As noted in an earlier post, Mary and I went to India for Nick and Natasha’s wedding. We were in India from July 30 (we left the US on July 29) to August 20. In this posting I’ll recap the first half of the trip. I’ll save the second half and details of the wedding for future posts.

Bangalore (July 30 - August - We arrived in Bangalore late at night on July 30, after some 34 hours of travel. The Bangalore airport is not exactly what I would call modern, but we managed to get all our bags. Mark, Nick and Mr. Singh met us at the airport with a car and driver. We stayed at the Radha Hometel for a couple nights, then moved to Palm Meadows, which is the location of most of the wedding events. Besides the wedding, we didn’t do a whole lot in Bangalore, just some shopping on Commercial Street (see picture) and a visit to the botanical gardens. We also visited the campus of the India Institute of Science, which is where Nick worked for the summer. More pictures from Bangalore can be found here.

Shravanabelagola and Belur (August 1) - We took a day trip from Bangalore to visit Sharavanabelagola and Belur. Our main purpose to visit Sharavanabelagola was to visit a Jain Temple atop Vindyagiri Hill. After removing your shoes at the bottom, you proceed to climb some 500+ steps to the top of the hill. At the top is an open-air temple containing a 57 ft. tall, monolithic stone statue of the Bhagavan Gomateshwara Bahubali. The statue is more than 1,000 years old, and brings in Jain pilgrims from all over. The Jain monks are so dedicated to leading a simple live, they climb up the hill to the temple wearing no clothes! Some older pilgrims are carried to the top in litters. There are some great views from the top of the hill. More pictures from the temple can be found here.

The main attraction in Belur is the Channakeshava Temple. This temple was commissioned by a Hoysala king in 1117 AD to celebrate an important military victory. The temple is made of soapstone, which is easy to carve when first quarried, but later hardens. The ate some amazing carvings all over this temple. The temple is an indication of the kings inclination towards Vaishnavism, which is a monotheist version of Hinduism which believes that Vishnu-Narayana is the one true god. The base plan of the temple is star-shaped. More pictures from the temple can be found here.

Hampi (August 9-10)- Most of the family returned to the US on August 9, but Mike, Kim, Mary and I contunued our adventure. We took a night train from Bangalore to Hospet. The train wasn’t too bad. We were in an air-conditioned car with sets of seats/bunk beds. After arriving in Hospet we took autorickshaws to Hampi, or Vijayanagar, which was once a the capital of one of the largest Hindu empires. Hampi is a pretty small town, but the ruins are pretty vast. The ruins include many temples and palaces. One of the best is the Vittala Temple with it’s musical pillars. The stone pillars were built in such a way that musical tones are heard when they are struck. You can see a short video of a demonstration by our guide here (click to download the video: 6.2 MB, AVI). More pictures of Hampi can be found here. Be sure to check out each of the sub-albums!

Goa (August 11-12) - From Hospet we had to take a local train to Hubli, then catch a night train to Vasco da Gama, Goa. We ended up staying at the Coconut Creek Resort in Bogmalo Beach, which is a quiet town on the coast. We spent the first day waling around the small, seaside villiage. That evening Kim had to catch a flight to Mumbai so she could catch her morning flight back to the US. Mike, Mary and I stayed on until the following day. It rained quite a bit while we were there, so we spent a lot of time on the internet planning our next steps. For more pictures of Goa, click here.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the trip recap as well a detailed post about the wedding.