The RMS Queen Mary 2
Here are some fun facts about the QM2, most of which can be seen along with great pictures at the web site www.cunard.com
The QM2 is the grandest, most magnificent ocean liner ever built. She's a true heir to the timeless elegance, legacy and inspiration of the great Cunard liners of legend. Facts:
Length: 1,132 feet (a football field is 300 feet, that’s almost four football fields!)
Beam: 135 feet
Height (Keel to Funnel): 236.2 feet (a 23 story building!)
Gross Tonnage: Approximately 151,400 gross tones
Guest Capacity: 2,592 lower berths
3,056 maximum capacity
Crew: 1,253
Strength: Extra thick steel hull for strength and stability for Transatlantic Crossings
QM2 is more than twice as long as the Washington Monument is tall (550 ft.)
QM2 is 147 feet longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall (984 ft.)
QM2 is more than 3½ times as long as Westminster Tower (Big Ben) is high (310 ft.)
Canyon Ranch SpaClub®
Queen Mary 2's 20,000-square foot health club, offers a wide array of pampering possibilities, as the sensational AquaTherapy Centre and well-equipped Fitness Centre.
Empire Casino
The Monte Carlo-inspired Empire Casino offers a full variety of opportunities to tempt Lady Luck - 13 Gaming Tables, over 120 slot machines, even video poker. Also, there is the convenient Casino Bar.
Swimming Pools
There are a total of five swimming pools onboard Queen Mary 2, including the Terrace Pool on Deck 8, The Minnows Pool especially for children on Deck 9, the Sun Deck Splash Pool on the top of the ship, and our most popular Pavilion Pool on Deck 12, which features a retractable dome for any weather!
So here’s the questions everyone always asks:
How many life boats are there and is that enough – after all, we do transatlantic crossings.
There are 22 life boats each able to hold 150 passengers. That’s 3,300 people on the life boats. There are then 60 inflatable life rafts. 30 of them are specifically for the crew, and the other 30 are extra, just in case. So yes, we have plenty of life boats/rafts on board.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
The RMS Queen Mary 2
Just a quick welcome back to the blog. Its Thursday night, and I'm ready to head to the airport in the morning. My flight will take me to London via Chicago, and once in London, transfer to train to Southampton where I board the RMS Queen Mary 2 for my six weeks voyage with Canyon Ranch. I'll update soon about the trip.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
India - Goodbye
I'm now back home, have found a new place to live, and begin work next week! Coming back to the US was anticlimactic. I was thankful for being back home, but because it was home, not because it was the US or something along those lines. My time spent in India was incredible, I had a great time and the friends I met and the things I learned about the different cultures was inspiring. There are parts of India I already miss, however there are parts that I would prefer never to see or hear again. The most notable was the noise (honking) of the cars in the cities - never ending. The cab ride from the airport here in the US was amazing because it was completely quiet! I could handle the dirt, and spending that much time in a 3rd World country, poverty is in the eye of the beholder. The people in India are in poverty if you compare them to us. However, they live full, complete, happy lives, and don't feel the need to go in debt to get the latest fashions or to put the pool in their yard because the neighbours did. They don't feel the need to compete with their friends and don't need the latest of whatever it may be. They are content with what they have.
While there I was reading a fiction book that was based around India and there was a paragraph in the book that I felt was perfect to explain India. It seemed like the right way to sum up my trip to India, and at the same time compare the two different worlds; ours and theirs.
"The US embodies for me what I have come to call the Western mindset, restless, driven, pushing toward some unknown future which is always assumed to be better than anything that has gone before. No one pauses even a moment to reflect on the usefulness of this ceaseless striving. India's cities are timeless, self-absorbed, rooted in a glorious past, long faded, that is presumed lost forever. Indian society paused to reflect on the process of striving and never got around to striving again. India engages in ceaseless introspection without effective action. Western society is linear, goal-oriented. Indian society is circular, inward-oriented. The West values the new, the young, the innovative. India treasures the very old, the traditional, the way things have been for millennia. Both perspectives have value. Neither in isolation adequately reflects the full potential of humanity."
This was the third time I have read this book and after being in India that paragraph couldn't have said it better - the differences between the two worlds. It took me being in India to really get what that paragraph was trying to say!
