Even though I was extremely tired when I got back, I decided to book a tour to Ooty, a kinda hill station, like Mahabaleswar. I thought I should might as well check it out after the couples who I was with on the drive back from Udaipur to Ahmedabad said that they spent their honeymoon. The guide book said that the tour to Ooty is not all that great if you want to spend at least 7-8 hours on the bus...and it was true. The entire journey we drove through two state parks...one was a tiger park where I didn’t see any tigers other than some peacocks and monkeys. The other park we saw bison. But it was nice to see green things and breathe in fresh air for a change.
Ooty was alright. I didn’t see anything so special about it other than the pedal-boat ride that I took with a couple of girls and their mother. It was kinda scary but I decided to do it anyways not knowing a darn thing about swimming whatsoever. I swear when I get back from this trip...I need to learn some basic survival skills (i.e., swimming, driving, riding a bike).
We had lunch did some minor shopping, and then went to this garden. Again, nothing too spectacular, and then we left at about 5 pm. I think we got to Ooty at 1 pm and so the trip was really short in duration. I didn’t get back to Mysore until 9:20 pm. But seeing some parts of the country on the cramped tour bus was pretty nice. I didn’t mind it at all.
Because I booked a really lame flight (Pune-Bangalore and back), and the flight back to Pune is on Monday at 6 in the morning. I decided to take a bus to Bangalore from Mysore on Sunday. The cool thing about the state of Karnataka is that it seemed to be well-managed than most of the other states. The AC buses were really some of the best that I’ve seen and the local buses remind me of the buses that we have in the Bay Area...which is quite huge here in India. Most of the time, all the local buses are all beat up and everything...and they’re also so crowded. It was nice to see that locals also ride on nice buses.
I left Mysore on the bus to Bangalore and the nice thing about it was that it was non-stop and there were buses every 15 minutes. Non-AC was every 5 minutes...and they didn’t even bother to wait for the bus to become full before take-off. I’m sure if there was only one person on the bus, they would leave as well.
I got to Bangalore before noon and it was kinda of a bitch to find a hotel...but I finally did and finally was able to check email and update my blog. So sorry folks if anyone was worried for my safety. My trip is about to be over when I fly back home on Aug. 20th. Right now I’m flying back from Bangalore to Pune and will be there in about 30 mins.
On Wednesday, I will fly from Mumbai to Varanasi to do a Buddhist pilgrimage. It will be a ten day pilgrimage and I will try to keep you guys up-to-date because it is in fact the most important pilgrimage that I will have done here in India. I will fly to Varanasi, visit Sarnath (where I believe Buddhist gave his first sermon), and go to Bodhgaya. That’s about it....unless I’m missing out on something...so please folks if you know of other places that I should go...email me at gobluff@gmail.com and if it’s not too far from Varnasi, I’ll probably go as well. I’m probably not going to Kushinagara...it’s too far.
Getting to Bangalore airport was not cool. The airport was like 40 km outside of Bangalore....other airports are around 15-20 km...and when I have to be there for a 6 am flight, it was not pleasant. I must have slept 3 hours last night. Had to wake up at 3 am and get ready for my 4 am taxi...which again cost me a fortune. The ppl here in India really work hard even the guy who drives the taxi. He had to sleep in the car...parked outside of my hotel...probably to wait for me. He must have lived really far from the hotel and so it didn’t make much sense for him to go home and then drive back to my hotel for a 4 am pick up. The drive was half an hour because there was hardly any traffic, but usually takes 1 hour on taxi and 2 hours by bus. I think if I had waited to go to Bangalore Sunday night from Mysore, I would have been quite screwed...because I would have guessed that the airport was close to the city when it was not....and no auto-rickshaws are allowed to make that trip to the airport. Anyways, I’m glad to be back in Pune.
Ooty was alright. I didn’t see anything so special about it other than the pedal-boat ride that I took with a couple of girls and their mother. It was kinda scary but I decided to do it anyways not knowing a darn thing about swimming whatsoever. I swear when I get back from this trip...I need to learn some basic survival skills (i.e., swimming, driving, riding a bike).
We had lunch did some minor shopping, and then went to this garden. Again, nothing too spectacular, and then we left at about 5 pm. I think we got to Ooty at 1 pm and so the trip was really short in duration. I didn’t get back to Mysore until 9:20 pm. But seeing some parts of the country on the cramped tour bus was pretty nice. I didn’t mind it at all.
Because I booked a really lame flight (Pune-Bangalore and back), and the flight back to Pune is on Monday at 6 in the morning. I decided to take a bus to Bangalore from Mysore on Sunday. The cool thing about the state of Karnataka is that it seemed to be well-managed than most of the other states. The AC buses were really some of the best that I’ve seen and the local buses remind me of the buses that we have in the Bay Area...which is quite huge here in India. Most of the time, all the local buses are all beat up and everything...and they’re also so crowded. It was nice to see that locals also ride on nice buses.
I left Mysore on the bus to Bangalore and the nice thing about it was that it was non-stop and there were buses every 15 minutes. Non-AC was every 5 minutes...and they didn’t even bother to wait for the bus to become full before take-off. I’m sure if there was only one person on the bus, they would leave as well.
I got to Bangalore before noon and it was kinda of a bitch to find a hotel...but I finally did and finally was able to check email and update my blog. So sorry folks if anyone was worried for my safety. My trip is about to be over when I fly back home on Aug. 20th. Right now I’m flying back from Bangalore to Pune and will be there in about 30 mins.
On Wednesday, I will fly from Mumbai to Varanasi to do a Buddhist pilgrimage. It will be a ten day pilgrimage and I will try to keep you guys up-to-date because it is in fact the most important pilgrimage that I will have done here in India. I will fly to Varanasi, visit Sarnath (where I believe Buddhist gave his first sermon), and go to Bodhgaya. That’s about it....unless I’m missing out on something...so please folks if you know of other places that I should go...email me at gobluff@gmail.com and if it’s not too far from Varnasi, I’ll probably go as well. I’m probably not going to Kushinagara...it’s too far.
Getting to Bangalore airport was not cool. The airport was like 40 km outside of Bangalore....other airports are around 15-20 km...and when I have to be there for a 6 am flight, it was not pleasant. I must have slept 3 hours last night. Had to wake up at 3 am and get ready for my 4 am taxi...which again cost me a fortune. The ppl here in India really work hard even the guy who drives the taxi. He had to sleep in the car...parked outside of my hotel...probably to wait for me. He must have lived really far from the hotel and so it didn’t make much sense for him to go home and then drive back to my hotel for a 4 am pick up. The drive was half an hour because there was hardly any traffic, but usually takes 1 hour on taxi and 2 hours by bus. I think if I had waited to go to Bangalore Sunday night from Mysore, I would have been quite screwed...because I would have guessed that the airport was close to the city when it was not....and no auto-rickshaws are allowed to make that trip to the airport. Anyways, I’m glad to be back in Pune.
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