As promised, our weekend adventure all summed up.

With Mickey in Hyderabad, Melissa (and the kidlet), Lauren, and I got up super early on Saturday morning to head to Mysore and Bandipur.  We borrowed a driver and car from Mickey's friends.  Altogether, for the driver's service, meals, and gas for the car, we paid about 60 dollars.  It was quite the way to travel.  I never could quite grasp the relationship with the driver and the particulars of having a driver.  I mean, he wanted to open doors, carry bags, and run inside to check vacancies at hotels.  It was nice and all, but after spending my life doing those things myself, it was hard to get used to having someone there to do those things.  (Of course, with the exception of the "mans," Mama.)

We first stopped at a bird sanctuary along the road to Mysore.  They, like all the other places, charged a foreigner fee for entry that was way more expensive, like 300 versus 50 rupees than the Indian national fee.  So, $6 versus $1.  I guess the government really wants Indians to see their national treasures, and in the meantime, it likes to take advantage of the "rich" foreigners.  We decided to take the boat ride around this lake thing that was FULL of birds.  I was thinking a substantial sized boat that would leave at certain intervals.  I was SO wrong, but that usually happens when I assume anything here.  The boat ride was a row boat that departed as soon as there were enough people to fill it.  So, here we are, in God knows how deep water, looking at lovely birds, when several crocodiles swim towards us.  Now, some of you may not know this, but I was raised near the Okefenokee Swamp, and there are a lot of alligators there, but my fears of the gators were always allayed with the knowledge that crocodiles were much bigger (than gators) and oh, yes, they were much more aggressive than gators.  So, no need to worry about gators...  Then, there I was in a row boat in a lake in India with big huge crocodiles.  We were fine obviously, but I was not a fan of that part of the ride.

We made it to Mysore with all of our limbs intact.  There, we went to Mysore Palace.  I wish I remembered more of the story, but some royal people lived in this amazingly beautiful palace from the turn of the century until India stopped being British in 1947, I think.  I was amazingly beautiful.  There aren't any pictures from inside because they are crazy about that, but Lauren and Melissa got some from the outside.  Somewhere along the line, my camera went MIA, so, I have nothing to show for the trip, and I'm short one camera.  Still, I've got some interesting things to share.  So, number one, we had to take off our shoes to go in the palace. I was prepared to do this if we went to a temple, but not to go inside a pretty house.  I was totally and completely grossed out at the idea of not wearing my shoes inside.  I have become a complete germophobe here.  At home, I'm very whatever about germs, but here, I see the opportunity for typhoid and diptheria and cholera and yellow fever in every opportunity!  I didn't mind being barefoot, but I really minded being barefooted in a place where other people walk without shoes on the same streets that cows and dogs and people use as a bathroom.  I'm trying really hard not to think about it now.   Ugh!   Point two: we saw far more white people in two hours at the palace than we've see in two weeks in Bangalore.  Three: I used my first squatty potty.  I don't want to ever do it again.  And last, we were totally bombarded by incredibly aggressive vendors pushing their wares on our way into and out of the palace.  They called out to us and pushed their trinkets in our face.  It was terrible.  Also terrible is the number of beggars around the palace.  We've come across a few in Bangalore, but this was a whole new deal.  Many of these people were disabled in some way, so it pulled my heartstrings a bit more, but we had to keep walking by.  As we got in the car, one person kept knocking on the window with a hand out until we drove away.

So, after that, we headed to Bandipur, a national park, about an hour down the road.  We had no reservations, and I was oddly okay with it.  After trying several places, we ended up at an AMAZING hotel.  It was so beautiful and modern, it was easy to forget we were in a different country.  It was like something out of a travel magazine.  We stayed in a cottage for the night, had two meals, and a safari in the morning for about $120 each.  It was pretty expensive for India standards (and a little expensive for home standards), but it so worth it.  It was definitely the best food I've had in India so far.  They toned down the spice of the food, so we could actually taste it, and oh, for breakfast, they made us toast and omelets.  What a lovely change of pace from the weird stuff we get here.

We got up super early for safari, and we didn't really see any animals, but it was still pretty cool.  It was super cold, though.  Bandipur is up a little ways into the mountains, so the pashmina I brought for modesty turned out to be the best head cover/scarf I could hope for.  It was much colder than I expected.  I definitely didn't anticipate needing to wear more than long pants, a sweater, and scarf in India in July.

On our way back, we stopped and did some shopping in Mysore.  They are famous for sandalwood in Mysore, and they use it for all kinds of things.  The sandalwood is supposed to have some sort of mystical quality so they don't waste any of it; they even sell the sawdust.  They make soap from it, and it smells amazing.  I bought some of the soap, and a prize for my sister.  I won't reveal what I got, but it smells like sandalwood!

We got back super late from Mysore, the whole journey taking about 6 hours.  A lot of that time was spent sitting in traffic in Bangalore.  We were super tired but happy.

And now for something completely different...  Lauren and I taught Abhishek on our own this morning.  I think it went really well.  I liked watching and listening to Lauren teach.  It was nice to have someone who struggles with wording and pacing of a lesson just like I do sometimes.  It was nice to have a question about how to phrase something, look to Lauren, and see that she was just as unsure of the answer as me.  I think we made some progress him, helping him be more willing to explore.

We did some shopping, and I bought some kurtas. I guessed on sizing as trying on clothes was really frustrating.  You could only have four items at a time, and then the power went out, and the attendant didn't really speak any English, and my Kannada is no better.  I all worked out in the end, I suppose.  I am pretty happy with the kurtas.  I bought the short (read: hip length) Western style kurta, and I'm pretty excited to wear them with jeans.

We all had dinner tonight at our favorite Italian place.  I had American pizza at the Italian restaurant in India run by Koreans.  With all those degrees of separation, you'd think it would be bad.  Not so much.  It was weird, but it tasted pretty good.  Pizza Americano apparently contains chicken, cheese, and corn.  Yep.  Corn.  I've seen just about anything on a pizza back home, but never corn.  Well, there's a first for everything!

Until tomorrow!

 Inside the palace.

 Before our safari.

Elephants have prickly skin.  Who knew?