Two last adventures I would like to share. They say you always remember the first and last things you do either on a trip, or a meeting, etc. I will never forget the last few moments I was on the ground in India. We left Bangalore on schedule, Feb 20th. The airport in Bangalore is not very big, in fact is has 3 domestic gates and 1 international gate! For the most part, turbo props and planes the size of a 727 are normal there in Bangalore. We left as we arrived, on a 747-400. As the plane rolled town the taxi way I was watching outside thinking to myself, good bye for now. As the plane pulled out onto the runway, it didn't turn to face the length of the runway, but continued maybe another 100 feet to the very end of the runway, and then the pilot made a U turn! From my window, as I was on the outside of the U turn, we were at the very end, meaning dirt was under the wing as he turned that plane around. Image for a second, a 747 making a U turn. I'm almost sure if he could have put the plane in reverse he would have backed up to the edge of the pavement!
Once the plan was lined up with the runway again, with the brakes fully applied, he opened the engines up completely. This went on for about 10 seconds. So stop and count to ten. That is actually a long time to sit still and listen to the engines increase to full power. The the brakes were released. If you have ever been on a roller coaster that uses propulsion to get the train moving you know the feeling. We were all pressed back into our seats like we were headed for space. A 747 needs to be traveling about 170 mph to get off the ground. We were seated over the wing, therefore right over the back landing gear. Just as we felt the wheels lift off the ground I looked out the window and the runway ended! I am not a nervous flyer, but that was one take off I will never forget.
When I got home the last thing I wanted to do was eat at a restaurant. I didn't care what I was eating as long as it was at home and I cooked it. I would say that must have been the one thing I really longed for, was my own cooking. To just be able to eat something that was siting around and not having to go to a restaurant or order room service and wait for the food. I found it interesting during my stay in India the things that you think about most. How you compare things from the country you are in to the way it is done at home. If you have read the entire blog my comparisons seemed to follow a specific thought. I compared the taxi ride to one in New York vs Its A Small World. The rickshaws reminded me of the Doom Buggies at the Haunted Mansion, and the lights at the Mysore Palace of course reminded me of Main Street U.S.A. Once you get back from a trip of this size you want to tell the world everything, and at the same time you feel like you have nothing to say. The number one question I got from friends, family and even coworkers once I returned was; "Lance, you just spent two months in India, what are you going to do next?" ... and so I did! :)
"The Happiest Place On Earth!" is only a 3 1/2 hour drive from here, so maybe I did need a taste of good old America! Mickey says "Hi!"
While there I was reading a fiction book that was based around India and there was a paragraph in the book that I felt was perfect to explain India. It seemed like the right way to sum up my trip to India, and at the same time compare the two different worlds; ours and theirs.
"The US embodies for me what I have come to call the Western mindset, restless, driven, pushing toward some unknown future which is always assumed to be better than anything that has gone before. No one pauses even a moment to reflect on the usefulness of this ceaseless striving. India's cities are timeless, self-absorbed, rooted in a glorious past, long faded, that is presumed lost forever. Indian society paused to reflect on the process of striving and never got around to striving again. India engages in ceaseless introspection without effective action. Western society is linear, goal-oriented. Indian society is circular, inward-oriented. The West values the new, the young, the innovative. India treasures the very old, the traditional, the way things have been for millennia. Both perspectives have value. Neither in isolation adequately reflects the full potential of humanity."
This was the third time I have read this book and after being in India that paragraph couldn't have said it better - the differences between the two worlds. It took me being in India to really get what that paragraph was trying to say!
Two last adventures I would like to share. They say you always remember the first and last things you do either on a trip, or a meeting, etc. I will never forget the last few moments I was on the ground in India. We left Bangalore on schedule, Feb 20th. The airport in Bangalore is not very big, in fact is has 3 domestic gates and 1 international gate! For the most part, turbo props and planes the size of a 727 are normal there in Bangalore. We left as we arrived, on a 747-400. As the plane rolled town the taxi way I was watching outside thinking to myself, good bye for now. As the plane pulled out onto the runway, it didn't turn to face the length of the runway, but continued maybe another 100 feet to the very end of the runway, and then the pilot made a U turn! From my window, as I was on the outside of the U turn, we were at the very end, meaning dirt was under the wing as he turned that plane around. Image for a second, a 747 making a U turn. I'm almost sure if he could have put the plane in reverse he would have backed up to the edge of the pavement!
