A chess tournament was on the agenda on Saturday, May 9th. Jonathon organised it (Jonathon's practising Bheema Shakti yoga...i think that's right)...and had about 12 participants. Jon's first shot at organising meant that we ran a bit overtime. Donations were taken for Odamati - I think that's the spelling - an organisation aiming to stop people trafficking in the sex trade, especially children...the tourney was set in the sunny confines of Om Cafe at Alia's...
that night we took off to Planet X...x for extreme I guess - go karts, bowing, pool, hookah club...i took part in extreme dinner and a round of go karts;
after the extremity of Planet X, the serenity of sunrise at Chamundi Hill...meaning a 4.30am get up, riding the scooter through the unusually quiet Mysore streets with Sandra, also on a scooter, to the top of Chamundi Hill...to wait...until about 6am for this;
Chamundi Hill sits on the Eastern side of Mysore, so obscures most of the sunrise, by being at the top, Sandra, Carole and I got a great view of the sun...not breaking the horizon, but rising out of a blue haze. We could look directly at the sun for about 10 minutes before we were off to find the Nandi (the Bull which Shiva rides), about a third of the way up (or down) Chamundi Hill;
a very happy discovery has been the pool at the Regalis (Southern Star). a really cool oasis in amongst temperatures reaching 38C at the moment;
a very unhappy undiscovery was a yoga sutras discussion group...we were following an item from the local newspaper advertising a discussion group in Lakshimpuram...i'm developing a theory about Lakshimpuram that they have massive roadworks each night to entirely reconfigure the streets - each time I go there I invariably get lost
Big, Bad Ben from Texas left Mysore Tuesday, May 14th. Ben's got a great propensity when it comes to his food - both in terms of seeking out new dining experiences (you may remember from an earlier blog, Ben's sampled road kill) and the amount he puts away. As a fan of Flight of the Conchords he's always willing to give the kiwi iccent a go, as well as the aussie flavour. One of his last meals was at 3 sisters...here's one of Ben's Flight of the Conchords moments;
Carole the kiwi also left Mysore...parting usually involves meals...so we had a Friday night dinner at the Green Hotel, undercover due to the steady rain, bought to us by this storm;
Carole, like a lot of us, is already planning a trip back :)
my comfort level on the scooter's way up, so much so that I can now comfortably take passengers...Karnataka state traffic law limits passengers to a grand total of one. So, when I attempted to take Ben and Joe from the Metropole Buffet back to Gokulam, I ended up with a Rs 400 fine for my trouble. We got stopped at a traffic light, the rotund policeman ran over, whistle on fire and pulled my keys out. There are many instances of people seeing a law enforcer...and taking off, so when the Police catch somebody, they make sure they get something out of them. We did the right thing, including Ben and Joe insisting on an official ticket and not paying the Rs 300 the cop tried to write up on a scrap piece of paper...so back to the Police station, me driving with the traffic cop as my passenger, much to the amusement of me and everyone we passed, including rickshaw drivers laughing out loud...and the cop sitting way back on the seat and telling me "slow down, slow down". Back at the station I had an official ticket and the traffic cop telling me I was a gentleman, I assume because I was pretty cool about the whole thing
i know...another blogging montage :))
Haha! I heard that you ended up paying more than the bribe would have been, but I didn't hear that the cop rode to the station with you.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great lightning shot, by the way.