Anyway, since we didn't come back to Minnesota for Christmas, we spent a week at home, relaxing and trying to figure out where to go. Our friends the Fischers (wherearethefischers.blogspot.com) also wanted to do a bit of traveling, so we decided to check out some 1000 year old temples west of Bangalore.
There is a brand of 'luxury' resorts in southern India called Orange County, and they had a moderately priced resort in the town of Hassan, with a swimming pool and lots of 'India' to see nearby. After a tumultuous experience booking the rooms (drive into Bangalore because the online payment doesn't work - and payment doesn't work at their office - so finally just pay at the resort) we set off at our planned 6:30 am to beat the Bangalore traffic. Actually, 6:30 was closer to 7:30, plus both of us forgetting a few things at home and needing to double back.
Future vacations are focused on sites to the east of Bangalore :) After spending ~90 minutes getting through Bangalore, it was time for the open road. I'm glad Murthy knew were he was going. Now we could proceed our our 2-4 hour drive out to Hassan. After a bit of kid swapping between Innovas... (we were really tempted to put all kids in one, and the adults in the other - but figured all the kids would wind up in the front seat) ... and some regurgitated carrots, we finally arrived around 2pm, just in time for lunch.
Since we had been driving all day, why not continue it with a little more driving to see the first of the 1000 year old temples, with the added bonus of some cheek pinching for the kids? Sounds like the thing to do, so we set of for Halebidu, just 30 minutes away.
Lots of fantastic carvings in the stone, and many very friendly Indian tourists. Usually the kids were the highlight of the photos, but periodically the adults were the focus of the picture. As you can tell: the kids became a bit tired
of posing for yet another picture. Fantastic opportunity for Heather and I to get pictures of them however.Retreating back to the resort, we had a nice south-Indian meal, with cold Fosters, and the kids were asleep soon. The plan for the next day was a short drive to Belur to see the temple there, then return back to the pool in the afternoon. However, I got an urgent text message from my driver saying he needs to talk to us. Thinking a truck tipped over on our Innova, I call him and he is excited about tour plans for the next day. He has been talking with friends, and we just have to see another temple that is an easy 3-4 hour drive, and after that we can drive to an overlook and watch the sun set over the west coast of India. Not a pool for the kids, but sounds pretty good, so we make that the new plan.
The following day, we go see the temples in Belur. A little bigger complex, a bit more graphic carving, many more Indian tourists and cheek pinching. (Fortunately, little blonde kids in India can get away with quite a bit of mischief), then we set off for this temple in the mountains and our sunset.
Maybe passing the goats should have been a clue that this was not going to be as seamless as advertised. After driving an hour or two, the road was getting bumpier and bumpier, with
Innova sized potholes. The recent monsoons (in July - this was December) had damaged the road, making the top speed about 40 kmH.Fortunately, it was road construction season, with construction workers to break the large
granite rocks into smaller rocks with hammers, then fill in the potholes, and have other workers carry molten tar from the barrels heating over wood fires. Shouldn't take too long to fix the road :)We took a short break at a small roadside store to have a few chips and fresh coconuts.
Zach wasn't quite sure about it.Afterwards, the journey continued on into the hills/mountains. As the altitude increased, we did enter coffee and tea country. Coffee plants growing on the side, and women in sarees harvesting tea leaves. Just a couple weeks earlier, Heather and I had been watching a show on Discovery Channnel about tea harvesting in India and this was directly out of that show. Fortunately, we didn't see the other topic of that show: the cobras lounging under the tea plants.
After driving, we became increasingly aware that there would be no bathrooms to stop for. So every so often, we were on the lookout for any good location to use the facilities... a few secluded bushes should do! As a bladder can attest to, in that part of the country, they were hard to come by!
We did FINALLY reach this temple and got the VIP treatment, being escorted directly to the front. Since the sunset place was 'only 2 hours' further away, and it was already 3pm, we gave up on the sunset and decided to try and get back to the resort as quickly as possible.
Any idea which way to go?
After a thankfully uneventful but exciting drive back through the hills in the dark (Don't drive in rural India after dark) we made it back with only a few screaming kids. Parents took turns eating in shifts, so one could always be back with the respective sleeping kids.
Heather and I thought it would be a quiet night.. the kids were tired out, but at 1am we heard cats fighting on the roof... for hours! We called the front desk and it did quiet down... for a bit. The 'memorable' part is when all of a sudden the end of the bed got wet due to a sudden deluge from the ceiling - and there was no rain that night!
The next day, we were ready to head home. We first stopped at
an abandoned church (flooded when the river rose) and then had another stop to climb a granite mountain (611 steps) to see the large Jain monolith at
the top. You could hire some people to carry you up, but that would be too easy. Instead Sacia and Owen took off and reached the top first. Then the climb down and back into Bangalore. It is worth mentioning something about traffic rules in India. You will see all sorts of vehicles on the road, with families of 6 (I've seen 5) on a motorcycle (or even a scooter). You will also see incredibly overloaded trucks, such as this oversized rickshaw carrying coconut husks.
We did have the unfortunate experience to see the other part of the rules that pedestrians/motorcycles don't have any rights on the road, unless a bigger vehicle hits them. Then the bigger vehicle is at fault - even if the motorcycle enters a busy blacktopped road from a side gravel road without stopping and was incredibly lucky to not have major injuries.
We were fortunate to have an experienced driver to help diffuse the situation, but it did quell my interest in driving for a bit.
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