Once the plan was lined up with the runway again, with the brakes fully applied, he opened the engines up completely. This went on for about 10 seconds. So stop and count to ten. That is actually a long time to sit still and listen to the engines increase to full power. The the brakes were released. If you have ever been on a roller coaster that uses propulsion to get the train moving you know the feeling. We were all pressed back into our seats like we were headed for space. A 747 needs to be traveling about 170 mph to get off the ground. We were seated over the wing, therefore right over the back landing gear. Just as we felt the wheels lift off the ground I looked out the window and the runway ended! I am not a nervous flyer, but that was one take off I will never forget.
When I got home the last thing I wanted to do was eat at a restaurant. I didn't care what I was eating as long as it was at home and I cooked it. I would say that must have been the one thing I really longed for, was my own cooking. To just be able to eat something that was siting around and not having to go to a restaurant or order room service and wait for the food. I found it interesting during my stay in India the things that you think about most. How you compare things from the country you are in to the way it is done at home. If you have read the entire blog my comparisons seemed to follow a specific thought. I compared the taxi ride to one in New York vs Its A Small World. The rickshaws reminded me of the Doom Buggies at the Haunted Mansion, and the lights at the Mysore Palace of course reminded me of Main Street U.S.A. Once you get back from a trip of this size you want to tell the world everything, and at the same time you feel like you have nothing to say. The number one question I got from friends, family and even coworkers once I returned was; "Lance, you just spent two months in India, what are you going to do next?" ... and so I did! :)
"The Happiest Place On Earth!" is only a 3 1/2 hour drive from here, so maybe I did need a taste of good old America! Mickey says "Hi!"
Saturday, February 23, 2008
McDonalds - India
When I went to Australia I know that there would be much American influence including watching the ABC nightly news with Peter Jennings, but I didn’t expect so much influence here in India, at least not yet. If you turn the TV on, they do have their own stations, and usually they will have a Hindu station, a Muslim station, and a Christian station, however they also have CNN India, and the most common channels are Discovery, Travel, and National Geographic.
Looking out the window of the hotel, and we can’t see very far in either direction, but I can see Music World, Van Heusen, Domino’s Pizza, Subway, and those famous golden arches that seem to be everywhere but the moon! Of course the bottled water I’m drinking is called Kinley – a product of The Coca-Cola Company, and I can see advertisements from ING, MetLife, and Merrill Lynch. This main intersection reminds me of a very small Times Square.
So those of you that know me well, make sure you are sitting down before you go on reading this…are you down? Take a wild guess where I ate for lunch? It would be the last place you would ever see me!!! Okay, so I just had to try a McVeggie! Of course I got the meal with fries and a drink, but I didn’t get a soft drink, instead I got an iced coffee. The McVeggie actually tasted really good. Of course it did, I don’t think we can count high enough to list all the chemicals that were in it, so it goes without saying it better taste good. The fries were, well, what can I say – McDonald’s. And the coffee was incredible which leads me to believe that there wasn’t even real coffee in it!
The menu was extremely limited. They had four sandwiches to choose from. Remember, we are in India where cows are considered Holy, so they had the McChicken Big Mac, which was two all chicken patties (Yeah, right!), special sauces, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun – are you singing yet? They also had the regular McChicken Sandwich, a McSalad Sandwich, which was literally just lettuce, tomato, and mayo on a bun, and the one I had which was the McVeggie. Not really sure what they thought was in the veggie, but it did taste good. They did have a large selection of ice cream. Indians love ice cream, not only because it’s sweet but also because it comes from a cow.
We had thought about going to a Subway as well, but we have ran out of time, so McDonalds was the only American restaurant we went to. We are only in the city of Bangalore for a day and a half, so not much time, plus our dinners were at restaurants that had been time tested, local and very good. One is the Taj hotel which is an Indian chain of up scale hotels, and the restaurants are upscale as well, and the other one called Olive Beach is a local art deco type restaurant that is completely western. When I refer to upscale, in the US the food would be about 20-30 dollars a plate, here 8-10 dollars a plate. Both of these restaurants had great food, but by this time because I know I’ll be home in a day or two I can’t help but think about food back home, and so I’m getting tired of this food and being careful about what I can eat and what I should think about before eating! I have been sick 4 times now on this entire trip which isn’t that bad considering how sick some people get. I have no complaints and all four times it was very minor, and lasted only a day or less. Airline food at this time is starting to sound good!
PS – you should try to write something about McDonald’s, using all the words that begin with Mc, and then have spell check try and fix it! That was a project in itself!
