each of us split one and Kaitlin and I ended up sucking down ours in about 10 minutes flat, a very big difference from our party's thirty minutes to suck down theirs. As for the effects, they took a while, but once they hit we understood why there were mattresses on the floor. And there was the walk back to the hotel. Dear god, it felt like forever. And once in the hotel, a 16 hour nap with an interval of puking my brains out and showering (which really just consisted of hitting myself in the head with a shampoo filled hand several times.)
And the next day I groggily woke up, ate breakfast/lunch and attempted to look at more temples before I succumbed to window shopping and an Ayurvedic massage. And that was it. My entire 48 hours of Hampi retold for your glory. Riveting stuff, eh?
Well onto Mysore. As my dad has so ingeniously figured out, Mysore was "my sore." Honestly on the Thursday we left I felt so incredibly sick that I was debating not going. But I did. And so a plane and bus ride away we get into the Mysore hotel. Now I have to mention that the program that I am here in India with planned this trip, therefore not going seemed like sort of an insult. And me going and staying at the hotel they arranged seemed like a perfect place for me to be sick. After a night on down comforter bedding, I woke up and asked my roommate Adrian to pick me some toast from downstairs breakfast. She returned with one of our program leaders and asked if she thought if I could make it through the day, which I replied a resounding no. So in bed I was, for the next two days of the trip, eating room service, watching Dexter on TV, and finishing the rest of the fourth Harry Potter book. What a vacation. On Sunday I did get out of bed for an activity, mostly because we were leaving for the airport directly after that. So Mysore was all it lived up to be, a sore.
As for Holi, it was fun we threw colors at each other and all that hoopla, but I only participated during Sat morning, as my back sort of got pulled out from attempting to lift Kate's suitcase.So, yea, that is all you missed from here. Off to Mumbai this weekend and I will let you know that goes afterwards, or the best I can do because I am only touching down for about 12 hours till I go up to the North for a bit.
Also, pictures (only some from Holi, sorry) are up on facebook.
~The Finn
So we got in on Saturday moring and went straight to the hotel to check in then to a restaurant for breakfast. We then went across the river and a little hike over to the Hanuman temple, Hanuman is the monkey god, every loyal to Rama and Sita. Well, no one had mentioned that the Hanuman temple was on top of a mountain, therefore a long hike to the top (well, they had stairs.) So much for not researching places I want to go as to be more spontaneous. We had a nice morning view of Hampi from the top. It was cool since Hanuman is one of my favorite Hindu/Indian gods. Then back down and a short auto rick back for sandwich lassis.
This is where things took a turn, where the trip turned into a "trip." We heard about the sandwich lassis prior to getting there but we didn't know exactly what we were getting. So we went to the prescribed cafe and got the special lassi, the cafe's own private code, then waited on the cafe's seats, which were mattresses on the floor. That right there, should have been the clue. W were told that when we order we should ask them to be strong. They came out and all the lassis tasted like were sandwiches, pure sandwiches. But on we went drinking our sandwich lassis. Each of us split one and Kaitlin and I ended up sucking down ours in about 10 minutes flat, a very big difference from our party's thirty minutes to suck down theirs. As for the effects, they took a while, but once they hit we understood why there were mattresses on the floor. And there was the walk back to the hotel. Dear god, it felt like forever. And once in the hotel, a 16 hour nap with an interval of puking my brains out and showering (which really just consisted of hitting myself in the head with a shampoo filled hand several times.)
And the next day I groggily woke up, ate breakfast/lunch and attempted to look at more temples before I succumbed to window shopping and an Ayurvedic massage. And that was it. My entire 48 hours of Hampi retold for your glory. Riveting stuff, eh?
Well onto Mysore. As my dad has so ingeniously figured out, Mysore was "my sore." Honestly on the Thursday we left I felt so incredibly sick that I was debating not going. But I did. And so a plane and bus ride away we get into the Mysore hotel. Now I have to mention that the program that I am here in India with planned this trip, therefore not going seemed like sort of an insult. And me going and staying at the hotel they arranged seemed like a perfect place for me to be sick. After a night on down comforter bedding, I woke up and asked my roommate Adrian to pick me some toast from downstairs breakfast. She returned with one of our program leaders and asked if she thought if I could make it through the day, which I replied a resounding no. So in bed I was, for the next two days of the trip, eating room service, watching Dexter on TV, and finishing the rest of the fourth Harry Potter book. What a vacation. On Sunday I did get out of bed for an activity, mostly because we were leaving for the airport directly after that. So Mysore was all it lived up to be, a sore.
As for Holi, it was fun we threw colors at each other and all that hoopla, but I only participated during Sat morning, as my back sort of got pulled out from attempting to lift Kate's suitcase.So, yea, that is all you missed from here. Off to Mumbai this weekend and I will let you know that goes afterwards, or the best I can do because I am only touching down for about 12 hours till I go up to the North for a bit.
Also, pictures (only some from Holi, sorry) are up on facebook.
~The Finn
