Gwen goes on a walking tour

The walking tours of Bangalore are famous for their ability to show all the city's sights in five short hours. Unfortunately these tours all start at 7am, a mere two and a half hours after I lay my IBM-Night-Shift head down on a pillow.
However, the ever-present Lonely Planet also provides me with a map of the city and a list of
sights 'not to be missed', and if you put those two things together you get your very own walking tour which can be taken at any time of the day and, best of all, does not involve me and large tour groups. No more so than the streets of Bangalore normally do, anyway.

Today, unfortunately, was also Bangalore's bi-weekly Torrential Downpour (I'm kidding, it's not like they mark it on a calendar) and guess who got caught in it? Right. Now. I'm from BC, right? A little rain shouldn't hurt me, should it? Yes and no. No, it doesn't hurt, and it's warm enough out that the rain does a nice job of cooling the air and me at the same time. It's also warm enough that once it stopped raining (I had my doubts this was ever going to happen) I was bone-dry in half an hour. But a little rain? Oh no no, my friends, this is what monsoon season means! This is what the word 'downpour' was invented to describe! Within ten minutes the streets were all turned into rivers and where there are gutters, they overflowed. This cancelled the first part of my tour for me because the Lalbagh Botanical Gardens, as nice as they may be on a sunny day, are generally open to whatever weather the skies choose to dump on them.

Instead I spent a couple hours in the Museum of Art - aptly named because it is not exactly a gallery (too many arrowheads and clay pots from archeological digs) and too much art to be called a museum. No photography allowed inside; but here are some photos of the building and the sculptures outside:



The art inside is incredible - If you have a chance look up K. Venkatappa. There is a whole separate building devoted to his art.

Afterwards I spend the last few hours of daylight wandering around - there's a lake near my hotel and a trail that wanders around it, which leads to an Ashram surrounded by a beautiful garden - I took off my shoes as instructed and went inside. There are two levels inside and I was the only one in there, and it was so quiet!! (This is very very rare in Bangalore.) There is a library and a reading room, and a meditation hall which runs meditations at 6pm every work day (too bad, as that is when I have to actually BE at work!)

That's all from me - time for dinner and then killing time till 3am in an effort to keep on my work schedule. Hope all's well in Canada!

Love,
Gwen