Looking out the window of the hotel, and we can’t see very far in either direction, but I can see Music World, Van Heusen, Domino’s Pizza, Subway, and those famous golden arches that seem to be everywhere but the moon! Of course the bottled water I’m drinking is called Kinley – a product of The Coca-Cola Company, and I can see advertisements from ING, MetLife, and Merrill Lynch. This main intersection reminds me of a very small Times Square.
So those of you that know me well, make sure you are sitting down before you go on reading this…are you down? Take a wild guess where I ate for lunch? It would be the last place you would ever see me!!! Okay, so I just had to try a McVeggie! Of course I got the meal with fries and a drink, but I didn’t get a soft drink, instead I got an iced coffee. The McVeggie actually tasted really good. Of course it did, I don’t think we can count high enough to list all the chemicals that were in it, so it goes without saying it better taste good. The fries were, well, what can I say – McDonald’s. And the coffee was incredible which leads me to believe that there wasn’t even real coffee in it!
The menu was extremely limited. They had four sandwiches to choose from. Remember, we are in India where cows are considered Holy, so they had the McChicken Big Mac, which was two all chicken patties (Yeah, right!), special sauces, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun – are you singing yet? They also had the regular McChicken Sandwich, a McSalad Sandwich, which was literally just lettuce, tomato, and mayo on a bun, and the one I had which was the McVeggie. Not really sure what they thought was in the veggie, but it did taste good. They did have a large selection of ice cream. Indians love ice cream, not only because it’s sweet but also because it comes from a cow.
We had thought about going to a Subway as well, but we have ran out of time, so McDonalds was the only American restaurant we went to. We are only in the city of Bangalore for a day and a half, so not much time, plus our dinners were at restaurants that had been time tested, local and very good. One is the Taj hotel which is an Indian chain of up scale hotels, and the restaurants are upscale as well, and the other one called Olive Beach is a local art deco type restaurant that is completely western. When I refer to upscale, in the US the food would be about 20-30 dollars a plate, here 8-10 dollars a plate. Both of these restaurants had great food, but by this time because I know I’ll be home in a day or two I can’t help but think about food back home, and so I’m getting tired of this food and being careful about what I can eat and what I should think about before eating! I have been sick 4 times now on this entire trip which isn’t that bad considering how sick some people get. I have no complaints and all four times it was very minor, and lasted only a day or less. Airline food at this time is starting to sound good!
PS – you should try to write something about McDonald’s, using all the words that begin with Mc, and then have spell check try and fix it! That was a project in itself!
Friday, February 22, 2008
The Mall
We are spending our last day and a half in the city of Bangalore, or Bangaluru by traditional name. This is our port city so we decided to come one day early so that we could tour this city, one of the largest in India, and be ready for our 7 am flight back to London then home.
We are staying at a hotel called The Monarch which is not a bad hotel at all and it is located right in the heart of the city. The two main roads here in Bangalore are Brigade and M.G. road. It seems that every city/town in India has an M.G. road, which stands for Mahatma Gandhi. This area is where most of the shopping is both for local middle class and the tourists. Here in the city of Bangalore they have at least two malls that we know of. They are very western in thought, and are similar to what we would call a mall, however their size for the whole mall is what we would think of as just one department store, say Macy*s.
The one we visited yesterday afternoon actually had 5 floors and half of the top floor was a movie theatre, very new, and appeared to be very clean. They had the electronic signs telling you the movies, show times, and even if the movie was selling fast, or sold out. There were 6 theatres and they were showing 2 American movies, Rambo 4 (please!), and Enchanted. The other side of the 5th floor was Staples. What else would you put next to a movie theatre but an office supply store? On the directories for the mall, they only put down the stores located on the floor you were on. So if you don’t know which floor the store you want is on, good luck, and head for each floor!
Here in India they number things a little different than we do in the states. This goes for hotels, office buildings, etc. The ground floor is just that, the ground floor. The next floor up, which we would consider the 2nd floor is the 1st floor. In the elevators the ground floor is 0, not ground or Lobby, but 0. Plus, our hotel has a parking garage underneath so our elevator has the buttons for -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4. No parking level or Lobby here, just -1 and 0. This means that if you are staying in room 103, you are on the second floor, room 3. We are in room 312, on the 4th floor.
