My second day in Bangaluru I was fortunate enough to use one of my Dad's colleague's drivers. My Dad works in Global travel for an international corporation, and works with a woman who, convenient for me, lives in Bangaluru. She was out of town that day and offered me the use of her driver and made some suggestions of things to see that were not particularly centrally located or easy to get to.
Her driver was very kind but spoke very minimal english. We mostly communicated that day through smiles, nods, and pointing. My Dad's colleague had conveyed to him beforehand where to take me. So I mostly just sat back and went along for the ride as he chauffeured me around and lead me through the various sights.
We were on the road at around 8:30 am. First stop were a couple of temples, Dodda Ganesha Temple and Bull Temple, which are adjacent to each other. My Dad's colleague informed me that it was fitting that I begin my backpacking trip by visiting a temple dedicated to Ganesha, the elephant faced God in Hinduism, who they pray to before starting any new task to remove whatever barriers might be in the way of reaching their goal.
The layout of each temple is, at base, the same. A figure of the primary deity is located, more or less, in an open enclosure in the center of the temple. This enclosure is more like a room with a open doorway in the front. As far as I can tell, regular people, as in other than priests, do not enter this enclosure but rather peer in at the figure. The priest comes out with a flame by which to bless yourself, an offering plate, the red stuff the use to mark your forehead with a dot, and in some instances, holy water.
In modern Hinduism, they are tolerant of all religions, ultimately seeing them as different manners by which to worship the singular great divinity. (Yes, modern Hinduism is closer to monotheistic than polytheistic--each god is simply a different manifestation of the one great divinity.) Thus, they are inclusive of all who enter the temple. Admittedly, I am several days behind on my blog, but this has given me more insight into what is typical for a temple visit. Getting to my point, on multiple occasions, I have been motioned over by the priest who then continues to tell me a bit about the deity, offer me the flame to bless myself, and mark me on the head with the red dot. It's quite nice to have them not just tolerate your presence, as an obvious sore-thumb, but to actively engage and include you.
After the temple visits, we stopped at McDonalds before heading to Bannerghatta National Park, which has a rescued animal reserve on it. It was breakfast time at McDonalds, and honestly I did not look too hard at the options, but beside the hashbrowns, nothing else was familiar. I ordered some sort of veg patty sandwich (in India, they refer to things as veg and non-veg, rather than vegetarian and normal). The sandwich was fine, not great but edible. The hashbrown on the other hand tasted way better than the one's in the states, maybe it was the oil, maybe it was less processed potato, but regardless of why, it was notably.....less greasy tasting.
The drive to the national park was the first I had seen of India outside of Bangalore. Most of what we drove through is not what I would describe as rural, but it definitely wasn't suburbia either. Honestly, it was a little heart-wretching. Garbage pretty much everywhere, run down buildings, buildings that were falling apart and still being used, more stray dogs, it was not a sight for the meek of heart. Also, got my first glimpse of wandering cow's, which was kind of fun given that the stereotype that cows roam freely in India.
We arrive at the park, which in terms of attractions has a zoo, butterfly house, and a safari through the their rescued animal reserve. Among the star attractions in the reserve were lions, tigers, and bears--no joke. It was interesting to see these animals pretty close up next to the buss we were on, although it seemed strange that the animals just hung now near the roads. I imagine they feed them close to the road to entice them to hang out near where the sight seer's will come by. The tigers were the most active, which is not saying much given that the lions and bears pretty much just laid there licking themselves and looking up as we drove by. But overall, it was a pretty cool ride, getting up close and personal with some lazy mammals that could rip my head off.
On the way home we sat in traffic....a lot. Bangalore can get some terrible traffic, partly due to lack of urban planning, but also because of the general disregard for traffic rules. The streets are filled with busses, cars, rickshaws, motorcycles, and scooters, and everyone simply tries to get where they are going as fast as possible. The methods used include, but are by no means limited to, running red lights, driving on the wrong side of the road, squeezing as many vehicles across the width of the road regardless of defined lanes, not taking turns at intersections, and eventually when there are just too many vehicles, blocking the intersections. Oddly enough, most the time these methods don't seem to slow things down too much, but once there are just too many vehicles on the road, the intersections get blocked and then everyone can say hello to the traffic from hell.
Skipping ahead to the present time, now. I still wasn't feeling 100% about this trip at the end of day two, still little anxious, still settling in, but now, after four full days, and plans to move locations tomorrow, I'm back to estatic. I've gained my bearings in this new and sometimes seemingly backwards place.
More to come, but for now, just lions, tigers, and bears, oh my.
