Day 4 was a little less eventful. Prema and Raj picked me up at the hotel at around 9:30 and we headed for the Bannerghatta Biological Park for a photo safari. Bannerghatta Biological Park was carved out of a portion of the Bannerghatta National Park in the year 2002. The National Park was conceived and started in August 1971 for conservation of wildlife. Bannerghatta Biological Park is located about 22 Kms south of Bengaluru city. It is one among the few places in the world where wilderness is preserved so close to a big city. All the inhabitants have been provided with an appropriate ambience to live in harmony with nature.
I had wanted to visit one of the parks outside Mysore, but because of such a tight schedule, Bannerghatta was the best option. Instead of jeeps, they used buses which made for a crowded ride with each seat filled. They had just installed bars on the windows of the bus (someone had recently dropped their baby out the window, which ended tragically), which made it difficult to get good pictures. Watching me struggle trying to catch a pic of a herd of elephants (above), a teenage boy offered to help me. In very broken English, he asked if I wanted to sit up front. I agreed thinking there must be a seat up front, only to find out after I had crawled over numerous people that it was his friends’ seat that he had offered me. I felt a little guilty taking it, but it seemed a better move than crawling back to my original seat. Only after witnessing my amazingly poor picture taking ability did he offer to help. He got some terrific pictures.
I was surprised to see bears here, I guess I always thought that bears needed cold weather. Their noses were longer and their fur was super fluffy.
Next we saw some Lions. So pretty just sitting between the bamboo.
The bengel tigers were right at the edge of the park. But there were a lot of them.
The white tigers were really beautiful, reminded me of Sigfried and Roy LOL!
Almost doesn’t look real!
As we were walking back to the car, I saw this trellis that had these magnificient vines growing over it. Just another reminder of the incredible colors that make this country so “alive”.
There was this women who was just beautiful and was wearing the lovliest sari. We had been following the same path through the park all morning. It really put me in the mood to shop for silk.
On our way back into town, I attempted to take some pictures of houses. It is hard to do that when the car is moving. The fact that there are no zoning laws, or if there are, I am not sure I understand them because there are no housing developments, or at least I did not see any. You will see houses just built randomly between other buildings. The houses seem to all be two or three stories and usually painted bright colors. Wood is really expensive there so fences are made with all these cinder blocks.
Our next stop or stops I should say, were to the Indian Silk Shops. I was a kid in a candy store! I grew up in a town of 50 people and had to make most of my clothes. I made my prom dresses and cheerleading outfits….there just wasn’t anywhere to buy such things. When I went to college, as a Fashion Merchandising major (before I switched degree plans), I took tailoring classes. I even made my bridesmaid dresses. I can sew!
This shop and numerous other shops we visited during the afternoon were overwhelming.
Parts of the store were dedicated just to saris. Then there were the salwar kameez which are shirt, pant and scarf sets.
Another part was just for scarves.
Finally there was bolt silk. Every color you could imagine and every tone of every color.
The exquisite beading needs to be mentioned. Only a few samples were on display and I was so caught up in all of this experience, I did not think to take pictures. It’s unfortunate, because there were some gorgeous wedding saris.
I could not see my need for a sari (at least at this point in my life, even though I wanted one), so I focused my sights on finding a few pretty shirts. I did buy Hayleigh, my daughter, a salwar kameez (the pink and turquoise one in the picture above). I also bought many scarves and a special Christmas gift for my mother-in-law, but I can’t tell you what it is because she reads my blogs.
Up until now I had really been quite good with my money, LOL! Oh well, when will I get this chance again anytime soon? I may be back in October, but if not then, it will be next October (2015) when I attend a meditation training at the Himalayan Institute in Northern India. If you want to go with me, let me know, they are taking reservations now. It would be for two weeks as well as 2 days on the front end in New Delhi (exploring on our own), and 2 days on the backend in Varanasi (exploring with other members of our HI group).