In the middle of this mall we were in was an atrium that went all the way up to a glass ceiling. Right above the ground floor was a huge net across the whole atrium. Daren and I joked that it was to catch people who are trying to commit suicide, but then came to the conclusion that because there are no doors at the entrances to the mall that it was to keep birds from coming in and flying up to the upper levels. For kicks and giggles we asked a security guard what the net was for. His answer, and I quote, “to catch children falling from the upper floors.” My questions is how many times did that happen before they thought of putting up the net? We won’t even go into where the parents are.
As you entered the mall we were required to go through metal detectors. If the system went off you were asked to step aside and they would then wand you. They were not set very high as I got through with my camera, belt, etc and it didn’t go off. Not sure of the reason, other than fundamentalists don’t like the western ideas coming to India so these places could be targets.
While we were in the mall the power went out several times. The first thing that came to mind was, “Oh, the palace lights must have been turned on!” This makes sense if you read the blog; Mysore. However, business went on as if nothing had happened. The employees continued to work and not even miss a beat, and so did most of the customers, they didn’t even stop to look around. This happens often here in India, and even in Kovalam Beach the power was actually scheduled to go off once a day for an hour (not because of the palace, that is in a different state), so they don’t even think about it.
The last thing that was fun to watch was the people, especially the mid to older ones. I’m talking about 40 and up. The main source of attraction for me was the escalator! When we were in the airport in Trivundrum heading to the Maldives, we needed to take an escalator down to the ground floor, sorry, the Zero floor, and many of the locals, especially women stopped, looked at the escalators, and would walk over to the stairs to walk down. This mall didn’t have stairs so they needed to use the escalators! I really hate to say this, but to watch them, watch the steps go by and try to calculate stepping onto the stairs was funny, and just think what went through their heads when getting off, because they can’t stop and think about it! I know this is mean, but I guess if they want to be more like westerners then they must ride escalators!
Some places are very western in thought and practice and others try to be, but just don’t quite make it! There were a few places that if you were just placed there, it would be difficult to say you were in another country, and others would take long at all. My favorite example is a coffee shop called Coffee Day. This would be our version of Starbucks. It truly is a knock off of Starbucks, right down to selling whole bean coffee. However, they don’t open until 9 a.m.! Explain that to me please? Plus, we were one of the first customers of the day and both ordered drinks. We only had a 500 Rupee bill, that is what the ATMs give out, and our bill was over 200 Rupees, but they didn’t have change. This would be like us spending about $12 at Starbucks and trying to use a $20. No change - They sent one of the workers out somewhere to find change! This happened several times in the mom & pop stores, which I can understand, but this should be a western thinking place, with change!
By this time in the trip we stopped asking the questions why or how come, and just smiled, bobbled our head and laughed! The head bobble is something Indians so to each other while they are talking. A waiter will bobble his head when you place an order, or you are asking for directions, etc. However, this head bobble does not mean anything! It doesn’t mean yes, no, maybe, okay, anything. It’s just a head bobble. There were several times I would be somewhere watching two guys talking and bobbling, and I would just break out laughing!
We are staying at a hotel called The Monarch which is not a bad hotel at all and it is located right in the heart of the city. The two main roads here in Bangalore are Brigade and M.G. road. It seems that every city/town in India has an M.G. road, which stands for Mahatma Gandhi. This area is where most of the shopping is both for local middle class and the tourists. Here in the city of Bangalore they have at least two malls that we know of. They are very western in thought, and are similar to what we would call a mall, however their size for the whole mall is what we would think of as just one department store, say Macy*s.
The one we visited yesterday afternoon actually had 5 floors and half of the top floor was a movie theatre, very new, and appeared to be very clean. They had the electronic signs telling you the movies, show times, and even if the movie was selling fast, or sold out. There were 6 theatres and they were showing 2 American movies, Rambo 4 (please!), and Enchanted. The other side of the 5th floor was Staples. What else would you put next to a movie theatre but an office supply store? On the directories for the mall, they only put down the stores located on the floor you were on. So if you don’t know which floor the store you want is on, good luck, and head for each floor!
Here in India they number things a little different than we do in the states. This goes for hotels, office buildings, etc. The ground floor is just that, the ground floor. The next floor up, which we would consider the 2nd floor is the 1st floor. In the elevators the ground floor is 0, not ground or Lobby, but 0. Plus, our hotel has a parking garage underneath so our elevator has the buttons for -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4. No parking level or Lobby here, just -1 and 0. This means that if you are staying in room 103, you are on the second floor, room 3. We are in room 312, on the 4th floor.
