Pics - Mysore to Kochi

Hi everyone. I am now fully recovered! I have to say, it's quite handy traveling with a doctor. Who else can answer questions like "virus, bacteria, or parasite?" Ashifa did an excellent job of patching me up after an extended bug (the verdict was parasite) had me bedridden for a couple days. After my little illness got to the one-week point and I was still having a lot of trouble eating and drinking and was still losing a lot of fluid, and I swore to her that I could not possibly drink as much water as she said I needed, drastic steps had to be taken.... She decided that if I couldn't put fluid in myself, she would put it in for me - through an IV! In India, you can buy pretty much any medication other than really addictive ones over the counter, so she was able to buy supplies at our local pharmacy. So, I got an IV (fluids because of my dehydration) in our hotel room while watching cricket on TV. Doctor MacGyver had to improvise a bit. The IV bag ended up hanging off our ceiling fan with two clothes hangers (we'll post pics of this later, for sure). I have to say, it was a pretty miraculous recovery after this. Within a day, I was almost back to normal - eating and able to get around town.

Thought we'd share a few pictures from the last couple weeks!

Sarees at a market in Shantiniketan:

One of Ashifa's favorite snacks on this trip - freshly steamed idly:

Chillin' at Lalbagh Botanical Gardens in Bangalore:

Ancient and modern:

Although we haven't been to the theater yet, we've had a little bit of the Bollywood experience. The other day, a TV show was being filmed in our hotel lobby - as we sat there using the internet. A few days ago, as we were visiting a temple in Bangalore, we came upon a film crew shooting either a TV show or movie. Some actors primping before the shoot:

Downtown Bangalore - a bit more modern than the cows and rickshaws we're used to:

Hindu temple at Chamundi Hill near Bangalore:

Wide load:

Carvings at an ancient Hoysala temple at Somnathpur:

What's the most important part of an Indian car? The horn, of course. It is simply not possible to drive without one. Ours broke, so Ashifa's dad and our driver had to do some electrical work:

My shoes did not survive the Singalila trek very well, so I had a little repair work done. For about $1.25 I got both shoes sown up nicely. Ashifa also got this guy to make some much-needed repairs to her backpack. One nice thing about India, if you need something done, anytime, anywhere, you can usually find someone to do it.

Monkeys at Badami snacking on flowers: However....

We later saw a couple monkeys breaking into a school bus and munching on a bag of rice. Some school group was going to be hungry that night.

The rock-cut cave temples at Badami:

It turns out January is a popular month for India schools to take field trips, so a lot of the sites we went to were overrun with school kids. School kids who were very interested in talking to Westerners, taking Westerners' pictures, having their pictures taken by Westerners, and wearing the hats of Westerners in pictures... We are going to be in the snapshots of dozens of Indian kids. :)

Ashifa's dad gets his first lesson in traveling in India - waiting with the hippy kids of Gokarna beach for our three-hours delayed train:
Ashifa's dad checks out the oldest Christian church in India - St Francis in Kochi, Kerala: