Nalapad Residency Mysore

... happens every night. When we started out in the car, heavy rain began to come down, and my mom and I both knew that we would be getting pretty wet. As we walked into the complex, the rain came down the hardest and we moved to shelter as the nearly 100,000 light bulbs were turned on at 7pm. The illuminated palace looked amazing and because of the rain, the lights reflected off the wet ground. It was nice at first too because the rain scared ...

... find anyone who could clarify. I was in a rush to find someone cus i wasn't too keen to jump on the bus again mid movement, luckily in India if you can catch the bus they let you on, it seems the bus doors don't close until the station is out of sight. After a few minutes I realised the bus was actually reversing into the bay. This itself is a crazy affair. The conductors shooing sitting people from the path of the reversing bus whilst it's ...

... leopards, dholes (wild dogs) and crested eagles. Elephants are a common sight in the area even close to the roads and we saw one (no way to confirm it was wild) bathing by the river that the road followed through he park. When we passed the place where tourist would normally get off I really wanted to stop but knew it would be futile. Leaving the park the road meandered ever higher until it left the line of trees and we got our first good view of ...

... young man James was the first to cry. Always expect the unexpected with Alpha 1!

06 March 2009 - Towards the end of Phase One

Hi there blog fans. Welcome to our latest installment. Once again I'm filling in for our PRO Peta who will be back at Field Base tomorrow. All our Alpha groups will be returning to Field Base tomorrow as well, and we're really excited about welcoming them all back. Field Base has been pretty hectic as we get everything ready ...

... I follow the child down an alleyway and through some backstreets until he tells me to sit on a stairwell outside a closed shop and runs off. I thought it could have been a stitch up situation but instinct told me to trust the kid. Another older guy appears from inside a nearby house carrying a sack containing calico fabric, threads, sewing needles, a permanent marker pen and customs declaration forms. Gold, they have everything i need. The guy carefully sews my ...

... cannot relax for a second. The result is usually a headache. Still, what an experience! We didn't do much else here, despite the fact that Mysore has several other attractions worth seeing. We were tired and we took advantage of our nice hotel room, after our experience in Bangalore. In the evening, we left for a long night bus ride to Trichy.

... whereas Luke had his first disaster meal 'Baked Chicken Florentine'. This dish was meant to be chicken in spinach and white sauce (according to the waiter). It came in a dish, the look on our faces must've been a picture, because what sat in front of Luke resembled the grassy pat of a cow with digestive problems, mixed in with a little white sauce. After braving a couple of mouthfuls Luke promptly moved it to the other end of the table (where the waiteres left it sitting for the whole ...

... do now however it's as "the girl who broke Ganesh". As luck would have it have it though we were off to the races... Mysore Race Club. Yes. A track in Mysore. Who woulda thought? Spent 3 months in this place a few years ago and never even knew it was here. To bring in the year right we took the climb up Chimundi Hill, 1000 stairs and 1000 karma points for the new year. Ben said that real pilgrims do it barefoot, I replied that pilgrims don't need worms from ...

... it down. I believe it too, because that oil is potent! One dab and you are good to go for the whole day! After we paid, he gave us a bunch of free incense. I'm pretty sure he ripped us off good and then felt bad about it so he gave us about 6 dozen incense sticks for the 4 of us. He also had a book of foreigners who have bought his products along with where they are fromt. It was really cool because ...

... think everyone was sick of fighting. In the end though, I really felt like I wasted the whole day just to get robbed out of over 1000Rs. Nothing good came from the day, all we did was wait around and drive. So it was pretty unfortunate. One cool thing though, was that on the way to the first rafting place there was a road block put up by kids! They weren't scary kids like you see in the movies, these ones were happy and kind of looking at it as a game. They ...