In the middle of this mall we were in was an atrium that went all the way up to a glass ceiling. Right above the ground floor was a huge net across the whole atrium. Daren and I joked that it was to catch people who are trying to commit suicide, but then came to the conclusion that because there are no doors at the entrances to the mall that it was to keep birds from coming in and flying up to the upper levels. For kicks and giggles we asked a security guard what the net was for. His answer, and I quote, “to catch children falling from the upper floors.” My questions is how many times did that happen before they thought of putting up the net? We won’t even go into where the parents are.
As you entered the mall we were required to go through metal detectors. If the system went off you were asked to step aside and they would then wand you. They were not set very high as I got through with my camera, belt, etc and it didn’t go off. Not sure of the reason, other than fundamentalists don’t like the western ideas coming to India so these places could be targets.
While we were in the mall the power went out several times. The first thing that came to mind was, “Oh, the palace lights must have been turned on!” This makes sense if you read the blog; Mysore. However, business went on as if nothing had happened. The employees continued to work and not even miss a beat, and so did most of the customers, they didn’t even stop to look around. This happens often here in India, and even in Kovalam Beach the power was actually scheduled to go off once a day for an hour (not because of the palace, that is in a different state), so they don’t even think about it.
The last thing that was fun to watch was the people, especially the mid to older ones. I’m talking about 40 and up. The main source of attraction for me was the escalator! When we were in the airport in Trivundrum heading to the Maldives, we needed to take an escalator down to the ground floor, sorry, the Zero floor, and many of the locals, especially women stopped, looked at the escalators, and would walk over to the stairs to walk down. This mall didn’t have stairs so they needed to use the escalators! I really hate to say this, but to watch them, watch the steps go by and try to calculate stepping onto the stairs was funny, and just think what went through their heads when getting off, because they can’t stop and think about it! I know this is mean, but I guess if they want to be more like westerners then they must ride escalators!
Some places are very western in thought and practice and others try to be, but just don’t quite make it! There were a few places that if you were just placed there, it would be difficult to say you were in another country, and others would take long at all. My favorite example is a coffee shop called Coffee Day. This would be our version of Starbucks. It truly is a knock off of Starbucks, right down to selling whole bean coffee. However, they don’t open until 9 a.m.! Explain that to me please? Plus, we were one of the first customers of the day and both ordered drinks. We only had a 500 Rupee bill, that is what the ATMs give out, and our bill was over 200 Rupees, but they didn’t have change. This would be like us spending about $12 at Starbucks and trying to use a $20. No change - They sent one of the workers out somewhere to find change! This happened several times in the mom & pop stores, which I can understand, but this should be a western thinking place, with change!
By this time in the trip we stopped asking the questions why or how come, and just smiled, bobbled our head and laughed! The head bobble is something Indians so to each other while they are talking. A waiter will bobble his head when you place an order, or you are asking for directions, etc. However, this head bobble does not mean anything! It doesn’t mean yes, no, maybe, okay, anything. It’s just a head bobble. There were several times I would be somewhere watching two guys talking and bobbling, and I would just break out laughing!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Pictures
Just a quick FYI, pictures are being organized on Flickr, and will be ready soon to view. I'm putting about 100 of the 500+ pictures I took while on the trip. I'll let you know as soon as it is ready!
Mysore
The town of Mysore is about a 3-hour car ride from Bangalore which is the city with the closest airport, and also our port city to leave India. The car ride from the airport to Mysore was not as bad as all the other rides because once we were out of the city, the new highway is actually a divided highway with two lanes in each direction. I didn’t think this was possible. This however didn’t stop all the honking, as I found out that it’s a law that you honk your horn when you pass someone. Plus they don’t have drive on the right; pass on the left or any kind or organization like that. And you still need to deal with everything including carts being pulled by ox.
When you pass through the small towns, in the states we always lower the speed limit on the highways to something like 30 while you drive through town and then pick speed back up. Even though they have limits posted on the road I’m not sure the people know what those mean, so slowing down to go through a village is not something they would normally do. The way they get the cars to slow down is they put up barricades in the road. They use three barricades, two placed in one lane, and one in the other lane between the other two so it forces all the traffic down to one lane and you must zigzag through the barricades. They put these up right before the crosswalks, usually only one per village. Crosswalks by the way are called Zebra’s because of the white strips. They also like to use speed bumps, and these speed bumps are more like mountains than bumps and if you hit one very fast, not only would your car or rickshaw be wiped out completely, it could kill you, as we read in the paper about a guy on a motor bike that hit a speed bump going to fast!
