August 25th 2010 10:35pm
This note pertains to the past weekend: August 19th-August 22nd
In my previous note I mentioned my Environment and Health course brought in who they call the "Snake Shyam." It wasn't until 30 seconds ago that I google "Snake Shyam" and there are several links and his pictures all over google. They said he was famous and featured on the National Geographic but I ddin't think he was this well known! The first thing that pops up is his wikipedia page, which is pretty awesome. Now I'm seriously happy I was able to get a picture with him :) Well he bought in a whole bunch of snakes for us to look at and play with. Except I only looked, and didn't touch any of them. This is his Bio in short taken from wiki:
M.S. Balasubramania, popularly known as Snake Shyam, is a snake enthusiast, wildlife conservationist and lecturer in Mysore, India.[1] Though not a trained herpetologist,[2] he is known throughout the Mysore region as a "naturalist on wheels".[3] Shyam rescues and rehabilitates snakes and educates the public about them.[4] He is also sometimes consulted by local hospitals to identify a species of snake prior to treating a snakebite victim.[5]Shyam has been widely recognized for his work. National Geographic featured him in its Croc Chronicles: Snakes, Karma, Action special.[5] Mysore city has named a street for him and has dedicated its first "urban forest" to him and fellow environmentalist Hyder Ali Khan.[2][6]Shyam is also known for his personal flamboyance and has been described by The Hindu as "easily the most recognisable characters [sic] of Mysore, complete with his sun hat, overflowing beads and multiple rings that adorn his fingers".[1]
It's pretty awesome that they brought him to the institute to speak to us. What he had to say was amazing! I wouldn't be able to do justice to what he told us that day, but I did take video of course, which I'll post sometime soon! He talked about 5 things to be thankful in life. Listen for that!
SO later on that day, the students from the University of Michigan who were there doing a music program put on a show of what they all learned. They were only here for one month and they sound like they have been playing for at least a whole year. There was drumming, classical dance, the flute, the sitar, and singing. It was so exciting to watch them because we get to learn the same things while we're here as electives. I also took video of their performances!
On Aug 20th we were given a tour of the main attractions in Mysore. (Where I am staying in India) At first I thought we were going to get in the van and the driver was going to take us to the first site and we were going to meet our tour guide, but that's not how it was at all. We were just given an itinerary for the day and we were to pretty much do all the exploring on our own. Our bus driver was pretty much given a schedule and told us to meet back at the bus at a certain time. Our schedule looked pretty much like this:
8am- depart to Chamundi Hill
8:30am-10am- visit Chamundi Hill
10:30am-2:30am- Visit Mysore Palace
1pm- lunch back at the hostel
2:30-3:30pm- St. Philomenas Church
4pm- Jaganmohans Palace
6:30pm- back to the hostel
These places were all so nice and I already put up pictures so you can look at that whenever! However...taking pictures in Mysore Palace was forbidden, which is unfortunate because out of all the places I listed, that was absolutely the most amazing. That was the first Palace I've ever been to in my life. Words won't even describe what I saw that day...I snuck 2 pictures I think...if you look at the photo album...they're blurred of course because I took them from inside my tote. Before we entered we had to take our shoes off. It was enormous! And we got special attention because Dr. Rao (who is our Study Abroad advisor in India) is well known in ALL of India...no joke...everyone knows of him, and usually if we mention his name we get special consideration. So we went on a separate tour than all the other visitors. For example: there was art work and sculptures and jewelry and all sorts of stuff behind this glass case, and we got to see the stuff up close because we were right next to the glass versus the other people who had to stay a couple far behind the rope. SO we end up getting a better look at the things behind the glass. He also took us in to a couple rooms that were not for the public which was SOO awesome...it was room full of swords and torture devices and also another room that lead to wild animals that were preserved and stuffed. They looked soo real like I felt like I should even be that close to it because It would bite me at any time! There were so many rooms in there and it was just crazy to walk around and thing that 100's of years ago people were walking the same marble ground barefoot just like I was. There was a turquoise area that was themed after peacock that was beautiful and lead to the outside where the king would come and just stand so all the people in the land could see him and everything was just so huge and high up and cut outs in the archways and pillars the whole nine. Then there was a room that was painted in 22 karat gold. I'll just leave it at that. There was also a door leading into this room that was built from sterling silver and I know that doesn't sound amazing...but if you see it in person it's crazy!!
After the Palace we had lunch back at the hostel and then went to St. Philomena’s church which was built in 1933. This website does a pretty good job of describing the historical importance: http://www.mysore.org.uk/tourist-attractions/philomena-church.html Next we went to the last place on our stop which was Jagamohan Palace. It was more like an art gallery and had several floors. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures here either so that kinda sucked! Go here to learn a little more about it: http://www.mysore.org.uk/royal-buildings/jaganmohan-palace.html.
