Hampi Day 1

Hemakuta Hill.

Overlooking Virupaksha Temple.

See what I put up with?

Inside the temple

"Hey, the elephant took Mommy's money!" He has no idea yet that I paid the elephant to...

give him a "blessing!" Dalton burst into tears when the elephant tapped him on the head. She gave me one also, it felt like a nice, soft, elephant pat.

Monkeys lying in wait to steal bananas.

Hampi Bazaar. People live in the ruins of the old Bazaar.

Riding in the coracle boat, a round boat made from bamboo and a tarp.

675 white painted steps up to that temple.

As you can see, the scenery was just amazing. Ruins among rocks.

Oh yes, coracle boat also came with a ten year old driver. That is one seriously strong kid. But our guide had to carry the boat when we walk around the fallen stone bridge.

Achyutaraya Temple.

Ugra Narasimha - the terrifying lion head/man body incarnation of Vishnu. The statue originally had his wife, Lakshmi, seated on his lap, calming him from his anger.

Crafty Goodness Part 2

Create with me.

Crafty Goodness

I went to a fabric store on Commercial Street today that Kerri told me about. Among other things (just about everything) he had an entire cupboard with little drawers full of embroidery floss of every color, and rows and rows of ribbon spools and trims. I am just posting all of the pictures I took. You can click to enlarge.

This is the shop from the outside. Tiny, but overwhelming.

The kids were impressed with the rainbow of thread. We picked out 7 colors to take home. (I also got an embroidery hoop, needles and poplin.)

There is basically no floor space in the shop.

Off to learn embroidery now.

UB City

After our trip to Cubbon Park, we went to UB City (fancy mall and hotel) for lunch.

They brought the kids Winnie-the-Pooh dishes. Maggie was happier than she looks.

Fried ice cream! I laughed out loud when I read in John's blog that we couldn't expect authentic Mexican fried ice cream at a Chinese restaurant in Bangalore.

Weird murals in the mall.

Dalton thought the banisters made the best seat.

Ack.

Fancy mall. Did I mention that?

Our kids having their picture taken by a stranger. (See here.)

Showing Dalton his photo.

Salon.

This guy was, like, the hotel doorman. I've seen a few men dressed like this standing outside fancy hotels, but none with such an impressive mustache as this guy.

Bangalore: Bala Bhavan at Cubbon Park

John wrote a nice write-up of our visit to Bala Bhavan children's park at Cubbon Park today. So I'm not going to. Here are the pics.

Turret Wall

Stegosaurus! There were other animal statues about, but behind fences. I'm happy to say that the information sign about Stegosaurus was accurate, as far as my understanding.

I'm trying to be better about taking pictures of silly signs we see. Also, Cubbon Park was the first place I've seen signs entirely in Kannada. I have a hard enough time reading the ones in English!

On the boat ride... bamboo island.

Waiting in line for the train.

Train ride... I love this picture because of the grumpy look on the unsuspecting man's face. The female workers wore saris the same color as his uniform. Yuck. I used to think of a sari as beautiful, formal wear. At least the housecleaners in our apartment building get to wear red uniform saris.

This picture gives you a feel for the plant life at the park: Bamboo, palm, and something that looks suspiciously like fiddle-leaf fig, but isn't.

Dalton loves swings and slides. He didn't like slides as a baby, but he can go down by himself now and loves it.

More bamboo and a Maggie Monkey.

Indeed.