Tag Archives: bangalore

Shravanabelagola Temple & Belur

This weekend I climbed 660 granite steps to the temple at Shravanabelagola on my way to Belur. At the top, I was overwhelmed with about 300 children from Bangalore who all wanted to shake my hand, ask me my name, my country, and ask "sup boy?" in their thick Indian accents. Overwhelmed is an understatement. I have never met so many people in such a short period. As I descended the rock, every child I passed on my way down, remembering my name, said goodbye.

The photo shows a long, long line of steps carved into a granite rock face. At the bottom of the steps is a city.
660 steps to the Shravanabelagola Temple

Belur itself was incredible. The temples had thousands of intricate carvings on nearly every wall, column, and ceiling stone. Weathered for the past 8,000 years, these carvings depicted stories of the gods from the hindu epics. Some of the work was so fine, you could just stick a thread into the intricacies of the carvings.



The stone edifice shown is a temple with an incredible amount of carvings on it. There are many deities and details carved into the walls.
The Chennakeshava Temple
The stone edifice shown is a temple with an incredible amount of carvings on it. There are many deities and details carved into the walls.
The Chennakeshava Temple

When stopping for dinner, I sat alone and ordered one of my favorite Chinese-Indian dishes: Gobi Manchurian. After ordering, I went to wash my hands, and a group of ~20 local women were staring at me. They asked, simply "hi. how are you?" But when I simply answered "Hello. How are you?" and returned to my table, I must have left something to be desired. They continued to stare at me while I ate my dinner for the next 20 minutes, and eventually came to sit at my table to take selfies with me.

They thoroughly complimented my 1-month-old baby dreds, and asked me to smile for their camera while I tried to finish my meal. Before they left, one of them asked me to come to their home. Again, overwhelming, but incredibly nice. In any case, I had a bus to catch, so I scarfed down the last of my food and climbed onto my tour bus. A few minutes later, a van full of women passed by my window seat, cheering, shouting, and waving "goodbye!". I smiled, waved, reclined, pulled down my bandanna over my eyes, and tried to sleep for the last leg of my journey back to Bangalore.


Fever in India

On Wednesday I came home early from work with a 101 degree fever. I've been traveling in-and-out of malaria & dengue fever zones for the past 2 months, so my first thought was: get to the hospital for a diagnosis--this could get bad, fast. For some reason, I had no other major symptoms. Despite weakness, chills, and pain, I walked myself to the nearest ER--less than 1km from my bed.

I'm damp with a mild euphoric, dissociative trance reminiscent of years past experiments with Ketamine.

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Bamboo Workshops in Auroville

This weekend I'm dodging cows, dogs, and goats on my moped through the streets of Tamil Nadu. The engine lets out a constant scream as I ride full-throttle at 40 kph. My usual preference for a cycle is impractical for this weekend's agenda--I'm attending a Bamboo workshop at the Bamboo Center in Auroville.

This weekend I'm dodging cows, dogs, and goats on my moped through the streets of Tamil Nadu. The engine lets out a constant scream as I ride full-throttle at 40 kph.

On my 4-day weekend break from work, I took a 7-hour bus ride from Bangalore in Karnataka to Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu. Auroville is an incredible community with more wisdom per-capita than I've ever experienced in any town or city. Any traveler should land here with the intention to stay a few weeks, and the will to stay a few months. There's volunteer opportunities at every corner, with immense potential for useful knowledge in permaculture, sustainable architecture, community, and spirituality.

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