On August 21 we had fieldtrip for my Environment and health course which looked a little like this:
8am-depart Mysore after breakfast
10am-Gopal Swamy Hill (Nature Walk)
12pm- leave Gopal Swammy Hill
1pm- arrive in Bandipur
1:30- lunch
3-4pm- Safari
5pm-leave Bandipur
7pm- arrive at hostel
Some of the highlights from this trip were first the movie we got to watch on our 2 hour drive to Bandipur. Our whole group watched a movie called "Lagaan" which is in a nutshell about a village that is forced to pay double taxes because their king who is a vegetarian refused to eat meat and go against his values. So the British guy made deal with them that if they could beat them ( the British) in a game of cricket they will not have to pay taxes for the following three years. That's just the jist of the movie, it's actually really good
So our first stop was Gopal Swamy Hill where we had to park the van and walk the rest of the way up the hill. It was pretty chilly and very misty because we were in the fog, but very beautiful at the same time. My Hunter Boots definitely came in handy on this one! There was mud everywhere! There was pretty much a temple up there and it was very very high up so I took lots of pictures and just kinda took in the scenery and the clean fresh air. There were some guys up there I don't know what they were called but they were trying to scam us my putting some kinda bear skin cap looking thing on our head and say a chant and then right after they would ask for money lol I ran away when they came up to me. I didn't need a blessing or whatever it was they were doing. So after this we started are decent down the hill where we stopped off and had lunch at this restaurant. Interestingly enough the whole place was divided into non-veg and vegetarian restaurants with a quickie mart between the two. But then they actually made us sit all together in the non-veg side of the restaurant. I got Palau which is funny because it's like what mommy makes, except theirs is slightly different. I just wanted to be on the safe side. It was little bland...Well anyway this stop was actually the first time I had to use one of those "special" squat toilets...it was really weird...Nothing I ever want to experience again, anytime soon. Well then we left and got to the Safari part of the day where we were greeted by DOZENS of MONKEYs everywhere! They were cute at first until I realized that they were literally everywhere. Then they started coming closer and just started freaking me out. They were cute and all but then after they tried to climb up on Jackson (one of the students in my program) I was getting really scared. It's so interesting to see them up close though...I never been around so many monkey’s without a leash or any kind of barrier between us in my life. The safari was kinda wack mainly because we never got to see a elephant which is really what I was hoping to see and maybe even play with. We had to stay in the truck anyway, but we were also warned ahead of time that those were rarely seen or even the cheetah. After that we just made our way back to the hostel.
Later that night...
A few of us decided to do some exploring to see if there was any night life nearby and low and behold we found a place called Purple Haze that was just what we were looking for. As soon as I stepped inside I was automatically transported back to America. The lights were dim there were couches for lounging, modern furniture, and nice full stocked bar, purple accent lights, and plasma screen TV's. We definitely struck gold here. At first they tried to charge 500 rupees each but then Justin threatened them that we would leave and they let us in for free. (Here we realized that the people here know we’re American so they jack up the prices on everything, even “cover charge” for the bar.
It’s kinda sad because like I mentioned earlier the people on top of of the hills where the temples are would even put their things out to sell and try and sell you all kinds of things and are SO persistent. Even inside of the temples, they charge extra to be closer to the shrine.
Ridiculous right???
We were all very impressed with everything this bar had to offer. We had a corner lounge for our group and a personal waiter. We were given a drink menu and then menu that all kinds of delicious sounding snacks and desserts. I order chilly cheesy toast and fries for us to share and ordered myself a Peach Margarita which was very tasty minus the salt they put around the rim. Everyone had an awesome time, we were singing, talking, dancing, and screaming on the top of our lungs it was awesome. My only complaint was the music…the bar had rock theme and so that’s what was played.
The Next day…
Was really our day to break away from the food the hostel had to offer and more of what was out there, since Sunday we’re only served breakfast. So Nira and I suggested the two places we were gonna eat at for lunch and dinner and they turned out to really great. In order:
King Burger: Yes, that was the real name of the place just like the Mad TV skit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZkdcYlOn5M
I ordered this sweet corn soup, which looked way different than I expected but was still good nonetheless and an order of naan which is a form of Indian bread. I was going to order the veggie burger which was actually really good but I was already full off the soup and bread.
Oasis: This is where we had dinner. We all ate out that night, all together. It was very delicious! They served North Indian food, which is my favorite. I got garlic naan and cheesy naan which was to die for, and then I ate my very first piece of chickens since I’ve been here. All that I have ate prior to that was vegetarian food because that’s the only thing that is cooked in the hostal. It was great! I also ordered creamed spinach on the side.
Then for Dessert…because it just happened to be right next door:
The Chocolate Room: Which so many ways was a knock off of Max Brenner’s Chocolate by the Bal Guy Restaurant in NYC. They even used the same cup that says drink me on it (from as in the wonderland) and their dished is printed in the same way. It was funny but the place was very nice and classy. They had a HUGE selection of desserts and I even think some of the pictures in their menu looked STRIKINGLY similar to the ones in the max Brenner’s restaurant…Well only a few of us went and it was pretty nice inside. It had the whole chocolate brown shades going on with modern furniture and it was really nice. I ordered from there a crème Brulee frappaccino and chocolate mousse. They were both really yummy.
In my next note I'll recap on my classes which have been going really well and I'm enjoying them SOOO much more than I would if I were in America...you'll find out why later!
Coming up:
This weekend we have another fieldtrip where we will be staying overnight. We're going to be seeing an organic farm, environmental park, and a tribal school.
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