South, and the Mysore Palace
If the title of the tour is India Treasures - North and South, at some time you have to leave the north for the south. So we got on a 6 am flight at Jaipur International Airport (you don't want to know when we had to wake up) bound for Bangalore (or Bangaluru as it is called in the Kannada language), the capital of Kamataka also known as the Silicon Valley of India as well as the garden city. But Bangaluru was not our ultimate destination -- just the convenient airport. We were bound for Kamataka's second largest city, some 150 kilometers southwest.
The flight was on Indigo (Indi - Go) Airlines, one of a number of budget Indian airines which are facing the same shakeout as US airlines went through (and perhaps are still going through). In fact, the airline which we are planning to fly at the end of the trip to Dharamshala (and the only airline flying there from Delhi) -- Kingfisher Airlines (yup -- apparently owned by the beer company) -- is on the front page of the Times of India during the last two days for cancelling a bunch of flights due to some sort of ongoing game of chicken between the airline and Indian taxing authorities.
When taking a domestic flight in India, they do not prohibit a bottle of water when going through security -- although they do sometimes confiscate them. (I do not believe that is related to the thirst level of the seucrity personnel.) And the metal detection and scanning is at a much lower level than either in Europe or the US. (BTW, many of the monuments we've visited in India have seucirty system consisting of a metal detector which you walk though. Some of them seem like toy metal detectors and others seem a bit more substantial. But for the most part, whether you set off the machine or not, it is rare that anyone does any further security check of you.
Our flight first landed in Hyderbad, in the middle of India and roughly parallel to Mumbai. Since we were on the same plane to Bangaluru, we did not get off the plane. And before they let the new passengers on the plane, they went though the carryon compartments and made sure (more or less -- it seemed a bit casual to me) every bag belonged to an existing passenger. Then on the Bangaluru
Bangaluru is the Silicon Valley of India in the obvious sense that it is the high tech capital of India (as well as India's third largest city). Many computer and technical companies are either located here or have their Indian office headquartered here. The reason for this happening in Bangalore rather than Delhi or Mumbai seems related to geography and language. India has a number of official languages with English being "more or less" spoken by many although as a second or third language. In the north the most common language is Hindi and there is an effort off and on by the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party or Hindi Nationalist Party) to make Hindi the one true national language of India. This has led to strong reaction including riots in the south where most people speak as a first language one of the Dravidian lanaguages, which even use a different script than Hindi. (The first photo shows some Hindi script while the second one shows some Kannada script, which is one of the Dravidian languages).
There are several significant differences between the north and south, recognizing that what I'm saying and observing is from a very limited experience and the one true generalization about India is that all generalizations are usually wrong. Nonetheless, and as generally confirmed by our group leader, the south is clearly warmer (by a good 5 to 10 degrees Celcius) and thus the vegetation is different. It is clearly lusher although wehther this is from a lesser population density or exactly where we are touring is not clear. The areas we have seen so far also seem less poor, although there is still a fair amount of poverty. And the major croups instead of being wheat
and mustard
If the title of the tour is India Treasures - North and South, at some time you have to leave the north for the south. So we got on a 6 am flight at Jaipur International Airport (you don't want to know when we had to wake up) bound for Bangalore (or Bangaluru as it is called in the Kannada language), the capital of Kamataka also known as the Silicon Valley of India as well as the garden city. But Bangaluru was not our ultimate destination -- just the convenient airport. We were bound for Kamataka's second largest city, some 150 kilometers southwest.
The flight was on Indigo (Indi - Go) Airlines, one of a number of budget Indian airines which are facing the same shakeout as US airlines went through (and perhaps are still going through). In fact, the airline which we are planning to fly at the end of the trip to Dharamshala (and the only airline flying there from Delhi) -- Kingfisher Airlines (yup -- apparently owned by the beer company) -- is on the front page of the Times of India during the last two days for cancelling a bunch of flights due to some sort of ongoing game of chicken between the airline and Indian taxing authorities.
When taking a domestic flight in India, they do not prohibit a bottle of water when going through security -- although they do sometimes confiscate them. (I do not believe that is related to the thirst level of the seucrity personnel.) And the metal detection and scanning is at a much lower level than either in Europe or the US. (BTW, many of the monuments we've visited in India have seucirty system consisting of a metal detector which you walk though. Some of them seem like toy metal detectors and others seem a bit more substantial. But for the most part, whether you set off the machine or not, it is rare that anyone does any further security check of you.