Mysore is considered the birthplace of Ashtanga Yoga, the place where Sri K. Pattabhi Jois started his studio. He is the one that taught our teacher, Lino Miele. The town itself has about 80,000 people and is growing fast as people are moving there to get away from the city of Bangalore. There is not much to do in Mysore; it’s not really a place you would visit as a tourist unless you were there for yoga or passing through. We had a teacher named Ajay (AH-jay) while we were in Mysore who I felt was an incredible teacher and I would like to come back to Mysore and study with him over going to Kovalam with Lino. Both are great teachers, but Ajay I felt had a better connection to his students. In support for Lino however, Ajay had 24 students, Lino, 150. Lino has been doing this for almost 2 decades, where Ajay only several years, however I can say that he will go far.
We did travel to several temples while in Mysore, including one on tip of Chamundi Hill, which is one of the 8 sacred hills in India. On the way up the hill they have large signs that say “No plastic Zone” meaning they are trying to reduce the amount of trash being thrown around on the hill. Indians don’t understand the concept of trash cans – partly because disposable products/packaging is relatively new to them, and they don’t have the money to pay for someone to go around and empty the garbage cans. When we got to the top of the hill, almost ALL the vendors that were there selling product were selling at least one type of plastic toy! Some vendors that is all they had was plastic! Of course not only was the item plastic, but of course it came in a plastic bag of some kind as well.
The market was another place we went to while in Mysore. This would be similar to what we would call a farmers market, only this place went on for blocks and was the main course of food for the entire city, weather for families, restaurants or hotels. It was truly something to see. All the fruit and vegetables all of course in season and nothing is out of season. They don’t ship fruits and veggies around the country like we do. You eat what is grown locally or you don’t eat it! Flowers are very big here, and not for vases in your living room, but flower necklaces and the likes for the temple gods. The flowers at the market were incredible, and since they string them, they don’t have stems, so there would be piles of just flowers. They use a lot of Marigolds and I seen 50-gallon burlap bags full of just marigold flowers. Jasmine was the only other flower that I could name, but the displays were incredible.
The main tourist attraction for Mysore is the Mysore Palace, which is actually famous, and often it is pictured books about India. The Palace was built for the Maharajh of Mysore back at the turn of the century. (I guess now we need to be more specific about which century. The 19th century.) The building is huge, and does fit in with what we would consider a palace. It’s a cross of Indian and English architecture, and sits on about 40 acres. On the grounds are three Hindu Temples, which we visited and they still have elephants and camels on the grounds for festivals. I have some great pictures of the grounds and outside of the Palace, but of course no cameras allowed inside the palace or temples, sorry!
The Palace, on Sunday evenings for one-hour only turn on lights, which outline the palace, three main gates, and temples. This is the type of picture one would usually find of the palace in books. Think Christmas lights, or Main Street USA at a Disney park, but about 10 fold. Not really sure how many lights they use, but it is completely breath taking to see it all lit up. It brings thousands to the palace every Sunday night. Families come and just sit on the ground, no grass, just dirt, and look at the lights for the one-hour they are turned on. To get onto the grounds you need to go through a metal detector, and they have only one at each of the three gates. That means three detectors for thousands of people! Lets just say it takes awhile to get in.
We are in India, so get this. There is a local village near by, who for whatever reason they were chosen, lose their power for one hour, every Sunday night while the palace lights are on! There is not enough power to go around as it is, so that is the reason they only turn the lights on once a week for an hour, so these small villages nearby don’t lose theirs. Those of you who live in Salt Lake, imagine loosing your power once per week so that Temple Square could light up! That is just what they do.
We board a train tomorrow back to Bangalore for a day and a half before returning home. I might blog about the train ride, we shall see what its like. We do have first class tickets because that way we actually have a seat assignment, and the coach is air-conditioned. The tickets were only 600 Rupees each ($15 US). The train ride will be 3 hours just like the car but hoping the trip will be less stressful, and quite. Lets cross our fingers!
