Tour of the City

I was a little bit naughty, and sloped off on the Thursday afternoon of the week long conference to do a bus tour of the city. The first stop was the science museum. Ooh! - look at the scary dinosaur. It moves and roars as well!

I knew that giong on the tour would be very educational for me- but how much!! I was able to put this exhibit to immediate effect when I went back to my HIV clinic in Mumbai. I have no concept what the dancing-Indian-pixy-boy in the centre has to do with immunology. I guess that must be another of lifes imponderable mysteries.

This was my favourite- a glass pipe about 1m in diameter stretching from floor to ceiling, and completely filled with obsolete microchips. It looked really cool. (I guess you had to be there - sorry)

How old do you think this govenrment building is? 100 years? 200 years? Nope, it is 5 years old, and constructed entirely of concrete! Impressive though.

The inside of Sultan Tipu's palace. It was constructed entirel from wood. He was a great military strategist, and defeated the British with long-range ballistic missiles, which looket alittle bit like large "rocket" fireworks!

Possibly the high-light of the tour for me was this cow lying acros the central reservation of a busy junction! You see cows everywhere. They are sacred, and so no-one eats them. They can become quite mangy and sick looking- ironic really. One might have been forgiven for thinking that this cow pictured must have been a victim of a hit-and-run, as it certainly couldn't have chosen to lie in such an uncomfortable position. Shortly after this photo was taken though, the cow got up and walked off!!!!

Just a cool guy! I think this will remain one of my favourite portraits for some time.

Now you know where he went after retiring from formula 1??

In the "Lal Bagh" or "Red Garden", so called as it is well known for its red flowers in season. There weren't many red flowers when I went, but...

...I managed to get one picture of a red flower especially for my father-in-law John! It's only a wee bit past it. (he likes taking photos of flowers!!)

In India it is often the traffic that stands still, but not at this busy junction, thanks to the help of Bangalore's finest!
Window cleaning anyone?

On approach to the Bull temple. There is some link to one of the God's - Laxmi perhaps (the goddess of wealth). I think she rides on this bull. Or it might be Shiva - the goddess of creation and destruction. I'm not too hot on Hindu theology.

This is the statue of a bull, around which the bull temple is constructed. As I walked around the back of the bull, some young lads who had been selling trinkets outside came and introduced themselves as guides, and proceeded to ask me for some money. They made a bit of a show of seeming holy- presumably to impress me into giving them more money- however their pretence collapsed somewhat when some other devotees dropped some money into a small offering at a shrine, and one of the lads quickly looked around and shoved it in his pocket.

As I went to leave the temple, the man pictured above in the entrance held out a tray with 50 rupees on it, and then after i had left swapped it for his usual 10 rupee inticement that he usually uses for visitors that are not foreign.

I must say that I left the temple with a bad taste i my mouth. There was no feeling of anything sacred about the place at all, but more of just people trying to rip other people off. Shame.

All of the photos above were actually taken in one afternoon on my city tour. I guess something worth noting is that most of the things I enjoyed were nothing to do with the tour, but were just things you happen across at the side of the road. India is so like that. So much to see in every direction. Don't blink! You might miss it!