Our flight first landed in Hyderbad, in the middle of India and roughly parallel to Mumbai. Since we were on the same plane to Bangaluru, we did not get off the plane. And before they let the new passengers on the plane, they went though the carryon compartments and made sure (more or less -- it seemed a bit casual to me) every bag belonged to an existing passenger. Then on the Bangaluru
Bangaluru is the Silicon Valley of India in the obvious sense that it is the high tech capital of India (as well as India's third largest city). Many computer and technical companies are either located here or have their Indian office headquartered here. The reason for this happening in Bangalore rather than Delhi or Mumbai seems related to geography and language. India has a number of official languages with English being "more or less" spoken by many although as a second or third language. In the north the most common language is Hindi and there is an effort off and on by the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party or Hindi Nationalist Party) to make Hindi the one true national language of India. This has led to strong reaction including riots in the south where most people speak as a first language one of the Dravidian lanaguages, which even use a different script than Hindi. (The first photo shows some Hindi script while the second one shows some Kannada script, which is one of the Dravidian languages).
So the south coalesced around English as a common language while the north coalesced around Hindi And when the high tech companies came to India, those with better English skills were in the south and hence Bangaluru became what it is.
There are several significant differences between the north and south, recognizing that what I'm saying and observing is from a very limited experience and the one true generalization about India is that all generalizations are usually wrong. Nonetheless, and as generally confirmed by our group leader, the south is clearly warmer (by a good 5 to 10 degrees Celcius) and thus the vegetation is different. It is clearly lusher although wehther this is from a lesser population density or exactly where we are touring is not clear. The areas we have seen so far also seem less poor, although there is still a fair amount of poverty. And the major croups instead of being wheat
and mustard
as in the north, are rice and sugar cane.
Mysore is higher (770 meters) than either Delhi (216 meters), Agra (171 meters), or Jaipur (431 meters). Thus, even though in the hotter aouth it is still somewhat cooled by being higher. But, not to worry -- soon we'll be in Kerala and closer to (or at) sea level and, thus, we'll have plenty of warmth.
Even with the relatively short distance between Bangaluru and Mysore, it took around 4 hours. There do not appear to be many motorways in India (at least in my experience so far) and with the varied traffic on the road, nobody drives at a super-high rate of speed. Then you add the significant number of speed bumps placed wherever someone has thought that you should slow down. Some speed bumps are single bumps of varying height. And some are multiple placed about a meter or less apart. One more reason that I'm glad I'm not driving in India.
With the early rising, the airplane flight, and the long road trip to Mysore, nothing in the way of sightseeing was on the list for this day. But our crafty group leader suggested that we might want to go see the Mysore Palace (home until 1947 of the second richest prince in India -- the richest supposedly being the one in Jaipur) which is lit up only on Sunday night (and this was a Sunday). So we all went to the palace (built around the turn of the last century so it's not really old and more Edwardian/Victorialn/Indian but still a showy palace. And the building was nicely lit by floodlights.
Even with the relatively short distance between Bangaluru and Mysore, it took around 4 hours. There do not appear to be many motorways in India (at least in my experience so far) and with the varied traffic on the road, nobody drives at a super-high rate of speed. Then you add the significant number of speed bumps placed wherever someone has thought that you should slow down. Some speed bumps are single bumps of varying height. And some are multiple placed about a meter or less apart. One more reason that I'm glad I'm not driving in India.
With the early rising, the airplane flight, and the long road trip to Mysore, nothing in the way of sightseeing was on the list for this day. But our crafty group leader suggested that we might want to go see the Mysore Palace (home until 1947 of the second richest prince in India -- the richest supposedly being the one in Jaipur) which is lit up only on Sunday night (and this was a Sunday). So we all went to the palace (built around the turn of the last century so it's not really old and more Edwardian/Victorialn/Indian but still a showy palace. And the building was nicely lit by floodlights.
Our group leader then urged us to get to the center "for a better" view -- and he kept urging us there. And when we were there for about 30 seconds, the entire palace really lit up.
With a band playing, and then fireworks,
it was a nice end to the day.
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