When you pass through the small towns, in the states we always lower the speed limit on the highways to something like 30 while you drive through town and then pick speed back up. Even though they have limits posted on the road I’m not sure the people know what those mean, so slowing down to go through a village is not something they would normally do. The way they get the cars to slow down is they put up barricades in the road. They use three barricades, two placed in one lane, and one in the other lane between the other two so it forces all the traffic down to one lane and you must zigzag through the barricades. They put these up right before the crosswalks, usually only one per village. Crosswalks by the way are called Zebra’s because of the white strips. They also like to use speed bumps, and these speed bumps are more like mountains than bumps and if you hit one very fast, not only would your car or rickshaw be wiped out completely, it could kill you, as we read in the paper about a guy on a motor bike that hit a speed bump going to fast!
Mysore is considered the birthplace of Ashtanga Yoga, the place where Sri K. Pattabhi Jois started his studio. He is the one that taught our teacher, Lino Miele. The town itself has about 80,000 people and is growing fast as people are moving there to get away from the city of Bangalore. There is not much to do in Mysore; it’s not really a place you would visit as a tourist unless you were there for yoga or passing through. We had a teacher named Ajay (AH-jay) while we were in Mysore who I felt was an incredible teacher and I would like to come back to Mysore and study with him over going to Kovalam with Lino. Both are great teachers, but Ajay I felt had a better connection to his students. In support for Lino however, Ajay had 24 students, Lino, 150. Lino has been doing this for almost 2 decades, where Ajay only several years, however I can say that he will go far.
We did travel to several temples while in Mysore, including one on tip of Chamundi Hill, which is one of the 8 sacred hills in India. On the way up the hill they have large signs that say “No plastic Zone” meaning they are trying to reduce the amount of trash being thrown around on the hill. Indians don’t understand the concept of trash cans – partly because disposable products/packaging is relatively new to them, and they don’t have the money to pay for someone to go around and empty the garbage cans. When we got to the top of the hill, almost ALL the vendors that were there selling product were selling at least one type of plastic toy! Some vendors that is all they had was plastic! Of course not only was the item plastic, but of course it came in a plastic bag of some kind as well.
The market was another place we went to while in Mysore. This would be similar to what we would call a farmers market, only this place went on for blocks and was the main course of food for the entire city, weather for families, restaurants or hotels. It was truly something to see. All the fruit and vegetables all of course in season and nothing is out of season. They don’t ship fruits and veggies around the country like we do. You eat what is grown locally or you don’t eat it! Flowers are very big here, and not for vases in your living room, but flower necklaces and the likes for the temple gods. The flowers at the market were incredible, and since they string them, they don’t have stems, so there would be piles of just flowers. They use a lot of Marigolds and I seen 50-gallon burlap bags full of just marigold flowers. Jasmine was the only other flower that I could name, but the displays were incredible.
The main tourist attraction for Mysore is the Mysore Palace, which is actually famous, and often it is pictured books about India. The Palace was built for the Maharajh of Mysore back at the turn of the century. (I guess now we need to be more specific about which century. The 19th century.) The building is huge, and does fit in with what we would consider a palace. It’s a cross of Indian and English architecture, and sits on about 40 acres. On the grounds are three Hindu Temples, which we visited and they still have elephants and camels on the grounds for festivals. I have some great pictures of the grounds and outside of the Palace, but of course no cameras allowed inside the palace or temples, sorry!
The Palace, on Sunday evenings for one-hour only turn on lights, which outline the palace, three main gates, and temples. This is the type of picture one would usually find of the palace in books. Think Christmas lights, or Main Street USA at a Disney park, but about 10 fold. Not really sure how many lights they use, but it is completely breath taking to see it all lit up. It brings thousands to the palace every Sunday night. Families come and just sit on the ground, no grass, just dirt, and look at the lights for the one-hour they are turned on. To get onto the grounds you need to go through a metal detector, and they have only one at each of the three gates. That means three detectors for thousands of people! Lets just say it takes awhile to get in.
We are in India, so get this. There is a local village near by, who for whatever reason they were chosen, lose their power for one hour, every Sunday night while the palace lights are on! There is not enough power to go around as it is, so that is the reason they only turn the lights on once a week for an hour, so these small villages nearby don’t lose theirs. Those of you who live in Salt Lake, imagine loosing your power once per week so that Temple Square could light up! That is just what they do.
We board a train tomorrow back to Bangalore for a day and a half before returning home. I might blog about the train ride, we shall see what its like. We do have first class tickets because that way we actually have a seat assignment, and the coach is air-conditioned. The tickets were only 600 Rupees each ($15 US). The train ride will be 3 hours just like the car but hoping the trip will be less stressful, and quite. Lets cross our fingers!
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